Jeni Britton Bauer is a modern-day Willy Wonka. She’s the founder and chief creative officer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, a multi-channel retailer with dozens of company-owned scoop shops across the country, a robust eCommerce presence, and distribution in top groceries across the country. As her title implies, she views running a business as an act of constant creating — and her life experiences primed her for creation.

Entrepreneurship is building your own world, and Jeni’s job is creating that world. Through following the things that interested and excited her, Jeni was able to create a world of magic for herself that she gets to share with the world. Through trials, her values were tested and proven strong. She shares the story of her early life, how she was instilled with a sense of creativity and curiosity, and how that served her in starting Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.

What Brett asks:

• [03:04] What was your early childhood like?
• [07:52] Did you always see yourself as being creative?
• [09:10] Where did your belief system come from?
• [13:31] How did your experience feeling like school wasn’t for you shape you?
• [17:44] What was happening in your life that was falling apart and how did that influence you?
• [21:02] How were your parent’s expectations of being parents affect you?
• [28:51] Tell me about going to Ohio State and continuing to realize school is not for you?
• [36:32] Tell us how you connected the dots between things you were passionate about?
• [39:35] What was it like to be pioneering in a space that hasn’t had much innovation?
• [52:01] What was it like going through struggles and crisis?
• [56:03] Do you feel like we’re prepared for crisis when we keep seeing new things?
• [01:00:40] What is your role in the company as the Chief Creative Officer?
• [01:06:12] How did your family story round out?

To learn more about intentional living, and for the complete show notes, visit: gravityproject.com

Resources:

• jenis.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/jenisicecreams
• Facebook: facebook.com/jenisicecreams
• Twitter: twitter.com/jenisicecreams

Gravity is a production of Crate Media