We recently connected with Jennifer Chassman Browne and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think that there are many attributes necessary for achieving success. Frankly, I’m not sure that I had all of them when I decided to start my own business. So maybe one of the things that it takes to be successful is the willingness to step into spaces that are new…and sometimes frightening and uncomfortable.

I certainly was venturing into the unknown and unfamiliar. This was particularly true with respect to selling myself and pricing my work. As an educator, I had never really had to do either. When I was hired to teach or to be a school leader, I usually had one or two interviews and was hired after those. Especially as a teacher, there is little room for salary negotiation. I had been placed on a salary scale and earned a yearly increase from that point forward.

In starting my own business, I spent a lot of time and energy reaching out and making contacts, hoping that they would lead to work. I also had to do a bit of research regarding what I could reasonably charge for the consulting services that I was offering. Even when I discovered what I thought was fair for my services, it was challenging to feel confident in asking for this rate. I had never had to determine my fees, and doing so felt, and still sometimes feels, awkward. This is a skill that I think many people, and especially women, are not taught to do.

So, in terms of what it takes to be successful in starting one’s own business, I think that trusting your instincts is critical-in spite of the fact that you may doubt yourself. If you do your research, make the most thought-out decisions that you can, then trust that you can do the work.

That said, being flexible is essential as well. I want to do this work, so I had to give clients what they were looking for even when my approach may have been different.

Being persistent and consistent are critical as well. I sometimes had to reach out to clients many times before they were ready to move forward with this work and to hire me.

One of the best moments for me was the first time that I was hired to do work as a result of a current client recommending me to a colleague. I acquired a new client but had not done so as a result of my own direct outreach. This was a moment in which I felt a sense of success, knowing that my work and reputation were speaking for themselves.

Jennifer, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For most of my life, I have been an educator. I started teaching at the college level while I was earning my Master’s Degree in Philosophy, with concentrations in Medical Ethics, and Linguistics.

It was a surprise to me that I loved teaching because I had always been a shy, quiet person. Somehow I felt comfortable teaching and engaging in discussions with a classroom full of students. I felt so engaged in these spaces that I decided to focus on teaching rather than medical ethics work in the hospital setting, which had been my plan.

I recalled how much I had benefitted from my high school teachers at The Webb Schools who had supported and nurtured me when I most needed it, and I wanted to do the same for other students.

For the next 25 years I worked as an educator, First, as a high school english teacher, and then as a school leader, focused on academics, curriculum, and teaching.

When I started working as an Assistant Principal at Holyoke High School, I began to better understand the challenges faced by students from marginalized communities. I soon realized that if we did not learn about, teach about, and acknowledge the challenges that students and families from marginalized groups faced in accessing and experiencing education, we were doing our students a disservice and not providing the education that all students needed and deserved.

From this point forward, in the schools where I worked as a school leader, I made efforts to create and participate in diversity, equity, and inclusion committees, knowing that this work was, frankly, more important than the academic content that I had always felt so passionate about.

When Covid came, I began to do the work of a school leader remotely. This was difficult because I could no longer work closely with students and teachers. The DEI work that I had been doing was moved to the back burner. I understood this shift, but knew that the DEI work was actually more important under the Covid educational structures.

When students returned to the classroom, it became abundantly clear to me that the most critical work in education was diversity work, and so I made the decision to start my own consulting company. In an effort to further prepare myself, I earned graduate certificates in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Ethnic Studies from Cornell, University of Minnesota, and San Francisco State.

I chose to develop and facilitate several DEI related workshops to get some experience under my belt and build my client base. Then, I jumped in, reaching out to schools and local organizations to present myself in this new capacity as a consultant.

I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was 6 years old, and as I am a person with a disability, this work is personal and enables me to share my life experience to help others to better understand how to be in community with and supportive of those who are different than they are.

I have since done work that spans from developing and facilitating culture and climate assessments, to designing and delivering several year-long workshop sessions, to giving keynote addresses. These sessions run the gamut from topics related to communication and cultural competency to bias and microaggressions.

I have also been working to commit more of my time to presenting sessions and speaking about disability education and advocacy, as I am a person with a disability, and this work enables me to shared my lived experience as well as my professional expertise. To this end, I have also founded a non-profit t-shirt company aimed at educating people about disabilities. It’s Morethanatshirtco.com

My brand is unique in that my approach begins with developing relationships with the organizations and people with whom I work. These relationships are critical, as they allow me to best understand the needs of each person and each organization and thus to meet their needs with respect to the training sessions that I design.

The schools, non-profit organizations, and companies with whom I work look to me to help them to create an environment that is safe for their employees, and enables them to reflect on their own identities and those of their colleagues and clients. They appreciate that I tailor my training sessions, materials, and presentations to their organization. Nothing is pre-developed, everything that I do for each client is designed specifically to meet the learning and growth needs of that organization.

My goal is to help organizations to establish foundational DEI learning that enables their employees to have open, fruitful, ongoing work related to developing inclusive professional workplace communities. I work closely with diversity committees and organizational leaders to design and implement ongoing training and professional development that uniquely meets the needs of each specific organization with which I work.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

There are two most effective strategies that I have used to grow my clientele. First, I leveraged the networks that existed for me from my previous professional roles. When I began my business, I reached out to any and all people with whom I had previous connections. I presented myself in this new role and let these former colleagues know that I was interested in continuing to develop our relationship. These conversations were not only about finding ways to increase my client base, but also about being a resource for these people with whom I had already established relationships.

I wasn’t focused on making a hard sell, but rather on thinking more about how I could communicate about this work that is so important to me, letting the people with whom I was speaking tell me about how DEI topics and issues were present in their organizations, and what they thought that they might need to have a more inclusive organizational culture. Indeed, many of these conversations have led to professional collaboration in some scope, while others continue to be colleagues who ask my advice and with whom I can discuss approaches and trends in DRI consulting.

The second strategy that I have found to be effective is to be persistent with possible clients. I work hard not to be too ever-present, but to keep in contact with people who have expressed some interest in having their organization engage in DEI learning. This persistence has sometimes resulted in being hired for consulting, but it has also resulted in stepping into roles of advisor or, in the cases of some non-profit organizations, into the role of volunteer. These roles have enabled me to make additional connections and to build my brand and reputation, all of which do result in growing my clientele.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I have made a point of keeping in touch with clients, and this effort has certainly fostered brand loyalty. Even after I complete the work that I was contracted to do, I make an effort to be available to and to keep in contact with former clients. Just because I have completed the work for which I was hired, doesn’t mean that the same organization won’t have additional work that they’d like me to do in the future.

I also feel a sense of connection and commitment to the organizations with which I have worked, and so I am always interested in knowing how their DEI work has progressed after the workshops and services that I have provided. I am happy to continue to be a sounding board and advisor, and reach out to regularly to check in and offer my help to former clients.

Doing so has been key to maintaining long-term professional relationships and to developing loyalty. It is not uncommon for these former clients to ask for additional services even several years after the initial training sessions that I provide.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://newground.us/index.html
• Instagram: morethanatshirtco.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.chassman
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-chassman-browne-97768b24a/
• Other: https://morethanatshirtco.com/