You're Not Ready… Do It Anyway: Career Reinvention

[00:00]
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Her Career Unplugged, the podcast where you are getting little tidbits to add to your playbook every day. I am here with my co-host Fimla. I'm Joanne and Jennifer Soulberg. And before we jump in and start harassing Jennifer with all of our questions because we got a short timeline, I want to give an an overview like of who she is, her bio. So, Jen Silverford has a PhD. She's a CEO, an entrepreneur, and honestly, probably has the most fascinating career journey that you'll ever hear about. Yes, I know she's laughing, but yes, she started her career as a research psychologist um with the US Army Research Institution where she for nearly a decade was developing cuttingedge technology, enabling trainer, training our soldiers. And that really hits home with me. I personally started off my first job at Lockheed, so I get that. So you got to think video game based training for IED detection, virtual environments for the battlefield. It's not that 9-to-five job. Um, from there she stepped into the private sector. She is director of defense solutions for design interactive where she learned about growing a business and leading effective teams. And then in 2014, she did what a lot of us dream about doing. She bet it on herself and she founded Quantum Improvements and Consulting or QIC. And that has been now she's been leading as a CEO for over a decade. And if that wasn't enough, she recently uh launched a company building immersive augmented reality experiences for uh designed to entertain, educate, and inspire. So um I mentioned before she has a PhD. She holds a PhD in cognitive experimental psychology from the University of Georgia. And that is a mouthful. But with this deep expertise in visual perception, human performance and how we actually learn. So and along with all that, if you have a PhD or a published researcher, so she has dozen of publications. So she is as brilliant as she sounds honest here. So companies based in the beautiful sunny Orlando. I love that. There we go. Yes.

[02:27]
There you go.

[02:27]
Beautiful sunny Orlando. That's where we're located as well. So, we're very happy to have a local a local guest and she's here to share her story with us. So, Jennifer, welcome to Her Career Unplugged. We're glad you're here.

[02:39]
Hi, and thank you for that glowing intro. Um, yeah, I have to say like the PhD part is probably like the least interesting part about me,

[02:50]
but it was it was something I did a long time ago and um, so much has happened since then. But yes, I'm thrilled to be here and happy to talk to you all today.

[03:00]
Thank you so much, Jennifer, for being with us today. And PhD is not definitely the least important. I knew how much time it takes to just go through that studying and also maybe you were working at that time. So honored a virtual ball to you as well. just going through your whole um career and also like talking through your education really that's um an immense pleasure for us to have you here. With that I am going to I'm not going to harass you promise I'm going to ask some fun questions and you can ask me to shut up if you don't like those questions as well.

[03:42]
Okay, let's do it.

[03:44]
Let's do it. few questions and we'll have some fun rapid fire by Joanne by end of it. Um so the first question very curious uh hearing your intro you went from like army research psychologist to defense tax director to founding not one but two companies. So when you look back did you any of these pivots feel scary at that moment? Do you feel like it came as a natural next step? Um, so

[04:19]
yeah.

[04:19]
Yeah, I don't feel like any of it was really a natural next step. Um, so when you go to school for what I went to school for, you know, the the assumption is that you're going to go into academia, right? So like you go into research psychology so that you get to do research. Research usually happens at academic institutions and things like that. So that was lord 2004 and right about that time um I was coming out of graduate school and I just realized there were like no jobs for what I had just spent five years of my life studying and so I was like well I really want to do research but I'm not going to get one of these jobs. There's like no way um because there's like two in the whole country. So I said I really wanted to do research. How can I still do that? And it turns out at the time the federal government was hiring people to do research. And so that's how I ended up working for the army. Like I never aspired to do that. Um I never really aspired to leave the Army Research Institute. It just like the situation became untenable. Um and then even with starting my own company like it it was never my lifelong dream to do that. It's just that I'm one of these people like if you see a door, you I feel like you deserve to put your head in it and at least look at it. And um I thought about it and was like, you know what? Let's just give it a shot. What's the worst thing that can happen? Um but like I can't honestly say that being where I am right now was the plan the whole time. Like I I really can't say that. And those are some of the decisions that you make which would shape of what you are today right like those bold decisions also like going back to the same question uh you didn't

[06:11]
kind of like plan any of these pivots career pivots but was it like did you feel like you were ready especially thinking about um your history on like moving from that very safe job to kind of going into that private sector um starting your own company like at least for our readers how would you make that leap like did you feel you were ready or what drove you to take that be confidently taking that positions

[06:44]
did I feel like I was ready um I don't think I've ever really felt ready for a career shift like ever um I wasn't even ready to go to grad school. Like I didn't I wanted to take a break. I was exhausted from college. My professor was like just go and so I did. Um no I don't think you ever really necessarily feel ready to do anything or I I haven't. It's just like you know you see the opportunity and you're like well this is your now and are you going to kick yourself if you don't at least try? And what's the worst thing that's going to happen if you do try?

[07:26]
Like you try and you fail. And if you fail, then you learn something. So what you lose in terms of success, you gain in terms of wisdom. And so like there's really no, you know, there's no downside to taking a chance because even if you completely screw up, at least you learn something that day. And for me, if you've learned something, then that's worth just as much as being successful. And I've learned more from starting a business and running a business than I have from any other experience that I've ever had. So like that's it was worth it. You know, even if everything crashes and burns, it's worth it just to learn about all of that.

[08:04]
Wow. What a great takeaway to look at your failures as a knowledge that you're gaining, right? Like and learn from it and be a better person of who you are. That's a very good tidbit to learn. Uh thank you for sharing that.

[08:23]
Well, like you have to you have to though, right? So like you know knowing how people learn stuff, we learn best from mistakes and we don't really learn anything one time, right? So like if you think about like all of the patterns that you've had to break in your life and all the the things that you've done that you ended up having to stop doing like you can't just wake up one day and say I'm going to stop doing this. like you have to learn from repeated like and sometimes repeated failures but if you can take the time to sit down and be like okay this is what happened what went right what went wrong what would I do differently next time then you you know that's how you learn so you know I feel like everything is a learning opportunity if you look at it right

[09:10]
except the things that like there's really no lesson and those are the things that are really frustrating

[09:15]
yeah no I I I Totally agree with you. I'm like I would say the only true failure is a failure where you learn nothing out of it.

[09:24]
Yeah, for sure.

[09:25]
Yeah. And that's the foundation of for any success like learning through your failures, applying it would bring you to that success and taking that leap of faith into anything that you are going to get into. Uh thank you. Thank you for that tip.

[09:41]
Yeah. So the other question like I think this would be a good one for anyone who is trying to start their own business. Uh you have like a really diverse way like in your career you were working for enterprises and then you in 2014 you started your own company quantum improvements consulting um just betting on yourself right that's essentially you're betting on yourself. What's the one thing you wish you wish someone has told you before you made that entrepreneural pivot?

[10:16]
Um, the one thing I wish I had really understood was that the things that are the hardest are the things that should seem the easiest. So like the things that you think are going to be really hard. Like maybe you're not super good at accounting, maybe you're not super good at networking, like maybe you're not so good at managing people. Like the things that you think are really hard are like you'll figure that stuff out. But it's the little things like well now we have to design the inside of an office that like you would think that would be easy and it is like extremely complicated and workers comp insurance. You would think that that would be easy and sometimes that's really complicated and it's it's always like the little things like Microsoft Teams is down, my entire company's dead, what are we doing? Like you know the little things like that that are the hardest. Um because you weren't mentally prepared to have to figure that stuff out, right? like you're mentally prepared to figure out how to run a business, but you're not mentally prepared to figure out like all the little stupid things that show up and now now it's a crisis and now you have to deal with it.

[11:25]
Um, but yeah, I think that and then also probably just how exhausting it is honestly. But like

[11:35]
and as women, I think we are already like well set up for that. We do so many things like uh from like whatever you're doing whether you're doing a job, you're being a mom, you're being like running your house or like you do have multiple things. So I know it's exhausting but I hope it brings you that joy by end of it, right? Like that's that's the main reason you'll be there.

[12:00]
Yeah. Like I wouldn't I wouldn't rather be doing anything else.

[12:03]
Yeah. Awesome.

[12:04]
Except like not working. That would be great. But if you have to work,

[12:08]
yes,

[12:09]
then you should try to work for yourself. For sure.

[12:11]
Yes. Yeah. Trying to work for yourself is I think like that would be my next question. What would you say to our woman in our audience who's thinking about doing the same like they want to be an entrepreneur but they're taking a step back? Uh what would you like one piece of advice if you can?

[12:31]
Sure. So like I think the most important thing is to be objective about the business that you think you're going to start. So a lot of people and I think as women in particular in my generation, we were told when we were teenagers like follow your dreams, right? Um and following your dreams is very stupid. You need to follow the market. So um just because you think you want something does not mean that anybody else wants something. So the to to figure out if you want to start a business, you need to do market research first. Make sure there's a demand signal for what you're trying to sell. Um make sure that there's a gap that needs to be filled and make sure that you understand that gap well enough to be able to succeed because I've seen a lot of people start companies and fail because they were like, "Well, I want to do this and I think we need this." And like you're not your own customer. Somebody else is your customer. So you need to understand what other people want and other people need. And I think the the hardest part about running a business is the realization like you go into it being like I'm betting on myself. I can do this. And you know I'm I'm that person. And at the end of the day, you're one of the least important people in your company. Like it's not about you. It's about your customers first. It's about your people second and then it's about everybody else on your management team and then it's about you and like understanding that this is if you're doing this for an ego trip it will not work. Like you have to get over yourself pretty much immediately. Um, that doesn't mean that you let people push you around and disrespect you because you're a role model for people, but like, you know, you still have to be that person who's leading a company, but you can't let your ego get involved. So, like, the more you can separate yourself as a person in your head from this business that you're running, it's not an extension of yourself. It's an idea and a problem that you're trying to solve. And um like I think that's that's one of the things that's been able to keep me sane throughout this whole process is like it's not me, it's its own thing.

[14:47]
That's a great piece of advice, Jennifer. Not just um as a CEO of a company, but even in our day-to-day work life, right? Like just knowing that it's not me, like it's not the person, it's all about the work that you're doing, service you're providing. If you can detach yourself, it definitely would help you move forward any any stage. I guess that's a very good piece of advice.

[15:13]
Yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah. That's Thank you for that too. Like now I'm going to like go into the last question and then we'll have uh Joanne come in and do some rapid fire which is going to be more fun. So the last question like as um you're building your new uh company melanin XR right or is it melanin XR?

[15:35]
Yeah.

[15:35]
You're driving into augmented reality. So that's like a move into an emerging space as woman too, right? Like uh you're pivoting again.

[15:47]
Yeah. Can you like can you talk about your career reinvention and how women like uh our listeners can think of reinventing their career at any stage. You're already successful. You have like a lot of um different roles under your belt. You already have a company and you have the second company that you're starting. Uh that's that's really a great um way to look at your career at any stage. So I just wanted to know like what your thoughts are like as a last piece of advice for our audience.

[16:24]
So like so like why I did it. So um

[16:28]
so again it's it's following the market right so

[16:31]
keeping in mind like

[16:33]
in QIC has worked in the XR space for quite some time. So, like we know a lot about that technology anyway. And really the way the idea for it came about, I um one of my employees and I were we had just finished up a project and I had I had just taken a ghost tour actually and I'm not like really a very spooky person but it was like with a group for a conference that I was at and so we all went on this ghost tour and I was like why aren't there any ghosts on this ghost tour? This sucks. And then I was like actually why aren't there any ghosts on this ghost tour? Because like we could do this in augmented reality very easily. like we do this all the time for the military. Why don't we do it in for something fun, right? And um and then I did a lot of market research and I was like actually there's a huge gap here and the the driver is the cost. And I said, well, we've been doing this forever. Is there not a way that we can get the cost down so anybody could have one of these? And we did. And um spent some money internally to figure out that process and we've got some tools that we use now that actually like we can do this very efficiently. And I was like, well, this is a huge underserved market. So, again, it was really just following the market. Um, and also for us, like working in the the defense industry after a while gets kind of exhausting for a variety of reasons. And if it wasn't exhausting anyway, now it's doubly exhausting. And um not to get into all of that, but you know, I at some point in your life, you kind of just want to do something fun and hilarious. And our first customer is a roadside attraction in Missouri. And it's like it's called the Uranus Fudge Factory. It's a huge butt joke. And like

[18:15]
no, it's So we have like we developed a little experience for them. It goes all all the way throughout the store, all the way throughout the property. and you're chasing this little alien throughout the store and it like there's butt jokes everywhere and it's such a departure from what we've been doing and just like the ability to have my team laugh at work every single day has been worth it. um even if it like goes nowhere, it doesn't matter because like we had a few very very funny weeks and like just the ability to to do something else and fresh and different has really just it's been worth it for us. Um and I do think it'll be successful because again we're following a market. Um but you know like that was really why um it was just that I saw another need that could be addressed.

[19:05]
Yeah. Yeah, that again like uh I'm trying to like do a mental notes of uh every question here following the market do your market research see if there is a gap and then go for it and also this one is more of like a fun one but you also did your research and know that that's a gap uh which is a very good takeaway

[19:25]
so that would be a good takeaway for all of us follow the market I'm making mental notes I I'm sure Joan is doing that as well do your research find the gap app. If you have a solution, go for it. So, thank you so much. Those are all my questions. Hopefully, it's not like harassing you. No rap. I could talk for five hours about this. This is fine.

[19:48]
Rapid fire is what's going to be on it. Like, now the pressure.

[19:52]
But I did want to say that everybody does enjoy a good butt joke. I mean, like, how can you

[19:58]
You'd be surprised how many people like butt jokes good for all even and like and I'm an old ass lady. Like at some point you would think that they would have stopped. Like when you're 12 you're like okay like that's kids humor whatever wrong. Like they're going to put a butt joke on my tombstone. Like it's it's still funny. It never stops being funny. I don't know why it's funny. I I don't like I don't know the psychology of why that's funny but which I should I should have gone to school for that but I didn't. Um

[20:27]
you're you know what second PhD psychology about jokes?

[20:31]
No. Absolutely not. Nope. Nope. Not once. Nope.

[20:35]
All right. So, let's get ready for some rapid fire. Um.

[20:39]
All right. Let's do it.

[20:40]
One word to describe where you are in your career right now.

[20:45]
One word to describe where I am in my career right now is uh I would say yeah, sure. I'll say reinvention.

[20:55]
That's cool. I'll say that.

[20:57]
Love it. I think that's that's good. That's good. It's almost like I kind of hurt. I felt a phoenix in that moment.

[21:04]
Yeah.

[21:05]
Best decision you've ever made professionally.

[21:07]
Oh, starting my own company.

[21:09]
That was like an

[21:10]
Oh, actually I take it back. I take it back. Best decision I ever made was hiring my business partner.

[21:15]
Oh, there you go. Yes. You need a good partner. You need someone who's willing

[21:20]
somebody else with you in this. Yes. You need someone to tell you you're an idiot.

[21:25]
Yes. Yes. Someone who can say no to you is very important.

[21:29]
Some someone who's like, "Jen, no." And then you have to you have to respect that and be like, "Okay, you're right. I'm probably being dumb." So like, yeah, that's that was easily best decision.

[21:41]
Is your morning routine complete chaos or is it dialed in?

[21:45]
So I have to get up super early to start work. So like I'm up at 5, get my coffee, get relatively cleaned up, and then I start work at like six. Um, so like I I wouldn't say I have like the morning routine that you see on Instagram where it's like, oh, I wake up and then I exercise and then I meditate and then I do this and then I have like a facial and like No, no. Like if I do anything like that, it's in the evening,

[22:14]
right? But like, no, I wake up, I work from home. I like wake up, stumble in here, turn on the computer with my coffee, and I'm like, what?

[22:24]
I love it. I can't do the it girl routine either. So,

[22:26]
no, I don't think No. No. Why would you do that to if you're if you're like serious about having like anything you you don't do that? No.

[22:37]
All right. One woman.

[22:39]
Eat some lettuce that like eat vegetables and stuff and take care of yourself. But like I'm not getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning to like, you know, do power yoga.

[22:47]
You know what? I love it. When I eat a piece of lettuce, I'm going to now remember this is being an it girl.

[22:51]
That's self-care. It is self-care. Selfare.

[22:55]
Not the sadness I feel when I have a salad. Okay.

[22:58]
No, it's self-care.

[22:59]
Self-care. All right.

[23:01]
One woman, real or fictional, whose career energy or just anything that you want to channel that you when it gets hard, who do you channel?

[23:11]
A woman who I channel when things get Taylor Swift.

[23:15]
Taylor Swift. Okay. Oh, we got a Swifty. Okay.

[23:18]
Yeah. Easy.

[23:20]
Can't put Swift music in here. Sorry. It's like copyrighted. No, it's all good.

[23:25]
Hope edit will be like Taylor Swift music. I'm like, nope, can't do that. Don't have the money. Maybe this one, you know, we'll see what have you not told anybody about your new company that's maybe on your vision plan or something that maybe you want to release. Let us know. Tease us.

[23:42]
Oh. Um,

[23:44]
or you could just say confidential because you've worked in the military. So,

[23:48]
I No, the way that you say that is if I told you I'd have to kill you. Oh,

[23:52]
that's how you say that. Um or or you'd say need to know. Um I don't think there's anything going on that we haven't been like our our marketing person is like extremely on point. I feel like everything that we're doing is very public. So,

[24:09]
well, you know what? Okay, then pivot that. How do we follow this journey?

[24:14]
Follow you can follow us on the gram, Melanix. um the gram they we're on Facebook for those of you who are still on Facebook. We're on YouTube. We're on Tik Tok. Um yeah, social media is probably the best way to uh to see what we're up to on a daily basis.

[24:32]
Awesome. Thank you so much.

[24:34]
We're on all of it.

[24:35]
You're on all of it. All the all the media.

[24:40]
Perfect. I'm gonna hand it back over to Vimmela. Thank you so much for the rapid fire.

[24:45]
Yeah. Thank you. That was fun actually. You were like really on it. Thank you so much, Jennifer. You're an absolute gem. Thank you for being so open, so real and so inspiring today. Listeners, go find Jennifer. She is on all everywhere on the social media. You pick your platform and find her and check out both of her uh companies as well, QIC and Meline XR. And remember, your next pivot might be just your most powerful one yet. So that's our takeaway from today. For our next episode, I and Joanne are going to talk about being a community builder and just knowing about um how you can get engaged in your local community. Joanne has a lot of experience building our local tech community in Orlando. So we'll talk about that as well. So until next time, keep it real and stay unplugged.