What an honor it was to work with Michele DeKinder-Smith in the creation of her new and updated story. She and I met at the Ali Brown SHINE Event is Las Vegas last November. I was attracted to Michele’s “See Jane Succeed” booth, so I approached and I asked some questions to learn more.
It turns out that Michele is a veteran market research professional who interviewed over 1,500 women to identify five distinct types of women business owners — Jane Dough, Accidental Jane, Merry Jane, Tenacity Jane, and Go Jane Go. She then identified their keys to being more profitable and to love life and wrote a book that is giving women business owners around the world plenty to talk about.
Michele speaks often to professional groups and associations about what her research means to women everywhere. That’s why having a quality story to share with meeting planners and women business owners was among her priorities.
If you are a woman business owner or have one among the important people in your life, I know you’ll enjoy meeting Michele by reading her story. And, if you would like to participate in the See Jane Succeed LIVE event in Chicago this May, here is a link to tell you more about that.
Michele DeKinder-Smith is on an inspired mission to guide women business owners to celebrate their unique styles of doing business without self-judgment as she helps to solve the complex puzzles that stand in the way of building more profitable companies, stronger brands, and better lives for themselves and their loved ones.
A successful, seven-figure business owner of three companies – Linkage Research & Consulting, Inc., Jane Out of the Box, Inc., and Team Women, Inc. – Michele is an inquisitive, personable, and engaging 20-year veteran market research professional on a quest to connect with and understand people. Known for her high standards, integrity, and commitment to “giving dangerously” to support others’ success, Michele applies genuine curiosity, caring, intuition, and amazing insight to connect the dots as she guides motivated women to create businesses and lives they love.
The author of See Jane Succeed: Five Types of Entrepreneurial Women Reveal What it Takes to Win in Business and in Life and co-author of See Jane Collaborate: Your Essential Guide to Joyful and Prosperous Business Partnerships, Michele is intelligent without being intimidating, classy without pretense, and always a compassionate truth-teller.
Senior decision-makers at Fortune 500 companies such as Starbucks, Frito Lay, Tropicana, Texas Instruments, Hoover Vacuums, and Verizon Wireless have relied upon Michele’s ability to help them “walk in their customer’s shoes” to build bridges between their brands and their ideal target customers, yielding happier, more loyal fans and improved business performance. Michele’s passion to understand what makes women business owners thrive is the fuel that propels her Jane Out of the Box and Team Women businesses forward.
Through a combination of blogs, teleclasses, speaking engagements, newsletters, and resources – including the popular Which Jane are You? assessment – Michele guides this fastest growing segment of the entrepreneurial market to succeed on their own terms. As a result of interviews with nearly 4,000 women business owners around the world, Michele has identified five distinct types of women entrepreneurs – Jane Dough, Accidental Jane, Merry Jane, Tenacity Jane, and Go Jane Go– and what it takes for each to win in business and life. Her ground-breaking research is getting people talking, connecting, and thinking differently about what success really means.