I (the Jen of Jenesis) was happily referred by a client for an interview with VoyageATL, a local online magazine. I hope you not only learn something about my story and this agency but also about yourself and why you do what you do…and why authentic, effective marketing is such a crucial key to doing it even better.
Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer B. Jacobs.
Thanks for sharing your story with us, Jennifer. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was always creating as a child through visual and written form and figured out I had a natural propensity for persuasion (but always vowed to use my powers for good). As soon as we got our first Mac, I was designing and printing fake newsletters for my parents to find in the mailbox. Both of them were entrepreneurial at some point, which honestly taught me just as much what NOT to do. I knew one day I’d have my own business and even had it named when I was in high school (even though I’m not using it now), but fear and I suppose just life events started me out working for other people. I learned a lot that way but always felt it wasn’t right for me.
When my daughter was born almost 7 years ago, I got laid off and was equal parts terrified and relieved. I chose to elevate the freelance graphic design business I’d always had in some form to become my only gig. One of my friends, who is also my mentor in the world of marketing, encouraged me to take it even further by expanding fully into marketing because she saw that was basically what I was already doing for my clients. I mostly found my calling in helping female-owned small businesses, giving them not just branding and strategy but confidence in their own calling.
Last year when that same friend closed her own renowned marketing firm for professional services firms, she called and asked if I wanted to take over some of their clients. Pretty much overnight (or felt like it!), I found myself forming a new virtual agency with a team of specialized contractors and had to re-overcome the age-old “imposter syndrome” so many women entrepreneurs face. But I am so glad I said YES to that phone call. The agency is now a year old, so still new where growth is concerned but not in experience.
For now, I am choosing to keep both businesses because each feeds my calling in its own way. But both are similar in that I believe in marketing when it’s done in a genuine, authentic way that tells a story people can feel. I want each client to be seen and heard so they can do what they’re meant to do in improving the world in whatever way they’re all about. I like to think we’re all here to do something good with our talents, and it lights my fire to help people spread the word about theirs.
P.S. I love the “voyage” tie-in to Jenesis because of our message in a bottle theme…if you ever receive a proposal from us, you’ll find that we call each project a voyage or adventure because that’s how marketing should feel.