Weinberg College
of Arts & Sciences

Waldron Career Conversation with Liz Ott '00: President of Threespot

This episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast features a conversation with Liz Ott’ 00, who is currently the President of Threespot after Graduating from Northwestern with a Psychology Major and an Economics Minor.

00:45: Student Experience and Work-Study
4:10: Previous Jobs
8:45: Working at Threespot and Growing Your Career
15:00: Finding Threespot and the Company Vision
19:00: Advice for Students looking for Activist Work
21:00: Liz’s Northwestern Network
24:35: The Value of Arts & Sciences Education

Cassie Petoskey:
Welcome to the Weinberg in the World podcast, where we bring you stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. This episode is brought to you by the Waldron Student Alumni Connections Program, a resource in Weinberg College where we help current students explore career options through making connections with alumni. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Liz Ott, who graduated from Weinberg College in 2000 with a major in psychology and a minor in econ. She's currently the president of Threespot, a black women led digital strategy agency, built fight for socially conscious organizations. Liz, thanks so much for being here with us today.

Liz Ott:
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat.

Cassie Petoskey:
Absolutely. We're excited to hear more about your path and what you've been up to since graduating between now, and then in Threespot. We'd love to start with your experience on campus at Northwestern and hear about some of the impactful classes, internships, extracurriculars, anything you did on campus that had an impact on your post-grad path.

Liz Ott:
So I came into Northwestern, like a lot of people, unsure of what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I think I started out as pre-med, but then really just started to take classes that were of interest and that ranged from, I literally took calculus classes because math was something that I liked. And I just did calculus, I remember a freshman seminar on oral history that I really appreciated. I really liked that understanding of the difference between documenting from an oral perspective then a written perspective, and that was really fascinating. But ended up really being drawn to kind of psych and the social sociology, and econ because I really liked that balance of the science with the social behavioral impact of it all.
But what was probably most impactful was my work study job because while I was taking classes, I worked at Pick-Staiger designing a bunch of materials and posters for their concerts and all of the events happening at Pick-Staiger. And that was something that I just really loved. I loved the creative side of my brain and using design to solve different challenges, which is what really in the end, when I left and graduated, I knew I wanted to find a career that really was in the design and creative industry. I liked that balance of hard skills with the creative.

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah, absolutely. And I love hearing about the creative piece to your work study, particularly because you were from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and there's not as much design work directly in the curriculum, so how did you find the skills or did you develop them through this work study?

Liz Ott:
Yeah, so when I was looking at work study jobs, I really wanted to find something, and this has been a trend in my career that I enjoyed doing, and at the time, in terms of work experience, other than babysitting, I had worked on the yearbook in college, so I knew a lot of the software on computers. And this is dating me, but in those times, I liked that, I liked using, it was Quark at the time, which was a design software program, and that was one of the skills required to work at the theater. So I had some of the technical skills associated with it and then just did a lot of learning on the job and through other classes. I think I took a media course in school in my freshman or sophomore year that was around starting to build webpages, and got really interested in the digital creative end of things where I could find it in my actual course load.

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah, that's great that you were able to find some of those different classes throughout your experience at Northwestern to build upon what you were learning and figuring out on the job.

Liz Ott:
I think I also really liked, I grew up in a family of musicians and music was something that I always liked, and so I was drawn to the theater, and so it was this nice balance of learning a skill in an industry that I appreciated and had a connection to.

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And my next question for you is about how you transitioned into your first job after undergrad, and if you could tell us a little bit more about that job, if it was a good fit, and how that helped your career evolve from there.

Liz Ott:
When I graduated, I kind of knew that I wanted to do something that leveraged the creative side of my brain. I wasn't sure exactly what. At the time, a lot of my friends and peers were doing consulting jobs either in San Francisco or New York, and I just started looking at design jobs, not even really knowing, but just looking into it, and was able to find a job working for the mutual fund industry in Boston in the creative services department. So I was designing a bunch of collateral and sales presentations for the sales team.
And it was great in that I was working with a really great team of creative people and collaborators that I was able to learn from and grow from, and that really inspired me. The financial industry wasn't something that was super interesting to me, but I learned the skills on that job and it was one of those that I love the people that I worked with and I love the environment that I was working in, and was able to use some of the skills that I had picked up at Pick-Staiger and apply it to that job and then learn on the job to grow in to really start my career off in that sector.

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah, absolutely. And I want to hear more also about what you're up to today, but I feel like we need to hear just a little bit about the steps that got you to being the president of Threespot because I'm sure there were a few.

Liz Ott:
Yeah. So I worked and really learned that end of the job when I was in Boston for those years, and I think it was a good introduction to corporate branding, corporate branding standards. My role at the time was content would be created and handed to me to look good. And what I wanted leaving that job was something that allowed me to be more in the strategy and the thinking of what I was building or designing, which has kind of been where my career went from there, which was everything that I did, I would look for where I wanted to grow more and make sure I was finding that in my next position.
So I spent four years in that first job after college, and then I spent some time abroad because I wanted to live abroad for a while, and then came back and did grad school because that's when I really wanted to dig in and be more of a strategic contributor. And I thought that's what I needed to get more involved in the marketing and advertising end of the work that I was doing.
Right after that, I started working at Johns Hopkins University and I was helping to do online learning initiatives, working with people, teaching them about technology, helping them to understand technology and how it can serve an educational class context. I think that tech part of what I was doing and the digital end of what I was interested in along with the creative, serving kind of a mission that was always near and dear, my father was an educator and being involved in that was a great experience where I got to explore more on the design front. I got to lead digital projects for them and was in grad school at the same time. So that was kind of my next step of moving towards, I don't know, being a more important contributor to the work that we were delivering.
And then I continued to want to be tethered to this design world, and so I got involved in this organization called AIGA DC, it's a national organization, but I was involved in the DC chapter, and that was an outside of work kind of extracurricular activity where I was able to tap into this incredible network of designers and creators and people doing different jobs. It was a chance for me to see what the possibilities were, and I ended up being involved in the board and becoming a president of the board just in terms of working with that organization, which was great professional experience.
And then got a job at Threespot, actually through that, I learned about a role as a project manager, which was a chance to lead digital projects, and they were all for mission-driven clients. And that to me was this perfect balance of the technical skills that I kind of was learning, the creative industry and supporting these incredible creative projects, but doing them for clients that are making a major impact in the world. And that was kind of my dream of pulling them, those two paths together.

Cassie Petoskey:
Absolutely. And at Threespot, you've held a few different roles, is that right?

Liz Ott:
Yes. So at Threespot, I started out as a project manager, which meant I was kind of leading projects, helping with building the timeline and the schedule and the budget, and also motivating the team and helping to make sure they knew what needed to happen and then coordinating with the clients on the client end to make sure that we were meeting their goals. And so I did that for a couple of years and then started to lead projects from the more account director, strategic end of things.
And then I hit a point where I was, again, looking for something more and really liked the business development side of the work that we were doing and was interested in helping to figure out new clients that we could work for. And so I started to really pick up and learn that end of it, of writing proposals and building relationships with clients and trying to grow the work that we're doing with existing clients. And so I moved into a role of director of business development. And then just right before the pandemic started in January of 2020, the owners of the company approached me about becoming president. And so I've been serving in that role for the past several years and helping to figure out big picture what we're doing, working on the day-to-day operations of the company, working directly with a lot of different clients and really helping to shape the culture and future path of where Threespot is headed.

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah, I love that. I love hearing the trajectory of your career where you've held some different roles and now you've been at Threespot for a good chunk of time. Because I think sometimes today people are moving to different roles and different companies, and I think it's really great to show that you can find different challenges and your next step within the same organization that you're passionate about working for.

Liz Ott:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that there are many ways to get to where you want to go, and I always encourage people to interview because I think interviewing helps to, even if it isn't the right fit, it helps you to see that and understand and appreciate what you have in your job. And I was kind of lucky in that, it's not to say there weren't moments that I did explore other paths, but oftentimes it helped me to acknowledge and appreciate what I actually had and loved about the job that I was in, and have more clarity around what more I needed as opposed to all or nothing like, this isn't working, I got to go.
So yeah, I've been at this company for over 13 years. I don't think that's for everyone, but I think that it paid off for me and was a path that kind of worked and just continuing to have that kind of growth mindset of what more do I need? What more can I contribute?

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate hearing that, such a realistic mindset around your next career steps, that you're taking interviews and you're having conversations maybe outside of the organization, but that makes you realize some of the assets of where you are. And I think that's just such an authentic perspective for students to hear that you can do both. You can be very invested while still having those conversations.

Liz Ott:
One of the things somebody had said to me early on in my career that I really listened to and found helpful was, it doesn't matter what jobs you take, as long as there's a story that connects them, as long as you can tell why you're moving to a new job, that it's not just moving to a job because you were fed up at something or because you were over it, that you can connect the dots between it. And ultimately, I think that's what I did. I continue to find opportunities wherever I was that helped me to continue learning and growing in a way that was bringing me closer to what I needed and what I wanted.
And then the other thing that I've always kept in mind was I look at careers as like, there's pay. Of course, you're working to get paid. There is interest and passion and subject matter, like what you're actually doing. And then there's work-life balance and how this job is contributing to your overall health and happiness. And I think even early on, I always had that awareness of you don't get all three at all times slash having a better understanding of what your priorities are within that triangle helps you to focus more. Because I think sometimes the balance gets out of whack. If you think money is the only thing that matters or if you think being in a certain sector is the only thing that matters, you lose that balance. And so to me, I think it's important to really look at that and think what is it that drives you the most? What is it that's going to help you move forward and just keep that anchor as you're looking at new opportunities and as you're moving forward.

Cassie Petoskey:
Absolutely. I love that perspective for students to hear the bullets of pay and interest and balance in your life because I feel like students want to be successful, but what is successful to them? And it's their own balance of those three things rather than just the pay or just the field or whatever it may be. It's everybody's personal decision on what's most important of those three.

Liz Ott:
Absolutely. And success is as much internally driven as externally driven. So if you're looking for external validation for your career, keep in mind your internal ones as well. Make sure you're focused on what you need in that to succeed because that's where I think the magic and the balance actually happens.

Cassie Petoskey:
Absolutely. And for you, I want to hear a little bit more about the interest piece with the organization, Threespot, where you're at now, which is a socially conscious organization. And I know in previous conversations, you had shared with me it's a B Corp. I'd love to hear more about how you found this nice space where you are making a difference in the world, but not necessarily in the traditional nonprofit space.

Liz Ott:
Yeah, I think I talked a little bit about that earlier, so Threespot is we work exclusively with mission-driven organizations, so that's a range of nonprofits, associations, foundations, do work in the federal space as well. And we're a B Corp. And a B Corp is essentially, it's like a good housekeeping stamp of approval, but it's for companies that are meeting the highest standards of environmental and economic and societal benefit. So we're looking not just at profit, we're looking at how what we're doing is contributing to the world and to people as well. And so it's really kind of human driven and focused on social policies and that kind of thing. So I'm, of course, biased, but working for B Corps are really a wonderful balance of more than just making money and how you're giving back to society when it comes down to it.
So yeah, Threespot was kind of on that path for a long time before we learned about the broader B Corp movement. And so for us, it was a good opportunity to really sharpen a lot of our skills and understand what more we could be doing. And you do an extensive audit to understand where you can give back, where you can tweak policies, things to keep in mind on your growth path. And we actually just went through our second, last five or six years, and we just went through our second audit recently.
For me, I feel like I was always, as I mentioned, driven by the creative aspect. I wanted to bring that into my career. I also am at my core a relationship person. The people that I met at Northwestern are still some of my closest friends in this world and a network that I rely on regularly. And so that relationship piece has fully built into my role now in terms of acknowledging that connections you make in the world, friendships that you make in the world, continue to connect you to new opportunities ultimately. And I find that to be a big piece.
And then I've always been values driven. My parents, my mom is white, my dad is black, they got married right after the Supreme Court allowed interracial marriages. So it was very early on. They are socially justice driven, and that's just kind of... At my core, that as I got older and older, I started to realize how much that doesn't come naturally, and you got to find a community that is doing that. That's what I found in Threespot, this group of people that are completely passionate about giving back to the world, completely passionate about different causes, and we're all contributing our skills in our own way to support these broader missions. So yeah, it's been a really lovely fit for me in terms of mixing these causes, being able to give back to equity and social justice related causes or women's rights or the environment are all causes that are huge to me personally, but also as a company, we're able to support them.

Cassie Petoskey:
Absolutely. And I know we have so many students, there's a lot of student activism on campus, and a lot of students who I'm hoping that conversations with alumni like you will open their eyes to the fact that there are these career paths out there in different ways of advocacy and activism and social justice themed careers outside of the traditional nonprofits. And I'm wondering what advice you have for students. What can they consider? What should they be looking at? Where can they start if they're really intrigued by the work that you are doing at Threespot?

Liz Ott:
In terms of the work at Threespot, I think don't hesitate to reach out and try to talk to people. I think having conversations always help to move things forward and give you a better sense of what is needed or whether it's something that is of interest. In terms of B Corps more broadly, I do recommend, I mean, go to the B Lab site and check it out. These are for profit companies that are doing their best to give back, are doing the highest standard of giving back to the world. So that's that balance of values and everything, ultimately, you get a good mix. And so there you can go and search and see the range of service, finance, everything. All different industries are reflected within the B Corp movement.
And then I guess more broadly speaking, I think I would say find what you care about, find what drives you and acknowledge that you can support that in a lot of different ways. There are options to do careers within something that you care about. You just have to have a little bit more of an open mind in the way that you go about finding jobs and seeking them. And so I would say really follow what you care about and have that kind of growth mindset of what more do I need to learn? How do I need to grow? And continue on that.

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah, absolutely. I love that mindset, especially heading into the first jobs for some of these students. It doesn't have to be the perfect fit. It doesn't have to be the end job. This is part of your journey to figure out, okay, what do I care about and how can I make that difference? And you can make steps from there.

Liz Ott:
Totally. Think of it less as a regret and more of what do I add on from here.

Cassie Petoskey:
Absolutely. And I know you mentioned your Northwestern friends and peers and that network. I'm curious how that's played out in your career journey and if there's been any friends or classmates that have helped you directly in your career since graduation.

Liz Ott:
Yeah, I mean, I feel like the one thing coming out of Northwestern, hands down, was the network of people doing incredible things in all different industries literally all over the world. When I moved to DC I was very interested in the international development world as well, and I have a ton of friends in that industry here and have learned so much from them in terms of what they are doing. And at this point in my career, I feel like all of us, because it's always nice to have people outside of your direct industry that are in similar leadership roles or that kind of thing, that you can get outside advice on. One of my good friends is a working COO at a radio station out in LA and we have similar challenges, and the number of times that it's like, hey, this is what I'm dealing with, what are you? And we're able to really have this great back and forth.
That's different than talking to people directly in your job because it's easy to get into a silo and not think outside of the box in terms of solving those problems. So I would say in addition to just the social fun of having these amazing people and being able to make connections when you meet new people to them and that kind of thing, it is also just a direct resource of people that are similarly minded doing things that you can leverage for advice throughout your career and on a day-to-day basis.

Cassie Petoskey:
Absolutely. I love that mindset on networking with friends and how they can be a sounding board and you can have those conversations. Sometimes your network helps you land a job. Cool. That's great. And sometimes it's helping you think outside of the box or from a different perspective or just having similar challenges and talking through them with a friend or a peer. I think that's really helpful for students to hear. Networking isn't all about professionally landing the next job and whatnot. There's so much to it that can bring value.

Liz Ott:
Yeah, networking feels overly formal and it sounds... Or it can feel like you're not being authentic in it. And I think one of the things that I try to think of is networking is really just relationship building. And that's something that is so important through your entire career. That idea of you don't have to love everybody, but it's not worth burning bridges a lot of times. And you never know, it's not just about the highest title or the most important people, it's everybody is a relationship that you never know who they know or where they're going or what they're doing. And think of it as like, how can you build strong human and personal connections with people because ultimately, that's how we are all helping each other kind of move forward. It's not just about I need to be friends with the president of this organization. It's about building genuine connections with the people around you.

Cassie Petoskey:
I love that. Absolutely. So helpful for students to hear because I know networking doesn't always feel right to them either. When they're going to networking events, it can be awkward and feel forced and like you said, not genuine. And networking should be relationship building at the root of it.

Liz Ott:
Absolutely.

Cassie Petoskey:
And Liz, you shared so many great insights, I'm curious, to close out our episode with you, how has the arts and sciences background, like psychology and econ, the different classes you took at Weinberg College, how has that been an asset to you?

Liz Ott:
Just in terms of starting at course selection, it was that journey of figuring out what you like and having an open mind to learning new things. And in graduating, I think I did have a pretty well-rounded education that really armed me with the confidence that I could succeed in any job, which allowed me to think a little bit outside of the box of some of the traditional paths. And so yeah, I didn't look at my degree as a specific step to my job. It was more giving me the information, confidence, the broader perspective to kind of go into anything with confidence in a way of like, I know I can get this job done, it's just a matter of is it something that I want to do? Is it something that I'm contributing, for me personally, contributing to society in a broader way? I think being too focused in undergrad can sometimes work against you, and I think that broad education was really helpful.

Cassie Petoskey:
Yeah, absolutely. And I really appreciate how you break that down of exploring what you're interested in while you're at Northwestern, and that being a skill that helps you explore what you're interested in and what you want to do and how to tie it all in after graduation. It never ends. You're always doing that evaluation.

Liz Ott:
Absolutely.

Cassie Petoskey:
This is so great. Liz, thank you so much for sharing so many great insights with us today. We really appreciate you for being here, so thanks again.

Liz Ott:
Thank you so much for having me. This was fun.

Cassie Petoskey:
Thanks for listening. If you want to hear more of these conversations, links to the full videos and podcasts are below. For more information about Weinberg College and this podcast, visit weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron. As always, we would love to hear your feedback. Please email us with your thoughts on the program. Have a great day, and go Cats.