Today, we’re talking with the incredible Jennifer Kem, a San Francisco Bay Area-based brand building and leadership expert who gets entrepreneurs seen, heard, and paid for being themselves. In this episode, she’s pulling back the curtain on the moments that shaped her life and led her to her purpose, from getting passed up for a promotion and starting and growing an 8-figure retail business, to losing that business, and falling into a deep depression. She’ll open up on the moment she knew it was time to come back, and how she went on to build a career and a life that sets her soul on fire.

What to Listen For:

Who is Jennifer Kem?

Looking back on what she thought her life would be

“If you would've asked me back in 2005, would I be interested in being an entrepreneur, owning my own business, my answer would have been, no. My dreams at the time were to ascend the corporate ladder and I wanted to show that an ambitious woman could rise through the rankings of the corporate world and make a big difference in that way.

And I felt so strongly that I thought that was going to be my life path and the way that I was going to use the gifts that I was given.”

The advice a mentor gave her when she was 22

Being known as “The Project Crusher” and climbing the corporate ladder rapidly

Get passed up for a promotion for a male colleague after implementing a profitable and complex project

Realizing she wanted more control over her life

Creating her 9-month exit strategy

Making the leap in 2006

“I opened a retail store chain. I actually only thought I was going to open one store. It turned into multiple locations.”

Finding rapid success in her first entrepreneurial venture

“I went from making a very respectable salary as a corporate executive to having a multi-million dollar business in less than 18 months. I say this with not just humility, but also caution because that actually worked against me.”

Defying the advice of her financial advisor and mentor - and what happened next

“When the economy crashed in 2008 and I literally went from on the highest of high to the lowest of low in my entire life. I spiraled into depression. I had lost my business completely two days before Christmas, all my assets were frozen by the U S government and by private law firms.

I couldn't get my daughters Christmas presents, which really bothered me. I lost my marriage. It was already rocky going into that year. I also lost my biggest mentor in life, which was my grandmother all in the span of these 90 days. You want to talk about, like on one hand, my confidence had been so high and I was so proud of what had accomplished. Then I had the ultimate bitch slap in my face because this time it was nobody's fault at all, except for mine.”

Becoming functionally homeless after being shut out of my business, house, and bank accounts

Moving back into my grandmother’s house and then losing her

Becoming catatonically depressed

Returning to humble country roots

Not eating and dropping to less than 100 pounds

“If you were a functioning person, and then all of a sudden, a big change happens in your life, a trauma, a change, something, and you don't even realize how you physically fall apart, but everyone else can see it. And that was my experience. I would sit on the porch. I would watch the cars go by. I was catatonic. I subsisted on green tea and cigarettes. I started smoking.”

The incredible moment with her daughter that put her back on her purpose-driven path

“You forget that people care about you, you forget that. And it's not just the children, it's the adults. And I don't know, I can't even describe it, it felt like magic. When she put her hand on my shoulder the aperture of my eyes shifted. I could see things clearly again, and I looked at her and I just said, Oh my God, thank you. Thank you so much. And I promise you, Mommy is going to figure this out and we're going to get through ...