Interview with Jennifer Harper, Founder and CEO, Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics Inc., Canada

Watch the interview here:

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:

• How you can build a brand on one value.
• How to bake your social impact into your brand
• Insights into the power of partnerships and how to gain them
• Advantages of entering an industry you know nothing about
• How to engage your customers in development and impact

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Interview with Jennifer Harper, Founder and CEO, Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics Inc.; Canada

From St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, Jennifer Harper is the Founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics INC. Cheekbone Beauty is a digitally native direct-to-consumer brand that is helping Indigenous youth see themselves in a beauty brand while using the concept of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) fused with Indigenous wisdom in the brand's ethos and in developing products. She strives to educate as many people as possible about the Residential School System and the effects it has had on her family and friends through decades of generational trauma. She speaks regularly to university, college and high school students about social entrepreneurship, empathy and the history of her First Nations family.

United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal(s) addressed:
#4. Quality Education, #6. Clean Water and Sanitation, #8. Decent Work and Economic Growth, #10. Reduced Inequalities, #11. Sustainable Cities and Communities

Social impact:
Cheekbone Beauty exists to help every Indigenous youth see and feel their enormous value while creating sustainable cosmetics.

Website: http://www.cheekbonebeauty.com

Interview with Jennifer Harper, CEO, and Founder of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics; Canada

Note: This interview is transcribed using AI software, which means, the transcription is not perfect. Watch the video or listen to the podcast to hear our guest’s wisdom in her own words. If you want to see more interviews like this, please comment below!

[00:00:00] Suzanne F. Stevens: Welcome to YouMeWe Amplified on Suzanne F Stevens, your host, and we are live today on LinkedIn, YouTube on my profile, Suzanne F Stevens. And on Facebook at YouMeWemovement. We for a treat today, we are with a young entrepreneur, only been in business for five years. I’m starting to seek her absolutely everywhere.

 I want to welcome our guests, Jennifer Harper, CEO, and founder of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics. Cheekbone beauty is a digitally native direct-to-consumer brand that is helping Indigenous youth see themselves in a beauty brand while using the concept of lifecycle thinking fused with Indigenous wisdom in the brand’s ethos and in developing their products. Coming to you all the way from St. Catherine’s Ontario, Canada. Welcome, Jen. It’s great to have you here with us today.

[00:01:13] Jennifer Harper: It’s great to be here. Thank you for inviting me

[00:01:16] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is that catalyst for you to start a cosmetic business, particularly one that focuses on empowering Indigenous youth?

[00:01:24] Jennifer Harper: I was not in the beauty space. I was actually working at a seafood company at the time and I was in sales and marketing for that business. And I literally had a dream back in 2015 about a bunch of native little girls covered in lip gloss and woke up that night, grabbed my laptop and started running out what was the beginnings of our business plan now. Fast forward into the next few years, I really just spent 2015 and 2016 in product development, market research, looking at the supply chain, studying entrepreneurship, things I had no idea about. Had a much bigger purpose behind it.

At the same time I was learning about my grandmother’s experience and the residential school system and how that really impacted my family and me and my siblings and many First Nations families and learning about that trauma helped me understand, my past my family’s history and how I was on this healing journey. I wanted to share it with other indigenous kids.

[00:02:24] Suzanne F. Stevens: Are cosmetics something that you’ve always embraced cosmetics or where did that come from?

[00:02:32] Jennifer Harper: Yeah, I always had an complete love for the beauty industry and all of the products. I would totally consider myself a bit of a beauty junkie.

I would hang out a lot at beauty counters and in beauty shops, just playing with pallets and touching products. So there was an absolute love there. And the more that I learned about business while I was in, in that process of development, I realized that if I was going to do this and spend this much time on something, it would certainly want to be in something that I loved and really appreciated.

 Unfortunately years after being in the space, I’ve been really open and transparent and saying I might’ve chosen a different industry because beauty is extremely competitive and very challenging. However, I’m learning a ton and having fun and feel like our brand has such a much bigger purpose than lipstick and that’s why we’re here.

[00:03:22] Suzanne F. Stevens: So how did you do identify youth, as a group that you wanted to impact?

[00:03:27] Jennifer Harper: I picked youth because of the things I was learning about all of the injustices that still exist within indigenous communities really impacted youth. And specifically was their education and learning that on the reservation, kids that go to school, there gets 30 to 50% less funding. It turned out it’s this battle between the provincial and federal government.

I don’t pretend that our brand is there to solve that problem. But what I do see is my people, my children, my nieces, my nephews suffering from issues involved with systemic racism and whatever I could do as a business owner and brand owner, our brand was certainly there to empower our kids, to show them that they have a spot where they can feel seen in the beauty industry, never before in history have you ever seen Indigenous people in mainstream marketing or branding.

[00:04:15] Suzanne F. Stevens: How do you work with or help or invest in Indigenous youth beyond being an organization that is created by an Indigenous person?

[00:04:28] Jennifer Harper: One way is, we have a give-back program. So for every sustained lipstick that’s purchased through our website, one is going back to Indigenous youth in their community. And we’ve donated to this point in our history as a brand over $150,000 back to indigenous youth and organizations. And partially part of that being cashed donations to an organization called the First Nation Child and Family Caring Society. So our business model is that 10% of profits, go back to indigenous youth organizations that exist to support Indigenous youth.

[00:05:02] Suzanne F. Stevens: Which is fabulous. And congratulations on being able to put that much money back into the communities. Is it to a particular Indigenous tribe or do you spread that out?

[00:05:15] Jennifer Harper: No it’s across North America. We provided clean water and solar power to a family on the Navajo reservation with one of our campaigns. We have several different campaigns. We call them streams of giving it Cheekbone Beauty. Every year we come up and work on many different projects. Included in that is, not only to give back to our Indigenous youth community but also the work that we make sure that we’re making, less of an impact on the planet so we plant trees with an organization called one plant a tree. Over the years and several organizations, whether it’s youth groups in individual communities across North America, Or it’s, specific youth groups in more, urban centers like Toronto Vancouver. If those organizations are supporting indigenous youth, we’ve given and donated back to those.

[00:06:03] Suzanne F. Stevens: Fabulous. You incorporate Indigenous wisdom in your brand ethos share what that is all about.

[00:06:11] Jennifer Harper: It goes back to the seven generations teaching is an Iroquois teaching on what we’re doing today and how that actually impacts the next generations. So we just incorporate those concepts and teachings into how we build and develop all of our products. So from the beginning of a product, and that’s includes harvesting, we call it life cycle thinking, to the end of life of a product, what happens to it? We don’t want it to end up in a landfill. And so our purpose is to create products from raw ingredients to the packaging. The purpose is that those ingredients come from more biodegradable sources so that, you think about skin care, beauty, washing things, going down the drain into different ecosystems that we’re working with, things that are biodegradable to the best of our ability when we can.

 It’s a process. There’s no endpoint to working on something like sustainability. This is just a constant journey. We’re in the beginnings of it, but we’re doing everything that we can when we think about how we make and create products to include those incredible teachings in the work that we do.

Which is wonderful. Now, do you have some suggestions for entrepreneurs to create a sustainable product? Some things that they should actually be looking into so they aren’t filling the landfills?

That’s question would be massive. And we could probably talk about this for hours, so I won’t get to.

Yeah. I have no idea. I can’t answer that in particular for one brand, they have to define that for themselves and what that means. I would just highly suggest that if they’re not a trained and developed researcher, because we can see the problem now with human thinking that they’re all researchers, it’s caused a lot of issues these last few months. And so working with actually trained researchers and people in sustainability, if you’re going to develop these plans, then you know that you don’t become a part of the big problem of greenwashing and that you’re actually doing things authentically and then being transparent that’s the number one advice I would give to brands.

[00:08:03] Suzanne F. Stevens: Great. Once you committed to starting this business? What did you do?

[00:08:11] Jennifer Harper: The purpose of the brand was for us to create something that indigenous youth felt seen and could see themselves in. So representation was the first layer of it. And that actually speaks to the core of our brand, which is sustainability.

We were existing to sustain our people. The rate of suicide among Indigenous kids is, much, much higher than the national average. And at the time that I was creating this, I had just lost my brother to suicide. So that became part of the reason why we were doing everything and seeing how much trauma exists within us. Just keeping these kids alive was the reason the brand had to exist.

So I wasn’t searching for things to connect with right away. The greater purpose was representation and that was the first step was then in figuring out how what I needed was a product to sell. So then we had to figure out how to get a lip gloss made, and build a brand. We’re living in a time where anyone can start an e-commerce brand.

That part wasn’t that difficult, and then figuring out, okay, if we’re going to sell on e-commerce, is that the only place we’re going to sell, but the whole purpose was buried within the foundation and the meaning of our brand, which was that representation.

[00:09:20] Suzanne F. Stevens: And you just do sell on e-commerce correct?

[00:09:24] Jennifer Harper: No, we just launched it so Sephora two weeks ago.

[00:09:27] Suzanne F. Stevens: Excellent. Congratulations.

Now it’s my understanding that you exist to help every indigenous youth feel their enormous value.

So how do you bake that into the business? Are there any other things that you do that make them feel their value beyond what you were just talking about?

[00:09:41] Jennifer Harper: Well using models. One is a part of representation that are actual Indigenous people throughout history. There’s a lot of representation that’s happened where they assume that every indigenous person is still always in regalia baked in this old Hollywood version.

And we know that in Hollywood, native people weren’t even used in a lot of the roles that were supposed to be native people. And so it’s the fact that we actually use Indigenous models is a big part of the work that we do.

[00:10:11] Suzanne F. Stevens: Which is extremely important. I was doing a panel on diversity equity inclusion, and one of our panels was Indigenous and that representation everywhere was coming out over and over again, which is so important.

There are so many things that you do that have a social and an environmental impact in your business. And I know you’re familiar with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. There are several that you address consciously or unconsciously because, there’s 269 targets, so we all don’t know what they are, but quality education is one of the areas I believe that you do have an impact on, how do you in your business affect quality education.

[00:10:50] Jennifer Harper: Probably some clarification here, so we don’t do anything per se, we just support organizations that have that as their mission. We’re not doing that work internally. I really always want to be super clear to anyone that supports our brand.

 These issues are so much bigger than a lipstick brand could likely accomplish. But we’re here and exist to be a place where kids feel represented and seen. And now that we’re in the beauty space and the more that I’ve learned about the industry, the leaving less of an impact on the planet has become a big part of the work we do.

And why we focus on that as well.

[00:11:26] Suzanne F. Stevens: I understand that you don’t actually do the quality education yourself. Although you do speak on that, do you not at colleges and universities about empathy and entrepreneurship?

[00:11:37] Jennifer Harper: I really just talk about my personal story and building business.

[00:11:41] Suzanne F. Stevens: I’m just curious as a paid speaker. Do people pay you to that?

[00:11:45] Jennifer Harper: Yes, they do.

[00:11:47] Suzanne F. Stevens: I’m glad to hear that. I’m happy to hear that.

[00:11:49] Jennifer Harper: Not be doing it for free.

[00:11:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: That’s really important because a lot of people are nowadays getting speakers and particularly, and please correct me if the proper term, is the emotional cost and asking people in general or any marginalized or underrepresented people to do things for free. I, as a woman, I get asked to speak for free all the time. I heard Indigenous people get asked to do things for free all the time. So I’m really glad that paid to do that.

What are your hopes in sharing your story?

[00:12:30] Jennifer Harper: I started sharing it [my story] one, because I realized the power of vulnerability for me personally, on my healing journey. And also for Indigenous kids to see that people from our communities can have a lifetime of struggle and trauma that’s impacted their lives in negative ways, but it’s possible to overcome and thrive in this system with all of the things that may seem to be massive obstacles and barriers to our success. And so I think that’s the main reason I share my story. And, for non-indigenous people, I share my story because unfortunately, we live in a world where racism has been a huge problem and they have no concept. People still don’t believe that generational trauma is actually a thing. It’s impacted Indigenous communities really negatively and that’s gone on for generations. So whether that is the suicide epidemic the substance abuse issues, and all of the violence within our communities that people see from the outside. And they really just wonder, I’ve heard statements, what’s wrong with your people?

I was at an event and a gentleman asked me, ” the Jewish community has gotten over the Holocaust why can’t your people get over their trauma?” I might simply answer was well because we’re still living through it. We’re still on reservations. We’re still feeling a lot of impacts all of that the system is put in place. So that unfortunately still exists for Indigenous people across North America.

And so that’s why I think maybe it’s a lot harder to get over, but we’re working on it. I can’t speak for every other Indigenous person, but those kinds of comments and lines of questioning are extremely, harmful.

[00:14:18] Suzanne F. Stevens: We’re seeing in the healthcare system and the discrimination that’s yesterday or today that’s not 40 years ago. Very unfortunate.

[00:14:28] Jennifer Harper: I always say when it comes to, Injustices, no one are worse than any others. That’s all horrible. It’s all bad. The reason I share my story is perhaps because I believed in myself, my family believed in me. For me to overcome my past trauma and now have a happy joyful life that it’s possible for other people. And that was because not only one believing in myself, but having my community believe in me. My family believe in me. And imagine if you’re another human being and you’re the one that is believing in somebody else and what that could actually do to them in terms of helping them see a different version of themselves, a better version of themselves. And I think that’s the that’s where real work in society has to happen is with one another. That’s why I always say our organization can’t do this wherever we donate money, can’t solve any of these problems. I think on a human granular level, we have to do it to each other.

[00:15:27] Suzanne F. Stevens: Absolutely.

 Do you think things are getting better?

[00:15:31] Jennifer Harper: No. Okay. That’s my honest answer.

[00:15:35] Suzanne F. Stevens: And that’s the one I wanted.

Can you share how you started your business to ensure that there was some sustainability?

[00:15:44] Jennifer Harper: From the beginning, the fact that we are sustaining our communities was how we were sustainable. Unfortunately, the products we are selling and the suppliers we’re working with, were not meeting what would be considered to be a sustainable version of that product that exists today. So we had to completely transform reformulate and rebuild, in mid-brand, essentially. So it wasn’t until March of 2020 when we launched our first actual sustainable product. I’m saying sustainable, and the actual truth is true sustainability means you buy absolutely nothing and use what you have and reuse and repurpose. When I call our sustainable products, they’re the best version that we can come up with as a brand at this point. But that’s a journey, again, whatever, we’re, we rely heavily on, incredible innovations that are being put forward in the world right now, new packaging, concepts and ideas, these are things that we surround ourselves with constantly. And hopefully, a lot of the projects that we’re working on right now are reusing waste from our region here and turning that into broad ingredients that can be used in cosmetics. And when I talk about waste, I’m talking about agricultural waste, not actual garbage.

 There are a lot of products that we, put back into landfills or use composts that could actually be repurposed and used for something else. The beauty industry is a great place to do that.

[00:17:08] Suzanne F. Stevens: In regards to sustaining your social impact, you need to be making money to be able to contribute to the numerous places that you contribute to youth.

What are the biggest hurdles and sustaining that social impact?

[00:17:28] Jennifer Harper: I think the biggest hurdles is, when when I think about a business and it’s like our distribution channels, And our marketing efforts and where we’re trying to get our message across about our brand. It’s building a bigger, broader community for our brand.

We need supporters and we need buyers in order for us to keep doing the work that we do for sure. So that’s this year for us launching at Sephora is a big deal. We’ve been strictly e-commerce up until then and are grateful now that we have a new distribution channel. And so this is our first step into the retail world. And hopefully, just the beginning, to create more and different, bigger partnerships.

[00:18:07] Suzanne F. Stevens: How many places are you in?

[00:18:10] Jennifer Harper: So right now it’s just Sophora.ca but on November six, we’ll be in their flagship stores here in Canada.

[00:18:18] Suzanne F. Stevens: Wonderful. Do you have any strategies that you have used or are using now to assist in a slower economy? Has the economy affected you at all during this pandemic?

[00:18:30] Jennifer Harper: So it’s 2020 was like we had triple-digit growth, which was incredible. However, because we are e-commerce, we were ready for a pandemic, if you will, for lack of a better way of putting it. But, our business was online. However, we were lipstick only, or mostly, and, that became obviously a terrible fright when you’re thinking everyone’s wearing masks. , I know we sold mine under my mask. I was just going to say, I know we sold over a million dollars with the lipstick in 2020, which is phenomenal and unbelievable when you’re thinking everyone’s covering up their faces.

And then during that time, we decided to launch into the eye category. We had been working on it. So thankfully that didn’t launch until 2021. I’ve found 2021 because we’re still, we’re strictly e-comm to be a lot more challenging. And the reason is, there was a lot of with digital marketing, we’re relying heavily on how we place ads, where we are on social media. And this year, because this area became so much more saturated with all of those businesses that weren’t here prior to the pandemic, everybody was here now. And giant conglomerates and big corporations where they’re spending their ad dollars, where we were spending our ad dollars there before but had a much better chance at being seen and found.

Cause it wasn’t so crowded, but the space is quite crowded right now. And definitely a great time for retail distribution to start.

[00:19:55] Suzanne F. Stevens: You have approximately 15 employees, I think you said eight and plus four part-time, can you share three leadership strategies you use to create a culture where they’re excited about the contributions that you’re making to society?

[00:20:09] Jennifer Harper: Yeah. This is an area I’m learning and still struggle with. I feel like we’re a startup and so my model is sink or swim. Cause I, I need people to come on board that know what they’re doing. If they don’t, then it’s not going to work because I don’t know that role. And I’ve actually hired this person to fulfill that role and do that job and help us build.

 I hopefully inspire people is you’re at the beginning of something that’s pretty incredibly beautiful was the first indigenous beauty brand to be in a relationship with Sephora and to have the opportunities that we do and, from the emails and DMS that we get from Indigenous youth and how this has changed their lives, making them feel seen.

To be a part of something like that. And that know that the work we’re doing has an impact on our community. And then being a part of these big transitions that we’re making in terms of how we make and create products, I think is really special. And I really hope people are on our team because they believe in that.

 They’ve certainly all been hired because of course during the interview process, they did speak to, this is why they would want to work for our brand.

[00:21:15] Suzanne F. Stevens: More people gravitate to social impact brands because it does give them more sense of meaning.

 I know you also collaborate or

[00:21:23] Suzanne F. Stevens: Partner or use other organizations, to assist you to meet your mandate. How do you view those organizations?

[00:21:31] Jennifer Harper: So we have a lot of organizations that help us get the work done at Cheekbone Beauty that we need to get done. Whether it be on a consulting level or obviously with marketing agencies, we need a ton of support constantly, when it comes to branding and the creativity behind all that work. So we’re really fortunate that we work with some agencies and organizations that believe in our brand as much as we did, to the point where one of the agencies, Sid Lee, that we work with has donated by the end of this year, it’ll be over $500,000 worth of work to work with.

[00:22:05] Suzanne F. Stevens: Wow.

[00:22:06] Jennifer Harper: Pretty incredible.

[00:22:08] Suzanne F. Stevens: That is incredible. That’s a nice collaboration. Do you have any advice for people looking for collaborators or suppliers on what they should be looking for, especially when you’re starting out and trying to, have this huge impact creating an environmentally friendly product?

[00:22:28] Jennifer Harper: Yeah, again, I think it goes back to just that authenticity piece. Sid Lee didn’t come looking for us. We were looking for an agency, they heard our story, but we also were very well positioned. In, in terms of we already had Sophora thing happening. Not only is it, they’re doing impact work for their organization, but I think them working for us works felt well for them too.

 It becomes this real partnership and belief in what brands can do, especially brands that are trying to make an impact. There was no expectation for this agency to do any of this work on a pro bono basis.

This came after. This is the marketing agency that created the We The North Campaign for the Toronto Raptors. So we could not afford this agency whatsoever. One of our team members brought them to one of our meetings and after I’m thinking, why, what are you doing? We can’t afford this agency at all.

However, They [Sid Lee] heard our brand story and believed in us and believed in the work we were trying to do. And that’s when they became involved with us. I just believe it’s that authenticity when you’re building something special the right people come around and see it. I think if you go asking for it, it’s not going to happen the way that we might anticipate..

[00:23:36] Suzanne F. Stevens: For years we’ve been told, go after who you want to work with, who you want to rep with, but if you’re doing your job well, people will find you. And which is probably why you said yes to me is that people will find you, if they know where to find you, right?

The more people I can amplify your voice and share your business with more people, it’s easier to find you. And I thank you for that. Do you engage your customers in any way in your contributions to youth?

[00:24:10] Jennifer Harper: I think when you become a part of our community and that’s what we call our customers in our community. I’ve been told by them that it’s a feeling. Not only do you get a great amazing product that you feel so good about using, and it’s the ingredients are safe for your skin.

You’re not putting anything harmful on your body. And the packaging is just so thoughtful. We’re very transparent in our social media. So we have shared this whole journey of transformation with our community. They get this incredible product, but they also feel it’s a feeling they get, you’re a part of something really special. Like you’re helping us impact Indigenous kids.

 I just got this message this afternoon Buju, which is hello and Amish NABI more in my language. My name is Sophia. I’m not gonna say her last name. I’m 13. And I’m from a first nation that I can’t say either because it’s really long.

” How was your meeting the dragons? This was so cool. Anyways, it changed my life. I always thought I had to be a native to show or how to become a bigger person. And thank you for showing others how they can be better at whatever they do. I want to be an actress and thank you again. I have more confidence than before. “

And th that’s like a message that I get constantly and regularly, and our community is a part of that. The only reason I’m getting those messages is because of their support. It’s only with the support of our community that we keep growing and are able to just keep doing things better, making better products and making a bigger impact on Indigenous youth.

[00:25:42] Suzanne F. Stevens: I love the, that you call it your community. They’re your customers, but their community, a customer. So they have a voice at the table.

[00:25:49] Jennifer Harper: Absolutely. We’ve had several different things when we’re launching new products or events where they would have been invited in.

We do small groups of people. When we launched our complexion pencils, we had a hundred of them involved in getting their feedback and opinions on how to use the products, what they thought about them. So they’re heavily involved. We’ve long gone are the days when the beauty industry gets dictated to us anymore the kinds of products we want. It’s about bringing it back to the people and why we get to ask them what they want and then we have the ability to bring it to them by making it for them.

[00:26:23] Suzanne F. Stevens: So what do you see as the biggest opportunity now? You’ve got some Sophara, and what’s next?

[00:26:29] Jennifer Harper: Global domination. Yeah, it’s a Sophora. Every major retailer in Canada and some in the US have reached out to us to start this relationship. We always said, no, we were always holding out for Sephora. And the reason was that  Sophora is already a global brand and we want it to be a global brand.

So for us, we feel like that’s a great partnership. This is just the beginning. We have learned so much. Again, did not come from the beauty industry, so a lot of our whole team has not come from the beauty industry. But we have had to figure all of this out. So just as having this new relationship with Sephora in Canada is new and then the United States next.

And then hopefully Australia, New Zealand, UK it’s not actually in the UK, but finding other places where we can grow Cheekbone Beauty.

[00:27:18] Suzanne F. Stevens: Traditionally, sweeping statement alert, is women like their ducks in a row and know everything before they do what they want to do. And that’s not what you did. You said I know I have a vision. I know I want an impact and I want representation. I love this product. I’ll learn it on the way. I think there’s a lot to be said for that courage. So congratulations on that.

We’ll figure it out and make us some bumps on the way, but we will figure it out. I say this on a personal note, I often have to remind myself of that because I always I’m similar to you. I’m always trying to figure it out. And sometimes I think, gosh, I just wish I had all those ducks in the row, but I never get anything done if I always had an all lined up. I appreciate that tremendously.

We’re going to move into rapid-fire questions and they are first thought best thought. And get and we always can edit. So with that are you ready? Okay.

What have you done? This made you uncomfortable, but if you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t, it was perfect. You wouldn’t have had the impact you are having.

[00:28:37] Jennifer Harper: Dragon’s Den for sure. Super uncomfortable. I do not, like public speaking and being on these platforms one-on-one is certainly not easy, but it is helped me definitely flex that courage muscle.

[00:28:49] Suzanne F. Stevens: Excellent. Worst piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:28:54] Jennifer Harper: Don’t start this brand.

[00:28:57] Suzanne F. Stevens: The best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:28:59] Jennifer Harper: Don’t be overly concerned about what everybody else is thinking or doing.

[00:29:03] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is one thing you wish you knew prior to engaging down the path of starting Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics?

[00:29:10] Jennifer Harper: I feel like every time I’ve learned something or made a mistake and learn from it, that it’s part of the process.

Like it has to happen that way. I’ve thought about this question a lot before, and I’m just like, no, it’s I wouldn’t have learned this. If this mistake didn’t happen. There’s nothing I can think of there that there’s probably a million things I wish I knew, but if I didn’t go through this process, then you’re not learning.

[00:29:30] Suzanne F. Stevens: I sure get that. Which of your strengths do you rely on most to have the success you’ve had achieved?

[00:29:35] Jennifer Harper: I think naive, it’s not a strength. No, it’s not.

[00:29:40] Suzanne F. Stevens: Ignorance is bliss. I actually feel there is a lot in that message. And yet I talk about consciousness and learning and understanding cultures and understanding social impact.

Sometimes it’s just doing it. If you thought about it too much, you probably wouldn’t do half the things we do.

[00:29:56] Jennifer Harper: Absolutely. And it’s been said many times when you’re entering an industry that you haven’t been in before. So you know nothing about this industry you’re looking at things through a completely different lens, which I think brings just a whole new perspective from it.

[00:30:10] Suzanne F. Stevens: Absolutely. How has your organization served your personal purpose and mission?

[00:30:19] Jennifer Harper: It has certainly helped me feel so empowered to help empower. This is really empowering to get to do this work for me personally. But it feels so good at the same time. I can’t believe some days that I get to wake up and this is my job.

[00:30:37] Suzanne F. Stevens (2): So besides yours, Indigenous youth, which beneficiary do you think needs the most investment of time and money?

[00:30:45] Jennifer Harper: Oh, my goodness. There are so many, but obviously, this is probably the typical answer, but on the planet, right? Climate crisis, all of those things to do with environmental issues where there’s a lot of work that has to be done.

[00:30:59] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now, interestingly enough, in the last few interviews that I have conducted, every person has said Indigenous. Necessarily Indigenous one was. But the other few were not. So Indigenous women or youth. So that’s been coming out quite a bit, which I thought, I wonder, know what you’re going to say, but of course, the earth right is such an important element for everybody or should be.

But our Indigenous peoples are very connected to the earth. So what is your best or good? It doesn’t even need to be good. It could be bad, leadership advice.

[00:31:39] Jennifer Harper: I just don’t feel qualified to answer this, but compassion. When I, or empathy, when I talk about telling speaking about empathy, it’s we have no idea what people are going through, whether it be work-home life. And to really add that into the equation, when we’re dealing with fellow human beings,

[00:31:55] Suzanne F. Stevens: It’s interesting.

And I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but your humility and your compassion, both of those are characteristics that I’ve interviewed over a hundred women in 25 countries, are two characteristics that are, there are a few others. One of them is consciousness, which is why you’re being interviewed, that they all.

So when you say you’re not qualified to answer yet, you are because you are doing it and all these women, and I’m talking about women, I’ve interviewed in the UN, I’m talking about women, I’ve interviewed an African union. I’m telling you about women that have changed countries or I’m talking about small social enterprises that have a thousand people working for them.

You have that. And I just want to share that with you, but you do have it and you just haven’t maybe learned it, but it’s within you. And all those women have the same. So I just wanted you to know that.

 Who is the greatest female influence in your life?

[00:32:57] Jennifer Harper: Everyone knows how much of an Oprah fan I’ve always been, but she’s obviously it’s like one of those distant, I, since I was a teen watched director schools, and then while having my children, it was like that thing that you watched and then still connected to a lot of her work.

 But realistically when I just think of the experience that my mom has raised me in as a single mother and sort of the places that she’s been in had to come from. So certainly my mother is definitely one person, for sure.

[00:33:30] Suzanne F. Stevens: And you just mentioned children, which is great because that leads to my next question.

Do you have a daughter?

[00:33:35] Jennifer Harper: Yes.

[00:33:36] Suzanne F. Stevens: And how old is she now?

[00:33:37] Jennifer Harper: 16.

[00:33:38] Suzanne F. Stevens: Okay. So let’s put her at 10 years old today. Let’s pretend she’s 10. What advice would you give to your 10-year-old daughter today?

[00:33:50] Jennifer Harper: Ten-year-old Fallon. Wow. She’s a pretty incredible person. So, I have to tell you there’s. Maybe for her to be less sassy to me, but she’s I am, asking you what my son could be a different conversation, but I’m really scored big time on, on the daughter front.

 Probably because my husband and I wrote the oldest children in our family, and we are the ones that got in the most trouble, just like our son and the younger siblings learned from watching the older ones, or at least not to get caught as much as the younger ones. She’s an extremely high achiever and sometimes where it causes her anxiety. I constantly teach try to have more balance, right? However, it’s not her fault. She comes from a long line of overachievers.

Yeah,

[00:34:34] Suzanne F. Stevens: It’s funny. I wonder where they get that from? Last question, please share with us something that you want other women around the world to hear.

[00:34:42] Jennifer Harper: It’s possible. It is. And we can figure it out.

Like it might feel like getting out at the moment, but it’s all possible, whatever it is, whatever you want, whatever you’re doing, it’s possible.

[00:34:51] Suzanne F. Stevens: Thanks for that, Jen. And thank you for joining us. You can subscribe to YouMeWe Amplified. So you receive each new interview, notification your inbox, and please share this interview by going to the share button located on the page and note that we have several countries interviews from women all over the world who’ve had one thing in common they’ve all had a profound social impact. So check out the other interviews as well. And this interview will be available as a podcast, transcript and video. If you know someone who’s had a significant social impact in business education, civic service, or advocacy, let us know, is it the guest tab on the YouMeWe Amplified page and submit their information.

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Do you have any words of wisdom for our audience regarding making a contribution to society?

[00:36:02] Jennifer Harper: Be kind.

[00:36:05] Suzanne F. Stevens: Thank you for that.

 Until next time everyone make your contribution count for you. Me. We.