When you decide to work with Driven to Succeed, you become the only client in our world.
We immerse ourselves in your product, your business, and your goals.
Why?
Because we’re outcomes obsessed and want your business to thrive and for you to shine.
Powered by a diverse team with multiple zones of genius who
connect the dots to unleash growth
for Fortune 500 companies and mid-market brands through
insightful market research, inclusive recruiting, and actionable recommendations.
As classically trained marketers who have walked a mile in your shoes as former market research clients, we quickly uncover insights through empathy-rich conversations, then Translate Insights into ‘So What’ and ‘Now What’™.
The result? We save you time, money, and make a faster impact. Plus, we're proud to be a WBENC-certified and NMSDC-certified business, helping you to achieve your supplier diversity spending goals.
For as far back as I can remember, our Founder and CEO, Kristin Harper, had two areas of passion: 1) growing businesses and brands, and 2) developing people.
“After a lucrative 20-year Corporate career successfully leading some of the world’s most iconic global brands, I felt restless. I knew that I could use my gifts and experiences to make a bigger impact on businesses, brands and people. With the support of my husband, family, and an unwavering faith, I took the leap into full time entrepreneurship in November 2019 and haven't looked back,” says Kristin.
“My original plan was to do keynote speaking and training based on my book, The Heart of a Leader: 52 Emotional Intelligence Insights to Advance Your Career. But it was 2020, and God had other plans. So, I went back to the drawing board and explored how to use my gifts to help businesses grow.
At the beginning of COVID-19, a call with a former vendor, turned friend and mentor, changed everything.
Semi-retired at the time, Kaylie Dugan was CEO of Imaginologie for 20 years, a market research firm specializing in ethnography research for Fortune 500 companies and agencies. In fact, we met in 2007 when I was a young Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble. I loved her work so much that I hired her when I went to Hershey’s and Cardinal Health.
Kaylie said, “I’ve never said this to anyone, but you could do what I did,” and the rest is history.
She’s now VP of Imaginologie, a division of Driven to Succeed, and together with our agile, dynamic team, we combine head and heart to Bring Insights to Life™.
Kristin Harper & The Expert Collective, the learning and development division, provides access to a variety of diverse business owners and experts in leadership, employee wellness and engagement, Human Resources, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging under one diverse supplier MSA. Services include keynotes, training, executive advisory and consultancy, and voice of the employee surveys.
KRISTIN HARPER
An award-winning businesswoman, Founder & CEO Kristin Harper has over 30 years of brand and business experience, from grassroots startups to global iconic brands. She built deep General Management, Brand Management and Marketing experience over 20 years at Procter & Gamble, The Hershey Company, and Cardinal Health. She rose through the ranks from college intern to Global Vice President of a Fortune 15 company in her 30s and has led global brands including but not limited to Crest®, Oral-B®, and Hershey’s KISSES®. She is known for building successful brands while helping people accelerate their careers. Now she and her team help brands grow using a mind for investigation and logic, and a heart for empathy and insight.
She is deeply committed to giving back to her community as an active lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta, minister at her church, and Co-Founder/Board President of Pacesetters Unlimited, Inc., which provides mentoring and scholarships to African American youth.
Kristin received her bachelor’s and MBA degrees from Florida A&M University (FAMU), and executive education from Harvard University. She understands what it means to lead as a woman. During college, she was elected the first female Student Government President in nearly a decade, and now serves as Chair of the FAMU Board of Trustees.
Kristin is a wife and mother to three, and author of The Heart of a Leader: 52 Emotional Intelligence Insights to Advance Your Career. She is the recipient of the YWCA Women of Excellence award, Top 50 Global Marketer award and was named a Columbus CEO Magazine “Future 50” leader.
KAYLIE DUGAN
Kaylie feels blessed to have a wonderful career as Market Researcher and the Brainstorming Queen, and now the VP of Imaginologie at Driven to Succeed, LLC. Here's her story.
After 10 years of getting really good as a quantitative research supplier to Fortune 500 companies, she started looking for something more stimulating. Kaylie switched to qualitative, but focus groups seemed underwhelming. Then she discovered ethnographies, and loved it from the start. Over time, she developed lots of new ways to get inside consumers' heads and hearts.
Soon clients asked if she could help them be more creative. Before she knew it, Kaylie was leading brainstorming sessions and reinvented the whole ideation process to birth The Better Ideaz System. Turns out she has a natural flair for designing creativity tools that help people come up with brilliant ideas.
Kaylie lives on the Central Coast of California, a place often referred to as Paradise. She loves singing as a rockin’ girl tenor in a community choir. She's also an avid fan of the Golden State Warriors and can be found at flea markets looking for hidden treasures.
"My life is oh so very good!"
SARAH IRIZARRY
Sarah Irizarry, Senior Consultant, is a global brand leader who uniquely connects her strong financial foundation with consumer and market expertise to build brands, grow P&Ls, and drive market share for private and publicly held companies. She is best known for B2C and B2B brand growth where her 27 years of experience set her apart as a data driven marketing expert who consistently uncovers groundbreaking consumer & business insights.
Her impact spans architecting growth for billion-dollar brands including Crest, Oral B, & Olay at Procter & Gamble, Similac & PediaSure at Abbott Nutrition, as well as several DTC high growth brands. She also led the Oral B and Olay brand teams globally in North America, Western Europe and Asia. As a former CPA and Ernst & Young Alumni, she has the ability to bridge growth, brand, finance, compliance, and market timing needs.
Sarah's experience also includes Direct-to-Consumer E-Commerce, where she expanded the Harris Teas and Pure Steeps Branded Portfolios beyond private labeling for Target, Kroger, Safeway, and Walmart to name a few, into a direct consumer brand business.
As Head of Marketing for SafeWhiteTM, she launched a technology platform into the commercial brand, HaloSmileTM, from the ground up.
As a Senior Consultant with Driven to Succeed, Sarah joins a roster of seasoned experts who facilitate market research, brainstorming, and brand strategy consulting to grow sales, profit, and market share for branded products and services.
MONEE WILLIAMS
Monée has extensive experience in implementing process improvement methodologies and eCommerce strategies in marketing, site merchandising, finance, and sales making her our ideal Chief Operating Officer. For more than 20 years, she has used her knowledge and leadership skills to drive online awareness and action for billion-dollar companies, such as Amazon, The Home Depot, and Target.
Monée is passionate about helping businesses find viable customer solutions strategies. She also enjoys building collaborative relationships with cross-functional leadership to achieve business goals. Through her business, Time Managed, LLC, Monee helps clients with everything from personal assistance to small business consulting to travel planning.
GREG COHELAN
Greg, our resident Videographer, has helped developed innovative marketing programs for firms as diverse as P&G, Toyota, Clorox and PBS. His work on historical documentaries for KQED has earned him an Emmy, and he is well known in Northern California as “Mr. KQED”, the station’s TV and FM pledge anchor.
Greg ran a successful regional ad agency for a decade before moving into a management role at KQED Inc, as the Director of Communications. After working at KQED for four years he took on the presidency of Lieberman Productions.
Lieberman Productions is the most successful creator of long form DRTV in the US. While at Lieberman Greg had a hand in developing some of the most successful direct response programs in history.
Greg later went on to manage and build Zoomedia, a multi-media design firm focused on the life sciences.
He was also the co-founder and partner in the consumer research and ideation firm, Imaginologie. In this role he traveled the country helping corporations better understand what motivates customers to buy products and services, and build and change brand loyalties.
He works with clients to produce video ethnographies that capture essential insights of their customers.
MICHELLE YADDAW
Michelle’s passion is communicating. For her entire career, she has looked for ways to get messages across, capture the attention of her audience, connect with readers, and speak in a way that entices others to listen.
Starting out as a young journalist in the U.S. Army, Michelle found a knack for writing (and a love for camouflage). She took that knack to the civilian world as she worked her way from communications specialist to vice president of marketing in the financial industry. After a short, but exciting, stint as a writer for the Florida State University public relations office, Michelle took a different path as she ventured out to start her own business as a communications consultant. Years later, she found her way to Driven to Succeed, LLC, where she aims to help the team as its Client Success and Marketing Manager.
LEAH LEWIS
As our Business Development Specialist, people and projects are Leah's passion. Her blend of leadership development, project management, and retail operations helps Leah to quickly build rapport while accomplishing the goal.
She's a South Florida native who loves the freedom of working in a variety of industries -- from public relations to tech startups to event planning.
Within Driven to Succeed, Leah forges relationships with new clients and helps to create a seamless client experience from beginning to end.
JANINE UNDERHILL
For over 22 years Janine has helped make the invisible visible for Fortune 100 clients and nonprofit firms that need a repeatable blueprint to reach important meeting outcomes, that need to get diverse minds on board to accomplish complex team efforts, and that need to arrive at solidified leadership decisions based on quality discoveries.
Janine applies neuroscience, learning theory, graphic facilitation, and storytelling to tap into brain power and inspire change by giving participants the tools to tell the stories that matter long after they leave the engagement.. Janine is a Visual Futurist. She enables discovery- you won’t just see where you are today, you’ll see the future.
