Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisa Jordan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Lisa , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
I’m GenX so have latchkey kid written all over me. While my generation is often also referred to as the lost generation, for me, I never felt lost at all. Having to figure things out on my own was just a way of life. It was like that for all of us. You get yourself up for school, grab a cold Pop-Tart, catch the bus, figure out meals when you get home after school, pay your part of the phone bill if you made long-distance calls, open a bank account as soon as you can, and for the love of god get your driver’s license the day you turn 16. In the 80s, that was just called being responsible and independent. It’s just what you did. What my parents did right was expecting me to know how to take care of myself.
My sister and I grew up with loving and supportive parents, but they were super young and didn’t really know squat about “parenting”. What they did do was serve as two of the greatest role models of our lives. Both parents had dreams of college, but as it sometimes does, life got in the way. My mom dropped out of high school in downtown Detroit in the 60s because she was tired of getting beaten up. My stepdad, whom she married in Appalachia when I was five (longer story), joined the Army national guard after high school because he needed to help support his parents and younger siblings. Mom (city girl with a kid) + dad (church-going country boy) ultimately equaled an unlikely pair of very successful entrepreneurs.
Their first business was a hippie-dippie record store in the 70s (where I learned to braid roach clips under black lights while listening to Fleetwood Mac), then Radio Shack franchises (where I spent weekends and summer on the floor helping out), then their own independent hi-fi store (where I was in charge of buying music for retail and putting together stereo systems), then Arby’s restaurant franchises that eventually led them into a very comfortable retirement. Because they were working non-stop, life lessons mostly came from friends and on the back country roads of Kentucky. I always had support and love and encouragement, but my parents were busting their butts to make a good life for my sister and me. They were around as much as they could be but, running a business is hard and they were always working. Fast forward to 2024, and that’s pretty much me today. Busting my butt running a business and working hard, but with two college degrees in hand – something they didn’t feel was available to them.
I was the first person in our family to graduate from college, and am more proud of that journey than almost anything else I’ve done since. Not long after undergrad, I started working for my alma mater. For 13 years I served in cabinet-level roles to do everything I could to give other first-gen kids like me a chance at a better life through education. Admit them when they had horrible test scores and GPAs but great potential. Raise money for scholarships to offset their fear of loans and debt. And in some cases, shelter them from family members who were threatened by the thought of higher learning. I would hear students tell me that a parent or guardian would frequently remind them that they were forbidden to “rise above their raising.” Meaning, don’t come home with a bunch of crazy, liberal ideas of the world or you’re never going back to that campus.
While working at the college and completing my graduate degree, I took on every opportunity I could. Enrollment management. Student affairs. Institutional advancement. International and community relations. Tackling whatever the college president didn’t have time to handle. I was a sponge. I said yes to everything. But it wasn’t until I took on marketing that the world really started to open up. I was in my twenties, and, honestly, didn’t even know what marketing really was but what I did know is that I was hooked. Telling stories to attract right-fit donors and right-fit students was like constantly working the most complex puzzle I’d ever attempted. It was fun, challenging, and incredibly rewarding.
I was so committed to higher ed and its mission that I assumed I’d spend the rest of my career on a college/university campus. Little did I know that my two degrees coupled with role modeling by ostensibly absent, entrepreneurial parents, gave me everything I needed to have the courage to buy my own business. Today I am co-owner and CEO of one of the top higher education branding and marketing agencies in the country. Did I do it on my own? No way. I’ve had amazing mentors who have invested in me since my 20s. Colleagues who have been by my side for years, and I theirs. Former students from back in those campus days who still keep in touch and inspire me every day. And a one-of-a-kind business partner who has been on this journey with me 15 of the last 20 years.
Mindpower, our company, turns 30 this spring. It was founded in 1994 by two other women and now fully owned and operated by my partner and me (#WomenSupportingWomen). I hired the firm back in 1995 to help me with the marketing role I’d taken on. In 2004, after years of them asking, I joined the founders in a senior role with the goal of purchasing the business when they were ready to retire. Being a business owner was in my parents’ blood, but I’d never thought much about it also being in mine. Graduating college was the first best thing I ever did. Owning my own business? Definitely the second.
I believe I have the best career in the world. With the best higher ed branding team in the world. I still get to spend my time on university campuses and board rooms with the end in mind – students – just at a .com vs a .edu.
And the fam? The parents cheer me on every day, still tell me there’s nothing I can’t do, and always have Pop-Tarts in the pantry. Dad still has real estate fingers in the restaurants. Mom finished college after me and is a retired social worker. And that sister of mine? She’s a retired attorney. At 45.
There are plenty of headlines these days that challenge the value of a college degree, but education is, without question, THE greatest game changer. Always has been. Always will be. I’ll spend the rest of my life telling stories of how I’ve seen it change the lives of individuals, families and communities every single day. Starting with my own.
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?
How’d you meet your business partner?
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Along with producing award-winning strategy and creative work, building and nurturing strong relationships are everything to us. We’re a hand-selected team of 20 so it’s easier for us to get to know our clients and they us. From our founding, we’ve made it a point to ensure that we are the kind of agency that not only does great work that gets great results, but that we are true partners to our clients. We’re in constant contact with them. We’re here for whatever they may need (even if that’s a therapy session). They know we have their backs and because of that, we tend to enjoy long-term contractual partnerships. Some of our clients have been with us since we opened 30 years ago. Others? Five, ten, fifteen years. And as for the people on our team? They’re people with whom you want to meet at the bar at the end of a long day to hear about the last country they visited. Or live show they saw. I was once asked where our crew would be hanging out at big parties and I said with the band!
For our clients, we have personal relationships with everyone from the president to the content creators. We’re all in. There’s always an agency principal involved in the work. And every member of our team is incredibly dedicated to client success. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mindpowerinc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindpower_inc/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindpowerinc/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindpower/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mindpower_Inc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCehz0tz1Sm8gU37m8oPTnaQ
Image Credits
Bowstring Studios, Zoë Barracano, some stock