News / Invest in Women

/ 09.23.19 /

Good for women, good for your business: W4W Member Spotlight on Jennifer Willey of Wet Cement

Jennifer Willey’s consulting firm, Wet Cement, specializes in training and coaching services designed to help clients meet their goals, realize growth, and achieve their potential. Since those are skills in high demand among many of the nonprofits that Working for Women supports, Jennifer’s decision to join W4W was a no-brainer. Her commitment to Working for Women means that while she’s growing her small business, she can also be an advocate for a cause that resonates. “I’m an ambassador to others who want to help women but don’t know where to begin; this makes it easy.”

By the time Jennifer Willey started Wet Cement in 2017, she had already been working on her “passion project” for over 20 years. No matter what position she occupied at work – TV news anchor, reporter, sales and marketing – it always came down to helping empower women and building more collaborative cultures to foster their success.

That passion was deeply rooted in Jennifer’s own personal experience. “As I learned that I had held myself back in some ways, based on my own mindset behavior, I tried to take that knowledge and use it to help other women.”

So she helped build women leadership programs and was involved with industry organizations focused on women advancement – all while managing her real job. “I realized this was truly my passion,” she shares. “If I could manage to pay the bills doing what I love but also be able to provide support and help women in these organizations, that would be a dream come true.”

Wet Cement focuses on three areas. Their Gender Equality/Diversity Inclusion programs help women and men navigate the post-MeToo world (she believes that 99 percent of men are good and just need help figuring out how to create an empowered and inclusive culture) by assessing and improving inclusivity and engagement at organizations.

Their second focus is on helping women find and own their voice and be more assertive communicators. After all, it’s one of the top things holding women back from achieving their professional potential, says Jennifer. To learn how to communicate confidently, one must tackle one’s mindset and improve verbal and nonverbal delivery as well as effective listening, she explains.

The third pillar of Wet Cement is purpose-driven leadership. “Self-advocacy is a significant challenge for women,” says Jennifer. Wet Cement worked with employees of Johnson & Johnson on International Women’s Day, for example, helping them map out their missions and create personal business plans. “We helped them get really clear on goals, how they can achieve them, how they position themselves and who they bring along on that journey to ensure they feel good and confident when they get there.”

When working with any organization, Jennifer and her team typically combine all three pillars into a customized program that meets their particular needs. And that’s exactly how she’s collaborating with Working for Women. Wet Cement’s commitment – a combination of net revenue and time – is focused on using their unique strengths to help W4W meet their mission.

There’s a lot of talk about how women are their own worst enemies, she adds, all vying for that coveted seat at the table. But this commitment is about collaboration. “How do we join forces on this important mission instead of competing? I need to find like-minded warriors to help fight and win this battle.”