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

Jennifer, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

I got the proverbial “dream job” after I graduated law school with a large law firm in the mergers and acquisitions department. I remember making my decision to join the firm because they preached work life harmony and how great of a place it was to work. Once I joined, I quickly realized that was an illusion. The Vice President with the office next to mine expected to see you working on Saturdays – even if you had nothing to work on. When the financial crisis of 2008 hit, I distinctly remember the Vice President calling a meeting of employees to talk about the economy and dip in work. When we started asking questions, he stated: “Keep your head down, your mouth shut, and maybe you’ll keep your job.” It was an incredibly stressful and intense time for all of us – including the Vice President, I’m sure.

I remember this moment so distinctly because I knew in my heart this was not how you lead people. When people are concerned, stressed, and afraid, you open communication, not shut it down. As soon as the economy began to open, I took the first job I could find out of that place. I remember after giving my notice how many lawyers, paralegals, and assistants came into my office and confessed how miserable they were at the firm. I’ll never forget receiving them in my office the days to follow.

This moment was one of the most pivotal lessons that changed the trajectory of my entire career. Years later, I became the employer of a team and continuously expand my skill sets in an attempt to keep an open dialogue with them. Society has painted the picture of natural divisiveness between an employer/leader and employees. I believe it is our responsibility, as employers and leaders, to rewrite this relationship into one of harmony and acceptance for the pivotal roles we play in each other’s lives.

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?

I first became an entrepreneur when I opened my own law firm. I had previously worked for three other firms and knew in my heart there was a better way to serve clients and a team. Once I had my own firm, I could begin to deconstruct all the ways in which I felt the law firm model was not working and reconstruct my firm in new ways. For example, I deeply desired to feel like an additional team member within my client’s organizations, yet I knew the traditional billable model was not conducive to that. I developed new flat fee billing structures to incentivize clients to call me with questions to open the pathway to allow the sharing of knowledge with each other.

Another example was in realizing clients were only calling me when problems occurred – when they were actually in the pain of a problem. I desired to help clients on the front end before the pain occurred. I set up 6-month audits with new clients to review their documentation, operating procedures, and business strategies. This opened the door for me to regularly meet with new clients to help educate them on the law and business strategies to adopt to make their organization stronger for where they were at. These completely changed the trajectory of my firm. My team was no longer dealing with high stress and highly emotional “painful” problems and were instead helping clients to thrive. The dynamic of my clientele changed to clients who loved being proactive and at the top of their game. At first, I feared this much education would cause a client to never call again, when in actuality, these clients became our raving fans and continued interacting with us.

I sold my firm to do this type of work on a much grander scale. I was ready to embark on helping other entrepreneurs, organizations, and industries deconstruct what is not working and construct new strategies, mindsets, and communication methodologies to better serve all people involved. It is very refreshing and fulfilling for me to help others shift into completely new perspectives on how to do things. When we are brave enough to try new approaches, life rewards us graciously.

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

To really stand out in your field, there will come a time when you have to unlearn the strategies you have been taught by others and learn your own unique way of operating in business (and life!). The clients who I work with now almost always come to me on the cusp of stepping out of the hustle, bustle, and effortful way of building an organization and are looking for more peace and harmony in their days.

One of the first processes I take them through is identifying the areas that are causing them the most negative emotional reactions. Identifying those for yourself provides you with the map you can then utilize to begin reconstructing these areas to work for you – not against you.

One area I had to unlearn for myself was around marketing. At one point, I was doing all of the marketing modalities (at least it felt like it!) – networking, lunches, dinners, events, conferences, sponsorships, and speaking. It was overwhelming for me to do all of these, so I stopped. I chose to move forward only with speaking and really studied and perfected my skills here. At the time I did this, it didn’t make any sense for me to do so, but my gut told me to do it. I did it, received new clients from it, and speaking is still a major portion of my work in the world.

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

I sold my law firm when I was 38. I approached brokers who were baffled by why I was selling my firm at such a young age and was introduced to law firms who questioned “what was wrong?” with my business to sell it. It felt “unheard of” to be selling a successful business, yet, here I was, doing exactly that.

I did sell my firm, and my team and clients did not stay with the new firm as long as I had hoped. I had undervalued what a unique business model I had created within my firm for my team and clients. I never had a client leave my firm prior to the sale, and it was disheartening to find out several left the firm after the sale.

Even though the sale did not turn out to be what I expected, it helped me embrace that I had created something uniquely powerful – a unique ecosystem for my team, clients, and industry to take part in.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jennifergermaine.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenn.germaine/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenngermaine/