Operate Above Your Level | Women in Leadership with Katelyn Lattimore

In honor of International Women's History Month, host Amy Pack sits down with Kaitlyn Lattimore, Senior Director of Performance Marketing at Burn Bootcamp, to talk about scope outgrowing title, leading without waiting for permission, and building the people behind the results.

At AccruePartners, we partner with organizations across Charlotte, the Carolinas, and beyond during times of growth, change, leadership transition, and transformation. For International Women's History Month, this conversation features a leader who has driven marketing strategy, enterprise transformation, and martech modernization across household brands and high-growth companies.

Key takeaways:

• Operate in the role before you hold it. A COO who was already operating in a role she didn't yet hold showed Kaitlyn she didn't have to wait to be called — she could "own the seat she wanted tomorrow, today."
• Everyone is a leader — title or not. Leadership is impact and influence, not position. When you lead with conviction, the barriers remove themselves and you're seen for the impact you deliver, not just the work you execute.
• You don't get results without people. Build teams to work autonomously, give them ownership, and name their strengths out loud — "speaking truth over" people helps them rise.
• Unlearn "volume equals value." Stop chasing output and reframe every request through a lens of ROI and impact. Move from order-taker to strategist by asking not "can we?" but "should we?"
• Success is legacy. Meaningful success is pouring back into teams so they rise faster than you did — being the shoulders they stand on.

Amy: I'm so excited to have you join me for a conversation around International Women's History Month — to hear about your journey as a female leader, your impact, and some of the lessons you've learned. Let's start with the question we always ask: tell me about yourself.

Kaitlyn: A little bit of my history: I'm Kaitlyn Lattimore, currently Senior Director of Performance Marketing at Burn Bootcamp. Before Burn, I spent about a decade in agency work, driving strategy across go-to-market campaigns for a book of household brands — HBO, Adidas, Pepsi, the NBA. Then I spent around 10 years at Jeld-Wen, where the focus was IPO readiness. I started by building the agency-inside model, scaling growth and market awareness leading up to the IPO. After that, I moved into the transformation office — understanding the business needs, the problems we had to solve, and the lack of speed to market. Because I had that historical knowledge, I moved over to IT and drove the center of transformation.

I've now been at Burn Bootcamp for a little over a year, and every month has felt like a year of transformation: understanding the right martech stack to win the game, shifting to a strategy of what "good" looks like, and now getting the right people and resources in to align AI mobilization and operationalize it across the enterprise.

Amy: That's quite a journey — marketing to IT transformation, and now a franchised platform. Lots of exciting things to be had there.

Amy: When you look at your career today, what moment or decision most shaped the leader you are now?

Kaitlyn: There have been a few poignant moments where my scope exceeded my title. When you're young in your career — really at any point — you're looking for that moment of validation. There was a moment with our COO, who shared that she was operating in the role she didn't hold yet. That unlocked something for me: I didn't need to wait for someone to call my name, and I didn't need to wait for it to be "my time." I could rise up and operate in that space.

Once I had that freedom and validation, I stopped presenting suggestions. I moved into the room with strategies instead of suggestions, and solutions instead of problems. I shifted my posture, because I knew I was already operating — driving revenue and growth through an enterprise lens that was outside my scope. I was able to boldly enter rooms and own the seat I wanted tomorrow, today..

Amy: That's a great transition. When was the point you had to stop waiting for permission to fully own your seat at the table?

Kaitlyn: You can call yourself forward — through your actions, how you operate, and the results you drive. It's something I work on with my young leaders and my teams: everyone is inherently a leader, whether or not you have a direct report. There are moments where you can create clarity, raise the bar, and raise the standard. We can all lead, and you don't need the title to do it. When you operate with that authority and conviction, the barriers remove themselves — and you start to be seen for the impact you're delivering rather than the work you're executing.

Amy: I say it a lot at AccruePartners: it doesn't matter how long you've been here or what your title is. It's impact and influence in what you do. You can lead.

Amy: How do your responsibilities as a leader show up when it comes to building people over results? We all know results matter, but you also have to build people.

Kaitlyn: I'm in performance, so results are paramount — but we don't get the results without the people. So I build teams to work autonomously, empower them to lead, and give them designated areas of ownership. It all comes back to the people, and to instilling that idea I mentioned: we're all leaders, whether or not we have direct reports. That's how we breathe within my teams.

When I see a direct report owning an initiative, showing the capacity to lead, showing that "it" factor, I make it a point to call it out. Early in our careers, we get stuck in the cycle of proving ourselves — Have I proven myself? Am I doing enough? How do I check the box to get to the next rung? So I call it out when someone is acting beyond their scope, because sometimes you have to hear the words. When someone speaks truth over you, a light goes off. I use those conversations and those moments to help people rise, lean in, and see themselves in a light they may not have been self-aware of.

Amy: It's the words of affirmation — that they did it and that they can do it. We give them that, and then they'll do it again.

Kaitlyn: 100%.

Amy: What belief about leadership did you have early on that you had to unlearn? We all build these muscles, and at some point you have to undo one to advance.

Kaitlyn: The cornerstone one for me was that volume equals value. All the reports, all the deadlines, more campaigns, more capacity — I was creating output, but it was creating noise. There was a volume to what I was doing, but the impact was lacking.

What I learned was to stop asking "Can we do this?" and start asking "Should we be doing this?" I leaned into managing up — understanding what we were being asked to do, but then saying, "Yes, and if we do it this way, it's 10X the revenue." I started reframing the requests on the table through a lens of ROI, impact, and resources. That changed things for me early on: I was no longer just an order-taker in tactical execution. It became about how the work was supported across the enterprise, elevating to leadership where we should invest our time and money, and reshaping what "good" looks like.

Then it just became table stakes — it's how I would show up. Especially in my time at Jeld-Wen, where there was a lot of leadership turnover, initiatives had been worked on for months or years, and it was fair to ask whether they still made sense given the shift in strategy. Being free to have those direct conversations kept us focused on the things that would actually make an impact.

Amy: Being authentic, and knowing that it's okay — especially in moments of change.

Kaitlyn: Absolutely. Lots of change.

Amy: As you look ahead, what does meaningful success look like for you now, beyond title and achievement?

Kaitlyn: For me, it's pouring back into teams. It's the posture in which you move. Younger in your career, you're chasing a title and chasing acknowledgment. What I learned is that yes, there's the title — but it's about how you lead with it. How are you driving impact? How are you transforming your teams?

A lot of it comes back to speaking truth over people. Maybe they don't see themselves as capable in a certain area, or don't recognize a strength they have. When you can get the best out of your team — especially in areas where they're blind to their own strengths — it's about how you motivate and empower them. The legacy is this: if I can hold the line and they rise faster than I did, then I'm the shoulders they're standing on. I give them the advice and everything I know to help empower them and move them along..

Amy: What's one piece of advice you wish someone had given you 10 years ago?

Kaitlyn: Probably that same lesson — volume over value. And for any leader looking for a career shift, or who feels ready for a promotion that hasn't come yet, the most profound lesson — especially for a woman at that stage of her career — is this: you're at the table, so own it. You were called to the table in that capacity. Own that seat and lean forward. You can open the door through how you operate; you don't need someone to come down and say, "It's time now." It's how you operate, and that posture change.

Amy: What's one bold move that changed your career trajectory?

Kaitlyn: Moving out of the constructs of my job and shifting to the enterprise level. I saw the bigger picture — what was still left on the table — and connected the missing martech infrastructure to the art of the possible, to what a new strategy could do. I layered strategy onto that martech, got the right resources in the room, and moved into a space that wasn't just my swim lane: how do we actually build a scalable growth system for the enterprise, and lead it with conviction?

Amy: I appreciate you taking time out today to join me at AccruePartners — I look forward to continuing the conversation.