Jen Kem: 11:08
No, it was actually Boston University, but I did also. I also got into Boston College, so I did get into both. But I had this vision because, you know, in second grade when I named what I wanted to be. And I don’t think that that’s normal. I think most people don’t know who they want to be when they grow up.
I don’t know what would have happened if I would have pursued that, but that’s the reason I didn’t become general counsel of anything. Let’s put it that way, because I read in the library that if you want to become what you want to become, you need to surround yourself with the people who have what you have, have what you want. And so I was very clear through elementary school and moving into high school with my parents who were supportive, but I, I will use the word but they did still feel like I needed to not aspire for so much like because they didn’t want me to be disappointed. And given that I’m from, let’s call it the West Coast, given I’m from Hawaii and the Bay area. I was born in San Francisco, actually, and my mom is from Hawaii and my dad is actually from Manila, but he, he, he they met in San Francisco that I, I told them, I said, I have to go to school in Boston because the greatest lawyers go to school in Boston and they go to Harvard Law.
And that was my goal, like in fourth grade. By the time I got into fourth grade, I said, well, they told me I can’t do it, so I’m going to do it. And this is the path forward. Well, you know, again, although I love my mom dearly, and when you guys read my book, I always like to read the acknowledgements of a book, whether it’s a fiction or a nonfiction book first. And my acknowledgement section is ten pages long.
I wrote basically a love letter to every person that I felt really like brought me on the journey. And in that I say, you know, my mom was strong and resilient and very focused, but at the same time, she really wanted to protect me from the dangers of the world. And so because of that, I was so clear I do not want to go to school on the West Coast. I’m like, if I go to school in LA or San Francisco, I’m going to end up being distracted from my goal. And she didn’t want me to go to Boston, not just because it was far, but it was cold.
And frankly, I got a full ride scholarship to Loyola marymount. Like, literally full ride for a full four year scholarship. And at the time, my parents were getting divorced, and my mom was worried about the finances and worried about the debt that she would incur. But she did not feel like she could talk to me about that. And I think all of us being I’m, you know, I’m a parent now.
I have three children, and now I really understand and empathize that my mom was just trying to navigate a bunch of different decisions. And when you’re a parent, sometimes even if your kid is 17. And frankly, and with all humility, I’m a very likable, communicative diet. You know, I loved understanding the why behind things. She still felt like she couldn’t really tell me why that was important.
It was mainly because she was just worried she couldn’t pay for it, but she was too ashamed and worried about that. So instead, what she did is she duped me. She told me we were going to Boston, that she was going to drop me off, and instead we stopped over in LA, and she brought me to Loyola marymount. And it changed the entire trajectory of my life and career for that decision. And I didn’t even talk to my mom for two years because of it.
But again, looking back, I now understand it. And although I don’t know what it would have been like if I would have stepped into Boston, I can’t say that I don’t really appreciate how my life has unfolded as a result of that disruption. So, you know, yeah, kind.
John Corcoran: 14:44
Of like those car accidents.
John Corcoran: 14:46
Correcting everything kind of has a purpose. Yeah, you end up going into a corporate career for a number of years. Talk a little bit about that. And what drew you to entrepreneurship? I know that there was a colleague of yours that, it turns out, was getting paid a lot more than you were, which just kind of of course, like anyone rubbed you the wrong way.
Jen Kem: 15:08
Right, right, right. Well, you know, after this, I truly had this. I had this calcified identity of myself that I felt had been betrayed when I didn’t get to become the general counsel of Coca-Cola international. And so when I ended up going to school in California, which I felt like had a very different brand identity for professionalism than Boston. I don’t know why, but because I was young, I really felt like, okay, my dreams are dashed.
Who am I now? Like, I really had an identity crisis at 18 because I thought this is what I was going to do. And then I was like, what am I going to do over here? And I remember my mom going, you can still be the general counsel of Coca-Cola international, and you’re going to go to school over here, and then you’re going to go, but I could not connect the dots between that. I just thought, oh, there’s just no way.
So of course, this was in the early 90s and the first big internet boom was happening in California, right? This was the era of Netscape and eBay and, you know, Yahoo! And so like really exciting things were happening. And at the same time, you know, you need to get a job, you need to make money. And so when I was in college, I knew, well, I guess if I’m not going to do what I thought I was going to do, I’m going to go work in tech.
And that’s really it was because of my proximity to those industries. It had nothing to do with my vision or my dreams, if you will. I was like, well, it makes sense. Everybody’s going to, you know, go to school here. You know, one of the first things this was even before Accenture was Accenture, it was like when it was still Arthur Andersen, and they had just changed their name to Accenture.
And I like taking a job like that. And then I accidentally started working in advertising because I wanted to try a lot of different industries. And I got a job as an intern at Ogilvy and Mather, which is, you know, one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world and founded by the godfather of marketing, who is David Ogilvy. And it was at that first job that I realized how big and how fascinating. Human behavior in relation to commerce and making decisions about what they were loyal to was I started to realize, like how fun and how that kind of stoked and scratched the inner curious person I was as a young person.
And so after doing that for two years a funny parallel story is that the account that I worked on was the Coca-Cola international account. So I did get some of my itch scratched, if you will. And what’s crazy is man, like John, this is like 1996. And we’re talking about Coca Cola had a $1 billion marketing budget just for their advertising on TV in 96.
John Corcoran: 18:21
Yeah.
Jen Kem: 18:21
And we had that account. And so I learned a ton about how the sausage is made and the mindset and influence and persuasion techniques that are used in, in marketing. And I started to realize, like, I really want to learn now. I’ve learned how to advertise a brand. I was really interested in how to bring a brand to market, which is a little bit different. And so I really wanted to become this really excellent generalist around strategy and marketing and brands. And I started to realize, okay, this is fun, actually. Okay. It’s okay that I’m not a lawyer. Maybe that worked out for the best. And I started to pursue jobs in that.
And very quickly in Silicon Valley, I became this, what I call this go to market specialist, this unicorn that I would get brought in and recruited even inside of the company, to drive complex transformation inside of the organization. Because when you’re bringing a new product to market and it’s changing your entire identity, it requires you to rally different stakeholders into the mission at hand. And I didn’t realize that I was good at that until I started getting a couple projects under my belt. And so by the time I left corporate in 2006 to start my own business, I had brought a lot of ideas to market that we take for granted today. One of them is HIPAA, EDI, and HIPAA privacy.
You know, I led the efforts to get that transformed across the country through Blue Cross Blue Shield. And then my last job, I was my last employable place because now I think I’m unemployable. Was working at Verizon when it was shifting its identity from telecom to technology. You know, Verizon and AT&T were in the race to bring this new technology they called Internet Protocol TV because they had an innovative Internet Protocol voice. Right.
Being able to like, use, you know, a phone for some of you young people, if you really know what a phone is beyond cell service, like you could use the cloud to call people from business to business. And now they wanted to do it with TV, and they wanted to take on the cable companies because the cable companies were heavily regulated by the FCC. But tech, tech, telecommunications and technology were not. And so it was a big advantage. Parallel to that, Netflix was destroying the blockbuster model.
And we saw an opportunity to, like, join forces. But first the technology had to exist. It really had to be taken to market. And so that was my last big thing, and I brought that technology to market. And then that’s where when you mentioned earlier the story of I was in charge of B2B, that’s what people don’t realize in a company. B2B always makes more money than B2C. B2C is sexy. When I say, you know, business consumer is sexy, cell service is in B2C.
John Corcoran: 21:32
Right?
Jen Kem: 21:33
Yeah, but B2B is where the profit and the money is. And this is true because I know many of your clients and your listeners are B2B service providers. They’re businesses that, you know, offer products and services to companies, and I know how lucrative that is. And yet I would be brought into this consumer stuff. Again Coca Cola similar.
Right. It’s like, you know, all the things I said when I was in second grade because I was the one who could turn them into a big profit, big impact kind of situation. And what I observed was that it wasn’t the idea or the product, it was the people that actually made a product be accepted by the marketplace. And I found that fascinating. Of course, the product has to work.
It has to be good, right? But to make it sustainable, scalable and legendary, it was like the humans that really brought it to life. And so in 2006, when I finally brought IPTV to market, I was told that I thought I was going to be in line to be CMO, and then possibly I had big dreams. I was like, I’m going to be CEO of Google one day. Like, that was kind of my vision since I was already in Silicon Valley.
And, you know, I was looking at what Marissa Mayer did at Yahoo! Both good and bad. And I was like, I could be that for Google. And what happened was, while I was working my butt off for three years, getting this initiative to market successfully, I had two young kids at the time, my two daughters. My counterpart in B2C was playing golf with our boss like every other day.
And I realized when I got passed up for the promotion and ended up reporting to him. Who, by the way, I’ve got nothing against. We’re still friends, and he’s very jealous that I have my own autonomy and he still works in a corporation. Again, nothing wrong with working in a corporation or having your own business, but we are friends because I told him. I said, I don’t think it’s your fault.
I don’t think that you were trying to work against me. I think if we don’t understand that it’s not just about the work ethic and the work product that you put in. It’s about relationships, right? And that actually you need both in order to make your vision come true. I realized in that moment it was my time to then bet on myself that I was the biggest next idea that I wanted to bring to market. Like I was bringing all these other ideas to market. And so I ventured off on my own in 2006. And I’ve been, you know, I’ve been doing this for that long.
John Corcoran: 24:12
Now and wasn’t. One of the first things you did. You know, speaking of the difference between B2B and B2C, didn’t you start a retail company selling underwear? I did Hawaii, now how do you go from okay, working on the Coca-Cola account to I’m going to start a retail operation. And then I also read that you took it to eight figures in six months.
Jen Kem: 24:34
Yeah, I gave. I give you know, the thing is my gift. Really? Like, what is my superpower? I can smell the money. And what that means is I am really good at identifying a winner, whether it’s a personal brand, a product brand, or a company brand.
And so for me, it’s funny because I never had any aspirations to be an entrepreneur. I am totally an accidental entrepreneur. And even when I left corporate, I didn’t. I didn’t like to get mad and then leave. I actually took nine months and made a plan, and what I was really doing in those nine months was looking for my next. I was looking for the idea because I was like, I don’t know what I want to do.
I, I thought, if you know. And so I decided, let me go and allow myself to see what’s working and what is actually needed. And at the time, I had moved back to Hawaii because I wanted to raise my children in that environment, a very family oriented environment that I mentioned that I grew up with while still still like instilling in them, like to be whoever they wanted to be. And so when I was in Hawaii, I started to notice I would fly in. And I had gone to Dallas a lot because Verizon, all the telecommunications companies are in Texas, and I used to fly from Texas back to Hawaii.
And when I’d get off the plane, I started to notice that all the women especially had a familiar new carry-on, and it was a pink and white bag with Victoria’s Secret written across it. And I started to realize, whoa, that might be a winner. So because in Hawaii at the time, there wasn’t even a Macy’s or a Nordstrom that women could shop at, they only had Walmart and not even a target. And you know, when you become an adult, you’re kind of past the five pack in plastic underwear. And so it’s literally like women would have to get on a plane to get basic stuff.
John Corcoran: 26:28
So as is the case for a lot of different things for people in Hawaii. Yeah, it’s difficult. To get totally.
Jen Kem: 26:34
Well in Hawaii. Well, what I started to realize is what if? So I started to go, what if I started that here? And not only started it here, but went to Alaska and went to Puerto Rico and all the US territories, because the next step and I hope everybody, even if you’re a business owner or listening to my research, a winner is I started to go, what is Victoria’s Secret doing in the next three years? And I went into their SEC filings and I studied what they were doing and what kind of moves they were making.
John Corcoran: 27:04
If they’re planning on moving into Hawaii, probably not a good idea. You can correct it.
Jen Kem: 27:08
And what they actually said to their shareholders at the time, less, you know, less. Wexner, who is kind of a retail giant, you know, he said, we have no expansion plans to go international, including the outer lying states of Alaska and Hawaii. And here’s the thing. You can become very successful, you know, focusing in one place. In fact, I think a lot of people don’t do that enough. And I started to realize, like, if I just dominated these areas, my exit strategy was that when Victoria’s Secret does come, because I knew they would, they’ll just buy me fire you.
John Corcoran: 27:45
Yeah.
Jen Kem: 27:45
And that would be my exit plan. So I had a very clear strategy, and that’s when I decided to leave my job and start it, and I bootstrapped it. I borrowed, you know, equity from my house and started the first store that then quickly turned into seven stores.
John Corcoran: 28:02
All on one.
Jen Kem: 28:03
All on Oahu at first. And then I was planning on moving into Alaska, and I was doing all the due diligence to do the other things. And I was not just like I was just using the same model that I use to bring complex technology and products to market. In corporate, I was using the same model. It was just in a different industry and an industry.
John Corcoran: 28:29
What were you? Selling? Were you selling your own brand or are you buying other brands?
Jen Kem: 28:34
Both. Okay. Both. And it was perfect, too, because at the same time, Oprah Winfrey, she still had her daytime TV show. She discovered this new brand called Spanx by Sara Blakely. I was the first to carry it in the state of Hawaii. And you know, when you’re the first, you’re going to do well if it’s something people need. And because I had this mix of both business acumen and brand building, that’s why I was able to grow it so quickly.
But the timing of this was 2006 to 2007, so I had a very unlikely go to market first time out entrepreneurial success story because I was leaning on my gifts, talents and skills, which I still have. That’s kind of why people, you know, hire my companies, because that’s what we’re really good at. But what I didn’t have was a great financial Structure. I didn’t have friends who were great at financial projection. I didn’t have a great operations team to think through, like all the inventory considerations.
So when you are doing and having a small business, and then you choose a business that has high overhead, high risk during 2007 to 2008, you can already know what happened there, because most people remember what happened in 2008. So I was in the two most risky industries, which was real estate and retail. And, you know, in 2008, the government didn’t bail out small businesses. It bailed out Wall Street. And so Main Street did not get bailed out at all. And as a result of that, I had built something that did $12 million in two years and then abruptly and literally felt like overnight was gone.
John Corcoran: 30:26
Brutal.
Jen Kem: 30:26
It was brutal. And so Victoria’s Secret survived because they could because they got bailed out. And it taught me a huge lesson back to like, not just what do you do and why do you do it? But like, who is with you on the journey? Who do you need for that next level of what you want?
And up until that point, I didn’t truly understand. I didn’t even get it. Look, I got passed up for a promotion in corporate. I lost my business after crushing it. Right?
And when I looked at the pattern, I was like. It was because I didn’t make friends with people that I didn’t have relationships with. And that was the missing piece for me. And so after that, when I decided to go back to, like deciding who I am going to be now, right? In 2008, after a very long period of frankly, like depression and lost my confidence, I was like, what the heck am I going to do with my life?
I ruined everything, I thought I was so successful and now I’m not. I realized that the best thing I could do is become a consultant, because when I was in corporate, we always paid consultants better, listen to them more. And so I became a B2B service provider. That’s really what happened. And I’ve been that basically since then. And so you know that’s really like that’s the short long story to my career up until this point.
John Corcoran: 31:53
And the book which I misstated earlier is Unicorn Team is the name of the book. Obviously informed from these previous experiences. So talk a little bit about what inspired you to write this book. And, and and you’ve got some great stories in there and case studies as well.
Jen Kem: 32:11
Yeah. I mean, you know, here’s the book. If anyone can see us like this, this is the book. And when I was wanting to bring this new idea to market this book, the publishers really wanted a book on messaging for me because they were like, you like, you know, your brand strategist. You’re really good at helping people reimagine and then re-message who they become.
And I said, yeah, but before I do that book, I need to do this other book first. And they were like, yeah, but we don’t need an operations book. I said, this is not an operations book. This is a book of who you need to become in order for your ideas to actually take flight in a way that you really dreamed of. And how bigger companies, including companies like Apple or Starbucks, all of those companies started out with 1 or 2 people who decided their idea was worth pursuing.
They started it in a garage, in a kitchen, in a kitchen, in a diner where they scratch their ideas on a napkin. And what really was important is that those people became people that other people wanted to be a part of the idea. And so whenever a new client even works with us, the first question I have before we get into the messaging, which they think they’re hiring me for, is, tell me about who’s who’s on your team. And they’re like, oh no, no, no, I don’t need any help with the team. I mean, I do, but it’s not really what I’m here for.
This is not what I need from you. And I said, here’s the thing. You want to have this new rebrand or you want to re-message, or you want to put this new idea out there and you want people to adopt it. But what I need to know first is who’s on the team now, and can those people bring you there? And also who else are you working with?
What kind of consultants are you working with? All of that. Because when I know who you’re working with, I know now maybe there’s a gap and there usually is. I know who may not be right for the team going into the next season and not. And that doesn’t necessarily even mean firing people. It might, but it’s maybe that they’re just not in the right position for where the company is going.
And in the book I address that around. Like, you know, even if you’re a solopreneur, like you’re if you’re like, you know, you’re one person and you’ve got maybe a couple contractors that work for you. Same rules apply. Like you might not have the right contractors now to bring you to the next level.
Do you need to reevaluate who’s on your team? This is not about w-2s full time employees. It’s about who you need for the next season to get your ideas to the world. That’s what this is. And when I know that now, I can actually then shape it with the right message and the right packaging and and all the things. And that’ll be my book number two. That’ll come out probably next year.
John Corcoran: 35:04
But yeah. So this book is this.
Jen Kem: 35:07
Book was first because I felt like I was sick of talking about it. I was sick of actually explaining to people how it really works, how the sausage is really made and how especially we live in a world now where people will say, well, the world’s different. This strategy is not any different. You know, this is AI agnostic. This is technology agnostic. This is platform agnostic. This is pure strategy. This is actually like what it takes. And then you can decide the platforms and the technologies that you want to like, help, you know, lift off your ideas.
John Corcoran: 35:46
But I want to. Hear about some of the stories in there, starting with Kendra Scott. Yeah, she’s actually at the beginning of the book. It’s funny because I tell her story frequently, my intersection with her, which is tangential. I’ve never met her personally, but I’m very active in an entrepreneurs organization, and they have a program called the Entrepreneurial Master’s Program. It’s kind of like an executive MBA, which is done at MIT every year.
And when I went and did it the first year, Verne Harnish, the founder CEO, told this story about this woman named Kendra, who was in the very program in the very same classroom as we were sitting in right there. And he told this story about how during the break and it was like maybe 15 years ago or something. He came up to him in tears saying, I don’t feel like I belong here. These people are more successful than me. I’m struggling.
And he had to talk her into staying, which is amazing because now, as you said, a multi-billion dollar company, she’s been a guest shark on Shark Tank. So inspirational. But it reminds us, you know, how many of us go through these types of experiences. But you talk a little bit about like, the unicorn team that she built to go from, you know, designing jewelry on her own in her own house, starting the business with 500 bucks to a multi-billion dollar company.
Jen Kem: 37:00
Well, in chapter 13 of my book, I unveil the whole story and actually show how Kendra Scott and I had very parallel paths between 2006 and 2008. You know, while I was building this quote unquote underwear empire. And she was really a designer, as you said, like I had this business background, right? She was truly, like, an artist and a designer and. But she had a vision.
She had a big vision. And her vision was to get her jewelry, which she had this really cool, innovative thing that now a lot of people have basically copied. But she was one of the first called the Color Bar, where she felt like your jewelry could go farther because you could mix and match differently like gemstones. So she had this very innovative, flexible jewelry thing that was new. And so she felt like if I had a color bar in every major city, you know, women could gather together and enjoy the artistry and be their own jewelry designer.
And so she tried it on her own in Austin, Texas, where she’s headquartered. And she did pretty good. You know, she did pretty good. She was really good at rallying people and people loved her designs. But she knew that in order to get through the recession, which was when she had started Kendra Scott Jewelry during the recession, that number one, she was probably in like part of that time.
And secondly, she asked herself if I wanted to expand and I don’t have the money to expand, right? Who would I need to help me do that? So instead of asking how or what? She asked who? And she realized that. And she didn’t have relationships. She didn’t have deep pocket relationships. She didn’t have friends in the industry. So she said, if I were like another brand that I admire, who would it be? And it was Starbucks.
She’s like, how did Starbucks become so mainstream, accessible right from their little start in Seattle, Washington. And so she dug under it, just like I told you how I dug under the Les Wexner SEC filings to do my thing. She researched who was the great strategizer and mobilizer who expanded Starbucks’s footprint. Not just domestically, but globally. And it was this guy named Lorne Weingart.
Lorne Weingart was Starbucks’ great architect of expansion under, you know, Howard Schultz. And so, in an act of bravery, she was scared. She talks about this in many interviews. She reached out to Lorne and she said, I really love what you do. And so by this time, you know, Lorne is a billionaire himself because he was, you know, he had early shares in the Starbucks expansion.
He’s literally a billionaire. And he didn’t even realise he’s not even the CEO. And that’s what I also tell people. Like, sometimes you have to bet on the right idea, too, because sometimes the best ideas aren’t yours. They’re like, whose idea can actually we all take flight with.
So that’s what happened. And he said no. And he said no like 3 or 4 times. He just kept telling her no. And of course in a kind professional way. But he’s like, why should I take this on? I’m chilling. Right? I’m doing great without doing more. And she just kept being persistent.
And she said, look, I will do anything to get you in as a partner. I will, I will stop taking a salary to show you how committed I am. I will work harder than anybody you have ever seen. And finally, after her just keep coming back. And she said the whole time she was scared.
She was devastated. Every time he said no, she just kept believing in her vision. And she enrolled him in her vision. And as a result of that partnership, he’s the one who brought the right venture investors to the party to expand the Kendra Scott brand. And as a result of that, you know, she achieved her first $1 billion valuation the same year that Lorne agreed to partner.
And the rest is history, you know. And that all happened around 2008, 2009. And I tell people and again in the book, I really like, map out and show and unpack how it all worked. But, you know, that’s what my book is about. It’s about like, not just who are the unicorns you need, but are you a unicorn?
Because people will rally behind the unicorn if you separate yourself from the team. And that’s the big problem with a lot of books today. For any leadership, whether it’s entrepreneurship or corporate, this book works across the pond, as you can tell, because I’ve been in both places and I’ve used the framework inside of it for everything I do, and it’s how I create really massive success for people and for myself, because I use it, because I’ve observed what works and what doesn’t work. So that’s what happened with Kendra Scott, and I think she can teach us a lot about sticking to your vision, but then also realizing that sometimes you need to be brave. In fact, a lot of times you need to.
John Corcoran: 42:17
Be brave and surround yourself. Yourself with a team of people that buy into that vision.
Jen Kem: 42:20
So correct.
John Corcoran: 42:21
That’s so cool. I love that you chose to write this book first and you know, and that it totally makes sense that the messaging book, you know, would not have a place if you hadn’t written the book about the team because it requires the team to execute it. I’m curious, are there particular likes as you look at, like any company that has rebranded or taking an idea to market? Do you have a vision of the types of roles that the team needs to have, or is it hard to say something like that?
Jen Kem: 42:56
Well, no, actually, in the book, you know, the framework is based on like the three tracks. So it’s to navigate, motivate, and communicate. So navigate is about the idea and making sure that the idea is a winner okay. So that’s the first part. The second part is the motivational track which is about the people to your question.
And the first question is not how you motivate others. It’s how to do what? What is self motivating to the unicorns that you’re trying to enroll? Because getting a new idea to market requires a lot of energy, and there are a lot of books out there too, that I feel like really focus on time management, which definitely is important. But the truth is, time is less important than your energy.
And because you can have you can create all kinds of space and time. But inside, if you have space and capacity and you don’t have the energy to then lift off the idea, then it’s all who cares, right? Like it doesn’t even matter. So what that part of the book explores is there are nine types of leadership energies, and they’re based on the concepts of vision, strategizer, and mobilizer. So I am a strategizing visualizer.
So an SV, so I am high on strategy and secondarily on vision. Mobilization is not my strong suit. So. In the book, I teach you how to think about yourself and what motivates you to push through hard things. Like Kendra Scott did five times, getting rejected by Lorne Weingard that requires an energy that of winning, right?
And so in that part there’s nine. So it’s v v v s v m s s s v m and then m sv I mean sorry m m m m v and m s. So the nine different types. And once you understand your specific energy type or what self motivates you then. And I tell people like everybody of course I’m being biased here.
But if everybody used this particular assessment and I have a full assessment in the, in the, in the book, and it’s not a quiz, it’s not clickbait. It’s actually based on how people really like to behave when they’re faced with hard things. Everyone should have their team members take it and share across the board what motivates them to finish things, even when things are hard. Now, this does not exempt you from hiring even contractors who are skilled in the thing that you need them to be in. So they need to be skilled first.
And they also need to be a complementary energy type for your energy type. So to answer your question, unless I know your energy type, I can’t tell you like what’s the best thing? But I can tell you, once you take the assessment, I can say, oh, knowing that you’re this energy type, you might want to look out for these types when you’re hiring, because for me, I’m an SV and I do extremely well with SMS like strategizing. Mobilizers are like my huckleberries, like they are like every time someone has tested that. In general.
There’s a sim, there’s a, there’s a synchronicity that happens. And SMS in general too, are kind of your best SEO types. They’re really good at making sure things get done, but strategically. And I do well when people have strategic minds, but they’re doers. And so some people who are maybe more creative, they don’t care much about S, and so they will likely be looking for other V’s. And so again, it’s really dependent on who you are. And in the book I tell you, like if you’re this type, you’re probably going to be you’re going to probably work well with this other type in general.
John Corcoran: 46:52
And where can people go to check out that assessment?
Jen Kem: 46:55
They can only get it in the book. And so they can buy the book on Amazon. So you can go to Unicorn Team Book.com. And right there there’s a link. You go get it. And then we give you the assessment. And the only way to get the assessment is to currently buy the book, which is great because at some point we will charge for the assessment. 200 bucks or more. But right now it’s all about the book. So.
John Corcoran: 47:20
Awesome. Cool. Jen, this has been great. We’re about out of time, but I want to wrap up with my gratitude question. So I’m a big fan of gratitude, expressing gratitude to, you know, those who’ve helped you, especially in your journey. So I’d love to hear if there are any particular, you know, peers, contemporaries, mentors that have helped you in your journey.
Jen Kem: 47:40
Yeah. Early in my career, when I was 23, I had a boss. She was the general manager of one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world. Right. Her name is Maria.
And I remember at age 23, I asked her in my performance review if I want to be you ten years from now, because she was 33 and I thought she had it all. I was like, oh my gosh, like, she’s the head of one of the biggest advertising agencies. She looked young and vibrant. She was super smart. Every day her husband would walk down the street from you like he had an office down in San Francisco, and he would come by and bring her lunch.
And she had two little babies. Two and I thought to myself, oh my gosh, that’s exactly who I want to be in ten years. And so I asked her, what do I have to do to have your life in ten years? And she said, gosh, that’s a really great question. Most people, young people, don’t ask that.
And by the way, I think this is a really important question for any young person today. People that you admire ask them that, you know, what do I have to do to have what you have? And what she told me was work on all the projects that no one wants, because you will become the ultimate problem solver and be always valuable. And so to this day, you know, 25 years later, I still take that advice and it’s still made, frankly, me, not just a lot of impact and income, but it helps me with that mindset. Take on the best clients that I can to have fun seeing how I can be helping them to bring their ideas to life because those are very tender yet exciting times. And that early advice really has served me. So thank you, Maria. And she now is retired, but I think she’s on a lot of boards of nonprofits now and she’s still in the Bay area. So thank you. Maria.
John Corcoran: 49:27
Very cool Jen. Thank you so much. So unicorn team unicorn unicorn team Book.com is the website anywhere else you want to point people to go check out and learn more about you?
Jen Kem: 49:36
Well, you can find me on LinkedIn. You know I love to hang out there. I have a YouTube channel where I share a lot of different concepts and break down some of the ideas in all of my frameworks and thought models. And then on Instagram, I like to have conversations. So if you want to DM me there, I’m always over there too.
John Corcoran: 49:53
Awesome! Jen, thanks so much.
Jen Kem: 49:55
Thank you John.
Outro: 49:58
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