Her Story
About Jeanette
I serve as Director of Business and Industry Engagement at the Greater Memphis Chamber, where I've worked for the past 7 years. In this role, I lead our Advanced Manufacturing Council and focus on engaging businesses to ensure they have what they need to stay and grow in Memphis. My typical day involves meeting with companies to understand their pain points, what's working and what's not working. The most challenging aspect is getting to the right people to truly understand what the needs of the company are. Workforce is the heaviest focus in my space, as companies cannot stay and grow in Memphis without adequate workforce. The workforce needs are like peeling back the layers of an onion - you need skilled workers, seasoned workers, interns and apprenticeships to start the process and help move it along. Before joining the Chamber, I spent 27 years in television advertising sales in the Memphis market. I worked for ABC24 and CW30 for 20 years, and then for Fox 13 for 7 years. During that time, I served as a national sales manager for ABC and CW for about 2 years before returning to local sales. My most notable professional achievement has been creating and leading the Advanced Manufacturing Council. We have about 126 people on the roster, and our quarterly meetings draw about 50-plus in attendance. I've been able to keep them engaged by putting the right people in front of them and sending weekly relevant emails. I'm really proud of that work because it's not easy to get manufacturers, educators, or community partners that make up the council in the room. It was a labor of love that took me about 18 months to actually gather the right people, and it started to grow from there.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jeanette
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to dedication, hard work, and my mother. She poured into me that I could be anything, and I'm going to give her all the credit on that. My mother was my biggest influence, not just professionally but throughout my life. It's that foundation she gave me - believing I could achieve anything - combined with my own dedication and hard work that has made me successful.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is something I just got recently, and it's really five words: Dream big and expect more. I wish I had gotten this advice 20 years ago. It's become my new mantra. Those simple words capture so much about not limiting yourself and believing you deserve more than you might think you do.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them to dream big and expect more, because a lot of times, we as women, we kind of hold ourselves back by staying in our lane. We don't color outside of the lines. We need to color outside of the lines. I read an article that said men always apply for jobs that they're not qualified for, and in many cases, they get them. We don't do that. So we have to dream big and expect more, and apply for the job that you're not qualified for. They have to train you anyway. You know how many people own jobs that they weren't qualified for? That would be my advice to my younger self, or somebody that's younger.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenge from a professional standpoint is just helping businesses to grow and helping them to understand that they have to be proactive instead of reactive. Businesses want to wait till the store is on fire before they react. And that's a challenge, because if you're proactive, you can prevent a lot of these things. Getting companies to act before problems become crises is one of the biggest hurdles I face in my work.
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