Alice Katter

Alice is a Brand & Community Strategist with a background in Psychology, originally from Austria, now based in Brooklyn, NY. She works with brand- and community-focused businesses that reimagine the way we live, work, and connect - and crafts strategies and creative ideas to shape and engage communities, build brands and culture, and tell stories through strategy, positioning, content and communications.

She is also the creator of out of office, a platform exploring ideas and offering resources & tools to shape our work culture and the way we work and play today.

First question: Do you consider yourself a freelancer or a founder?

Both. I work as a freelance strategist and consultant, but also founded out of office, a platform exploring ideas and offering resources & tools to shape the way we work and play today.

Can you tell us a little bit about your career up until this point?

I’m actually a trained social psychologist (MA) — turned Marketer, Strategist, Community Builder. I grew up in Austria and after working in agencies in London and Vienna decided to start my own consultancy. That was 5 1/2 years ago. I built my base in Europe, where I worked with startups and the teams of Uber and Red Bull.

Then, a little more than a year ago, I was craving a new challenge and decided to move to New York. It took me some time to find my way around here. I had to build my network pretty much from scratch, which was a lot of work, and to be honest totally underestimated.

Moving to a new country, self-employed, is, in my POV, definitely harder than with a full-time job, as you’re so much more dependent on your network. By talking to a lot of people, putting myself out there, and not being afraid of walking over and reaching out to people, I managed to slowly build a network of wonderful people and through that, got the chance to work on some amazing projects with agencies and brands such as Sub Rosa, Beekman Social, and the teams of Working Not Working and The New Work Project - building brand & social strategies to shaping creative community strategy and engagement programs.

How did you become a social and brand consultant?

Due to my background in psychology, I was always fascinated by the human psyche and its different facets. With my first job, I started out in a brand strategy consultancy and then went into social. I loved talking to people, coming up with creative ideas, and building communities and audiences around a common interest. Additionally, I always did a lot of side projects, such as building the CreativeMornings community in Vienna, hosting events and popups, and also founded a work & community space. With all these experiences I developed a passion for models and strategies that help us shape and build culture & communities and learned a lot about new ways of thinking, working, and collaboration.

Which lead me to what my work is focusing on right now: building brands and culture by diving into communities and trends and helping brands develop strategies to find ways to communicate with their audiences via the platforms they love, and in ways that resonate with them.

“It might not all make sense and we might not see the bigger picture right away, but at some point, we might realize how these unique experiences, big and small will have set us up perfectly for something we didn’t even know existed and didn’t have on our radar.” – Alice Katter

How do you balance being a consultant and running your business Out of Office?

That's definitely not always easy. I try to work on longer-term consulting and contract projects, as they can be planned better, are more stable, and also allow me to bring the strategies that I built to life. Sometimes I take on additional freelance projects and "sprints", which make it a little harder to balance working on my own business. But with everything I’m doing, I’m trying to not let work take over my entire time. I usually block off Friday to only work on personal projects/my business and during the week also try to have some mind space for my own projects and business. Additionally, I also have a small team and network of collaborators that I’m working with and that can take on tasks while I'm working on client work or the other way around.

Do you wish you went full-time freelance sooner? Or did your past experiences shape your career?

No. I sometimes even wonder if I should have waited a little longer and collected more agency/in-house experience. I do think it’s really useful to work in some companies or agencies before going freelance or starting your own business. I've had some great bosses and managers, that I learned a lot from. From how to run a business, acquiring clients, writing “professional” emails, to running a team. I would not want to miss that experience.

Where do you find inspiration when working with a new client?

I find most of my inspiration outside of the office 🙃. But seriously – while working on different clients and projects, mostly remotely, I have traveled and lived across the world and noticed I've had my best ideas and made most of my connections outside the office by traveling, being in the outdoors (hiking, running, walking), going to an event, talking to people or working from cafes.

What advice do you have for creative people who want to pursue their passion as a career?

Follow your curiosities and embrace your community. I feel like doing a lot of different things and connecting to different people is like picking up things along the way, making new experiences, and collecting and connecting one dot at a time. It might not all make sense and we might not see the bigger picture right away, but at some point, we might realize how these unique experiences, big and small will have set us up perfectly for something we didn’t even know existed and didn’t have on our radar. So don’t be too hard on yourself and give yourself permission to explore, follow our curiosities and embrace our community, which is key to your progress.

What's next for you?

I want to focus on building out of office, and with this be part of the conversation on the changing nature of our work life and culture. At the same time, focus more on working with companies that follow a similar mission: to work with brand and community-focused businesses that reimagine the way we live, work, and connect.