Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Briskin.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been fascinated by people — what motivates them, what holds them back, what makes them come alive and what allows them to do their best work.
My career began in corporate human resources, including GE’s Human Resources Leadership Program, and eventually led me to build my own consulting business. For more than 25 years, I’ve worked alongside founders, executives, leadership teams and organizations through growth, change, acquisitions, culture shifts and some of the most pivotal moments in their careers. I’ve coached hundreds of executives and had the privilege of seeing behind the curtain of leadership — not simply how businesses operate, but how people operate.
Over time, my work increasingly intersected with the entertainment industry and creative community. I found myself working with musicians, artists, entrepreneurs and other creatives, and I loved the energy of that world. Creatives often possess tremendous talent and vision, but no one necessarily teaches them how to navigate the business of building a career, lead themselves well, communicate effectively, make difficult decisions or sustain themselves through an industry filled with uncertainty and rejection.
At the same time, my own life was changing. A significant health journey forced me to slow down and examine the way I had been living and working. I had spent years being exceptionally good at pushing through. That experience introduced me more deeply to meditation, energy work, Reiki, breathwork, sound healing and other practices that helped me understand something I had largely overlooked in my corporate career: our internal state affects everything — how we lead, create, communicate, make decisions and show up in the world.
For a while, I thought these were two separate parts of my life: the executive and the intuitive. Eventually, I realized the real work was in bringing them together.
Today, my work sits at that intersection. I advise leaders and organizations on people, culture, talent, communication and performance; mentor and support creatives as they navigate the business and emotional realities of their careers; and incorporate intuitive and wellness practices when they can help someone gain clarity, reconnect with themselves or move through what is keeping them stuck.
Nashville feels like the perfect place for this next chapter. There is an extraordinary combination here of creativity, entrepreneurship, community and heart. I feel incredibly fortunate to be building work that allows me to use everything I’ve learned over the last several decades rather than choosing only one part of who I am.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not — although for many years I probably would have made it look like a smooth road.
I grew up professionally in environments that rewarded achievement, stamina and the ability to figure things out. Those qualities served me incredibly well. They helped me build a business, advise senior leaders, raise a family and continually reinvent myself. But one of my biggest lessons has been discovering that the qualities that make us successful can also become the very things we have to learn to manage differently.
I was very good at pushing through.
A significant health journey eventually made that impossible. It forced me to slow down, listen to my body and become curious about parts of wellness and performance that I hadn’t paid enough attention to before. That period changed me personally, but it also changed the way I work with people. I began to understand that you cannot completely separate the person from the professional. Stress, fear, confidence, relationships, physical well-being, nervous-system regulation and a sense of purpose all walk into the room with us.
Another challenge has been allowing myself to evolve publicly. Reinvention sounds exciting when we talk about it afterward. Living through it is much messier. When you’ve spent decades building credibility in one world, it takes courage to say, “There is another part of me and another way I want to work.”
I had to stop worrying about whether my corporate experience and intuitive work belonged together and recognize that their combination is actually one of my greatest strengths.
I still believe deeply in ambition. I love big ideas, talented people and meaningful work. I’ve simply learned that success doesn’t have to require abandoning yourself to achieve it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Emerging Entertainment Talent Collective (EETC)?
One of the things I’ve seen repeatedly throughout my career is that incredibly talented people can spend years developing their craft while receiving very little guidance on how to actually build a career around it.
That’s why I created Emerging Entertainment Talent Collective (EETC) around a simple belief: Creative careers shouldn’t be built alone.
EETC is a career development and professional support community for emerging and evolving entertainment talent — musicians, songwriters, actors, producers, filmmakers, writers, content creators and creative entrepreneurs who are trying to navigate not only their craft, but the business of building a sustainable career.
There is so much that happens around the talent itself. How do you position yourself? Build meaningful industry relationships? Prepare for an important meeting? Advocate for yourself? Navigate a difficult professional relationship? Understand your value? Recover from rejection? Decide which opportunity is actually the right opportunity? And perhaps most importantly, how do you build a career without losing yourself in the process?
Those are conversations I’ve spent decades having with executives and leaders, and increasingly with creatives and entertainment professionals. EETC brings that experience into one place specifically for the creative community.
What I’m most excited about is creating something that sits in the space between traditional career coaching and industry networking. EETC is about access, mentorship, education, connection and real-world professional development — giving creatives a place to ask the questions they may not know where else to ask and learn the business skills that aren’t necessarily taught in a rehearsal room, studio, film set or writing session.
And Nashville is an extraordinary place to build it. There is tremendous talent here, but there is also something I deeply value: community. I want EETC to contribute to that by creating a place where emerging talent doesn’t have to figure everything out alone.
The talent may open the door. My goal is to help creatives build the confidence, business skills, relationships and resilience to know what to do once they’re in the room.
What matters most to you? Why?
People matter most to me.
At the end of our lives, I don’t think we’re going to measure them by how many meetings we attended, titles we accumulated or things we checked off a list. We’re going to remember the people we loved, the lives we touched, the things we created and the moments when we felt most fully ourselves.
That perspective has increasingly shaped both my life and my work.
I care deeply about helping people recognize who they are underneath all the noise — the expectations, fear, comparison, titles and ideas about who they are “supposed” to be. I see this especially with creatives and high-achieving leaders. So many extraordinary people spend enormous amounts of energy trying to become what they believe success requires instead of discovering how powerful they are when they operate authentically.
Connection matters to me. Family matters. Creativity matters. Health matters. Doing work that has meaning matters. And creating spaces where people feel genuinely seen and heard matters enormously to me.
I also believe success and well-being shouldn’t have to be opposing choices. You can be ambitious and grounded. Strategic and intuitive. Successful and deeply human. You can build something extraordinary without losing yourself in the process.
If someone leaves a conversation or a room with me feeling a little clearer, more confident, more connected to themselves or more willing to trust what they already know, that feels meaningful to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jenniferbriskin.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferbriskin
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-briskin-creativecoach
