Jenn Ocken
Speaker & Facilitator

The energy shifts when people finally feel seen.

Sometimes this happens with my camera. Sometimes it’s across a table. And some of the coolest times have been when it was a whole room at once.

The people in your room already know a lot. It’s just all stacked on top of itself. I ask the questions that mine what’s already there, and that creates a space for people to be seen, while inviting them to see something differently.

My role is to help people deepen their relationship with their own answers. Their choices stay theirs.

From more than 30 years behind a camera and mentoring other solo business owners, and from performing on an improv stage every week, I’ve learned to read what’s happening in the moment and work with that.

You can’t control what shows up. You can only be present enough to use it.

As the person who identified and gave Creative Adaptive Intelligence its language, I’ve seen what naming something does. It opens the door for self-empowerment and clarity. Everyone already uses this capacity, every time a value or priority drives a decision. Once people have words for it, they can return to their decisions in a kinder way, and see what was choosing all along. It’s at the center of every keynote and workshop I lead, in person or virtually.

• Capable people keep circling decisions

• People think they need more information or another consultant before they can decide

• The advice and programs are good, and still aren’t sticking

• Your people are moving through a transition or a pivot

• Two things people value seem to be pulling against each other

When Clarity Matters More Than Certainty

Every decision is made from some value or priority, whether people notice it or not. Most people use this capacity every day without a name for it, so when someone else’s priorities start doing the choosing, everything gets harder and they can’t see why. In 2019, I burned out because my decisions were negating my core values. When I looked back at everything I’d done well, the common thread was clear: it aligned with what mattered to me. This talk gives that capacity its name, Creative Adaptive Intelligence, so people can use it on purpose. The C.A.L.M. Compass returns them to their own core values before their next decision, so their choices stay theirs.

You Can Have Both: A Values Workshop

A lot of indecision comes from measuring your choices with someone else’s values. Most people have never named their own, so they can’t see when they’re trading one away. In this workshop, people find their core values through their own stories: the time they got angry being rushed into a decision, the yes they quietly resent. And when two core values seem to be pulling against each other, we look at how both can be honored. The conflict isn’t a sign something is wrong. It’s information about what matters.

Creative Solutions in a Modern World

In 2020, the pandemic shut everything down, and I had no blueprint. I had what I’d already built: my photography business and the community around it. The Front Porch Project grew from there into 4,044 families photographed by 27 photographers, and $1.28 million returned to the local economy in three months. It became something bigger than I could have imagined. Every decision came back to my core values, and “yes, and” kept us moving with whatever showed up.

People leave with

Their own words for what shifted, and knowing what to trust. What I give people is what they didn’t have words for before they sat with me.

About Jenn

Jenn Ocken, Creative Cultivator | Speaker, Author, Photographer & Improv Performer

The photographer who learned to see people. The mentor who learned how people make decisions. The entrepreneur who learned what happens when people abandon their own priorities. The creative who refuses to make creativity synonymous with productivity. The woman who keeps questioning whether she’s becoming herself or becoming somebody else’s idea of herself. The person fascinated by the moment when we choose. And the thinker giving language to that capacity: Creative Adaptive Intelligence.

Jenn is the person who identified and gave Creative Adaptive Intelligence its language, and she co-founded the Front Porch Project during the 2020 pandemic.

More about Jenn

Bring Jenn to your organization or event

Tell me about your event and what’s happening for your people right now. I’ll follow up with a speaker sheet and rates.