Welcome back everyone to the Mona Lisa Monologues, Today’s Women Shaping History. I am Lisa Ross Faust, your host for this powerful new series. Our focus is on women who have broken the glass ceiling, have worked in a man’s world, or simply climbed their way to the very top, in any industry. Real stories – real conversations; conversations that will empower and encourage women to embrace their inner strength and recognize the masterpiece, that they already are.

Joining us today we have Joy Jarrett, Partner, and the Chief Marketing Officer of Guidehouse, and I think she has checked off ALL those categories by the way. If you are not familiar, Guidehouse, was formerly the U.S. public sector arm of PwC -PricewaterhouseCoopers, (a pretty big name).  Last year they acquired Navigant Consulting. The company is 8,000+ people strong, and $1.4 billion and growing! 

Just so you have a better understanding of what she does, Joy oversees marketing for their commercial and public sector and if you aren’t familiar with the term public sector, it includes public goods and government services such as the military, law enforcement, defense, energy, infrastructure, public transit, education, national security, along with public healthcare so it is quite complex.  The way I envision it, (it’s just how my brain works), from a marketing perspective, it’s as if you’d have to learn to speak multiple languages to understand so many government operations.  So, let that sink in.

I’ve worked with Joy for many years and it has amazed me how she transforms, much like a chameleon when it comes to adapting to the various industries, she has worked in. She always shows up to the meeting with an idea or vision and proceeds to collaborate with those involved.  She listens. AND she won’t tell you this, but she has rolled out some major global marketing campaigns for major brands. She uses her female intuitive thinking, and that has worked for her. She’s a brave one.

First, Joy shares what her company has been doing during the pandemic, she details her corporate climb and the challenges she faced, along with what has helped her move forward.  She is a working woman and working mom like so many of us and has had to reinvent often.  We can all learn a lot from Joy, so here we go.