It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Janine Williams, CEO & Founder, Impulsify, interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

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Janine shares her journey from English major to first time CEO. She discusses developing new skills and how she effectively uses LinkedIn. Janine talks about how the strength of the human spirit and overcoming life's toughest challenges motivate her every day. And you must hear the inspiring story of how Janine and her team serve the community.

Rachel Humphrey:

I am Rachel Humphrey with DEI Advisors. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering personal success within the hospitality industry. And I am super excited to have me have joined me today. Janine Williams, the CEO and founder of Impulsify. Janine, welcome to the show.

Janine Williams:

Thank you so much for having

Rachel Humphrey:

me. For those who are not familiar with Jeanine or her background, I'd encourage you to head on over to the D. E. I. Advisors website or look her up on LinkedIn and find out a little bit more. But we are going to jump in and get started right away because you know you were somebody I could talk with all day long. Jeanine, one of my favorite things about the hospitality industry is that no two paths to leadership are the same. Can you share with us a little bit about your journey to leadership and maybe some of the pivotal moments in

Janine Williams:

that path? Absolutely. I always say I was a reluctant CEO. I'm a first time CEO. My background was in English education. I was going to be an English teacher. I did have the joy of doing that for two years. But at the time I was married to a tech CEO. He was very well known for founding companies and just. just a really brilliant mind. And I just really got started by helping with some of the initiatives that he was doing. And as companies grew I took on a larger and larger role. When we divorced, I found myself at equal parts desperation and innovation. I had an idea for a company based on my time working with him. And suddenly four children and I'm single. I wasn't ready to jump into back into teaching and really just wanted to explore getting this off the ground. I asked, I wrote up a business plan and I made my amazing PowerPoint and and then tried to get any CEO on the. planet that I knew to take it and do something with it. I just did not want that role. I was always in more of the sales and marketing side in previous companies. And I tried so hard to get anyone to take that role and it just wasn't going to happen, but the company had it just a really great idea behind it. So launched my first company in 2013 as a first time CEO and, just a lot of learning lessons, a lot of Google it's. The sales and marketing side is something that was so natural to me and the need behind our solution and our product was so natural to me, but finance roles and business plans and so many of the extra pieces that go into setting up a company and then leading it and hiring and recruiting. And that was all just really. learned along the way of really wanting to make it happen and really putting in the time and effort to learn many things that were very foreign to me at the time.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's an incredible story from English major to tech CEO with a few steps in between. What an inspirational thing for people to hear. And you talked about a lot of. Nuggets in there that I actually want to follow up on a little bit more specifically as we go. But I want to start with taking risks. A lot of people say that women tend to be very risk averse, but starting a company from scratch, like you said, without maybe all of the skills that one would think you would need to be in that role to be in a new situation as a single mom looking to provide talk a little bit, obviously a risk So talk a little bit about how you process risk. How do you decide which ones are worth taking? And any advice you would have about people who may be a little bit Afraid to take that next step toward a big risk.

Janine Williams:

Sure. I think starting the company was a massive risk. I certainly had the ability to take a position with a major brand and be involved in their retail programs just with the experience I had gained to date at that point. But I was madly in love with this. space. And I saw that there was a tremendous absence of data, which was what really drove me at the time. And I just couldn't let that go. I really believed I could do that and get that to market with my PowerPoint. I'm the only CEO tech person in the history of technology that built their prototype in PowerPoint and then sent it to That it was really just not an option. I don't know how to explain it. There was no choice but to take a risk. I had very little capital at that stage. No idea how to raise capital. All I knew was to get a product visible. Create the concept, explain the business purpose behind it. And just really a ton of faith. I think that it would come to be During a time when they're, the ability to risk capital was non existent. I did need to feed children and that was very difficult to choose. How am I going to use this kind of set of money that I have? And I believed with my whole heart that I could turn it into a company. And so with a 2, 000 credit limit on a new business card and some savings that I had left set aside, was able to pull it together. And it definitely paid off. That's

Rachel Humphrey:

incredible. And I love that too, that you said, I actually didn't have a choice. And sometimes that's what we need is the push. We can't overanalyze or we can't think too much about it because it might have a different outcome. One of the things that we have bonded a lot over and you mentioned when you're talking about taking risks. is our family. We are incredibly proud girl moms. I know you don't have girls, but we've talked a lot about what it means to be a mom to strong, independent girls. Talk a little bit about how that motivates you in what you're doing, maybe what lessons you want to show the girls, but also being a ceo of a startup company in hospitality. You're on the road a lot. How have you managed to find time to both have be an entrepreneur, but also be as involved as

a

Janine Williams:

mom as you want to be. Yeah, that's that's a conversation I had recently. I, and it was more geared towards me taking some time for my own personal, which I actually learned from you and you committing to your daily workouts. I kept Asking myself, where's time for that? Where will I find time to attend back to school night? Where will I find time to get to the gym? Where will I find time to do charity? And what I really realized that it's making time, you have to make time for the various things that have to happen throughout the day. And sometimes that's making time for the Children. Sometimes that's making time for myself personally or my marriage. But when you're trying to find time, it's not there. There's no way in a 24 hour day to fit the things in. And so I did, I really started building that time out on my calendar, became a ongoing discipline that I have now that I calendar my gym time. I calendar that I want to spend time with the children from this time to this time each day to have a sit down dinner. That's. It's the things that you have to make time for, or there is no time left, and you can just be inundated all day with the business and the phone calls and the emails and that, and all of that type of thing, and you lose the things that are the most important to you. I'm like, I would put Rachel Humphrey on my calendar. I might miss the meeting. I would put Rachel Humphrey on my calendar. I would put a potential client on my calendar. I would put so many things on my calendar, but I wasn't putting my children on there. I wasn't really blocking that out as core time. And that is something that I'm working very hard to make sure as they are getting older and you have less and less time with them that it is carved out and stamped. I like

Rachel Humphrey:

the intentionality of it too because I think you're right if you say I'll find the time. We don't find the time. We get on this hamster wheel Of life and work and everything else and responsibilities. And we don't carve out that really important segment of it. So such a great advice for doing that. I want to go back to some of the career skills now to you mentioned when you were telling your path to leadership, actually some of the things, the finances, the PNLs, these other things that your background was mostly in getting product out there, getting a brand out there when you knew early on that. Listen, in order, Janine, for you to be successful, you're going to have to learn some things that maybe they weren't teaching in English class you set out. You mentioned Google is one and we rely on that. But how did you, which skills did you identify as being really important for you as you saw that CEO and founder role? And then how did you set out to develop those?

Janine Williams:

The areas that I struggled with the most were certainly in just all basic business finance. It was not part of my world at all in my previous roles. And then of course, technology. I am in love with Victorian literature and teaching that to students. I had no concept of how to build a product or how to write up. I remember once upon a time, someone said, yeah, we can totally get that built. We just need a software spec. And I literally Googled what is the software spec. That's absurd. But it was around the areas of technology and financials that I just didn't really understand. There's nothing you can't learn how to do these days. Will you become a proficient and expert in that? Am I looking to have a CFO role? No, by no stretch of the imagination. Do I have that level of understanding? But it is. The most miraculous time in our history of if you want to learn something about that, to be educated, to be able to carry on a conversation, to be able to make basic decisions. There is endless information out there not just through Google, through the masterclasses and through other things, it's just doing the work. You have to put the work in. And I think I hear so many times, I can't, I could never do what you did. I could never start a company because I don't know how to do all of those things. It's just really a question of how much time do you want to dedicate to learning those things? Because thinking that people are just going to come alongside on day one and do them for you. You really have to be tremendously self reliant and really committed to putting in the work and the hours of learning the pieces and parts that you don't know. But then I would say also I had a tremendous amount of love and support from personal, from professional people genuinely wanted to see me succeed. And If you asked for help, it was amazing to me how many people would make time on their calendars to sit down knowing that they'll have no financial benefit from it. They are not interviewing for a position. They are just contributing their knowledge and expertise to someone that they want to see succeed. And so I think asking for help and surrounding myself with people who genuinely wanted to contribute towards my success really led to my success.

Rachel Humphrey:

I think it's such a great observation about the volume and ease of access to information nowadays. Certainly very different from what it used to be. Yes. But I think that your ability to reach out to people and ask, I agree, I think people want to be helpful, but they have to. like you and respect you to want to help you. And this is actually I love sharing why I pick guests to be on the show. And I don't share this with you in advance. But I remember a couple of years ago you sent me, I don't remember if it was a linked in or an email and you said I saw you at a conference and you were blowing past me at 100 miles an hour and I didn't want to stop you at the time. But you are somebody that I would like to know, and you are somebody that I would like to talk to. And I respect and appreciate what you're doing. And I was so blown away, Janine, because I wouldn't do that in a million years. Even if I wanted to, I'd be too scared, full of self doubt, or she'd be like, Who is this crazy lunatic that's reaching out to me? And by coincidence, A few months later, we happened to be at a small conference together and we got to spend a lot of time together. And I think we were best friends by the time we left. Our husbands were there with us and others. And so talk a little bit about that relationship building and networking for a lot of people. That's a really difficult skill, reaching out, being confident in your abilities to reach out. But obviously, you've been building those relationships so that when, not because in some point in the future you would need them, but when you needed them, everybody wanted to help

Janine Williams:

you. Yeah, I, I Can't stand social media. I think it's a it's a hard place to live some days you go on there and it's not a happy place. But LinkedIn to me is one of the most valuable underutilized tools in business. It has allowed me to connect to people like yourself and had given me that A forum or a venue to, to say hi I saw you and I am really inspired by you. I think it's a different engagement than sending an email. We get thousands of emails in a week if you actually see it or notice it. I've really utilized LinkedIn for just connecting to people that I'm fascinated by or learning more about certain areas or connecting to see people's stories. And I think I had been following you for quite some time, which is why I can't recommend enough. I think if you don't just say hi, it's almost and I hate to always put the gender thing on it, but I feel like a seventh grade girl very often. What, like walking into a room and I'm a little nervous of how to connect with people and I don't want to overstep or walk up and talk to someone who's engaged in something else. But LinkedIn I am an English major, so I have good writing skills. I'm confident there and I would just use it to connect to people that I really wanted with. to follow and know more about. Maybe you don't get a response. Maybe you get an amazing response like I got from you and a long time friendship out of it. I think LinkedIn is a very powerful tool for connecting and I think it gives us the ability to be a little more social than a cold call or an email may come off as.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's such great advice because again, something that's readily available to everybody. And a skill, I think I've learned a lot about LinkedIn in the last couple of years. I definitely did not know how incredibly powerful it is as a connector. It is also about creating personal brand and Getting people to the right places and things like that. But what an incredible way to connect people and stay connected with people. Yes. I love that. I mentioned when I was just talking about that I would never reach out to you or walk into a room maybe of people I don't know. I have to psych myself up. I have plenty of self-doubt. How do you pick yourself up when you're having a moment of should I or shouldn't I or I am I good enough for this or why was I asked to speak at this or I'll look at all these other panelists. They're so important. And here I am. Like, how do you overcome that negative

Janine Williams:

self talk? That's a great question. I think we all experience it based on our own personal experiences. I had some research Tremendously impossible experiences growing up, moved constantly, was always the new girl bounced back and forth so much had a tough childhood in a lot of ways. And I have really carried with me through that this ongoing message of if you survived this, you can do this. If you could tackle that, you could do this. And I hone a lot on strength that I know is t seventh grade girl talks know, you can't do that. You can't do that. Yo You can't do that. Yo there's all these pieces I've gotten to where You have to tune out the voices and your own is often your own worst enemy tuning out those voices, putting your head down, doing the work, drawing from the inner strength that you've built through your own experiences and things that you've overcome. There is nothing more powerful than that right there. And sometimes it's just a heart to heart talk with myself of this is not the toughest challenge you have faced. This is not, I remember in 2020, we should have been. Bankrupt, rolled up, finished, we were an unessential tool in in an industry that was just absolutely pummeled, baffled by COVID we should have been done. And I remember saying this is not where my story ends. And I just knew that in here, I just knew that we would find different ways, draw on our own inner strength, continue as a company, continue to lead, continue with grace. The industry just needed so much grace. I am just not one to let the inner voices knock me out.

Rachel Humphrey:

Wow. I really appreciate your sharing that. I think that's such an important message and not just not the most difficult challenge because overcoming obstacles we hear from so many great leaders is what makes them stronger as leaders and the lessons that they take and learn from those. I want to switch to a topic that I know that is probably the thing that lights you up the most when I talk with you about it. And it is the charitable work that you do. I want to talk about it from really a leadership standpoint because I know that doing good work for others selflessly is incredibly important to you. But we also know that we really grow as leaders. When we do things in the community, we learn new skills maybe that we didn't have. Talk a little bit about your passion for the charitable work that you're doing and how you've really built that into such a critical aspect of your business strategy.

Janine Williams:

Yeah, it really is core to who we are. We have our purpose, cause, passion. We're always asked to define that as leaders. What is it? And ours is absolutely to use all of the opportunity and success that we've been given to help those who have not been given the same. Everyone is not doled the same things at the same time in the same ways. As I said, I had a tough childhood. Spent some time in foster care. Went through some really tough chapters, didn't finish high school, moved out on my own when I was 15. I have a tremendous heart for women and children that are just in impossible situations. Because along the way, people came along to stand beside me and help me move forward and help me move past a lot of that. And it would be Awful if I did not do the same. I have been blessed with a tremendous amount of good after surviving a tremendous amount of bad. And I just want so much to be able to pass that on to people who think in that chapter That there's no hope that there's no one cares that that there's no way out of that situation. So we do a lot of building in Honduras. That is a place that I have a great heart for. I lived in Central America as a child. I know I don't look it, but I am fluent in Spanish. I grew up speaking Spanish at home. Just had the joy of moving to Costa Rica when I was 10 years old and learning. Spanish, which I can now use to serve in so many underserved communities poverty levels that we just can't even begin to comprehend here. And so building homes is such a joy. We do a lot of that building schools. We actually send our leadership team and team members down to physically help but also provide the financial support for the projects. During COVID, we couldn't do that, and so we partnered with a group here called Sleep and Heavenly Peace that builds beds for children. A lot of foster home kiddos, a lot of just displaced children that are living in houses with eight, ten, twelve people, and they don't have a bed as just their safety net. We built them. And in our first endeavor with them and that was amazing. It was very hands on. Our team really enjoyed it. But the next trip was to deliver them and delivering a bed to a little one that's been sleeping in a closet or on the floor, on a couch or on a pallet, there's just, it's a lot. I'll never forget one little boy. We were delivering the bed and he said, my mommy did this, right? And I was like, your mama totally did it and got you the bed you need. That is my heart. That is definitely where my heart lies. Is getting to do more of that. Getting little girls to school is a big one. I sponsor a lot of children to go to school. But especially little girls, I just think so often they get stuck in a cycle that they can't get out of because the education piece isn't there. And so they don't have a lot of options and so that is. Super important to me that they get to finish high school, that they get to get an education that they're able to learn another language as I did, that just provides so much more opportunity. We do a whole lot of that.

Rachel Humphrey:

Wow. I love that you've taken the experiences that you've had growing up and now turn them in as a leader. to a way to support and give back to the community. And I've met so many people on your team. I know how important it is to everybody, not just because Janina,

Janine Williams:

CEO tells them, Oh, let me tell you, I'm in, I'm at the best Western show next week. And they're all doing a bed built here locally without me. So I'll just get lots of pictures.

Rachel Humphrey:

I love that. I want to turn a little bit to public speaking. Anyone who's listening to you right now, here's. an incredibly articulate person, full of passion, full of knowledge. The English teacher says she's really good at writing and probably, some teaching, certainly standing up in front of others, but that is nothing compared to the stages, the presentations to boards. to investors and other things that you have now. And for so many of our rising leaders, we hear that public speaking to them is the biggest obstacle they think they have in a packed leadership. Have you always been comfortable public speaking? Have you? Is that something you've had to teach yourself? Are you comfortable today? Public speaking? I'm always surprised to hear people like I am still not good. Like I gave myself a pep talk five minutes.

Janine Williams:

A little bit about

Rachel Humphrey:

public speaking and maybe any advice you would have for

Janine Williams:

people on how to really work on that skill. Yeah. I can tell you in the seventh grade, I almost threw up doing my science project public speaking because I was shaking so hard. I dropped my it was a nightmare. It didn't, it definitely didn't always come naturally. I think teaching absolutely gave me an audience that perhaps wasn't I wasn't so concerned that I wasn't saying exactly the right word. So that gave me a lot of face time. But I think to at this point in my career, I get to speak about things that I'm very passionate about. And that does help of just being able to meet with people like you or go on a panel to talk about industry things or women and leadership things that really matter to me. I think that immediately cuts the nervous factor. I have a horrible mouth and that's the only thing I worry about the most. Public speaking is just what did you just say? But I think it's something that you just have to find the opportunities to do it and to hone that confidence in that conversation and really no one understand what you're going to be speaking about and why you care about it. I don't think I could get up and give a great speech on the phases of when it's something I care and surrounded, j panels with people like S really moving and shaking. It's a fantastic conversation, I think, more than just public speaking. And I

Rachel Humphrey:

love the thing about choosing topics that you're passionate about with people who inspire you, and it almost makes it easy. I don't want to say it's easy, but it does take a little bit of that edge off because you're talking about what you love to be talking about. And one thing you love to be talking about is Entrepreneurship. And I want to ask a couple questions just quickly as we're getting ready to wrap up. What advice would you have, especially for women who are looking to become first time business owners? Any challenges or strategies that you had that you think maybe were specifically different or unique because of gender?

Janine Williams:

I think so much, honestly, of the gender topic is a lot of our own self talk. I really do believe that. Not to say that women don't have issues, but I think we create some of our own internal issues of just, I'm not qualified. I don't have that background. I don't have that experience. I don't know how to do that. So how could I possibly be the c e o? That was me. I don't know anything about a p and l or a balance sheet or, contracts. We tell ourselves a lot of the pieces and parts. So first and foremost, I would say there is literally no background education, gender. piece of who you are as a human being that should prevent you from succeeding. I just, I really believe that if a dropout of high school English major with no technology background at all can stand up a really good software product, that it really does impact the industry I care about. I believe we can all do that if we just tune out that sound of, you can't, you're not going to, you won't make it. I think we have to start there, but I also think we have to surround ourselves by those who have done it surround ourselves by women who are leading that are proving that under certain circumstances, there's no obstacles there that can't be overcome. And really finding a network of women that inspire or leaders, entrepreneurs that inspire you. I'm just I just get more and more access to that all the time. And I'm just, I'm still awestruck sometimes that I get to have a conversation with Rachel. I really look up to you in such a way. There are women now that reach out to me to just say, Hey, I just wanted to run this past you. What do you think? And that it just continues to build confidence. So I think believing in yourself and then surrounding yourself with people that believe in you and all kind of endless opportunity. There's just nothing that can't be achieved that way.

Rachel Humphrey:

I, that I appreciate very much the kind words that you say, because I find you. So motivational for me. Very inspirational for me. But what you're saying makes so much sense. Find allies and champions have a good support system. But at the end of the day, you have to believe that you can. Yes, that's such a critically important message for everybody, regardless of gender. I appreciate sharing that. One of my absolute favorite questions to both be asked and to our younger selves. And I do think we are all works in progress, and we are all of these continuous humans. learning. What would you tell 18 year old Janine either about how things worked out for you or something you wish you knew then that maybe would have altered the way you think about

Janine Williams:

things today? I think and obviously very much personal to my upbringing is just really believing in the power of the human spirit. We, we are so prone to negativity and so prone to what other people say. I have, a 16, 18, 20 year old daughters. It's very important what other people say and we form our opinions of ourselves based on what we think their perception of us is. That was just that drove so much of my own opinion of myself, especially when I was in very negative spaces that I just wasn't capable because of the way people thought of me. Just really tuning those sounds out and not believing what you think other people think about you, what have you done, what have you accomplished, how strong are you, what can you do next, how can you use good to help other people not feel that. I just think when you get the negativity away in your head, around you I think I would tell an 18 year old, Janine, your past has nothing to do with your future. What people say has nothing to do with what you're going to speak truth to one day. And just focus on doing the work each day that you are proud of, that you feel makes an impact, and use that for good. And tune out the rest of it. There is just endless opportunity. The moment you decide, I am going to head that direction, not that direction. That

Rachel Humphrey:

strength and that standpoint is really so inspirational. That it continues to be very impactful, not the first time I have heard it from you, but it continues to really be a reminder to me as well, every day. Of living in the way that we want to be living. And I really appreciate you talking more about that. As I expected, we are wrapping up on time. But I want you to think for a couple minutes about the motto of D. E. I. Advisors to empower personal success. And tell me if there's something one final piece of wisdom you want to share with everybody about maybe one of the insights you've learned on your path to leadership.

Janine Williams:

I think empowering personal success starts with ourselves first and then those who surround us. You have to have that foundational confidence. Find your why. Find your mission that you're on that drives and then surround yourself with people that have the similar passions or the desire to help other people succeed. So I think it is equal parts internal and external of just being good to yourself and then surrounding yourself with really good people.

Rachel Humphrey:

I think that is a perfect way to wrap up today. Janine, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for sharing your personal stories, some of the lessons you've learned and for supporting DEI advisors.

Janine Williams:

Of course. Thank you so much for having me. And if

Rachel Humphrey:

you have enjoyed hearing from Janine today, we hope you will head on over to our website at DEIAdvisors. org where you can hear from over a hundred other hospitality industry leaders who are sharing their paths to leadership and their lessons learned as well. You can also stream us on your favorite streaming podcast service. Thank you again, Janine, so much.