Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Laden.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story is a complicated one. I was a 17-year-old pregnant teenager that was asked to leave home and leave the private school I attended. I was told by members of our small community I wouldn’t amount to anything, and at that moment, I committed to proving them wrong. I finished High School Early and graduated then attended Beauty School, where I got my license to do Nails. Due to some other circumstances and my father’s work transfer, I opted to move out of state with my parents to Indiana. I stayed there for 20 years, where I continued my career in the Nail Industry but in a different way than doing nails in a Salon. I was introduced to people at OPI where I continued to work as an Educator and Account Manager for 6 years until I was recruited by their competitor CND (Creative Nail Design), located here in Vista, CA. I continued to work for CND for 19 years, and in the process, after my 2 kids left for college, I moved back to CA to San Diego in 2012, 10 years ago. I ended my career at CND as the Sr National Director of Business Development. Side note on my son who I had when I was 17, he graduated from Purdue University in Indiana is a very successful Operations Director in Salt Lake City, UT. My daughter, who I had 4 years later with my then-husband, married in 2013 to her high school sweetheart, and they are living in Indiana again. I left CND in 2015 to start my own business and was very excited to start a consignment shop in San Diego, but my daughter, who was pregnant got the news that the baby’s heart was not developing properly. I put off starting my own business to help my daughter through this process. We were told he would be born, have a few surgeries, and go home. That was not the case. His heart was much worse than they thought. He was born on Jan 1, the first baby born in Denver on New Year’s Day 2016, and passed away on April 18, 2016, after 3 1/2 months of fighting. During this time, I consulted with a few different Nail Brands and helped my daughter get through a very difficult time in her life and mine. Grief is gut-wrenching, and recovery is not quick, and honestly, the grief never goes away. In late 2016 I accepted a full-time job as Global Director of Sales for a cosmetic line, Japonesque, based in San Ramone, CA. I relocated to the Bay Area for 3 years, where I met my husband whom I just married on August 19, 2022, on Sunset Cliffs in San Diego. My time at Japonesque ended in 2018 when I was recruited by a company out of Chicago that rented specialty linens for events. I had never heard of such a thing, but in all my time at CND, we had many events, and the tables always looked amazing. That was BBJ Linen, and I was the West Coast Regional Sales Director. I had an amazing team and loved my position there mentoring and growing my team… and we were making waves on the West Coast expanding our business. Then the pandemic hit, and in late 2020 the company was really struggling, and I, unfortunately, lost my job. During the time of unemployment, I decided to address a health problem and have surgery in March of 2021. That surgery had multiple complications; one is I lost my voice for 2 1/2 months as my vocal cords were paralyzed. There were additional things that happened that resulted in 5 surgeries is 11 months. I am not the one to sit around, so during the pandemic, when I couldn’t go anywhere, I got my Pilates Certification to be a teacher, and when I couldn’t talk, I took Real Estate Classes! So here I am in 2022, starting a Real Estate Business at one of the worst times when interest rates spike, but there are still people moving and still people buying. I’m keeping a positive attitude, marketing myself, and slowly getting my name out in the world that I do real estate. In addition to real estate, I also started selling new and gently used closing on a reselling AP. That kept me also very busy during a time when I couldn’t find a job and was working on my real estate license. My main focus for me now is Real Estate and spending time with my 2 grandkids who live in Indiana and Utah. I wish they were closer, but their parents are opportunities are there, and let’s face it, San Diego is an expensive place to live when you are starting out. So, I guess in a way, I have 3 businesses, all keeping me very busy! I teach Pilates private classes; I work with Real Estate Clients, and I resell clothing. My days are busy, but I make time for the family and especially my facetimes with my granddaughters.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. Leaving my job in 2015 after 19 years was tough, and then taking time off for family left me off the market for a while, and finding a job became very difficult. Losing my grandson was the hardest thing I have ever gone through in my life, and watching my daughter grieve was just as heartbreaking. My family and I have been through a lot. In my late teens, being a pregnant teenager cost me friends, and I was banished from things I loved to do in a very tight-knit Central CA community. I wasn’t welcome a lot of places. I was shunned, but honestly, that was NOTHING compared to the loss of my grandson. No parent should have to lose their child for any reason. Jaxton was a strong little boy who fought as long as he could with his parents right by his side. I was there by my daughters’ side almost weekly as I flew back and forth from San Diego to Denver. The last flight to say goodbye, I cried the whole flight. My personal journey has been a hard one, my business life in the past 10 years has also been a struggle to find my new way. I call myself a professional interviewer as I interview regularly with companies in the Consumer Goods Arena, I have a strong resume, I have lots of experience, and probably too much for some hiring managers. So, getting back into the Beauty Industry just hasn’t happened, so I decided to take a leap of faith and try Real Estate. I love to help people. I love to help people have a happy story, so that is what I’m working at doing now.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In my years as Sales Director, I built great teams! I mentored and motivated and worked side by side with my team members to make them successful. I’m not successful unless they are successful. I don’t like to be referenced as someone’s boss but as their business associate as we work as a team to get the job done. Whether you’re selling to an individual or a big corporation, there isn’t just 1 person that makes the deal work. There is a team, regardless if you only see your contact, me, or my sales rep. I like to recognize each person for a great job, I send thank you cards, I call out accomplishments to the rest of the team and make work fun, and we get the job done. I would say what I’m known for is building great team cohesion and planning for sustainable success. It’s great to have those huge pops of business, but that isn’t usual year after year, so we continuously plan and rework the plan to change in the market we live in. I love strategic business planning, and it’s great to have it all in writing what you’re going to do to have a successful year, but you also have to recognized when things aren’t working and make adjustments where needed. Having weekly 1:1’s with my team, both as a group and individually is what kept the teams moving forward and successful. I’m most proud of the professionals that continue to succeed who worked with me. Many say they learned so much from me, and that helped them be the successful businessperson they are today. That warms my soul. What sets me apart is I’m kind to people, my employees, the people in all departments. I am genuine in my remarks to them, and I truly want to help people be as successful as they can. The world isn’t always a kind place, so I try to be a positive light to everyone. I’ve had some interesting bosses over the year that ruled with an iron fist, that isn’t who I am or who I want to be. I want people around me to feel positivity and to know they have the ability to grow as a person and professional.
How do you define success?
I define success by the impact I’ve had on others. Some of the people I have managed have gone on to be VPs, Global Directors, opened their own business, and have been hugely successful and when they thank me for the encouragement I’ve given them, the training I gave them, or the opportunities I helped make happen for them, helped them to be successful then I know I succeeded. I may not have had the biggest title or made the most money in the room, but I know I made an impact on the people I worked with and the people that worked with or for me.
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