We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Barnes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jennifer, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
There are some great topics to choose from, but I picked this one about optimism because I am a genuinly optimistic person and part of my purpose in life is to uplift and help others. I hope that my story can help others to be more optimistic!
I was born a happy, positive and optimistic person. I am also not one to look back and regret life and wish that things were different. Rather than finding the problem, or focus on what could go wrong, I tend to focus on the solution. I envision that everything will work out the way that it is supposed to. Now, don’t get me wrong, that certainly doesn’t mean I don’t worry; especially now that I have a 2 year old, but it means that I naturally believe that there is a silver lining in most negative situations.
You can apply that theory to things like a flight getting canceled. I tell myself that if I had been on that flight then maybe I would have gotten in a car crash when I landed, or that the reason I didn’t get on that flight is that I was meant to be somewhere else at that time. I try not to focus on the negative parts of missing a flight, and I know that there is nothing I can do to change things. I tend to deal with situations as they arise and focus on the positive. Now don’t get me wrong, there are certainly devastating tragedies and things that happen in which it is virtually impossible to find the good, but that isn’t what I am talking about here. I’m talking about things in life that happen where many people would just complain and talk about the negative and look into the past wishing things were different. I’m not that person. I look forward into the future and make decisions based on things that have happened to me, or a gut feel and have confidence that things will work out.
When my ex-partners stole my company out from under me in a devastating hostile takeover where I was walked out of my own company with security, I was pretty pissed off. I used that anger towards them as fuel to start over again. I didn’t let them change the course of my life for the negative, and I didn’t sit around crying that I wished things would have been different. I focused soley on the future and how I could get back to where I was when my world was turned upside down. I started a new company three days later and fought hard to rebuild everything I had worked so hard for. Although we spend a grueling year and a half in litigation as the guys decided to sue me not to compete with them, I ended up winning. Its been exactly six years since I started my second company, and never do I look back and wish things had been different. I’m grateful for the experience and elated that I was able to rebuild so successfully. I learned many lessons along the way and am in a much better place. I consider all the pain and suffering that I endured all a part of my journey, and a major blessing.
I hope to always keep my optimistic attitude and keep looking for the silver linings whenever possible. I also hope that my words can teach others that looking backwards will never change a situation. The only choice you have in life is to move forward and learn from your mistakes. And, as often as you can, teach others how to do the same.
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?
When I started my first company, I was mostly concerned with creating a company that I would want to work for. If I was going to remain a consultant in the field. I asked myself questions, such as: What would I want from the firm I worked for? How would I want to be paid and treated? What kind of schedule would I want? How many clients would I want to serve at once? This is how I came up with the idea of doing a revenue share for my team members, and to give them a schedule that made sense for their lives, individually. I found some people wanted to work 40+ hours a week while others were happy with 28-32 and wanted a ton of flexibility with their hours as they had young kids at home or other obligations that made it almost impossible to work a 9-5 schedule (or for many accountants 8am-7pm!)
I learned alot with company #1 and it helped me build my second company into a much stronger, more agile, and more thoughtful firm. We fortunatly didn’t have some of the baggage that accumulated at company #1, especially some of the toxic humans I had to put up with at my first company. Starting company #2 gave me a fresh start to do things much better than I did the first time around.
Optima has been around for 6 years and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to build a second company. I also built Optima to be twice the size in half the time and currently have 97 W2 employees. We have revenues of over a million a month and service more than 300 companies.
In my personal life, I have a 2 year old son and am married to my best friend. We have been together for 16 years and did so many fun things together before we decided to have a family. We love to snowboard, go to the beach, hang out with friends and spend time with family. Life is pretty good!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Communication, Sales. Emotional Intelligence
I believe that most success stories are a bit of talent, opportunity and luck. You need to have excellent communication, be talented at selling your product or service and you need to have high emotional intelligence. Even with all of that, you need to be given the opportunity, of which some of that is getting lucky. Being at the right place, at the right time and knowing the right people who can open doors for you.
I am thankful to have developed great communication skills over the years, which help me in a variety of situations. Being a proactive communicator is critical in my world and also an important skill set for my employees. You need to be able to communicate well in order to be a good negotiator, to inspire others, and to lead, coach and mentor others.
I am also thankful to be naturally good at sales. I bring in a huge percentage of the business at Optima and I also have a pretty high close rate. I can relate to others and don’t sell them things they don’t need. I genuinly want the best for others and am always thoughtful in my approach and solution. Part of being a good sales person means really listening to others and giving them a solution that is truly going to help them.
Lastly, I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to learn about emotional intelligence and the impact it has on those around you. I have grown so much as a human and my emotional intelligence is so much higher than it was when I started my first business. Improving your emotional intelligence is absolutely possible if you have the tools and resources to do so, but you have to also be receptive, reflective and want to work on your flaws.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My husband is my rock. We have been together for 16 years and we have a two year old. He has always been there for me and has helped me become successful in many ways. From his tough love when situations don’t turn out as planned or his undying love for me that makes me feel safe and protected, I know that I can always count on me and that I have a true partner.
We bought our first house together about 10 years ago, putting every penny we owned to make it happen. We were so fortunate to buy in a good neighborhood but we were pretty house poor for awhile. Six years ago when my partners took my business from me, my husband allowed me to use our entire savings account to rebuild. He believed in me and told me not to back down from my ex partners.
When the litigation was over and my partners were forced to buy out all my shares and settle with me, we put every penny and then some back into our account. If my husband hadn’t believed in me, it would have been very difficult to rebuild as quickly as i did. A few years ago, we were able to double the square footage of our house and are living in a house that we both absolutely love. Of course, a few months after we moved back in, I got pregnant and had our son at 43 years old. I am so grateful that things worked out the way they did and that my husband believed in me enough to let me risk it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.optimaoffice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/optimaoffice_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/optimaoffice_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/optimaoffice
Image Credits
Dani Alger on the professional one (last one)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
