The Emmy Winning Communicator, Jessica Chen - CEO of Soulcast Media

Jessica Chen, an Emmy-winning journalist, and CEO of Soulcast Media, shares her journey from intern to an award-winning reporter and successful entrepreneur, offering valuable lessons for listeners aiming to achieve their own success. She emphasizes the critical role of communication skills, especially in fast-paced environments, and how mastering proactive, concise messaging can lead to professional growth. Through her own experiences, including winning an Emmy for her wildfire coverage, Jessica underscores the value of teamwork and leveraging social media, like LinkedIn, to build connections. Listen to her story and choose which action will help you most today.

ACTION PRINCIPLES

Pick one thing to do this week:

1. Develop better communication skills. Speaking and writing well is essential in every career. ACTION: Choose a communication-related skill you want to improve upon and practice it weekly.
2. Consider the ROI of your time. There's only so much time available, so spend it wisely on activities that will help you reach your goals faster. ACTION: Determine your most valuable activities and allocate 80% of your day to them.
3. Be strategic with social media. Your message should be clear and consistent, and it should be shared on the platform that reaches your ideal target audience. ACTION: Evaluate which social media platform(s) your target audience uses most and create a consistent presence there. 
4. Celebrate your wins. Acknowledging your progress in a positive, fun way will boost your motivation to keep going. ACTION: When you have a "win" moment, call a friend to share the good news and celebrate with them.

GUEST RESOURCES

Learn more about Jessica Chen by following her on LinkedIn. You can also purchase her book, Smart, Not Loud: How to Get Noticed at Work for All the Right Reasons. 

SUGGESTED LINKEDIN LEARNING COURSE:

Time Management Fundamentals

Dave Crenshaw develops productive leaders in Fortune 500 companies, universities, and organizations of every size. He has appeared in Time magazine, USA Today, FastCompany, and the BBC News. His courses on LinkedIn Learning have been viewed tens of millions of times. His five books have been published in eight languages, the most popular of which is The Myth of Multitasking—a time management bestseller. As an author, speaker, and online instructor, Dave has transformed the lives and careers of hundreds of thousands around the world. DaveCrenshaw.com

Transcript

Jessica Chen: 0:00

Wherever you get your first job in news, you want it to be in a small city, because if you make a mistake, no one's watching.

Dave Crenshaw: 0:10

That's a good point.

Unknown: 0:10

It's true.

Dave Crenshaw: 0:11

In this episode, you'll get to know Jessica Chen, the Emmy winning communicator, and you'll hear the story of how she climbed the ranks of journalism from intern to award winning reporter to author and LinkedIn learning instructor. I'm Dave Crenshaw, and this is my success Show. Welcome back friends to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show. This is where I interview some of the most successful people I've met in my life's journey, and I'm on a mission to find universal principles of success. I initially started this show to help my children succeed, and I thought, well, you'd like to enjoy learning along with them. So now I'm sharing it with you. If it's your first time here, you're not familiar with me. I'm a best selling author. I speak around the world of fortune, 500 companies, and I've taught millions of people how to be successful through my online courses, particularly my courses on LinkedIn. Learning this show is about creating something lasting, creating a legacy to help my family. But I thought you'd enjoy it too. And I'm looking for people who have multifaceted success in many areas of their lives, not just career or financial success, and my guest today fits that criteria. Before we dive into the interview, I always like to ask, if you know of someone who might make a great guest who has that multifaceted success, you can email your suggestion to guest at Dave crenshaw.com and also, as you listen to today's episode, listen for something you can do. Don't just be inspired, don't just gain knowledge. Those are great things. But look for an action you can take this week to make my guest success story a part of your success story. And my guest today is certainly interesting. Jessica Chen is the CEO of soulcast media, where she offers training in cross cultural communications and workplace confidence. Her clients include Google, LinkedIn, Mattel Harvard Business School, DraftKings and the CDC, an Emmy Award receiving journalist. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Fortune entrepreneur and Market Watch Jessica's communication courses on LinkedIn. Learning have over 2 million learners. Her book smart, not loud. How to get noticed at work for all the right reasons. Is a guide on how to authentically show up, speak up and truly feel seen at work. Jessica lives in Orange County, California with her husband and her son. Jessica, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Jessica Chen: 2:50

Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. Yeah, and

Dave Crenshaw: 2:54

I've really enjoyed looking at your courses on LinkedIn learning and Wow, your posts on LinkedIn are so popular, people love what you're sharing with them, so you're a great example of communication as well as being an expert in it.

Jessica Chen: 3:07

Yeah, LinkedIn has been great, and I'm I mean, that's how we connected, right? So the power of LinkedIn, well,

Dave Crenshaw: 3:13

and especially the family of instructors on LinkedIn learning I've really enjoyed the connections that I've made with other LinkedIn learning instructors. So I'm thrilled to have you here. Where are we reaching you today?

Jessica Chen: 3:25

I'm dialing in form from California, specifically Orange County. California. It's where my family and I are, and we've been here for about a few years now.

Dave Crenshaw: 3:34

That's a wonderful area, as we mentioned before. I was born in Orange County. I love that area. So let's dive into your story. Jessica and I always like to ask my guests the same question, which is a question that we all kind of get asked as we're growing up. But as I'm asking this, I'm thinking in terms of, like, your high school years, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Jessica Chen: 3:56

It's the question that I always think about. It induces so much stress and anxiety for a lot of young students, because it's a question that parents ask them all the time, what do you want to be when you grow up? Well, ironically, even in high school, I was actually pretty clear in terms of what I wanted to be. In that sense, I've always wanted to be a journalist. I've always wanted to be specifically a television journalist. So even in high school, we didn't have, of course, like a student broadcasting program back then, but we did have a newspaper and we had yearbook, right? So for me, I signed up to be a part of those programs, and that really kind of got my journalism juices flowing. And that's when I decided, really, then and there, that this was a quote, unquote industry I wanted to pursue. Which

Dave Crenshaw: 4:46

came first? Was it the classes, or was it someone that you saw or something you read about journalism or learned about it that made you excited about it? Well,

Jessica Chen: 4:56

here's a funny story. So we're gonna go way back to when I was. About five or six years old. So one of the funny family traditions that we had growing up, and I don't know if family, I mean, I'm gonna assume maybe families don't do this so much anymore, but about, you know, 25 some years ago, you know, families would gather together and watch the news like this was before the iPads the iPhones, right? And I remember distinctly this was my family's tradition. We would all sit around and watch The 10 O'Clock News together, and this was when we were in the Bay Area, that's where I grew up. And I remember my parents would always jokingly say, oh, Jessica, when you become an adult, you should work on the news like them, so we can see you every day and know that you're safe. Obviously, to a five and six year old at the time, it didn't mean much then, but I will say it's little seeds of ideas like that that just get kind of like implanted in your head. And by no means was that why I went into journalism, but it certainly got me curious. And then, of course, you're watching them, and then you're like, Wow. You know, those folks are so well spoken, so well put together, like they're delivering the news. And I started getting curious. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw: 6:11

it at least opened up that idea of you thinking, Wait, what is this? Should I do this? That is an interesting thing to say to a five or six year old, though maybe you already showed some ability to speak confidently in front of them, perhaps.

Jessica Chen: 6:25

Well, here's another funny thing. So back then, all of us had, like, the home phones, where we had the voice answering machine, right? It's not like on our phones. And I remember my parents actually had me record our family's like voicemail. So it was like, you know, thank you for calling the Chen residents, right? And then I was, I was the one announcing it, and I remember my parents saying that a lot of their friends who would call our house would say, Oh, is that your daughter? Her voice is very clear. And again, a small compliment. But, you know, to a young child, you're like, Oh, I did something good.

Dave Crenshaw: 6:59

Yeah. The funny thing about this is, at the end of every episode, Jessica, my daughter Darcy, does the the credits for it, and she's also very confident, very well spoken and expresses really well. So who knows, maybe we've started her on a path of being a journalist like you. So where did it go from high school, you're doing that and you're enjoying being in that class. So is that something that you pursued in college? Was that the degree that you went after?

Jessica Chen: 7:30

So I ended up going to school at UC San Diego, and ironically, UC San Diego does not have a journalism program, and that was sort of disappointing, because I was interested in it. But I will say, the four years I was there, it was an opportunity for me to start to explore like, is this actually an industry that I want to do there? I mean, there certainly is no program. So because there was no journalism major, what I ended up majoring in was actually International Studies. And I actually thought that that was a good option. Because if I wanted to be a real journalist one day, I wanted to be an international correspondent. I wanted to work for big networks overseas, in Asia, Europe, wherever, right? So I was like, Okay, well, majoring international studies would be great, but because UC San Diego did not have a journalism program, and I was like, You know what? Let me just see what this is about. So I got an internship at the fox five station in San Diego, California, and that was for the very first time where I said, this is what I want to do. I'm suddenly surrounded by journalists, producers, and they are doing work that constantly impressed me. And it wasn't just like the work of like putting news together and how they gathered it. It was them being able to go out and be a part of the story, tell the stories, and above all, make a difference. So once I graduated, that's when I was like, I want to be a journalist. So not an intern anymore. I want to I want a job as a journalist at a news station.

Dave Crenshaw: 9:12

So typically, they don't let an intern just jump right out in the field. So what sort of tasks were they having you do, and what sort of things were you learning as an intern that was sort of preparing you for that opportunity?

Jessica Chen: 9:26

Yes, you're right. Certainly they're not putting an intern on live television. So as an intern, what you're really doing is you're behind the scenes, and you are, let's say you're doing some research. So like, in addition to the reporters covering their own individual stories. You typically see the anchors on TV, and they're reading stories, and they're going story by story by story. I mean, we all know it, we all see it, but somebody has to write that. Typically, it's a producer who writes that. But as an intern, you know, they, they'll have us interns kind of practice writing the script, and then they'll. Revise it, but it gives us a good idea of how to write in the broadcast style, which was something I learned because writing an email in that style, or writing an essay or a long form newsletter is completely different from how you write a broadcast news show. You have to write it in the way you're basically talking. And that was a training that I couldn't get in school because we didn't have a journalism program. But I certainly was surrounded by some amazing, generous reporters and anchors who were saying, Oh, you want to try to use these kinds of words instead of this kind of word, like, you want to write it in like this way. So that's kind of where I started the learning and then one of the coolest parts was you get to go out onto the field and shadow them as they're in the news van, and you're riding with them in the news van, kind of going from place to place. And I loved that. I thought that was so exciting.

Dave Crenshaw: 10:55

Was there someone who was a mentor to you during this time, or someone that you really wanted to follow their example, is there a story that stands out in your mind, that illustrates that there were so

Jessica Chen: 11:07

many in and I feel very fortunate, because I wouldn't say there was like a mentor who Shepherd me along the way, I think, and maybe it's the credit to that particular news station. I just felt like everybody there was a lot of the reporters at the time were quite young, like they were like, in their like, mid to late 20s, early 30s. So everybody had this like, fun young vibe. And then you have like, a 19 year old, you know, who was wanting to learn. Because these folks are still pretty fresh in the industry, too. But you know, I felt like everybody there was so supportive, and any questions that I had, they certainly helped with. I mean, I do remember that I had this one mentor who did teach me the power of using your voice, not in the sense of like, Oh, speaking up, but just like the sound of your voice and how you can utilize it. And it's not just like what you sound like, but it's like tone of voice, right, and how you can modulate it, and even things like body language, right? Like, I grew up in a pretty conservative Asian home, and we certainly were not taught things like tone of voice and body language. And so learning that it was there was like an art to it was, was quite fascinating, and it really got me learning about communications in that way. It's like, how can you speak so people listen, because it's not just about the words, really. It's like, how you deliver it.

Dave Crenshaw: 12:29

One thing we kind of share in common, Jessica is I have a little bit of background in similar area. My father was a radio talk show host, which is very much news driven, right? And it's a production area, and my dad would talk to me about, for example, the importance of smiling while you're talking, even if it's on radio, because people can hear that, even though they can't see it. So I completely agree with you, and I think that's something that even more now, is so important, because everybody's on video now, right? Everybody's broadcasting in some way. What are some skills that you think would help people with that more?

Jessica Chen: 13:10

Well, it's funny that you mentioned that, because when you and I were talking about LinkedIn learning, the first course I had ever created with LinkedIn learning was developing executive presence on video calls. And this came out about three months before the pandemic, and once the pandemic hit, everybody was locked down and doing video calls. And you're right, Dave, in many ways, we are broadcasting because we're speaking on video. Typically people don't think of it that way, but you're talking to a camera, even though there might be like, two, 310, people in that, in that Zoom, or teams meeting, in many ways it is, you know. So, I mean, I would just say, if you're asking, like, what's one quick tip? I mean, I will say, of course, a good microphone really does make a difference, because it's audio as well. But just thinking about your background, right? Like, what are you showing? What are you not showing? And I think being intentional about it can actually be strategic, because, trust me, if your camera's on, people are looking. People are wondering, what is that pile of laundry behind you or or what's that award that you have on your on your shelf? You know, people are curious. So I would say that's just like one quick tip. I always like to remind people, if you're still on video calls at work. Think about a yes, a microphone, but two, what is your background showing?

Dave Crenshaw: 14:25

Yeah, exactly. So when was your first break? When did you transition from being an intern to being an actual reporter, journalist?

Jessica Chen: 14:35

So I graduated UC San Diego in 2010 and then a few months later, I got my first job at the NBC station in Reno Nevada. And people were like, Reno Nevada, like, That's so random, but this is the internal kind of like joke in the industry. It's wherever you get your first job in news, you want it to be in a. Small city, because if you make a mistake, no one's watching.

Dave Crenshaw: 15:05

Oh, that's a good point. It's

Jessica Chen: 15:06

true. I mean, not that no one's watching the news in Reno, but it's a small city like, versus, if you make a mistake in the market, in Los Angeles, where there's millions of people, or San Francisco or New York City, you you make one like, huge mistake, then oh my gosh, everyone see. So for me, that's where I started out. And I was, I felt so happy, because my hope was, I didn't want to go very far, because coming from California, I really wanted to stay on the west coast. So getting that job in Nevada, I was like, This is what like a four hour drive from the Bay Area and and it was great. I learned a lot there.

Dave Crenshaw: 15:40

You paint a picture for those who are not familiar of what is happening behind the scenes in a news station. What is that like?

Jessica Chen: 15:49

It's total chaos. No, yes, but a newsroom is kind of like how you would imagine it. I mean, there's your typical tables and chairs where the reporters and producers are sitting, but typically in a traditional newsroom, you have kind of, like, what we call the command center, and it's where you have all your fire police, like all those like radios that somebody is listening in the command center. Because typically those who are sitting in the command center, they're watching and listening like, what are first responders responding to? So if it's like a fire that broke out that's huge, or like a huge shooting, for example, like they need to be knowing, like what's going on in real time, so they're constantly listening to that. So if you can imagine a newsroom has a lot of that radio broadcast of like first responders and that kind of communication. But not only that, everybody is always on the phone. As a reporter, you're on the phone because you're trying to call people to do interviews with them, to kind of source information, to gather information, and then, similarly, producers are also on the phone talking to the reporters who are now out on the field, because you need this constant communications, a lot of clicking of the keyboards, so it's just a very fast paced environment, and you got people running around, the photographers, and it's very exciting, if you like that fast paced environment.

Dave Crenshaw: 17:15

It brings me to a question for you personally, which is, in an environment like that. How do you manage your own stress? And I'm not just asking this from a mental well being, I'm asking it from a time management standpoint. That's what my courses are about on LinkedIn, learning most of them, and I understand from my work that switching attention from one thing to something else is incredibly stressful, and that's a career, an environment that's driven by attention switches. So personally, how did you manage that? Or was it a problem for you? Or did you feel completely comfortable in that kind of hectic environment?

Jessica Chen: 17:57

I think at the end of the day, you have like, something you got to accomplish at the end of the day, and in the newsroom, probably similar to radio, you're driven by deadlines, and the deadlines are often by certain hours, by the five o'clock, six o'clock newscast. So in some sense, you can't be distracted by all that loud, chaotic noise around you, because at the end of the day you got to deliver something. So if you are constantly just kind of like not being able to manage your time well, or or getting distracted at the end of the day, it's going to affect you, and you're not going to make that time slot. That's what we call it. You're not going to make your time slot. And that's like the worst thing that can happen in television. So, yeah, I don't know, you know, I think for I think back to when I was sitting in those newsrooms and when others are sitting in the newsroom. Yeah, I think people are just focused. I'm

Dave Crenshaw: 18:47

also referring to the relentless nature of the news cycle, and I've dealt with this recently as someone who tries to be active on social media. And there was a time where I was trying to respond to current events, and when something would happen in the news, I would try to comment on it, and it just became this treadmill that never ended, and you don't spend as much time on that. Now, do you feel relief that you're not spending that or do you still crave the relentless nature of news stories. The

Jessica Chen: 19:22

way I see it is, yeah, it's this constant treadmill where it never ends, like news, for example, is 24/7 and in some ways, maybe work for some of us can feel 24/7 right? And I think if that is the situation we're in, like it's really two things. It's like you gotta protect your time in terms of knowing what is most important to you. And I think it's a very personal question, but it's like understanding, like, okay, if I'm gonna look at this or invest my time in working on this, writing this, researching that, right? Like, what's the ROI here? And ROI doesn't have to be necessarily. Necessarily something, you know, quantitative it can be like, because I'm just truly interested in it, and it excites me, right? But if it's something that it's like, not that important, or high on the priority list, or the, you know, the return on investment is not there, then maybe now is not the time to do it, right? And I always say, like, if it's something that you're really interested in or you really want to do, you'll find a way to get back at it, like I really do. And sometimes that's the beauty of giving yourself time. It's like, there's many distractions out there, many things that are like, you know, trying to grab our attention. And I feel like, if you let something go, let that idea go, or let that curiosity go, and it comes back to you, then maybe that's something that I like. You know what that is? Something I do want to look into, because at the end of the day, we can't do everything. We can't look into everything. We can't, yeah, do everything. We have to make that judicious decision of, what should we do in this moment of time?

Dave Crenshaw: 20:54

Yeah, I really like that concept there that you're sharing of ROI, what's the return on investment for the time that I'm spending and in my case, with pursuing the news cycle, I started to realize the ROI was not there. I was not getting back nearly as much as what I was putting in. So thank you for sharing that concept with us. Can you share with me the events leading up to receiving an Emmy? I mean, that's a pretty amazing award. How did that all come about.

Jessica Chen: 21:21

I was in Reno for about a year, and then after that, I moved to a different television station where I moved to the New York City area. I worked there for about three years. Loved it, but then after that, I actually moved back to San Diego, and I ended up working at ABC in San Diego, California, and I was there for about two years that year, or in San Diego in general, they deal with a lot of wildfires. And I think California in general, we'd have a lot of that, because it's just very dry here. And I remember one day when I was in working in San Diego, we had this big wildfire that happened, and it destroyed a lot of homes, misplaced a lot of families, and it was terrible. It was like, yeah, so I was immediately at the scene of the fire trying to interview people, first responders, you know, because at the end of the day, your job in news is to make sure you're broadcasting and sharing information so people have the information to either leave their home or they know where to go, right? It's to alert people of what's going on. So it's such a chaotic scene, as you can imagine, people are trying to get away from the fire, and we're going towards the fire. So we were there. I was there on the scene with my photographer, my producers were back in the newsroom, putting the whole show together. It was like, as you would see, like breaking news. Everything's like red on the television. So in the TV world, you can submit certain segments for award consideration. So months after this story and this thing happened, my producer submitted this entire newscast where we were all in it, and I think because of the quality of our coverage, the seamlessness of like how it was done, we won an Emmy Award for it. So it's something I'm super proud of.

Dave Crenshaw: 23:06

That's amazing. It brings up a question, which is, talk to me a little bit about the value of teamwork, especially in an environment like that, because that award doesn't just come solely because of your reporting. It's a part of the camera work, the production, the writing, the transportation, all of that. Can you just kind of give us an insight of how that all comes together?

Jessica Chen: 23:33

I really feel like working in News gives you such a masterclass in communications, in many ways, because you cannot leave people hanging, not only for like, just information, but even for safety, for example, right? And so in a situation like that, for example, where we're covering the fire, where things are constantly changing, right? It's like a, we call it like, it's a fluid situation, and that's what I mean. It's like, you know, when I was talking about a newsroom environment where people are constantly on the phone, the police and fire scanners are going off. You're constantly in communications, and you're on the phone, you're texting, you're letting people know what's going on. And not only that, like, for example, in a live broadcast where the reporters and the anchors, they're the ones on TV. Right at the end of the day, you are relying on the producer to talk to you, to let you know, okay, you're going to be on, like, at this time, and you got to be on, or you're not going to be on because of whatever, right? So it's a lot of proactive communications, not reactive communications. It's like, I want to let you know this ahead of time, or I want to give you a heads up, and I found people prefer the proactive communications over the reactive communications, because the worst thing you can do, really in a professional world, is catch people off guard. And so that's what I learned in news, and that's what I tell people to this day, right? This is the importance of. Proactive communications and and then that can, of course, form the impression people have of you, how capable they see you. So it's not just doing the work, it's being able to communicate it in

Dave Crenshaw: 25:10

a day to day setting for a workplace. What does proactive communication mean? Let's say I'm a middle manager in a fortune 500 company. What should I do to have more proactive communication? It's

Jessica Chen: 25:24

many things. So for example, looping people into the process as you're doing it. And this is personal to me, because I remember early on, like, when I was a very young journalist, and I was still learning things, making mistakes, right? I was always of the mentality of like, well, let me just do the work first, and then I'll tell people like once it's done, because I don't want to bother them, or maybe they don't care right now, maybe they just want to see the final thing. But I have found that people actually want to know what's going on, but not in this long winded sort of way, because folks are busy. They're not trying to sit down for a 20 minute conversation with you, but just a quick FYI, or, Hey, just want to give you a quick update, or even just a simple email, right? I think that proactiveness truly makes a huge difference, because a lot of times we can get so consumed in doing the work, right, that we forget, like, Oh, let me just like, give them a quick update. So I think it's like approaching it like that. Again, it can really, you know, form the impression people have of you. This

Dave Crenshaw: 26:28

brings up a thought, and I'd love to get your take on this. Jessica, you mentioned that people are busy, and I think a part of effective communication now more than ever, is communicating in a concise, effective way, and I've learned the value of editing, of cutting things down, of removing words. And you know, especially in a news cycle and journalism economy of words is so critical. I think it's just as critical as when you're sending an email or you're making a presentation. I don't know, what are your thoughts about that in a corporate environment,

Jessica Chen: 27:03

absolutely less is more. And if we're talking about presentations, specifically, you know, you know your stuff. When you don't need a lot of stuff on your presentation, people typically put a lot of stuff in their presentation because it's a crutch in some ways, because they're like, oh, so I don't forget to say that, right? Because one of the worst things you can do, and I call it brain dumping, is brain dumping everything all at once, because you're going to lose your audience. You're going to lose your listeners, whoever right? So I would say, yes, concise is number one. But I would say just as equally as important is, do you know who your audience is, too, right? You know how you tailor your message to one group. Now you're speaking to another group, same topic, but it should be tailored a little different. So I think a great communicator, and this is across all industries, all departments, all levels, always thinking about your audience.

Dave Crenshaw: 28:00

Yeah, that's a fantastic principle. You need to be adaptable. That's a theme that's come up in several of our interviews. So yeah, I want to highlight that. Okay, so you mentioned you're not a journalist anymore. So when did that transition take place? When did you start moving away from journalism?

Jessica Chen: 28:20

So I mentioned that I won that Emmy Award in San Diego, California, and that is the, you know, most prestigious award, and it essentially can open up many more doors for you. So that initial Dream of me being that international correspondent that I mentioned, I was like, Oh, this actually could be the time I can actually now really, this could really propel me to the next level. And I don't know about you, Dave, but you know, I, when I, after I won that award, I kind of went through this, like, career introspection of like, wait a second, is this actually what I want to do for the next 2030, years of my life? And for some people, it absolutely is. Now. I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My father, he's in the semiconductor industry. Do not ask me what that even means. I mean, I kind of know what they do, but it's like very different. So he he has his business in Asia. My brother, he actually started his own card game. So he's in the game industry. His game is called sabotage, the boba card game. And basically, I guess what I'm saying is my father seeded the idea because he's an entrepreneur, that we can all go out and carve our own path, which I really appreciated. So when I was in news and I was kind of going through this like career moment, of like, is this what I want? I was like, You know what this actually could be the opportunity for me to actually try to do something on my own. And so for me, it actually always came back down to the one word communications, and this is actually why we're talking here today. I truly felt so passionate about helping. Others become better communicators. And I want to share a story, because this is the struggle that I faced as a journalist, which I'll share the struggle, yeah, please do. And it kind of propelled me to start my own company. So when I first started out, and this is at that NBC station in Reno, Nevada, I will tell you I was a terrible communicator. I could not communicate my ideas. I could not pitch my ideas, and I certainly could not advocate for myself in the workplace, I was actually known as that quiet girl in the office, and I think one of the biggest reasons why I struggled with communicating was, Well, number one, I wasn't really taught how to communicate. Well, like growing up in a very conservative Asian home with very strict Asian parents, it was more just about doing the work. It was more just about working hard. It was more just about studying. And when I started working in a loud newsroom environment, I looked around and I saw all my colleagues so charismatic, so confident, so well spoken, and I saw that they would even debate and challenge, for example, my manager being like, No, I don't want to do that story. I think this story is better, and they would like make a strong case about it. For me, I was always like, Oh, don't I just have to say yes. Like, don't I just have to, like, acquiesce, don't I just have to agree. Like, I thought it was like being a good worker, right? So basically, what ended up happening was I realized that my communication style had to expand. I had to take, like, all the things that I learned, which is, of course, you got to work hard. You got to like, you know, be humble, modest, but not just that. It's like, you got to learn how to talk. You got to learn how to present, put yourself out there. So when I was thinking about what I wanted to do after being a journalist, it was this, I wanted to help folks who struggled with communicating in the workplace, you know, feeling that friction in the workplace where you're like, I want to pitch that idea. I want to advocate for myself, but I don't know how I want to teach people that. So that's how I started the company, and it's been about, you know, almost six, seven years now, and

Dave Crenshaw: 32:17

who was your first client for that part of your business and life. I ask that because that's the biggest challenge for someone who becomes an entrepreneur of any kind, it's the first sale. So I always like to emphasize the first sale, because that helps people who might think of doing the same thing understand how to get their first customer. One

Jessica Chen: 32:41

of the biggest differentiators that I think really made a difference in my business was deciding on which social media platform to use. Because to me, social media is like, it's another broadcast channel. It's just like, how you can reach more people. And for me, I decided LinkedIn was going to be the platform. And so I know for sure that's actually where I got my clients. That's where I get 99% of my clients. But I'm like, trying to figure out who was my first client. I don't know, but I will say, soon after leveraging LinkedIn as my platform, I became a LinkedIn learning instructor. It was probably only within six months of me, like, really starting to be proactive on LinkedIn. That LinkedIn learning was like, Hey, you have a media background, you talk about communications like you can do like video stuff, like, can you come and teach a course? So and then from there, it just kind of grew and grew and grew. And then again, as long as you're proactive and consistent, that's like, where it all happens. I

Dave Crenshaw: 33:37

see that your posts on LinkedIn are quite successful, you get a lot of engagement. What have you learned is the secret to creating LinkedIn posts that people will engage with and share and comment on?

Jessica Chen: 33:52

I think what I've learned is you can't have too much of the same thing. It can't always be pictures. It can't always just be text. It can't always just be video. I've noticed people like variety, but I also think what is very important is whatever you write, it has to always link back to what you want to be known for. So whatever picture, video, newsletter, or anything that I wrote, it always linked back to communication, or the story always had a communications element. But of course, that's unique to me. So I think, like, for anybody who's wanting to build that presence on LinkedIn, it's, yes, that variety, but whatever your post is, making sure it's always linking back to what you want to be known for. So for example, I would say, like, if I'm known for communications, and suddenly I kind of sometimes talk about my love for spinning, for example, and I'm like talking about spinning and that's all I talk about. That's kind of strange. It's not really what they expect me to talk about. But if I talk about spinning and I link it to communications in some way, then it's like, Oh, okay. You know, I can kind of see like, what the connection is. I don't know what the connection is right now, but that's how I would approach it. I want

Dave Crenshaw: 35:06

to talk to you about that because one of the things I've noticed with your LinkedIn posts is that you mention your Asian heritage and how important that is to you. What is something that you would want to communicate to those who aren't Asian and what you want them to understand about your experience?

Jessica Chen: 35:23

I love this question, and thank you for asking that. So I mentioned, you know, that that struggle that I faced when I started working in a professional world. So yes, I am Asian, but you know, I born and raised in America, consider myself very much American, right? And so when I first started working, I was like very much, embodying all the principles and things that, like my parents taught me, my Asian culture taught me, which, for example, are things like, Don't rock the boat, just put your head down and work hard. Be humble, don't seek the spotlight, don't cause conflict. And you start working, and then you realize that, you know, sometimes there's, like, a different set of like, rules in the workplace, and some of them are spoken, some of them are unspoken. And what I would want people to understand is, even though someone is quiet, right, in that regards, it doesn't mean they're not engaged. It doesn't mean they don't care. It doesn't mean that they don't have their own opinions or aspirations. It may be just because of the way they were raised to behave. And that's why, in the book that I have, coming out smart not loud, it's really getting people to see that, yes, individuals like for example, people like me, we do, gotta work on our communication skills. Like we do. We can't expect people to notice us. But at the same time, like for folks who might be on the more extroverted, loud side, don't see people who are quiet and assume that, yeah, just give them that project. They'll do it right. It's like, no, they have interest too. You know, sometimes you just have to ask them, or create the runway for them to speak,

Dave Crenshaw: 37:04

and that's a great moment to talk about your book, smart, not loud. So when this podcast, when this episode comes out, it will be on the shelves and on Amazon. Can you talk to us a little bit about the process of creating that, and what you hope people get from the book?

Jessica Chen: 37:20

Oh my gosh. This is such a labor of love. And it's funny because I started working, I started working on this book before I even got pregnant, and before, and then, like, you know, before my son came. And then I say, like, all those life things happened. I got pregnant, I have my son, and you know, now he's like, two and a half years old. And then now this book is finally done. It's like so many life things has happened. So basically, the point is, it's been a long work in progress, but yes, the book is out in July, and it's called smart, not loud, how to get noticed at work for all the right reasons. And it is written for my folks, who tend to be on that quieter side. And I'll tell you, when I first conceptualized this book, I actually specifically was going to write it for Asians and Asian Americans in the workplace. But after I sold the book to Penguin Random House, and I'm working with the amazing team at portfolio, they were like, you know, a lot of the concepts you're talking about in the book aren't just Asian principles, right? You know, things like being humble, things like just putting your head down. I think a lot of people can resonate with that, even like, for example, introverts. So I worked with them over this last year to basically broaden the theme. And I loved that. I really loved that because I wanted to invite more people to to read the book. So we worked on this. We changed some of the terms, so I call it now quiet culture, loud culture. And then I talk about, like, how you would want to approach it, right? Like, how do you want to actually go into work every day? What's the mindset that'll help you? And then the whole like, kind of second half of the book is all communications. Like, what do you say? How do you say it? How do you ask for what you want? How do you put together an amazing elevator pitch, things like that? Well,

Dave Crenshaw: 39:06

it sounds like that's an excellent resource for people, especially those who come from, as you put it, a quiet culture, which you're right, that's not unique to any one group. Many people grow up like that, or that's just their natural disposition. So that's a great resource. So one of the things that I like to ask people when I interview them, Jessica, it's a big thing for me to interview people who have achieved balance. So not just career success, but personal, family health success, what's something that you've learned to help you have more balance and have multifaceted success in your life. I

Jessica Chen: 39:43

feel like I that this one word is popping up in my mind right now, and it's the word of not feeling guilty, not feeling guilty that sometimes you gotta close your laptop, you go downstairs, you play with your kids, you talk to your. Your partner, and you don't feel guilty that you're not doing work right now. And I think, as somebody who is a go getter, a high achiever, who I love work, I actually love work, and it's not feeling guilty that I'm not doing it, but rather, it's putting that aside and just being present. But vice versa, if I'm doing work, not feeling guilty that I'm not hanging out with my family too.

Dave Crenshaw: 40:26

Yeah, well, you mentioned your book. You're taking plays right out of a book that I wrote, which is the power of having fun, and I talk about the permission to play, giving yourself that permission to do it, and creating the boundary between work and personal, so that you enjoy both. So sounds like we're in agreement on that point. For

Jessica Chen: 40:47

sure. I love that. Okay,

Dave Crenshaw: 40:49

so Jessica, what I do at the end of every one of these interviews is I like to summarize some action steps that someone can take. I'm a big believer in doing, in taking action so that I want someone who's listened to your amazing story to say, what can I do to make Jessica's success story a part of my success story? So what I'm going to do is I'm going to suggest three actions that stood out to me in this interview, of something someone can do this week, not a year from now, but right now and then I'd like you to chime in at the end and give one potential action that you think someone could take. Does that sound good? Sounds great. Okay, so the first one, and I think this is probably the most obvious one with your story, but it's still incredibly valuable, is develop the skill of communication. Get curious about it, get interested in it. Learn how to present better. Learn how to write better. These are essential success skills in our day. So you can certainly take Jessica's courses on LinkedIn learning and of course, check out her book smart not loud. These are helpful resources to develop this essential skill of communication. The second one stood out to me was going back to that phrase, when we were talking about spending your time on different things, like with news and that sort of stuff you mentioned, considering the ROI of how you're spending your time as a time management guy that's speaking my language, I like the idea of considering, maybe even measuring. How are things paying off when I invest my time in this? Am I getting a good return on investment for it? And if you're not, it's okay to say, You know what, I'm going to try something else now. But always consider, am I getting a good ROI on that? And it's funny, because that kind of leads into my third principle here, this third action, which is to participate in social media where your customers are. So in Jessica's case, and I would say in my case, LinkedIn is the great place to go for that, maybe for your customers, or if you're in a career, maybe where your industry is is different. Maybe for you it's, I don't know, Instagram or something like that, but go where they are and then consistently post about a consistent message. In fact, I wrote down this phrase that sort of summarized what you were teaching. Jessica, consistency of message, but variety of method. So you're sharing about finance, if that's your area of expertise, or productivity, if that's my area of expertise, but maybe we show a picture one time and then we show a video another time. So just participate. I can't believe when I do help people with their career. How many times people aren't participating on social media, and it's a missed opportunity, not just to reach out to people, but also to develop your own expertise and knowledge about a subject? Jessica, what's an action item you would suggest? The

Jessica Chen: 43:56

one that I was thinking of is I would encourage and challenge folks to do one thing this week that will celebrate their wins. And that's what I mean, celebrate something that you did great this week. And I mean this in the sense of, it doesn't have to be in this loud, showy way, but if you had a great week, or even last week was a great week, or you got this great email from somebody, or you were really happy that you finished this one project. Who is this one person you can share that win with verbally or through a forward of an email? Because I feel like this is like the anchor of what I always talk about. Working hard is important. Working hard is expected in any job, but I think we have to get good at being able to advocate for ourselves, because that is how we can get noticed at work for all those right reasons that we're talking about. Fantastic.

Dave Crenshaw: 44:54

I love that suggestion. Jessica, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us and. Being here. If someone wants to continue to follow you and stay up to date with what you're sharing with the world, what's the best place for them to go do that?

Jessica Chen: 45:08

Well, certainly LinkedIn. That is where I am all the time. That's where I'm consistently posting all the communications content we talked about. So you can add me Jessica Chen, or I think the handle is Jessica Chen page. Otherwise, check out that book, smart, not loud, how to get noticed at work for all the right reasons. It's very much a communications book, and it can help anyone, whether you grew up in that quiet culture or loud culture. Thank

Dave Crenshaw: 45:32

you so much, Jessica for being here and sharing this with us. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much, Dave, and thank you everyone for listening. Remember, it's not just about the knowledge that you gained or how inspired you were by Jessica. It's about the action that you take. So do something today, do something this week, and you'll make Jessica's success story a part of your success story. Thanks for listening.

Darci Crenshaw: 46:01

You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show, hosted by my dad, Dave Crenshaw, and produced by invaluable incorporated research and assistant production by Victoria bidez, Sound Editing by Nick Wright, voiceover by me Darci Crenshaw, and the music is by Ryan Brady via Pon five licensing, please subscribe to the Dave Crenshaw success show on Apple podcasts Spotify, wherever you like to get your podcast. If you have a suggestion for someone my dad might like to interview, please send it to guests at Dave crenshaw.com and please don't forget to leave us a five serve you see you next time you.