We are delighted to introduce Jacqueline Cripps, who has decided to share her knowledge and expertise as a regular blogger on our website.
Jacqueline is an author, speaker, and consultant who is inspired to be the facilitator of change and creating impact. Jacqueline helps business owners and organizations to strengthen their teams is passionate about identifying the untapped potential of millennials. Among other things, Jacqueline is the author of Smashed Avocado and the Quarter-Life Crisis, which she calls a millennial survival guide.
But let’s hear it straight from the source, what does Jacqueline do? “I inspire harmonious unity. I educate and teach business leaders all around the world, to understand their millennial workforce,” she explains and adds: “I help millennials better understand themselves so they can be the best versions of themselves and live a life aligned with their values.”
The more we understand ourselves, the more enriched our lives become
After graduating with degrees in social sciences and psychology, what led you to pursue a career in writing, public speaking, and consulting? “Well, I’ve always been fascinated with human behavior which is what drew me to social sciences and psychology,” Jacqueline answers. “I originally ventured into psychology, as my second degree, thinking I’d become a clinical psychologist. I’ve always had a drive to help people – so it felt like a natural pathway to take.”
Jacqueline explains how having had her own share of personal challenges became a benefit as she was able to utilize what she was learning to better understand herself. “Not being shy to expand my knowledge, I started to familiarise myself with the holistic practices and healing which led me into additional insights about humans and myself,” she says and adds: “The more I started to integrate all my learnings into my life, I started to notice some incredible changes and transformation.”
These changes inspired Jacqueline’s passion for helping others change their lives and eventually led her to write her first book. “From there, I’ve continued to pursue this passion of helping others through education, awareness, and knowledge. Over the years, I’ve expanded my reach to include public speaking and consulting which is naturally focused on helping shift individual and collective perspectives, in order to better understand each other. I believe that the more we understand ourselves, and others, the more enriched our lives become.”
They don’t know what they don’t know, and I want to help them!
In her work as a consultant, Jacqueline works with all kinds of organizations and enterprises. “But I do tend to work more closely with small to medium-size business. There, one of the benefits is that I get to work more closely with people,” she explains. And the projects are diverse as well but when asked about an example Jacqueline says: “I think the biggest pain point that I work with businesses on, is how to manage millennials. Management extends into the roots of an organization's culture, including engagement and performance. Which means that having managers that can’t understand their millennials, usually translates into unhappy, disengaged millennials.”
Jacqueline describes such projects as a two-way street. “Helping educate and translate the ‘language of millennials’ to managers, means that managers are then able to speak to their teams in a way that resonates and is understood, removing any bridge or disconnect that was originally there. Which, of course, also means that millennials are happier and more engaged, which translates into better performance and workplace cultures.”
But why focusing on millennials? When asked about that, Jacqueline explains that she has always felt very strongly about her generation, millennials. Particularly the misconceptions that exist in the world and all those stereotypes.
When discussing millennials from a workplace perspective, Jacqueline says: “As a person who has been the unhappy, disengaged millennial because of not feeling heard or understood by managers, I’ve experienced first-hand the impacts this has to both personal and professional wellbeing.” Having experienced this on her own skin is in some parts why Jacqueline feels so strongly about educating managers. “They don’t know what they don’t know, and I want to help them!”
Jacqueline also mentions the challenges millennials face as a generation. “In particular, feeling the pressure of societal norms. To be, do or have things and all the expectations that come with that. Reflecting on my experiences and those of other millennials, led me to delve into understanding the ‘why’ to what is going on,” she explains and adds that she wants to give the topic a voice and educate other millennials so they can understand who they are, take that pressure off and move forward empowered to live a life they want.
Millennials will make up to 75% of the global workforce
“We are a unique generation. The challenges that we face are different from our parents, grandparents and will be different from generations to come,” Jacqueline says when asked about why it’s important to specifically address the mental wellbeing of Millennials. “You could say that all generations experience these types of challenges - because they do. But the impacts for millennials - because of the economic, political, and societal factors that have shaped our generation - mean that our experiences are different.”
To further explain, Jacqueline says that we only need to look around the world to see the impacts that our jobs or workplaces have on us. “For millennials, in particular, our sense of work and what drives our career choices, are different from our parents. We value meaning and fulfillment above all else; but oftentimes end up in jobs that don’t match that – for varying reasons. Which in turn, can lead to declines in wellbeing and mental health. If we also take the fact that in the next five years, millennials will make up to 75% of the global workforce we can see how critical it will be for workplaces to understand them!”
Jacqueline also highlights that when it comes to mental health, millennials are at greater risk than any other generation to suffer. “This is related to the challenges we face: social media addictions, job insecurity, debt, and more recently covid-19. Yes, all of us may experience mental health challenges, but due to the vulnerability of millennials, it requires a much greater focus,” Jacqueline says and adds that we are moving in the right direction with education and awareness.
“But more needs to be done on both a collective and individual level. Organizations need to understand the causes, offer solutions and support. Millennials need to better understand what is behind the root causes, and then commit to overcoming these challenges, and healing.”
With knowledge comes empowerment and choice
Having heard about Jacqueline’s experience and interest when it comes to millennials and mental health, it doesn’t come as a surprise that she has written a book about it. But what did she hope to achieve by doing so? “I wrote Smashed Avocado and the Quarter-Life Crisis to help millennials to better understand themselves in the context of the generation and the wider challenges of the world,” she says and adds that with knowledge comes empowerment and choice. “Once we understand that we are not alone in the challenges we face – including our mental health – and that we have the means to do something about it, then we can start living life from a much more authentic and fulfilled space.”
And now, the author, speaker, and consultant has decided to collaborate with Millennial Mental Wellbeing, and she had good reasons for doing so. “I’m a huge advocate of creating awareness around mental health initiatives and I think there’s so much power in collaboration – especially with like-minded people,” Jacqueline explains.
“Organisations like Millennial Mental Wellbeing are critical in helping support both organizations and millennials through life. Not just now, but for the future,” Jacqueline says before concluding: “I’m excited and proud with the opportunity to be collaborating with MMW. My hope is that we’ll continue to elevate awareness, create impact, expand reach, and be a voice to help organizations and millennials all around the world.”
We welcome Jacqueline Cripps onboard and look forward to a fruitful collaboration!