Az Business and AZRE magazines announced the publications’ lists of the Most Influential Women in Arizona of 2021, including Erica Sietsma of Digital Air Strike. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Most Influential Women program, azbigmedia.com is profiling one of the Most Influential Women of 2021 each day leading up to the Most Influential Women of 2021 dinner and reception.

READ ALSO: The Most Influential Women in Arizona Business for 2021

The Most Influential Women for 2021 will be honored at a reception on August 26 at Chateau Luxe in Phoenix. For sponsorship information, email Amy.Lindsey@azbigmedia.com. For information about the event honoring the Most Influential Women, email Lynette.Carrington@azbigmedia.com or click here.

To buy copies of the Most Influential Women in Arizona issue, click here.

Today’s spotlight: Erica Sietsma

COO

Digital Air Strike

Sietsma is COO at Digital Air Strike, a consumer experience technology company based in Scottsdale. She has 20 years of technology experience and has been a driving force of Digital Air Strike’s vision and growth.

Lesson learned in 2020: “Nothing is impossible. Each challenge (or pandemic or recession or market crash) is just a new opportunity to get creative and problem solve. I learned that as a team (and as a leader) – we can do hard things, but do them smarter and more creatively. However, when the pandemic hit– that wasn’t my first reaction. Luckily, at Digital Air Strike, we have an amazing CEO and that was her first reaction and she helped all of us come to see the pandemic as a new opportunity to learn, grow and solve new challenges in newer and more creative ways, while staying safe and healthy. She started the company in the recession of 2008 – so to her, the pandemic was just another seemingly insurmountable challenge that that enabled our teams to get more creative.  As a company and team, we are stronger (and healthier!) than ever.”

Source of pride: “My greatest professional accomplishment has been growing with Digital Air Strike over the last 11 years. When I joined DAS, I was an individual contributor and while I knew a lot about our clients and industry, I didn’t know much about leading teams and growing a company from the ground up.  There have been times over the last 11 years where I have thought – “I have no idea what I’m doing” or “What the?! How in the world are we going to do this….” And then we do it…we get it done…we win the business or build the product. I’m not saying I’m the reason we achieved these things – they were all team efforts, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of the DAS team and experiencing everything from recession to pandemic.  I have learned so much from our leadership team, our employees, our clients and our partners. In my time with DAS, we have acquired 5 companies, grown our client base from 10 – 7000+ with over 18,000 subscriptions, increased our revenue by over 3800%.  It has truly been an honor to be part of this team.”

Surprising fact: “Most of my college friends and teammates at DAS know about this little skill, but outside of that group, few know that I do a pretty good imitation of Chris Farley’s SNL character, Matt Foley, the motivational speaker, who “lives in a van down by a river”.  If you’ve never seen it, the skit is worth a google and if you ever see me out, buy me a drink and I’ll give you a little preview! I included a picture of me dressed up as Matt Foley for our DAS talent show back in 2016.”