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Trust Is the Currency: How Leaders Build Real Authority
8 Plays1 month ago
What happens when a Fortune 500 digital marketing leader decides to leave the corporate track and build something deeply personal?
In this episode of The Voice of Growth, Manny Teran sits down with Jess Jensen, founder of Copilot Communications and former marketing leader at companies like Microsoft, Adidas, Nestlé, and Qualcomm. Jess shares how working closely with C-suite executives revealed a powerful insight: leaders reach audiences more effectively than brands.
From that realization, she built a practice helping executives and founders find their authentic voice online — especially on LinkedIn. The conversation explores:
- Why executives struggle with visibility
- The tension between vulnerability and professionalism
- Why trust is the true currency of influence
- How AI is both a gift and a risk in content creation
- And why being “wildly capable” starts with self-belief
This episode is about human leadership in a digital world — and why mastering your voice is now a strategic advantage.
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Transcript
Jess Jensen's Career Journey
00:00:04
Speaker
The voice of growth, mastering the mind and market.
00:00:10
Speaker
I've worked in footwear and apparel, consumer packaged goods, and then most recently in tech. I started working pretty closely with our C-suite. We started to see that they could get through to the audiences that we cared most about um far better than we could as a brand.
00:00:32
Speaker
What might I want to do um if someday something entrepreneurial was on the table?
LinkedIn's Growth and AI's Role
00:00:40
Speaker
It builds trust with your audience and trust to me is um it paramount.
00:00:48
Speaker
To pre-pandemic to 2025, LinkedIn doubled in its user base globally. Yeah. So it's got like 1.2 billion users now. If you truly know your voice and you know those principles or values that you want to put forward and be associated with, then i think it's a lot easier to leverage AI as a friendly tool, but the core is still you.
Jess's Motivation and Qualcomm Experience
00:01:21
Speaker
So Jess Jensen, you've been at the number of very important, very high level companies like Microsoft, Adidas, Qualcomm, Nestle, and you were really embedded in these companies.
00:01:37
Speaker
Then you decided to make the jump into helping leaders stand out online to show up as their best selves. What was the impetus for that big jump?
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. And thanks for having me on the show. ah the um yeah, you're right. The career that I led up until now has been inside of these larger Fortune 500 corporations. um ah But the last five-ish years of my chapter at Qualcomm, i started working pretty closely with our C-suite. So yeah.
00:02:16
Speaker
our CEO, our president, um a few other leaders of business lines. And it was really coming from a place of the corporate side of the house, um where I looked after digital marketing, social media influencer, all those things.
Qualcomm's Pilot Program and Human Connection
00:02:31
Speaker
We were recognizing that our reach and our ability to um kind of get to our audience was waning, right? We were seeing numbers decline. um We weren't quite sure why we were experimenting with that. And at the same time, and in parallel, this is around like 2016, 17, we were also seeing a lot of other C-suite members, especially in the tech industry, but beyond, um really begin to build um platforms online, specifically in those days, Twitter and LinkedIn.
00:03:07
Speaker
So we had the thought that we should experiment a bit and see if we can encourage and support a few of our leaders to also do that. And so as I built that program, which again was very much a pilot kind of on the corner of my desk, um and we started to see that they could get through to the audiences that we cared most about um far better than we could as a brand. And in in hindsight, of course, it makes sense, right? People, yeah they want to connect with other people.
00:03:38
Speaker
um And they're interested to understand kind of the behind the scenes, which often leaders bring. um And a brand, of course, is going to just inherently be a little bit more polished, a little bit more PR oriented, sort of, you know, the best of the best. Yeah.
00:03:55
Speaker
So that pilot grew to become a practice. We were able to staff it and fund it and all those things.
Entrepreneurial Reflections and Leadership Voice
00:04:02
Speaker
And as the CEO over the course of a number of years, this was ah a so slow burn, yeah um began to understand that you know his voice was meaningful and had weight in addition to whatever we could do from a ah broader corporate standpoint.
00:04:18
Speaker
It obviously encouraged the other leadership to do the same thing, right? They saw that he was doing it. They saw that there was some success and they wanted to be part of that part of that party. Yeah. So as my career was kind of hitting that 20-year mark um in that corporate environment, you know, it was always sort of bubbling and kind of germinating in the back of my mind. Like, what might I want to do um if someday something entrepreneurial was on the table? um Do I want to end my career in a corporate environment and sort of keep going on this trajectory? Or is there an opportunity to do something...
00:04:57
Speaker
um where I have a little bit more ability to to shape and build. And I realized that practice that I had now at this point created and nurtured and and ah codified inside Qualcomm was the part of my job that I liked the most. um I'll always be a digital marketer. I'll always i' always love brand building. That's kind of my heritage. But the idea of working with leaders, individuals, especially those that really are thoughtful and want to leave a mark and think about their legacy, they sort of want to go a bit deeper, perhaps. ok um That work was really soul-filling for me and gratifying. and I thought,
00:05:42
Speaker
gosh, if I could build this inside, couldn't I build it outside too for myself? So that's what Copilot is today.
Executive Challenges Online
00:05:50
Speaker
Interesting. So what would you say, and that's ah a story that a lot of ah people that I speak with going from the corporate domain and then branching out, it's very, that's more common than the other way around. Somebody working for a startup for their own thing for 20 years and then going into the the corporate domain.
00:06:08
Speaker
What do you see as some of the roadblocks that we'll say C-suite executives, whether it was in your experience under the corporate umbrella or now with running co-pilot, what do you see as some things that prevent these executives from really showing up as their best version online? What's what's happening there?
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah, there's a number of reasons. and And I've also been able to kind of replicate this research, if you want to call it that, um in the last year and a half that I've had my own company as I've been speaking to other people. So this is not certainly not unique to executives inside of the corporations that I worked in um So couple things. One, there is a sense of what do I have to say that anybody would care about?
00:06:55
Speaker
and And it might be surprising, at least it was to me, that somebody at that level inside of that size of company with global reach would think that, but they do. um and And as do solopreneurs that I talked to today. So it it spans the gamut, sort of the, if you want to use the term imposter syndrome, although yeah yeah that's an overused term.
00:07:19
Speaker
an overused ah ah word these days, but it's this idea of why would anyone care what I have to say? Why am I unique or special? So that's one.
00:07:30
Speaker
Two, just not having a framework. Like, okay, let's just say I'm interested. I'm curious. I'm i'm i'm digital curious. um how How do I even start about organizing my thoughts? Like, am I writing it? Are you helping me write it?
00:07:47
Speaker
There's all kinds of visuals that need to, like all of the framing around the logistics and the operational model for it is a big kind of black box for a lot of people, um which is, again, totally makes sense. right When you haven't done something before, it feels overwhelming to even know how to build ah a frame or a blueprint.
00:08:07
Speaker
I see that. um And then another one is time.
Time Management and Coaching for Executives
00:08:11
Speaker
i think this was especially a hurdle in the beginning. And over time, we were able to um overcome this um this concern. But, you know, we can imagine even as founders, as leaders of small businesses, let alone of, ah you know, a leader of a very, very large company, time is your currency. Mm-hmm.
00:08:33
Speaker
And so you have to constantly be making these trade-off decisions. do i you know Do I do this or do I do that? Is this the priority or is that? um And we want to be thoughtful, obviously, about sort of the tyranny of the urgent, not just doing whatever you know is on fire. We want to be strategic when we can.
00:08:50
Speaker
So there was a degree in the beginning of needing to kind of convince our leadership, I get it. know how busy you are. I know you're on a plane 60% of the time.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah, right. But if you have a coach, if you have a partner, if we kind of fortify you with some support, And you'll allow to allow us to get to know you at a little bit more of a personal level so we can actually help shape your voice.
00:09:18
Speaker
Then together, perhaps, is it worth, you know, 30, 60 minutes a week of your time, knowing that this, again, is incremental to whatever we can do on the corporate brand side? It's helping this company grow in a way that only you can do.
Grant Cardone's Influence and Social Media
00:09:39
Speaker
Yeah, the the idea of um if they don't know you, they can't flow you. It's something that Grant Cardone said, which I'm not sure if you're a fan or not, but I'm not necessarily a fan.
00:09:49
Speaker
But I do respect the fact that someone like that has taken ah so much of his career in front of the stage, if you will, and it's been propelled. And then I have friends that are not on social media or not on even on LinkedIn, and these are like I would say ah very successful magnets here in the region and they have no presence online.
Pitching Ideas to Executives
00:10:13
Speaker
and And I sort of struggle with that. I'm like, dude, you have so much to say. You have so many experiences. And I'm interviewing the former CEO of Macy's here in a couple of weeks.
00:10:24
Speaker
And his online presence is mainly through his his other efforts, um donations and philanthropy and all that. How do you find these these executives to work with? what what is What is the the the story? Do they come to you? Do you find them? Is it a mutual thing? Is it recommendations?
00:10:45
Speaker
How does that all happen? Yeah. I mean, back when I was inside of a corporate environment, I, again, back in 16, 17, those earlier, and quote, earlier days, um I was definitely pitching, right? i was i had I had my normal job, right? I had my practice and my remit of digital marketing, social, all that. But I...
00:11:05
Speaker
And this is also to your earlier question of like, why jump off that train and go do something entrepreneurial? i I saw a pattern in myself where I realized that I was a builder and I would often be able to look at patterns and see where there is an opportunity um And I wouldn't just see it, to be honest, I would actually think about it and pencil out what it could look like and then I would begin to pitch it internally. um And, you know, in the beginning you have no budget, you have no team, you're just literally doing it as like an extracurricular project. And then once you can get a little bit of momentum, build a little bit of a flywheel and then you get some support, you can you can obviously go to bat for for help
00:11:47
Speaker
um So inside it was me coming to these executives and saying, hey, I have this idea. i understand these platforms and I understand content creation and I know sort of how this universe works. um I know a little bit about you, but I bet if you'll open the door a bit and let me get to know you just a little bit more and we can build some trust and you'll give me a little bit of your time I think you might be surprised, a how helpful this could be for the company, both internally and externally, right? your employ That was one of the things that I used in the very beginning, which is a very, um it's kind of an overlooked benefit of building a platform. People tend to think about it all as the external, the public. Yeah. um
00:12:31
Speaker
Customers, clients, partners, the street, investors. But meanwhile, some of the first people that pay attention when you begin are your employees. Yes. And so I would talk about that with them and say, even if for no other reason, even if you think you have nothing to say and no one's going to care about what you know what you put out there, I'm going to bet a good chunk of our employees will watch and they will gravitate to you. They will they will they will follow you first. So um all that to be said, there were sort of angles I would use back then to try to convince them that this was a good use of their time and it was helpful and accretive to the business and to the overall sort of employee morale and even perception,
Digital Engagement Post-Pandemic and AI
00:13:20
Speaker
right? Financial perception of the um the future of the company.
00:13:25
Speaker
Now, um again, we're in a different era, too. We're post-pandemic, right? It's 26. think there's much more. And LinkedIn has changed quite a bit. And X, Twitter has changed as well.
00:13:36
Speaker
um So not only have we changed, right, coming out of what we all went through few years back, um ah the digital platforms have changed. Now we have ai in the mix. Right. So there's, i think, a much more broad ah understanding and um acknowledgement by leaders, founders that, yeah, I probably ah probably should be doing something online. That would probably be wise of me.
00:14:05
Speaker
um And then then you kind of move in quicker to the conversation of the how and the why you're valuable. I see that. So that actually spurred two questions from what you just said.
Balancing Messaging with Vulnerability
00:14:18
Speaker
ah I'll ask one and I'll let you kind of answer then I'll ask another because they're kind of separate.
00:14:23
Speaker
How do you deal with where the struggle that they might have, the tension, if you will, between the the strategic message that they're trying to to really put forth and vulnerability?
00:14:36
Speaker
So I talk a lot about vulnerability on my podcast in general, how I believe it's really important. But I know a lot of people in that that sort of level of executives, they don't understand the power of it maybe, and they sort of struggle with being open. So how do you kind of reconcile that?
00:14:55
Speaker
It's funny, vulnerability, and maybe we should give credit to Brene Brown for bringing that to the forefront of our zeitgeist, but vulnerability has become such a word right now. It's it's almost like a fast follow to authenticity.
00:15:08
Speaker
um it it has such richness to it and it's so important, and it's also now being used so frequently. um So I'm with you on its importance, and I'm also always like scratching my head for how do I say that in like slightly different ways to break through. Yeah. um One of the things that I talk about around vulnerability and authenticity um is that like the why, right? why Why would you share personal stories? Again, why would anybody care? um Why would you talk about challenges that you faced and maybe overcome or maybe it caused you to pivot? You know, let's hear it. um
00:15:47
Speaker
the The reason, two reasons, one is it builds trust with your audience and trust to me is um paramount, paramount. um I know Edelman, ah you know, ah ah a comms agency that's been doing what they call the Edelman Trust Barometer research study annually for years. So again, I'm certainly not the first person to bring this idea up. that measuring um and nurturing relationships um in as much that they build trust with the person and then cascades to the brand is of huge value.
Power of Storytelling and Interviews
00:16:23
Speaker
um So when you're vulnerable, you are building trust because you're showing that you're imperfect. You're showing that you're human. You're showing that you've been through things. Because guess what?
00:16:34
Speaker
We all have. Like, ron yeah you know, like, that who who are you fooling? but yeah Levels. um The other reason, which is a little bit more um strategic, again, given the platforms and what I know from working in them for so long, um he humans inherently are drawn to stories.
00:16:58
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And again, storytelling is another one of those words that's become very buzzy. um so I'm reluctant to use that too often. But the reality is that, and we all feel it. I don't know about you. like I remember feeling this even back in high school, in my early 20s, going to parties and there being people who could command an audience because they were good storytellers.
00:17:21
Speaker
Right. I know exactly what you mean. Absolutely. Yeah. And it um almost didn't even matter what they were talking about. um And it didn't they didn't even have to be the most attractive person in the room. But they had a ah magnetism about them because they could tell a story.
00:17:40
Speaker
yeah And so that's another reason that um I encourage my clients now to, again, get let me inside. Let me get to know you. um doesn't mean that we have to share everything publicly. We're still going to, of course, filter to some degree. Right.
00:17:58
Speaker
The more um fodder and the more sort of like depth I have about your origin story and the challenges you overcome, maybe things that you don't talk about a lot publicly, that helps me help them shape what their voice and um use those stories to be relatable, to draw people to them and tie it back to their business.
00:18:25
Speaker
Right. They're tying those personal stories into things that are relevant today in their work. I see that all the time, Jess. Being in this seat, interviewing people.
00:18:38
Speaker
I have to basically be a guide, a storyteller guide. And some of these people I know personally, some of them I just met. Literally the president of ah of a big mine came into my my studio here and I just met him.
00:18:52
Speaker
So I've got to really figure out very quickly how to get them comfortable and get them open. And sometimes you can even almost measure. I wish there was a way to measure that trust level as it's actually happening, because sometimes there's this this sort of like posturing that that happens.
00:19:10
Speaker
And then through the course of a 45 minute podcast, by the end of it, they're like, way more open, way more talkative. They're going into details about their personal life, which I didn't really necessarily ask for.
00:19:25
Speaker
Anyway, it's brilliant. my The other part of my question had to do with with the social
LinkedIn's Evolution and Professional Branding
00:19:30
Speaker
platforms. Are you primarily on on LinkedIn or are you primarily doing other things? Well, the platform that I work the most with my clients today is LinkedIn. um And that's for a few reasons. um My background spans all of the social platforms. So all the usual suspects, right? Back in the day, Facebook, Instagram. um Again, X slash Twitter used to be a bigger player in the mix, especially for our executives. It's changed quite a bit. Yeah.
00:19:57
Speaker
with the the new leadership that's taken hold. So, and then there's some newer players, right? Like Blue Scott. i mean, there's always sort of TikTok, of course. So i'm I'm comfortable in all of them. But to be honest, because LinkedIn, I'll just share a few few stats, has changed so much since 2020.
00:20:16
Speaker
So if you look at the numbers from 2019, so pre-pandemic to 2025, LinkedIn doubled in its user base globally. Yeah. So it's got like 1.2 billion users now up to like 448.
00:20:30
Speaker
um So just the sheer volume of people that are active is way bigger than it was um five years ago. Two, it's the number one writing platform. If you just look at all of the places people can, for example, blog, like Substack I know is rising up as a really interesting player, which is great. um So there's lots of people out, lots of players out there. But LinkedIn is where people go to write longer form content and use it kind of like microblogging. Right. yeah um And it's historically been, we used to describe it back in the day as like a lot of the other platforms were much more lean for you sort of lean forward, quick, quick, quick, hit, hit, hit. LinkedIn has always been more of a lean back platform.
00:21:11
Speaker
I'm going to like take a hot second with my cup of coffee and maybe read a little bit. right So it's always given us permission to go longer. And now with sort of the increase in user base and the the longer form writing, it's even more um that way. And then the last one is,
00:21:29
Speaker
And this has also been the case for a long time for LinkedIn. It's always had this advantage. When you think about people who are doing business and often want to attract future clients and customers, um it is a subset of people that would even be in a position to to purchase their product or service. So LinkedIn's got ah over half of its users have over a six-figure annual income. So over $100K in household income. No other social property can boast that.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that. you just have a a little bit more of a, um you have a subset of an audience there that often is a little bit more qualified or just maybe more targeted for a lot of the people that I work with in terms of who they want to attract and influence.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah, I really, i like LinkedIn a lot. I've been on it for a long time. And when you compare it to the other social platforms, it's it's definitely different. It has a different vibe. Sometimes you see things sort of bleeding in from the other ones, and I tend to ignore that when that happens.
00:22:29
Speaker
People getting political or posting vacation pictures, you know, it happens. But I also know that that a huge swath of the user base, and you probably know the numbers,
00:22:41
Speaker
ah uses it more like just a digital resume. They don't go beyond that. So how would you recommend ah a um a rising star, if you will? Maybe they're a mid-level, you know they're kind of approaching the C-suite, they're not quite there yet.
00:22:59
Speaker
How would you recommend that they take advantage of what LinkedIn really is to to grow their brand, to grow their their personal brand and their career in general? Yeah, I mean, that's a perfect question and you hit it on the head. There are still, even today, a lot of people that use it as a digital resume, um which is what it once was, right? I mean, 10 years ago, it absolutely was that. um I remember there being a time when we were like, well, are we going to put all this online? Like, are we sure you're even going to put that? You know, like that even felt vulnerable. um
00:23:34
Speaker
And it stayed that way for a long time. And so, i again, I get it. I get that that's the mindset. It's kind of like. It's like if you were friends with somebody when you were in your 20s and then maybe you both move into different cities and you you leave your hometown and you sort of come back a decade later and you have this level of familiarity. You sort of feel like you know what that person's about. But meanwhile, you've both changed and grown.
00:24:00
Speaker
And it's like, yes, you have a history, of course, and there's a level of comfort there. But you also want to be open to what's new about that person. And hopefully they're open to what's changed with you, too.
00:24:13
Speaker
So LinkedIn has really evolved, right? LinkedIn, yes, it still has that experience section. Of course, you want to get that dialed and make sure that's accurate. And I always say, and I'm not a career counselor, so I won't i won't pretend to advise on this piece, but you know that it doesn't need to be every single thing you'd have in your resume. It's just meant to be your highlight reel, right? And if that's enough to attract an executive recruiter or what have you, they're going to ask for your physical resume anyway, and you can go into all the details there.
00:24:41
Speaker
yeah So i I don't spend very much time on the experience section because, i again, my role isn't to help you get a job necessarily, um although i I have had folks that kind of come to me that are in that role. But it's more to how do you build a professional brand for yourself?
00:25:00
Speaker
ah LinkedIn is one great tool. There are, of course, other tools like this, guesting on podcasts, writing a blog on Substack, um Instagram, depending on what what industry or vertical you're in. um But I talk a lot about things like your headline um right underneath your name, right? That two-sentence little box there that's so key to nail. um and i so I looked at yours before we went on, and you've done a great job, but not everyone understands what to do with that space. Yeah, i was this actually going to ask you to to give your your thoughts on mine. Yeah, I mean, the only thing, honestly, Manny, that I would add to your headline is,
00:25:39
Speaker
And you do a great job of talking about um your role and sort of your social proof and how you're differentiated. I'd love to see just a little bit about something that you believe, like a philosophical belief in your approach.
00:25:57
Speaker
Because that starts to soften you, right? It gives us a little peek into who you are and how you think. I can see that. Yeah, i I have friends that I've met through LinkedIn, which is interesting.
00:26:10
Speaker
I can't really say the same for the other platforms. I mean, maybe here and there, but a friend of mine, Brandon Wilson, he's um he's basically a software guy. He reached out on LinkedIn. I don't know why engaged with him. I just did. And now we're friends. He comes down to see me and you know we're maybe do some business together.
00:26:29
Speaker
But it really has created for me a at least a way to... to understand somebody's background. You know, one of my gifts, if you will, is the ability to to understand somebody's motivations and kind of get behind the scenes a bit. Not for a Machiavellian reason, but I really want to understand, is there a fit here? Can we work together?
00:26:49
Speaker
And I see that a lot of people are, like you say, they're listing all these things on their LinkedIn and that's say okay, it's overwhelming. And so I like the idea of being able to boil it down to the headline.
AI, Efficiency, and Authenticity
00:27:02
Speaker
How do you see LinkedIn changing and your role changing with AI? Yeah, I know. On both sides, right? On both. You're using AI and then, of course, everybody else using AI and these bots and whatnot.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. I feel like this comes up almost every day. um So it's a great question. Obviously, it's affecting all of our lives. There's so, so, so much. I can't, like, I almost am overwhelmed with how much we're all consuming. and I'm sure from different sources and at different volumes. But...
00:27:33
Speaker
um If I apply it just to the work I do and and the way that I would advise my clients, AI is a great tool. In fact, one of the analogies I used just last weekend at a dinner party with some friends was in many ways, at least for now, and this could be different by summer of 26 at the pace that it's changing, ah ai for me is like a junior employee.
00:27:55
Speaker
Mm-hmm. ah The better that I train it, the better that I prompt it, the more fodder i give it, the better product it produces for me.
00:28:06
Speaker
And I still, and I'm not really going to let it just sort of run, at least not yet. Again, I know agents are being built. Agentic AI is a thing. um There's probably going to be in the next year such evolution that by the time someone listens to this, it may be already out out of date. Yeah.
00:28:23
Speaker
But as of February 26, I love using it as a partner, as a sparring partner, as an editor. um It helps me do research before I get on calls. So, for example, the two places I look you up or anyone that I would do a podcast with is on either chat or Gemini and then LinkedIn.
00:28:44
Speaker
And between those those two bits of research, I, in a half an hour, feel like I've got a decent sense of, um you know, how I might want to approach a conversation with someone I don't know. So it's a great research tool, right?
00:28:58
Speaker
um it shortens the cycles of things. I'm able to pull together, you know, a scope of work in 45 minutes, even with all of my fine tuning, all of my language edits that I always do to make it me, instead of like three hours. Right.
00:29:13
Speaker
So I love it for all those reasons. um What I'm not loving, and i I just read a lovely Substack article about this um on on Monday. It almost brought me to tears, actually. Really?
00:29:26
Speaker
Yeah. It was about this idea that We, you know, we, as writers, and I would, and it's funny, I never would have called myself a writer a few years ago, but I have always written in my work, edited, given feedback on the written word. And now um I probably write more than ever before, whether it's for my own platform building, whether it's to partner with clients. um And I, and I like it. I enjoy it. think I'm decent at it. Mm-hmm.
00:29:57
Speaker
um But what's happening with AI is I think a lot of folks that maybe don't get the joy or feel sort of that soul-filling aspect of writing, it's a very easy out.
00:30:14
Speaker
Very much. And so what we're seeing is, you know, the term i like I've heard people use, so I'll borrow it, is it's sort of the cacophony of mediocrity. Yeah.
00:30:25
Speaker
For sure. So it's just the the the plane is being flooded. And we're seeing that on LinkedIn. We're seeing it in a lot of other places too. I see it in Instagram. Like I can i can almost detect now. i can see the patterning, like can the M dashes. like you know i can I can see ai was a heavy hand. And again, i use it all the time. Every day I use it. So all good. But it's the way in which you use it. How much of your voice is still coming through?
00:30:55
Speaker
um And so for me, i i'm I'm hopeful that as good as it gets and as ubiquitous as it's becoming, that people still want to hear from other people.
00:31:10
Speaker
And there's a an empathy and a sort of nuance that only humans have when we communicate. um A reading of the room, if you will, that I hope AI can never replace.
00:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, I hope so too. It's, I have two children, they're, they're almost grown. I have a 19 year old and a 17 year old, and I've done my very best to arm them with both an understanding and ah a respect for technology, but also very humanistic features, which are becoming less and less prominent in like the circles I run. I, my kids have been ordering their own food since they were three and five.
00:31:55
Speaker
And people would say, why are you having your three-year-old order their own meal? Because for me, it was important that that that they had they learned how to use their voice. And, you know, fast forward now, and now their their confidence is is better and higher and and more more out there. Their buddies come the door and I can see a difference where maybe they were raised on an iPad.
00:32:17
Speaker
and And my boys didn't have that until, you know, much, much later. um Now, i kind of agree with you. For me, ai is ah is a great tool. I use it as well.
00:32:28
Speaker
ah use it to do some editing, i but I've been trying to be very careful to curate my own voice as well. And I sent ah something to a buddy of mine. I'm working on ah um this sales article I'm writing.
00:32:42
Speaker
And i wrote him I wrote an article and then I had ah like the second half of it, I i was like running out of time and I like just had AI kind of like frame it up. And then I sent it to him.
00:32:53
Speaker
And he recognized, he actually sent it back to me and he said, what, you know, WTH, dude. And he like made it all red, exactly, almost exactly all the things that I had done in Chad GPT. So totally understand that.
00:33:06
Speaker
Yeah. i but yeah there's a lot of There's a lot there that, again, is um happening so fast and it will continue to change. But um I'll just add one last thing to this part of
Self-Reflection and Genuine Content
00:33:19
Speaker
the conversation. i think the work that I do with executives and founders starts with um deeply interviewing them and really asking them some more personal and sort of thought provoking questions. Yeah.
00:33:34
Speaker
I believe that if you're not self-reflective, you're you're frankly not going to be a good content creator. And then ultimately your professional brand is just, you know, it's a hack. It's not really you.
00:33:46
Speaker
um So i think that transcends into this conversation about AI. If you truly know your voice and you know those principles or values that you want to put forward and be associated with, then i think it's a lot easier to Leverage AI as a friendly tool, but the core is still you.
00:34:09
Speaker
Yeah. Jess, who do you look up to? um I follow, i listen to a lot of podcasts. As you can imagine, being a guest, I'm also very much a listener. um so and and i i read quite a bit too. I would say um on the podcasting front, I love the podcast diary a CEO.
00:34:30
Speaker
That's my favorite one. Oh, that's great. I was just just listening to an episode this morning, actually. Which one would you listen to? um It was the one with um he wrote the book um Smart Couples Finish Rich. Nice. um So which has been around for like 20 years. So he's been doing this for a long time. um But it was ah ah so it was ah a financial-oriented, but you know also life, as all of his podcasts go pretty long, so they touch lots of subjects. i i love i love learning. i loved he did one with a woman named Vanessa vanessa Van Edwards. who's I love Vanessa. Yeah. Okay. Okay, great. Yeah, I do too. I think she's out of Austin. um And again, it was all about communication, not just the kind that I do, but also like when you're on stage and your body language and how much we communicate outside of the the content, the words. So um I love ah learning about um sort of things that touch on obviously marketing, business, economics. I like a guy named Scott Galloway.
00:35:34
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Alison Scott as well. Prof G, which again, touches on AI, digital, marketing, economics. I like all those things. So those are kind of podcasters maybe I look up to and and just either learn from or recognize ah I can pull best practices yeah out of.
00:35:52
Speaker
On the social side, i you know, talk about humanity and being a whole person. I really admire Sarah Blakely. So she was the founder of Spanx. Yeah, I got to meet her one time.
00:36:03
Speaker
Oh, you did? that's how was she in person? She was as just the same as she is in, you know, online. Just friendly, very, very to the point, but with kind of a soft edge. I mean, I really liked her her presence.
00:36:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's so good to hear. um I love how she is both on Instagram. She's heavy on Instagram, a little lighter on on LinkedIn, but she's in both places. um And ah another one that's a little bit more polished, but I do feel like she does a nice job of marrying the professional with the personal, is ah the chief marketing officer for Autodesk, who's named Dara Treseder.
00:36:41
Speaker
Hmm, never heard of her. Yeah, Dara also, she was the CMO at Peloton before this and then Apple before, not a CMO, but she was at Apple prior to that. So she's, again, kind of a marketing leader, but she um she just she does a nice job, again, of marrying Autodesk, you know, important moments and supporting her team, but also sharing stuff about her family and about her travels and her education, just her.
00:37:08
Speaker
so And then Frank Cooper is another one. Frank Cooper is the CMO of ah Visa. just um But also, again, has a pretty storied background. He was in the financial services um investment space and he was at Pepsi and then at Def Jam Records. So like like touched a lot of and that's my background, too. Right. like I've worked in footwear and apparel, consumer packaged goods, and then most recently in tech. So I kind of relate to people, I think, that have this sort of variety in their background.
Integrating Insights from Diverse Industries
00:37:39
Speaker
Right.
00:37:40
Speaker
I find that you pull things from other industries or other competitive sets into your current work that's kind of fresh and comes from a different angle. And I like that.
00:37:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm very much the same way. I think there's a lot of power bringing different markets together. um I've done it so many times where something I learned in one market, like I was in medical advice,
00:38:04
Speaker
in that realm. So I learned something from that realm that I brought to a company that had started in the ag space, completely different, but I connected the two and I was able to to make some interesting things happen.
00:38:17
Speaker
So as we round out the rest of the podcast here, I've got one final question for you. And I like to go a little deeper once a while. um This one is, Jess, what do you want to be remembered for? Yeah.
00:38:31
Speaker
yeah What do you want your legacy to be? Um, I, ah and this is, it's hard to not think about your own kids when this question is posed.
00:38:44
Speaker
You know, I, will, I'll speak in in terms of what I would want them to remember me for. I want them to know that they are wildly capable. And, um, I feel fortunate. I grew up, uh, I don't know how, but I ended up sort of with parents that,
00:39:06
Speaker
maybe didn't expose me to some of the, quote, limitations that there could be um based on you know socioeconomic status, based on gender. But you know we all have different things that we think about. And I don't think I was really in my 20s until I started to kind of recognize, like, oh, there's there's these sort of walls that I'm supposed to stay within, this sandbox I'm supposed to play within.
00:39:31
Speaker
And I feel so fortunate that I was naive to that for so long. Yeah. um And so I think the reason I've had maybe the good fortune of the career that I've had i'm I'm now building, you know, my first business. I i was never told that that's not for you.
00:39:49
Speaker
um And I really want them to remember that part of me and to also embody that in their careers and in their lives that they are wildly capable and there's no reason they can't be anything that they set their mind to.
00:40:05
Speaker
That's brilliant. That's brilliant. There's a lot of power in that, in that freedom. Thank you so much, Jess, for spending this time with us and sharing your thoughts. um It's kind actually got me reflecting. I made some notes here about my own, not only my own ah presence and brand as it pertains to LinkedIn, but also some of these folks I mentioned that that don't have a presence that that might need a little nudge. And so I might be connecting you with them at some point in time.
00:40:34
Speaker
Can I leave you with just maybe an offer for them to consider? Please. Please do. Because it's good
Invitation to LinkedIn Program
00:40:40
Speaker
timing. So um I'm assuming we'll release this prior. I'm i'm doing something new.
00:40:45
Speaker
um So starting April 15th, I've got a small cohort of eight people that um I'm going to run a six-week ah program with.
00:40:56
Speaker
Great. And it's rooted in all of these LinkedIn audits, all of these conversations that I've been having with people over the last six months. I've seen a lot of patterns. And my thought was, how can I kind of codify that in a small group setting? Because a lot of us are dealing with the same hurdles. So it's called altitude.
00:41:18
Speaker
had to, you know, I mean, the marketer in me. Of course, you're a marketer. ok So it's LinkedIn branding for small business owners on the rise. um And it's, again, safe space, small group. We can learn from one another, but um a little more efficient than having to go through something with just the two of us. We can do it in this cohort. So if anyone's interested in finding out more, you can email me at Jess Jensen at Copilot Communications. And I will put you in the list to let you know when registration opens before I announce it publicly.
00:41:53
Speaker
Nice. That's a great offer. I'll definitely make the connection to a few of these folks and... Yeah, I think that um especially as so much changing with AI, i think it's more important now than ever to stand out and to really stake your claim on this is who I am, going back to the vulnerability and going back to authenticity, all these buzzwords, which I'm kind of glad they're buzzwords because it's at least exposing it to the world.
00:42:23
Speaker
So yeah, thank you so much for that offer, Jess, and looking forward to the next time we chat. Yeah, thanks, Manny. Okay, take care.