EP17 JENNIFER YORKE :Unlocking Your Potential and Thriving in the World of Tech

Episode 17 :Ever wondered how you can scale your career in the ever-evolving world of tech? This inspiring conversation with Jennifer Yorke, Chief Customer  Officer at Ometria, is packed with valuable insights for you. From moving countries and building new networks to overcoming gender bias and finding self-care in the midst of it all, Jennifer's incredible journey will leave you motivated to grow in your own career.

Jennifer shares her experiences of moving from Canada to the UK, and how she successfully navigated the challenges of building relationships in a new environment. As a woman in tech, she opens up about her struggles with gender bias and finding her voice, while reflecting on the valuable lessons she's learned along the way. From leading her first workshop to becoming Chief Customer  Officer, Jennifer's story demonstrates the importance of resilience and confidence in achieving success in the tech industry.

Tune in for an honest discussion about the opportunities and challenges that come with working in the digital space, and be inspired by Jennifer's ambition and determination. With her strong belief in taking up the space we deserve, Jennifer's story is a testament to the power of hard work and perseverance. Join us in this engaging conversation and learn how you too can tap into your inner power and take up the space you deserve in the world of tech.

0:00  Introduction

0:12  Scaling High Growth in Tech Businesses

10:42 Navigating New Career and Culture Abroad

23:16  Confidence and Resilience for Success

29:20  Career Growth and Learning From Mistakes

38:12  Opportunities and Challenges in Digital Business

43:41  Navigating Gender Bias and Finding Self-Care

55:19  Ambitions and Goals for the Future

1:03:23  Trailblazer takeaways

Jennifer Yorke 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferyorke/

Watch on video YT: https://youtu.be/LQJcnnN2ZUc

Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
Follow Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazersexperience/

Transcript

The trailblazers experience : 0:12

Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast And I'm really excited I say this every time because I get to speak to interesting, exciting women And I've got Jennifer Yorke on the call today in audio and video. How are you doing?

Jennifer Yorke : 0:31

Yeah, really good, it's sunny.

The trailblazers experience : 0:34

Can't complain. Yeah, yeah, let's. Let's get this out the way so we can go into one o'clock The day. So, for the audience, i'm going to introduce you. So Jennifer York is chief commercial officer at Ometria And I was looking at your LinkedIn and it says here you are passionate for scaling high growth in tech businesses. You have over 20 years experience working in digital And we're going to delve into exactly what you do, and I think your career, probably in your industry and your sector, has evolved so much. So I feel like this conversation is going to go 360 and give some interesting insights to inspire some young women out there now to take maybe the same career path that you did, so welcome.

Jennifer Yorke : 1:29

Well, thank you very much. It's funny when you say 20 years, because it's like, oh, it's really been that long.

The trailblazers experience : 1:34

Yeah, yeah, you know, when you listen to certain songs and they say this song is now 30 years old, i'm like what?

Jennifer Yorke : 1:41

That happened last night went to a concert of a band that I listened to in high school And they're like it's the 20th anniversary of us releasing the song. I was like, oh my word, what did you go to see? Incubus they're fairly well known in the state. I know It hasn't been that long Since one of their like really big EPs. Anyway, they're fabulous. If anyone's considering going with, great show highly recommended.

The trailblazers experience : 2:07

Oh, brilliant, brilliant. Where did they play, though? Was it big stadiums, or small venue.

Jennifer Yorke : 2:11

It was at the Apollo and Hammersmith, so it was good size. That's always good. Yeah, i feel like they were, as they're much better.

The trailblazers experience : 2:19

Yeah, really great. So, jennifer, tell me about your background. Obviously, i know you, but the audience doesn't. They're being introduced to you and will be inspired. Do you want to talk to me about where you're from, how you came to the UK and how you started your career?

Jennifer Yorke : 2:35

I am originally from Canada, so born, raised and schooled there, did my masters The way that I got to the States. I was studying to get into medical school at the time and, to shorten a long story, just decided it wasn't what I wanted to do. So instead I did the tests to go into business school and ended up doing a masters in business, entrepreneurship and technology. So it was a little bit of a different spin on an MBA because you were partnered with and some professors that had a technology and you were helping to build the five year case plan to get them to market And it was half, i would say, academic and half realistic. We actually got our professor funding.

Jennifer Yorke : 3:18

And through that program I met a boy and he was in his family. He moved to the States when he was younger And so he needed to go back to become naturalized And he was like we can be long distance. I thought that sounded terrible. So during a trip with our masters program we always went to Boston and we meet with a bunch of VCs And so I studied the companies and when we went on our trip I pitched one of them to let me work for them And they let me interview with them and I got a job.

Jennifer Yorke : 3:52

And so I started working in Boston and he moved there too, and so that's the start of the journey And the company I was with I started in sales and not all startups make it, so this one went like that and up and down for those that are just listening And I then got a job at HubSpot and at the time HubSpot was really small, it was employee 70 and they were just looking into customer success. So they had two individuals who were within the business and I was their first external CS hire and we had the first team put together.

The trailblazers experience : 4:25

And for those who don't know, do you want to just explain what customer success is?

Jennifer Yorke : 4:29

Yeah. So customer success the underlying framework of it can be very different from business to business, but the intention is to drive ongoing revenue from your customer, based once they've initially signed, and the way that you do that is through ensuring that the customer see the maximum about a value from your platform, and it all sort of stems back from. The Salesforce was sort of the original one.

Jennifer Yorke : 4:58

Early days people would buy software. They'd pay you three, five million pounds or dollars upfront, and then you would say goodbye and not see them for another five years. The IBMs of the world didn't have to worry about it, because there's no way for them to get out of paying the contract. In the new world, what would happen is that you would pay little bits each month for the software, and so the benefit was that it was easier for companies to get on board. The challenge is that it's easier for companies to leave, and so customer success started because you needed to ensure that people didn't just take the software and put it on a shelf. They had to use it and get value.

The trailblazers experience : 5:33

So that's what the end of the software keeps on changing and evolving, as we see. So you can't sort of buy one piece of software and expect it to still be the same, perform in the same way three or four years later, because you know it's evolving so quickly too.

Jennifer Yorke : 5:48

And it's over. That's also, i would say, sort of like the cause and effect. It's the effect of the new model because they also found, if you left your software the same and just helped people along the way, someone else was innovating, so you had to. But it was more like a follow on of needing to retain customers and help them see continuing value so that you could continue to get that money in.

The trailblazers experience : 6:13

Yeah, yeah. And just circling back to your university education, i believe there's still actually such courses now where I listened to the diary of a CEO and they were talking to the founder of. Desi-Anne and how the university course she did in Nottingham was all about entrepreneurship and actually having a placement within an organization, which for some people it actually works much better because you're sort of learning on the job. So you got first hand experience at pitching and just fell in love with the startup space.

Jennifer Yorke : 6:45

I definitely did. There was a lot of practice of telling your story and telling it effectively, which I think is just helpful, regardless of any industry that you're in. And then separately, i found the excitement of hey, let's try this This. Hey, it works, let's do more. Oh, this didn't work, let's try something different. And being comfortable with discomfort and also it always changing. I like things to evolve. I do get bored relatively easily, and so the startup space was a great meld for my personality in that way.

The trailblazers experience : 7:21

Yeah, okay, and then how did you move on from there? So you were in Boston, yeah.

Jennifer Yorke : 7:26

I moved to.

Jennifer Yorke : 7:27

Boston with the boy Still with the boy. When I was at HubSpot loved it. The company was amazing. I was very lucky I got to sit like Keddie Kornert, the CEO. He always talked about business, but also his life, and I asked him what's the one thing you would recommend someone do? and he said live abroad.

Jennifer Yorke : 7:48

And so a couple of years later I walked home to my husband. I was like let's move to London. And his response, rightfully, was well, you should go see it, because I had only seen it in movies or read about it in books. But 20 years ago me was like I totally know it's fine. So he said go see it. So I that week thought that was good advice. I bought myself a plane ticket to come for four days, came to London for four days, had a whale of a time, went back home and said we should move to London And his response was like all right, you saw it, you still like it, so let's do it.

Jennifer Yorke : 8:24

It took us about a year to get our stuff together and then we made the move over. At the time, again very privileged, hubspot offered to let me work remotely. They weren't yet overseas and they were considering between London and Dublin, of which people that are familiar with the company will know that they ended up in Dublin initially, and I didn't want to work remotely and not meet people here. Part of the reason of moving to London was to get the experience of being invested in the culture and really getting a taste for what the city is like, and so I mutually parted ways. They were incredible. They introduced me to the company that I eventually started working for, hootsuite, and my husband transferred with his company, and so we've been here for 11 years.

The trailblazers experience : 9:11

Wow, that's amazing. That feels like a consistent thread that I hear from lots of women who I speak to about. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge, take a chance. so, whether it's moving to another country which you know, exposure and learning different cultures and getting out of your little bubble and comfort zone, or it might be, you know, taking a new career turn as well, seems to be very common. This is something that I hear that we need to encourage everyone to do, like get out of your little town, your little village, or get out of the country to grow your career as well.

Jennifer Yorke : 9:47

The career growth thing, I guess it's different for me because I was living in it. I was relatively close to Toronto So from a Canadian standpoint like career opportunity in tech was relatively easy to access I can appreciate that for people who have that want and are in a more rural environment that it would be more challenging. I think there's something to be said about learning about other people and different ways of doing it. I think it makes the world less scary. It also makes you appreciate how beautiful some other ways of doing things are And we've incorporated lots of new ways of doing things And we've also kept the things that we think are really beautiful and brilliant. From where we're from, We're both Canadian by birth And probably so, but I'm also very proud to have lived here, to have lived in other places and challenged myself. I think I'm a better person for it.

The trailblazers experience : 10:41

Yeah, yeah. And what do you think were some of the challenges So you really created to the UK that you faced? you know, navigating that space of your career.

Jennifer Yorke : 10:54

First and foremost, coming to a new country, it's like you have to get the networks bent up. So I was lucky that the company I was at I asked literally everyone like who do you know over here? Can you do an introduction for me and tell them that I am good at what I do, if you agree.

The trailblazers experience : 11:10

Yes.

Jennifer Yorke : 11:10

Because you have no background.

Jennifer Yorke : 11:12

Nobody knows your school because I come from a good school in Canada but literally no one outside of the US, in California, knows it, And at the time HubSpot wasn't a big organization so I couldn't rely on the name of the business I was at, So that was sort of number one.

Jennifer Yorke : 11:32

I think the other part of it too is just being realistic about the loneliness factor. Like I was very lucky I moved with my partner, But still my partner is an incredible part of my life, but he I shouldn't expect, nor does he fulfill every single need that I have. And so expecting and understanding that you are going to be lonely while you put down roots, make friends, get integrated into a new city and culture of friendship, And so that's something that I think, those two things together, just being aware of them and being okay with the fact that you will be a bit sad, for sometimes when you're like you know, Saturday night you used to drive with a whole group of people because we lived a mile apart from each other, And now it's like I know, you and you're great And I just saw you just last seven days.

The trailblazers experience : 12:24

Yeah, yeah, I totally empathize, because I've relocated four or five times So relocated from Southern Africa. it's a different vibe in Zambia than relocated to Germany. It's a different vibe there than relocated from south of Germany.

The trailblazers experience : 12:41

Yeah, yeah, from Munich to Düsseldorf and then relocating to the UK. So it's like, oh my goodness, starting from scratch, but you have to put yourself out there. I think that's the main message. You have to try a network. I remember discovering meetups, so my first way of connecting was finding people to go to movies with. So it was a bunch of women and you met and all professional And basically you had a bit of a chat, ate something, and obviously if you didn't really like each other, you went into the movie and then you shut up. Yeah, you took it from there, but yeah, it's putting yourself out there to build that network. I know if you're an introvert, you just sort of to build a bit of extrovertness to get you going as well.

Jennifer Yorke : 13:28

It's resiliency, because it is literally friend dating.

Jennifer Yorke : 13:32

So there's going to be a lot of time where it's a no And you have to remind yourself. I mean, if all the feedback is you're a bit of a jerk, then like you should do some introspection. But if it's like we just don't have similar interests or your underlying values are different, Like that's reminding yourself that that's okay, It's not a sign of a negativity on their part or your part. It's just you haven't found your people, But that can be. It can be very difficult to replenish that because, again, you're not around your people. So it's really about the resiliency, of just continuously finding the energy to just keep going, both in work and also from a social side. And I found that the two went together because, like when you get confidence from a social side the work part you feel a little braver because you're like I'm sort of short up in this area so I can take risks over here.

Jennifer Yorke : 14:23

I find taking risks in every area at the same time to be quite challenging.

The trailblazers experience : 14:28

Yeah, it's a bit overwhelming. You have to pick your battles and say you know, what's going to fall back while I perfect this particular area of my networking or career space? Okay, and then. so how did it progress from there? career wise.

Jennifer Yorke : 14:43

So first job when I moved here 11 years ago my word was being the first CS individual on the ground for Hootsuite, which was enterprise social media software. They are still around size of business. I'm not super familiar with any more, just because most of the people that I knew last, but at the time they were pretty up and coming social media was like super cool And it was myself and the head of sales and we basically grew out the European organization because I really one of the things I wanted to look for was the experience of helping grow, grow an international office And the. It started with myself managing all of their European accounts, which, for those that are familiar with me know I speak one language And yeah, I was going to say how did you navigate?

The trailblazers experience : 15:32

I think business is.

Jennifer Yorke : 15:33

Google translate. Now remember 11 years ago, google translate. So I would Google translate everything into seven different languages. Have it in the email with English underneath being like I'm really sorry.

The trailblazers experience : 15:46

Just in case the context has been missed, this is the English email.

Jennifer Yorke : 15:49

Yeah, please know that.

Jennifer Yorke : 15:51

I'm not trying to like, inadvertently offend you, but it wasn't on purpose. So just set up, took the processes from head office, which was over in the eastern western side of Canada, and put them in the European market and then helped build out the team. So it was hiring CSMs And that was the first time that became a people manager. So it was all of the forecasting, you know, training individuals, having them understand what the role that they had was, integrating in with clients and understanding the motion of customer success in multiple markets in Europe. So, and also, how do you work with people that are coming from different backgrounds? because there are differences and they're beautiful, but you can't take the same approach. So that was all at Hootsuite And then from Hootsuite, i enjoyed the experience, but I wanted a culture that was a little bit more reminiscent of when I was at HubSpot, and HubSpot, from a culture standpoint, was a bit more innovative, a bit more open about debate. And when I say debate, i don't mean debate is in an adversarial way, i mean a debate isn't like, oh, what about this idea? Oh, what did you think of when you thought of this idea? Like, let's consider this one. Like picking up a rock and turning it up and down and everyone going like that's a cool rock, let's try that, versus like my rock's better than your rock. That is not what I mean, and so I thought about, well, what companies did the CEO at HubSpot really enjoy? And he kept talking about a company called Box and how he had really appreciated a gentleman named Aaron Levy, who I saw in a hallway once. He has no idea who I am, and so I was like I'm just going to apply, see if they have any jobs open.

Jennifer Yorke : 17:43

Looked on LinkedIn and they literally had a manager of CS role. So I applied for LinkedIn And I got an interview and ended up taking on their customer success enterprise group, and so for me, this was learning about enterprise customer success management and how you network across a wide variety of individuals who are part of a sales process, because we're talking multi-million dollar accounts. So AstraZeneca, anglo-american they had 120,000 users globally, so very large scale customer success management, high touch, and at that organization it was really around. It was relatively broken between the sales and the CS organization at the time And so it was looking at how do we partner to drive revenue and help everyone understand that we are a team versus adversarial, and actually we're going after the same thing because if we as CS individuals do our jobs properly, accounts will grow. So, like it's not, it's not misaligned as an end goal. The approach might be different, but the end goal isn't, and so we

Jennifer Yorke : 18:57

looked at putting in process a number of different ways to identify value, looking at how we bring in additional stakeholders, again rooting out causes of risk, that kind of thing, and so it worked out well. One of the things that I did with the group there is that we piloted a double structure for two reasons. One, to provide more opportunity for growth for our team from a career ladder standpoint. We would bring in juniors who would work with seniors and take some of the operational work so that the seniors could spend more time on the strategic initiatives. Again, a satellite organization you don't have a lot of roles, so people aren't moving on a lot. We needed to have more of a ladder to keep the knowledge in for a longer period of time. Then, to be perfectly frank, juniors are better from a budgetary perspective. Your dollars well, pounds went further. We piloted that at Workflow and they rolled it out globally, which was super cool. Then they said, okay, this is where, take on all the customers in EMEA, and then took on the long tail. So we went from 400 super high-touch customers to having 400 plus 11,700 small-touch customers, so from 1,000 pounds a year to 3.5 million a year. So it was the whole experience. So that was super fun.

Jennifer Yorke : 20:16

I still, to this day, am friends with and think he's remarkable, dan Farkas. If anyone has the chance to look for him, he's now at a company called Staff Base. So great guy, he will challenge you in the best way possible. I tried to work with him again but he got his job before we had a sales roll open so I couldn't bring him over.

Jennifer Yorke : 20:39

After that I talked with Dan and said what you're doing? because he was at the time the structure of the business was a CS representative who had professional services, customer success and support, and then he matrixed into the chief customer officer and headquarters in California And I said, like longer term, i would love to do what you do. I think it's brilliant to have the end-to-end experience from a customer standpoint because you can, you know, align based on what's best for the business revenue, but for the customer, versus different factions fighting for the same thing and somebody who isn't familiar with making the decision, and we had to talk about it. The conversation was well, if you're interested in that, like head office will have things, and I just at the time didn't want to move to California, so I said like I'll just stay, Like, eventually the role will be here.

Jennifer Yorke : 21:33

It might be like three years by the time we grow in that way, but like whatever, I love the people, the job. And then Bizarre Voice, which is enterprise ratings and reviews, reached out with literally this job. Now, of course, I had to interview for it, but it was come and interview for this role that you basically talked about with your boss And I brought it to him and I said, like Dan, I'm going to go interview And his response was well, you have to. So I interviewed for the role. I did get it. All of us had a lot of tears and still good friends with everybody who was at box. That company is amazing. And then I went to Bizarre Voice and was running their AMIA customer success organization, which also included the renewal component, Whereas with box it was a separate organization.

The trailblazers experience : 22:24

So I'm going to just take a minute to pause and just big you up for just describe. Hearing you describe how you've built your career and been very clear in terms of how you want to add value to a business, but also how you want to scale a business, i mean that takes a resilience to Nassity. But what do you think is your secret source Like at that point in time? what do you think had you recognized where your key skills and values that you could offer to organizations? Because I think a lot of women are stuck in terms of they're very intelligent, they have the skill set, but to unpack and say this is what I'd like to do and go for it, i think sometimes it's very challenging. What would you say were the fundamentals at that point in time?

Jennifer Yorke : 23:13

Oh, so many things. First and foremost, i do think a lot of it started when I was a kid. Like my mother worked in startups, was working with investors, and I didn't know until I was older like part of her working was because from a financial standpoint it wasn't feasible for us to have a one salary household. But as a younger girl you saw like mom's kicking butt, and then, separately, it was also my father. Just what? he was an educator. his entire career, i will say, still is, although technically he's retired And he treated me almost like gender non-specific in a way, in that it's like we're gonna go and do sports, you want to dress, we're gonna go and buy a dress.

Jennifer Yorke : 24:11

Like you have a voice, what do you think? And I think having somebody very early in my life who was male, who basically said, just because you're female doesn't make your voice any less valid, was hugely beneficial. And similarly, seeing my mom do those things, it was sort of the two together just said like of course you belong in these spaces because that's what you see. And so I always took this healthy sense of, i would say, confidence in my own skills And I will say confidence and not arrogance, because I do want to listen to other people and I don't think I'm the best at things. I just think I should also be considered along with others. And so, from a working standpoint, one thing I did see that was different from a lot of other women was that if there was someone with a giant title in the room, i would appreciate and respect the fact that they've done a lot of work, but I wasn't afraid to go up and just ask them questions. To me, they were someone to ask questions to, and also in my family there was about 10 years different between me and every other grandchild, so I was used to hanging around adults. So it was like another adult, like you do cool stuff, let me go ask you questions, and I think those things just helped me. Always get back up.

Jennifer Yorke : 25:29

And then, separately, it's surrounding yourself with people, and I've talked about this with others before. When you don't have confidence yourself, have other people in your court who you can borrow that confidence from. And so my partner, my husband, is that for me, like we met at business school, so he also. He knows we have similar interests and skillset And he will just say like you can do this, why aren't you doing this? And then the following is you're being dumb because I need to hear that I'm like. You're right, i am.

The trailblazers experience : 26:02

Like I love that Yeah.

Jennifer Yorke : 26:03

I said I would love that. Like you're awesome, stop being silly, and I think you need to have people in your court who will do that for you, and it doesn't have to be like if you're a single person. Get your friends to do it. Like your friends should build you up, your partner should build you up, and so I think that usually helps. And then I remember this in 2014, i read an article called The Gender Gap And it was written and basically said that men will go for a role if they think it sounds interesting, doesn't?

Jennifer Yorke : 26:39

matter if they have the skills, just go for it and let the other person decide if they have it or not, Whereas women are like I need to have 100% of the things. And I really took that article to heart And ever since then it was I'm not gonna tell myself, no, I'm gonna put it out there and the other person can tell me why not, And then I can work on those things. But they might say yes.

The trailblazers experience : 27:00

Yeah, yeah, oh, there's some really good nuggets there. I think you talked about the foundation of your upbringing, of being empowered and approaching people as okay. That person is what was one to ask questions? That's a really good tip to hand out, and your circle definitely matters People to call you out and say that's dumb, but no, that's great. Go for it yourself as well, because it's resilience Building. Usually startups, especially in the digital space, they scale up so quickly So you don't even have that time to think. You're just going through the motions. So the fact that you've grown businesses significantly and built teams across Amia So this is just Europe, middle East Africa as well That's a massive achievement.

Jennifer Yorke : 27:50

Thank you. I want to say it doesn't, because it's a podcast and it's like I'm smiling and telling the story Like my word. How many times did it come with tears and the concern of I'm not good at what I do, i'm failing, i'm failing all these people that are a part of my team, i'm failing this business, and I think that's when, especially, you need the community of people to just say you know, even if you're getting it wrong right now, that will happen, but you know, how to get out of it, or it's not failing.

Jennifer Yorke : 28:23

You're being silly Like yeah, exactly. Yeah, and I think that's something that people don't necessarily recognize is it's never as beautiful as the duck on the surface. There's always the like splashing water.

The trailblazers experience : 28:36

Yeah, yeah, no, we the great, we the great. So how did you land Ometria?

Jennifer Yorke : 28:42

When I was at box. I well, i've always done a lot of networking because again heard in the early days that it was hugely beneficial to kind of heard it from school. So I was networking and ended up getting introduced to Ivan, who's the CEO at Ometria, back in 2014. They'd only been around for a year And he was looking for somebody to talk to about CS And that's how we got connected Again, cs being customer success And so we got chatting and they were at that time I think it was like seven guys working out of a basement office in Mayfair And I was like, oh, i do consulting all the time, had never done it.

Jennifer Yorke : 29:20

I could totally do a workshop for you about what you need to consider now versus later, if that's of interest, and it was. So I did a day workshop with them on what you should consider versus not, what you can put off all the things. So I did that in work. So like the workshop thing was new but like everything that I was talking about had multiple years behind it, did that and then stayed in touch with them. There was an individual, james Dunford Wood, who was one of the co-founders and he was leading the CS space. So there wasn't a role that fit what all of us were looking for. So I just stayed in touch because I thought there's just cool people and I think the idea is cool.

The trailblazers experience : 30:04

And also you did your first workshop and a bit of consulting.

Jennifer Yorke : 30:08

Yeah, which I haven't done any to this day, but I mean you gotta try it once, right.

The trailblazers experience : 30:14

Do you look back on what? do you still have that deck and say what was I thinking?

Jennifer Yorke : 30:19

It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen, But it's just like looking back at myself at 20, I was like she was embarrassing, but I love her Like I love her.

The trailblazers experience : 30:30

Yeah, jennifer, i was looking at my first presentation I ever did. I presented to the NMD of the business. Do you know how many pages it was?

Jennifer Yorke : 30:40

No, how many It was either super long, or it was like so short.

The trailblazers experience : 30:43

It was like 26 slides, oh my God. And the thing is, he taught me a very big lesson. He says have you ever heard of the appendices? you know the appendix? at the end I was like, oh, what's that? So yeah, exactly. And he taught me about the executive summary. That was a game changer for me. He was like put all your key points for what the presentation is telling, and then that He really schooled me. But he was like nobody's going to read 96 pages, although he did read it and gave me really nice feedback. But I don't know what I was thinking. I just thought, you know, i'll just keep going. Another slide, another slide. So that's been a big learning to me.

Jennifer Yorke : 31:32

I mean, isn't that the case? Like, truthfully, you can work extremely hard, but you need to have people that will have the commissarate skill, like that gentleman reading all of it, like that is lucky that you found somebody who's willing to do that.

The trailblazers experience : 31:49

Exactly? I think no, because I was also open, as you said, open to learn, and you know I wasn't dismissive when he said, look, it's not great. I was like, oh, okay, how can I improve? What should I do next time? Because I could have also said, oh, you know what, he's just being a bell end and just keep it moving. But I didn't. I didn't. I said, right, okay, there's something here, because the next time if it's in another organization, you know they'll just hand me my papers and say you need to keep it moving. But it's that thing of sometimes you just have to plunge, just do it, try. It's a bit like this podcast. If I look at my first one, i was like what was I thinking? But my friends, my sisters, were like just do it And you improve over time. So that's really interesting. So you still have the. You need to frame it. You know That first one.

Jennifer Yorke : 32:39

I should frame it. I will keep it. I'll say that Anyone that will see it again.

The trailblazers experience : 32:46

Yeah, yeah, so you stayed in touch with the guys.

Jennifer Yorke : 32:50

And then eventually they got to a size where James was. I love how he said if he goes, i'm a ship builder, not a ship sailor. He wanted to do something else within the organization. They had literally like we're just going for their series B And so they were looking at bringing in more operationalization into the business in order to do the next stage of growth.

Jennifer Yorke : 33:12

So the Ivan would just send me stuff every I would say like six months, and be like hey, what are your thoughts on these? et cetera, et cetera. And so he sent me the CV for the role And was like what are we thinking? And you know what's the pay band, you know, are we missing anything? And so I like gave him my feedback and then, separately, they had a headhunter that I guess just like flag me, and like sent it separately, and I noticed differences between the two, and so I just sent a note to Ivan, was like Hey, like this is different from what you said, just wanted to flag it so that you can correct however you want to correct.

Jennifer Yorke : 33:51

And then he was like Hey, we should just get lunch. And I was like All right, now people won't realize, but I was five months pregnant at the time And so I said to my husband I was like I've always wanted this job, like I wanted to be at a headquarters again because the companies I work at were lovely, but you don't get Full say over product and engineering decisions because, truthfully, you're less revenue, so of course they're going to prioritize the things that matter for the majority of revenue unless there's a deliberate shift to go into the markets you're in.

The trailblazers experience : 34:25

But you're hearing from your, from your, from your customer base, what they really need and you can influence.

Jennifer Yorke : 34:31

Yeah you can, But again when you're 20% of the annual revenue.

The trailblazers experience : 34:38

No chance.

Jennifer Yorke : 34:39

Yeah, 20% of the voice share which I get. So I was saying eventually I'd like to go back to being in headquarters and being a part of those decisions. I still want to have more of a seat at the table. I want to apply for this job by months pregnant and my husband's like I just do it. That's his response for pretty much. I'm so lucky to have met him.

The trailblazers experience : 35:02

Yeah, but I feel you, jennifer, it's you know, and I like we keep saying back in the day, but it's still a thing where you know pregnancy is not a disease, it is the most wonderful thing out there. You are growing a human, you are still, you can still do your job. But of course, you know we still live in a society where it's like, well, she's pregnant, how long is she going to be here? Will she come back? Will she be? and that should not be a thing. It shouldn't be at all. It still is. But you know you are like panicking, saying this is it? This is my chance.

Jennifer Yorke : 35:36

That's exactly it. And I mean that's a conversation for all other story, because I think we do dads into service and also the other parents, because it's not always a dad, but we do other parents into service. So I was like I'm going to go to lunch and pitch myself, so went to lunch very round. So I didn't know. So I show up and he's like oh my God, congratulations. I was like, thanks, because there's no hiding it. And he's like so do you want to apply for this role? And I was like Fanny, you ask Yes, i do. So we had a wonderful lunch and then I interviewed for the role. By the time things passed or six months pregnant, so even rounder I got the offer and they waited until I was done my maternity leave. So I did seven months of maternity leave, which is the length that I wanted to do.

The trailblazers experience : 36:31

I had no idea how much I wanted to do. You're so comfortable doing that. Yeah, Yeah sure.

Jennifer Yorke : 36:34

And so the same day I started work is the day that my son started at nursery, and so I started in CS at a matria just after Matley.

The trailblazers experience : 36:46

Wow, I mean that speaks volumes about the organization and the values that they have as well. So what do you want? to just summarize the things that really drew you to the business and what are so the core values and the culture of the business there?

Jennifer Yorke : 37:04

I mean I have to say that I very much enjoyed the fact that there was no concern apparent to me that I was pregnant. I was like, oh, this is somebody who is a bit more modern age. I bet we'll have similar values, intrinsic values. I've been, i've known for years. He is brilliant, incredibly intelligent in the way that he thinks about things And I saw somebody who could challenge me to be better at my own style of leadership and and I am like it is night and day from when I started to today The style of leadership I have in my understanding of business and how to teach that to those that I work with, and it continues to be. I mean, if he ever left, for whatever reason, i would be very sad And then, who knows, down the road we might work again together someday. The for anyone listening, he has no plans on leaving. I'm just saying that he did.

Jennifer Yorke : 38:12

The other thing I liked about the organization it worked with a lot of really fun brands And I thought that the product itself was hugely valuable. So that was sort of a core Is there value in what this is doing? Is there growth that could happen? It was like check, check And then do I see the opportunity for me to do something fun with the role that I have, and it was like well, they're in the UK market right now. Oh my God. There's like we can grow to other jurisdictions. We're moving up market. We have no process to speak of, so there's lots I can do, so there's a nice meld here as well. So those were all the reasons as to why I thought it would be a lot of fun.

The trailblazers experience : 38:55

Yeah, and if you just think about how the digital space has just completely, you know, evolved people are talking about, they're saying, the fifth revolution now is AI. I mean, ai has been around for a long time before.

Jennifer Yorke : 39:08

it was web three, blockchain and everything else Natural language processing technically is AI Exactly.

The trailblazers experience : 39:16

Just the ability. And also do you find it's very interesting? what I love about your organization is and just even that digital space is the fact that you are very and I think it's true of all digital businesses now is they're very keen to interact with other businesses, to say how can we help these brands be better? Let's all get together And how can we make brands be better? because that's better for us, that's better for our you know, revenue shareholders, our growth. That seems to be the way now forward of businesses trying to survive, because you can't just work on your own and try to be, you know, in the possibles like IBM was here, dell was there and that was it. Microsoft was over there, but it feels like the new school of startups want to collaborate and work together.

Jennifer Yorke : 40:08

I do think it has something to do with the fact that, at least from a if we're talking about like brands and retailers and consumers, the consumer expectation ever since COVID is you're going to have a very joined up experience. Everything was digital for a while because stores were closed, but then it was stores are open and the expectation is you're doing that. Well, you as a business cannot give that experience if you don't collaborate across data layers. So I think it's sort of a natural follow on to it. In order to deliver that experience to customers who will give you the revenue, you have to do that kind of behavior, or have that kind of behavior.

Jennifer Yorke : 40:49

Yeah, So, good Get on the startups. Long may it continue. Oh, definitely.

The trailblazers experience : 40:53

Definitely, so talk to me about, if you were to say, three key achievements that you're proud of as a woman in your sector and your business what would that be.

Jennifer Yorke : 41:04

Yeah, being Chief Pester Ropter is, to be perfectly frank, was a 10 year effort.

The trailblazers experience : 41:12

Yeah.

Jennifer Yorke : 41:13

I thought. To be frank, i thought it was going to take a lot longer. I was a little bit stunned that it happened that quickly And having the being able to get the commissarate skillset, pitch the idea to a business, because that was the pitch It was. You should approach things in this way whether you hire me or not, you should do this And then getting the job and the agreement being start with this and if it works, we'll add in another piece. And if it works, we'll add in another piece and successfully doing that. Yeah, i'm really proud. Yeah. The other one I would say is leaving a business that was on the up like HubSpot, and getting a job in a new market in the space that I wanted. I'm proud of that. It was pretty. I will say, lady Balzy, that was Yeah, to say that and follow through. And then I think the first one is getting the job out of my master's program.

Jennifer Yorke : 42:13

For context, which a lot of people don't know, but the movies come out Blackberry. When I moved to the States, i actually had a job as a product manager at Blackberry Research and Motion that I turned down to go work at this teeny tiny start up in the States on being on a visa And my whole family were like, what are you doing? Like it's fine, okay, like because it was if it went horribly wrong, and go back home like there's, it's not living on the street, i'm living in my parents house with people that love me, so like, not really risky to me, but that and making it work, and I think like that was such a core decision and truthfully opened up this whole world. I've seen so many parts of the world. I've met so many amazing people. I've had more job experience because of it. It changed my life And so I think that's probably the first one.

The trailblazers experience : 43:13

Yeah, and what about some challenges? because obviously you're, you know, when you said you, so you, you knew that the founders, or Omecha, was a seven-man organization. It's like you're a woman and it's like, oh, my goodness, i'm having to navigate the space, how, what do you think are some of the challenges you've overcome, or what are ones that you're still? it's still a battle, just as a woman in business.

Jennifer Yorke : 43:37

Oh man, mansplaining still a battle. I Think it's helping that I'm now getting a few wrinkles because I no longer walk in the room and they like turn to the man in the room. They're like oh, she's a little older so she has experience.

Jennifer Yorke : 43:53

But I remember like five years ago They'd be like, oh to this man. And and I love my friend Steve Brian when we work together because he is About a decade older than me and so they would go to Steve and Steve's like, and this is the boss and You know you walk in the room and they're like so who is the director?

The trailblazers experience : 44:14

They're looking to someone else instead. That's crazy isn't it?

Jennifer Yorke : 44:17

Yeah, it's ridiculous and, and I feel for Especially younger leaning counterparts that that either are younger, look younger, like it's such a discount and it's so ridiculous. I Think some of the things that I'm glad I don't have to deal with but I still think people deal with It's honestly like sexual advances, which I Happened to me loads before and and I Don't know if it's that I've I've also changed behavior to be much more hands-off of. We are professional and We don't go in that way, but that was something that in my early days It was pretty egregious to the point where someone like Offered me a designer bag to have some adult fun. I was like you're disgusting, so things of that nature, and then separately, like one that I think we're still consistently dealing with.

Jennifer Yorke : 45:16

Even myself, like consistently being aware of although my organization is, is Holistically good Is being perceived as being emotional when you're excited about something, and so, especially with women, i coach them to Remove the words of like I feel strongly. It's like no, you don't. It's like the data says blah and yes, you know, based on the data, i would make this recommendation when, truthfully, data and retail for the most part is all fuzzy to begin with. So some of it is gut. So like, why can't I say it's gut when, like you, mail canter parts can, and Just acknowledging the fact that, like we're not there yet.

The trailblazers experience : 45:57

So why make?

Jennifer Yorke : 45:58

it harder for myself.

The trailblazers experience : 46:00

Yeah, someone said as women, we have to position ourselves how we want to be seen. That's where we need to go. So it's like you said, it's how you articulate yourself, the words that you're using, the data says, the facts say this is what the industry is saying, this is what the benchmark, it's those terminologies. To garner and keep that respect, because you know you, you have to now pave the way. We have to pave the way for the younger generation to come up and being those spaces. And do you know what? when they're, when we're hanging out and networking, we can talk about and give ourselves high fives about how we really feel about it. But in order to be respected in those spaces, let's navigate that way, which is sad.

The trailblazers experience : 46:44

But I feel like now you know there are networking groups out there, there are women's organizations that you can reach out to. We are accessible now. So if somebody's going through something and you've just told the story about the bag, someone will reach out and say, oh my god, that happened to me yesterday. Can I DM you? Can I meet you for a coffee? What should I do? and we'll be like right, hr, this you know, we it's. It's more over and versus. I think before everything was a bit closed door.

Jennifer Yorke : 47:14

You can't. Yeah, you absolutely didn't want to tell anyone because it was like, well, what did you do to to ask for that? And it's like I was standing there, yeah, yeah, yeah, i did that thing. Um, so yeah to your point. Um, do I think all of those things happen? I do I just, of course, i absolutely do. Um, i just I hope that it's a little bit less, mostly because when I'm I'm talking and hearing from women, i hear the stories less. That could be because they're telling me less, but hopefully it's because it's happening a little bit less often.

The trailblazers experience : 47:48

Hopefully. Yeah, yeah, um, talk to me about self-care and and you know you're a wife, a mother, a friend. We talked about the beginning, how you are ushering out everyone so that we could record the foot baths. Yeah, talk to you about that side.

Jennifer Yorke : 48:04

Uh yeah, so I have a four and a half year old son. He is going to reception, which is the first year school in the uk. Um, I say that because it's all new to us.

Jennifer Yorke : 48:15

Uh, so my house is Hilarious, like it's. It's super loud, um, i'm surrounded by men seems to be my law in life. I'm I'm just surrounded by these people that are wonderful and and noisy. Um, it's A lot of balance and, truthfully, i find that it goes up and down and every so often, you need to pause and say is all of this serving me? and Actually, earlier this year, life wasn't, um, it wasn't serving me in that way.

Jennifer Yorke : 48:49

Um, and so it's reevaluating like, where do you want to focus your time Having conversations with it? you know, if you have a partner with your partner, um, if you don't have a partner with your family and friends, and saying like, hey, i need to, i need to take a step back from these things, or I want to start doing this thing. I need you to help me out. Um, so one of the things for me I found that I was just getting Retail, let's be honest last four years, not easy. So I had been really just going all, all heads down on work, and then my son and, and basically said Ta, ta to everything that I loved, um, and realized that, and realized that I was Just like I'm not like sort of like a shell like I was there, but I wasn't present um and had a Just functioning showing up and doing the motions, but like there was no, no, no depression, but no joy.

Jennifer Yorke : 49:49

And so, um, my husband and I Had a conversation about it and I was like I just need to find something for me, and I've always done amateur drama, community theater And said like I'd like to go to the next. You know, read through an audition and if I get one, great. But like at least I'm gonna go. Um, he was like, yeah, and so I did get a role. Um, which means that like twice, twice a week, i have rehearsals. I also need to learn lines.

Jennifer Yorke : 50:19

Um, i also, as I get closer to the show, you do set builds and things of that nature. So he would need to Take on more or not do things, because I would be out of the house. And so it was agreement of, like this is important for all of us, like if you get it, we'll do those things. And so, yeah, in in may I was in, uh, i was in life spirit, which was super fun, so I was on stage again and a couple other little changes and and has made me feel so much better and I I'm a better boss because of it. I'm a better, you know, parent, i'm a better partner. I'm a better friend because I now have a little bit more of like me, the joy back.

The trailblazers experience : 51:04

Yeah, taking the time to invest in you, isn't it? So you um found the time. I went to a book Reading. So there's a lady I'm all. I'm now just reading this with my terrible eyesight here. Rebecca Anderson Davis has written a book. She's worked at golden sacks for for for a long time and Built this amazing following on instagram because she was teaching people yoga practices, and she's written a book, and where she talks about, you know, you need to find on your dashboard of life How you dial up and dial down. You know. So, in a similar vein, thinking about, right, what's important to me at this time. So at the beginning, it was about career, career, career. Yeah, i have to invest in me as well So that I can be a better version of myself and feel something.

Jennifer Yorke : 51:49

You know, feelings are important as well That it was a conversation with a number of my girlfriends, maybe because we've all just hit like another decade, so it's like, oh, let's do a review.

Jennifer Yorke : 52:01

Um, the Thinking about what used to give you joy, and and for me, what gave me joy was literally that, the drive to try and get this type of role at the time, like I wasn't a mom for that whole journey either, so it was a little bit easier to be able to Find the time for it because I had less things I wanted to do to fit into the time And so, like I would spend hours and hours and hours on it out of my own joy and love.

Jennifer Yorke : 52:32

And I found recently that, like that, having the seat at the table is wonderful but doesn't bring me the same type of joy it used to. And so it's like what brings me joy now? and How can I serve that new, the new want, and also forgive myself for changing it, because 30 year old me would be so pissed at 40-ish year old me for making this change And so grieving that at the same time, oddly enough, and saying it's okay that it changes, you're not doing a disservice to the you that came before. In fact, you're honoring her by being willing to grow.

The trailblazers experience : 53:13

Yeah.

Jennifer Yorke : 53:14

And I'm still having to replay that in my head on a weekly basis because I'm not totally bought into it. I'm getting there, but that's something, too, that I just have to keep reminding myself. Like, if you talk about loving the fact that people change, you also need to do it And having the grace to give yourself the space to do it. I'm also privileged to be able to do that for the record.

The trailblazers experience : 53:38

I know, well, that's it. I mean to not live your life and say, right, i'm okay with being. I mean a process of evolution. You know this is a different stage of my life. I say it all the time because the person I was when my kids were under five I used to have like a five-year plan, like first five years, get them to potty trading, get them to nursery, get them to walking, get them sleeping in their own bed.

Jennifer Yorke : 54:05

We'll serve them in adult life.

The trailblazers experience : 54:08

Exactly. And now it's a different phase where you know my 18-year-old is finished, his A-levels, is going to you. That's a different phase. I've got a 16-year-old who's you know honestly, yeah, But it's a different phase. And now I need to accept I can devote more time to things that serve me, And that's okay, And to evolve and to build different. You know friendship groups, you know network. We wouldn't have met if I wasn't also, in that, being open to meeting other people and talking.

The trailblazers experience : 54:38

Thank you So yeah, so basically it's okay. And the name of the book that I read? I just found it. It's called Shifting the Dial's by Rebecca Andretje Davis. So shout out to her. She's got an amazing career at Goldman Sachs, but she's found the space to think about and forge another part of her life that's important to her And she's you know, she's young, so the fact that she's already found that at a young age is really good. Yeah, and you talked about your close relationships. I won't even ask the question of. You know your circle really matters And that's really great as well. Okay, so when do you see yourself? you know you're ambitious. You've got a few things going. What? what do you when I talk to you in five to 10 years? where's Jennifer then?

Jennifer Yorke : 55:30

Who knows? I actually don't have a set idea. I have, I guess, maybe an impressionist painting of like. I think these are things that I might like to do, but with the knowledge now that it might change.

The trailblazers experience : 55:49

Yeah.

Jennifer Yorke : 55:50

Like can I say that I will be in the UK five years from now? No, but do I see a reason to leave? No, because it's pretty great And, like we just did a loft extension and I'm just enjoying the fact that I have a dryer now, as opposed to just having to hang my laundry up. No offense to anyone that does that here, but growing up with the dryer, it's hard to let that go. Of course, yeah, i feel you, yeah, yeah. So I think from a career standpoint, some things that I would like to explore. I love the idea And I think I have enough experience now to get more into the advisory side of things, so I would love to be able to be on a board of a series ABC startup.

The trailblazers experience : 56:37

I'm in that same space, you know, wanting to get into non-executive directorship, advisory. I feel like that's like the next stage of still doing what you do. You know having your job and your your. You talked about how you were described as someone who was a ship builder And probably now you're just steering the ship.

Jennifer Yorke : 56:55

But imagine if you could help other people build their own ships, Advise them, Yeah, And avoid the icebergs, because like, yeah, that I think would be a lot of fun, but do I have a deliberate plan to do it? I don't at this stage. Maybe it will come in the next little bit.

Jennifer Yorke : 57:13

It's more of just the idea of like, ooh, that could be a lot of fun And I actually think that I do have value I could bring in that way now as opposed to five years ago. I think there's things that I still needed to see and do, because now it's like I've been involved in a round and all that kind of stuff. I also think one of the things that I want to do is use my skillset in more of a charity, like volunteering, but in a slightly different way. So I am, i'm going to apply to be on a charity board. Who knows if I'll get it, but fingers crossed I do, because I think that I could bring a lot to the table for that organization.

Jennifer Yorke : 57:53

The job description basically reads like what I do now is like work as a CEO and help them align to value. It's like check, check, like align as group of people around an idea, like check, check, check, so we'll see, but giving back in that way. And then honestly, like traveling. I want to travel. I see that in my life, so that's non-work related. Continuing that, have always done that, so just continuing to do that And hopefully having a house where my son and his friends want to hang out. I want to create an environment where they like run through, grab food. They're like, hey, run off. So I think spending some time and energy on creating a place that people want to hang out and feel comfortable hanging out is something that I know not just myself but like my partner is interested in. So hopefully those things- Yeah, sounds really exciting.

The trailblazers experience : 58:43

You got this girl and you talked to them directly about networking and mentoring, about how you coach your teams, and so you're doing that already, isn't it, in terms of empowering and inspiring within the organization.

Jennifer Yorke : 58:59

That's the hope. I mean. I went yeah, let's be okay, Being confident. I think I'm very good at growing leaders. I do, And I have a number of examples of that over my career, And I do think it's because of the fact that I can help people understand the business aspects, but I don't neglect the human elements and people's lives And I know that the business is not their life, And so I had a lot of people grow and I celebrate the fact that. You know they've moved on to other places and got leadership roles And they left my team and that's okay because you know what I didn't have that role Or I was honest about. You know, these are the skills that you need to do this role here. Maybe the skills are different somewhere else, So, like, here, you need to do these things. And then they were like you know what, I'm going to go try it somewhere else.

Jennifer Yorke : 1:00:02

And like you go, man or woman or you know gender Like you go, because, like I did the exact same thing And I think that's one of the reasons why I am able to build good teams, because I would never punish someone for doing those things.

The trailblazers experience : 1:00:28

And I think that's a really good one. I say that to my teams all the time. I was at a networking event and two of my team members showed the way they were invited And I was, so I was more excited that they turned up And I was like, right, so you don't even need to hang out with me. This is about you. Of course, you're going to learn a lot of skills that you bring back to the organization, but this is about you building your network, learning something for you Like spread your wings and enjoy the day, and you know that that's always, it's always great, the same. You know, when I met you at your event as well And a team member was there and she was it's just good to see. It's like the end goal is not for you to of course, we would like you to give a few Great moments to the organization, but for you to then spread your wings and go somewhere else. That's the end goal, yeah.

Jennifer Yorke : 1:01:19

I was thinking about it. It's like I'm a chapter in their book And I want the chapter to be one that they look on fondly, Or do they?

Jennifer Yorke : 1:01:28

hear it out like that was the one where, like, i had adversity Or and also it's gonna sound so completely dorky but I want to teach people skills that they'll take for the rest of their life. Like that matters more to me than I taught you how to do this one thing at this business that's so particular to it. I'm consistently in my leaders. If they listen to this, they will laugh because I'm like okay, this skill is going to help you in every job or even personal relationships, so that's why we're going to focus on it.

The trailblazers experience : 1:02:01

It's a good mindset to have because you're shifting the dial in terms. I keep saying that. I mean I'm not thinking about it getting paid to say that, but it just resonated with me of shifting the dial of what it needs to be in a workplace and environment in, you know, 2023 and beyond. It's teaching people the skills that will serve them in their personal professional life even even better. Yeah, for sure.

Jennifer Yorke : 1:02:25

Hopefully and hopefully the adversity chapter Some people, but hopefully it's not a role.

The trailblazers experience : 1:02:39

It's like in a place, somebody has to be the villain.

Jennifer Yorke : 1:02:45

Yeah, i'm like.

The trailblazers experience : 1:02:51

Oh, if we were to give, or you were to give, trailblazer takeaways, you know, in summary for I keep saying that you know I really want, why I want this, why I find this podcast interesting, is looking to inspire women, you know, hoping hopefully they can find something and learn. And you know, if they tell you see another man about it, another non gender person about it and they learned something, great. But we need to empower and inspire women, who I feel are amazing. So what are your trailblazer takeaway tips?

Jennifer Yorke : 1:03:25

You need to build up that group of people who will give you confidence when you don't have it. That's, for me, like number one, and it doesn't have to be people at work, it just has to be people that, when they tell you you're doing a good job or they believe in you, you believe it. So maybe that is people from work, maybe it's your parents, maybe it's your friends, you know, whomever it is. The next one is that your voice deserves a seat at the table, or your voice deserves to be in whatever room you're in, and to put it forward with the knowledge that it might not always be acknowledged, but you just have to keep trying. I think those two things are incredibly important and will serve you for a long time. I'll just keep it to two. There's lots, but I think those are, for me, the core ones that have served me over the years.

The trailblazers experience : 1:04:25

I mean, those are big ones. So I'm the oldest of eight and six girls and two boys. My dad always said you deserve a seat at the table. When you walk into a room, you deserve to be there, and that is the first step. I like him, Yeah, yeah yeah, he just he's always said that you know, when you're growing up you're like what we're talking about table, which table are you talking about? It's when you're there, it's like when you go somewhere. It's that confidence boost.

Jennifer Yorke : 1:04:56

You know you're getting the elevator, you're going up, you don't know who's going to be there and you just have to own it, getting that room and own that space and There's one scene It's my favorite show, so I'm not giving anything away but Ted Lasso, which I know some people will think is hokey, but so am I Where the character Rebecca. She is the woman who owns the Richmond Greyhounds, the Ted Lasso team, and she is a woman of stature, so she is already an individual who's bigger in a room And you could say takes up space. But I love that. She goes into this large meeting where she is the only woman in a male dominated space And before she does it she makes herself bigger And I just think that's so beautiful of like considering to yourself that, like, you deserve to take up space. So take that moment to take up space before you go in there and then take up the space. Like, yeah, everybody else is, you might as well too.

The trailblazers experience : 1:05:54

You better take up space. That's a good way to end, jennifer. Thank you so much for your time, brilliant. I think you know we've connected on different levels And I feel like there's there's an event or a concert that we all need to you and me and a group of people need to get to.

Jennifer Yorke : 1:06:13

Not going to be Wu Tang apparently.

The trailblazers experience : 1:06:20

Brilliant And I am certain that you know this will empower, inspire. That's the purpose of the podcast to inspire generation to. It's my way of sort of giving back by speaking to amazing women imparting knowledge, And then it's out there in the ether, out there on all streaming platforms. So thank you so much for your time And this has been the trailblazing experience podcast. Thank you so much.