We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenna Stakias a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jenna, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I battled an autoimmune disease for 3 years, and was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I never identified myself as being “sick”. I had 2 choices, either to marinade in the depressing moments or to pick myself up and figure out how to get better. I knew it was something that I could heal from. The symptoms I had, both hands and leg tremors, memory loss, voice tremor to name a few, really opened my eyes to the things that I took for granted. Being able to walk normally, being able to write a simple to do list, or to even just say my name became exhausting and difficult. Experiencing that overwhelming frustration of not being able to do everyday tasks gave me the strength and resiliency to work towards getting better and healing.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am the founder and CEO of The True Empire™. The empire consists of True Media Marketing™, True Smile Photography™, and the True Talk Podcast™.
The theme of “true” originated from when I was combating the autoimmune disease. Everyone that I would talk to and tell them what I was going through, would say they never realized I was battling something because I always had a smile on my face. I would respond saying how the disease took a lot from me, but it would never take my positivity and my smile. Your smile is truly yours, no one can take it from you.
True Media Marketing™ is a marketing agency that specializes in social media management. We love working with all different kinds of businesses to be able to represent their brands authentically.
True Smile Photography™ is a part of the marketing as well, but specializes more so in portrait photography. We make sure to capture those core memories to make them last for forever.
True Talk Podcast™ is the newest addition to the empire. It has been so humbling to be able to share my story with a bigger audience and spread the positivity and motivation for others to live in their truths and be their authentic selves.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would have to say perseverance, unconditional belief in yourself, and courage. These are key when taking a chance on yourself.
If you are just starting out on your journey, take the time to self reflect and hone in on the things that you are good at. Use those to your advantage. Most importantly, be yourself. People will buy/follow you because of who you are and what you represent.
One thing that I was told and always helps ground me is to never forget my “why”. Always go back to why you started this journey in the first place.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
This is my 2nd year in business and I can honestly say that I feel more comfortable and confident saying that I am a business owner. The first year, I really took time to understand the different ways of running a business and all that is encompassed with it. I am finally setting up my systems and ready to grow the brand as a whole. Investing time and money in my professional development has been a pivotal part of my growth and I cannot wait to share all that is coming!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://trueempire.bigcartel.com
- Instagram: @jennastakias @thetrueempiretm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088777005684
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@truetalkwithjenna
- Other: TikTok: @truetalkpod
Image Credits
True Smile Photography™
Rachel Carey Photography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
