Meet Jennifer Johnson

We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I was in the Life Sciences industry for 18 years. I didn’t set out to join the industry, but through an analyst role at a large consulting firm, it was where the project openings were at the time. The biopharmaceutical industry was growing rapidly, and I was opportunistic.
However, I wasn’t passionate about the technology and content. I tried to retrofit my interests in writing and connecting with people by working in marketing and leading teams. By the time I had been at my latest company for 11 years, I noticed that I had diminishing engagement.
I realized that I needed to make a change when I asked myself the question, “If you get the next promotion, which for me was to VP, will you feel fulfilled?” Then I asked myself, “If you are in that role 10 years from now, will you be happy?” The answer for both was no. That was how I knew that I was working for the wrong thing.
I didn’t leave quickly. I contemplated and financially planned for a full year before my departure.
When I left, I knew I would try something entrepreneurial, but had no firmer plans than that.
I took a full 6 months off to renew my mind and body. I allowed myself to daydream, generate new business ideas, and research them. But I was committed to not acting on them yet. After 6 months, I evaluated the ideas and chose one to pursue. It happened to be the one that had the slowest, and potentially lowest, financial gain. Yet, it is the idea that I am most passionate about. It is also the idea that I believe the world needs the most right now.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I co-founded a company called The Legendary Connection.
We help parents, grandparents, and caregivers form better connections with the children they love through the power of storytelling and using it as a form of imaginative play.
We have a blog that offers tips and ideas for creating a family storytelling routine. Our website contains a story library where we curate traditional folktales that are appropriate for children. For each story in the library, we point out the moral lesson that it can help to teach.
We also just launched our online store selling digital downloads. So far this includes storytelling quick guides, templates, lists of prompts and ideas, and summaries of existing stories to make different types of storytelling as easy as possible. Our vision is to expand to physical products by the end of this year.
I stumbled onto the practice of making up stories for my kids each night as part of our bedtime routine about three years ago. We do this in addition to reading books. What I have found is that, while reading books together is great, there is something about making up our own stories that is different and special. Our storytelling is one of the highlights of their childhoods. They tell their friends and teachers about our characters and the adventures that they go on. When I tell my friends and colleagues about our routine, many respond that they wish they could do it with their kids, but they don’t know how or aren’t creative enough.
So, I used some of my time off to research why this was enjoyable for my kids and why it was incredibly effective for me to use as a teaching and nurturing tool. I found out that the benefits of storytelling for children are well-documented. There are many resources for teachers on how to use it in the classroom and for therapists to use it as a behavioral tool. While there are a few resources for parents, they are 100+ page printed books focused on documenting a static process. Many of these books are even out of print. The existing resources are not available online and are not in formats adapted for today’s information consumption habits (e.g., short blogs, social posts, infographics). Recognizing there was a gap, I asked my friend Erin, who does a lot of traditional storytelling with her kids, if she wanted to work together and address it. We also soon realized that creating physical products could help families reinforce their storytelling practices.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Being open to new experiences. I wouldn’t trade my years in consulting or a life sciences company. It is how I learned many of the skills that I’m now using to set up my own company. I think it is ok, especially in the beginning, to not have a completely clear plan and see where life takes you by saying yes to the opportunities that arise.

2. Being emotionally aware/empathetic. This skill has helped me manage-up and navigate board rooms effectively, even as an introvert. It has helped me as a people-manager to get the best out of my team. For many years the person whom I struggled to be empathetic towards was myself. When I finally was empathetic toward myself and asked what brought me joy, I found my new career.

3. Giving things the time they need. There is a lot of focus today on doing things quickly. In the corporate world, there is constant pressure to do things faster. I am finding that in the entrepreneurial world there is the same pressure, but with a constant stream of messaging that if you aren’t using hacks and AI, you are doing it wrong. I understand the need to be efficient and effective. But, I also strongly believe that creating high-quality products and services takes time and it’s what customers deserve.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

My biggest challenge is likely what most, if not all, new entrepreneurs face. You have a lot of ideas on how you want to grow the business, but it takes time, which requires patience. My partner and I are doing research, product development, website building, marketing, vendor selection, supply chain planning, IT-trouble-shooting, and a host of other tasks with only two people. Almost weekly we encounter new skill-sets that we realize we need to better develop before we take the next step forward. While we have a vision for what The Legendary Connection will look like at scale, it can become frustrating that we aren’t there yet.
Forcing myself to dip back into my consulting and project management background helps keep me honest about reasonable timelines and the work that needs to be done.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thelegendaryconnection.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegendaryconnection/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelegendaryconnection/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/thelegendaryconnection/

Image Credits

All images were taken by me or generated by The Legendary Connection, LLC.