When Jenni Epperson walked up the stage, what I saw is a picture of an elegant high-fashion woman who wears a cheetah printed coat, red lipstick and carefully chosen accessories. This woman made it to the top, I said to myself. But when she started talking, Jenni is actually so much more.She was more than what met my eye. She was funny, witty and real. She may be high-fashion, but she’s also very down-to-earth. Her authenticity radiated all over the place and it even occurred to me that this woman is actually famous but that didn’t go to her head.
I learned a lot of things from her and I got surprised with myself for taking down notes- something that I don’t usually oblige myself to do unless, something is really really noteworthy. In fact, her talk was noteworthy and this is me sharing to you all the gems that I found during her talk.
1. Self-discovery is a journey.
Just like any regular human being, Jenni found herself wanting to “find” herself too. There were just too many things that she wanted to do and one day she just felt confused and lost just like what happened to many of us too. She, then, decided to resolve this by going on top of a hill somewhere in Laguna and, uhm, apparently nothing happened. But for sure, a series of events occurred after that that made her the “Jenni Epperson” that she is now. She told us that knowing one’s self is important. How much do we really know ourselves? If your answer is not so much, it’s alright. What’s important is the willingness to “begin” the journey that entails trying many things along the way until we get there. Success happened to her. It can happen to us too.
2. It’s ok to be passionate about many things.
I am one of those people who frowns whenever told “Find your passion and make it your profession.” Problem is I do have a lot of things I am passionate about. I love business, singing, social media and writing. Which one should be my profession? Sometimes I beat myself for liking too many things. I call myself things such as happy-go-lucky, irresponsible and uncommitted. But when I listened to her, I found an ally and she said that it’s alright to like so many things and feel confused at times. The key is to try these things as much as you can. Again, this is a journey and not everyone will figure out their passions early in life. Some will take years to figure it out but the journey counts as much as the destination itself. Jenni also said that she took so many roles too. She became a receptionist, writer and whatnot and she was not ashamed to tell us about all of these things. She also said that trying out different things will help you do a process of elimination. The more that you eliminate, the more that you become aware of the things that you don’t really want until you’re down to the really few things that really speak to your heart.
3. Be your most authentic self.
Finding yourself is worth it. One of the benefits of the journey is that you learn to become your most authentic self. At the early stages of our lives, I believe that we don’t have yet or we are not aware yet of our identities. We usually look up to people and then imitate them. We were once superman, spider man and wonder woman. As we go on in years, we learn more about ourselves and Jenni believes that this process is very crucial. The more that we know ourselves, the more we can become authentic. I believe that being authentic and real to ourselves is one of the best gifts that we can offer the world. Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”
Thank you so much, Jenni.
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Mark Delgado (@iammarkdelgado) is a Certified Blog and Social Media Entrepreneur (CBSME) who is passionate about consultative works, creative writing, events management, ideation, startupreneurship, strategic marketing and training. He founded Mediactiv8, a startup social media marketing company that advocates digital marketing education and entrepreneurship in the Philippines. To see more of his works, please check out www.facebook.com/Mediactiv8.
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