Coworking with Isha Patel

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Isha Patel is the co-founder and CEO of Kale, a creator rewards platform. Prior to co-founding Kale, she worked at LinkedIn.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? Essentially, I help everyday people get rewarded for the influence they don’t even realize they have. Whether you’re telling a friend about a new skin care find or sharing your new favorite grocery item on TikTok, you’re influencing, with or without followers. My job is to make sure that anyone, not just major influencers, can receive rewards for sharing brand love, while also giving brands a smarter and more authentic way to grow and receive genuine advocacy that drives impactful results.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? IRL community building in NYC with marketers. I have the privilege of meeting amazing, smart marketers every day, but they often feel lonely in their jobs. We started inviting people to our HQ casually for breakfast and coffee and turned that into a regular series this year. We curate a group of 20 individuals, invite them in, discuss a central theme, and just chat. These no-frills conversations have forged meaningful relationships where people lean on each other professionally. We now call this group the Kale Collective. We’ve found this to be a really great way to get to know our community: what they’re looking forward to, what they’re frustrated with and what they need to level up themselves and their brands.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? The MTA did a fantastic job ahead of the retirement of the classic yellow MetroCard. They invested in a holiday merch drop with the Transit Museum, partnered with neighborhood favorites like Stretch Pizza and Gong cha tea, collabed with national gems like Carvel, and even showed up at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade with floats. The MTA is the connective tissue for the iconic New York City, so it was a fitting farewell tour that has evoked feelings of both nostalgia and city pride across all five boroughs.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I love creating stuff with my hands: clay, watercolor, woodblock printing. Most recently, I painted a series of landscapes of my favorite hiking trails. Making something from nothing has always felt very magical to me. I’m lucky that Kale is a digital manifestation of that—a white canvas that our team gets to paint.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m most optimistic that the vast majority of people are becoming realistic about the role social media plays in their lives. For most, it’s a creative outlet that enables staying connected with various communities and topics, rather than chasing the influencer dream. The shift away from performative aspiration and toward authentic connection is refreshing.

I’m least optimistic about AI influencers. I think they are exciting and novel at first, when there’s a dozen or so. If there’s saturation of them, that’s when you get into AI slop territory. I firmly believe brands and humans both crave real human voices and stories.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? TED Business always has great deep dives on behavioral economics that shape marketing strategies. I also love immersing myself to learn how great accounts and podcasts brand and market themselves—Tiger Sisters has been a masterclass in that.