Apr 12, 2018
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 told her to
learn it, so she ended up going into executive recruiting at the
very place where she began building her network.
- In early 2016, 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.
- It was when Mike Sipple, Jr., gave her a book called Just
Do Something, and 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:
Centennial, Inc.
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
Freshbooks.com
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