Turning Curveballs into Homeruns: how Jackie Hermes built a successful company and a powerhouse professional brand

This Women’s History Month, CEO of Ljs Advisory, Lauren Burke, sat down with Jackie Hermes, Founder and CEO of Accelity Marketing for a glimpse into her entrepreneurial journey. Jackie Hermes is an active voice in the marketing industry and regularly imparts her unique wisdom on the business community.

No longer a rising star, Jackie has solidified her position as a 2x entrepreneur, brand builder, startup mentor and LinkedIn expert. Jackie was an early adopter of executive brand building — taking the leap into uncharted territory 7 years ago. 

Jackie has since catapulted her brand, with her posts garnering up to 500 LinkedIn reactions and hundreds of comments! Just like building a business, building a brand takes creativity, consistency, humility, but arguably most of all, patience.

Accelity’s + Jackie’s superpowers

Accelity started 12 years ago this month (ironically, the same month as Women’s History Month). Jackie explains that Accelity’s superpower is the team— a team that works well together, knows each other at a personal level, and flexes to each other’s working styles. “We are able to produce just really fantastic work together.” In today’s fluid job market, Jackie is happy to share that the average tenure of her team is 5 years plus.

Outside of Accelity, we sought to really get to know Jackie and her unique super power as a female founder. She credits her adaptability, positivity and resilience to her success. “I am very adaptable and I keep a good attitude, which is something that I have really worked on. It can be difficult to be able to hop into any situation and be able to just handle whatever comes up.” 

On the (inevitable) challenges of entrepreneurship

Jackie’s adaptability enables her to turn curveballs into home runs. Jackie says that challenges will always present themselves— “when you figure out how to handle one kind of challenge, bigger challenges come along, regardless of the size of the client.” Jackie adds that “the stakes are much higher with a $2,500 a month client vs a $25,000 a month client,” but approaching them in the same way has always resulted in success.

A bull in a china shop

Jackie “didn’t mind working for other people,” and was given leeway to be her authentic, ambitious, change-making self. I was “like a bull in a china shop working for other people, but somehow it worked.” “I don’t know how I didn’t get fired 20 times. I had a lot of opinions,” said Jackie. 

The number one reason why she became an entrepreneur? “I just really wanted more flexibility. I really wanted to have time with my son. He is fourteen now. I have since adopted two girls as well.” She mentions family time as “essential, but it also ebbs and flows.” “I might be working less if I worked for someone else,” but the”level of freedom that I have is definitely unmatched.” Her team also benefits from her ethos as they also maintain a “very high level of freedom.”

The (un)importance of a plan

Was her go-to-market strategy crystal clear in those early days? Jackie says no: “I built a business basically on my own skills. I had sales skills and I had an outgoing personality, but I don't know that I had a great plan beyond that.” On the other hand, Jackie says that “people really wait too long and they think that they need everything planned out and you really don't.” At one point, Jackie had a full-time job, two businesses and a child, so focusing on one business was eventually a necessity for her.

Combatting imposter syndrome and “fake it ‘til you make it”

Jackie experienced something many women experience in their careers that was not widely discussed when she started her company —imposter syndrome. In the early days, one of her challenges  was being “the only woman in the room.”  Jackie shared that “the process of selling was difficult, especially being a fairly young woman trying to sell into sophisticated software companies.” 

To combat the feeling of discomfort, her approach was to “make myself seem a lot older, which seems silly, but does matter to some buyers.” “A lot of people feel imposter syndrome,” said Jackie, “and I still feel it,” but today she does not let it stand in her way. “You always have to fake it ‘til you make it, stepping into that next position and that next challenge,” she said.

Structuring a start-up team

Her first hire was an account manager, and after that, Jackie says,  “I looked at what did I want to do and what did I excel at and where I needed to hire outside of that.” Jackie ultimately learned that she wanted to do more of the strategy and the selling, so account management was an area she would continue to resource. 

Jenny, President & Partner

Her next hire? Operations, someone “to run Excel's marketing and set up our internal processes,” which was a “big investment in the company.” Ten years later, this hire is now Jackie’s business partner, showing that this early investment on both the part of the employer and the employee paid dividends. “We get along super well,” but “it’s not always group think.”

On building a powerhouse professional brand

Jackie started doing personal & professional branding on LinkedIn in 2018. Seven years later, it has served Jackie well in so many ways. Jackie cited in a recent LinkedIn post that she attributes 30% of Accelity’s revenue to her brand, which is as she says “a. lot. of. cash.”

We asked Jackie how business leaders should approach branding if they are afraid of being vulnerable or have not yet invested the time. Jackie explained her story saying that when she started building her brand  it was when LinkedIn video and influencing “became a thing.” Jackie’s brand evolved from being more personal to leaning into business. 

Many clients and prospects that Jackie encounters have not yet starting building their unique brands, to which Jackie says, “why not?” Jackie and team Accelity “encourage our clients to do it all the time. Just get out there and start sharing your expertise, the things that you know about your industry, what's your unique perspective and the things that you're working on.” Even telling “stories about your day-to-day”— you can be you, without sharing too much “personal stuff,” says Jackie.

Jackie credits showing up authentically as something that benefits Accelity and their clients. “We just talk to each other as people, and we talk to our clients like people,” says Jackie. “I just try to show up as myself and I think that other people should do the same.”

Motherhood complementing leadership — and vice versa

We wanted to understand how motherhood and leadership can be mutually beneficial, Lauren said, “while we all want our B2B businesses to grow quickly, when you are in B2B, buyers aren’t just adding to cart.” She goes on to say that “relationships have to be nurtured.” 

Jackie shares that motherhood has “made her so much more patient” and that “everything takes longer than you think it will.”

Jackie elaborated, saying, “you're running a business, you're working with clients, you're in tough situations all the time. You're forced to evaluate constantly how you behaved in a certain situation, how you're speaking to people, how you're handling hard situations.” This has helped Jackie be a better parent, “knowing how to work in conflict” and “how to just stay calm and not react.” Now that her kids are teenagers, she credits that skill to making them “so much closer.” 

Final words of wisdom

Jackie shared so many incredible insights and relatable experiences from her entrepreneurial journey as well as tangible takeaways for anyone looking to grow their business and their personal and professional brands, which are now one in the same. 

“My best advice,” Jackie said, “if you are thinking about quitting, I would encourage you to ask yourself  how long can you stick it out.” She personally has thought about quitting so many times: “literally, I have written the email, I’m shutting down this business.” While it “can get so hard,” I am “so glad that I didn’t.” 

Jackie’s final wisdom is to keep moving: “Often you get super uncomfortable right before you get to that next breakthrough.”

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We learned so much from Jackie Hermes and you will too — be sure to check out the full interview, and stay tuned for our last two female founders write-ups, you don’t want to miss.