Tinna Jackson - Mastering Career Pivots and Executive Coaching Mastery with Jackson Consulting Group
Apr 17, 2024
Alimond Studio
Ever found yourself at a career crossroad, wondering how to pivot with purpose? Tinna Jackson, the mastermind behind Jackson Consulting Group, joins us to unfold her remarkable journey from the political arena to the forefront of executive coaching. She exposes the thread connecting her innate coaching abilities to the overlooked gaps in professional managerial training. With the wise words of her mentor, Scott Benson, echoing through her transformation, Tinna became the go-to advisor for leaders in need of strategic finesse. Her marketing acumen shines through as she details the art of cultivating referrals, establishing herself as an industry thought leader, and embracing social media with strategic poise to extend her consultancy's influence.
But it's not all work and no play for Tinna Jackson; striking a harmonious work-life balance is her forte. In our conversation, she reveals the secret ingredients to her productivity—setting boundaries without compromising client accessibility and expertly managing time and energy. Peering into Jackson Consulting Group's horizon, we get a glimpse of the burgeoning potential with an upcoming online coaching program, a leadership book in the pipeline, and a foray into public speaking, poised to captivate audiences. Tinna also shares the simple pleasures that fuel her drive—decoding celebrity behaviors, indulging in travel escapades, and nurturing a deep-rooted friendship within her marriage. This episode isn't just a podcast; it's a masterclass in navigating life's serendipitous highways, from the beauty salon to the Senate, and beyond.
Ever found yourself at a career crossroad, wondering how to pivot with purpose? Tinna Jackson, the mastermind behind Jackson Consulting Group, joins us to unfold her remarkable journey from the political arena to the forefront of executive coaching. She exposes the thread connecting her innate coaching abilities to the overlooked gaps in professional managerial training. With the wise words of her mentor, Scott Benson, echoing through her transformation, Tinna became the go-to advisor for leaders in need of strategic finesse. Her marketing acumen shines through as she details the art of cultivating referrals, establishing herself as an industry thought leader, and embracing social media with strategic poise to extend her consultancy's influence.
But it's not all work and no play for Tinna Jackson; striking a harmonious work-life balance is her forte. In our conversation, she reveals the secret ingredients to her productivity—setting boundaries without compromising client accessibility and expertly managing time and energy. Peering into Jackson Consulting Group's horizon, we get a glimpse of the burgeoning potential with an upcoming online coaching program, a leadership book in the pipeline, and a foray into public speaking, poised to captivate audiences. Tinna also shares the simple pleasures that fuel her drive—decoding celebrity behaviors, indulging in travel escapades, and nurturing a deep-rooted friendship within her marriage. This episode isn't just a podcast; it's a masterclass in navigating life's serendipitous highways, from the beauty salon to the Senate, and beyond.
Speaker 1:
So my name is Tina Jackson. I'm from Washington DC, my firm is Jackson Consulting Group and I serve my clients through executive coaching and strategic consulting.
Speaker 2:
Wonderful, and how did you get into this field?
Speaker 1:
So it's interesting. So I had worked in politics for many years and I realized, throughout my career, everything that I've done has been coaching, assisting my bosses, just kind of being that person in the background, that trusted advisor. And then I realized, you know, I should probably do this at some point. I didn't know when I was going to do it, and then I just decided to just jump out there, just like start the LLC and just start talking to as many people as possible to figure out what folks needed, and I realized that people were missing a very important component in their careers, especially as they were moving on in their careers in terms of becoming managers and leaders, and a lot of the training was missing. A lot of people get promoted based on, you know, tenure, doing good work, becoming subject matter experts, but the training of managing people and dealing with human behavior is always a challenge. And so I decided, with all of my training over the years, it was the best thing to do and it felt right and purposeful. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:
When did you make that decision? What year was it? Back in 2017.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, I was working for a political committee at the time, okay, and I was working in HR, running HR for a large organization, and I mean just a lot of people coming into contact with a lot of people, organization, and I mean just a lot of people coming into contact with a lot of people both externally and internally in the organization. And I just realized, oh my god, like everybody needs something, everybody needs something. And luckily, over the years I had developed great relationships with people and I started navigating differently, you know, navigating the different personalities and kind of adjusting to everyone's personality, which you would think that that would be difficult, you know, but I think once you get to know people, it's like turning on a switch, do you?
Speaker 1:
know, what I mean.
Speaker 2:
Well, it is difficult for some people. Yeah, it is, but the right person can tune in to another person's needs and match their energy. Absolutely Right, absolutely. And it sounds like you have that perfect spark yeah.
Speaker 1:
And you know what's funny, I didn't have it before. No, early on in my career, in my early 20s, I was mean. No, seriously, it wasn't a mean girl thing, it was just that I just wanted to go to work and go home. I didn't want to, I didn't want to hang out, I didn't want to talk to anyone, I just wanted to do my tasks and just get them done.
Speaker 1:
And my old chief of staff this is when I worked in the Senate my chief of staff just kind of pulled me aside and was like hey, you know, everybody likes you, but they're afraid of you. And I was like what do you? What do you mean? He's like you know, you're really good at your job. I mean, you get the stuff done, you get everything done. He's like people are afraid of you. He says so this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to move your desk back, I'm going to put two chairs in front of your desk and anyone who comes to me with a problem I'm going to send them to you before they come to me.
Speaker 2:
And how did you feel about this new plan?
Speaker 1:
I mean, I had an attitude that was my problem. Right, I had an attitude. So I was like okay, whatever. And as those things started to occur, like everyone would come to me for something, you know I was already working for a Senator and my desk was just off of the Senator's office and so I had to filter everything over to the senator and to the chief of staff.
Speaker 1:
So I was kind of the I was the jelly and the peanut butter, you know on the bread right yeah, and so so many people just started coming to me more frequently, more frequently, so my job became more like PR, if that makes sense like internal PR.
Speaker 1:
And then I started to like people, and then people started to like me and before you know it, I'm like hanging out at happy hour. I'm like not necessarily the star of the of the office, but I was the go-to person because I had the answers for everything and then everything just kind of blossomed from there. So I'm very appreciative that my chief of staff called me out, because had he not, I don't know where I'd be right now.
Speaker 2:
Wow.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I should shout him out. His name's Scott Scott Benson.
Speaker 2:
Well, thank you, Scott Benson.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
What are you doing for your business as far as marketing and advertising? How are you getting your clients in?
Speaker 1:
So my clients usually come from referrals and referrals of referrals, which has been, honestly, really great. Right now, in terms of marketing, I'm doing a little thought leadership. I'm on the Forbes Coaches Council, so I'm doing a lot of articles that I'm writing. I'm on LinkedIn pretty frequently and, honestly, social media I was like deathly afraid of social media because it's like you know it's, it's great, it's a great tool, um, and I know it's important and I know that I have to get out there on video so doing these kinds of things doing, you know, starting to do podcasts and so forth, and so that's been a challenge, but I mean, at this point it's definitely a necessity.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely so, yeah, yeah, do you feel like you're overcoming those challenges with social media and marketing?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think so. I think so. I had not been on social media like almost the entire time. I didn't like kick up social media until last year. You know, I'm usually a pretty private person. I'm private in terms of, you know, my personal life and so forth, but I'm very open if you ask me any question, which is really weird. It's just that I'm not used to having like my business out in public Not that I have any special business at all, right.
Speaker 2:
Well, it sounds pretty special, Right? Yeah, I'm right there with you. I'm very much private open book but still kind of hold back on this social media, but it's imperative for businesses these days to be out there. Absolutely, yeah. What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
Speaker 1:
Oh my gosh, I think the most rewarding thing is getting clients to their future state. I actually have a couple of female clients that are struggling with burnout. They're just exhausted. You know they're trying to balance work, the kids, being a wife, you know, and then also performing really well at work and trying to still figure out this hybrid situation with the workplace and hybrid situation.
Speaker 1:
You mean working at home, working at home and still needing to go into the office, and because they're in leadership positions and so they also have to show up in person at times, and so that juggle is really burning people out. It's men, too. It's burning men out too. What is your advice to those people? I mean, my advice is to do inventory of your resources, really is to figure out what do you have and what resources can support you in any way possible. You know, if you have friends and family that can take the kids every now and then, if you have an assistant that's being underutilized because people I know for me myself I have to I'm preaching to the choir, right, like I have to use the resources that I have and you have to feel free to delegate and you have to let go and begin to trust, because if you don't, you're just going to continue to burn yourself out, right?
Speaker 1:
I mean, what's the point of having all these staff and having friends that are there for you? You have a support system, but a lot of folks are not reaching out and are not utilizing the resources that they have at their disposal.
Speaker 2:
And asking for help yeah, absolutely yeah. And support, mm-hmm, and that's what you can offer. Absolutely yeah, that's great, yeah. What challenges do you see in your company and how do you overcome those?
Speaker 1:
I think the challenge is the challenges right now, I think, is just me finding my own, my own balance. I believe that because I'm working in my purpose, I'm not getting tired, but I know I'm not resting, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2:
I was kind of thinking about the next.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely, if that makes any sense. You're always kind of thinking about the next Absolutely. And the other thing, too, is the service that I offer to my clients is more so rapid response, coaching, if you will. I think that when you're dealing with executives in this area in particular, because I come from this political background you're just kind of used to when someone needs you, you just show up, you're just there and I offer that service to my clients, which is very helpful to them. But I think for me, for me, it can be, it can be tiresome, although I don't feel tired because I know, I know that I'm serving my clients at the highest professional level. So, but you feel like you're always available Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And I think, I think that they understand boundaries because I'm pushing them for boundaries to establish their own boundaries, and I do have my own, Like I'm not up in the middle of the night all the time like taking calls and so forth, Right, but I do work later on, like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday evenings, and I try to take it, you know, take a little rest on on Mondays.
Speaker 2:
But you have your set days and you find it rewarding. It is absolutely rewarding. Where do you see the future of your company going? What do you see for?
Speaker 1:
Oh yes, the future of my company. So I'm actually celebrating seven years this year.
Speaker 2:
Thank you In.
Speaker 1:
May. I'm developing a coach, an online coaching program that I would love to see grow exponentially. In addition, I've been working on a book, a leadership book, based on my, based on my journey, based on my career journey, and so I'm hoping to be on stages. I want to begin speaking to, you know, larger groups and beyond stages, so I also love to bring other other people along in the, in the coaching effort too. I'd love to be able to train a few individuals to develop their own coaching practices.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and would you bring people on to help you as well? Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
But you know some people, they just want the top person, they just want Absolutely. But you know, some people, they just want the top person.
Speaker 2:
They just want, they want Tina. Yeah, so yes. So here's Tina. Yeah, absolutely yeah, that's great. What do you like to do for fun outside?
Speaker 1:
of work. So the first thing that I love to do for fun is to keep up with all the celebrity gossip. Yeah, you know I I don't want drama in my life, but I love watching everyone else's unfold, and for a couple reasons. Right, like I think that when you look at all these reality shows and it gives you additional insight into other characteristics that you might see in other people as you're working with them, so I view it as you know me getting my celebrity fix, but it's also educational in many ways, yeah, so I know that's an interesting way to think of it.
Speaker 1:
And you know I listen to TED Talks. You know I love to travel and visit with friends around the country if I can, and hanging out with my husband. I mean, he's a he's a great guy. We have a lot of fun together so, and we're really good friends. We've been together for like 30 years now. Oh, congratulations. Yeah, thank you, I have decided.
Speaker 2:
The key to marriage is being friends.
Speaker 1:
You've got to be friends, you've got to have a good relationship.
Speaker 2:
It's just the foundation of it.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. Like if you have to make a stop and get a drink before you go home, something's wrong, right yeah?
Speaker 2:
Something's wrong. Something's wrong, I agree. Yeah, take me back a little bit to your college days and what got you into politics.
Speaker 1:
Oh, so I'll go back a little further. So when I was leaving high school, I didn't want to go to college. Initially, I actually was going into the beauty industry. I had gone to cosmetology school and I thought I would be this great hairstylist, makeup artist. And at the time I didn't go to college immediately. I had gotten a job with a law firm no, with a lobbying firm, and there was an individual there that I worked with who really liked my work and I thought I did a pretty good job. You know, I a lobbying firm, and there was an individual there that I worked with who really liked my work and I thought I did a pretty good job.
Speaker 1:
You know, I was pretty detailed and he wanted me to meet this senator, right, um, and I'm like, eh, you know, at the time I'm like I don't have respect for politicians, they're just full of whatever. Yeah, um, and then I met this guy, I met this Senator, and he seemed to be like the real deal, um, and then, you know, as I was finishing cosmetology school, all these opportunities just kept coming up. You know, the guy um asked me to come work on Capitol Hill with him. He wanted to take me with him, and it took like four conversations. I didn't want to go, I really didn't. I wanted to do the beauty stuff.
Speaker 2:
You're like.
Speaker 1:
I have my plan. I didn't want to go to Capitol Hill because I knew that it was like hard work, it was long hours and I didn't want to be a part of that cycle. And then I took the job. I took the job finally, and it was a great experience. I mean, I worked in the Senate, ended up being there for 10 years, I had gotten several promotions from there, and then I didn't start.
Speaker 2:
That's a big pivot from cosmetology school to it is yeah To politics.
Speaker 1:
It is, it is. Yeah To politics, it is, it is. But. But my role was administrative. I started as a scheduler, an executive assistant to the, to the senator that I worked for, and the exposure, just the people. I was like I need to go to school. I didn't have to, but I felt like you know I needed when I got a degree in business management. Throughout that time, oh, congratulations.
Speaker 2:
Yeah yeah, that's awesome. Well, it definitely sparked something in you, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
It did, it did, it, did, it did. I'm still friends with, with uh, with my Senate colleagues. It's been like 20 years now probably Wow.
Speaker 2:
And seven years that you've been doing this, right, seven years that I've been doing this, yes, yeah. Is there any last words? You'd like to leave our listeners with Any advice? Business advice, something from your heart, work, ethic advice, oh my gosh, there's so much.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I was like call your mom, always call your mom Call your dad.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
You know you have to maintain important relationships in your life and continue to build your support system, because I feel like there's a yearning for community that people have, you know. I mean you see it online. You see people bleeding all over, like Facebook, with their feelings and even on TikTok, and it's just concerning People have issues and I just want to tell people, you know, just be positive, maintain a positive outlook and continue building your community and maintain solid relationships, because it's key.
Speaker 2:
It's key. It's key to everything. Yeah, it was beautifully said. Oh, thank you, thank you. Thank you for coming in today.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it was beautifully said Thank you.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, thank you for coming in today. Absolutely, it was a pleasure to have you.