What’s the thread of your career?
Even if you’ve held lots of different jobs in lots of different fields, there are patterns and trends throughout your work that reveal your tendencies.
Jennifer Brown, wants to inspire you to reimagine your skills to reinvent yourself, so you can create work that works for you!
She’s the founder and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting, a diversity and inclusion facilitation firm.
She recently published How To Be An Inclusive Leader to help people create real and lasting change in the workplace.
Long before she was a keynoter and author about diversity and inclusion, she was a professional opera singer! A couple of vocal chord injuries spark her transition into HR facilitation.
She shares the thread that ties her diverse work experiences together in our interview.
Lot of great lessons in our conversation including:
- The value of having someone in your life to help you reimagine your skills to find new work opportunities.
- How she niched down into diversity and inclusion facilitation.
- The gendered differences in confidence she has witnessed in her work.
- How she has balanced her altruism tendencies with getting paid what her work is worth.
Life Skills That Matter In This Episode
- Build your community
- Reframe your mindset
- Self-direct your learning
- Tell your story
- Manage your energy
How Jennifer Works and Thinks
- Wake up time: 7:00 am
- Core work activities + habits: 1) Regular financial and operational reviews with the senior team. 2) Going to tons of conferences to connect with others. 3) Mentoring others so they can learn from her mistakes.
- Ideal work environment: From home with a focus on balance to avoid becoming a workaholic.
- Superpower: Moving audiences to action.
Inspirational Quotes
“That’s what I probably love to do most is be on a big stage, with a big audience, and figuring out how to reach as many people as possible with my message.”
“The neat thing about adult learning theory is that 90% of the knowledge that you need o bring out in a group, comes from the group, it doesn’t come from you.”
Coaching Advice
Having trouble figuring out how to start your own business? Jennifer shared this advice:
1) First, think about your level of corporate experience and whether you want to work for yourself or become an intrapreneur inside a company.
2) If you’re introverted and want your own company, think about partnering with someone who enjoys the outreach side.
3) Think about scaling your business early on, and don’t go it alone!
Resources + Bonus Materials
How To Be An Inclusive Leader by Jennifer Brown
Uncovering Talent by Kenji Yoshino and Christie Smith
Special Offer
Visit inclusiveleaderthebook.com to take Jennifer’s inclusive leader assessment and download the first chapter of her book How To Be An Inclusive Leader for free.
Related Episodes
Bring All The Parts Of Yourself To Your Work With Liz Ryan (221)
How To Stand Out With Author Dorie Clark (086)
Building Career Security With Pam Slim (077)
Connect With Jennifer