For this round of meeting the LeadingResponse team we have up the one and only Jennifer Debuhr. It is always a delight to sit down with our employees and gain some insight into their character, especially with a mainstay at our company such as Jen. We look forward to this meeting and being able to shed some light on our team members!
Who are you, what do you do, and what are your goals?
Jen Lowery DeBuhr, Business Development Manager, or Jen with two last names! 😊 Everyone just calls me Jen though.
I’ve been with LeadingResponse for 18 years. That blows me away. My title is Business Development Manager which means I manage a team, but really, I just help people. That’s it. I help advisors, agents and attorneys find new clients. I help consumers find their perfect advisors. I help my colleagues here at LeadingResponse with their goals and challenges. I go into every day trying to be of service in whatever way I can.
Who is your hero?
My 5-year-old daughter, Dylan. She is, BY FAR, the bravest person I’ve ever met. She isn’t scared of anything. There are things that I am typically afraid of like trying something new for the first time, making new friends, or heights. She isn’t afraid of any of those things. Even when she is, she’ll tell me, “Mommy, I’m nervous.” and then go do it anyway. She wants to be a ninja when she grows up. I wish I could be more like her!
What would you change about yourself if you could?
I have always wanted to be an extrovert, but I’m not. I’m somewhat introverted. It is ironic because I have spent my entire career in a sales and client facing position. I have done countless presentations, but that is always emotional effort for me. I’m jealous of the people who thrive on it.
What is your favorite thing about your career?
It is important to me to know that I am making a difference. I did some math recently and realized that by a very conservative estimate I have marketed at least 35,000 seminars. It is likely much more than that. That means that I have helped A LOT of people over the years find security in retirement, take care of their loved ones, or just better understand the truly complex financial decisions that everyone has to face. I love that.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
Career wise, it is similar to the answer above. I am one of LeadingResponse’s subject matter experts in a few fields, but my absolute favorite is designing campaigns for women. I have probably facilitated more seminars for women than anyone else in our entire industry. Simply because I work here, doing what I do, I have played a part in helping the financial industry become more inclusive to women in general. Tens of thousands of women have been to a seminar or webinar that I created the messaging for and hopefully walked away from it feeling seen, heard and acknowledged. I am incredibly proud of that. I hope that is something my daughter can be proud of in her mom one day too.
What is your favorite game or sport to watch and play?
I’m not into sports, not even a little bit. Sports talk makes my eyes glaze over. I am very into yoga though. I’ve been a yoga teacher for over 15 years. I even co-owned a local yoga studio for several years and taught at many large festivals. My husband DJ’s yoga classes and we met when I hired him to DJ a special event I was leading. Then we teamed up together, in more ways than one! He and I have led classes together with hundreds of people in attendance.
I found having two careers and a child more intense than I could handle though, so I am currently on sabbatical from teaching classes. But yoga will always have my heart!
Do you have pets?
I have four pets, two cats and two dogs – Smudge, Samson, Sita and Sophie. The last one was entirely unintentional. This little black dog just showed up in our back yard one day about a year ago. We tried to find her people, couldn’t, and quickly realized that she had been abused and likely abandoned before finding her way to us. We became her people. We decided to keep her and made a commitment to her that she would never be abused or sleep on the streets ever again. She loves us and is our most affectionate pet. She helps me tuck my daughter in every night, but because of her history she is still afraid of almost everyone else.
My daughter always wants more pets, and I’m like, “We have four! I don’t even know how we got this many! No one else you know has four of them.” I wouldn’t even be a little bit surprised if we ended up with another one someday though.
Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?
Coffee, but that counts as a necessity, right?
What is your favorite book?
The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah. I also love the Pillars of the Earth series. I love all epics
