283-SYB-Jill-Jencke (1).mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

283-SYB-Jill-Jencke (1).mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Carol Cox:
How can you exceed expectations as a speaker at an event? Listen in to this conversation with business owner and conference organizer Jill Janaki on this episode of The Speaking Your Brand podcast. More and more women are making an impact by starting businesses running for office and speaking up for what matters. With my background as a TV political analyst, entrepreneur and speaker, I interview and coach purpose driven women to shape their brands, grow their companies, and become recognized as influencers in their field. This is Speaking Your Brand, your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. If you’re going to be speaking at an in person conference, this conversation has excellent tips on how you can not just meet but exceed expectations as a speaker to make it a win win win for you, the audience and the event organizer. I know I’ve been excited to get back to in-person speaking and hopefully you have some in-person speaking engagements on the calendar as well. This is why I wanted to have this conversation with one of our Thought Leader Academy clients, Jill Janaki. Jill is a business owner. She’s a mental health counselor and she owns and operates 15 offices in South Dakota. Last year, Jill decided to host a conference for women about mental and brain health and recently held her conference for the second time.

Carol Cox:
In this episode, Diane Diaz, our lead speaking coach. And Jill, talk about what Jill does in her business and why she decided to create her own conference, what it’s like to speak at her own event. Jill delivered the keynote there versus speaking at someone else’s event. Jill talks about the importance of practicing your talk and envisioning your audience while you’re doing so as an event organizer. Jill has suggestions that you can use as a speaker at the events that you speak at so that you can exceed expectations. And then Jill talks about why she joined our Thought Leader Academy and what her experience has been in it. We have an event preparation checklist that we provide to our clients in the Thought Leader Academy that you can print out, and that way you can check off all of the things that you need to do to prepare for your in-person speaking engagement, including some of the things that Jill recommends here. You can get that event preparation checklist as part of our Thought Leadership Workbook, as Speaking Your Brand guide. Again, that’s Speaking Your Brand guide. If you’re interested in learning more about the Thought Leader Academy and working with us on your signature talk and your thought leadership platform, you can get all the details and you can apply by going to Speaking Your Brand academy again. That’s Speaking Your Brand, IMG Academy. Now let’s get on with the show.

Diane Diaz:
Welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast, Jill.

Jill Jencke:
Hi. Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, good. I’m excited to chat with you and share you with our audience. So, Jill, if you’ll take a minute to introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do in your business.

Jill Jencke:
Oh, wonderful. I am a mental health counselor. I’ve been a counselor since 2005, and I started a private practice. And then as I grew, I decided that I wanted to help more people. And so I turned my business into a group practice. And once I began to help my community, I decided that I want to help more communities, especially those rural health communities. So I ended up expanding rising health counseling in South Dakota to 15 locations throughout our state currently. And so then it’s been a very exciting journey. We kind of started expanding of March of 2020 during COVID. So we’ve been really able to help people through telehealth and and, you know, in those smaller communities that really help those people who were in need during those times of that hardship during the pandemic.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah, that was really perfect timing, I guess, to expand because people really needed what it was you had to offer, right?

Jill Jencke:
Absolutely. You know, it’s fascinating now and the research comes out about loneliness, you know, and what we know about loneliness. It’s really equivalent to like 15 cigarettes a day. And so what we’re seeing now is kind of the aftereffect even of like what the the pandemic did with people being lonely and what that did to our mental health, you know, how it changed our brains and things. So the other thing about COVID, it really gave an onset to be able to accepting more of a mental health because I feel like more people reached out and now we have more of an acceptance of what I say, brain health or mental health to be able to get the help that we need and and not be ashamed of it because, you know, we all need that person to kind of rely on and to talk to who’s on your side. And I just think it’s always it’s just such a meaningful thing. It should be like exercise to have that therapist and that person who’s your cheerleader, who’s there for you, help process, you know, and heal from the inside out.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, I completely agree with that. And I think it’s it’s so the work that you do is so important. So I’m glad that you’re expanding and I’m glad that you’re getting your message out to more people via speaking. Now, you joined our thought leader. So for our audience, Jill joined our Thought Leader Academy in March of 2022. And so you will actually be graduating soon. So depending on when you’re listening to this, Jill will be graduating from the Thought Leader Academy soon. So, Jill, tell us a little bit, what was your. Speaking experience, like before you joined the Thought Leader Academy.

Jill Jencke:
Well, my speaking experience started maybe when I was in seventh grade. My mom made me be in speech class. You know, like way back in the day.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, nice.

Jill Jencke:
I always like doing little things on the sides. I used to do small trainings for maybe a work employer, you know, where you’re expected to be more very educational. And then I had done one or two other type of speaking engagements when I was asked. I started a women’s conference in 2021 in the capital city of our state, and so I always had a passion for it. I kind of knew how to do that. But still some of those insecurities were always there and prior to starting the Thought Leadership Academy.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah. And so you mentioned I’m glad you mentioned your conference that you started. First of all, I think starting when you were a child is super fascinating to me because I know for myself I did not like to speak. I was very shy. I did not like to speak or be even be noticed when I was a kid. So kudos to you for taking on that challenge and really just going with it. And obviously you do have a natural speaking ability and I’m sure you I’m sure you were kind of inspired by your ability to inspire others. And then so you join our Thought Leader Academy. But I believe while you were in the Thought Leader Academy, you did hold that conference. I think what year, how many years have you been doing that conference that you’ve put on for for women?

Jill Jencke:
This last April was our second year that we did that.

Diane Diaz:
Okay, good. And so when you first thought about doing this conference, when you thought about creating your own conference, what did you envision the purpose of the conference to be and what were sort of the goals? Who is the audience? What’s the ROI of it? Tell us a little bit about all of that related to this conference that you put on.

Jill Jencke:
Well, like we were talking about, mental health can sometimes have a stigma. And in in rural areas, you know, even big cities become small at times. Right. And so in my private practices, I always have a waiting room that’s very private. However, I know that even some women or some people still don’t want to walk through those doors because their fear for a judge or maybe they don’t feel like the brain health is as important or significant enough. And so what I wanted to do was create a conference to be able to teach and educate, you know, mental health, wellness, you know, just lifestyle things to be able to share tips and tools to do in your daily routine. And what I ended up doing was doing it for women only. And what I found is just an amazing and phenomenal aura and feeling when you get to hundred this year we had around 202 to 50 to 60 women all in the same gallery. And the energy that comes, the safety that it feels just to be able to enjoy the environment is so impactful. I probably will keep it with women because it was just so meaningful. You can connect easily with that and just it was just such a phenomenal thing. And usually what we do is do things from relationships to boundaries to shame. I always do something this year I did that on self growth and last year I did about healing from the inside out and we just kind of have a hashtag to this year’s hashtag was choose you.

Jill Jencke:
And so really it’s all about giving those tools to people who maybe wouldn’t walk into a therapy office or who do but give them another avenue of a day. And not only that is that I love to give and I love to win. So I actually put in giveaways. So we give away a coach and Kate Spade and all these great things because when do women ever take a day just for themselves? Right. And so really was all about bringing women together and making them feel special, making it a day where they just get to think about themselves and to take that day of self care. And that’s really what it was about, too, is giving women an opportunity of self care to focus on just themselves versus running around and what do they need to do for their families or, you know, or even regarding social media these days, like, what’s everybody else doing? Or what am I not just a day to come together with other women just to honor each other and to learn and to be able to take that into their daily living after they left.

Diane Diaz:
I love that. And I think to Jill, it feels like maybe some women come to that and maybe they think they don’t have any mental health things that they’re challenged by or struggling with. But then they come to it and then they realize, Oh, actually, I do have some struggles, I do have some challenges. So I think it’s nice that you’ve created that safe space for women where they might actually even recognize some challenges they’re having for maybe the first time. Then that allows them to open up and start addressing those.

Jill Jencke:
Absolutely. And this year my focus was on about obstacles and how we get into autopilot. And so I was able to look at like, let’s look at our obstacles and guess what? We all have them. We all have obstacles and problems in our life and they’re here for life lessons. Just think if life was just blissful all the time, you know, we don’t have any room for growth and we really need those dark times to find the light. And so it was really a transforming type of speech that I was able to do, and we worked on that in our VIP day, actually, and we’re able to put it out into a real to be able to make it a. Approachable was my story and to make those lessons we learned for them throughout that event.

Diane Diaz:
That’s so great. Now, so you mentioned that you did speak at your at your event, at your conference, which I love, remind me. But I think you were not only the keynote speaker or a keynote speaker, but you also did breakout sessions, isn’t that correct?

Jill Jencke:
Yes. So we had like nine breakout sessions where we had other therapists within rising help do different splits off. And then we also had keynotes from the community. So we had committee members who had a story and the unique thing about that, so we had several keynotes like that’s what I put. I like to honor a lot of people, but the cool thing about it was a keynote of like how they overcame and even though they went through tragedy in their life, they figured out how to still find joy. And the most amazing thing is that there are women of our community. But not only that, but the speaking. Throughout both of my years, the women were able to heal through telling their story. So it was super therapeutic in such an amazing experience. It’s a very can be an emotionally heavy day, but yet a cathartic in a good Flushing Day as well.

Diane Diaz:
It’s almost like your conference was meta, right? So you brought people together to talk about healing and then some people actually healed through sharing their stories. So it’s very meta and and they actually experienced what it was you were sharing with them.

Jill Jencke:
It was such a gift to be able to give that to our community and and fun to connect with all these people too.

Diane Diaz:
What was it like for you to speak at your own event versus someone else’s event? What was that like? Because I know we we were we did work in a VIP day on your on creating your keynote talk and you had a lot of ideas that you wanted to share. And so and of course, you wrapped your personal style into it, which I love. So I’m just curious what it was like delivering say that talk at your own event versus someone else brings you in to speak to their audience?

Jill Jencke:
Well, we should ask my family that, but the pressure is on just because that, you know, that’s my company. That’s that’s my face. That’s where I really want to bring my energy to, to captivate. And I want to do that in all my speeches. Like, I love to be energetic. What we know about the brain is that we have about 10 minutes before we start to lose people in our speeches. Right. And so what I want to do within my speech is especially for my conferences, I want people to feel and experience the situation. And so therefore, I really put myself a lot more pressure on there. I did a lot more practicing and just to make it my own. And and so I would say there’s there’s much more pressure on that just because it was very important to me. And also the other thing is that this has to be optimal because I want people to return. I want them to tell their friends about it. You know, I want them to enjoy their experience so that they get education and they learn something so that they want to come back next year to keep the conference continuing successfully.

Diane Diaz:
That’s fantastic. And Jill, do you have any sense of how many return people you had from the first year that you did it to the second year?

Jill Jencke:
You know, I had a lot of friends that came. It’s a different thing. You got to think about that when you’re creating conference. So last year I did it on a Friday, so I got a lot of people, some businesses that paid for their workers. But then I had all the people who like teachers, like, you know, no more teachers could come or no more nurses could come. And so I moved it to a Saturday this year. But it was interesting though, because a lot of people could come in Friday, couldn’t come this year because they had children in events, you know, because a lot of activities are going on. Like it just seems that’s kind of the way of a family these days. So I was able to get a new like about three or four or I would say a third and then two thirds, a third of new of crowd come back in. But because it was on that Saturday and and so it was a different crowd. So you got to look at all of that. If you you know, if somebody were to choose about having that conference and the different aspects and different audiences that you can kind of change, too.

Diane Diaz:
I love that you mentioned that Jill doing it on different days and considering who the audience is, considering who you might get return, but who you also might get. That’s new. And I love to that you’re willing to experiment with a conference. So this is a good message for all those out there listening to this that might be putting on their own events. Don’t be afraid to experiment, switch things up, see what works. And like, like Jill found out, you might actually get some new listeners, some new attendees that have a little bit of a different take on things. And now you’re spreading your message to even more people.

Jill Jencke:
Absolutely. So it’ll be super exciting to see what next year is. You know, and I always have the same my sponsors are amazing. You know, their personal connections, like reaching out and talking to those sponsors are great. And then I did a fun little thing, right? Everybody stand up, you know, just to really give them recognition because people don’t understand what that means to be a sponsor and how helpful that is to start your conference. I’m excited to bring in a new creative twist, to be able to really highlight them in a unique way next year to just because I honor and appreciate them so much.

Diane Diaz:
That is such a great point. And sponsors can be such an integral part to putting on a conference, especially, especially when they’re personal connections like that. I think that’s a really good idea to try to find a way to honor them. And I like the idea of having a stand up to recognize them as well. So that’s super important. Okay. So, Jill, we worked on a VIP day on your signature talk, and we went through a lot of ideas. You came with a lot of ideas, which was great because you kind of already had you kind of already had the structure for how you wanted to talk to go and what you wanted your audience to walk away from your talk with. And so tell me a little bit about that, not just working in the VIP day, but also your delivery of your talk. And how did it feel to deliver that inspiring message to your audience, and what was it that you wanted them to walk away with?

Jill Jencke:
You know what I always take and what I always tell my therapist and that our speaking is that we want to have at least three main points that they take away. You know, we want to have three objectives that that they can definitely put that the person watching the attendee is going to take away. You know, the thing is, is it’s like, you know, I talked about practicing, you know, that keynote. And what I find is when you practice and you know, you’re telling that story. Just today we had thought leadership and Carol talked about those aha moments of stories. That’s what I thought about whenever I practice. So when I practice, I think of a new story, you know, and we all know that people connect through stories and they’re relatable. And so every time I practice, a new story might come about or it really made the information personable. And when you have passion within that and I know I had like you said, I had a lot of slides and a lot of information. And when I started to practice it, the slides that weren’t connecting to me, then I eliminated them, you know, and then as I eliminated those slides that were just maybe not in touch or I felt boring to me, then I knew I wasn’t going to be able to deliver those slides in an impactful way for people to listen. Right? Because we have to keep their attention in today’s day and age. And so that practicing really helped me to be able to scratch out some slides that maybe my heart wasn’t into or that I didn’t really have a story in to create a deliverance that kept the audience engaged throughout the whole time.

Diane Diaz:
Oh my gosh, I love that idea. Jill That’s a really good tip for our audience. You know, you could create the talk, but it’s when you start to practice it and actually deliver it and maybe even the first time you deliver it, you might find some things that, oh, like this didn’t quite work. So it’s actually in the delivery of it and the practicing of it where you really dial it in. Right? That sounds like what happened for you.

Jill Jencke:
And taking in all of that and imagining your audience and connecting to them and visualize even that, you know, like I always visualize them when they would laugh with me through humor. We talk about wanting humor in there, too, and having that balance, just like your energy and your brain is already in that path to be successful as well.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. Oh, I love that idea of envisioning your audience, engaging with your content and laughing with you or feeling emotional with you or whatever the delivery is. I love that. That’s such a great that’s another good tip. So so to our audience, who’s listening to this, when you’re practicing, that’s a great time to dial those things in and maybe kick out what’s not resonating. And then envisioning your audience to help you kind of really hit on those points that, you know, are going to inspire them.

Jill Jencke:
Because then again, then your brain is going to be ready for that and then you’re not going to be as anxious when you come up. Because I found that before, like last year, I did a speech on finding your happiness or don’t let happiness be in jeopardy when that first part of being intro or maybe you’re introduced a way you’re not used to or you know, you don’t really know what the avenue is going to be. Your anxiety can be a little bit rushed in that first 5 minutes. And so what I did at the I spoke at a dental conference just a few weeks ago, so I just called it out. You know, I want to take a deep breath here and allow my body to relax, you know, and then people are just kind of laughing, you know, and you made a joke about it. Therefore, you’re connecting with the audience and you can get your body to relax because it’s your body that goes into that fight or flight that makes you talk faster and things like that. So if we just somehow incorporate a little tagline, if we ever need that in there to be able to take that breath within your speech and get your body to calm, then you’re going to get back on your path of where you practice.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, my gosh, that’s so smart. And also, I will I will point out that also brings in and connects to the work that you do, which is kind of like that mind, body and awareness and how you’re feeling and being connected with how you’re feeling. You’re actually demonstrating some of what you do to your audience. So that’s nice. Absolutely. Love that. So smart. I love it. Love it. Now let’s talk about Jill as the event organizer. So instead of we talked about Jill as the speaker, which all those things that come into play there, but as the organizer of this event, can you share some suggestions that you might have for speakers on how they can make the organizers job easier? How can they meet or exceed expectations of the organizer? So what can speakers do to make that a better flow for the organizer and make it a better experience for everybody?

Jill Jencke:
I think that’s just coming prepared. You know, what I always do for my speakers is I ask them to have their PowerPoint ready two months earlier. So then I know that they have it done and it’s kind of a trade where I do it for myself. I trick my brain like it’s due in two months beforehand because then I’m not. To be procrastinating to that. And then at least, you know, even if it’s a base, you can still become organized and maybe change it because we don’t want to have it where they’re full of ideas that aren’t coming together, you know. So being able to present that bring letting us communication is huge because we need to know like, what do you need for that event? Do we have the right cords to connect to your computers? You know, these are things that can really create an anxiety right before you go on to speak. So making sure, like all the technology part is in a situation, as for any special needs that you may have and knowing what you need, you know, do you do you know what the audience is? Is there going to be all genders or what’s what’s going to be captivating? What do they live in? What’s your audience do day in and day out is all going to help.

Diane Diaz:
So it sounds like asking a lot of questions for the speaker, asking a lot of questions of the organizer, which sometimes organizers will share those things ahead of time with you. But some organizers, like they’re so busy that they might either not have all that collected into one place or they might forget to share it. So it sounds like as a speaker, by asking all those questions, you can help the organizer not have to think of those things.

Jill Jencke:
Absolutely. Even down to like what room are you speaking in? Because then you don’t really need to rely on anybody else. You can just go to your space and you can be there and that’s definitely it. And you know, and the guess, the thing is just to be able to be that independent person, you know, because there are a lot of things going on with organizing and and when we’re able just to kind of put the event together, you know, have it be a great event and being able to be there even for introducing or talking to people before and after is always important as well, too. And that’s always much appreciative as well.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. And so when you are choosing speakers, I don’t know how you did it for you. I know you mentioned that you had some real people, so to speak, share their stories. But did you also how did you choose other speakers for your conferences? So you had you and then you had some other breakout sessions and you had the more of the audience members. But how did you go about choosing other speakers and breakout session presenters?

Jill Jencke:
And that’s really difficult to and what I have found is that a lot of people from our first conference loved all of our speakers, and the biggest complaint we had is that they had to choose between speakers. I look at that as not a bad.

Diane Diaz:
Problem, good problem to have.

Jill Jencke:
And so I kind of watched last year, you know, which ones were very populated and I try to replicate that. So a lot of people are looking for relationships or like loving your mind. You know, the boundaries was really popular this year, you know, shame and just, you know, boundaries in relationships. And so what I try to do is every breakout having like one about relationships, one that people are in relationships, they can go to one that maybe if they’re single they can go to and maybe an overall self care one or maybe one related to mental health. We had one this year who lives with bipolar and he was able to express what that’s like and was phenomenal. And so really having a diverse effect and having a team that kind of of community members on our board for our nonprofit, which I have as well, rising help together. And then we were able to look and see what attracted to people the most.

Diane Diaz:
That’s a good thing, I think, Jill, for our audience to keep in mind, our audience of speakers is that you want to make sure that when you’re pitching to speak that your topic, your title, it all resonates with who you know the audience is going to be for that conference, because that’s really what the organizer is trying to do, is make sure the audience walks away with some meaningful ideas or impact or a change in looking at things. Right?

Jill Jencke:
Absolutely anything that they can take to be able to use in their daily life. And I was just looking at my reviews from the first year, too, and those were some of the comments that I got in there. Is this like being able to transition or educate and being able to use simple the easy ways of understanding, practical usages? And that’s why today, you know, like I love to research, you know, I love to read about neuroscience and how the brain changes. But number one, we don’t really most people don’t have time to do that today and age. And then if it gets too complicated and wordy, you know, a lot of times if our brain doesn’t understand it, they’ll just let it go. It’s like a scroll, right? We’ll just scroll past it. And so it’s really amazing when people can just speak and be practical and be able to relate to people so that they really take that home into their heart and into their their brain can accept that and be able to learn from it.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, I love that. So well said. Yes, good. So so again, for our audience, kind of keep that in mind. When you’re pitching to speak, think about what the organizers are looking for and think about what they want their audience to walk away with and make sure that you tap into that when you’re creating your pitch and doing your title and your take so that the organizer is clear on what their audience is going to get out of that talk.

Jill Jencke:
The only thing to think about, too, if you’re going to an event and it’s in your local area, you know, one thing that we love is even organizers is swag, you know, because everybody loves a sway, you know. So if you if you want an opportunity to put in your business card or a flyer or even connect candy to a business card or you put. All a mesh thing with maybe a little positive note or something. I mean, that’s a really good way to market your speaking market because you never know who’s going to be in the audience.

Diane Diaz:
Genius.

Jill Jencke:
It only takes one person from there to have a connection to a corporation. And there might be your next speech.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, gosh, Jill, that’s such a great idea. I’ve never thought about doing that. I’m going to remember this and write it down somewhere. I love that idea. Okay, well, tell us then. You do a lot of speaking and you’ve done obviously you’ve done a lot of speaking for quite some time. But what is it that you love most about speaking?

Jill Jencke:
You know, I find that’s interesting that you said that. So my mom made me be in a speech when I was younger. But I actually always spoke about something that was probably along the lines of psychology. And I came from a very small farm. I grew up on a farm and, you know, you didn’t really have therapists in the area. And so it was always very healing to me. And so, I mean, I’m gifted with the ability to be able to research the brain and research obstacles and research relationships and be able to speak about that. You know, not only do I try to apply it to my own life, but I get to speak about it. So I find it very healing to be able to do that. And my passion has been to connect with other people and to help other people change their life, to live their best life. So I just am so honored to be able to have that ability and blessed with the tools to be able to share what I learn with other people and to have that foundation. So that’s mainly what it is. It’s me healing myself and it’s me giving me the ability to heal other people. It’s just that’s a blessing. It’s exciting.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah. You know, that’s so funny that you mentioned you being able to heal yourself because I think that a lot of times when we speak, especially when we’re wrapping in personal stories, that is kind of what we’re doing right? We’re sharing with the audience, but we’re also healing ourselves in the process.

Jill Jencke:
Absolutely. You know, and with the stories, you know, sometimes we dig in to where our darkness was and how we found the light. And even like I think about the speech I gave in last April, really, like I was like, okay, what am I going to do? And I actually use a personal journey of mine in one year from now. We have no idea where we could be. We could be a whole different person. And that’s what I kind of found out I was. And so it was really awesome to share that experience and to show other people how you can heal, you know, going through obstacles. And and so that is a vital thing that that can happen. And to utilize your gifts in in the way that gift for yourself as well.

Diane Diaz:
And so based on that then what brought you to join the Thought Leader Academy and what did you what were you hoping to accomplish aligning like what were your goals?

Jill Jencke:
The Thought Leader Academy kind of stuck out to me when I was trying to kind of review my Rise Hope Live website as I try and revamp it. And I and I saw it very captured encapsulated my my vision when I saw what it had to offer because during that time I probably had some core beliefs going on of like, oh, like, you know, I didn’t really have anything new to share to people. Like, I’m not going to be good enough. All these other people are so amazing. You know, when you’re doing research and listening to a podcast of like amazing authors and you’re learning from them all, you’re like, What? Why would anybody listen to me? And so having all those core beliefs so that self doubt, I just kind of really got drawn to it and I just thought, you know, I’m going to take this chance. I’m going to invest in myself. You know, I’m going to give myself because and, you know, a lot of times you’re always are waiting for that perfect moment, like, oh, I’m just going to wait for the best finances or or whatever that may be. And I’m like, you know what? Like, I’m just going to invest in me right now because, you know what? If that holds back from my dreams from three years, you know, holds my speaking dreams back three years. And so I just decided, like, I’m going to invest in me right now and I’m going to do it and then I’m going to be ahead of the game for my personal journey.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah, that’s so well said. Well, no, there’s that. There’s that expression. When’s the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When’s the second best time? Today. Right. And so I think that that’s a great point about trying to invest in what you want your future self to look like. And so what has been your experience in your academy then so far?

Jill Jencke:
Well, it’s been amazing and it’s really fascinating because I’ve had a lot of great takeaways and I think about how the networking across with women across the nation has been absolutely amazing and just to be able to connect with other people in all different aspects of different professions. You know, I met a professor today and a researcher and it’s just so neat because especially in when sometimes you’re working and maybe you’re really invested in what you’re doing, you know, we don’t take out that time to network, but like we have people in access from all over the nation to come together. I’ve met amazing people and made friendships and this is small, short of time. I am definitely not one. Usually, for we have small masterminds within the thought leadership. If I’m not held accountable, I always skip out on those like and other normal yeah. Other leadership things I’ve been in. And so, you know, since this is a small, intimate group, we’ve gone in there. And the thing about it is, is that I have been so comforted and and so amazed and I’ve learned so many things from Marshmallow.

Diane Diaz:
We have some marshmallow.

Jill Jencke:
Too, an app to help me. And the other thing that is super amazing too, is this like when I came into it, I thought, you know, like everybody knows what I know, why do I care? But when I bring up something in those small groups and I see another woman, like, write down what I said, I’m like, See, not everybody does. Like everybody knows certain things. And even if we do know it, maybe I can bring it in a different light is what I learned. And or maybe I can present it in a different avenue that maybe that one person can heal or that one person can learn something from it differently from the way that I present things. And so it’s been so great to meet with other people, to build my confidence in ways that I didn’t really even expect on the networking and to identify different ways. I have to also say that I’ve been doing your webinar or your training on on LinkedIn. So when we do our one on one coaching, we’re, you know, we have had that to review that as well. And that was a great training video because it literally I just paused it and did what you did and I created my whole LinkedIn page and and it was exciting and now it’s done and it looks like a super professional good. So I appreciate that. And so it’s a lot of those things. And the other thing would be is this like even things from speaker fees and you know that you are worth it and you are valuable. And to put it out there and and I have, you know, I have a business coach, too, and she’s been a mentor. And and to make that jump and and I haven’t getting paid, which has been has been very rewarding.

Diane Diaz:
Well, that’s the goal. One of the goals is to make sure that women get paid to speak, because we know that women speakers typically make less than male speakers if they get paid at all. So that is one of the goals. So I’m glad to hear that you’ve been able to get paid to speak yay for that and yay for more pay. So just real quick, let me just share with our audience the marshmallow fluff since you mentioned it. So if anybody’s wondering what that is about, there was a tip shared several Thought Leader Academy a go and now it keeps getting shared that if you have like your throat is getting dry when you’re speaking, if you’re afraid that’s going to happen, you can just eat a spoonful of marshmallow fluff. So if you don’t know what marshmallow fluff is, just Google it. You’ll find it comes in a jar, eat a spoonful of that and it coats your throat. And then you don’t have to worry about getting that dry mouth and dry throat when you’re speaking. So there’s a little tip if that’s the only thing you walk away with today. You’re welcome.

Jill Jencke:
Great.

Diane Diaz:
See, one thing.

Jill Jencke:
You only need one thing.

Diane Diaz:
One thing. So, Joel, tell us what’s next for you then.

Jill Jencke:
You know, I really want my goal is is my summary. I plan to create a new keynote. You know, I’ve been doing Overcoming Burnout and Happiness. And I really want to look in the psychology of a lot of times people have been quitting jobs lately due to the work culture or, you know, the environment that we’ve had. And what I really want to teach is leadership of how to look inside of people and to identify what’s off the printer. If your employee is getting mad at the printer, it’s actually not because of the printers not working. It actually comes from a belief back before the age of seven. And one of those core beliefs of that’s really triggering to them and whatever’s happening in the situation today really originates back then. And so as supervisor and leaders within our industry, we really need to look at the inside of a person and figure out the inside so that they can heal from the inside out within our work environments and to understand what maybe their beliefs are and to be able to be able to address our teams in a different way and to support them so that we can have successful work environments that are positive and people want to be in them and stay in them and enjoy the work environment because that’s a majority of our time.

Diane Diaz:
I will be coming to your next keynote because that sounds very informative and also it is definitely something that needs to be addressed. So I’m looking forward to when you create that keynote and delivery, so make sure to share it with us so that we can share on your behalf. Yeah. Sounds really fascinating. Yes, absolutely. Get on LinkedIn and talk about it. So. All right, Jill. So we’re going to wrap up with three not so rapid fire questions that we want to ask everybody. So share with us what is a favorite book by a woman author?

Jill Jencke:
You know, as we said, I am full of multiple ideas.

Diane Diaz:
I like it.

Jill Jencke:
So it’s kind of hard to bring it down. I love reading. And, you know, when we go into science, I always like neuroscience. I talked about that. So Dr. Caroline Leaf was one of my favorite offers for Switch on Your Brain. But I also love Gaby Bernstein. I mean, she just came out with a new book, Happy Days. I love her passion about love and I love to I feel her energy and being able just to change your focus on your mind. And and so those are people who I really enjoy, you know, one a little bit about energy and and then one about science is kind of those have been some of my favorite women authors that I can think of right now.

Diane Diaz:
I love that. So I we’ll make sure to share those links to those in the show notes. So thank you for sharing those. I have to I love I fancy myself a little bit of an amateur therapist. Because I just like to I like to understand psychology, so I will be checking those out. What is a favorite TEDx talk by a woman?

Jill Jencke:
I just love Brené Brown. She’s just so phenomenal at work and I love how she research and how not only does she research, but like she’s going through her own journey, which she finds herself a vulnerability. You know, she talks about when her husband was swimming ahead of her, you know, all those things. And I find that that is how people can relate. And, you know, and I and I envy that about her. And that’s what I hope to do someday is, you know, ask people for their stories in their work environment. You know, what’s your reaction at your work environment? How are you getting frustrated? So then, you know, we can take those stories, we can learn from other people, but then I can, as a therapist, dissect it down and try to understand what the situation is going on to help other workers and leaders and supervisors to understand their employees.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, I love that. Of course, we we all love Bernie Brown. So I’m glad you mentioned her because, yes, her TED talks are amazing. So if you haven’t watched those, definitely go and search for those. They’re they’re really phenomenal and very inspiring. Okay, Jill, final question. What is a favorite quote by a woman that you can share with us?

Jill Jencke:
One of my favorite people to follow, like the business aspect, is Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, yes.

Jill Jencke:
And I love her quote. It’s like, oh, it’s don’t be a fail. Don’t be afraid to fail. And what I absolutely love is a story is that when she was growing up every day, her father would come and ask her, what did you fail at today? And it really took a look at like, don’t be afraid of fail. And we were looking at failure as a part of each day. And they actually looked at like, if we or she did, like if they didn’t try something new, then that was failure. Because you learn from what you fail at. And so, so many times our fear will stop us from doing and trying new things, you know, and for moving forward or accomplishing our goals, you know, to create that speech or whatever that may be. And the thing about it is, is we need to dive in and just do it. And if we fail, then we learn what we need to tweak, you know. And so I always love her as a as a business owner and as a leader as a woman leader at a young age. She just dived in and she’s always had that. And her family always embraced failure. And she she talks about it all the time. And so that’s why my favorite thing is, is that we don’t want to be afraid of failure. You know, we learn from failure. And when we embrace it, then it doesn’t have to be such a big obstacle because it can be there and we’re comfortable with it.

Diane Diaz:
So well said. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you so much, Jill, for coming on the podcast. Would you share with our audience where they can connect with you?

Jill Jencke:
Well, I have multiple places, but I have Jill Carnegie on Facebook and then we have Jill Danica on LinkedIn. My business page is rising. 605 And then I also am creating my speaking page and my digital courses on Rise Hope Live.

Diane Diaz:
Wait, we’ll make sure to include all those links in the show notes. Well, Jill, of course, it has been such a pleasure to chat with you today. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing all your insight and also your stories. I truly appreciate it.

Jill Jencke:
Yeah, it’s been a pleasure and I appreciate it. Thank you.

Carol Cox:
Thanks again to Diane and Jill for that really valuable conversation. Don’t forget to get our free thought leadership workbook that has our event preparation checklist in it. You can get that at Speaking Your Brand guide again, that’s Speaking Your Brand slash guide until next time. Thanks for listening.

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