# Jenn Quader > President and CEO of The Smart Agency, a professional communications firm serving > commercial real estate and financial services. TEDx speaker, writer and vocalist. > Based in Irvine, California. Jenn Quader has spent nineteen years in communications, helping institutional owners, developers and investors say what they mean. She writes on leadership, communication and confidence, speaks on navigating change, and in 2024 released a debut jazz album, Love In All Its Forms, recorded with her father Dr. Dennis Michels on piano. She is an alumna of The American University of Paris and East Carolina University, and studied at the Bell Leadership Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ## Writing Essays published between 2022 and 2023, originally on LinkedIn. - [Business and Bocce Ball](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/business-and-bocce-ball/): Every Easter my friend Jesse leads a rousing game of travelling bocce. One year the mark started moving and everyone groaned. That is when it became clear what good business actually looks like. (Leadership, published 2022-08-07, 2 min read) - [Three Strategies to Blast Through an Overactive Inner Critic](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/three-strategies-inner-critic/): The voice telling you not to speak up in the meeting is not protecting you. Three things that work, tested on myself first. (Confidence, published 2022-08-18, 2 min read) - [Workforce 2.0](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/workforce-2-0/): The Great Resignation was the wrong name for it. Read the same shift from the other side and it is the Great Re-Connection, which asks something different of the people who run things. (Workforce, published 2022-09-29, 2 min read) - [The Problem with Empathetic Leadership](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/the-problem-with-empathetic-leadership/): Empathy became a buzzword somewhere around 2021, and buzzwords are where good ideas go to stop meaning anything. Here is what it actually costs to lead this way. (Leadership, published 2022-10-10, 2 min read) - [When Women Shrink, Society Shrinks](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/when-women-shrink-society-shrinks/): Written in October 2022, after the death of Mahsa Amini. Not American politics, and not activism. What happens to all of us when half the world loses the ability to speak. (Communication, published 2022-10-16, 2 min read) - [Leadership Mind Tricks](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/leadership-mind-tricks/): It takes some brutal self-honesty to catch your own inner critic scheming on your behalf. Here is what I do in the split second after I notice. (Leadership, published 2022-10-28, 2 min read) - [Three Lessons From Life's Oldest Millennial](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/three-lessons-from-lifes-oldest-millennial/): Old enough to remember picking up the phone, young enough to have built a career on the internet. One hang-up each for Gen Z, the Boomers, and everybody. (Workforce, published 2022-11-14, 2 min read) - [Three Communication Habits to Kick to the Curb](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/three-communication-habits/): Three things that quietly undermine you every time you open your mouth at work, and what to do instead. (Communication, published 2023-01-02, 2 min read) - [How to Get a Mentor Like a Boss](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/how-to-get-a-mentor-like-a-boss/): Nobody is going to appoint themselves. I found mine on the cover of an industry magazine, wrote a one-page letter, printed it on personal letterhead and put it in the mail. Here is what I said, and the three things he taught me. (Mentorship, published 2023-08-03, 4 min read) ## Talks - [Walking Confidently in the Wrong Direction](https://www.jennquader.com/speaking/walking-confidently-in-the-wrong-direction/): How do you know when you are walking in the wrong direction? A TEDx talk on reinvention, letting go, and the difference between the knowledge you take in and the knowledge you already hold. (TEDx Talk: The American University of Paris, March 2024. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yKMeo3GW2k) - [Confidently Walking: Women in Commercial Real Estate](https://www.jennquader.com/speaking/confidently-walking-women-in-cre/): The workshop talk that became the TEDx talk two years later, aimed squarely at one room: women in commercial real estate. Two wrong turns on a motorway, twenty years of CREW Network data, and one instruction. Speak up. (SmartSpeech, June 2022. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJFzx95Zs5k) - [Interconnectivity in Business: Why It Matters Right Now](https://www.jennquader.com/speaking/interconnectivity-in-business/): There are two rooms in every company, finance and workforce, and they have stopped hearing each other. This talk is about what each room actually believes, and how to build mountains instead of flagpoles. (SmartSpeech, August 2023. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZiRjFDMKU8) - [Unleashing Your Voice With Podcasting](https://www.jennquader.com/speaking/unleashing-your-voice-with-podcasting/): A panel of four women who each built an audience in commercial real estate by starting a show. I moderated. If you want to know what it actually takes to start one, this is the hour to watch. (CREW Orange County, July 2023. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn13EgG-4oA) - [Communication in Leadership: The Secret Sauce to Happy Growth](https://www.jennquader.com/speaking/communication-in-leadership/): Three strategies and three challenges, run as a workshop rather than a lecture. Fewer arguments, fewer misunderstandings, and a team that performs better because it actually heard you. (The Smart Agency, 2023.) - [GlobeSt Women of Influence](https://www.jennquader.com/speaking/globest-women-of-influence/): Jenn Quader hosts GlobeSt Women of Influence for The Smart Agency: 8 conversations with the women running commercial real estate, on capital, operations, AI and leadership. ## Happenings Current as of 2026-09-07. Full page: https://www.jennquader.com/happenings/ Coming up: - Coming home to North Lenoir - Sunday 13 September 2026, 3.00pm. A benefit concert for the drama department that started it all, twenty-eight years after graduating from it. (https://www.jennquader.com/happenings/#north-lenoir-benefit-concert) Recently: - North Lenoir drama alumni return home for September 13 benefit concert - 4 September 2026. Neuse News on the concert, the drama department, and the road from La Grange to a national tour of RENT. - The first three Auntie LouLou books - 11 November 2025. mama, rage and fury, and bigger than me. A small book series, published under the pen name Auntie LouLou™. - Love In All Its Forms is out - 8 October 2024. A debut jazz album about every kind of love, recorded with my father on piano. - Resiliency The Podcast begins - 30 July 2024. A global conversation of changemakers, co-hosted with Dr. Kelly Culver. - A TEDx talk in Paris - March 2024. Walking Confidently in the Wrong Direction, at The American University of Paris. ## Sections - [Writing](https://www.jennquader.com/writing/): all essays - [Happenings](https://www.jennquader.com/happenings/): concerts, releases and press, with dates - [Music](https://www.jennquader.com/music/): Love In All Its Forms, 2024 - [Speaking](https://www.jennquader.com/speaking/): TEDx Paris and booking - [About](https://www.jennquader.com/about/): biography and background ## Elsewhere - The Smart Agency: https://thesmartagency.com - Love In All Its Forms: https://www.loveinallitsforms.com/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennquader/ - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2ZPDUckRQjctApMYLSCyZj - Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/jenn-quader/1763703560 ## Contact LetsCreate@ALLCreates.com Published by A.L.L., Inc.