Entrepreneurial Appetite

Building the Future of Athlete Branding: Jenna Smith & Tantamount Sports Group

• Langston Clark • Season 7 • Episode 3

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Jenna Smith takes us on a captivating journey from locker room to boardroom, revealing how her experiences as the "only girl on the team" shaped her path to founding Tandemount Sports Group. With remarkable clarity, she articulates the untapped potential at the intersection of beauty brands and women's sports, particularly for Black women athletes seeking authentic expression.

The conversation explores how strategic brand alignments are closing the NIL gap between men's and women's sports. Smith's insights on Gen Z athletes' natural content creation abilities demonstrate why beauty and lifestyle brands have unique opportunities to partner with women athletes who are essentially "walking markets" during competition.

We dive deep into emerging sports technology focused on critical women's sports challenges. From revolutionary injury prevention tools addressing the epidemic of ACL tears to biometric tracking systems accounting for menstrual cycles, Smith identifies where technology meets human performance in ways specifically benefiting women athletes.

What makes this discussion particularly compelling is Smith's personal testimony of risk-taking. Her applications to prestigious universities despite self-doubt, her entry into venture capital without traditional backgrounds, and her international career moves all exemplify her powerful message: "The belief in myself will always be bigger than the belief anybody else has for me."

Smith's vision extends beyond marketing to creating equitable opportunities for women athletes through advisory roles and equity positions with sports tech companies. She's working to ensure women athletes leverage their influence into long-term business opportunities and ownership stakes.

For anyone navigating entrepreneurship, sports business, or seeking authentic representation, Smith's parting wisdom resonates deeply: "Don't be afraid to fail... You are 99% of the time equipped with the tools to do it. You just may not have the support system to push you." Her story illuminates why taking risks, building community, and believing in yourself creates pathways where traditional roadmaps don't exist.

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Langston Clark:

Hey everyone. Thank you again for your support of Entrepreneurial Appetite. Beginning this season, we are inviting our listeners to support the show through our Patreon website. The founding 55 patrons will get live access to our monthly discussions for only $5 a month. Your support will help us hire an intern or freelancer to help with the production of the show. Of course, you can also support us by giving us five stars, leaving a positive comment or sharing the show with a few friends. Thank you for your continued support. What's good everyone. I'm Langston Clark, founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting Black businesses. Enjoy this special bonus episode from the African Americans in Sport podcast.

Ajhanai Keaton :

All right. Hello, it is me, Dr. Ajhanai Keaton, stepping in to co-host this week, and we have a superstar in our hands. We have Jenna Smith here, who has a plethora of experiences. She's going to be she is the founder of Tandem Out Sports Group you will hear me refer to it as TSG. She's also done things within sports tech and just has a wealth of knowledge. So before we get started with our formalized questions you know, jenna, I want to turn to you and have you introduce yourself some more.

Jenna Smith:

Of course. Well, hi everyone. Thank you so much for having me on today. I just want to make sure I acknowledge that I am Jenna Smith. I am the founder of Tandemount Sports Group, where we're primarily focused on bridging the gap between brands and women's sports. A heavy focus for us is in the beauty space, wellness, lifestyle and sports tech space as well, and just getting the girls more opportunities to kind of showcase their personalities both on and off the field, with strategic alignment.

Ajhanai Keaton :

So succinct, I love it. Okay, so you've had an incredible career spanning sports, tech, marketing, women's sports. What first inspired you to pursue this path? And then, secondly, you know what has this path been like, as a Black woman, of course.

Jenna Smith:

Oh, a field question. So I think, like all of us who actually are in sports, I grew up playing sports. I'd say that as a kid I was always the only girl on the sports team, which, luckily enough, it's kind of helped to shape the space of where we are today as the world of sports is evolving. But, most importantly, grew up playing sports and that was the key foundation to things like leadership, teamwork as well as overcoming adversity. That played a pivotal role in my story.

Jenna Smith:

I always also had an entrepreneurial mindset but couldn't pinpoint essentially what I wanted to do in sports.

Jenna Smith:

So for any women who are listening probably growing up for us, we would see a lot of women's sports broadcasters and pinpoint, hey, I think that's what I want to do in sports, but little did I know that there was so much more out there that we were able to pursue. A lot of my journey is based off of self-discovery, trial and error, going out there and saying, hey, maybe I want to do something in community engagement and trying it and seeing if I liked it, or then kind of pivoting into obviously, marketing and sports tech and really dabbling around the sports umbrella is kind of how I helped to shape my sports career early on to help understand, ok, what is it that I actually like, what is it that I'm passionate about and wake up and want to do every single day, and that kind of also fueled that childlike thought process to playing sports. It could be super competitive, kind of going out there and trying to figure it out, but definitely fulfilling along the way as you, as you start to piece together those puzzle pieces.

Ajhanai Keaton :

That's awesome. And how do you your own identity navigating as a black woman? How have, how have you found that you know even your cultural connection to the things that you're pivoting, the expertise that you have just from, like, a Black femininity perspective? How, how does that, how is that a part of your journey as well?

Jenna Smith:

I think that's super important. I think that's super important especially right now where I am primarily focused on women's basketball and many of the basketball athletes look like myself and just something as simple as when it comes to picking out a brand in hair care products I actually understand what that's like but also to playing sports right and being in that essential spotlight. I say I was a club volleyball player and also played high school sports, so around the clock for me, especially towards my later teens, I was constantly competing, constantly playing sports, but really my plate was absolutely full. I did everything from school involvement to extracurricular activities. So also understanding what the modern student athlete timeline schedule lifestyle is like, the high pressure situations to then go out and play and compete where everybody's watching you and wanting you to perform and excel those are some of the foundational pieces that helped to kind of give me the strength, confidence to go in and to really have this time management skill set, which is super important in leadership.

Jenna Smith:

But also to to understand okay, if I was an athlete which I'd been one before what is the relatability here, especially working with athletes one-on-one? But even in the leadership role of being a Black woman, I was also the only Black woman on my volleyball club teams, like acknowledging that that I've been in situations where I've been the only one, and knowing how to navigate it to my best ability, but still being able to be relatable to my colleagues or coworkers, whoever it is around me, to kind of help support the entire team, which in many cases, I was a captain and I was a leader on all the teams that I competed on. So those skill sets again played a great role in just how I then grew into my career and my adulthood and pursuing my passions.

Ajhanai Keaton :

I'm going to go off script a little bit. Yeah, bring up volleyball. Yes, they have visually noticed demographic shifts in volleyball. I do not quote the data on this, so no one quote me. No one say, dr Kian, or you're wrong, but has volleyball seen an uptick in Black women playing? Yes, yes, ok.

Jenna Smith:

Sure, yes, it's all about exposure, right, and I think that that was something I learned as I got older too. When we see it, we can become it and we believe it. And a lot of my story is I didn't see a lot of what I wanted to become. I just had the idea of, like, I want to do this, try to figure it out, but that doesn't work for everybody. So something that's super important especially to when you're thinking about involvement or anything along strategy is like image is everything. So the more we're able to see ourselves in spaces and be represented really, really well and showing that, hey, you can go out there and play and compete and be involved in sport, then there's a drive and a passion for that little black girl to kind of aspire to become that.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Yeah, thank you for that. And so I, you know, did my research, saw that you were once with the Tampa Bay Rays, again now in the entrepreneurship space as the founder of TSG. What pivotal moments shaped your approach to sport business.

Jenna Smith:

Yeah, so it's exciting to talk about my time with the Tampa Bay Rays, because we can always throw great leagues and teams on our resume, but remembering that some of us do start with walking around with a mascot during game days, right, or doing kind of the work that most people typically don't want to do when they first start out, or it's the grunt work, exactly but that also taught me something very early on is like do I love doing this? Probably not, but if I think about becoming an entrepreneur or a founder or CEO one day, it does give me a better perspective to think about the top down and bottom up kind of process of is everybody in this organization being seen and heard, and I think that's something that's super pivotal in just how I go about my thought process in building a future team. I'd say the next thing after the Tampa Bay Rays and essentially graduating in the class of 2020, that was a pivotal moment for a lot of us in sports, because we were like what is actually going to happen to sports? And luckily enough, sports continued on and that also showcased that there is longevity in this career. It's just about finding what fits and evolving with the time as well, and then breaking into sports and being able to attend Columbia University extremely pivotal moment. It was one of those things where I will tell you right now.

Jenna Smith:

I sat in 2020, I was at FIU for my sports management entrepreneurship undergrad. I said, okay, I'm going to apply to four grad schools. I applied to Temple, I applied to Oregon, I applied to Georgetown and I applied to Columbia. And I will tell you, to this day, I didn't even think I would get into Temple. Right, I was like I am really shooting for the stars out here. I knew I worked hard but also just didn't have the utmost confidence in myself, I'd say academically, and essentially knocked it out the park with being able to get into all four. That was a pivotal moment for me because it does say just take the risk right, take the risk you never know. And then I have the option to choose between all four, in which I chose Columbia University.

Jenna Smith:

I chose Columbia because I felt like A. There was this prestige Ivy League institution that I wanted to be a part of that nobody in my family had the chance to be a part of. B I knew that the sports program in itself had the connectivity to all types of leagues, but it advertised as a global sports program, which meant that iCohort in itself were going to be from all over the world and better yet. My perspective in all of this was going to come from individuals who also saw sports through the lens and the eyes of their countries or their cities that they were from too, which was super impactful. And, most importantly, when I was at Columbia, that's where I got my first exposure to the sports tech world, venture capital it was actually my first semester where I sat in an entrepreneurial innovation course by Professor Grant's son, who, by the last week or second to last week, we read a case study about Arlen, who essentially is a woman and is a queer founder, but also found herself struggling to raise capital. When I read the statistics about what it was for women, for Black women to raise capital I mean the percentage of VCs that are Black women are literally less than 1% those statistics, for me, will wake me up in a heartbeat and say you know what? I challenge you to go out there and try to see if you can help change the landscape by simply just being a part of the conversation. When we think about how investments happen or how capital is distributed, we know that the decision makers are key. If there's not a lot of decision makers that look like us at the table, the likelihood of capital being distributed to founders or even VCs is probably limited to founders or even VCs is probably limited. So that was a pivotal moment, just in terms of exposure to the VC space sports tech space but also my purpose and a little bit of my why.

Jenna Smith:

And then finally, I got into the point of being able to pursue venture capital. So that was with my first. Actually, internship was with Marcus Stroud and Brandon Allen, two black male founders based in Austin previously TXV partners, now Sequence Equity where their thesis was all about human performance and SaaS, so software as a service and the human performance investment that they did was the Oura Ring, and so I was like, oh yes, I love the Oura Ring. It was the Oura Ring, it was a future app. Future is like a one-on-one personal training.

Jenna Smith:

As an athlete, I love that as well. They also invested in a company called Ladder, which Ladder actually just recently raised its series B, which is a hundred million. So kind of seeing the early stages of Ladder two and a half, three years ago to now even Advantage, which I also previously worked for they invested as well. Part of that round two, it's just the excitement around fitness technology and the involvement of how it can make an impact that I was able to see from all these different experiences of okay, collecting it together. This is going to be my approach to sports business how can we make it make sense?

Ajhanai Keaton :

essentially, I am in awe. That is a powerful, powerful story. It's so cool, this is so cool. I'm like my wheels are turning. I'm like, wow, so much I never really like thought about the sport, sport tech, and like aura right, like seeing the aura ring's sport tech. So that's really really cool stuff. Ok, next question in the same breath of women's sports and athlete empowerment, how do you see NIL opportunities evolving for women athletes and what needs to change to ensure they benefit equitably?

Jenna Smith:

So I say, another perspective I want to throw in is two experiences that I had. So I also, during my time at Columbia, I had the chance to work under the president of League One Volleyball. So during this time League One now basically a growing league, but during that time we were pitching Adidas and Spanx and that was kind of my first exposure to seeing the differences between a sponsorship model for women's sports and women athletes versus men's sports. And at the same time too, when I worked for Advantage, I lived abroad and I lived three months in Jerusalem. So essentially, living abroad and seeing again that global perspective, it really came down to understanding that the lack of sponsorships or the lack of capital going either into a league, an entity or essentially for brands to partner with women athletes is kind of the gap, how it will evolve. Is the strategic alignment, like a Spanx partnering with League One, right, it's a women prominent brand, it's even female, founded by Sarah Blakely. But at the same time too, this is kind of the starting point at which what we do beauty brands infiltrating the women's sports market the equitable alignment is paired with strategic storytelling and authentic branding, which athletes love to do and Gen Z athletes love to do as well.

Jenna Smith:

So we have a push to where we say, okay, women athletes have historically been overlooked. Nil still has a gap. A lot of the gap goes into a lot of football, a lot of basketball, or it just hugs into the 1% of women athletes. We see this as okay. Beauty brands can likely come in. They can likely partner with multiple athletes or a team-wide opportunity. The beauty brands also will be able to get curated feedback and, of course, these athletes love to make content because they're coming up in the Gen Z generation where TikTok and Instagram is literally everything. So that's what creates the excitement to kind of close that NIL gap that now appears. It's granting the access to a little bit more athletes but also strategically aligning brands that we say make sense for the women.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Yeah, so I know you have a background in volleyball. I didn't share this before, but I have a background in basketball. So I played college basketball at Colorado State 10 years ago now, which is wild. I will not age myself, but with the WNBA gaining momentum, what innovative strategies do you think will drive its continued growth? You know I mentioned before we started recording how I've done research on the WNBA and their branding and marketing, but particularly around fashion. So I know you're talking about penetrating the beauty space, but you know, recently an example I can give for our audience is Google ad did a sponsorship pitch with the WNBA for their search engine through Kalia Copper last year, and so just major visibility on all of women's sports, but particularly women's basketball. And so what innovative strategies do you think will drive its continued growth?

Jenna Smith:

Yeah, I think one of the best innovative strategies we got to see was Unrivaled. Unrivaled. Showcasing a way to do a league that hadn't been done before is a great way to then bring those players who did compete in Unrivaled and they did something as great as revealing each player each week and creating that mystery and then having the players be able to take over their certain accounts and obviously to the game in terms of 3v3 or 1v1. But people really were tuned into the athletes and their stories and getting to see the stars kind of align and that then brings those fans and new fans into the W to continue watching.

Jenna Smith:

Of course, being able to partner and have partners like Glossier be a part of the WNBA is super important, because I think just a couple of weeks ago everyone was screaming like for Dijon A Carrington to have the one size beauty brand deal and like what's happening? Why isn't the gap being filled? I think we're starting to see that momentum. But again, the innovative strategies do come from the visibility of the game and kind of evolving with the times, and the fluid fan is super important too, and using anchors like an unrivaled to propel the W and then kind of making it more such a 360 kind of process where it's all super connected and that people are actually following, yes, the game many times, but also the stories of the athlete, which then showcases what is the athlete's personal branding and how do they attract their individual fans. For Dijon, it might be makeup. For Ray, it might be fashion right might be fashion right, it may range from a plethora of things, but the opportunity to showcase that and propel that is the WNBA's best strategy to move forward.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Yeah, no, that was great. I I'm with you. When I watch DJ no Play, I'm like how is her makeup not moving? Like I've been like what is she? Is it a primer? Is it a laser? Exactly, lashes are on somehow, like. I also see them as like walking markets, right Walking. They're marketing the products in real time, exactly.

Jenna Smith:

And AJ, you know that, even again, up to this point, there's no internal person or sports person in these beauty brands pushing for this.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Which is crazy, because I'm like come on, I mean we have some quilting opportunities. I'm like, where are you? And that's where we fill a void, right?

Jenna Smith:

We, we? I mean there's brands where I've had the chance to speak with, where we're literally teaching them like okay, this is how the game goes, which is exciting, because then those are getting a new fan.

Ajhanai Keaton :

I think I'm great. I want you to get all of the business, but I'm just like, what do you mean? There's not a sport? I just the data is just out there. I think something on Forbes the other day was like women's sport is set to break $3 billion in the next couple of years. I'm like, yeah, how do you? Who is in charge of market research? I'm just, I have a question.

Jenna Smith:

We all have questions.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Well, thank you for that. I want to pivot a little bit and you've talked about some of this, so I don't want to give too many repetitive questions. But with sports tech investing, you know, where do you see the most exciting intersections between tech, human performance and women's sports? You kind of mentioned it a little bit with Aura and like League One but women's sports.

Jenna Smith:

you kind of mentioned it a little bit with aura and like league one, but I wasn't sure if you had other thoughts about that. Yeah, biggest thought and biggest like passion, injury prevention that's injury prevention for women's sports, swinging everywhere, exactly, or acl to concussions. That for me is like yes, or aura, and of course I haven't already mentioned Unrivaled but the injury prevention element to at which how many athletes are, especially women athletes, are being impacted by ACL tears and concussions and the preventative measures around that. So there's a couple brands and companies that I can list off Q-Caller it's an FDA approved concussion prevention device, even from anywhere from, like being able to detect when a hit may happen or any type of contact may happen to. Super important. Nestre this is something for cognitive testing.

Jenna Smith:

So really at this point it was focused on football, but we see it expanding into women's sports because that's a prominent kind of issue right now in women's sports.

Jenna Smith:

But for me, those two issues being backed by tech, but also the biometrics of a woman athlete in terms of when she's on her menstrual cycle and what does her performance look like and what's the performance analysis based off of and being able to pull that data, but then also coach and teach that data up to that athlete.

Jenna Smith:

That's that next 10 years of personalization element, being able to track those essential measurements. I'd also say in the long run too, there's so much focus on the on-court performance that there hasn't been so much tech being pushed in recovery, and so the more we've learned about recovery, recovery, longevity and this is even after the athlete puts the ball down. Many people don't typically pay much attention to when an athlete puts the ball down, but that athlete needs so much more kind of support and guidance in terms of what the recovery looks like, especially if they were essentially maybe a soccer player and had gone through a couple of concussions Like, once that career is over, what's happening for them and making sure that they have a great kind of fulfilled life too. So those are also really important to me anything from injury prevention and recovery.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Yeah, I'm with you there. I think when I saw Juju go down, I'm screaming like I knew her, like not Juju, and I know AZ and Paige says, you know Yukon alum, and so, yeah, I really appreciate kind of like the visionary perspective on that and again, I think illuminating for us what sport tech is, because this is like the first time I've actually sat and thought about it and what you're saying it's like it's connecting the dots.

Jenna Smith:

So yeah, and I'm happy to. So I can tell you Advantage's thesis, where I was with the sports tech fund. So we had a pillar that was all about the athlete, all about the human performance which we touched on. There's also fan experiences, so in-stadium experiences that can power more of a successful experience for the fan, and then, obviously too, sports derivatives, so that's anywhere from crypto to gaming to kind of that blockchain, in terms of where sports has an intersection as well. It can really theme across Peloton sports tech right.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Yeah, it's, I'm it's processing now, so thanks. So I want to merge these two questions before we get into talking about your vision and your vision for TSG and some advice that you would give to those tuning in. And so you touched on stories and talked a little bit about storytelling, but I would like to have like a deeper conversation on what that looks like, but also bringing in history and context, and so I think what's really powerful about this moment is Black women have always been an aesthetic, have always been behind big fashion moments, big cultural moments. We see it on TikTok all the time, the dances, and oftentimes we're berated for expressing our culture, or our culture is, you know, taken from us. And so, right now, to be authentic, to see Black women, athletes that you represent and you're advocating for with these brand relationships, to authentically be themselves, what do you think that says about the stories they get to tell and the stories that we now get to challenge, the stereotypes we get to disrupt?

Jenna Smith:

Yeah, I love this question because I, as soon as I thought about it, it's the ability to self express, to the ability to show up authentically as yourself and having people behind you to push that yourself and having people behind you to push that. And I and everybody uses Angel Reese as an example, but the reality about Angel Reese is that the people behind her support her being authentically herself and her being authentically herself has allowed her opportunities that she wants to do, she aligns with, she can advocate for, and that's something that we want to take as a gem and triple it down to our athletes. When I sit down with the athletes and I'm like, what do you like? And we're kind of figuring out even what's life after basketball, right, like, how could I also think about preparing you for that next stage with brands or opportunities that you align with? Now it's really to understand that point of the athlete.

Jenna Smith:

Sometimes athletes are paired with brands. I hate to throw this as an example, but State Farm, right, state Farm's messaging is very clear, but the reality of which State Farm is messaging to many of which Gen Z consumers? At this point too, for women's basketball, it may hold relevance, but also, again, some of these other brands might be a little bit stronger For black women. Malia Samuels is a great example. Malia is on University of Southern California's women's basketball team. Malia loves to play and compete. Sometimes she wears her hair down, she wears her curls out right, she's able to show up to the court as herself, and even she loves to wear makeup when she plays and put blush on, and we were able to align her with the niche beauty and get her some products from them, but also to house labs by Lady Gaga, who's never dabbled much in sports. It's like, hey, we love what she's doing. She wears our blush.

Jenna Smith:

There's another strategic alignment too, so being able to empower the athletes, similar to, honestly, how I kind of empower myself to go out there and go get it. I think it's just a natural blend that you know, when you're working with us or an athlete with us, we really care about your personal branding, your personal strategy, your authentic alignment, because most of the times too, especially as the sport continues to grow, athletes have the ability to pass on opportunities right, so it's most likely that they're going to want to buy into something and do something that then are going to also make their consumers want to buy into themselves, and so if they're not showing up authentically themselves and not feeling like an empowered woman or empowered black woman, I feel like we haven't done our job, and that's something that's super important. So self-expression will always go the long, be a part of the long haul for the athletes and will honestly align most with the messaging that they put out in terms of their content. Thank you for that.

Ajhanai Keaton :

So, looking ahead, we already have this visionary mindset that I just love. What is your long term vision for TSG? And then, what's the impact you hope to make on the landscape of women's sports?

Jenna Smith:

Yeah, we definitely want to be the go-to marketing agency for women's sports. We are starting in basketball because basketball is booming, but I'm having conversations right now with tennis athletes, softball athletes, beach volleyball athletes. We're not limiting ourselves to a sport or even to just college. I think there's an opportunity for brands that strategically want to align with a women's sports agency and a marketing agency that they will get kind of the pot of all type of athletes out there from different regions of the world, especially to you know, I was having a conversation with a university about some of their tennis athletes and they're like, hey, 60% of our athletes are international and I'm like, wait, I love that because that gives brands kind of this new feel and new perspective to really want to get involved. So if we become that go-to marketing agency for all the women's sports, we're producing content that helps to propel the women and also, too, I want to build a great team of, obviously, men and women that support kind of what we're doing and what we're creating.

Jenna Smith:

That's definitely the goal. We also want more equitable opportunities in terms of women's sports. So a great example is, with a lot of sports tech companies, there's an opportunity for athletes to become advisors or even get a chance at equity Right. So there's a chance that again bridging this gap in the long haul is athletes who are getting a lot of sponsorship opportunities are also getting a lot of kind of the compensation monetary upside from it. With the monetary upside they're also able to then be able to align strategically, potentially in investments or just being an advisor in terms of a sports tech or maybe a beauty brand, who knows?

Jenna Smith:

It's just the opportunity that they have the capital to then make those decisions and we can bridge that gap with beauty brands that want to showcase capital to the athletes. So the investing opportunities are super important. And then we just want to be great for brand alignment and feedback. I think brands grow and evolve in the space by learning about what the athletes like and don't like and making sure that we're making giving the athletes a chance to give feedback on how they did a product review, to how they've done a marketing campaign for the brands, helps both parties really, really grow. Yeah.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Thank you for that. And then the last question I have for you is, of course I know you know this one's coming what advice do you have? What advice would you give to younger professionals, particularly women, looking to break into the sports, business and tech industries?

Jenna Smith:

I think the first one is don't be afraid to fail. I mentioned this earlier about not seeing what I wanted to become, but also not being afraid to put myself out there and just take a chance and a risk at essentially seeing what would happen. Everything comes from lessons in terms of life for me, and it's like, hey, if I never try, I'll never know. And sometimes people have the hesitation around putting themselves out there and trying to build something, and I encourage many women, especially many Black women, especially Black women. You are, 99% the time, equipped with the tools to do it. You just may not have the support system to push you to do it Right, and so, remembering that you do have the toolbox. We carry the toolbox. We always have to be 100% better than everybody else around us. We know what it is. I realized that early on in my career and I said you know what? The belief in myself will always be bigger than the belief anybody else has for me. Once I took that and I ran with it, I said I'm just going to continue to make the strides, make the ways, curate community, because we need each other. Don't forget that. But also to not be afraid to put myself out there and see what the results kind of come from.

Jenna Smith:

In doing that, two other things is you take the risk right. A couple of risks I took was I'm going to go to grad school. Didn't even think I would get into grad school. I end up at Columbia. I'm going to work in VC, don't have the traditional consulting background, investment banking background, ends up working for Advantage Global Sports Tech Fund. Taking a risk to move to Tel Aviv, live in Tel Aviv, work in Jerusalem basically the only woman on my team, but still figuring it out as I go at the age of 24, right. So being able to do that and also taking a couple steps back because we can move really, really fast in this generation, as a Gen Z, understanding that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Many times I will go after something wanting immediate results, and anybody who works in partnerships that is listening to this. You know that brand deals can take up to eight months, to maybe a year, to maybe only two weeks. But understanding that consistency and repetition is super important to producing results will get you to that next milestone each time.

Ajhanai Keaton :

Yeah, Jenna, this has been amazing. I am looking forward to following your career supporting elevating. So thank you for your time, Thank you for all your brilliant insights.

Jenna Smith:

Do you have any last final thoughts? Don't be scared to take the risk. I really want, if anything I can tell in my story. I'm here to empower women, and I'm especially here to empower Black women, to remind you that you do carry a light, men. It is very powerful.

Ajhanai Keaton :

And we're going to end on that. Thank you, thank you.

Langston Clark:

Thank you for joining this edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite. If you liked the episode, you can support the show by becoming one of our founding 55 patrons, which gives you access to our live discussions and bonus materials, or you can subscribe to the show. Give us five stars and leave a comment.