We were lucky to catch up with Jen Griswold recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Different from other link-in-bio platforms, we pride ourselves in coming alongside women to make social media creation and technology use more of a team sport rather than just selling our customers our technology and leaving them to their own devices to succeed with it. We find women are just too busy to truly embrace technology without some guidance and we like to “come alongside” women to help them reach their potential in marketing and sales through digital ecommerce. We originally started strictly as a SAAS tech company, but listened to so many women lament the fact that they “know they needed to learn how to use our software, but just couldn’t commit the time,” so we started a membership to accompany our platform and the community we’ve built is absolutely fantastic and growing steadily! What we’ve proven is that women work better in groups, when the feel supported, listened to, and guided by others. We predict our membership will continue to be our #1 product in the years to come. I always say that watching the lightbulb go on for women in business is my “drug of choice.” It never gets old for me!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My background is as an Air Force officer. I attended the US Air Force Academy for college and went on to become an aircraft maintenance officer where I managed hundreds of mechanics and technicians who fixed big cargo aircraft at the young age of 22. I loved it, but it wasn’t the best job as my husband (an AF cargo pilot) and I started to have a family. I transitioned to the AF Reserves as we had our children and looked to reinvent my next work chapter through entrepreneurship. After a few small business ventures I stumbled into direct selling with Rodan + Fields through a good friend of from high school. Though I was super hesitant at first, I quickly found that my leadership skills matched beautifully with this model and I grew a team of 9,000 women selling $12-20M/yr of R + F skincare within a few quick years. The reason I was so successful was because I matched a very flexible business opportunity to military spouse who were (and still are) terribly underemployed despite their insane resiliency and skill. I made this very overlooked population a LOT of money, which changed the course of their lives and afforded me the ability to give back by providing micro-loans for more spouses. It was a wonderfully rewarding business. That business then led me to building ModLink, which is a link-in-bio software designed to help digital sellers market their products and collect business intelligence data to inform their content. Modlink also provides a personal branding accelerator membership and digital branding kits.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This past summer was a huge pivot for me. Rodan + Fields had private equity take over the majority stake of their company and in that process they changed the commission structure, which brought my 7 figure business to its knees. At the time it seemed like the world was ending, but with some time and perspective, I realized it was my opportunity to re-evaluate some of my old practices and start afresh with new habits, a new mindset and more healthy practices for longevity. A year later, I couldn’t be more grateful. It was the kick in the pants I needed and now both of my business are growing steadily and the outlook for the future is just awesome!

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

Yes, I sold my first business and it taught me a ton! First, always have legal agreements in place. I went into business with a partner and didn’t have anything in writing. Big lesson learned. Second, always know your exit plan and the current valuation of your business, so you know your options. I left our business hastily and probably didn’t get paid the true value of what my share was worth, but I was too inexperienced to know the difference. Third, choose the right business model. After my terrible exit experience, I got smarter on which businesses hold higher valuations and require the least work, which is how I ended up building a software business and a membership model. Both are brilliant at effectively managing time and creating value.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mymodlink.com
• Instagram: @mymodlink
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/355028330103713
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-griswold-787b5525/

Image Credits

Photographer: Jamie Sutera