We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenny Powers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jenny, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

This is to every woman and to every girl who has ever wanted to follow her heart. My name is Jenny Powers and I am the founder of The Empowered Woman and the author of Empowered: The Woman’s Guide to Following Your Heart. Empowered is an inspirational guidebook that is full of guiding truths that will help to show you the way, through the sunshine and through the rain, and through every chapter of your life.
I never imagined that I would write a book, but following my heart unexpectedly led me to write this one.
I am the author of this book, but I am also a reader of it. I refer to my book daily to find the inspiration and guidance that I need – to keep going, to keep trusting, to keep following my heart. I believe in every single word in its pages and I rely on its wisdom to guide me, in every moment. Every day, this book reminds me to follow my heart and guides me to live the best life that I can live. I hope that it will guide you too. Always.

For many years, I lived a very safe life. I followed all of the rules that I was supposed to follow. I did the things that society expected me to do and I judged the success of my life based on the standards that society set. I did well in school, excelled at sports, got into an elite college, had incredible friends and an amazingly loving family. I got a prestigious job, made enough money, lived in a beautiful apartment and had everything that I thought would make me happy. Except that I wasn’t happy.

I was living the life that was expected of me and I was deeply unhappy. Because my life didn’t feel authentic to me. It didn’t feel truly unique to me. Despite all of my perceived success, my life did not feel successful to me. Because I wasn’t following my heart. So I took an enormous leap of faith and left behind everything in my life. I quit my job, moved out of my apartment, sold everything and bought a plane ticket to Australia.

For the first time in my entire life, I followed my heart.

And that decision changed everything.

From that moment on, I have made every single decision in my life by following my heart. I have pushed aside all expectations about the life that I should be living and about the person that I should be, and I have focused only on living the life that I want to live and on being the person that I want to be. This life has taken me around the world, through many different countries, through many different cities, through many different jobs, through many different relationships, through many different experiences. And there have been incredible highs and there have been devastating lows. There have been moments of magical bliss and moments of utter and complete heartbreak. And in every moment, it has been a journey. But I wouldn’t change a single thing about this journey. Because following my heart has given me a life that is far beyond my wildest dreams. I have truly lived. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has always been worth it.

I am here to tell you my story and to share the truth of my journey. I am here to show you what is possible when you choose to follow your heart. I am here to show you that the life of your dreams is real. I am here to show you that you are capable of doing anything that you want to do in this life and that you are capable of being anyone that you want to be in this world.

I have lived long enough to know that following your heart will take you through this world in a way where there is no more hiding, no more faking, no more lying and no more pretending. You will show up in your life and in this world as the person that you were born to be and live the life that you were born to live. You are ready to take this journey and the ride will be extraordinary. You are ready to live the life of your dreams and the experience will be magical. You are ready to follow your heart, and your journey starts now.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Jenny Powers and I am the CEO and Founder of The Empowered Woman and Empowered By Jenny. I am a bestselling author, a motivational speaker and a transformational life coach. I am the author of EMPOWERED: The Woman’s Guide to Following Your Heart, as well as the author of the Empowered Workbook and the Empowered Journal. I am an experienced ICF Certified Coach and the creator of The Empowered Woman’s Experience. I am also the innovator of 100 DAYS OF YOU, which is a 3-month transformational coaching program that is changing the world by awakening every person to their best self.

I have spent much of my life traveling around the world, seeking to live the best life that I can live and fulfilling my passion for adventure, for new experiences and for following my heart. I am committed to inspiring people worldwide and to empowering every person to live her their best life.

The mission for my company is to empower women everywhere to become our best selves. To awaken us to our own power so that we may live as the women that we are born to be. To free us from what we carry around as the caretakers of others so that we take the time to stop, breathe and reconnect to who we each are. To strengthen our relationship with ourselves so that we embrace our bodies, our hearts, our minds and our spirits, in everything that we do. To build the tools that are necessary for us to be able to unleash the potential that is inside all of us so that we are each capable of doing amazing things. To grant us the space in this world where we can experience the freedom to feel, to express, to let it all out and to connect to our happiest selves. To honor and celebrate the brilliance, the passion, the fire and the joy of women, everywhere. To create the place on this Earth where extraordinary transformation happens so that we are all empowered to live our best lives.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Imagine you’re sitting in your apartment, with a very clear awareness that you are struggling. You are feeling depressed, overwhelmed and alone. This isn’t a feeling that you have ever really felt before so you feel lost. Over the past month or so, you have tried to reach out for help, but help of the mental kind is very expensive and you are not in a place financially where you can afford the help that you desire. You have tried to lean on others to help you to process all that you are feeling, but friends and family are equally unsure as to how to help you and each time, you are once again left feeling stuck. And then one day, you have simply had enough. Upon the recommendation of a family member, you walk yourself over to the local hospital, having heard that they have a mental wellness center, and one that your insurance should cover. You wait outside for a moment, unsure if this is the right next step, but your desire for help takes over and you walk through the glass doors. You speak to the registration woman and tell her a bit of what you have been feeling. You tell her that you have been feeling down and a bit overwhelmed and what you would soon come to find out is called anxiety. She takes your license and your vitals and asks you to take a seat in the waiting room. You have envisioned a space of peace and healing and one that will provide you with the help that you desire. You feel courageous and proud that you have taken this step and feel hopeful that the support and guidance are just around the corner.

But that moment is quickly cut short. And the next thing you know you are being escorted by security through a revolving door and you immediately have a sinking feeling that something just doesn’t feel right. You ask to go back to the waiting room and you are told “no.” In a matter of a few minutes, you are led into a holding cell where you are stripped of your belongings, ordered to remove your clothes and change into scrubs and in that moment, panic sets in. You look around, utterly confused and asking for help. You get none. You are ignored and then forcefully moved to a smaller holding cell and in that moment, you realize that, in the moment that you came to ask for help, you have been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital, and your life as you know it, is over.

And the woman in this story is me.

What followed was the darkest year of my life. But what has come from that experience has been a priceless gift. Because in my greatest darkness, I returned to what I knew. I went back to the foundation of who I am and relied upon the resources that I had created to help me to find the light again. I returned to my book, my workbook, my journal, my course – all of my own inspirational content – content that I had written to help others, content that ended up saving my own life.

The guiding truths in my book have forever changed the course of my life and they have truly guided me on the path to becoming my best self and living my best life. They have brought me back from the darkness and returned me to the light. This is not the journey that I ever would have expected but today, I am closer to being the woman that I want to be and living that life than I want to live.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

My own book, Empowered: The Woman’s Guide to Following Your Heart

A year ago, I set out to find my greatest purpose in life. I left a life that I knew very well, a very safe life with lots of predictability. I left it all to follow my heart. What has unfolded has been a journey that has led me to a mission, a mission that I believe in with every fiber of my being. The vision for this mission has many pieces and continues to unfold as I write this. However, the mission is the same.

To empower women everywhere to become our best selves. To awaken us to our own power so that we may live as the women that we are born to be. To free us from what we carry around as the caretakers of others so that we take the time to stop, breathe and reconnect to who we each are. To strengthen our relationship with ourselves so that we embrace our bodies, our hearts, our minds and our spirits, in everything we do. To build the tools that are necessary for us to be able to unleash the potential that is inside all of us so that we are each capable of doing amazing things. To grant us the space in this world where we can experience the freedom to feel, to express, to let it all out and to connect to our happiest selves. To honor and celebrate the brilliance, the passion, the fire and the joy of women, everywhere. To create the place on this Earth where extraordinary transformation happens so that we are all empowered to live our best lives.

When I began this journey, I began to write a blog. My book is inspired by that blog. It started as a way for me to inspire others, but it soon became a way for me to inspire myself. It became a way for me to track my own experiences, a way for me to understand all that I was feeling, a way for me to work through everything that I was going through and a way for me to chronicle my journey. It became the place where I expressed myself – fully, openly and honestly – and in doing so, came to find some peace along the way in leaning on what I learned through what I wrote. I am still on the journey, but the revelations that I have experienced along the way are in these pages. They are authentic. They are genuine. They are truly the step-by-step journey that I have been on – nothing forced, created or manufactured for any other purpose than to express all that I felt in my heart at the time, as I found my way. They were not written for any effect or even with my book in my mind, so you can trust the integrity of these discoveries. I never intended to share my journey in this way, but I understand now, that I am meant to. The journey when you follow your heart is hard, and in moments, it can overwhelm you to the point where you feel like you will never find your way. But you will, I promise. If you just keep going. You may feel crazy, lost, uncertain, and so alone at times. May my book always remind you that you never are.

Sometimes in my darkest hour, the things that I discovered in these pages, have been my only light. I share them from this place. They are reliable truths. You can depend on them. They will show you the way. Use them as a light, as a reason to keep going, as a reason to keep believing, as a reason to never give up on your journey, on your dreams, on your heart and on yourself. It is not easy to follow your heart, to seek a life of purpose, to remain true to the song that is in your heart, the song that quietly whispers to you, the song that you are meant to sing that the rest of the world has yet to hear. But you must. The world needs you. To live the life that you are meant to live and to become the woman that you are meant to become. You are here for a reason. We are each here for a purpose, a purpose that is uniquely our own. But the only way that we will each get to our purpose and live our best life, is if we each share the story of our journey and the guiding truths that we discover along the way. They are the light by which all of us will see.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.empoweredbyjenny.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empoweredbyjenny/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennyMPowers
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennympowers/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA29IkHPvkY
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K2jq9LAJrk

Image Credits
Ken Rochon Tausha Dickinson