Katelynn Morgenstern, AICP, on Planning, Social Media, and Finding Your Voice as an Introvert

[00:00:00] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: Networking is such an important part of developing your career and making lasting professional connections. As an introvert, the idea of having a conversation with a stranger is like my own personal form of torture. Enter social media. And at the time, Twitter was my preferred method of communication. And on a whim, I started my Twitter account @City Planner Kate and I ended up creating a powerful network of people who were engaging with my content from following the feed online.
 

[00:00:41] Meghan Stromberg: What does it mean to be an introvert in a field that at its heart is about people? After nine-to-five days, and sometimes evenings too, of engaging with community members and collaborating with colleagues, it can be daunting to also put yourself out there to network and build your professional circle too.

Several years ago, planner Katelynn Morgenstern, AICP, had this exact problem. And she solved it by diving headfirst into social media. As she put herself out there online, she found that she was actually making meaningful, influential connections with real people, and at the same time, she was filling her own cup, as she calls it, by exploring her own planning interests and passions that just weren't coming up in her day-to-day work. That helped her to gain the skills to engage with confidence in in-person situations, as well as to learn what works for her when she does need to step back and recharge.

Welcome to People Behind the Plans. I'm your host, Meghan Stromberg, APA's editor in chief. And today I am talking to Kate Morgenstern, AICP, who says that the best social media profile is one that is authentic. You may already know her by her handle @CityPlannerKate, but she has a day job too. So I'll let her introduce herself.

Kate, welcome to People Behind the Plans.
 

[00:01:59] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: Thank you. It's so great to be here.

[00:02:01] Meghan Stromberg: It's great to have you. 

[00:02:02] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: So I am Katelynn Morgenstern . I am the Director of Planning and Zoning in Kennett Township, Pennsylvania. And, uh, I am nervous. [laughs]

So I gave a presentation at the National Planning Conference 25 called "Getting Connected: How Social Media Curated my Career." Networking is such an important part of developing your career and making lasting professional connections to ask questions and get connected to other folks who might be having similar challenges or experiences as you in your field, while also struggling with the fact that as an introvert, the idea of having a conversation with a stranger is like my own personal form of torture.

I call that my networking nightmare, and this is my origin story from NPC 2017 in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center. As I'm walking around as a first-timer and seeing all of these people chatting and connecting with one another and thinking, "I don't know how I'm gonna do this for four days," enter social media. And at the time, Twitter was my preferred method of communication. And on a whim I started my Twitter account @CityPlannerKate, and used the hashtag #NPC17 like my life depended on it, and I ended up creating a powerful network of people who were at the conference who were engaging with my content from following the feed online.

And what that did for me was gave me like a quick glimpse of a parasocial interaction where they didn't feel so much like a stranger to me, and I thought maybe I'm onto something here, that this might be my inroad to being more comfortable in networking situations as a professional. And what I really found through that experience was the impact and influence that creating a social media profile can have on your career if you use it in a careful and curated way. 

With the benefits of social media, you had instant access, global reach; you could easily connect and share information, and you could have real-time collaboration and ideas exchange with anyone who is interested in the topic that you're talking about. Specifically for me, I felt that while in my day job as a planner, I was doing the work of municipal government planning, but often I felt like my cup was not full and that it wasn't touching on some of the more important overarching planning themes. And to me, social media became an outlet where I could talk about what I felt were really important topics in planning that I didn't necessarily get to act on or participate in as part of my sort of standard nine-to-five job. And it helped me connect with other people who had similar passions, similar ideology around what the role of a planner was and how to share ideas to make our communities better. And ultimately, by creating these online relationships with other people, it became much easier for me to enter into a room and feel like I knew that person in a way that helped me overcome the nervousness of starting a conversation with somebody I'd never met before, because social media acted as that barrier for me to engage in those types of conversations. It became this really rich, connected network of people who have supported me through my journey.
 

[00:05:59] Meghan Stromberg: I love the way you've described that journey, and I know you said you started in 2017 at the NPC in New York City. What were you doing before then? Tell us a little bit about how you got into planning. 
 

[00:06:10] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: I started in undergrad as an environmental studies major, and I had one particular professor who had a background in urban planning. We took a course called Energy and Society where we talked about the global north versus the global south and industrializing nations, and we did a segment on retrofitting suburbia. And it blew my mind open, and I thought, "I had no idea this was a job." And I went back to my dorm room that day and decided, like many other planners, that I was going to redevelop New York City and make a lasting impact. And it was that day that I decided that I was going to go to graduate school to pursue planning and just found that that was my lane and my future.

I went on to get a graduate degree from Westchester University of Pennsylvania in 2015. At the time, they did not have an accredited planning program. They've since gotten accredited for an undergraduate degree, but I formally have a master's degree in geography with a concentration in urban and regional planning, and started my career at a county-level government planning organization. So it was a little bit of a winding path to kind of find where I fit, but once I found it, it struck me like lightning and I haven't let go since.
 

[00:07:32] Meghan Stromberg: You used a phrase that really resonated with me when you said that you were realizing in the scope of your work and a public-sector job, it was necessarily narrow. But your cup wasn't quite full enough because there were planning themes that you wanted to explore. And I'm just curious, what are those themes? What were you looking to do more with?
 

[00:07:53] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: Yeah. I've worked exclusively in public-sector, municipal government at the county and local levels. What I had found was the wheels of planning move slowly, especially in a local context. And I just was finding that, you know, we had priorities and things that we were responsible to do and provide for the public. And while they're important, they were not necessarily hitting the higher-level themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as housing policy, transportation policy. It was much more narrowly focused of addressing the task at hand, like current planning issues and responding to applying a zoning code and doing things of that nature.

And so in the land use context and current planning, I didn't necessarily have the influence or impact to steer projects to address the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion, or do transportation-type planning, bicycle planning, something that I feel really strongly about — addressing hostile architecture in our built environment. All of these things where, you know, there's like planning tentacles and they go in so many different directions. And I just felt that in your day-to-day job, you might focus on one thing, but that doesn't mean that as a professional you aren't interested in many other things. And because planning touches so many different aspects, it seemed to me like creating this separate opportunity through social media gave me the opportunity to talk more about the other things that I was passionate about.
 

[00:09:35] Meghan Stromberg: A lot of times when we see people out there on social media, we might think that we know more about them than we really do. Right? We sort of feel like we get to know this person and and make assumptions about them. Would you say you're as extroverted as your character? So I'm just trying to get a sense of the city planner, Kate, that's sitting across from me right now.
 

[00:09:58] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: Yes. So I would categorize myself as deeply introverted. I recharge and fill my energy stores by being alone, sitting in a quiet room, which is in some ways why I think that social media resonates so well for me, and is something that has worked to help navigate professional networking, is because I get to express my deepest thoughts without this fear of being around other people. And so it's kind of nice to have that barrier in some ways that, you know, it's the initial expression of those thoughts that can often feel like scary or challenging for me. And so to have a little bit of a barrier with that has been really beneficial for me.
 

[00:10:44] Meghan Stromberg: It's a way to be more yourself and be a little bit more vulnerable than you might be in a person-to-person conversation. And yet I think for a lot of us, the experience of social media, whether it's personally or you know, sort of from afar, people feel free to be a heck of a lot meaner on social media than they ever would if you were sharing something person to person. So I hope the answer is no, but have you ever had bad situations where people were just inappropriate or attacking?
 

[00:11:17] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: Yes, I have. And so I want to make the clear distinction between my personality as @CityPlannerKate online and the work that I do in my nine-to-five, the opinions that I express on social media and the opportunities when I have to speak with others are opinions that are my own and not necessarily that of my employer.

But there have been times where, while working on projects in certain jurisdictions, there were folks who didn't necessarily agree with the projects that I was working on as a public-sector employee, and they searched my name and found my personal social media accounts, not even my professional accounts, because I had made them person-agnostic. And while you got to meet @CityPlannerKate, and my thoughts in that realm as a professional, I didn't attach my name to them, and so when somebody searched my name, they found my private accounts, which were not private at the time. And I kick myself thinking about it now, when my grandmother told me back in the day, people are going to look at this and they're going to see you online, like, make sure you know what you're posting.

And I didn't heed that advice at the time and learned a really hard lesson. I was doxed at one point, and they found all of my information. They compiled it, they sent it to the mayor of the town as well as the city council, and called for me to be fired from my position, and provided examples of what they felt were negligence or wrongdoing simply because they didn't like something that was happening in the community. And so there is certainly a balance with social media because there can often be this more nefarious or negative side of being behind the screen, and kind of the empowerment that comes with that of not having to answer or understand the repercussions of those actions. And so I do think that social media has existed on a spectrum for me, and where it has been so rewarding and provided so many great opportunities, I have also had the other side of it as well.  

That was a really challenging point in my career, was trying to figure out who I was as a professional, knowing that I was sometimes scared to post things on social media in fear of any sort of pushback or repercussions of what my personal beliefs were related to the field, and ensuring that that didn't reflect poorly on my employer at the time.
 

[00:13:48] Meghan Stromberg: I'm so sorry that happened.
 

[00:13:50] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: Yeah, it is. Um, it was difficult.
 

[00:13:54] Meghan Stromberg: Well, maybe we can take the other side, and maybe you can tell us a story of something that worked amazingly well that resulted in a new collaboration, or a new friend, or whatever it was. 
 

[00:14:06] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: NPC 2019. We were in San Francisco, and I had just put out a random tweet. I had been communicating with planners over the course of two years at that point, and I thought, you know, "I'm really ready to take the next step and meet these people in person." And I just put out a tweet and said, like, "I'm gonna be at this bar. Like, everybody come by. Like, we'll all get to connect and meet each other, like the, the Twitter meetup."

And what ended up happening was we had 10 people show up and I was so happy that we had the opportunity to connect and meet in person. That was the first time that I felt that I had pushed myself out of my comfort zone of being afraid of those social interactions. And while at the end of that meeting I was truly spent social-emotionally, it really reinforced to me that by putting myself out there in this
kind of low-commitment way, gave back so much more to me because it did solidify all of the connections that I had made through using social media at the time.
 

[00:15:15] Meghan Stromberg: Wow, that's really cool.

So you talked about your need to recharge. What are some things that you do that you think would be helpful for other planners or anybody who finds themselves really needing that time alone to make sure that they have time for others?

[00:15:33] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: It's a work in progress. [laughs] Um, for me specifically, I have to remind myself that it's okay to step away because I feel this need to give back and do more. And that this sense of achievement from being around others and giving ideas out and just that collaboration and sharing of information. But it can be really draining for me.

And so what I like to do is remind myself that when I'm starting to reach my social interaction limit, that I need to find a way to step back and maybe go home for the night. And it's okay to just take a minute to rest, or go to another room for a moment and just collect yourself and just breathe, and get back out there if you feel ready for that. But most of the time I will find a way to leave a social setting and just go back to my hotel room if we're at a conference, or find a way to go home for the night if we're done with the day and be with my family, and just take that opportunity to prioritize rest.

I brought a crochet project to NPC25, so I made sure that I had some space in my bag to bring some yarn with me so that I could work on a project, because I know myself and I would want to sit in the hotel room at the end of the night, and that really helps me recharge and prep for the next day.
 

[00:16:55] Meghan Stromberg: It's interesting that you mentioned the crochet projects. If you just have a few minutes, a good way is if you can go outside and focus on what you see, what you hear, what you smell. Do something with your hands. For me, it's gardening. It's really, finding some way to connect with the world around you can be a surprisingly great way to disconnect, if that makes sense.
 

[00:17:22] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: One of the things that I do if I'm in a social setting or situation where I can't immediately leave — this is something that I learned in one of my therapy practices — is 3, 2, 1. And so I think of three things I can see, two things I can hear, one thing I can smell. And that helps ground me in the moment that I'm having and helps me step away, shut off my brain a little bit, and direct my energy to what is happening around me so that I can recenter, refocus, and hopefully feel well enough to move along.

[00:18:00] Meghan Stromberg: For people who are expanding their social media presence or just beginning a more professional social media presence, is there any advice you would give people on that journey?  
 

[00:18:14] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: I think authenticity is certainly the one thing that shines through. It is really difficult, when you're doing something for fun and it's related to your career, is that you kind of aren't done working when you leave your job. And so to do something that you feel passionately about,
that comes much easier than trying to force content or force a particular thought or opinion, when you are expressing your thoughts with authenticity that that can shine through in your interactions. 

And it's funny that you talk about branding or what things you do to kind of create that presence, because Twitter has had its ups and downs, and it's not the most used social media platform right now in professional settings. So I have switched gears to looking at LinkedIn as a more professional means of connection, and I created a planning-specific Instagram profile @CityPlannerKate.

And so what I'm doing now is I'm starting to rethink: how did the strategies that I used in 2017 when I started my social media journey as a professional, how can I relate that to the trends and uses of social media today? And like, does it actually resonate with me to use these different platforms in a way that might reach a broader audience? So I'm going through that same transition now, of, like, really trying to think about and understand, like, what does this look like for me moving forward?
 

[00:19:51] Meghan Stromberg: Well, and you're using that talking specifically about social media, but it's really also a metaphor for planning in general. It's an ever-evolving world, and you can watch it, but at some point, you have to step in and you have to be part of all the change that's going on. That's what I'm hearing from you.

[00:20:09] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: I've felt that call to action, at this point that I was feeling like I was being left behind, and that's not always a great feeling, right? You never want to be out of date or, at the risk of a silly metaphor, being the plan on the shelf. I wanted to be engaged in the conversation and really be continuing to make an impact in some ways in the profession through social media. And so I'm trying to figure out what way I can do that that is authentic to myself, but also continues to contribute to the conversation, which I feel really strongly called to do.
 

[00:20:43] Meghan Stromberg: Kate, it has been such a pleasure talking with you. Thanks so much for being on People Behind the Plans.

[00:20:49] Kate Morgenstern, AICP: Thank you.

[00:20:50] Meghan Stromberg: Thanks for listening to another episode of People Behind the Plans, an APA podcast. To hear more episodes, visit us at planning.org/podcast. You can also subscribe to the APA Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.