Hello there, before you liken me to a kitchen sink with a missing plug, read on. I found out very early on in life, in fact as early as age 5 when I attended Primary School for the first time, that if try to hide my real thoughts, or feelings I soon get found out. My face is like a lie detector machine, it hides nothing. My eyes are, and this sounds cheesy, the mirror to my soul. My family will tell me I am a hopeless liar, I have tried the odd little white lie, who hasn’t? My white lies are usually quite dismal, something like telling my husband he won the lottery and I know this because I checked his lottery ticket. So, Linda Ockwell-Jenner unplugged is the real thing, the every day, all the time real me, like me or hate me, this is me, so get used to it.

Who is Linda Ockwell-Jenner, LindaOJ for the purpose of this blog. I am a Pinkalicious, almost 5 feet tall, blonde, not dumb, professional speaker, author and consultant. I am a 3 year podcast veteran, 5 year newsletter veteran. The mother of 3 sons and 1 daughter, wife of an amazing, intelligent, funny, sexy, caring and loving man, and my husband of 4 years Dave Ockwell-Jenner.

I founded Motivational Steps in 2001 after being diagnosed for the second time with breast cancer. Honestly, I don’t think I had chance the first time in 1997 to get used to being the survivor of breast cancer, so the second time was a doddle. ( doddle = easy). I thought to myself, you did this once you can do it again! Things moved fast, I had a double mastectomy and implants on Friday 13th October, 2000. Actually, I did think, what is it with the freaky dates? The first time I got the results that I did have breast cancer in my left breast was 30th October, 2007, Devils Night. ( night before Haloween = Devils Night). Luckily for me I am not superstitious, well not that much anyway.

My place of birth is Birmingham, UK and I am very proud to be a Brummie girl. Birmingham has changed tremendously over the years and on a recent visit there I was amazed at how the Bullring has turned into a fantastic Shopping Mall with some very up-market shops. The area where the canals are has been changed into a restaurant and very expensive condo area, very nice indeed.

I now live in Ontario, Canada and I am also very proud to be able to live here and thankful, Canada is a wonderful place to live with very many opportunities for everyone. We chose Canada to live partly because we felt there was no class system as there is in the UK, we mix with millionaires and people who have just enough money to live on. When my children attended school here for the first time I noticed that even though the students in the public schools don’t wear school uniforms the rich kids do not appear to stand out. In my experience when I lived in England if you had money you sent your kids to private school, even though I soon discovered my next door neighbours children could hardly spell or do math, compared to my children who all attended a regular school in England. Why pay private  when you can have better or as good as private I say! Unless we are talking about health care and I will reach that topic soon, but first I think you should hear about me first.

I have always been very principled and opinionated and sometimes my big mouth has gotten me into trouble, as I have matured – grown old(er) – I have worked out how to differentiate between offering my help or advice and throwing it around willy nilly – everywhere -:) Maybe I have upset people over the years, and yes I have helped other people, we learn with experience, even me.

LindaOJ is a woman who stands out, I am unique. How do I know this? I have been told and people always tell the truth, and I actually worked it out myself when I was younger but failed to act upon this useful commodity because of my extreme shyness. The challenges, experiences, life’s lessons have all been hard on me, but here I am bouncing back time after time, now why is that? I love life, its simple! My resume reads something like lazy student at school, lacks motivation. Secretary, did a good job, likes it easy. Wife and Mother excellent, hard working, dedicated, motivated and extremely stressed! Luckily for me that is my old resume,my new one reads Business woman extraordinare, mother, wife, President of Motivational Steps, Founder of the Small Business Community Network, Volunteer in many organizations, Mentor and Wonder Woman who knows ironing is a waste of time!

I discovered early on in my business that networking could yeild many benefits, fortunately for me, I also realised it can be hard work, and you have to be consistent. In my case I am authentic and honest and this gets me far, those people who don’t like the real me have no place in my life , business or otherwise. Networking is a constant source of joy to me, whether I am meeting people face to face or via the internet, I am a social butterfly and I find it fun.

So, there you go, the first post in my Blog and a little bit about me so you can get interested and find out more in my next post.  I will be talking about my business, networking, branding, customer service, health care, and you may find that you disagree with some of my comments, and if so, let me know I am always open to listening.