We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer Bardot. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

GRIT isn’t an overnight sensation. GRIT was founded in 2021 during a time when our country was in isolation and hope had vanished. Through many pivots, collaborations, and overcoming obstacles GRIT is now a thriving Collection of anthologies, a Womens Organization. a Jewelry line, and a company that help elevate women to new levels. GRIT had grown largely because of the collaborations and keeping an open mind how to add value to the lives of others. Some of the tactics that have help GRIT has grown because is mission is fueled by passion to help others elevate.

G.R.I.T. book series is designed to inspire women to excel in their careers, covering themes such growth, resilience, intention, and tenacity.

During the pandemic, while working in the financial industry, Jennifer Bardot had an epiphany. She came across a story in Forbes magazine that included statistics illustrating the sharp spike of women who were leaving the workforce. She sat with the cold, hard numbers, thinking about all of the women who felt they had to give up careers, and wondering what could be done to bring them back. “It was like, What do women need to level up, stay in the workforce, and keep fighting whatever battles they’re going through?” Bardot recalls.

That’s where she came up with the acronym G.R.I.T.: growth, resilience, intention, tenacity. Over the past few years, Bardot has used those themes to inform a five-part book series chronicling the stories of more than 200 women who share their experiences dealing with hardship to reach the positions they have today. She’s also a speaker and leadership consultant whose G.R.I.T Collection Company strives to affect change and uplift the lives of women across the St. Louis region and beyond.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

What’s your own story of grit? I was diagnosed with a learning disability in the third grade, but I didn’t find out until later in life that what I was dealing with was actually dyslexia. For the longest time, I never wanted to tell anybody that I had a disability. In my mind, I didn’t want to be seen as a liability. But I came to realize that is a self-limiting belief. I pushed myself to grow. On my journey, I realized that many of the spaces I was in were male-dominated. I wanted to recreate my own boardroom, so I started a women’s group to build community connections and help other women amplify their voices, so they can level up as leaders.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Is that why you’ve compiled these stories, to show readers how other women have overcome doubt? Absolutely. It’s really humanizing when you can see an incredible leader who’s made it to the top. It’s easy to have this perception that these leaders have it all figured out, that they’ve never gone through anything hard, or that they have no idea what kind of struggles other people are going through. You can show that growth is an uphill battle. It ebbs and flows. No matter how successful you are, there’s always an evolution. It’s pretty powerful.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When it comes to growing into leadership roles, what are the things that hold people back? A lot of times, it’s self doubt. Sometimes people aren’t able to identify the strengths they have, or maybe they’ve been through—or are currently going through—something difficult and they hesitate.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.gritcollection.com/about.html
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/g.r.i.t.collection/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DECONSTRUCTINGGRIT/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gritcollection/?viewAsMember=true
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiL-y-pqug-JkXWPiQHeWTw