Real talk? Kristen Cavallo never thought she’d be a CEO. She one hundred percent wanted to be that cool, swashbuckling momma taking her kids on international escapades around the globe—wait. Hold up, hold up. She already lives that life. There was the ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. The scuba quest of Egypt’s open waters. The crossing of the Drake Passage, and a pit-stop in Antarctica. So how’d she still end up as the first female CEO of creative advertising power-house The Martin Agency?

Kristen isn’t a fan of the dark, and she’s made it her mission to fight for the light in every corner. She brought over 25 years’ experience hacking growth for high-octane brands, and in her first year at The Martin Agency eradicated the gender wage gap; tackled invisibility by making diversity a priority; and pulled culture-quaking ideas right out of the shadows for clients like GEICO, UPS and Buffalo Wild Wings. Every year she challenges herself to stare one impossible thing in the face and overcome it (think climbing a dormant volcano). Her goal for this year? To commit 50 acts of transformative service.

Kristen believes in leading with heart, in overcoming fear, and that real creative magic lies somewhere in the messy middle of those two things. If being CEO means she gets to embark on the voyage to find that messy middle? Tell the shadows to watch out.