For more than 30 years, Jennifer Mearns has been the life partner of Geoffrey S. Mearns, President of Ball State University. She is also a mother, a grandmother, and an accomplished professional, having worked in sports marketing before becoming an executive recruiter.
In this episode, Jennifer shares more about her family, her college experience, and her initial impressions of Geoff when they first met. She also provides insights into how the couple navigated multiple career moves—and more than a few major life changes—throughout their years together.
Jennifer also reveals her influence in encouraging Geoff not to pass up one of the most meaningful experiences of his legal career. And she describes some of the reasons she loves Ball State, from her involvement in the Discovery Group to her interactions with students.
If you enjoy this episode, please leave a review to support the show.
For more than 30 years, Jennifer Mearns has been the life partner of Geoffrey S. Mearns, President of Ball State University. She is also a mother, a grandmother, and an accomplished professional, having worked in sports marketing before becoming an executive recruiter.
In this episode, Jennifer shares more about her family, her college experience, and her initial impressions of Geoff when they first met. She also provides insights into how the couple navigated multiple career moves—and more than a few major life changes—throughout their years together.
Jennifer also reveals her influence in encouraging Geoff not to pass up one of the most meaningful experiences of his legal career. And she describes some of the reasons she loves Ball State, from her involvement in the Discovery Group to her interactions with students.
If you enjoy this episode, please leave a review to support the show.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
David Letterman, Ball State's most famous graduate .. he hosts a show called My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. My guest on this episode of my podcast, Our Call to Beneficence—she doesn't need an introduction either, because my guest today is my wife, Jennifer.
For more than 30 years, Jennifer has been my partner in work and in raising our five children, and she has graciously agreed to answer my questions so that you can more fully appreciate how very fortunate I am.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Thank you, Jennifer.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Thank you.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So why don't we begin? Tell us a little bit about your family. Tell me about your how many siblings, your father, your mother.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, I grew up in a very large family, eight children. And my parents were just fantastic parents. My father was a self-made businessman, and my mother was a stay-at-home mother. She was an incredible mother, had not had the benefit of having a mother growing up because her mother died when she was about 12. And so, she really put a lot into her kids.
My dad, he left high school because he was working in a men's clothing store and doing very well. And I think he got bored with high school, so he decided to move on. He went into the Navy and when he came out, he started working at French's, the mustard company, and he started out in as an office boy and worked his way up to sales—a salesperson—and ended up traveling, getting relocated all over the place. So, we moved every 2 to 3 years and my mother picked up those eight kids, packed them up, moved on to the next place, while Dad had already gone off to do his next job. He got promoted pretty much every 2 to 3 years. As he did better, we moved.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So six sisters, one brother, right?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Six sisters, one brother.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And you were the sixth of the eight?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I was.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Okay. And as you said, you moved around a bit. Where did you grow up and where did you go to high school?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
So I started out in Illinois in suburban Chicago, but then my family moved back to Rochester, New York. That's where they their family had been from and that's where they got married. So, I was there for second grade through, like, the fifth grade. And then my dad got recruited to Hartz Mountain Corporation in New Jersey. So we moved to New Jersey when I was going into sixth grade.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
So middle school, high school, I was planted in New Jersey and my dad was in a corporate job at that point, so we didn't move after that.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, and at Hartz Mountain, when he retired, he was a senior vice president
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
He was the third person in the company, was senior vice president of sales and marketing. It's pretty incredible when you think about that today.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. Went from the mailroom to the C-suite.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
To the C-suite.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So where did you go to high school and tell us? Were you a good student?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, I went to Governor Livingston Regional High School in Berkley Heights, New Jersey. And no, I was not. I was a very average student, pretty much my whole my whole life. I think back then we used to have the kids used to joke and say we had three levels of class. There were the smart kids, the dumb kids and kind of the average kids.
Well, I was always an average kid, so I didn't really aspire to be a particularly good student. If Cs were fine with me, which I find really hard to believe right now because looking back, I don't know what I was thinking … But anyway, it took me until I got into college before I really matured academically. So in high school, by my junior year, I went on the business track.
I don't know, you know, some schools are getting back into that—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Meaning you're planning to go directly into work after you graduated from high school?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Exactly. I wasn't taking college prep courses at that point. I took business classes at County teaching communications, typing, stenography. I took all those classes in high school. And then my senior year I went on work study. So I would go to school in the morning and then at 12 o’clock I was out. I'd go to lunch with my friend, and she dropped me off at my job, which was at a manufacturing company.
So, I was doing inventory control in the afternoons, getting paid, and getting high school credit. I thought it was pretty … I was doing pretty well.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
But you ended up going to college … not necessarily planned. And you ended up going to what was then called Bryant College. It's now called Bryant University, outside of Providence, Rhode Island. How did it come about that you went to college? How did you choose Bryant?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, I have to say, my business teacher, Mrs. Perry, was the one who pushed me and said, “Jennifer, you have a lot of potential. You really need to go to college, even if you just get an associate's degree.” She really encouraged me. She got me in the business club. I ended up as president. And she … it is kind of ironic that it took the business track to get me to college, but somebody told me about Bryant, and they had an associate's degree program, and it was, I think it was called secretarial studies or something … they don't have it anymore.But I took that thinking, I'll just go for two years and then I'll go to work. And about six weeks into college, I called my parents and I said, “I hope you don't mind, but I want to stay 4 years.” So, and they were they were very supportive. They weren't pushing me to go to college, but they were very happy that I decided to go to college. And I actually am very happy I decided to go to college as well.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And you're like many of our students here at Ball State who were in the first generation of their families to go to college. Neither of your parents graduated from college and a couple of your older sisters did. So were you a good student at Bryant?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I actually was a very good student at Bryant. I actually learned how to study. I actually did the work. I don't know what I was doing in high school. I was hanging out with my friends.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Doing homework actually helps. [laughs]
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
It does. And I just really took that to heart … It was more interesting. Like, it was practical and I could see the value of it. Also, we had all of our teachers were not necessarily professors. Some of them were working in the business world and they would teach an adjunct class here or there. So I thought my the professors I did have there and the teachers I had there were had real world experience, which I thought was fantastic.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. And it's now a comprehensive university, but it evolved from really a business focused institution.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
It was all business focus at the time. There was Babson, Bentley, and Bryant. We were the three B schools, and it really was all business, accounting, finance, …what do we call it?...information systems. And then the four-year program that I ended up in was called … it was a bachelor's in business in office administration. So the irony of that is that it was the intention was to train people to run word processing centers in large corporations.
So that's what I was being trained to do. And around that time something happened that made that totally irrelevant. And that's because the PC was invented. And so, I got the core business courses, got what I needed, but my specialty, I was the last graduating class for that major.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So while you're in college, you also became an athlete, a competitive distance runner, not something you had been doing previously. How did that how did that happen? And tell us about your first cross-country race as a sophomore at Bryant College.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, my roommate had been a pretty impressive track athlete in high school. She was a pentathlete. And she was she had gone out for cross-country just to stay in shape. Well, they didn't really have a cross-country team. The women were running with the men's team. So they had three women and they needed five to score. They were hosting a meet. And it was a big meet, like a divisional championships or something. And they really wanted to score as a team. So she begged me to come out and run this cross-country…. I had never I didn't even really know what cross-country was, to be honest.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And you hadn't trained?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I hadn't trained. I was wearing a visor, the whole race, with buttons on it, like promotional buttons. So anyway, that was pretty embarrassing. But I did come out and she was a great friend and I think I was a great friend, quite frankly. Well, I wasn't last … I was second to last, and the last person was limping, so she had broken something, I think.
So I went out and I did it. I got into the woods. It was a real great course where you really go through the woods and steep hills. And I kept thinking, I can't believe people do this, like what is going on? So I was walking most of the hills and panting, but at the end it really was kind of fun. And I thought, “Wow, if I actually try to train for that, that could be fun.”
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And you actually did start training and turned out to be a very good competitive distance runner. Tell us about some of your significant accomplishments.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, that next year I committed to actually help build a team. So we went out knocking on doors at the dorms and the townhouses, begging women to come out, anybody who ran in high school or like to run. So, we actually started building a team and in cross-country, you know, because I'd never run before, I think I set a personal record every race I ran in college. In each race, I got better. In cross-country, it's different because the courses are different. But even considering that, just because I was learning to run and training, so that was real motivating … like, if you do better every time.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So, so this was not long after Title IX had been passed. So women's sports were expanding. And so, you actually qualified for the NCAA National Cross Country Championships as a senior, only two years after your first race, right?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I did. And it was one of those … it was one of those situations where they had the top three teams would qualify and then individuals. So I — first of all, I really didn't think I was going to qualify. My coach didn't really either. I mean, I was going to try, but it was highly unlikely. So we finished the race and I didn't think I qualified. But then because of the way some of the people ahead of me were on the winning teams, it dropped down. And so, we were both shocked but really excited to go to Cape Girardeau and run in that race.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And since you're too modest to say it, I'll say it, which is … and I'd like to say this to crowd: You know, I was a competitive distance runner myself, but only one of the two of us are in our college sports’ Hall of Fame. And it ain't me, right?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Okay. Well, my school's a little smaller, less known than yours.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Okay, but still, it's quite an accomplishment.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
And it was Division 2 at the time. Yeah, now it's Division 1, but yeah, at the time...
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So what was your first job after college?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, my first job was not what I wanted to do. But I needed a job. And so, I took a job in insurance, doing claims administration. I took the job because it was in New York City and would give me the opportunity to move into the city. It actually paid very well, but it wasn't—I was trying to get into the sports marketing industry.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. Why did you want to get into sports?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, while I was in college and running, I would read Runner's World magazine and read about the you know, again, like you mentioned, Title IX and just women's running was really big at the time. And Avon had a women's running circuit that was a very big hit—maybe ten city races. I kept reading about this and I thought somebody's got to do that as their job, you know, looking at the sponsors and things.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
So, I read about Katherine Switzer, who was the person organizing that at the time. She's the one who got pulled off the course at the Boston Marathon before women were allowed to run. Anyway, that's a whole other story. But I wrote her a letter and said, I'm coming home for spring break and I'd love to meet with you and learn more about the industry.
So, I did. I met with her, and she was very encouraging for most of the meeting. Toward the end of the meeting, she said, “Well, Jennifer, you seem really smart. You're obviously a very accomplished athlete. But if you if I had a job today, I couldn't hire you.” And I was very discouraged by that. And she said, “You don't have any experience. And I need people who have actually organized a road race or worked a finish line or organized volunteers.”
So, she said to me, “What I would do is I would volunteer for the Road Runner's Club and get some experience. And then if a job comes up down the road, I'd love to hire you.”
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So while you were doing that, you actually got a job at Madison Square Garden about a year after you graduated from college?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, yeah, I was running up to the Roadrunners Club and volunteering, and I learned about that job at Madison Square Garden through another volunteer. So, a networking there. And yeah, I got hired as a public relations assistant. My secretarial skills came in very handy in that job. I was doing a lot of typing and answering phones and I was the low person on the totem pole. But I was working at Madison Square Garden.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
With sporting events and concerts and entertainment events. And yeah, professional wrestling.
So, while you were working at MSG, at Madison Square Garden, we were introduced. I was teaching at a private school in Morristown, New Jersey, about an hour outside of New York City, and we were introduced by some mutual friends. So, tell us how that first encounter came about.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, they thought we were going to be the perfect match, because we both came from big families. We're both Irish Catholic. We're both running. So, they tried to fix us up …I went out to New Jersey to run in a race. And you were out there living in Morristown. But I came out for the from the city. It was a race in Madison, New Jersey. And my parents came to watch me run the race. Now, at this point, I hadn't met you, but I'd heard about you and knew we were going to meet at this race. But anyway, I was talking to my dad and you came up—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And tried to start a conversation with you and you—
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, it was an inopportune time for Richard to bring you over to me because I was talking to my dad. But so I, I, I turn to you and Richard introduced us. I said, “Oh, nice to meet you.” And then I turned back to my dad—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And so that was it. That was it.
So, but we met later. They persisted… months later, about six months later. And in fact, did you—
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Can I stop you for just a second?
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Sure.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
As a father now, with four girls, can you blame me for wanting to talk to my dad other rather than this guy that somebody is trying to fix me up with?
[GEOFF MEARNS]
No, but I told you, you only get two questions. You just used up one of your two. [laughs]
So today, though, is … as we're recording this … today is the 40th anniversary of the real first time that we met. We met and they introduced us at a bar in Manhattan.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
In Tribeca.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
In Tribeca. So, 40 years ago today. What was your initial impression that evening?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, you were very skinny.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
That's it?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
You had … actually skinny jeans were in then. So, and he had a flannel shirt and skinny jeans and he was so thin because he had just run a marathon like two weeks before … a very fast marathon. So I was pretty impressed by the marathon. Time of 2:16 is really impressive.
But I was surprised when he walked in how skinny he was.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Wow. So that's the first impression. Okay. But we've been together ever since.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Yes, we have.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Okay.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
As I like to say, we've been dating ever since.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So less than two years later, I was heading off to law school, leaving New Jersey and the New York area, and going off to law school at the University of Virginia. And I told you as I was heading off that I wanted to get married then. But you didn't say yes. Why not? Why did you not say yes?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, because of the timing. I mean, we'd only been dating for about a year and a half, I think that's right?
[[GEOFF MEARNS]
But also, you had a pretty good job at that time—
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well wait, I'm getting there. And because of my job, I was working as a media liaison on the men's professional tennis tour, which meant that I was traveling 30 to 30 weeks a year all over the world. I would be the representative for the tour at that particular event. And so getting in and out of New York City, to go wherever I needed to go, first of all, was very … I mean, was the most convenient.
Also, we didn't have cell phones, we didn't have email. You couldn't work remotely. So that would have been I would leave that job to go down to Charlottesville to watch him study.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Right. So, most of the people will understand why you didn't say yes, but you eventually did agree to marry. And I say eventually, because it was more than three years later after I first said I wanted to marry you, and I proposed to you on your birthday, November 9th in Louisville, Kentucky, and I gave you my paternal great grandmother's engagement ring, which you're wearing today.
Why don't you tell us about how you reacted when I gave you that ring that evening?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
You love to tell this story, don't you?
[GEOFF MEARNS]
I'm letting you tell this story.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
It makes me sound so bad. No, I said, okay, first of all, the ring was in a little white plastic box, like you would see in a bubble gum thing—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Because that's all I could afford.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Velvet inside, blue velvet. And so it looked like a cubic zirconium or something. So I said to have it, is it real?
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And I said, “Why don't you give it back?”
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
And I said, “No, is it real?” And he said, “Of course it's real.” And I said, “Oh, I'll keep it then!” I said, “You're kidding.” I really couldn't believe it. It was so big and so sparkly. I really did think it was fake. So it was … I wasn't trying to be mean, honey…
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And it was fate because the ring fit perfectly from the first time you put it.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Yes, it did. And it still does.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And so you said yes.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Yes, I did say yes—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Finally .. but you put a condition on your acceptance. What was the condition that you set for us actually getting married?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
That you had to come to New York City and try it for a year or two. And if you didn't like it, I agreed that we could leave, but that you needed to promise to at least give it a try.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And I did. So after I finished, I was clerking for a federal appellate court judge in Louisville, Kentucky. And so, after I completed my clerkship and shortly after we got married, I moved to New York City and was working first, then for a very large law firm, an international law firm. And then I got a job at the United States Attorney's Office as a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York.
And you were very happy—
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I celebrated. [laughs]
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Why were you so happy that I got that job, even though it took a huge pay cut?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Because it was at least a three-year commitment in New York at that office. And I knew we were there for at least three years. So, I was very happy for you, because I knew it was a job you really wanted. But I was very happy for me too.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So it worked out.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
And then it was six years.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
That's correct.
And while we were living in New York City together, we had our first two children, Bridget and Christina. You were still working and traveling the country and other places around the world. You also at that time were serving on the governing board of Bryant University. You'd been appointed to the Board of Governors for your alma mater.
How were you able to juggle all of those responsibilities with two children in Brooklyn, New York?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
It's kind of a blur, to be honest with you. I mean, I think the fact that we didn't have work flexibility then and I was very, you know, my job was really important to me, and I loved it and I wanted to do a good job. But we had a wonderful nanny in Brooklyn. She was a partner, and that gave me peace of mind when I went to work.
And you were very helpful and very supportive. You know, you would do what you could on your times, and I don't know … I mean, I think because I was happy doing what I was doing, and I really loved being a mom. I loved the kids and spending time with them. So, I was fortunate to be able to blend both of those.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
But we could afford the nanny. I mean, I don't know what I would have done if I had to take kids to daycare or, you know, I think that would have been overwhelming. So I think that's some of it.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So now we often hear people talk about work-life balance. The life side of our balance was changing diapers in the middle of the night.
So then after being living in New York together for about seven years with two children, we packed up and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, while I was still working in the Justice Department and our middle daughter Clare was born there in Raleigh.
What were you doing for work at the time, now, with three little kids?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, can I just tell you about that move?
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Sure.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I still remember, we went from Brooklyn in a brownstone to … I don't know if you remember this …to a minivan in Raleigh, North Carolina, living in a three-bedroom, kind of, you know, like a temporary apartment. And I walked out of the apartment into the car and my glass is fogged up. And I looked at myself and I thought, “What…what have I done?” [laughs]
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Or what have I done to you?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
What have I done? Here I am, what has happened to me with my minivan? [laughs]
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yes, we moved from a brownstone in Brooklyn to a beautiful new home on a cul de sac northwest of Raleigh, North Carolina
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Very suburban. And I mean, it was great. I really adjusted to it. But I just still remember that, like “What? How did I get here?”
[GEOFF MEARNS]
She would often paraphrase the line from The Wizard of Oz: “We're not in Brooklyn anymore.”
So back to my question. What were you doing for work?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Okay, sorry. Oh, so that .. I had been working with a company in New York just before we—I don’t even know if you remember this—I'd only been with them for about eight months, and I went in to tell them I was leaving. And before I could open my mouth, the chairman said —the guy who had hired me, the CEO—he handed me an envelope with a bonus check. And I looked at him and I sai,d “Oh, Greg, I'm—I'm sorry. I can't accept that. I came in here to tell you that I'm leaving. My husband got a job in North Carolina, so I'm going to have to leave.” And he was like, “Well, first of all, keep the check … we’ve got to figure this out.” So long story short, I came up with a consulting agreement for them, and so I was able to work a modified schedule. I think I … they gave me a minimum of like 25 hours a week, but I would bill whatever hours I worked, and that's when I started working remotely was 1995.
So yeah, I was very fortunate to have a company that was willing to do that because they, you know, nobody was doing remote work at the time. So, I did that and I had a babysitter come while I was working and it worked out well.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So, after two years in Raleigh, we decided to move to Shaker Heights, where my parents were living, and several of my siblings were there. But before we moved, when I was still in the Justice Department, I was contacted about participating or possibly participating in the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing case, the second prosecution against Terry Nichols. I initially declined to be interviewed, and when I told you that, you didn't agree with me. What did you tell me and why?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I said, “You have to do that.” And I remember you said, “But it doesn't make sense.” And I said, “That is such an opportunity for you, professionally and personally. That's something you really, really cannot turn down. So I said, you have to you have to make that call and see what happens.”
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And as I recall, you said also something to the effect of “If the attorney general of the United States thinks you're the right person to assist in the representation of the United States, in that case, then your country is asking you to do something.” But you were the one who had to make extraordinary sacrifices to enable me to take advantage of that opportunity.
And so, over the next ten months, I was living in a hotel in Denver. I was coming home initially to Raleigh and then to Shaker Heights, maybe for about 36 hours on a weekend, maybe every two or three weeks before the trial started. And we had moved from Raleigh to Shaker Heights with our three young children, three kids under the age of six.
And then you found out that you were pregnant with twins. Tell us that story.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Yeah, that that was really unbelievable. Umm, yeah, so when we got to Shaker Heights, I went off to a business trip in Brazil and came back, and I thought I wasn't feeling well because of the water in Brazil. And then I realized I wasn't feeling well because I was expecting a baby.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
You recognize that feeling?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I did recognize that feeling. So I went to the get my ultrasound because I was concerned I might be having some issues. And when they did the ultrasound, the woman took the pictures, said everything, looked great, handed it to me, and then she said, “Oh, wait a minute, there's another one.” And up on the screen, pops the second heart, beating heart.
She said, “You're having twins.” And I really thought she was kidding at first. I couldn't … she said I had the Home Alone face. I had my hands on the sides of my face. And I said, “I can't have twins! I have three kids who are five and under!” And she said, “Welcome to Cleveland, dear. That's what happens here.” [laughs]
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And then as you were driving home, what did you see?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
I see a big banner across the road that says Twinsburg Twins Festival. I—I didn't even know this was a thing, but it … I felt like I was in a movie. Twinsburg, because Twinsburg is very close to Shaker Heights. But so anyway, I just I felt like I was in a movie, so I drove right to your mother.
Your mother was the mayor of Shaker Heights at the time, and she was the only one who knew I was pregnant, because I wasn't having a glass of wine with dinner. What does that say about me? [laughs] And so, I went straight to City Hall, pulled her out of a meeting and told her. And so, the two of us were laughing and crying and went into the conference room.
She said, “Have you told Geoff?” I said, “No, I haven't yet.” And she said, “Come in here, you need to call him.” So we called you together and told you the news—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
I remember that call. I was sitting at my desk in in Denver, and the caller ID popped up and I saw it was the office number of my mother's office. And when I picked up the phone, you were on the phone and you said, “Are you sitting down?” And I was concerned that perhaps we were losing the baby and you said “It's twins,” and you immediately burst into tears and then handed the phone to my mother, who laughed and then she cried. And the phone was going back and forth between the two of you. And I was just trying to get some information about what was happening because … and then the next day when we spoke, we didn't have a trial date yet. So I was trying to do the calculation of when these twins were going to be born and whether I would be back in time to be there when the twins were delivered—
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
And I said, “Oh, you'll be back in time.”
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And I said, “Well, I'm concerned the trial is going to take too long.” And you simply said, “You will be home,” and this is a true story. I got home in January, late on a Tuesday night, and 48 hours later you went into premature labor. So, I cut it pretty close. But I did get home and—
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Then I was in the hospital for three weeks. On bed rest.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
I do remember, because there were three kids at home and I was going to see you in the hospital. So those were … those were pretty busy times. And you were still working at that time. What were you doing then?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
At that point? I was working for that same company that had let me work from home in North Carolina, Sirk. And so I was doing, you know, leading large global accounts. But I could lay on, you know, on the bed with my laptop next to me. And at that point, we did have cell phones. So it, you know, it kept me busy while I was on bed rest.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So, then you worked as a partner and in an executive recruiting business for sports called Team Work Consulting. You joined the partnership with a colleague?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
With Buffy Filippell. Yeah.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And what was that business? What was that nature of that?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
We did executive recruiting for the front office positions of—she had started out with teams and leagues, doing sales, promotions, general management…no athletes.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
You weren't doing athletes or coaches?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
No, no athletes or coaches. And then when I came in, because I had been on the corporate sponsorship side, um, an agency side, I started doing recruiting and helping to build the business on that side. And it worked pretty effectively. I think within two years we doubled the business, um, and she taught me recruiting. I had never recruited before.
So she taught me all the ins and outs of recruiting. Very smart, very successful. You know, the sports business students at Ball State, many of them, they use Teamwork Online, that her company. And she started that when I was working with her. She really was always ahead of her time.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And as you say, she introduced you to executive recruiting, and at some point working with Buffy, you decided to form your own company, but not in sports business. What is your executive recruiting business and who are your principal clients?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
So yeah, now I do executive recruiting just for general businesses, and I work more as a consultant as if I were an in-house recruiter. So, I just work with a couple of companies, my main clients right now are Eaton Corporation, which is a global conglomerate. They do electrical and industrial manufacturing, about a $20 billion company. And then XPO Logistics, which is a … until recently a $17 billion company. They've now spun off some of their companies into other GXO, RSO, I work with all of them. And I work across all functional areas, so it could be operations, finance, HR, sales and marketing, IT, engineering. It really depends on what their needs are … mostly director level and above, up to … not really C-level, kind of between director and C-level.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And you've had this business now for over a decade, what—
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
18 years.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
18 years. What is rewarding to you about this work?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, I really like the variety of working with—first of all, I love client relationships. I like to get to know the business, understand the strategy, and help them solve problems. And that's what I've been doing really my whole career. And for recruiting … I love it because I do—I never know what's next. And again, because it's all functional areas, I have to learn about each of those jobs so that I can effectively recruit and assess talent for those jobs.
So, I always say it's like I slept in a Holiday Inn Express. I know just enough to have a conversation at a cocktail party or when I run into somebody and they'll say, “Do you work in banking?” And I'm like, “Oh no, I've just recruited in banking.” But I like the variety of it, and I also love to make that match. It changes somebody's life, getting a new job. And it also can really impact the company by getting the right team.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So we moved to Muncie to join Ball State. That was May of 2017, and since that time, you've become become involved in several activities and organizations in the community and on campus, including the Discovery Group. What is the Discovery Group?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
So the Discovery Group is a women's philanthropic group. Women come together and contribute to a fund that then the group decides what we're going to fund. And the things we fund are projects that are proposed by Ball State faculty that include—they have to include students, mainly undergraduate students. They have to impact the community and they have to align with the Beneficence Pledge.
So those are the kind of criteria that we use … but we all get together and people submit grant proposals, and then we have a group that narrows down to a handful, and then we decide what we're going to fund. So it's a way to be investing in the University, but have some say, kind of like an angel investment fund, I would say.
And then it also, you have the relationship building aspect of the of the group, which is wonderful. We actually have our holiday reception this week, which is a really beautiful event we have each year. We come together and the grant recipients from the previous year will tell us, you know, more about the impact that the grant made for them.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
What is your favorite thing about being a partner with me here at Ball State?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, you're so much fun. So being around you is great.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
I'm blushing now.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
No, I … anything that involves students I love. I mean, just being again, our kids are a little older now, but when we came here, we had kids in college, same age, as a lot of the students. But just to get to know them, to see what they're doing. It’s just amazing to be on campus and just experience all the student—you know—musical theater, dance, the sports clubs.
So, yeah, I think that's—I think that's the most meaningful. It's beautiful campus. The people in Muncie are wonderful. It's such an engaging community. But if I had to pick one thing, it's being around the students.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
That's why we're here.
And speaking of students and children, and in addition to our five children, we now have three grandsons. How often do you get to see those little boys?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Not often enough. What did we do wrong that our children are so far away?
[GEOFF MEARNS]
We’ve got to play the long game. [referring to grandsons] We’ve got two in California and one in France.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
So yeah, it’s a long way to go to see them. And I, you know, as we know and everybody knows, the kids grow up very quickly. We're very fortunate to have face time or WhatsApp to be able to do video, which our parents didn't have. I mean, my parents moved away when our kids were young and our kids really only saw them once, maybe twice a year.
And my father, who's just turned 95, said that's his only regret in life, is that he moved away when some of his grandkids were young and local. And he sees people have this intense relationship with their grandparents or the grandkids and that's his only regret. So, I've tried to take that to heart.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So the final question, and it's the same one that I ask all of the guests on my podcast, and it's about Beneficence, which as you know, is the statue that is the symbol of the culture, the distinctive culture here at our university. It's a tangible, invisible reminder of our enduring values. And of course, as you know, beneficence means the act of doing good, doing good for other people. What does beneficence mean to you?
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Well, that the symbol that has resonated with me since we got here. I mean, I think it's a beautiful statue. And I think using it as a symbol for the university … it just makes so much sense. But I think just trying to keep the beneficent spirit in your heart to do good every day, to think about how can I do better? How can I do something for someone? How can we do something better for the university? How can we engage more?
I walk, as you know, I walk in the morning and I pretty much, if anybody wanted to find me, they could find me pretty much on the same route every day. And I always, every morning, I walk by Beneficence, and I look up and I say, “Benny, be with me, guide me, help me.” And also ask her for some patience, too. But really, to me, it's a beautiful symbol. And the fact that the university has embraced it and the whole community has embraced the spirit. I've never been in a place that's more grateful as a whole than Muncie and the Ball State community.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Well, thank you for—I'm grateful. Thank you for being a guest on my podcast. Thank you for all that you do for Ball State and for Muncie and for our children and grandchildren and all that you continue to do for me. Thank you.
[JENNIFER MEARNS]
Thank you. I'm grateful for you every day.