Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen Gilhoi.
Hi Jen, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
There is a story before 40 that follows the path laid out for me. It includes a marketing and management degree from a four-year university; experiences in a creative agency, a global insurance company, and a decade-long role as a marketing leader for a professional service organization. It also includes a falling apart of sorts at age 40, when I set upon a path to become alcohol-free. In many ways, that’s where life begins for me.
Clear-headed and oh so curious, I discovered an entrepreneurial journey that suited me in ways that completely surprised me. I didn’t know that the world needed all types of leaders – empaths and introverts included. In 2012, I launched Sparktrack, my marketing, communications, events consultancy. Around 2016, I channeled my fascination with the art of gathering and intentional conversations into my signature event recaps. Over the past ten years, I’ve covered many events and had the joy of collaborating with solopreneurs and agencies like Eight Moon on a wide variety of marketing projects.
A new and significant path presented itself in January 2018 when I walked through the doors of ModernWell, a co-working space in Minneapolis founded by Julie Burton. The space, the women, the authors, and the energy there have transformed me in four short years’ time.
It’s a place where you find your purpose. It’s the start of my return to creative writing, leading up to a published essay in Her Path Forward, 21 Stories of Transformation and Inspiration (Publish HER Press) and many more stories in the works. It’s also where I learned to be vulnerable in sharing my recovery journey, setting some pretty audacious ambitions out there to normalize not drinking for everyone.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Entrepreneurship has its unique set of challenges. Undoubtedly, I’ve always found my creative work and relationships with clients and the community to be the most energizing. I could also get swept up in all of that and lose focus on the revenue-generating activities and the financial growth and planning needed to sustain a healthy business. Eventually, I learned to charge for services I’d previously given away, set boundaries, and get hyper-focused on what it is I do best. Sometimes that’s hard to discern, so asking trusted colleagues and clients for feedback over the years has turned out to be extremely helpful.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I appreciate the art of gathering, creating intentional conversations, and making space for follow-up and continued relationship building. In my decades-long experiences attending conferences, professional networking events, and meetups, I noticed that corporate events and their follow-up was a major miss. In 2014, I did something about what I call the follow-up gap. I began writing event recaps. In 2018, I began offering event recaps as a Sparktrack service, fully having proved the value and my immediate delivery model: in a client’s inbox the morning after the event. My recaps are of aspirational, entertainment and contextual value, not merely a post of he/she/they said. A recap enables my client (i.e. the event host) to take the lead in owning the experience after the event, as they should. I also began to provide at-event social media and email marketing campaigns to support and broadened the event host’s meaningful touchpoints outside of the event itself.
Even in 2022, I find that follow-up is often forgotten, or the effort put forth is minimal. I’m proud and passionate about helping brands and companies identify what they’re missing in events to make them amazing. It’s a shift in thinking for many – what I call extending the event engagement bell curve — and the starting point for ongoing conversations and business leads to be developed and nurtured.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I used to live small, mostly related to my alcohol abuse and introversion. I checked the boxes and showed up. The biggest risk I took was related to a point in my career and life where I experienced burnout. It led me to move on from corporate and into a shorter-term freelance role to test out entrepreneurship, a risky move financially, but well-being wise very necessary. I’d say that turned out in my best interest!
As an entrepreneur, many things others would consider simple decisions can weigh heavily. I’m my own boss, so no decision is made for me. My most monumental risks have been tied to time commitments – there’s always an opportunity cost when you choose to spend your time. For example, in late 2021, I launched/ was part of launching two risky ventures in terms of time commitment untied to initial income: my own brand JenGilhoi.com and a collaborative: AddWomxn. Early in 2022, I’m financially feeling the effects of those ventures, but it is incredibly rewarding to see both visions gain traction. I’m glad I took those risks. They were absolutely necessary to move me into the deeper purpose and the work I’m meant to do.
Contact Info:
- Email: jen@sparktrack.com
- Website: sparktrack.com
- Instagram: sparktracker
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sparktrackevents
- Twitter: Sparktracker
- Other: www.jengilhoi.com
Image Credits
Lucas Botz Photography (main photo)
Jen Gilhoi
