After careful reflection, I have summarized what I want my legacy to be in one sentence: An overcomer who inspired people to overcome. One of my life’s missions is to leave the world better than I found it. That is what motivates me. That is what fuels my actions and decisions. That is what helps me to establish boundaries and effectively allocate my time. I want to do things with purpose and meaning that bring glory to God.

For example, I have loved writing my entire life. I used to write poetry and fictional short stories when I was a child. I always had aspirations of writing a book as an adult, but I never quite had the inspiration for the content. Over the course of the last 10 years, I have experienced many trials in my personal and professional life, but I also maintained a prayer journal, so I could constantly be reminded of how I persevered through all of these obstacles and pitfalls.

Needing inspiration during quarantine in 2020, I started reading some of my old journey entries which inevitably became the inspiration for my first book The Participation Reward: A Woman’s Devotional for Active Faith. I realized that through all of the challenges I experienced in my adult life, there was always a devotional to uplift and encourage me. I realized that God gave me all of these testimonies so that I could uplift and encourage other people.

I have accomplished many things of which I am proud over the course of my life, but if I could be remembered for uplifting and encouraging people to overcome their hardships and find their own purpose by sharing my testimonies, my purpose will have been served.

Visit www.JhenielleKBrown.com if you are interested in reading my book or need some personal or professional encouragement.

My name is Jhenielle K. Brown. I am a strategic marketing professional by day and a writer by night. I have a bachelor’s degree in Advertising, an MBA, and over a decade of professional marketing experience.

Although I have spent all of my professional career in corporate America, I enjoy leveraging my learnings to help passionate small business owners develop and understand their brand identity, cultivate their messaging to reach their target audience, and create awareness for their products or services to generate revenue to build personal wealth,

Under Nielle Branding, LLC. I have worked with primarily beauty, food, and creative professionals and brands. I am most proud of helping brands like Batter and Baked, LLC go from a hobby to a thriving business.

The services I provide include business consulting, creative direction, image consulting, product marketing, and personal branding.

Additionally, I have recently published a book to inspire and uplift women on their personal and professional journeys through adulthood.

The best leaders know and respect their associates as individuals, so take the time to sincerely get to know the people on your team. Learn what motivates them, gain insight into their strengths and opportunities, so you can effectively guide or leverage them. Understand what is important to them. Schedule weekly check-in, so that they know you are invested in their success. Don’t wait until performance reviews to provide feedback, and don’t only provide negative feedback. Ongoing, constructive and respectful feedback gives people the opportunity to improve in real time rather than making the same mistake for six months before being corrected. I sincerely believe that people come to work wanting to do a good job, and the best leaders give their associates the proper tools, guidance and autonomy to be able to perform their jobs well. Investing in, valuing and advocating for your team is a excellent way to maintain high morale.

I had to unlearn apologizing for everything at work and personally. In 2019, I went to a life changing professional women’s leadership conference at which one of the speakers discussed how women over-apologize and over-apologizing lowers your confidence. I realize that as women we are always trying to be agreeable and not take up too much space, so we apologize for any minor or perceived inconvenience we cause other people. Since the conference, I have been more intentional about replacing things like “I’m sorry to keep you waiting” with “thank you for your patience.” I am learning to take up more space because shrinking myself doesn’t serve anyone including me. This was a great lesson for me that I consciously put into practice daily, and it has definitely made me feel like a more confident person and show myself more grace overall.