Kristina Louise Treadwell Talks Representation, Resilience, and Redefining Success on the Underrepresented in Tech Podcast

Underrepresented in Tech Podcast Feature with Kristina Louise Treadwell, Founder of Web Pro Geeks

At Web Pro Geeks, we’re more than just a tech agency. We’re a collective of creatives, coders, marketers, and accessibility advocates who believe in building inclusive digital spaces — and teams. When our founder, Kristina Louise Treadwell, joined Michelle and Samah on the Underrepresented in Tech podcast, she unpacked what that looks like in real life: from hiring through the Underrepresented in Tech directory to running a fully remote agency as a Black woman in tech, to raising three boys with the support of a husband who’s all-in.

If you’re curious about what it’s really like to build a company where values aren’t just buzzwords — this conversation is for you. Kristina keeps it candid, insightful, and, as always, just a little bit funny.

Check out some of the hot topics below.

Tell us about yourself and what you do. What is Web Pro Geeks?

Kristina:

I am a WordPress developer. I’ve been breaking and building websites for, I was trying to do the math, I think it’s about 30 years at this point. So I started in like ’94. By ’95, I had taught myself HTML.

I never get tired of the Internet. I love all things related to coding. By the time I finished grad school with a master’s in Library Science, I decided this was definitely what I wanted to do full-time. So, I’ve been building sites professionally for 20 years and haven’t had any side quests in 15 years. So it’s just been 100% strict web development only.

As Web Pro Geeks, we do fractional CWO services. So if you’re a small to medium-sized business, and you don’t want to keep a CWO on staff full-time, my team will come in, and we’ll take care of your client-facing website. We’ll act as the communication bridge between the IT team and the marketing team, because they usually don’t get along very well. And that’s our job, to make sure that the security team’s needs are being met, the marketing team’s content needs are being met, and everybody plays along nicely with each other. We also do SEO services as SEO Pro Geeks, digital ads as Ad Pro Geeks, and WordPress accessibility remediation as Ally Pro Geeks. That’s a huge part of what we do right now: remediate sites, keep people compliant, and determine where they should be on the right path. So, yeah, we’re very, very busy geeks over there. 

What are some of the unique challenges you face as a Black woman business owner in tech?

Kristina:

I can definitely say that I did want to go into business for myself because of some of that difficulty. I saw that I did kind of “cut and run” as soon as I realized that there was going to be a little bit of pushback. I don’t like selling myself to people. It’s like, “I don’t want to sit at your table. I’ll just make my own table, and if you fit over here, you can sit with me.” But I’m just not that type of a joiner. So, for me, it was like watching all of my friends in tech go through this intense interview process and dealing with all this corporate bureaucracy and red tape and just nonsense. It was just like, I’m not built for that at all. I’m just going to do my own thing. I will work with the people who want to work with me. I’m going to let the trash take itself out, and I’m not going to deal with any of that. So early on, I was kind of playing little games to try and get around the whole thing, like letting people know, like, oh, she’s plus size, she’s black, she’s a woman. And trying to hide it. So I wouldn’t be on camera a lot. Like, I’m rarely on camera.

And because my middle name is Louise, I would tell people, oh, yeah, this is Lou Treadwell. And maybe I wouldn’t get on the phone. I’d only talk with them by email. I also saw how differently potential clients would treat me if they thought they were talking to Lou or if they thought they were talking to Louise. And once the contract was signed, it’s like, “haha, gotcha.”

And it was like, okay. But, now you guys realize I really do know what I’m doing. But, then I ended up having a client base that didn’t actually respect me for who I was. The worst experience was when I had a guy actually try to explain to me how to install WordPress. Mind you, I’m a WordPress developer. I’ve been doing this for years. I was coding before WordPress existed. I remember when PHP launched. I was really excited when CSS became a thing. Like, I’m that old. So, for him to explain –mansplain – how to install WordPress, that was the most shocking thing ever. And I’m like, “You know what?” I said, “If you’re confused about the process, I’d be happy to help break it down. Do you have any specific questions?”

I wish I could say I was being clever, but I genuinely was like, “Are you okay?”

So after stuff like that, I’m like, you know what, let me not hide. I’m not gonna try and, you know, sneak my way into particular rooms. I’m just going to be loud. And if I’m meeting with a client, I’m not selling my services to them. It’s a mutual conversation to see if we’re a good fit. If we’re a good fit, great. I’m happy to work with you. So, right now, I have a client base that I honestly adore. When my phone rings, I’m happy to hear from them. If I see an email, it’s like when you’re all freelancers. Know this: when you’re working with the wrong people, you have that sense of dread with certain people who call you. I never have that. Now, every time they call,” I’m so sorry to bother you…” I’m like, “No, I am happy to hear from you. How can I help you today? I want to fix all your problems.” I guess it was kind of a blessing because I wonder if other groups of people don’t have the luxury of having their clients be very forward and very upfront that they do not like you. So now that I know who doesn’t like me, I know who to avoid. And I can spend all my time and energy making lots of money with people who really appreciate me and want to be there.

How do you manage to “have it all” — family, success, travel, and a thriving business?

Kristina:

I have a husband. I have a partner. I have a partner who completely and fully supports what I do, which I think is what makes it hard for women to have it all, is when they don’t have somebody supportive in their corner, whether it’s their partner, whether it’s their parents, their friends, some sort of community that can be there to help pick up everything else. Because I don’t know how, right now, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you guys if my kids were in the back. I’m doing an interview in my truck, but my husband’s inside the house with the kids. They’re doing breakfast, wrangling all the things. I don’t even know what’s going on in there, but he’s got them covered, so I can do what I have to do, and that way I don’t have to actually juggle. So, having community support is a huge piece.

When Covid started, I would say I was a baby agency. So it’s like that between freelance and agency. But I didn’t have many people on my team yet. And my husband was working as a photographer and a promoter. Like, he had his whole, you know, out-of-the-house business. I had my in-the-house business. Well, COVID destroyed his business completely. So it was very much of a, Okay, you know what? Handing off of the baton, you go, I’ve got this, you’ve got that. And we weren’t splitting the family stuff anymore. So he’s, like, full-time, stay-at-home dad. He’s the one who has to go when the school calls, you know, eight times a day because the kids have whatever going on. He’s up there. He’s on the board of the PTA. He’s on all those things, going on the field trips and all the stuff that I was mortified to do. And it was stressful for me. He’s, you know, Daddy of the Century. So I get now how so many male CEOs can just do the thing because they have these amazing women in their corner. They have a partner who’s handling all the stuff, and now I have that, and I can focus all my time and energy if I need to. If I need to hyper-focus one day. I can do that because I know my kids are covered. I can’t say I have it all because I don’t know what size shoes my kids wear right now. If I had to buy them clothes, I would not know what size anybody wears.

I don’t know exactly how my kids like their tacos made because I haven’t been making them for the past year. So, little things like that will cause you to fall behind. But we still have our relationship with the kids. Like, I still hang out with them. We still have fun because, you know, the nature of a digital business, you can do it anywhere. But it’s something that I just think is unfair to expect women to really, truly be able to do everything without having somebody to help them, because everybody needs somebody to help. Otherwise, it’s like trying to brush your teeth while eating Oreos. It’s this never-ending chaos. Or what was the other one somebody said, turning on a fan and trying to, like, file paperwork?

With my three kids, it’s a lot. And all three of them have, you know, various disabilities, so that adds a different layer to it, which, being self-employed, really helps with that, and we can actually have that flexibility. So even if I have to be in the car with one kid and he’s at a doctor’s appointment with the other one, it’s still infinitely better than if I was trying to squeeze my business in between his life and his career. And it’s nice to have somebody prioritize your dreams and just say, okay, yeah, what you’re doing is super important, and it’s doing great things for our family. And he’s like, Allie can tell you, when she and I are meeting, he’s like, in the background usually, you know, kind of chiming in and taking her side always.

But he’s got great insights because, you know, we’ve run businesses together in the past. That’s how we met. But, you know, it’s just great having somebody like your actual cheerleader who wants you to win. It’s like pushing you. Like, no, you’re the smartest person I know. Like, you’re great at this. You’ve got this. And screw those people who don’t understand you. Like, it’s cool. And then my mom and my dad are like that, too. They’re my cheerleaders, as well. I love that that’s what it is. A woman who has it all must have people behind her who want her to have it all. I can’t get it if people are in my way, and no one’s in my way.

What’s your definition of success?

Kristina:

A big one? I said earlier that every time my phone rings, I’m not stressed out at all; I’m happy to answer it. That tells me that I did a good job of selecting my clients and marketing myself correctly to avoid attracting the wrong clients.

And the same goes for my team. I want my staff to be happy when I message them. I want them to be comfortable telling me when something doesn’t sit right — even if they don’t have a solution. That’s part of success to me: relational trust.

That’s the happiness part of business for me. It’s like, yes, turning a profit, obviously, you want to ensure that you’re doing that and that your staff doesn’t hate or resent you. So, in the same way, I’m happy with my clients, call me. I want my staff to be happy when I reach out to them that they’re eager and that they can actually criticize me. I don’t think you’re a successful business if your staff can’t come to you and say, hey, here’s something you did last week that didn’t sit well with me, even if they don’t have a solution, you know, just to say, “hey, look, this isn’t cool.” Then I can say, “okay, great, you actually are honest with me, now we can go forward and fix it.” So the relationship part, like, all of that will lead towards you not being stressed and just being, you know, I wake up every day and choose happiness. So, I choose to be happy. I choose not to be mad at people. And that can’t happen unless you’ve made some good choices on the back end to kind of roll all that together. So, yeah, personal responsibility, maybe that’s the success then, that you can actually personally control your own happiness.

Final Thoughts

We’re grateful to Michelle and Samah for having Kristina on the show and opening up space for real, honest dialogue about what it means to build a values-driven business in tech. If you’re interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship, inclusion, and just being a real human in the digital world — this episode is a must-listen.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Underrepresented in Tech here: Full Podcast Episode