Making peace with misunderstanding is learning that your truth does not shrink because someone else cannot see it.
Making Peace With Being Misunderstood
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I focused on listening, understanding their challenges, and involving them in decisions. Leadership is about building trust and collaboration, not about being the most experienced person in the room.
Jacqueline Elizabeth Renjifo · In Her Own Words
From How She Did It
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Her Story
About Jacqueline
Jacqueline Renjifo is an Operations Training Senior Specialist at The Wendy’s Company, bringing more than 20 years of progressive leadership in restaurant operations, training, and multi-unit management. Her career reflects a deep commitment to people development, operational excellence, and building strong, sustainable teams across high-volume markets in the United States.
Her journey with Wendy’s began in June 2004 while seven months pregnant, following a seven-year tenure with Burger King. Seeking a fresh start, she intentionally accepted a pay cut to restart at the ground level with a clear long-term vision. A defining early moment came when an HR representative told her that pregnancy should never be viewed as a limitation, a message that shaped her loyalty to the organization for over two decades. Within months, she was entrusted with leadership of one of the highest-volume restaurants in Long Island, New York, where she operated a late-night location with intense operational demands. She quickly advanced into a certified training manager role, where her greatest fulfillment came from developing others and watching her teams grow and succeed.
Jacqueline’s career path includes serving as a District Manager, rebuilding underperforming markets, and leading complex multi-state responsibilities while balancing the demands of family life as a mother of two. She spent years commuting between New York and Pennsylvania in leadership roles before relocating to Florida, where she strengthened multiple districts across the Clearwater market and focused heavily on staffing and talent development. In 2025, she transitioned to Michigan as an Operations Training Senior Specialist, where she now supports multiple district managers, an area director, and dozens of restaurant locations through franchise-to-corporate transitions and training certification. She also led the Women in Wendy’s resource group in Tampa for five years, mentoring emerging leaders and facilitating development sessions centered on confidence, growth, and leadership empowerment.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jacqueline
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to self-confidence and maintaining a positive mindset no matter what challenges I face. I was very confident in what I could bring to the table, even when sitting across from people with degrees and certificates that I didn't have. I never let anyone tell me I couldn't do something - it had to be myself saying I can't. I push myself every day to be 1% better and stay positive with my mindset. Even when I was going through hard situations in my personal life, my team never knew I was going through a rough patch because I kept my mindset positive. When you stay positive, people want to follow you and they want to know what you're doing to stay that way. I believe your mindset tells a story, and I've learned that you have the choice to stay in negativity or keep moving forward. I also credit my success to my willingness to learn from the bottom up - I took a huge pay cut when I started at Wendy's because I knew my end goal and wanted to learn the company from the ground up. My passion has always been developing my people and watching them grow even faster than I did - that was my real payday.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from my area director and mentor, Luke Sweeney, who challenged me the most throughout my career. He believed in me and told me that anything in my path, I could accomplish. To this day, even though he's no longer with Wendy's, we stay connected and he always reminds me: don't let the rocks in your way block your path. Whatever you put your mind to, that's what you're going to accomplish. That advice has stayed with me and helped me push through every obstacle in my career. I also received powerful encouragement early on when I was 7 months pregnant and interviewing at Wendy's. The HR representative told me, 'being pregnant is not being sick, so don't let people make you feel like you can't work. It's a blessing.' That moment created a loyalty in me that has lasted over 20 years and taught me never to let circumstances define what I'm capable of achieving.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering this industry is to cultivate unwavering self‑confidence. You will meet people with impressive titles, degrees, and credentials, and some may value those achievements more than they value your presence. Stand firm in what you bring to the table. Your capability is not defined by someone else’s résumé. I learned early on that the only person who could tell me “I can’t” was myself.
Commit to becoming 1% better every day. Growth is a continuous process, and your mindset is the engine behind it. Even during challenging seasons, maintain a positive outlook. My team rarely knew when I was facing difficulties because I chose to lead with optimism. When you carry a positive mindset, people naturally gravitate toward you, they want to understand how you stay grounded, focused, and resilient.
Life will always present obstacles, but your mindset determines your direction. You can choose to stay anchored in negativity, or you can choose to move forward with purpose. Never allow your circumstances or anyone else’s opinion to convince you that you are limited.
Finally, remember that true leadership is not about titles or recognition. It’s about developing others, elevating their strengths, and helping them grow. When you invest in people, you create an impact that lasts far beyond any single achievement. That is the real reward of leadership.
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