January 24, 2025 • 44 mins
On Tim Stating the Obvious, I had the chance to interview, Jess Jensen, to get her insights on the importance of effective leadership in both professional and personal environments. As a communication strategist, she explored the impact of social media on leadership and discussed her commitment to servant leadership and creating meaningful digital connections. She founded Co-Pilot Communications with the goal of helping leaders enhance their digital presence, aiming to inspire optimism and drive positive change.
Throughout her career, Jess has held positions at major companies like Microsoft and Adidas, supported by her educational background in psychology and business administration. During my conversation with Jess, she emphasized the evolution of social media from a personal tool to an essential business resource, noting how many senior leaders are now actively engaged on these platforms. However, there’s a noticeable inconsistency in how effectively leaders utilize social media—some build genuine connections, while others rely on outdated PR tactics that fail to engage.
Jess also touched on challenges faced by leaders, particularly those with military backgrounds, in navigating social media without jeopardizing their careers. She suggested starting with clear social media policies developed in collaboration with legal and communications teams. Jess offers five strategies for authentically enhancing an online presence, highlighting the importance of supporting team members rather than competing with customers.
Publicly recognizing employees is crucial for boosting engagement and loyalty. Jess shared an example from Qualcomm, where the CEO acknowledged an employee’s adaptability during the pandemic, illustrating how such recognition can be more impactful than financial rewards. She emphasized the importance of acknowledging both customers and employees to strengthen relationships and morale, urging senior leaders to establish thought leadership on social media based on their experiences.
Leaders should clearly articulate their visions for the future of their industries, engaging audiences with personal values and insights beyond company metrics. Successful thought leadership develops over time through consistent sharing and engagement with feedback, as demonstrated by Scott Galloway’s ability to predict industry trends using technology, marketing, and economics.
Qualitative feedback is vital in shaping business strategies, and Jess highlighted Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, as an example of effectively addressing customer input. She recommended starting with small social media interactions, especially on LinkedIn, to build a rhythm of engagement. Two-way communication is key, along with collaboration strategies between marketing and public relations teams.
During her time at Qualcomm, she worked on integrating digital marketing with PR efforts, advocating for breaking presentations into smaller content pieces for broader reach. At Co-Pilot Communications, her approach with clients involves thorough preparation and understanding their needs through a three-phase operational method, starting with strategic audience identification and self-evaluation for effective communication.
This process includes consulting with others to understand their communication style and conducting a detailed audit of their digital presence. Best practices from industry leaders inform the development of a narrative roadmap aligned with the leader’s values. The “flight plan” phase operationalizes this strategy through platform training, such as LinkedIn, equipping leaders for effective communication.
Jess's strategy includes updating social media profiles, creating a 30-day content calendar, and measuring engagement rates and qualitative sentiment. Regular evaluations allow for content adjustments, and sharing plans with team members ensures collaboration.
She places great value on measu
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim (00:02):
This is Tim Staton with Tim Staton the obvious.
What is this podcast about? It's simple.
You are entitled to great leadership everywhere you go, whether it's a church, whether it's
to work, whether it's at your house, you are entitled to great leadership.
And so in this podcast, we take leadership principles and theories and turn them into everyday relatable and usable advice.
Disclaimer (00:26):
And a quick disclaimer, this show process or service by trademark, trademark manufacturer, otherwise,
does not necessarily constitute and imply endorse by anyone that I employed by or favors in the representation.
The views are expressed here in my show are my own expressed and do not necessarily state or
reflect those of any employer.
Tim (00:37):
Hey, and welcome back to another episode.
I'm really excited about today's episode in particular because we have a special guest with
us talking about, something that's near and dear to my heart, because we have the show is social media and podcasting.
And, specifically, she's gonna be talking about social media with senior leaders and kind of
ways to help us get around things.
(00:58):
So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna introduce Jess real quick.
So Jess Jensen is a communication strategist, digital marketer, and entrepreneur.
She's an advocate for servant leadership and a believer in fostering meaningful connections
in a digital first world.
For over 20 years, Jess has shaped how leaders communicate, helping them inspire, clarify, and elevate their voice.
(01:18):
Today, she leads CoPilot Communications, a company that she founded in 2024 to help executives
and ambitious founders leverage digital communications and channels like podcasting and social
media to bring optimism, inspiration, and humanity into conversations, shifting the focus towards progress and positive change.
(01:39):
What's most important is her number one goal is to sharpen and elevate a leader's professional
brand so they can use their influence for good, which I think is incredibly important.
Previously, Jess held leadership roles in Microsoft, Adidas, and Nestle, where she honed her
expertise in brand marketing with 7 of those years working directly with c suite on their digital comms platform.
(02:01):
During her decade at Qualcomm, she led the company's worldwide digital communications practice,
gaining deep insight into the corporate strategy and storytelling.
Jess holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and an MBA and serves on the board of a nonprofit, imperfectly.
She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and her 2 daughters.
And outside of work, Jess enjoys supporting local restaurants, cycling, and hiking through scenic
(02:26):
highways, scenic Pacific Northwest, and exploring the region's many delicious Pinot Noir.
So, Jess, welcome to the show.
Jess Jensen (02:33):
Thank you so much for having me, Tim.
It's good to be here.
Tim (02:36):
I'm glad I'm glad we, were able to make this happen.
I don't know what the weather is like where you're at, but I know up here, you know, you're in the northwest. I'm in the northeast.
It's kinda cold and chilly.
It's very sunny out today, which is which is good.
So, before we dive into the topic of social media, I think it's really important that everybody's
on the same page with what are we talking about when we talk about social media.
(02:59):
So can you just kind of define what social media is and the purpose of why, from a business
perspective, we should be engaged in that?
Jess Jensen (03:07):
Sure. Social media is such a broad set of channels today.
So it includes everything from kind of our our OGs like Facebook, Twitter slash x, also, Instagram,
TikTok, LinkedIn, which is a big one for a lot of senior leaders.
And there are myriad of newer platforms like Blue Sky that are popping up.
(03:31):
So there is really not one social media.
There is this portfolio, that you might have you might almost use the analogy of when you invest
in, like, a mutual fund.
You're buying a a a basket of stocks.
When you get involved with social media, you often are dabbling in multiple platforms and selecting
(03:52):
ones that really, complement each other.
So social has been around, I think most of us know, gosh, for 15 plus years, which is crazy.
And I've been fortunate enough to to be in roles, at companies where I was able to take some
risks and experiment pretty early on going back to 2,007.
(04:15):
And so I've really grown up professionally, alongside the growth and expansion of social.
Then I've seen it move from being a very much a personal thing, an individual thing, then to
consumer brands who really adopted it early.
And and now over, you know, again, a decade plus, b to b or business to business kind of more
(04:37):
enterprise level companies are are using it.
So really now everyone is using it as a tool to, communicate what their company stands for,
product launches, the points of view of senior leaders, and really just to round out their overall marketing and communications, portfolio.
Tim (05:00):
Which I which I think that's a great definition to get us kind of honed in on to how do we as
senior leaders of any organization leverage digital communication and everything else to really,
1, connect with people and bring humanity back into the space.
Jess Jensen (05:21):
Yeah. And I'm glad you use that word humanity. I love that word.
I think if we rewind the clocks a little bit back to say 2,000 18, 19, pre pandemic, you know,
the at that point, if you were a c suite VP, senior leader, founder, and you were not on a digital
property, not on a social property, that was beginning to be fairly conspicuous. Right?
(05:44):
Most people were active in some form or fashion.
Fast forward Staton today, now 2025, and over 2 thirds of senior leaders, of US based companies
have a social media presence over 2 thirds.
So it is now more common than not for them to be there.
(06:05):
Now how are they showing up?
That's, goes back to the word that you just used, humanity.
Some of them are doing a fantastic job.
And there's some examples I can share later, if you're interested in who I I follow and learn from.
But there's a lot of leaders, and I and I understand why we can get into that, who have begun
to use social and digital platforms effectively how we've traditionally used PR platforms, which
(06:33):
is to say that it's a bit one way.
So kind of broadcast versus a back and forth in a conversation, which social enables if you
choose to leverage it for that.
And also maybe not as authentic, not as true to who they are as whole people, and a little bit
more, sort of polished corporate kind of, speaking in a way that, one might in a press release
(07:02):
and just using digital channels to do the same thing.
Tim (07:05):
Yeah. So let's talk about that part a little bit.
Because I know we come from 2 different 2 different worlds. Right?
So I come from a military background where for a senior leader to get on social media, it could cost them their careers.
And so how can we make sure that we set out a good framework to make sure that senior leaders
(07:26):
stay in line, they don't go off script, and not every organization has like a public affairs
team or anything else like that, especially if you're a smaller business.
So what is a framework that we can use to get us into a safe space, to be more confident, and
get out as a senior leader, get the messaging out?
Jess Jensen (07:42):
Yeah. It's a great question.
I think first and foremost, I would start with, and again, depending on the size of the company
you're in, this may or may not exist, But many of the companies I've worked for, I actually
would collaborate with our legal team, and we would develop, a social or a digital media
guidance or rubric, and it would be published to all of the employees.
(08:06):
It was sort of a set of of rules of the road, sort of things to do and things not to do.
And so I think first stop would be ask, ask your probably your communications team, perhaps
your legal Tim, it does that exist?
And if it does, my gosh, let's make sure we know what that says, and we follow those rules.
If it doesn't exist, that's actually an opportunity to begin to forge that.
(08:29):
Because once things are written down, it's a lot easier for everyone to stay in line, not just senior leaders.
But beyond sort of the do's and don'ts, kind of the black and white, rules that might be established,
there are often I talk about 5 ways that a digital leader sorry, that a leader can use digital
to really bring to life their personality and also their business.
(08:54):
Because, again, this should be of service to your team, your business, as well as to you as a as a person. Right? It should be both.
And so I can kind of walk you through those.
The, the first two are really around this idea of shining a light on others.
And this kind of goes back to what you had said in my intro, which was, so lovely. Thank you.
(09:18):
About my, my propensity as a as now a founder and and as a leader of teams to really, try to
commit things as a servant leader.
So this idea of putting myself behind and, shining a light on my team or my peers or others.
And so when we think about how that applies to, digital digital and social media, it it really
(09:46):
it's really about thinking through how do I elevate relationships with, say, partners or customers, clients?
So those kind of on the outside of the company that I'm working very closely with.
How do I shine a light on the great work that we're doing together or that they're doing and
I just want to elevate and bring more attention to?
(10:06):
So that's one easy thing to do, that in general shouldn't, shouldn't be too ripe for, descent or, or or challenge.
Now I think the one thing to think through there, if you're talking about customers, is you
likely have more than one customer, or more than one client.
(10:26):
And so certainly having, never never getting into a comparison game. Right?
You certainly don't wanna elevate one customer while you're disparaging another.
And that I mean, that's fairly logical.
Ideally, you're kind of balancing that light that you're shining on maybe multiple clients and
customers over the course of several months.
So they all feel like the love is is coming their way.
(10:51):
But the another way you can use that notion of shining a light is really, in it's using internal
stakeholders, but doing it in an external or public facing way.
And so this goes, to really that hybrid of where marketing communications and sort sort of HR
and employee relations come together.
And, this is around employees.
(11:12):
So I saw some examples, lovely examples when I was at Qualcomm where, our CEO would share a
photo, for example, this is during the pandemic, where an engineer, went into the lab and took
a lot much of the, much of the sort of technology machinery and setup that he would normally use on campus.
(11:35):
But because of the pandemic, had to bring it home and recreated it in his garage, took a photo,
and shared it with our our c Staton.
And just kind of said, hey.
I'm kind of wanted to show.
I'm I'm still doing this. I'm still working.
I, you know, I want you to know I'm I'm team Qualcomm.
And our CEO was just so kinda floored by the loyalty and the commitment to go to all this trouble,
(12:02):
that he he was his idea.
He said, let's we need to put this out.
Let's make sure that the world sees the great employees that we have even give even given the
circumstances that many of us were living in in 2020.
So there's so many great ways to shine a light, not just on your customers and, partners, but also on your employees.
(12:23):
And when you do that as a leader publicly, it is, in many ways, worth more than a bonus.
It is so valuable for them to get that public recognition by someone who maybe is multiple levels, above where they sit.
And it's the kind of thing they're gonna go home and talk to their family about.
Tim (12:44):
No. Absolutely. And I just had to interject here because I was just thinking, I was reading my notes.
It's like, you know, if you have a company that's kinda struggling with employee engagement,
would this be a tool to help raise that and boost that up to be like, hey. Look.
We're highlighting the people that that are doing great things.
And that engineer, like, I wonder how many times he shared that to somebody else. Was like, hey. Look.
(13:05):
The CEO thought this was pretty awesome.
And, you know, and how many times he shared that to everybody else, and that's getting the company's name out there too.
So I I think that's a really awesome idea of really publicly recognizing employees and bringing that to light.
Because that is a huge indicator that that they have found in studies that the reason why people
are not as engaged is because they don't feel valued, and they start to bring that value back to the employee.
(13:29):
So I I really appreciate that point. That it's like
Jess Jensen (13:32):
Yeah. I and I think you said it so well around employee engagement.
Like, I'm not an HR professional, but just as an employee in companies for for 20 plus years,
I can tell you that I mean, certainly, we all have some level of, value around the monetary component of work.
I mean, most of us wouldn't work if there wasn't some sort of monetary component.
(13:54):
But for most of us, there are other things too.
It's not an or, it's an and.
And so that recognition, that especially public recognition and especially by someone who maybe
you don't have a lot of day to day contact with, feeling seen and valued, oh, that is it is
such a great, addition to whatever you your paycheck might be.
Tim (14:17):
Let's talk quickly about we we focused internally. Right?
We focused internally on our our our people.
We've looked at our customers and our relationships.
But what other things might we do to help project, like, a vision of the company using social media?
Jess Jensen (14:36):
Right. So this is the this is the 3rd in the list of 5.
So this idea of really establishing yourself as a thought leader.
And what does that mean, thought leadership?
Well, sometimes we we use the term futurist, sort of bringing a futurist point of view.
So most folks that are in, again, a senior leadership c suite founder level have been at it for quite some time. Right?
(15:02):
They've worked probably for multiple companies. They have made mistakes. They have had successes.
They've had great bosses, not such great bosses.
They've seen trends go up and down, generations of technology change.
And so Staton by the point by the by the time that you're at that point in your career, you have opinions.
(15:23):
You have a point of view.
Now maybe you haven't shared those publicly.
Maybe it's more in small groups or internally with your team.
Or maybe you haven't even just taken a pause to write them down and really codify, where do
I see the future of x?
So this third one is around taking the time, which is part of what I do with the work that I
(15:47):
do with clients, to think about what you value and also just your expertise and what it's telling
you about where the future might, where what the future might hold for your industry.
And so this is bigger than your company.
This is bigger than predicting what, you know, what you think your quarterly earnings are gonna look like.
I mean, obviously, that's territory we probably don't wanna get into at all.
(16:10):
But if you're talking at a macro level about about a certain segment of the tech industry or
a certain segment of the food and beverage industry or, you know, you pick whatever your area of expertise might be.
The more that you come out and really share a compelling futurist point of view, the more that
(16:30):
people are gonna wanna follow and wanna engage and be curious what you're gonna say next.
So I think this one takes a little bit more sort of time and kind of taking a minute to really
define what you think that looks like.
But once you do, you can kind of rinse and repeat it over the course of multiple months and
(16:52):
multiple platforms and then pressure test and see what kind of feedback, which is the beauty of digital. What kind of comments?
What kind of engagement are you getting?
Tim (17:01):
Yeah. So who does this really well?
Like, is is there anyone that comes to your mind that in the thought leadership realm or in,
like, this futurist mentality, like, who does this well?
As I needed an example of what does this look like?
What does right look like?
Jess Jensen (17:18):
So one leader who I love and I followed for 6 or 7 years now, His name is Scott Galloway.
And, Scott Galloway wears a number of hats.
So he's a professor at NYU, professor Galloway.
So Professor Galloway is his handle on on the social channels.
He's an author of multiple books.
(17:38):
He is a serial entrepreneur.
He's got 2 podcasts himself now.
He's a public speaker, all the things.
And he I mean, part of why I love him is because the topics that he really brings together through
that Venn diagram are 3 areas that I love.
So he talks about, the tech industry, which is where a lot of my background resides, talks about
(18:00):
marketing and brand, and then he talks about economics.
So I love all those circles, and he kind of merges them together.
But he also is is quite he's he's quite, bold and at times flippant, and that's part of his charisma. Right?
It's sort of his his sense of humor.
But he does a great job of marrying statistics and data, which he brings in spades, with storytelling,
(18:28):
which we know is really how most of us remember things is through stories.
So I love that part of his delivery.
And he's also not afraid to make predictions.
I mean, we just got through December, which I know is a very ripe time of the year for many
thought leaders to be, predicting what they think the next year will hold.
(18:50):
But for example, he was I remember years ago, he was an early, predictor of Amazon acquiring
Whole Foods, which they, of course, did.
And I remember thinking at the time that didn't like, what what sense is that?
Amazon already has grocery delivery.
They maybe aren't exactly the same demographic.
You know, there are so many things.
(19:10):
You know, how are they gonna deal with all this organic, all that?
But he had great thought, wrapped around it, and it came to fruition.
Now he makes some predictions that don't come true.
Of course, he's not a 100%.
But I just like that he delivers his thoughts with confidence, again, backed by data, quite
a bit of logic and experience, but also has a sense of humor if it doesn't work out and can be self deprecating.
Tim (19:36):
When you mentioned earlier, you mentioned that, it's good to get these out there, get get your ideas out there.
You have the thought leadership, and and I really appreciate that really great example of of,
you know, Scott Galloway of of if I wanna know what kind of what this looks like, I can go there
and take a look at it.
But you mentioned about getting feedback.
Like you, you put something out there and then you get some feedback from it.
(20:00):
So how can we leverage social media to gather that, those nuggets of gold?
Jess Jensen (20:05):
Yeah. So this is the 4th Jensen, and I sometimes refer to social, really, I mean, any forum.
You could look at Reddit this way, any forum where there's commentary, from the audience is
it's a valuable tool for feedback.
And if you're wise, you're not just using digital platforms forms again in that one way fashion
we talked about at the top of the of the podcast.
(20:27):
We're not just pushing out content and sort of walking away. We're we're listening.
We're we're reading through the comments and we're ideally, you know, ones that are relevant, we're engaging, we're responding.
And if we're if we're really sort of you want a 2.0 it, we're taking that as effectively market
research, with sands all the, you know, 100 of 1,000 of dollars that you would normally spend.
(20:53):
And and at least adding it to, you know, the other data points that we have.
Of course, that isn't our only data point.
But we're adding that qualitative nature to the conversation into what we may do in the future. Right?
How it actually could change our our product portfolio or, a new concept or even a partner that we might embark on.
(21:13):
An example of this that I love is Brian Chesky, so the the CEO of Airbnb.
He uses x in this way, seen it a couple of Tim, where he will, he will post questions to the
audience about Airbnb's platform, whether it's from the host perspective, if you own a home
and you're renting it out, or from a, a customer perspective where you're renting the home.
(21:39):
And he will gather a bunch of comments and Staton, and, you know, a quarter will go by, and
he will come back to that thread, and he will publish, I heard you say x y z, and here is what
we're doing to address those concerns.
And I I think that this is such a great example of not just using the platform for market research
(22:04):
and data gathering, but really showing your audience that what they say matters.
And you're listening, and you're doing your damndest to actually incorporate their feedback
into the future of the company.
Tim (22:15):
I would imagine that this takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to do that.
And it and it and I know it's gonna take a lot of coaching too for a lot of people to do that.
Because especially if you're a one man show or you've got a you know, you maybe you don't have a social media team. Right?
(22:35):
So I cannot like, how much time does that does that take?
I could I could see that that would be really labor intensive to go through the comments and really gather that feedback.
Jess Jensen (22:46):
Yeah. I mean, like like, you can imagine this varies wildly.
It depends on how many, how many followers or connections that you have and how engaged they are.
How many comments are you filtering through?
Often, a large part of engagement is really sort of the the easy, like, kind of heart situation.
(23:07):
The comments are usually a smaller subset because it takes a little more effort, right, for
someone to actually write a sentence.
But, you know, I think that I think that, like, so many things, it's baby steps.
It's how do you start perhaps on one platform.
I often recommend LinkedIn for senior leaders.
And maybe it's posting a couple of times a week, maybe even once a week if you're not quite
(23:31):
there yet, if you haven't, had a history of exposure there.
And then beginning to get into a, a rhythm. Right?
Maybe it's putting something on your calendar every Friday morning with your cup of coffee.
Let me go into my post.
Let's see what people had to say.
Let's see if there's any patterns that are usable.
And then questions or comments that I Jess wanna respond to as as a human who wants to show
(23:54):
that I'm engaged and present.
But it can be very small in the beginning, and then over time, if you have a team or you have
a partner, then it you can allow it to blossom and grow to more platforms, more posts, and eventually
a larger subset of of, feedback.
Tim (24:10):
Yeah. No. Those are great tips to to where do I get Staton? Right?
If I'm not doing this, how do I get started on on doing that?
So I call it fire and forget. Right?
I put something out there.
I don't ever go back to it unless I get a reminder that something happens. Right?
So this is a communication. So it's two way.
And and you're really helping, for everyone listening to this or watching this, bring that home.
(24:33):
Is that communication is two way.
Like, I put something out there, you respond back, and I'm gonna respond back to you, and we're gonna have a conversation.
So I really appreciate your points on that.
What else can a senior leader do to really kind of hype close this in into a a good formula or format.
Jess Jensen (24:50):
Yeah. This this is gonna, be the 5th of the 5, and this really, this, highlights sort of the
operational mindset that I, I bring.
So my background obviously is marketing communications, brand work, but I've always sort of
had a a a strong secondary operational approach to things.
And I kind of love looking for patterns and establishing systems to help make things easier for us.
(25:13):
So one of the, things that we we did pretty early on, at Qualcomm was my team, which was digital
marketing and our PR Tim.
We came together and began to really think in a 360 fashion.
So rather than maybe historically where sometimes those teams can work a little bit like sister
teams, but not necessarily day to day collaborators, where there might be, say, a keynote or
(25:38):
a fireside chat at, for example, the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, which is a big actually
happening, this month, a big moment for the tech industry.
But every industry has these. Right?
They have speakership opportunities that often senior leaders participate in.
But for a long time, those were done, you know, physically on a stage with an audience, and
(25:58):
they may have been filmed, but it there wasn't a plan around how to what I would use the term is is atomize. Atomize that content.
How do we take maybe sound bites, short clips, 30 seconds or less from those fireside chats or keynotes?
How do we, is there an audio version that can is almost a podcast or a, an audio blog on the company website?
(26:23):
How does the core how do the corporate channels promote?
And then after share, good good shots and good sound bites, as well as the senior leader. Right?
Because there's 2 different channels there.
And then how do we weave the messaging through? Right?
The messaging, of course, that that Jensen, that leader is speaking to on stage should also
(26:44):
be, mimicked or at least, sort of anchored in their social content, in video that they make
for internal or external audiences on podcasts like this. Right?
That messaging should really be that red thread through all the different places they can communicate.
So atomizing every single moment. Right?
(27:07):
Like, right now, we're we're recording a longer form piece of audio.
I'm sure you'll do takedowns.
You'll do shortcuts of this. You might take screenshots. You might have imagery.
You'll use social to promote YouTube. So that's super smart.
You're atomizing one big chunky piece of content and putting it in lots of different places
(27:27):
and lots of different formats.
Tim (27:29):
No. Absolutely. And, I was thinking about this on our initial conversation that we had, and
I was really surprised by you when we first had a conversation to do the podcast.
You're the first person to actually ask me directed questions about my show and actually ask
me directed questions about my show and my platform.
(27:50):
And you actually knew information.
It's not like you just kind of went on to 1 or 2 episodes and looked at it.
Like, you actually looked into it and figured out what the show was about and what how you could
deliver value, to that, which I was really impressed by because nobody else had done that.
Usually, it's like, oh, this is my thing, and this is what I wanna talk about.
And and so with that, I know that you've had all this extensive history in corporate America and big business.
(28:17):
But now, you know, you have your own company, Copilot Communications.
And I got a little taste of how you've kind of worked with people.
But can you walk us through how you operationalize, things with a client?
Jess Jensen (28:32):
Sure. Yeah. And thank you.
That, your compliment is well received.
I I do try to do my homework just to make sure it's a good use of your time too.
So I'm glad that that came through. So yeah.
So from this work I've done, at a few different companies, again, with kind of that background
with corporate sort of broader brand, social, digital.
(28:54):
I actually had a podcast of my own back in 2018 and 19 called Social Currency.
So as just a side project with a friend, I wanted to experiment and and dabble in this audio
space because I just love it.
And then more recently, as you mentioned earlier, the kind of one on one coaching and relationships
that I built with our c suite, to help them stand up as an individual.
(29:18):
I have developed a bit of an approach, and I've I've tested it, and I've used it a number of
times now, and I I know that it works.
So I can walk you through it. It's really 3 phases.
Tim (29:31):
Yeah, please.
Jess Jensen (29:32):
So the the name of the company as you mentioned is CoPilot Communications.
I kind of love that mid century aviation sort of aesthetic, and I use some of the terminology
to kinda weave through the program.
So the first phase I call blue sky, And this is really the strategy phase. This is so important.
And it's the part I think that a lot of folks might miss because it takes a little Tim, definitely
(29:55):
works better if you've got a partner who's guiding you through it.
And it also takes just some self reflection. Right?
Getting to know who you are and what you wanna stand for publicly.
So we talk about, who's your target audience. Right?
That's number 1 in any marketing or communications brief. Right?
Who are you trying to speak to?
(30:16):
And if you're trying to speak to everybody, to be honest, you're speaking to nobody. Right?
So identifying, who is the most important subgroup of people and really getting clear on all
the details of where you imagine they were, where they live, how old they are, what their hobbies
and interests are, why they're listening or or following you. So defining that target.
(30:41):
And then, of course, goals. Right?
What are 1 or 2 key goals that you why are you doing this in the first place?
And we get really clear on your why.
And that can vary for different leaders, and especially given where at the stage where their
business may be, and also the level of comfort they have in digital, platforms.
So, from there, we I have the leader do a self evaluation about their communications today,
(31:07):
which is always really insightful for me to to hear, what they how they think they're doing
and where they think their strengths and and opportunities lie.
I also meet with 3 other individuals that the leader provides to me.
So I, often talk to a peer, maybe it's a direct report, maybe a past colleague, people that
could speak to, the person's communication style.
(31:32):
And that is often really insightful for me because I start to I Jensen earlier, I like to look
for patterns, and I start to see those when I combine the self evaluation with these 3 interviews.
And then I do my own audit, of course.
I look at whatever public facing digital platforms, whether they've done speakerships, podcasts,
(31:52):
social, if they've done internal videos or in they've internal comms, could be email even that
they send to their Tim.
I asked for them to share that with me.
And I really do a full audit and kind of look for, their areas of strength, and then also maybe
some some spots we could double down on as opportunities.
And then, lastly, in this phase, I look at 3, industry leaders.
(32:20):
So people that are in their kind of zeitgeist, right, that would be maybe share a title, maybe
work in the same industry, have similar years of experience.
There's some commonality, but there may be a little more elevated in in their communications journey.
And so we have pull in examples, and we can look for patterns to kind of learn from those that
(32:42):
have gone before us and pull in those best practices into this leader's narrative platform.
And that's the that's kind of the crown jewel of this first phase is really taking all that
research, and all that strategy work, and we develop a narrative platform, which is kind of
their that's their roadmap for the for the next phase.
Tim (33:04):
Actually, I love how you tied in the aviation themes to your phase.
Because I actually I was like, wait a second.
I was like, this sounds familiar.
Let me look this up.
So I was trying to figure out where this where the strategy came from.
I was like, ah, that's where it came from.
It it and honestly, you you kinda did that with me, when when we first started talking.
You didn't do all the other stuff.
But, you know, you were really good at, you know, hitting the nail on the head with that.
(33:27):
So after you meet with somebody and you come up with a roadmap, what else, could somebody expect in this process?
Jess Jensen (33:35):
Yeah. So blue sky is that first phase where we establish that strategy, those themes, the tone
and voice, and really pull forward the leader's values because that's key.
If, again, we talked about authenticity at the beginning, and if that doesn't feel authentic
to who they want to be, who they hope to be, maybe the the legacy that they hope to leave someday
(33:56):
when they when they retire or step back, they're not gonna be incentivized or motivated to keep doing this long term. So that's phase 1.
Phase 2, yeah, I call flight plan.
So we go from blue sky to flight plan.
So flight plan is really that this is where we operationalize.
So we've got the Staton, and now we get into things like, I I do a best practice training, so
(34:21):
we select kind of their their number one key platform they wanna start with.
And, again, often this tends to be LinkedIn, but it could be other platforms, Instagram, could be podcasting.
And we'll do it a best practice training to ensure that they often they know a lot, but it's not completely comprehensive.
So we we kind of cross all those t's, get their profile up to date if it is social.
(34:45):
We then build out, an editorial calendar.
So, okay, we've got these narrative themes.
We've talked about the platform or platforms you wanna focus on.
And now we need to think about, again, the, the types of assets we're going to use. Right?
So there's obviously, you know, the written word.
There's still imagery, and and video.
(35:06):
And video, we know more and more, is incredibly, Jensen grabbing and prioritized by all the platforms. And then there's audio. Right?
What we're doing right now.
So we talk about, like, the actual artifact, the type of artifacts, and we lay that into a calendar.
Maybe we do, like, a 30 day calendar Jess to kind of have an example and start to kind of talk
(35:30):
through to how does this feel? Does this feel doable? Is it too much? Too little?
Are we hitting the themes in the right proportion based on what's important to you?
Are there key moments in time you already know are coming down the road?
You've got a big product launch in in March.
So we need to put that in there. Right?
We have to account for that.
You've got a speakership already on the books.
(35:50):
Let's think about what's the before, during, and after to really, like I said, atomize and leverage that.
So that all goes into a calendar.
Then we move on to measurement.
I'm a big believer in, again, having just a few things that you measure.
So 3 to 5, maybe, at the most.
And, also, the notion that what we measure is often what matters.
(36:13):
And conversely, what matters should be measured.
So starting with just even a baseline. Right?
How you know, things it could be like engagement rate.
It could be like, views or listens to a YouTube or a podcast interview.
We would decide that together. It could be qualitative.
It could be the sentiment that they're seeing or lack of sentiment, and they really wanna get
(36:36):
more qualitative commentary and conversation.
But we establish a set of goals and we put it into a dashboard and we have kind of that baseline.
And then we know each month or each quarter, we're gonna go back and remeasure and and look
at our progress over time to ensure we're dialing up and dialing down that content creation
to really drive those metrics.
(36:58):
And then lastly, I would ask and often this is the case again if they've got a Tim underneath them.
Who else should know about this?
You know, often I've been working 1 on 1 with this person now for a month, maybe 2, and they
might have a chief of staff.
They might have a communications team in house.
(37:18):
They might have, a, you know, a a right hand man or woman that's sort of their partner in crime
if they're a founder, and they want this work to be shared with those individuals.
So, a, they're just aware of what's going on, But b, it might be that those people are gonna
actually help support them in an ongoing fashion.
So I would certainly pull together a more synthesized summarized version of this blue sky and
(37:44):
flight plan, and I would offer to present that and walk those individuals through so that their
their key members and their team are really set up for success, and it's not just ending with the the senior leader.
Tim (37:56):
That sounds incredibly detailed and awesome because I love details.
Because, like you said, you know, what what gets measured is important and, you know, and what
you should be focusing on and and doing. So it's great.
I love the fact that you actually provide measurement back to people as as far as feedback and
and kinda take a look at all those things.
Now I was just curious.
(38:17):
Who in your mind I know that you're passionate about this, and I and I know that you love doing it.
So I I would say, what is your favorite client to work with?
If you had to, like, pick a client, what would be your favorite ideal client to work?
Jess Jensen (38:32):
My ideal client would be one that is, a, curious and willing to experiment.
I think a reason that I had some early success back in the day of Jensen Adidas, and Microsoft
when social was still fairly nascent was that I had, I had leaders. Sorry.
(38:53):
I had managers that were willing to give me, a lot of room to play and experiment.
So I want a client who's also Jensen, and knowing that we're not gonna get everything perfect, and that's okay.
That's part of the beauty of digital, is that things are always changeable.
To, someone who and I would imagine this is the kind of person who would be attracted to the
(39:15):
work I do anyway, but someone who, has some level of self awareness. Right?
They're they've thought a bit about how do I wanna lead, How do I want to publicly talk about
the things that are meaningful to me as a leader?
And, what kind of legacy do I wanna leave when I'm done?
(39:38):
Because more and more, our legacy is going to be a digital footprint.
And so if we if we don't spend time in those spaces, if we don't curate and cultivate that voice,
frankly, somebody else will do it for us.
And then that legacy might not be quite what we had intended.
So I love someone who's self aware and is interested in kind of digging in on, a bit of the
(40:03):
psychology that really plays into how we do business and how we lead teams.
Tim (40:08):
How can people find you?
I know we're gonna provide all the links and everything else and the description, on all the
different platforms we're gonna release us on, but how can people find you and get in touch?
Jess Jensen (40:18):
Yeah. Thanks for asking. So my website is copilotcommunications.com.
So you can go to the site.
You can contact me directly through the site.
You can also set up time if you wanna just chat about your your business or your platform.
And you can find out a bit more about the services that I provide in my background professionally. So, copilotcommunications.com.
Tim (40:41):
I I wanna leave you with the last word.
Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you're like, you know what?
I really wanna say this last word on this topic.
Is there anything that's that's burning that you're like, you know what?
I probably should've said this, but I didn't.
Jess Jensen (40:58):
I think one of the beautiful things that's come out of the pandemic era, which we're still unpacking
and unfolding in 2025, is the the meshing together of our of our personal and our professional lives.
And I know for some folks, they that isn't necessarily what they want.
They they sort of the compartmentalization, the separation can be healthy at Tim.
(41:22):
And we all need some of that.
But I I have always even early on in my career, I've always felt like this sort of bifurcation
of who we are at work inside of this tall glass building, and who we are at home with our friends
and family at the dinner table, that they shouldn't be entirely different people.
(41:44):
That the idea of bringing more of your true self to work, and then even bringing things that
you're learning at work home to your kids. Right?
Or your family as as learnings and lessons.
I do that all the time with my daughters.
And so I think the pandemic because of the forced sort of work from home for the last couple
of years, it gave people an insight into people's homes, and then obviously work came home with us.
(42:10):
My hope is this really transcends into this work that I do, because I believe that the best
leaders, the most effective leaders, and frankly, the ones that will drive their businesses
to the the highest heights of success are ones that show up as a whole Jensen, and they allow
their some of their vulnerabilities to be, transparent to their teams. Right?
(42:34):
They have some humility, And they also bring some of the sort of driver mentality and kind of
the goal orientation they may have at work home to their families because that can also transcend
into how, the other parts of your life run, whatever those goals might be.
So, I I always try to look for the silver lining.
(42:56):
I think that really this whole self piece is a, a huge win out of the pandemic, and I think
transcends really nicely into the work that I do at Copilot.
Tim (43:06):
Well, Jess, I really appreciate you being on the show, and I've had a great time talking to you.
I know everyone listening to this is gonna get extreme value, from talking to you and what you
have, to bring to the table as well.
So if anybody is curious, again, she's already told you by herself how to find her, but in the
descriptions down below, you can find all her contact information.
That way you can reach out to her, as you need to.
(43:28):
And that way you can further on that conversation and, and and do all that.
So thank you again for being on the show, Jess.
Jess Jensen (43:34):
Thank you, Tim. This is great.
Tim (43:36):
Absolutely. As always, thank you for stopping by and listening to this episode.
I really hope that you enjoyed it.
Before we go, I'd like to ask a favor of you if I could.
Could you please share this episode with the 1 or 2 people who might like this topic?
If you haven't followed or subscribed on the platform that you're listening to this on, please
hit all the bells, the icons, and the whistles so that way you know when we post another episode.
(43:57):
I don't wanna waste your time.
If you get some value out of this episode, please leave a review or a comment so we can help
spread the show with people who might not have found our show, but are interested in the topics that we talk about.
Again, thanks for stopping by.
I'm Tim Stainton, stating the obvious.
This is Tim Staton with Tim Staton the obvious.
What is this podcast about? It's simple.
You are entitled to great leadership everywhere you go, whether it's a church, whether it's
to work, whether it's at your house, you are entitled to great leadership.
And so in this podcast, we take leadership principles and theories and turn them into everyday relatable and usable advice.
Disclaimer (00:26):
And a quick disclaimer, this show process or service by trademark, trademark manufacturer, otherwise,
does not necessarily constitute and imply endorse by anyone that I employed by or favors in the representation.
The views are expressed here in my show are my own expressed and do not necessarily state or
reflect those of any employer.
Tim (00:37):
Hey, and welcome back to another episode.
I'm really excited about today's episode in particular because we have a special guest with
us talking about, something that's near and dear to my heart, because we have the show is social media and podcasting.
And, specifically, she's gonna be talking about social media with senior leaders and kind of
ways to help us get around things.
(00:58):
So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna introduce Jess real quick.
So Jess Jensen is a communication strategist, digital marketer, and entrepreneur.
She's an advocate for servant leadership and a believer in fostering meaningful connections
in a digital first world.
For over 20 years, Jess has shaped how leaders communicate, helping them inspire, clarify, and elevate their voice.
(01:18):
Today, she leads CoPilot Communications, a company that she founded in 2024 to help executives
and ambitious founders leverage digital communications and channels like podcasting and social
media to bring optimism, inspiration, and humanity into conversations, shifting the focus towards progress and positive change.
(01:39):
What's most important is her number one goal is to sharpen and elevate a leader's professional
brand so they can use their influence for good, which I think is incredibly important.
Previously, Jess held leadership roles in Microsoft, Adidas, and Nestle, where she honed her
expertise in brand marketing with 7 of those years working directly with c suite on their digital comms platform.
(02:01):
During her decade at Qualcomm, she led the company's worldwide digital communications practice,
gaining deep insight into the corporate strategy and storytelling.
Jess holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and an MBA and serves on the board of a nonprofit, imperfectly.
She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and her 2 daughters.
And outside of work, Jess enjoys supporting local restaurants, cycling, and hiking through scenic
(02:26):
highways, scenic Pacific Northwest, and exploring the region's many delicious Pinot Noir.
So, Jess, welcome to the show.
Jess Jensen (02:33):
Thank you so much for having me, Tim.
It's good to be here.
Tim (02:36):
I'm glad I'm glad we, were able to make this happen.
I don't know what the weather is like where you're at, but I know up here, you know, you're in the northwest. I'm in the northeast.
It's kinda cold and chilly.
It's very sunny out today, which is which is good.
So, before we dive into the topic of social media, I think it's really important that everybody's
on the same page with what are we talking about when we talk about social media.
(02:59):
So can you just kind of define what social media is and the purpose of why, from a business
perspective, we should be engaged in that?
Jess Jensen (03:07):
Sure. Social media is such a broad set of channels today.
So it includes everything from kind of our our OGs like Facebook, Twitter slash x, also, Instagram,
TikTok, LinkedIn, which is a big one for a lot of senior leaders.
And there are myriad of newer platforms like Blue Sky that are popping up.
(03:31):
So there is really not one social media.
There is this portfolio, that you might have you might almost use the analogy of when you invest
in, like, a mutual fund.
You're buying a a a basket of stocks.
When you get involved with social media, you often are dabbling in multiple platforms and selecting
(03:52):
ones that really, complement each other.
So social has been around, I think most of us know, gosh, for 15 plus years, which is crazy.
And I've been fortunate enough to to be in roles, at companies where I was able to take some
risks and experiment pretty early on going back to 2,007.
(04:15):
And so I've really grown up professionally, alongside the growth and expansion of social.
Then I've seen it move from being a very much a personal thing, an individual thing, then to
consumer brands who really adopted it early.
And and now over, you know, again, a decade plus, b to b or business to business kind of more
(04:37):
enterprise level companies are are using it.
So really now everyone is using it as a tool to, communicate what their company stands for,
product launches, the points of view of senior leaders, and really just to round out their overall marketing and communications, portfolio.
Tim (05:00):
Which I which I think that's a great definition to get us kind of honed in on to how do we as
senior leaders of any organization leverage digital communication and everything else to really,
1, connect with people and bring humanity back into the space.
Jess Jensen (05:21):
Yeah. And I'm glad you use that word humanity. I love that word.
I think if we rewind the clocks a little bit back to say 2,000 18, 19, pre pandemic, you know,
the at that point, if you were a c suite VP, senior leader, founder, and you were not on a digital
property, not on a social property, that was beginning to be fairly conspicuous. Right?
(05:44):
Most people were active in some form or fashion.
Fast forward Staton today, now 2025, and over 2 thirds of senior leaders, of US based companies
have a social media presence over 2 thirds.
So it is now more common than not for them to be there.
(06:05):
Now how are they showing up?
That's, goes back to the word that you just used, humanity.
Some of them are doing a fantastic job.
And there's some examples I can share later, if you're interested in who I I follow and learn from.
But there's a lot of leaders, and I and I understand why we can get into that, who have begun
to use social and digital platforms effectively how we've traditionally used PR platforms, which
(06:33):
is to say that it's a bit one way.
So kind of broadcast versus a back and forth in a conversation, which social enables if you
choose to leverage it for that.
And also maybe not as authentic, not as true to who they are as whole people, and a little bit
more, sort of polished corporate kind of, speaking in a way that, one might in a press release
(07:02):
and just using digital channels to do the same thing.
Tim (07:05):
Yeah. So let's talk about that part a little bit.
Because I know we come from 2 different 2 different worlds. Right?
So I come from a military background where for a senior leader to get on social media, it could cost them their careers.
And so how can we make sure that we set out a good framework to make sure that senior leaders
(07:26):
stay in line, they don't go off script, and not every organization has like a public affairs
team or anything else like that, especially if you're a smaller business.
So what is a framework that we can use to get us into a safe space, to be more confident, and
get out as a senior leader, get the messaging out?
Jess Jensen (07:42):
Yeah. It's a great question.
I think first and foremost, I would start with, and again, depending on the size of the company
you're in, this may or may not exist, But many of the companies I've worked for, I actually
would collaborate with our legal team, and we would develop, a social or a digital media
guidance or rubric, and it would be published to all of the employees.
(08:06):
It was sort of a set of of rules of the road, sort of things to do and things not to do.
And so I think first stop would be ask, ask your probably your communications team, perhaps
your legal Tim, it does that exist?
And if it does, my gosh, let's make sure we know what that says, and we follow those rules.
If it doesn't exist, that's actually an opportunity to begin to forge that.
(08:29):
Because once things are written down, it's a lot easier for everyone to stay in line, not just senior leaders.
But beyond sort of the do's and don'ts, kind of the black and white, rules that might be established,
there are often I talk about 5 ways that a digital leader sorry, that a leader can use digital
to really bring to life their personality and also their business.
(08:54):
Because, again, this should be of service to your team, your business, as well as to you as a as a person. Right? It should be both.
And so I can kind of walk you through those.
The, the first two are really around this idea of shining a light on others.
And this kind of goes back to what you had said in my intro, which was, so lovely. Thank you.
(09:18):
About my, my propensity as a as now a founder and and as a leader of teams to really, try to
commit things as a servant leader.
So this idea of putting myself behind and, shining a light on my team or my peers or others.
And so when we think about how that applies to, digital digital and social media, it it really
(09:46):
it's really about thinking through how do I elevate relationships with, say, partners or customers, clients?
So those kind of on the outside of the company that I'm working very closely with.
How do I shine a light on the great work that we're doing together or that they're doing and
I just want to elevate and bring more attention to?
(10:06):
So that's one easy thing to do, that in general shouldn't, shouldn't be too ripe for, descent or, or or challenge.
Now I think the one thing to think through there, if you're talking about customers, is you
likely have more than one customer, or more than one client.
(10:26):
And so certainly having, never never getting into a comparison game. Right?
You certainly don't wanna elevate one customer while you're disparaging another.
And that I mean, that's fairly logical.
Ideally, you're kind of balancing that light that you're shining on maybe multiple clients and
customers over the course of several months.
So they all feel like the love is is coming their way.
(10:51):
But the another way you can use that notion of shining a light is really, in it's using internal
stakeholders, but doing it in an external or public facing way.
And so this goes, to really that hybrid of where marketing communications and sort sort of HR
and employee relations come together.
And, this is around employees.
(11:12):
So I saw some examples, lovely examples when I was at Qualcomm where, our CEO would share a
photo, for example, this is during the pandemic, where an engineer, went into the lab and took
a lot much of the, much of the sort of technology machinery and setup that he would normally use on campus.
(11:35):
But because of the pandemic, had to bring it home and recreated it in his garage, took a photo,
and shared it with our our c Staton.
And just kind of said, hey.
I'm kind of wanted to show.
I'm I'm still doing this. I'm still working.
I, you know, I want you to know I'm I'm team Qualcomm.
And our CEO was just so kinda floored by the loyalty and the commitment to go to all this trouble,
(12:02):
that he he was his idea.
He said, let's we need to put this out.
Let's make sure that the world sees the great employees that we have even give even given the
circumstances that many of us were living in in 2020.
So there's so many great ways to shine a light, not just on your customers and, partners, but also on your employees.
(12:23):
And when you do that as a leader publicly, it is, in many ways, worth more than a bonus.
It is so valuable for them to get that public recognition by someone who maybe is multiple levels, above where they sit.
And it's the kind of thing they're gonna go home and talk to their family about.
Tim (12:44):
No. Absolutely. And I just had to interject here because I was just thinking, I was reading my notes.
It's like, you know, if you have a company that's kinda struggling with employee engagement,
would this be a tool to help raise that and boost that up to be like, hey. Look.
We're highlighting the people that that are doing great things.
And that engineer, like, I wonder how many times he shared that to somebody else. Was like, hey. Look.
(13:05):
The CEO thought this was pretty awesome.
And, you know, and how many times he shared that to everybody else, and that's getting the company's name out there too.
So I I think that's a really awesome idea of really publicly recognizing employees and bringing that to light.
Because that is a huge indicator that that they have found in studies that the reason why people
are not as engaged is because they don't feel valued, and they start to bring that value back to the employee.
(13:29):
So I I really appreciate that point. That it's like
Jess Jensen (13:32):
Yeah. I and I think you said it so well around employee engagement.
Like, I'm not an HR professional, but just as an employee in companies for for 20 plus years,
I can tell you that I mean, certainly, we all have some level of, value around the monetary component of work.
I mean, most of us wouldn't work if there wasn't some sort of monetary component.
(13:54):
But for most of us, there are other things too.
It's not an or, it's an and.
And so that recognition, that especially public recognition and especially by someone who maybe
you don't have a lot of day to day contact with, feeling seen and valued, oh, that is it is
such a great, addition to whatever you your paycheck might be.
Tim (14:17):
Let's talk quickly about we we focused internally. Right?
We focused internally on our our our people.
We've looked at our customers and our relationships.
But what other things might we do to help project, like, a vision of the company using social media?
Jess Jensen (14:36):
Right. So this is the this is the 3rd in the list of 5.
So this idea of really establishing yourself as a thought leader.
And what does that mean, thought leadership?
Well, sometimes we we use the term futurist, sort of bringing a futurist point of view.
So most folks that are in, again, a senior leadership c suite founder level have been at it for quite some time. Right?
(15:02):
They've worked probably for multiple companies. They have made mistakes. They have had successes.
They've had great bosses, not such great bosses.
They've seen trends go up and down, generations of technology change.
And so Staton by the point by the by the time that you're at that point in your career, you have opinions.
(15:23):
You have a point of view.
Now maybe you haven't shared those publicly.
Maybe it's more in small groups or internally with your team.
Or maybe you haven't even just taken a pause to write them down and really codify, where do
I see the future of x?
So this third one is around taking the time, which is part of what I do with the work that I
(15:47):
do with clients, to think about what you value and also just your expertise and what it's telling
you about where the future might, where what the future might hold for your industry.
And so this is bigger than your company.
This is bigger than predicting what, you know, what you think your quarterly earnings are gonna look like.
I mean, obviously, that's territory we probably don't wanna get into at all.
(16:10):
But if you're talking at a macro level about about a certain segment of the tech industry or
a certain segment of the food and beverage industry or, you know, you pick whatever your area of expertise might be.
The more that you come out and really share a compelling futurist point of view, the more that
(16:30):
people are gonna wanna follow and wanna engage and be curious what you're gonna say next.
So I think this one takes a little bit more sort of time and kind of taking a minute to really
define what you think that looks like.
But once you do, you can kind of rinse and repeat it over the course of multiple months and
(16:52):
multiple platforms and then pressure test and see what kind of feedback, which is the beauty of digital. What kind of comments?
What kind of engagement are you getting?
Tim (17:01):
Yeah. So who does this really well?
Like, is is there anyone that comes to your mind that in the thought leadership realm or in,
like, this futurist mentality, like, who does this well?
As I needed an example of what does this look like?
What does right look like?
Jess Jensen (17:18):
So one leader who I love and I followed for 6 or 7 years now, His name is Scott Galloway.
And, Scott Galloway wears a number of hats.
So he's a professor at NYU, professor Galloway.
So Professor Galloway is his handle on on the social channels.
He's an author of multiple books.
(17:38):
He is a serial entrepreneur.
He's got 2 podcasts himself now.
He's a public speaker, all the things.
And he I mean, part of why I love him is because the topics that he really brings together through
that Venn diagram are 3 areas that I love.
So he talks about, the tech industry, which is where a lot of my background resides, talks about
(18:00):
marketing and brand, and then he talks about economics.
So I love all those circles, and he kind of merges them together.
But he also is is quite he's he's quite, bold and at times flippant, and that's part of his charisma. Right?
It's sort of his his sense of humor.
But he does a great job of marrying statistics and data, which he brings in spades, with storytelling,
(18:28):
which we know is really how most of us remember things is through stories.
So I love that part of his delivery.
And he's also not afraid to make predictions.
I mean, we just got through December, which I know is a very ripe time of the year for many
thought leaders to be, predicting what they think the next year will hold.
(18:50):
But for example, he was I remember years ago, he was an early, predictor of Amazon acquiring
Whole Foods, which they, of course, did.
And I remember thinking at the time that didn't like, what what sense is that?
Amazon already has grocery delivery.
They maybe aren't exactly the same demographic.
You know, there are so many things.
(19:10):
You know, how are they gonna deal with all this organic, all that?
But he had great thought, wrapped around it, and it came to fruition.
Now he makes some predictions that don't come true.
Of course, he's not a 100%.
But I just like that he delivers his thoughts with confidence, again, backed by data, quite
a bit of logic and experience, but also has a sense of humor if it doesn't work out and can be self deprecating.
Tim (19:36):
When you mentioned earlier, you mentioned that, it's good to get these out there, get get your ideas out there.
You have the thought leadership, and and I really appreciate that really great example of of,
you know, Scott Galloway of of if I wanna know what kind of what this looks like, I can go there
and take a look at it.
But you mentioned about getting feedback.
Like you, you put something out there and then you get some feedback from it.
(20:00):
So how can we leverage social media to gather that, those nuggets of gold?
Jess Jensen (20:05):
Yeah. So this is the 4th Jensen, and I sometimes refer to social, really, I mean, any forum.
You could look at Reddit this way, any forum where there's commentary, from the audience is
it's a valuable tool for feedback.
And if you're wise, you're not just using digital platforms forms again in that one way fashion
we talked about at the top of the of the podcast.
(20:27):
We're not just pushing out content and sort of walking away. We're we're listening.
We're we're reading through the comments and we're ideally, you know, ones that are relevant, we're engaging, we're responding.
And if we're if we're really sort of you want a 2.0 it, we're taking that as effectively market
research, with sands all the, you know, 100 of 1,000 of dollars that you would normally spend.
(20:53):
And and at least adding it to, you know, the other data points that we have.
Of course, that isn't our only data point.
But we're adding that qualitative nature to the conversation into what we may do in the future. Right?
How it actually could change our our product portfolio or, a new concept or even a partner that we might embark on.
(21:13):
An example of this that I love is Brian Chesky, so the the CEO of Airbnb.
He uses x in this way, seen it a couple of Tim, where he will, he will post questions to the
audience about Airbnb's platform, whether it's from the host perspective, if you own a home
and you're renting it out, or from a, a customer perspective where you're renting the home.
(21:39):
And he will gather a bunch of comments and Staton, and, you know, a quarter will go by, and
he will come back to that thread, and he will publish, I heard you say x y z, and here is what
we're doing to address those concerns.
And I I think that this is such a great example of not just using the platform for market research
(22:04):
and data gathering, but really showing your audience that what they say matters.
And you're listening, and you're doing your damndest to actually incorporate their feedback
into the future of the company.
Tim (22:15):
I would imagine that this takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to do that.
And it and it and I know it's gonna take a lot of coaching too for a lot of people to do that.
Because especially if you're a one man show or you've got a you know, you maybe you don't have a social media team. Right?
(22:35):
So I cannot like, how much time does that does that take?
I could I could see that that would be really labor intensive to go through the comments and really gather that feedback.
Jess Jensen (22:46):
Yeah. I mean, like like, you can imagine this varies wildly.
It depends on how many, how many followers or connections that you have and how engaged they are.
How many comments are you filtering through?
Often, a large part of engagement is really sort of the the easy, like, kind of heart situation.
(23:07):
The comments are usually a smaller subset because it takes a little more effort, right, for
someone to actually write a sentence.
But, you know, I think that I think that, like, so many things, it's baby steps.
It's how do you start perhaps on one platform.
I often recommend LinkedIn for senior leaders.
And maybe it's posting a couple of times a week, maybe even once a week if you're not quite
(23:31):
there yet, if you haven't, had a history of exposure there.
And then beginning to get into a, a rhythm. Right?
Maybe it's putting something on your calendar every Friday morning with your cup of coffee.
Let me go into my post.
Let's see what people had to say.
Let's see if there's any patterns that are usable.
And then questions or comments that I Jess wanna respond to as as a human who wants to show
(23:54):
that I'm engaged and present.
But it can be very small in the beginning, and then over time, if you have a team or you have
a partner, then it you can allow it to blossom and grow to more platforms, more posts, and eventually
a larger subset of of, feedback.
Tim (24:10):
Yeah. No. Those are great tips to to where do I get Staton? Right?
If I'm not doing this, how do I get started on on doing that?
So I call it fire and forget. Right?
I put something out there.
I don't ever go back to it unless I get a reminder that something happens. Right?
So this is a communication. So it's two way.
And and you're really helping, for everyone listening to this or watching this, bring that home.
(24:33):
Is that communication is two way.
Like, I put something out there, you respond back, and I'm gonna respond back to you, and we're gonna have a conversation.
So I really appreciate your points on that.
What else can a senior leader do to really kind of hype close this in into a a good formula or format.
Jess Jensen (24:50):
Yeah. This this is gonna, be the 5th of the 5, and this really, this, highlights sort of the
operational mindset that I, I bring.
So my background obviously is marketing communications, brand work, but I've always sort of
had a a a strong secondary operational approach to things.
And I kind of love looking for patterns and establishing systems to help make things easier for us.
(25:13):
So one of the, things that we we did pretty early on, at Qualcomm was my team, which was digital
marketing and our PR Tim.
We came together and began to really think in a 360 fashion.
So rather than maybe historically where sometimes those teams can work a little bit like sister
teams, but not necessarily day to day collaborators, where there might be, say, a keynote or
(25:38):
a fireside chat at, for example, the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, which is a big actually
happening, this month, a big moment for the tech industry.
But every industry has these. Right?
They have speakership opportunities that often senior leaders participate in.
But for a long time, those were done, you know, physically on a stage with an audience, and
(25:58):
they may have been filmed, but it there wasn't a plan around how to what I would use the term is is atomize. Atomize that content.
How do we take maybe sound bites, short clips, 30 seconds or less from those fireside chats or keynotes?
How do we, is there an audio version that can is almost a podcast or a, an audio blog on the company website?
(26:23):
How does the core how do the corporate channels promote?
And then after share, good good shots and good sound bites, as well as the senior leader. Right?
Because there's 2 different channels there.
And then how do we weave the messaging through? Right?
The messaging, of course, that that Jensen, that leader is speaking to on stage should also
(26:44):
be, mimicked or at least, sort of anchored in their social content, in video that they make
for internal or external audiences on podcasts like this. Right?
That messaging should really be that red thread through all the different places they can communicate.
So atomizing every single moment. Right?
(27:07):
Like, right now, we're we're recording a longer form piece of audio.
I'm sure you'll do takedowns.
You'll do shortcuts of this. You might take screenshots. You might have imagery.
You'll use social to promote YouTube. So that's super smart.
You're atomizing one big chunky piece of content and putting it in lots of different places
(27:27):
and lots of different formats.
Tim (27:29):
No. Absolutely. And, I was thinking about this on our initial conversation that we had, and
I was really surprised by you when we first had a conversation to do the podcast.
You're the first person to actually ask me directed questions about my show and actually ask
me directed questions about my show and my platform.
(27:50):
And you actually knew information.
It's not like you just kind of went on to 1 or 2 episodes and looked at it.
Like, you actually looked into it and figured out what the show was about and what how you could
deliver value, to that, which I was really impressed by because nobody else had done that.
Usually, it's like, oh, this is my thing, and this is what I wanna talk about.
And and so with that, I know that you've had all this extensive history in corporate America and big business.
(28:17):
But now, you know, you have your own company, Copilot Communications.
And I got a little taste of how you've kind of worked with people.
But can you walk us through how you operationalize, things with a client?
Jess Jensen (28:32):
Sure. Yeah. And thank you.
That, your compliment is well received.
I I do try to do my homework just to make sure it's a good use of your time too.
So I'm glad that that came through. So yeah.
So from this work I've done, at a few different companies, again, with kind of that background
with corporate sort of broader brand, social, digital.
(28:54):
I actually had a podcast of my own back in 2018 and 19 called Social Currency.
So as just a side project with a friend, I wanted to experiment and and dabble in this audio
space because I just love it.
And then more recently, as you mentioned earlier, the kind of one on one coaching and relationships
that I built with our c suite, to help them stand up as an individual.
(29:18):
I have developed a bit of an approach, and I've I've tested it, and I've used it a number of
times now, and I I know that it works.
So I can walk you through it. It's really 3 phases.
Tim (29:31):
Yeah, please.
Jess Jensen (29:32):
So the the name of the company as you mentioned is CoPilot Communications.
I kind of love that mid century aviation sort of aesthetic, and I use some of the terminology
to kinda weave through the program.
So the first phase I call blue sky, And this is really the strategy phase. This is so important.
And it's the part I think that a lot of folks might miss because it takes a little Tim, definitely
(29:55):
works better if you've got a partner who's guiding you through it.
And it also takes just some self reflection. Right?
Getting to know who you are and what you wanna stand for publicly.
So we talk about, who's your target audience. Right?
That's number 1 in any marketing or communications brief. Right?
Who are you trying to speak to?
(30:16):
And if you're trying to speak to everybody, to be honest, you're speaking to nobody. Right?
So identifying, who is the most important subgroup of people and really getting clear on all
the details of where you imagine they were, where they live, how old they are, what their hobbies
and interests are, why they're listening or or following you. So defining that target.
(30:41):
And then, of course, goals. Right?
What are 1 or 2 key goals that you why are you doing this in the first place?
And we get really clear on your why.
And that can vary for different leaders, and especially given where at the stage where their
business may be, and also the level of comfort they have in digital, platforms.
So, from there, we I have the leader do a self evaluation about their communications today,
(31:07):
which is always really insightful for me to to hear, what they how they think they're doing
and where they think their strengths and and opportunities lie.
I also meet with 3 other individuals that the leader provides to me.
So I, often talk to a peer, maybe it's a direct report, maybe a past colleague, people that
could speak to, the person's communication style.
(31:32):
And that is often really insightful for me because I start to I Jensen earlier, I like to look
for patterns, and I start to see those when I combine the self evaluation with these 3 interviews.
And then I do my own audit, of course.
I look at whatever public facing digital platforms, whether they've done speakerships, podcasts,
(31:52):
social, if they've done internal videos or in they've internal comms, could be email even that
they send to their Tim.
I asked for them to share that with me.
And I really do a full audit and kind of look for, their areas of strength, and then also maybe
some some spots we could double down on as opportunities.
And then, lastly, in this phase, I look at 3, industry leaders.
(32:20):
So people that are in their kind of zeitgeist, right, that would be maybe share a title, maybe
work in the same industry, have similar years of experience.
There's some commonality, but there may be a little more elevated in in their communications journey.
And so we have pull in examples, and we can look for patterns to kind of learn from those that
(32:42):
have gone before us and pull in those best practices into this leader's narrative platform.
And that's the that's kind of the crown jewel of this first phase is really taking all that
research, and all that strategy work, and we develop a narrative platform, which is kind of
their that's their roadmap for the for the next phase.
Tim (33:04):
Actually, I love how you tied in the aviation themes to your phase.
Because I actually I was like, wait a second.
I was like, this sounds familiar.
Let me look this up.
So I was trying to figure out where this where the strategy came from.
I was like, ah, that's where it came from.
It it and honestly, you you kinda did that with me, when when we first started talking.
You didn't do all the other stuff.
But, you know, you were really good at, you know, hitting the nail on the head with that.
(33:27):
So after you meet with somebody and you come up with a roadmap, what else, could somebody expect in this process?
Jess Jensen (33:35):
Yeah. So blue sky is that first phase where we establish that strategy, those themes, the tone
and voice, and really pull forward the leader's values because that's key.
If, again, we talked about authenticity at the beginning, and if that doesn't feel authentic
to who they want to be, who they hope to be, maybe the the legacy that they hope to leave someday
(33:56):
when they when they retire or step back, they're not gonna be incentivized or motivated to keep doing this long term. So that's phase 1.
Phase 2, yeah, I call flight plan.
So we go from blue sky to flight plan.
So flight plan is really that this is where we operationalize.
So we've got the Staton, and now we get into things like, I I do a best practice training, so
(34:21):
we select kind of their their number one key platform they wanna start with.
And, again, often this tends to be LinkedIn, but it could be other platforms, Instagram, could be podcasting.
And we'll do it a best practice training to ensure that they often they know a lot, but it's not completely comprehensive.
So we we kind of cross all those t's, get their profile up to date if it is social.
(34:45):
We then build out, an editorial calendar.
So, okay, we've got these narrative themes.
We've talked about the platform or platforms you wanna focus on.
And now we need to think about, again, the, the types of assets we're going to use. Right?
So there's obviously, you know, the written word.
There's still imagery, and and video.
(35:06):
And video, we know more and more, is incredibly, Jensen grabbing and prioritized by all the platforms. And then there's audio. Right?
What we're doing right now.
So we talk about, like, the actual artifact, the type of artifacts, and we lay that into a calendar.
Maybe we do, like, a 30 day calendar Jess to kind of have an example and start to kind of talk
(35:30):
through to how does this feel? Does this feel doable? Is it too much? Too little?
Are we hitting the themes in the right proportion based on what's important to you?
Are there key moments in time you already know are coming down the road?
You've got a big product launch in in March.
So we need to put that in there. Right?
We have to account for that.
You've got a speakership already on the books.
(35:50):
Let's think about what's the before, during, and after to really, like I said, atomize and leverage that.
So that all goes into a calendar.
Then we move on to measurement.
I'm a big believer in, again, having just a few things that you measure.
So 3 to 5, maybe, at the most.
And, also, the notion that what we measure is often what matters.
(36:13):
And conversely, what matters should be measured.
So starting with just even a baseline. Right?
How you know, things it could be like engagement rate.
It could be like, views or listens to a YouTube or a podcast interview.
We would decide that together. It could be qualitative.
It could be the sentiment that they're seeing or lack of sentiment, and they really wanna get
(36:36):
more qualitative commentary and conversation.
But we establish a set of goals and we put it into a dashboard and we have kind of that baseline.
And then we know each month or each quarter, we're gonna go back and remeasure and and look
at our progress over time to ensure we're dialing up and dialing down that content creation
to really drive those metrics.
(36:58):
And then lastly, I would ask and often this is the case again if they've got a Tim underneath them.
Who else should know about this?
You know, often I've been working 1 on 1 with this person now for a month, maybe 2, and they
might have a chief of staff.
They might have a communications team in house.
(37:18):
They might have, a, you know, a a right hand man or woman that's sort of their partner in crime
if they're a founder, and they want this work to be shared with those individuals.
So, a, they're just aware of what's going on, But b, it might be that those people are gonna
actually help support them in an ongoing fashion.
So I would certainly pull together a more synthesized summarized version of this blue sky and
(37:44):
flight plan, and I would offer to present that and walk those individuals through so that their
their key members and their team are really set up for success, and it's not just ending with the the senior leader.
Tim (37:56):
That sounds incredibly detailed and awesome because I love details.
Because, like you said, you know, what what gets measured is important and, you know, and what
you should be focusing on and and doing. So it's great.
I love the fact that you actually provide measurement back to people as as far as feedback and
and kinda take a look at all those things.
Now I was just curious.
(38:17):
Who in your mind I know that you're passionate about this, and I and I know that you love doing it.
So I I would say, what is your favorite client to work with?
If you had to, like, pick a client, what would be your favorite ideal client to work?
Jess Jensen (38:32):
My ideal client would be one that is, a, curious and willing to experiment.
I think a reason that I had some early success back in the day of Jensen Adidas, and Microsoft
when social was still fairly nascent was that I had, I had leaders. Sorry.
(38:53):
I had managers that were willing to give me, a lot of room to play and experiment.
So I want a client who's also Jensen, and knowing that we're not gonna get everything perfect, and that's okay.
That's part of the beauty of digital, is that things are always changeable.
To, someone who and I would imagine this is the kind of person who would be attracted to the
(39:15):
work I do anyway, but someone who, has some level of self awareness. Right?
They're they've thought a bit about how do I wanna lead, How do I want to publicly talk about
the things that are meaningful to me as a leader?
And, what kind of legacy do I wanna leave when I'm done?
(39:38):
Because more and more, our legacy is going to be a digital footprint.
And so if we if we don't spend time in those spaces, if we don't curate and cultivate that voice,
frankly, somebody else will do it for us.
And then that legacy might not be quite what we had intended.
So I love someone who's self aware and is interested in kind of digging in on, a bit of the
(40:03):
psychology that really plays into how we do business and how we lead teams.
Tim (40:08):
How can people find you?
I know we're gonna provide all the links and everything else and the description, on all the
different platforms we're gonna release us on, but how can people find you and get in touch?
Jess Jensen (40:18):
Yeah. Thanks for asking. So my website is copilotcommunications.com.
So you can go to the site.
You can contact me directly through the site.
You can also set up time if you wanna just chat about your your business or your platform.
And you can find out a bit more about the services that I provide in my background professionally. So, copilotcommunications.com.
Tim (40:41):
I I wanna leave you with the last word.
Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you're like, you know what?
I really wanna say this last word on this topic.
Is there anything that's that's burning that you're like, you know what?
I probably should've said this, but I didn't.
Jess Jensen (40:58):
I think one of the beautiful things that's come out of the pandemic era, which we're still unpacking
and unfolding in 2025, is the the meshing together of our of our personal and our professional lives.
And I know for some folks, they that isn't necessarily what they want.
They they sort of the compartmentalization, the separation can be healthy at Tim.
(41:22):
And we all need some of that.
But I I have always even early on in my career, I've always felt like this sort of bifurcation
of who we are at work inside of this tall glass building, and who we are at home with our friends
and family at the dinner table, that they shouldn't be entirely different people.
(41:44):
That the idea of bringing more of your true self to work, and then even bringing things that
you're learning at work home to your kids. Right?
Or your family as as learnings and lessons.
I do that all the time with my daughters.
And so I think the pandemic because of the forced sort of work from home for the last couple
of years, it gave people an insight into people's homes, and then obviously work came home with us.
(42:10):
My hope is this really transcends into this work that I do, because I believe that the best
leaders, the most effective leaders, and frankly, the ones that will drive their businesses
to the the highest heights of success are ones that show up as a whole Jensen, and they allow
their some of their vulnerabilities to be, transparent to their teams. Right?
(42:34):
They have some humility, And they also bring some of the sort of driver mentality and kind of
the goal orientation they may have at work home to their families because that can also transcend
into how, the other parts of your life run, whatever those goals might be.
So, I I always try to look for the silver lining.
(42:56):
I think that really this whole self piece is a, a huge win out of the pandemic, and I think
transcends really nicely into the work that I do at Copilot.
Tim (43:06):
Well, Jess, I really appreciate you being on the show, and I've had a great time talking to you.
I know everyone listening to this is gonna get extreme value, from talking to you and what you
have, to bring to the table as well.
So if anybody is curious, again, she's already told you by herself how to find her, but in the
descriptions down below, you can find all her contact information.
That way you can reach out to her, as you need to.
(43:28):
And that way you can further on that conversation and, and and do all that.
So thank you again for being on the show, Jess.
Jess Jensen (43:34):
Thank you, Tim. This is great.
Tim (43:36):
Absolutely. As always, thank you for stopping by and listening to this episode.
I really hope that you enjoyed it.
Before we go, I'd like to ask a favor of you if I could.
Could you please share this episode with the 1 or 2 people who might like this topic?
If you haven't followed or subscribed on the platform that you're listening to this on, please
hit all the bells, the icons, and the whistles so that way you know when we post another episode.
(43:57):
I don't wanna waste your time.
If you get some value out of this episode, please leave a review or a comment so we can help
spread the show with people who might not have found our show, but are interested in the topics that we talk about.
Again, thanks for stopping by.
I'm Tim Stainton, stating the obvious.
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