Jennifer is the CEO of SuiteSocial, a Saas company, focused on making the next generation of workers in the passion economy a happy and profitable workforce. Additionally, she creates content on her social media platforms, and most recently, her podcast ("All Things Jen"). She discusses fitness, entrepreneurship, personal development, manifestation, and goal setting-she truly does it all!
Jen has a track record for achieving challenging goals-from getting into UC Berkeley Haas for her MBA to being CEO of a thriving tech company, she achieves what she sets out to do. She inspired me to continue pursuing my goals no matter what. Through her actionable and practical advice, I was able to gain confidence and achieve my personal goals.
*disclaimer- I did not record the call, but took extensive notes.
What woman inspires you and what’s the best advice she has given you?
Jen and Dania, her best friend, navigated the professional working world together. They had their first 'big girl' job together and were both promoted fairly quickly. By the end, they were leading their teams and doing pretty well for their age. Jen said, Donya is very spiritual, and unapologetically herself; By purely being herself, she brings light to any room and is probably one of the reasons why she was able to excel as much as she did in her career.
Recently, she gave her this advice:
“You don’t need a five year plan. Be fluid like water-you're going to have rocks in the way, and there's going to be divergent plans, but go with the flow."
How do you bounce back after a failure?
"Everyone fails, even if they don’t show it." "Don’t let defeat defeat you."
Jen explained her 3 step method to bounce back after a failure:
1. She first gives herself a Grieving Timeline-"If it’s a small setback I give myself 30 minutes, if it’s a big setback I give myself 1-2 weeks."
2. Then Debriefs-"Analyze what you could’ve done better, and what you learned from the
setback."
3. Then creates a New Plan of Action- "Find actionable steps to move on to plan B"
And remember, "Just because you had this small setback doesn’t mean you’re not worthy or not capable. Have faith that you will achieve whatever it may be (position, relationship, workout goal etc)."
What advice would you give for people who might not have Grit naturally?
Ask yourself, “What do I really want?”, "What makes me jump up in the morning?", "What is it that I want to do every day for free.”
"In the end, you’re going to have long term gain, but it will require short term sacrifices." Jen studied every night, after her full-time job at a firm, while her friends and colleagues went to happy hour. In the end, she knew her end goal was to get a high score on her GMAT to be strong MBA candidate, and she accomplished it.
As a female leader, what has been the most significant barrier in your career?
"It would have to be the gender divide within venture capital. Only 2% goes to female founders, and there is research showing the questions asked for a female and male are completely different. Biases in venture capital is something that has become more apparent since it is what I’m currently going through. I had a hard realization that we are further behind than I thought we were."
However, she said she overcame many of these barriers through merit- her output has spoken for itself. She tells herself, "I'm going to be the exception."
Do you experience resistance when you are leading men and how do you navigate that?
"Not really, venture capital culture is really the main issue." She believes finding people who believe in you is important, regardless of gender. "We have many allies who are men."
What advice would you share with young women entering a male-dominated profession?
"You deserve to be in that room. Just because you don't look like the person you have in your head of who is typically in that room, doesn’t mean they are any smarter than you are. Everyone in the room probably feels like they don’t belong."
She experienced this when she started her MBA at UC Berkeley Haas. She thought everyone else was insanely smart, but when she started getting A's in her classes, she realized she belonged there too.
What’s one leadership lesson you’ve learned in your career?
"It’s not about you. Figure out what motivates your team. Identify strengths in people, that they might not see in themselves. Focus on how the team works together. "
What is your favorite quote or saying?
This isn't my favorite quote, but it is relevant to what I'm going through right now.
"Everything that happened in life — my children, the 15 books I wrote, the Huffington Post — everything happened because a man wouldn't marry me." Huffington said. "Remember that, where there is a heartbreak, there may be something wonderful beyond that door that would not have happened if you had gotten what you wanted. Live life as though everything is rigged in your favor, even when you don't recognize the gift." - Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post co-founder
She has so many golden nuggets throughout her social media platforms, I encourage everyone to follow:
Instagram @jendeangelis
Podcast @All Things Jen
YouTube @Jen DeAngelis