Have you ever been knocked down and had to dust yourself off to start again? Today’s guest, Jaclyn Johnson, talks about the career blows early on in her journey and the blessings that came from them. This CEO and powerhouse is behind the beloved conference and site for millennial working women, Create & Cultivate. She is also author of a new book, WorkParty, which is available for pre-order now.

Jaclyn’s a real boss lady who has been named Forbes 30 Under 30, a “Self-Made Woman” by LA Times, and A Woman of Note by The Wall Street Journal. What’s most inspiring to me about Jaclyn is how much she truly believes in the power of creative, millennial women to change the world. In this episode, Jaclyn and I cover her journey of starting over again, what she means when she says it’s important to be “nice” at work, and whether we modern women can indeed have it all.

Subscribe and listen to the full episode here (you must subscribe to receive latest episode).

Highlighted Excerpt:

Majo: So you do believe we can have it all? Because I know a few years ago, there was that conversation, “Are we painting this illusion that women can have it all? Can we really have it all?” I don’t know. What do you think?

Jaclyn: I think it depends on what your “all” is. You know what I mean? For me, people would say, “Oh my god! You work so hard!” There’s definitely sacrifice to be made on every single level of your life and that just depends on what your life is. If you’re a full-time stay-at-home mother, there are sacrifices you’re making on the other end of that. For me, I’m an entrepreneur and I’m building a business and so there are sacrifices on my personal relationships for that.

But I think at the root of it, what makes me happy is I get happiness from my job. I get happiness from success in my business. I get happiness from my employees and being around them. I get happiness from my husband. I get happiness from my friend group. I get happiness from my family.

As long as I have all of those things that will give me that “all” sense or “all” feeling, yeah, I can have it all! But is it perfect? No! 100% no. So I think that you can have it all. Is it all going to be perfect? No and that’s okay. I think you define your own success. You define your own happiness and I think it’s more about finding what you need to make you feel good is important, whether that’s balance from your job, whether that’s a relationship, you know. I think it’s all relative to what you want and need for you to succeed and I have friends that are super single and have no desire to be in a relationship and just want to have their careers. I have friends that love their career but want that relationship.

The rules are up to you when it comes to your life and you can really dictate what that happiness and what that “all” is.

Show Notes:

Jaclyn shares about her childhood; very independent and ambitious, always wanting to explore, making her a little bit of a troublemaker. [2:11]
On her teenage years and her three jobs in high school [3:12]
How she interned her way to getting a job right after college because she graduated early. The massive disconnect she noticed between education and real life business skills. [4:35]
Jaclyn started blogging at a very early age, in 2007. She shares how she learned analytics from a friend and how she found out her blog had gained traffic. [6:12]
On moving to California after the recession hit, getting laid off three months after the move, and recovering from depression so that she could start her own freelance work as a social media marketing specialist. On partnering up with a girl who shared her co-working office space and their eventual business break-up [7:31]
How she got back on track, doing almost everything herself. What she learned from the past. [10:16]
On her book and what she meant by “be nice.” Insights about women having it all. [29:19]
How she reclaimed working for herself, by herself, and became successful after a crappy situation. [37:10]

Subscribe and listen to the full episode here (you must subscribe to receive latest episode).

REFERENCES:

Learn more about Jaclyn Johnson and her upcoming book WorkParty.

MUSIC:

by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs

A BIG THANK YOU & SHOUT OUT TO TWO OF OUR BADASS PATRONS:

Bianca Wendt, an award-winning art director and graphic designer based in San Francisco and London. Learn more about Bianca and her work here.
Jennie Lambert, UX Designer and Marketing Consultant at Weblamb LLC, a company she founded at Stanford University that builds incredible & effective web solutions.

Pssst....don't forget to follow me on Instagram for book giveaways this upcoming month – yay!

DON'T HAVE APPLE PODCASTS?

Listen to "Reclaim Work {Jaclyn Johnson}" on Spreaker.

Reclaim Work with Jaclyn Johnson