Jennifer gets a LOT of questions from many different types of people. Chief among those questions is how she got to where she is in her career.
People want to know how she’s managed to make such an impact through her entrepreneurship and her speaking career, so Jennifer has dedicated an episode to the answers of those questions and more.
- The real reason that Jennifer got to where she is now is because of the others who made an impact on her over the years. She starts at the beginning: how her early life was shaped by growing up in a literal log cabin. From there she ended up in a career that wasn’t quite HR. (Back then it was called Personnel.)
- Jennifer shares the story of her first job out of college. Her manager told her where her office was, let her know there was a pile of books there, and that she’d have to figure out the Personnel department alone because he had no idea what it was. Jennifer was overjoyed at the prospect.
- When Jennifer decided to be a stay-at-home mom, her 2-year-old son quickly let her know that it wasn’t a good idea. He ASKED to go to daycare, and Jennifer recalls how it felt to be fired by her own son. She also shares the interesting opportunity at a Japanese automotive company that came her way a few months later.
- Jennifer decided she wanted to be a speaker and consultant but gave herself an arbitrary limit of having at least 20 years in her professional career first. In the meantime, she joined an old, broken company to help turn it around. It was after she accepted the job that she learned she would most likely be replacing herself if she did well.
- Long story short, it did go well and Jennifer found herself out of a job. She took several months off and started, after 18 years, seriously considering entrepreneurship and speaking, so she hired a coach. The first thing he had her do was write a marketing plan for herself. From that point on, his advice shaped Jennifer’s future, including the “remedial networking plan” for introverts.
- As Jennifer began to test the waters of entrepreneurship, her new network pointed out some of the flaws in her plans. These issues were the kind that would sink new businesses before they start, including not knowing what she was selling. They suggested that she learn how to do business development first, so she ended up working with an executive recruiting firm — the very place where she began building her network.
- In early 2010, Jennifer took what she learned and finally made the step into entrepreneurship and speaking. It happened organically. She was an early LinkedIn adopter and was asked by the executives she knew to speak on how to build a network using the platform. It wasn’t easy, though. For the first year, Jennifer struggled despite the help and support of her peers.
- When Mike Sipple, Jr., gave her a book called “Just Do Something“, it changed everything from page 1. At least, it removed the mental block that Jennifer had that was preventing her from succeeding. Jennifer is a person of faith, so it was exactly what she needed to take the next step personally and professionally.
- While Jennifer still struggled a bit, she began making real progress, and she wraps up with the lessons she learned. What was it that finally made everything click? What were the steps she took once that happened? And how has it turned out for her? And how YOU can take when Jennifer learned and apply it to your own story?
People/Resources/Links Mentioned:
Mike Lynch – President – Mike Lynch Career Consulting
Mike Sipple, Sr. – CEO of Centennial, Inc.
Mike Sipple Jr. – President of Centennial, Inc.
Bonita Martin – Sr. HR Business Partner at Harmon
Sharlyn Lauby – Author & Publisher at HR Bartender
Robin Schooling – VP Human Resources at Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge
Book: “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach To Finding God’s Will” by Kevin DeYoung
SCORE – Free small business advice
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