New Majority, New Mindset: Jackie Hernandez on the Future of Consumer Engagement

[00:00:00] Networking is absolutely essential. I could sit on my desk and work, but I get out there and I meet with people. And a cup of coffee, I belong to organizations. One is a mentoring organization, Women in America, where we mentor the next generation. But we also peer mentor and we also network with each other. The mentors work with each other and help each other, and it's a pretty incredible organization.

[00:00:24] Really, you know, trusting that other people that have done it for a long time turn to them as a mentor. They know what you're going through. It is lonely and you have to kind of reboot yourself on a continuous basis. Welcome to the En Factor, conversations with entrepreneurs who started, stumbled and succeeded.

[00:00:48] I'm your host, Rebecca White, and I'm very excited that you've decided to listen in today. There is so much in this episode to inspire and educate, and I know you're going to love it. Today, I'm going to introduce you to a visionary entrepreneur who's making remarkable strides in transforming how businesses connect with diverse communities.

[00:01:10] Jackie Hernandez, founder and CEO of New Majority Ready, launched her company with a powerful mission to help brands and organizations authentically engage with the new demographic majority in America. Her company specializes in creating culturally relevant strategies that resonate with diverse audiences while driving business growth.

[00:01:35] But before we dive into our conversation, I want to share why Jackie's story particularly resonates with me right now and why I believe it can inspire anyone listening who might also be going through change. And in the end, aren't we all always facing change and as entrepreneurs always facing opportunities that are going to bring about a lot of change? It's kind of the curse of being an entrepreneur. We're always seeing the next big opportunity.

[00:02:04] And Jackie's journey is really has two entrepreneurial themes that I'm personally grappling with. First, there's the courage required to take that big step away from corporate security to embrace change. Jackie made the bold decision to leave her position at an advertising agency to work directly with clients on her own terms, leveraging the skills she developed to create something entirely new.

[00:02:32] The second theme is timing. How do we know when the time is right to follow an opportunity that we have seen or that we've identified? This is something I'm wrestling with with my own entrepreneurial journey and life right now. Between navigating housing challenges after the hurricane last year and managing various transitions in my personal life and work life,

[00:02:59] I find myself questioning, is this the right time to take a leap into something new? You know, I have an opportunity. I'm very excited about it. But is the timing right? Or am I being seduced by exciting new technology? Or am I staying focused on the real problem I want to solve for people that I'm working with? And, you know, that's what I always tell my students. Stay focused on the problem and you'll eventually find your way to the right solution.

[00:03:27] But what I'm learning through my own experience with transition is that I feel genuinely called to help others who are navigating these challenging processes and applying an entrepreneurial mindset to do so. Sometimes the most uncertain moments in our lives become the catalyst for our most meaningful work. I'm also recognizing that when our passion for something, for me, that's learning and sharing what I'm learning with others,

[00:03:58] matches up with an opportunity to serve others, then we're on purpose. And in the end, serving our purpose can trump all of our fears and all of our doubts. Especially when we face it with a good dose of optimism. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on my new opportunities soon. And if, like me, you're facing some transition right now in your life, whether it's your career, your business, or your personal life,

[00:04:25] I believe Jackie's story will offer valuable insights about recognizing opportunity, embracing uncertainty, and having the courage to step into something new, even when you can't see that path ahead. So without further delay, let's dive into the conversation with Jackie Hernandez. Jackie, welcome to the show. Thank you, Rebecca.

[00:04:55] Very excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. I'm so excited. You know, we met in New York and sort of serendipity. We sat together and I started learning a little bit about what you do and immediately knew I wanted to get you on the podcast. But when I got back to my computer and I did a little bit more research, I was so impressed with your background and what you've done and your company. And you've got a lot of amazing accolades.

[00:05:25] You're one of Fortune's most powerful Latinos. A Hollywood reporter named you Power 100 Women in Entertainment. And Advertising Age is 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising. And that's just to name a few. So you've really achieved a lot. You're a business owner and you've got a lot of great insight. I can't wait to dig in and learn more about what you do and about your backgrounds. Again, just great to have you here today.

[00:05:52] Well, thank you for the kind words, Rebecca. And right back at you. I have been digging in deep on you and your background and listening to some of your amazing podcasts. I have to say I'm a huge fan. I find them so inspiring. I always learn something. And you'll appreciate this. I just ordered a kit from Eat to Explore from Rowena's podcast that you did a couple of weeks ago for my sister and her family who are going to Ireland. So I thought it'd be cute for them to do the cooking and drinks one, not the kids one.

[00:06:22] But yeah, fabulous. That's so awesome. I love it. You know, amazingly, I met Rowena in New York also when I was up there just for a vacation and doing some holiday shopping. So, you know, it's amazing who you meet on the street. Right. And it is a real melting pot of people from cultures, but also from different backgrounds and work styles. So it's fabulous. Yeah. Yeah. I love it.

[00:06:47] So, Jackie, before we sort of get into your business and everything that you do, tell us a little bit about your background. Where are you from and how did you sort of get to where you are right now? Your company is new majority ready, I think. Is that right? Perfect. And so how did you get to be the founder and CEO of this company that you run today? So it's funny. We were just talking about New York. I am a native New Yorker and I'm the daughter of parents of immigrants.

[00:07:15] My father is from Cartagena and my mother was from Guernica, Spain. And they immigrated to America and actually met in New York. And for them, education was really, really important. So I grew up in a household where my sister and I, they wanted us to have everything that they didn't have being children of the civil war in Spain. And I was the first to go to college, the first to graduate from graduate school. I'm happy to say most definitely not the last. So it's carried on with our nieces and nephews.

[00:07:44] And for me, it was, you know, I went into college thinking I was going to get a law degree. And I came out with an English literature and art history major. And really of an appreciation for the power of pictures and words. And so it's no wonder that that led me into a career in media. It started in magazines and then into media and also different platforms, media marketing and advertising. I've been very fortunate. I worked for two really big media companies. At the time, it was Time Warner.

[00:08:13] Now it's Warner Brothers Discovery and NBC Universal. But I was able to work across a number of different types of brands from news to entertainment and also different platforms. So print, digital, television, radio. So I had a chance to do all of that and really realize that what I am is real platform agnostic and consumer centric. So for me, it's all about kind of understanding what's making this consumer tick.

[00:08:41] Whether it's entertainment, it's news, it's what's happening in the world. And media is really a mirror of the world and the consumers in the center of it. And so my career was building on how do I understand that and get close to the consumer and really kind of learn more about them. And I think that that's part of the journey that took me to New Majority Ready, which is a marketing, consulting and content development firm that focuses on helping businesses reach and connect with consumers.

[00:09:09] Especially what we call the new majority, which is the three youngest generations. Millennials, Gen Zs and Alphas. And those three make up 56% of America. So they are the new majority. And really, they are changing the way that we do everything. So that's been a little bit of my career and my journey. Yeah, it's a great story. There's so many things in there that I loved hearing and that I'd like to dig into.

[00:09:37] One of the things you said was that you love words. And I'm the same way. I love words and I love understanding the etymology of words. And it's amazing how powerful communication is, visual and written, and what a difference it makes. You know, sometimes we underestimate that, I think. And so, you know, you're in a really, I think, important place. The work you do is also very interesting to me.

[00:10:04] I can remember back when I was getting my doctorate, we were studying all the various categories. And I can't remember what they're called, but the categories of people that you were talking about, the millennials and the Gen Zs. But back when I was in school, we were talking about the impact that the baby boomers would have. And baby boomers have had a big impact.

[00:10:29] And do you have any insight on sort of the history of where all of this categorization came from and why we do this? Why do we look culturally at different age groups? What makes us all alike and yet so different? So I think whether it was the silent generation or the baby boomers, Gen X, which is what I am, or millennials, it's really to kind of capture change and to capture trends.

[00:10:57] It also can be a trap in that people start to stereotype. I mean, for many years, people would stereotype that millennials are lazy or that no group is monolith. It doesn't matter how you look at it. But each group does come with some truths or human truths that are driving trends. For example, when we met, I was telling you about, you know, I'm fascinated with Gen Z, which is the generation that is from 14 to 27. I think they're redefining marketing for us.

[00:11:27] You know, the traditional 30-second spot on live TV, that's not where they are. They're on social media. And they're looking for two-way interaction. So by having a group that's creating a trend like that, it helps us be able to talk about it instead of just people or women or men. And so it kind of breaks them down generationally. And, Rebecca, I think you know this better than anyone because of your role on working and teaching and being a professor.

[00:11:53] New generations kind of always change things and improve things and bring innovation, whether it's technology, lifestyle, work-life balance. I think we all learn from the next generation. And it's what makes me extremely next-generation curious, I like to call it. Yeah, I really like that. You know, I have been an educator for many decades and I have seen a lot of change. And I started actually, the first class I ever taught, I was 24 years old.

[00:12:21] So I actually taught some before I went back and got my doctorate and then, you know, became a professor. But I have learned so much from my students over the years. And my teaching as Chad has been required to change. And always, I would say in a positive way.

[00:12:40] Right now, we're struggling a lot with how we educate in a world of AI, you know, and how can we ensure that our youth actually can learn to communicate, you know, if they don't have a computer to go to. And that's not to say that they won't figure out new. I had Joanna Penn, who's a book author, recently on my podcast. And she's a techno-optimist and talked a lot about how she figured they would all figure it out.

[00:13:09] I think what I loved about that podcast was she also really embraced it. And I think that it's figuring out how to embrace AI for this generation in education and at the same time not have them rely on it and not use their own creativity and imagination. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We don't want them to lose that creativity. But the interesting thing, and I'm excited about AI too because it's really, for me, it's like having an amazing graduate student.

[00:13:39] I know I have to check all the work and I have to guide and I have to give a lot of direction. But because I've been working with students and graduate assistants for so many years, it's really worked well for me. To your point, I think that's, you know, to bring it back full circle to understanding why we kind of have these groupings, I think that makes a lot of sense.

[00:14:00] And for somebody who's trying to help businesses figure out how to communicate, how to, you know, when and what kind of new products to develop, I can see that it's incredibly important. I looked at one of your, you have a nice YouTube presence as well. And I looked at one of your videos and it was just some of the interesting things really resonated with me because I am teaching this age group right now.

[00:14:25] But I think Gen Z in one of your videos, you said was going to be 30% of the population or is get it there. And that they're much more diverse, a lot of non-whites, a lot of Latinos. They're civic minded and they have 36 billion in disposable income already. So they're really a force to be reckoned with.

[00:14:50] But let me ask you a question about for those people who might be listening and they're my age, your age and trying to figure out how do I work with these people? I mean, how what kinds of changes do I need to think about in my company to work with them? So, you know, I like to call them generation most because they also have been the most digital, the most global. They don't have borders the way we had them.

[00:15:19] They're able to absorb information and cultures from all over the world. And I think it's really understanding how to do things a little bit differently with them. And the biggest lesson that I think that I've been reading about is they want to work their way. Having life-work balance, not work-life balance, life-work balance is very important to them. Having autonomy to be able to make decisions. There is this misconception that they don't like feedback.

[00:15:47] They do like feedback, but they like feedback that's a two-way street, not just the top-down telling them what to do. They want to understand how they can improve. They're constantly getting feedback from social media, whether it's likes or comments. And they're learning from DIY videos. So they want to learn and they want to do things. But stylistically, I think the most important thing is to respect the new way that they see things.

[00:16:12] And this is a consumer that has had a lot of access to communicate throughout many different platforms. So being able to communicate with them on their level is important. That's a really good point. You know, I've found that this age group is very open for feedback and almost hungry for it. A little bit overwhelmingly so in the roles that I have.

[00:16:36] But one of the concerns that I sometimes hear and that I've experienced as well is an impatience. Do you see that? You know, because I grew up believing that you had to pay your dues and, you know, it was important to learn the basics before you were able to advance to the next level, I guess. So is that real or is that maybe an outlier that I've just seen and maybe a few others?

[00:17:05] It's real. Very real. This is a generation of instant gratification. They get information. They just say Alexa and something turns on for them. This is how they grew up, you know. But they do want to know how to get ahead. It's not that they don't want to do the work, but they expect to be able to do it much faster. And if it's like wait your turn, it's like, why? Why should I wait my turn? I want it now. I want to be able to try to achieve it.

[00:17:32] If I can't achieve it because I need to develop certain skills, tell me what those are and let me go learn them. But they don't work on the traditional like wait and pay your dues. And they're not going to work at one company and retire and get a gold watch. You know, they're going to continue to follow their passions and go where they feel rewarded and valued. And if things aren't moving fast enough for them, they know that they can go somewhere else at a speed of pushing another button. And that's the reality of how the world is right now.

[00:18:02] What kinds of you say rewards and values are those changed a lot? Because you're right. You know, my dad was an example of somebody who worked at one place and retired with. Well, unfortunately, he passed away, but he received a lot of gold watch kind of thing, you know, along the way. And that's that's been it seems like that's been shortening as we've gotten through the year. How do companies deal with that?

[00:18:28] And then what are the rewards or the reasons that these these young people stay with an organization long enough so that it's not quite so costly on the employer for training and hiring? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think this is a really important conversation for a lot of businesses and for all of us as we work with people from different generations. But I think it's just getting a new we talked at the beginning about the importance of words. It's getting a new dictionary on all this like hierarchy.

[00:18:58] That's not a word that's going to work really well. They'll respect if they're working for someone that is really smart and is motivating them. But it's not just because of hierarchy loyalty loyalty for them is, you know, you're good to me. I'm good to you and I'm going to follow you. They they're very loyal to their influencers that they follow every single day. So obviously they have the loyalty, but they need to feel that they are getting that back. And someone is throwing the rope out and pulling them in and pulling them up with them.

[00:19:27] And then I really think because of the amount of expression and communication that they've been able to have, even if it's just a like, they can they know that that they have a voice from social media their whole lives. Giving them platforms to be able to create and implement and share and shine a little bit, you know, and challenge them to be able to do that instead of just wait your turn. Yeah. Yeah. That's all great advice.

[00:19:54] I think, you know, it's really interesting when you talked about I think they respect influential power much more than position power. So, you know, going back to the different types of power, charismatic power, influential power, education. I mean, informational power, those kinds of things. They respect a lot more than position power, which is not bad in many ways. No, you see it too in, you know, in the marketing.

[00:20:22] I was just seeing a study that was talking about how a celebrity endorsement of a brand is less effective than your influencer using the brand and talking about the brand authentically. You know, we saw it even in the election. The regular traditional news platforms weren't as effective as maybe a podcast, right? Someone and their favorite podcasters doing interviews resonated louder or was something that they watched more.

[00:20:50] So that's what I mean about looking at the definitions of the dictionary of these terminologies a little bit differently and understanding what's making what's working with. Yeah. Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense. And you mentioned earlier that that you became media agnostic. And so I'd love to talk a little bit more about that because I know, for example, you know, I've struggled with social media. I don't love it.

[00:21:19] You know, I like it's interesting with Joanna Penn. She said, you know, she'd been podcasting since 2009. And that was her approach to building her community versus being out on a platform. And LinkedIn is probably the one that I use most. But I know that doesn't necessarily resonate. I've got students that work for me and with me and they like Instagram. They like TikTok.

[00:21:47] You know, so how should a business owner who might be listening to this be thinking about choosing a medium? And what are some of the special, you know, aspects of marketing to this particular group that you've learned along the way? I love that question. So the first is like, who are you looking to reach and really understanding where they are and where they aren't?

[00:22:14] You know, if you're looking to reach Gen Z's with funny, reverent content for a cool, young brand, TikTok, right? But for someone like yourself, who's looking to reach and inspire entrepreneurs who are starting or are in the middle of their journey with their own companies and businesses, LinkedIn is the perfect place because that's where I go for my information about business and marketing trends and what's happening in the world. And it's nice to see that it's consistent that way.

[00:22:44] The second thing is, I think we say we all think of social media, but it's really starting to fragment into different types of it. You know, you've got Reddit, you've got Discord, you have Substack where people are writing really smart thought leadership pieces and articles. And all of those are under the category of social media. You mentioned YouTube and I use YouTube, but I don't use it with myself as the video star.

[00:23:08] I use it with video I make that's marketing information for my clients so that they can see trends and it's not me cooking. So I think it's really thinking about who you want to reach and which of the platforms and then designing the content, catering the content and curating it for that specific platform.

[00:23:29] So would you say it's more important to identify one or two mediums than to try to be on everything? I do. I do. I do. I'm on as much as I can as a voyeur because I want to see and learn, but I don't post that often on many of them. Instagram to me is more aesthetics.

[00:23:53] And I think that if there's visuals that tell the message that you want to like if you're a floral shop and you want to promote yourself, putting beautiful pictures of flowers is perfect on Instagram. Probably not the right thing to do on LinkedIn. So it's it's kind of thinking about the different ones, but I would double down where you feel the strongest and make it the platform to be your voice. At least that's what I'm doing for myself. Yeah. How about messaging?

[00:24:21] How do you help your clients think about messaging? Because we live in a world of so much, so many messages, so much communication, so much information. It's really hard to break through that. Do you have any tools, techniques, suggestions that you could share? Yeah, I think that it's this is like a formula of mine. It's consumer. Like, who are you trying to reach? Because obviously different message for each. What kind of tone do you want to be serious?

[00:24:49] Do you want to be very market leaderish or do you want to be irreverent and fun? And then the final one is like, if you're going to break through, what do you want them to take away from it? What's the call to action? Is it just to do brand awareness? Are you trying to get them to sign up for or buy this, etc.? And I think when you look at that, the one that really kind of differentiates everything is tone. I'll give you an example. They're not a client of mine, but I'm fascinated with what they've been doing.

[00:25:17] It's Duolingo, the language app that teaches. I use that. I use it. I love it. I'm learning French because I'm going to France here. I love that. When are you going to France? In July. July and August. Well, brush up. You're ready. But so they had a TikTok account and they were looking to reach younger consumers. And it had a small number, like, you know, maybe a half a million followers. And then they decided to change the strategy.

[00:25:45] And I can't remember the young woman's name. She's leading it all. But she decided to turn Duolingo's TikTok into an entertainment channel where Duo, the owl, is the lead character. And all these things happen. Like, he got kidnapped and they thought he was killed. I mean, but it's fun, irreverent content that's storytelling on TikTok. And now I think they're at 16 or 17 million.

[00:26:12] It's crazy. You know, I have a grandson and he is studying like nine languages right now in Duolingo. That's how I found it. And what I like about it, too, is just the product is simple, easy to use. And, you know, I've tried some of the others, which are good. But I found Duolingo really easy to pick up. You know, you're sitting at a line, well, you're standing in line somewhere or you're waiting somewhere. And you can just pick it up.

[00:26:41] And, you know, if you can talk, you can, you know, if you're in an environment where you can do that. But it's easy to pick up and just do a few minutes. And it's amazing the repetition, what you learn. But they I think they have talked about those videos that you're talking about. I haven't seen them. But, you know, it's it's it's interesting because they fall into that alpha group. I was going to ask you which demographic. Yeah. Yeah. They all fall into the alpha group.

[00:27:07] And I did have a question about that because I know there's alpha and then Zalpha and then Gen Z. So then Zillennial and Millennials. Are those Zalpha and Zillennial, those I assume are the crossover, the periods kind of between where you make they kind of go both ways? Or how does that work? You know, it's to me, it's if you look at these groups and you think, oh, at 27, they light switches off and they become 28. It doesn't work that way.

[00:27:36] And so I look at these breaks and I can say, all right, we can look at what, you know, millennials or Gen Zs or alphas are doing as a trend. But we have to understand that the I'll use Gen Z, the Gen Zs that are younger, probably a lot more like alphas. And the Gen Zs that are older are probably a little bit more like millennials. And the way I explain it is even when I was 13, I loved reading Seventeen magazine. You know, it's like we so it's I don't want to put those breaks on it.

[00:28:06] So it's to understand even when you're looking at a group that is not monolith and they might have some commonalities, you need to also see how they're trending at the other at the ends of the spectrums of age. Yeah, that's good. And for people that haven't looked at this, strongly encourage you to go take a look at Jackie's YouTube under New Majority Ready because it's got some really great charts.

[00:28:32] And, you know, alpha is 2010 to today births. Right. And then Gen Z, I think you listed as 1997 to 2012 and then millennial 1981 to 1996. And then, of course, the crossover years in between. But it's just really fascinating. And I love, you know, I think all of us in this world of so much information and so much opportunity, to be honest, to share our message.

[00:29:01] It's really helpful to have some models to help us at least frame up, you know, and I agree. I mean, I think we can't use them as prisons, but they're loose frameworks that can be really helpful. So great, great ideas for putting, you know, building your company around that. Let's switch over and talk a little bit about your company.

[00:29:21] Now, what was how hard was it to leave, you know, a paycheck from somebody else and become the one who is responsible for yourself and I think others in your company? So how hard was that and how did that all transpire for you? So it was it was a big decision and it was many years kind of percolating in the making.

[00:29:45] I'll start by saying that I not only was blessed in working for these big companies, but I would work and gravitate to brands where I was able to be more of an entrepreneur, meaning I worked in a corporate company. But because I was at Time International or CNN International or People in Espanol versus Time or CNN or People, I was kind of like in startups within big brands.

[00:30:13] And I remember, you know, someone at Time said, you're so lucky you can work on International because we were just launching it. And of course, you can do more. You're like a speedboat versus a large ship, which is what they felt like. And so throughout the years, I would gravitate to those type of roles because I like the flexibility. And also as an entrepreneur, I believe there's a big demand for having vision and having creativity and innovating.

[00:30:39] And I mean it like you need to every day wake up and go, what am I going to innovate? What am I going to invent? What am I going to create? Because no one's going to hand it to me. I have to do it. And so being in those type of roles, I always had this thing in the back of my mind. Secondly, my father was an entrepreneur. He came to America, took a job in contracting, had horrible broken English or like very little English when he first got here, but an excellent work ethic.

[00:31:07] And he was fantastic at everything he did, but very, very committed to what he did at work. Ended up running a contracting and painting company, signing several management company buildings in Manhattan. And so I had lots of great clients. And I would remember, you know, he would do his billing and all of his work. He'd have these, you know, composition notebooks and he would write out all the costs and all the different employees. And each book was a different building. And then we would, I would help him.

[00:31:36] He'd have a Smiths Corona typewriter and his carbon paper. And he would, we would do the invoicing. And, and I was like, someday I want to be able to do that. Cause I believe that if you have yourself, you know, your work ethic and your worth commitment, you can do anything. And as long as you have a vision and a pretty good idea and you really hit it, you can do it. And he was an inspiration. I think the, the final thing was I was at NBCU for almost 10 years.

[00:32:03] And the first five of those were as the COO of Telemundo. And when I got there, Telemundo was like 17% market share Univision, which is the large, was at the time the number one Spanish language network was a Goliath. And we were David. And over the course of those years, we closed the gap and we became number one. And they expanded my role to be the CMO of NBCU Hispanic. And I'm like, what does that mean?

[00:32:29] And what it, what my remit was to work with all the brands across the company from NBC to Universal to the theme parks, to the cable channels to help them grow first their Hispanic. But we ended up evolving it to their, we called it the initiative. It was company wide generation M back towards generation M at the time it was millennial, multicultural and mobile. And that was where the world was going.

[00:32:55] And so the initiative was to really look at what's next and how do we reach this next generation consumer on these different platforms, understanding they were more diverse. And also they were bringing with them new consumption trends of how they're consuming content and how they're discovering content. And social media was just starting to pop. And at the end of four years, I, you know, I've always had my dad's EIN card from his small business up on my bulletin board.

[00:33:24] It went from office to office. It's here right now. And I remember thinking, I should, I just worked with all these different brands. I love having a portfolio of clients. If I did it in NBCU, I can do it outside by myself. I was just turning 50 and I'm like, am I going to stare at the CIN card my whole life? And I said, I'm going to do this. And so I turned down the renewal of a contract, which I was very grateful for.

[00:33:51] And I said to my husband, I don't know if I'm going to end up at Whole Foods in a month, but I'm out. I'm going to do this. And it's eight and a half years later. That's great. I love that story, Jackie. And, and I, you know, there has been a lot of research around the importance of role models. And it's really interesting. I remember I had some folks from Italy in my office at the university and they were talking about the DNA of the United States.

[00:34:18] And truly being an entrepreneurship professor, I can say that around the world, the United States is thought of as sort of the epicenter for entrepreneurship. There's certainly plenty of entrepreneurs everywhere, but so many people like your father came here and, and, and found that opportunity. And so his, I was influenced by my mom. So I think it's very, who was an entrepreneur? I think it's very common to have that influence, whether it's a parent or a neighbor.

[00:34:47] And, and taking that step, I have to ask you about, you know, sometimes that can be pretty lonely. Did you find help along the way? Were there, were there networks? Were there groups? Were there mentors that helped you make that transition and maybe even continue to help you today? All of the above. I'm going to start with something that you write about in the see, do, repeat, you know, inspiration when you're feeling like, look at people,

[00:35:16] even if you don't know them, that are doing it and are doing it successfully and, you know, kind of get, get energy from them. That's one, you know, it is very true. You will get inspired by other people. And if you do, you see them and you do it, you will succeed. So I love that, that you talk about. I think it's so important to stay connected. Networking is absolutely essential.

[00:35:41] You know, I could sit on my desk and work, but I get out there and I meet with people. And a cup of coffee, I belong to organizations. One is a mentoring organization, Women in America, where we mentor the next generation. But we also peer mentor and we also network with each other. The mentors work with each other and help each other. And it's pretty incredible organization. I also work with a lot of collectives. So one of them is the partner collective.

[00:36:09] It's 50 vetted marketing agencies or firms. And we get together every month and share ideas. And there's always a presenter or speaker on AI, whatever the topic might be. But there again, it's just talking to each other and saying, is business slow for you now? You know, what's going on with the macroeconomics? Is it impacting you? Where are you seeing some lead generation? And then really trusting that other people that have done it for a long time turn to them as a mentor. They know what you're going through.

[00:36:39] It is lonely. And you have to kind of reboot yourself on a continuous basis. Last year, for about six months, I took an interim CEO role for a company that I serve on the board of. And when it ended after the six months, I had to kind of reboot. You know, I was like, I have to like refocused and what, you know, work on my, I updated the website. It was perfect because it was the holiday season. But it was like work on the website.

[00:37:06] I started work on an outline of a book for Gen Zs. And what are different things that I'm going to do? I start taking a course at MIT on AI. How do you stay motivated, inspired and keep moving forward and learning, which is what we have to do every day in order to innovate? Yeah. Well, we have a lot in common because it sounds like, you know, I get very excited about learning. And I also, as you mentioned, I've written books.

[00:37:33] And I mean, I think one of the things we connected on was your new book. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about that. You know, it's, it's been a passion of mine. And I love, you know, I love books and I love reading, but I also love sharing what I've learned that way. So tell me about your journey with book writing. So it started with me saying, I want to write a book and staring at a blank piece of paper for a few, I would say like a couple of weeks, you know, like, oh.

[00:38:02] And then it was really thinking about, you know, I was going to do some, I'm doing research. I'm writing it with someone who's a researcher and we were waiting to feel the research. And my husband said something to me. He said, you know, it's great that you're waiting for the research, but you should be able to start writing your book without the research should you have something to say. And all of a sudden it was like a challenge that I needed. And it just started to pour out. And it was, for me, the process is really, I'm looking at Gen Z from a number of different angles.

[00:38:31] Again, not as monoliths, but what are trends that they're doing with social influencer marketing? How are they looking at, you know, the new American generation? Because this is the new American generation. How is that impacting their psyche right now? The questions you were asking about how they, their relationship to work and how many of them are looking for alternatives to going to college, like trade, going to trade schools or even green collar jobs.

[00:38:59] And so there's so much fascinating things that they are working and doing that suddenly it started to flow. And for me, it was writing out an outline of the table of contents and now filling them. Chapter five. That's great. That's fantastic. I would love to hear more about you because I remember when we first met at the event and you said I've written books. I'm like, oh my God, you know, self-publish, publish. Which way do you go? And even listening to your podcast with Joanna Penn. Yeah.

[00:39:29] You know, oh my God, it's a whole, there's a world for people who write books and there's a lot of guidance out there if you start to look and listen. But it's not as simple as waking up and saying I'm going to write a book. It's so kudos to you for having done several. Well, it is a learning journey. Let me put it that way because I had written, but I'd written mostly in academic journals and it's a whole different world. So you're right.

[00:39:57] I mean, we will definitely have lots of conversations offline. I'm here to help you any way I can and hopefully make your path a little straighter than my own. The very cool thing today, I think for anybody, for you or anybody else that is interested in writing a book or is working on a book is that there is so much help out there. There are so many tools.

[00:40:19] You know, we talked about AI earlier and there are just so many AI powered tools that can help you, you know, with everything from, you know, developing characters to, you know, editing and to getting your book published and sold. And, you know, thanks to Amazon and other companies like that, it's pretty easy to do.

[00:40:43] Lulu is a company that I've used here more recently to help get my book, take my books to IngramSpark and some of the other, some of the other platforms. But we can definitely have a conversation about it. It's a, it's quite a journey. And I looked at, there's many, many options and no one right one. I think for everybody, everybody has to kind of look at that. But we did connect on that. And I'm very excited and looking forward. When your book does come out, we'll have you back on the in factor.

[00:41:13] Wow. To talk about, to talk more about what you shared in your book. Going back a little bit to your business, the, the, your business is now eight years old, I think you said. And I guess I'm very curious about whether or not you started this small or as a side hustle.

[00:41:33] I did a, you know, a whole bunch of episodes on side hustles a few years back, a few years back, because I saw so many people were starting small and kind of building that way with a client or two or with a product. So how did, how did your business evolve? What did you learn about building your business? And, you know, did you bring in, do you have employees? How did you build, build your business? So it's always evolving.

[00:42:03] Even now, it's really interesting that the journey of being an entrepreneur, because it's not a fixed state, kind of ebbs and flows as the world and the business does. I actually started my own company and my first client was a sports franchise. It was actually mixed martial arts. And I was like, oh my God, I don't know much about this space. But immediately when I went in, I started to see things and was able to help them grow.

[00:42:31] And fast forward about six months into it, maybe a more, the board asked me to come in as president. And I ended up stepping away from what I was doing and taking it. And a year went by and it was fabulous, great experience. But I kept thinking to myself, this isn't what I set out to do. You know, I had left to start my own business with the intention to really help all companies learn how to go back to a portfolio model.

[00:42:59] So a year after it, I thanked them very much and I moved back into my own world. And the evolution there, because I was so much more, I was like intent now. I wasn't going to just try it. And if it didn't work, who knows? I was going to make it work. And I had the receipt because I saw that my first client ended up bringing me on. So I'm like, I can do this. I'm good. I know what I'm doing. I have a vision here.

[00:43:23] And so it evolved from that to working together with a partner at the time to our very first big deal was with GroupM, which is one of the largest media agencies, media buying agencies in the world. And it was a consortium of different clients. And it was amazing, like how quickly that all came together. New majority ready became how they were going to evolve, how they were going to market with multicultural advertising.

[00:43:48] And I won't go too much into the details, but it was like a big company endorsing the concept of new majority ready. And we worked together with them to create a framework to help their clients know where they stood on the spectrum of reaching and successfully marketing to multicultural and youth market advertisers. So that was fantastic. I will get two years into that. And here's the stumble. You get comfortable.

[00:44:16] And all of a sudden COVID happened. And everyone's pulling back. And the consortium is like, we have a lot. We have bigger problems right now. And we have to focus on different things. And the comfort was the stumbling block. I was like, I'm still acting like I work in corporate. You know, you get your big client or couple clients. And I really need to think about how to scale and how to continuously be out there and not just rely on one or two clients. And so that's when it really started to change my mindset.

[00:44:46] And I started to think about what is new majority ready going to be next? And as I started to do that, it has been the last six years that I've been doing that now. Because you constantly have to be reinventing and communicating and thinking about what you're going to bring to market. You know, we've talked about AI. And then that course I'm taking is about really how do I implement marketing into what I'm doing to better serve my clients and to get more reach and scale.

[00:45:14] And imagine if you see them as an amazing graduate student. Imagine if for me they're like a whole marketing team. Right. Right. And so I've built that way. And then you asked about staff. I have been so lucky to work with such incredible people my entire career that I have a wonderful Rolodex. And with what happened with COVID, all of a sudden I would say, oh, I'm working on this project or I'm working on a pitch. And one of the I'll give you an example.

[00:45:43] It was a pitch for a political candidate in the Senate. And I didn't have political background, but I knew someone who was doing that for years. And they brought in their team. And so I'm finding that I can work with virtual subject experts and bring people together for different projects. Me and my husband are the steady eddies. But then we really change out depending on what we're working on. There are a couple of people on our team that are just consistently their skill sets are used for everything.

[00:46:12] But I think it's really keeping the majority ready on the cutting edge because there's so much happening and changing that if you have your regular team, maybe no one on it five years ago was an AI expert and now you need one. And so it's just that kind of evolution. So that's how it's been working. What a great story and great lessons in there. And so many things. I think you and I could talk for about two hours because there's so many things I want to know, but we may have to reschedule and schedule again.

[00:46:41] Now, did I hear you say you work with your husband? Is he part of your company? Yes. That's a great story right there. We could probably spend a lot of time on, but I won't go into it right now because I got a couple more questions and then I know I need to let you go do some work for the day. But I'm very curious about, you know, all of my podcasts, I talk about failure.

[00:47:03] And I'm just curious about whether or not you, how you think about failure and maybe if you have a failure story or a better way to frame it, a resilience story that you'd be willing to share. For me, failure is every time that doubt comes in like, oh, this isn't working or and business goes in cycles. You know, it's like the stock market. You have to be in it for the long haul.

[00:47:30] But you do have to understand you eat what you kill as an entrepreneur. And especially for someone who worked in steady jobs my entire life, this is like and so all of a sudden get uncomfortable if we lose an account or if I'm seeing that, you know, something we're doing isn't working as well as I'd like to see the results. And I think that there it's really going deep inside yourself and saying, I need to get over this and I need to get some confidence.

[00:47:58] And lately I've gotten very into and don't laugh, but like manifestation. And I don't know, like the book, The Secret, like have positive thoughts, like replace your negative. If you're doubting something, like turn it around and say, OK, yeah, we lost this account. Now we can go after what new types of business or what do we want to do next? And and it goes back to networking. Get out there, go have a coffee, like meet with people that you maybe don't know too well and share and hear what they're doing.

[00:48:27] And that has really worked for me because I gave you the example of I took the interim CEO. I came back. I was supposed to be able to work on my stuff one day a week. That didn't happen. I just was all consumed seven days a week on the role I was stepping into. So when I came out, I felt like I needed to reboot, you know, and I went. I purposely timed it.

[00:48:48] So I had been invited to speak at a conference in Florida and it was like right after I was leaving and I went and I met some fantastic people that were doing some great things. And now that's one of the coalitions or the collectives that I'm working on. It's new majority ready partnering with an expert in the creator economy. And we're working on a meetup so that we can bring brands and influencers together with sponsors and clients to talk about this new generation of marketing.

[00:49:19] And that happened by, you know, dusting off the doubt, getting up, going, networking, meeting and not just, you know, putting my head down and going, well, it was me. So I think that that is and there's cycles of that, you know, it's whatever reasons happen. It's up to you to be your own cheerleader and inspiration. Yeah, that's so helpful. And I can relate to that so much. You know, I continue to have doubts.

[00:49:46] I continue to feel that imposter syndrome from time to time. It doesn't matter how much you've accomplished. It doesn't matter how everybody else sees you. I think if, you know, that's one message I try to share. Many years ago, I had a student who came to me and she was graduating and didn't have a job yet. Felt like her life was, you know, like she was loser with the big L on her forehead, you know.

[00:50:11] I told her my own story, which was not that different, of course, you know, and how I had to go back home and live after I got my undergraduate degree because I didn't have a job yet. And I felt like a huge loser at the time because back then you just didn't do that. You moved on to something else. And she was like, I can't believe that your life looks so perfect. And I'm like, well, it's not. And it hasn't been.

[00:50:33] So the point is, I think it's so important to share that no matter how much you've accomplished and you've got so many great success stories, you can still have doubt. And and that that doubt can propel you on. Right. It can remind you to lift your head up, as you said, and serendipitously, you and I met just randomly at an event. I sat beside of you. We started to talk and I feel like I've found a new friend and someone that I have a lot in common with.

[00:51:00] And we have this amazing conversation that we can share. So it's a really good lesson. Opportunities come when you put yourself out there, I think. Just to go full circle with that whole, your amazing story and how incredible you are. The event we met, you were being honored, right? As one of the women leaders in the boardroom. That's a pretty big feat at the KPMG meeting.

[00:51:25] So just to think about that, that, you know, someone having to go back home after going to graduate and then sitting there and meeting you when you're being one of 100 women honored in the world. Yeah. Thank you for saying that. And it was a very nice event. And you mentioned board work. We could have a whole conversation about that because I know there are a lot of people listening out there that are interested in that kind of work as well, which is also very rewarding.

[00:51:52] But we have had an amazing conversation. I know we could keep talking, but I think, like I said, I need to let you get back to running your business. But I would like to ask you a couple of things before we close. The first one is if you had one piece of advice for one of those, it might be one of those Gen Zers. It might be someone else out there listening who is either an entrepreneur or would like to start a business. What would that one piece of advice be? You've already given us a lot of insights.

[00:52:19] So I always compare entrepreneurship to flying a kite. It's kind of like you need to keep tugging gently at the rope, at the string, or else it's going to fly away. That tug for me is curiosity and learning and networking and innovating and staying ahead of things. And so the minute I don't do that, it's like the tug, it's going to go.

[00:52:47] I think that it's a light balance. But if you do do that and you keep the opportunity, that's how you keep momentum in your business. And I think entrepreneurs really just keep moving forward. Yeah, I think that's great advice. And I think you're in good company there with a lot of great entrepreneurs who use curiosity and resilience and staying open to new opportunities as a rule. So, Jackie, this has been phenomenal.

[00:53:14] And I would highly recommend that anybody listening who has a business or would like to start a business or is dealing with Gen Zs or Zalphas or Zillennials or Millennials, check out New Majority Ready. I'm so excited to learn more. Even I'm going to go back and look at a lot of your YouTubes. But where can our listeners find out more about you and about New Majority Ready?

[00:53:44] Our website is newmajorityready.com and it has a link to an email and all of our social platforms. And you can email me directly through the website. That's great. Or I'm at Jackie Majority Ready. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you again, Jackie. I'm hoping that you and I can stay friends. And this is just the first of many conversations we're going to have. Those definitely are already. I'm so thrilled. Thank you for having me. It's been an honor, Rebecca. Thank you. Thanks.

[00:54:19] That was a great conversation with Jackie. And I hope you found it inspiring and learned something that you can apply to your own entrepreneurial journey. I thank you for listening to the InFactor podcast today. If this conversation resonated with you, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, leave a review, and share with others who might benefit from these entrepreneurial stories.

[00:54:45] Until next time, keep recognizing opportunities, embracing uncertainty as part of growth, and building your entrepreneurial journey. If you'd like to find out more about me and my work, my books, and more about the podcast, please visit DrRebeccaWhite.com. And check out everything that we have there for aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs.

[00:55:13] So thank you again for listening. This is The InFactor, and I'm Dr. Rebecca White.