An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
…Mentorship, networking, and sponsorship programs. My career was the most satisfying and engaged when I had Elaine take special interest in my career advancement and success. Bringing an additional level of sponsorship within senior leaders of a company that would actively advocate for high-potential women, thereby helping them gain visibility and access to career advancement opportunities…
Despite strides towards equality, women remain underrepresented in leadership and management roles across various sectors. In this series, we would like to discuss the barriers to female advancement in these areas and explore actionable strategies for change. We are talking with accomplished women leaders, executives, and pioneers who have navigated these challenges successfully, to hear their experiences, tactics, and advice to inspire and guide the next generation of women toward achieving their full potential in leadership and management roles. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Renfeldt, Founder of Resilience Coaching by Jessica Anne.
Jessica Anne, the founder of Resilience Coaching by Jessica Anne and author of the upcoming book “Dancing in the Shower; Cultivating Radical Resilience to Live the Life You Love,” embodies the essence of resilience. Her book debuts in September 2024.
Growing up on a farm, Jessica’s early life was rooted in the rhythms of nature, a foundation that has guided her through numerous challenges. She is a proud mother of three remarkable daughters — Myranda, Claryssa, and Madilyn — whose spirit and resilience continuously inspire her.
Jessica’s personal journey is a testament to living life to the fullest. She has overcome cancer, a stroke, and a heart transplant, embracing each day with gratitude. Her adventurous spirit shines as a dog mom, fisherwoman, and avid hiker and backpacker.
Professionally, Jessica excels as a resilience coach, helping others navigate life’s challenges with wit, kindness, and generosity. She finds joy in simple pleasures and is known for her culinary skills, creating dishes that nourish both body and soul. Her passions extend to watercoloring, quilting, reading, and exploring new horizons.
Described as resilient, witty, and authentic, Jessica is a beacon of strength and courage. Her unyielding optimism and love for adventure define her approach to life. Guided by the mantra, “Embrace life, cherish every moment, and never lose sight of the blessings that surround you,” she inspires others to embrace their unique paths and live life to the fullest.
Jessica Anne is a force of nature, a true goddess of resilience and grace, whose journey encourages others to find strength and joy in their own lives.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I was diagnosed with Cardiac AL Amyloidosis (a blood cancer, very similar to multiple-myeloma that attacks major organs–my primary affected organ was my heart) in September of 2016, which was treated by a stem-cell transplant (a bone-marrow transplant where you are your own stem cell donor) and 10 months of outpatient chemo. I was well on my way to getting my life back when I was hit by a severe stroke in January 2020 and subsequently put on the heart transplant list, waiting 18 months for my life-saving organ. I worked my corporate job throughout this process, only taking time off, for a minimal amount of time, after each major event. During this time, I quickly realized that I wanted more out of my career, including a better work-life balance and the ability to lead with a heart-centered approach. So, after a career of 29-years in corporate America, working in an industry I had lost passion for and for a company that didn’t fully support me in leading as I would have liked, I left and created Resilience Coaching by Jessica Anne, which provides me the opportunity to be a thought leader on Gratitude, Joy and Resilience, something I truly feel is my life purpose.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I recently left my 29-year in corporate America in September of 2023. I had dreams of what I hoped I would do sometime in my life, but I had zero idea how it would happen. I dreamed of helping other people get through adversity in their lives and come out on the other side happier and more resilient than they ever knew possible. And then things just started falling into place, almost magically. First, I found She Rises Studios, which empowers women to become women leaders. SRS is publishing my book, which will be released in September of this year. Next, I had a business coach who specializes in personal branding, Ann Bennett, reach out to me, and I became a client. From this point forward, more and more opportunities to share my message have flowed into my life with much less effort than I ever imagined.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that significantly influenced your path to leadership?
I fell in love with leading and empowering my teams when I joined an organization of female leaders. Under this female leadership, a more vulnerable and heart-centered leadership was encouraged, more than I had experienced in my career before. As a leadership team, we focused on empowering our entire team by recognizing strengths and weaknesses, asking our teams what they wanted out of their career, and trusting and empowering them to lead within their own strengths and goals. It was amazing what happened; we became a much more effective and efficient team, we were happier, our client retention rates went up, and many of my team were eventually promoted into their own leadership roles.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Elaine Manieri Can you share a story about that?
When Elaine stepped in as my direct leader, I had been in my Senior Director of Client Management position for several years. In that time, my experience was that as a woman in a large corporation, I was so scared to be called a bitch. Unfortunately, women often carry this title when we know what we want, know how we want to get it, and are very clear about it. Because of this, I had lost my voice in a team full of male leaders. But Elaine was amazing; she had a career mission of empowering women within their leadership roles and pointed out what I already was struggling with and how to deal with it. 1). If I was going to be truly effective at my job, I needed to be brave and get my voice back. Leadership isn’t about people liking you, but it’s about people following you. 2). As female leaders, we must better validate other women. For example, if we were sitting around a corporate table with men, any time a woman brought an idea to the table, another woman should validate that person’s ideas. This helped bolster the validity of my female colleagues amongst other male leaders in the corporation and within our client’s leadership as well. Because of how Elaine empowered me, I’ve become much braver in my career choices, including leaving corporate America to start my own company. She helped me realize I was strong, smart, capable, and a great leader.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
“Fail Fast, Fail Often” by Ryan Babineaux, PhD and John Krumboltz, PhD blew my mind! I don’t know about the rest of your readers, but growing up I was taught that failure is not okay. Anything lower than a B in school was not acceptable (I think my parents were even a little more lenient than other’s parents). I also had a very strict religious upbringing and failure in religion means you don’t go to heaven. Failure = BAD. So when I had two PhDs telling me that failure can be a good thing, it changed my life. The thought with this book is basically you never know until you try. And yes, you may fail and if you do you will learn from the failure, but you might also win and YAY! to that. This particular quote is amongst my favorites from the book. “If you want to be a doer — a person whose life is filled with meaningful experiences, diverse opportunities, and continual learning and growth — then it is essential that you not deplete your confidence and energy by overthinking your opportunities.” — Ryan Babineaux. This thought process has driven me to follow my passion around resilience coaching as well.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
I’m being a little vulnerable with this one, but it comes from one of my favorite wise characters, Pooh Bear. “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” I think as women in leadership, we often have imposter syndrome that holds us back. I often repeated this quote in my head before entering big meetings or presentations in my career. It’s simple, but it helped.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’ve had some pretty pivotal life-changing health crises and losses over the last 8 years, which allowed me to really step back and look at my 29-year career in Pharmacy and Pharmacy Benefit Management, take inventory of where my strengths lay, and then ask myself what I was truly passionate about. In addition to my own immediate adversities, the world is experiencing its own crises with 2 years of a pandemic that shut the world down and killed millions of our family members, friends and colleagues, racism, climate change, polarizing political views, regional wars, and so much more. People are, from all over, are struggling with life, and I bring a message of hope, gratitude, joy, curiosity, adventure, happiness and ultimately resilience to be ready for anything else that may be thrown at them. I do this through 1:1 coaching, inspirational social media posts, motivational speaking, and my upcoming book.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this report, only about 31.7% of top executive positions across industries are held by women. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from leadership and management?
There are so many things holding women back from leadership positions. I believe there are a lot of stereotypes around leadership being a masculine trait, which makes it more difficult for women to be advanced into leadership roles. There is a lack of mentorship and networking for women that could help provide guidance, support, and advocacy for career advancement. Often the organization’s culture comes into play, making career advancement extremely difficult for women. We live in 2024, and there is still a gender pay gap. I also recently read a study that states that men are more likely to apply for a job that they aren’t qualified for than women, which shows there is a confidence gap in women. I also believe that women face much more discrimination and harassment in the workplace than men do, which creates a hostile work environment where women are hindered in their ability to grow within an organization.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become leaders and managers?
In 2009, at a Vancouver Peace Summit, the Dhali Lama said, “The World Will be Saved by the Western Woman”. There are so many things female leaders bring to the table, and I’ll share just a few. Women represent 50% of the world’s population. Their representation in leadership ensures that women’s interests, needs, and perspectives are represented in big decisions. We need more women in leadership to serve as role models who will inspire other women and girls to go after their dreams to lead. It’s really a matter of social justice and equality that women have fought for decades, but we still have a lot of work to do. Promoting women to leadership positions ensures that talent and leadership potential are recognized regardless of gender.
Can you please share “5 Things We Need To Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management?”
1 . Mentorship, networking, and sponsorship programs. My career was the most satisfying and engaged when I had Elaine take special interest in my career advancement and success. Bringing an additional level of sponsorship within senior leaders of a company that would actively advocate for high-potential women, thereby helping them gain visibility and access to career advancement opportunities.
2 . Flexible Work Policies. Our culture still supports the idea that females take up the bulk responsibility of household chores and the rearing of children. Having a flexible work environment, such as remote work options and part-time roles, could help professional workers balance responsibilities, making it easier to pursue leadership positions. Additionally, more robust parental leave policies for returning to work after having children ensure that progression isn’t hindered by family commitments.
3 . Training and Development Programs. Offer leadership training and development programs specifically designed for women that would focus on building skills that would help promote a woman into a leadership role such as strategic thinking, negotiation, overcoming objections, etc.
4 . Create an Inclusive Culture. I think that brave leaders encourage inclusive cultures, and while many corporations say they have a diverse culture, I don’t believe they are walking the talk. I think to do this, the corporation needs to address unconscious biases, promote gender equality, and ensure women’s contributions are recognized and valued. Above that, males should be encouraged to support gender divinity initiatives and actively participate in creating an inclusive environment.
5 . Finally, a topic that Brene Brown often speaks on, which is the idea of “daring leadership. This involves leading with a full heart, being courageous and embracing vulnerability. Daring leaders challenge the status quo, innovate, and inspire others through their actions and integrity. Encourage women to adopt this type of leadership style can empower them to make a significant impact and drive meaningful change within organizations.
In your opinion, what systemic changes are needed to facilitate more equitable access for women to leadership roles?
Addressing the issues I’ve listed within our interview requires a multi-faceted approach, including policy changes, cultural shifts within organizations, and increased support for women at all career stages. Efforts such as implementing diversity and inclusion training, establishing mentorship programs, promoting work-life balance, and actively working to eliminate gender bias can help create a more equitable environment for women aspiring to leadership and management roles.
What strategies have you found most effective in mentoring and supporting other women to pursue leadership positions?
- Encourage women to lead, without the actual title. This will serve the purpose of not only preparing that one person to grow into a leadership role, but they will lead by example and encourage other women to adopt the same leadership opportunity.
- Leverage your own strengths. Don’t mask who you are to try and fit into the cookie-cutter idea of what they believe a good male leader is and does. If you are a nurturer, like me, embrace it and leverage it to your advantage. Many thrive in a nurturing environment — especially when your role is all about nurturing relationships with clients.
- Teach women how to actively validate other women when amongst peers. Validate that what they are sharing is a good idea and then give a reason why. Teach them to advocate for each other. For example, “Susan is a perfect subject matter expert on managing large IT projects.” or ”JoAnne has been incredibly successful in winning new business from school districts.” These strategies can help increase women’s esteem and validity and make them more visible to leadership when it comes to advancement opportunities.
How would you advise a woman leader about how to navigate the challenges of being a woman in a leadership role within a male-dominated industry?
Building trust and empathy are two very important things a woman in leadership can do if she wants to be an effective leader, but it’s also okay, and even good, to have heart-centered leadership where they truly find what is passionate to them. I find that women who lead in this manner motivate and inspire others to do their best and to want to lead with the same style.
How do you balance the demand for authoritative leadership with the stereotypical expectations of female behavior in professional settings?
Ideally, corporations would redefine effective leadership, which often ties to the masculine view of leadership. Instead, qualities like empathy, collaboration, and emotional intelligence can help create a very inclusive definition of leadership with many diverse styles. If this doesn’t occur, corporate America will lose more and more incredible women leaders to entrepreneurial endeavors where they can lead with passion.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
It would be to live a heart-centered life, not only in business but in all that you do. You have the power to impact others by showing vulnerability, gratitude, kindness, empathy, joy, adventure, hope, and happiness that could spread to all those who see you lead by this example. You just never know whose life you may change.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.instagram.com/jrenfeldt/ ; https://mailchi.mp/c13ab7758193/unlimited-resilience
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557383218279
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Author Jessica Anne Renfeldt On How We Can Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.