Meet Jennifer Cavender of Robin Advisors

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Cavender.

Hi Jennifer, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up in a 2 income family of blue collar workers, there was also talk of what we could NOT afford. As a young teen, I promised myself that I would choose a career that provided financial stability and that I would work as hard as I could to achieve it. That promise, led me to a 21 year career as a CPA, making sure that businesses were presenting accurate financial statements to their users. A very safe and stable career.

As an financial auditor, I spend most of my days, inside my clients businesses, digging through their general ledgers looking for errors and omissions. And at the same time, I was so intrigued by the leadership, cultures and employee engagement of my clients and the impact these things had on their financial statements. I began to notice a patten of positive financial results when company’s had health cultures, great leaders and happy employees.

One day, about 6 months into the global pandemic of 2020, a prospective client came to us with a consulting project. They wanted to improve the processes of their accounting team because they had more than doubled their business in 18 months, their director was working 12hr days and they had lost 3 controllers in in that period. The Executive looked at me through the Zoom screen, as said, “Jennifer, I just want my accounting department to have more joy!”

That statement hit straight to my soul like nothing I had ever heard before and it led me to begin researching joy in the workplace, positive cultures, happy employees and anything related that I had seen in other thriving businesses over the last 20 years of my career. What I discovered is that the key to a successful thriving business, was less dependent on marketing strategies, perfect products and services or working more hours. The businesses that had long sustainable success were the one’s who had happy, engaged and committed employees, leaders and teams.
So I did a little more research, wrote down some of the facts about the successful clients I had worked with and started experimenting with my own teams, to see if these principles that I discovered, actually worked in real life.

The result was I took a completely burned out an disengaged team from being over budget, not meeting deadline and all the team members wanting to quit; to being within budget, meeting deadlines without stress and team members describing the engagement as being enjoyable, within 6 months. One of my team members was actually promoted based on his performance during that time.

Two months after the results of my “experiment” and 6 months after that call with the prospective client, I left my career in public accounting to help other business leaders discover the power of these principles that I have now refined and packaged into a program I call “Joyful Leadership Principles.”

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely no, it has not been a smooth road. From committing to the decision to leave a safe and successful two decade career; to creating the first iteration of my services as an entrepreneur to relaunching my business after a 2 year partnership with another really great company to journey has not been easy. The financial unknowns as an entrepreneur are interesting to navigate AND they make you better at what you do. Dedicating yourself to living your believes and values as an entrepreneur is the best and hardest thing that I do every day.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Robin Advisors?
Our Values and Beliefs:
The meaning behind the robin is to bring hope, renewal, and rebirth. It symbolizes new beginnings, new projects, and a sign of good things to come. We believe that in every situation, there is always hope, and a chance for renewal, rebirth and JOY. That your greatest challenges will lead you to your greatest super power and that NOW is always the best time for a new beginning. Our highest values are authentic leadership, compassionate action and collaborative success.
Our Mission:
We’re a coaching and advisory practice that seeks to re-ignite the JOY of doing business. We guide growth-oriented business leaders through a JOYFUL transformation of their teams, departments and organizations for overall workplace well being and success. We support an exclusive group of purpose-driven organizations and their leaders to enhance performance, build strong teams and lead through challenging times through positive culture, strong leadership and compassion for all.
Our Services:
Our services are delivered through a team of international professionals who spent decades in corporate cultures, in executive roles and now bring unique solutions to client to improve their work and lives.
– Executive/leadership Coaching
– Strategic Planning
– Leadership training
– Business Process design

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I was born here in the South Bay of L.A., moved to Orange County during college and the early part of my career, and then moved back to the South Bay when I had my first child. I moved back because I love how our city celebrates diversity and I love the eclectic aspects of each and every one of our LA communities. Whether I’m on the sand, in Redondo Beach near my home, serving a client in in the valley or exploring one of the 100’s of hiking trails that we have in and around our city, I can always count on an experience that is interesting, expansive or educational. There is never a dull moment here and the opportunities for growth are unlimited. I love that I can go from the ocean to the mountains in just a two hour drive and as well as go from a bustling downtown city to an excluded walk in nature in under an hour. I love that there is almost no days in the year that I can’t be outside enjoying a bike ride or lunch on a patio with my family.
I love the business community of Los Angeles for their creativity and ambition to always be moving forward, solving problems and improving the lives of others. We are innovative and gritty, in a way that feel casual and comfortable. It is such an honor to serve the business community of LA.

What I like least is probably the cost of living here and the traffic, but honestly, the benefits I get from living in LA far out weight the costs. There are always ways to navigate finances and traffic, so I guess you could say living here has taught me how to be more resilient with both. 🙂

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenncavender/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.cavender
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifercavender/

Image Credits
Jean Huang Photography
Dan Breland Photography