[2022-06-07] The story of Café Jen

Oprah Winfrey keeps a silver box on her nightstand with notes from all the women who attended her 50th birthday luncheon. On difficult days, she pulls a note from the box and lets it lift her up.

In reading this story today in Oprah's What I Know For Sure, I was reminded of a booklet I received some years ago filled with positive messages celebrating my 500th Café Jen post. Café Jen was my first blog and focused on success at work. Rereading the entries in the booklet, I thought it time that I shared the story of Café Jen and the impact it had on both the people who followed it and me.

Back in 2008, when I was a director general in the Canadian Forest Service (part of Natural Resources Canada), my boss asked me to champion internal communications in our sector. I was already a consumer of blogs and decided to experiment with the format as one way of communicating with my employees. Because I wanted to publish in both official languages and therefore had to wait for my texts to come back from translation, I started writing posts that read more like magazine articles than newspaper stories. They had a longer shelf life and covered topics that had broader appeal. Over time, I gained readers throughout the department, where my blog was accessible, and beyond the department, particularly as Café Jen readers left the organization and asked to continue receiving my posts through email.

What started as an experiment turned into a passion project. As Seth Godin wrote in his book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?: "You get paid to go to work and do something of value. But your job is also a platform for generosity, for expression, for art." That’s what Café Jen was to me. My generosity, expression and art were rewarded many times over. While it took considerable time and energy to generate posts, what I got in return was worth so much more. On a purely egotistical level, I received a lot of positive feedback on my blog—some via comments, some via email, and some verbally. From a growth perspective, I found that I learned more, remembered more, and understood more when I wrote about my experiences. Blogging became a weekly exercise in creativity and reflection.

The bigger reward, however, was knowing that I was making a difference. I once asked Café Jen readers to share the impact that the blog had had on them. One colleague emailed me to say that she forwarded some of my posts to her children, who were in their early 20s and just starting their careers. Someone else told me that his French teacher encouraged him to read Café Jen in French. And one woman wrote to say: "I absolutely love receiving your blogs, no matter how busy I am I always take the time to read it as it truly changes my day and week (and life!). You are such an inspiration and I learn so much with each blog you write, every one of your blogs has so many golden nuggets, tips, tricks, and key pieces of information that I can use in life and my day job :)"

The booklet marking my 500 Café Jen posts contains some lovely sentiments about the blog and what it meant to readers. Here are some extracts from the comments that were made:
  • Café Jen has been (and will continue to be, of course) such a positive experience for me not only work-wise as I've had the opportunity to be the associate editor of an *awesome* blog, but also in my personal life. You manage to find the right words to lift me up when I'm down, to give me inspiration when in need of motivation, to provide me with guidance, to make me laugh (and sometimes even cry!), to "wow" me.
  • I suspect the regular positive feedback that Jennifer gets after each post is a strong motivator to keep it going, but actually this is really about a pretty special person's commitment to building a better workplace and doing it on top of her very demanding "day job".
  • Your blog is on my "must read" list and I've shared many posts with colleagues.
  • All of Café Jen's information has helped many people; not just staff but others who I have passed the information to over the years.
  • Jen, your generous heart and great care for people are gifts to all who know you. Thank you for your constancy in sharing wisdom and practical advice to hundreds of your fans, including me.
  • We once discussed the fact that we kept mental "rolodexes" on people.... If I were to do the same with Jen, I would say: whip smart, loved red, big laugh, thoughtful, great writer, generous soul. I hope this generous soul continues to give to her colleagues by writing these blogs.
  • Quand vous disiez récemment que nous avons plusieurs mentors autour de nous, j'en profite pour vous remercier pour le mentorat que vous avez exercé à mon endroit à travers vos écrits. (When you said recently that we have many mentors around us, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for mentoring me through your writing.)
  • The variety of what you shared with us is impressive, from the books you read, to the Leadership Development training you took, to poetry from colleagues, to personal stories. And you have shown that sharing the limelight, by allowing others to publish posts on Café Jen, you do not lose any of your shine.
  • Your posts have made an incredible difference both professionally and personally for me and so many others.
  • Sa porte et sa boîte de courriels sont donc toujours ouvertes aux suggestions qui se transforment en blogues au profit de tout un chacun. (Her door and email inbox are always open to suggestions, which turn into blog posts for everyone's benefit.)
  • Jen's writings and references have been very useful to me, and sometimes just the simplest messages can be incredibly thought-provoking.
  • I admire, respect and appreciate your postings, all of them, but this one most of all. In fact, I am typing through tears it had moved me so.... Unlike you, I have not told anyone—until now—about my experience all those years ago. I accepted it happened. I changed my outlook on my career and put it behind me. Maybe never processed it as much as I thought I had.... Thank you, again, for sharing your story.
  • Quel bel exemple de persévérance. Les blogues de Café Jen m’ont donné l’impression que je connaissais Jennifer bien avant que je ne commence à travailler avec elle. Une initiative inspirante, surtout pour ceux qui sont nouveaux dans la fonction publique. (What a great example of perseverance. Café Jen's blog posts made me feel like I knew Jennifer long before I started working with her. An inspiring initiative, especially for those who are new to the public service.)
  • What comes through in your communications is a person who is well—a person! And that makes all the difference.
  • Over time, during my work in Ottawa, I learned of her generosity, intellect, passion, dedication, and high regard for others—all traits that are evident in her inspirational writing.
  • I know you spend many evenings working on Café Jen, and I've expressed my disapproval of that to you on occasion, but eventually came to believe what you kept telling me—that you love doing it, and that it isn't "work". So keep doing it, please. We have fun reading what you have fun writing.
Writing Café Jen not only benefited other people, but also had a profound impact on me. I learned to be comfortable sharing my story and perspective. I learned, as May Sarton wrote in Journal of a Solitude, to give my "specific fears and desires a chance to be of universal significance."

As I've written before, I would not likely have launched Jenesis had I not had the experience of writing Café Jen. I'm grateful for the positive feedback I received throughout the years I maintained Café Jen, as I am for the inspiring feedback I continue to receive in response to my Jenesis posts. So many of you have lifted me up, and continue to do so. It's like having my very own silver box.