Women-Owned Business Series: Jess from The Rise Journey

Welcome back to our Women-Owned Business Series! Today we’re spotlighting the co-founder of The Rise Journey — an HR consultancy helping growth and mid-size companies build cultures where everyone truly belongs.
Founded in 2018, The Rise Journey was created to fill a real gap in organizational development — bringing high-value, metrics-driven support to help businesses operationalize diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility from the ground up. Read more about their story below!

First, tell us about your business and anything special we should know about it or you.

I am the co-founder of The Rise Journey, a HR consultancy that works with growth and mid-size companies to operationalize diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and accessibility in order to build empowering organizational cultures from the ground up. My co-founder and I have extensive experience in the realm of organizational strategy and employee engagement, and we recognized that there was a gap in organizational development focused on inclusion and social impact. With this window of opportunity, The Rise Journey was founded in 2018 to meet businesses where they are in their development journey and to provide high-value, metrics-driven support to facilitate positive organizational change. More information about The Rise Journey can be found on our website: https://www.therisejourney.com/

Why do you feel a connection to your work?

I am connected to the work because it sits at the intersection of people, purpose, and impact. The Rise Journey offers companies the opportunity to uplift their workforce and implement meaningful organizational structure, recognizing the importance of culture and identity in the ways people show up to work. Our work is integral to shaping environments where employees feel seen, heard, supported and respected. In our feedback surveys, we see the direct impact of our efforts and confirmation that attention to inclusion strategies improves employee satisfaction and leaves them feeling empowered to do their best work.

That’s meaningful to me because we are directly enhancing the day-to-day lives of people at work and actualizing our mission as an organization. As we continue to work with companies over the years to support their ERGs or rethink organizational structure, I can see the tangible impact and how our efforts lead to more inclusive, thoughtful workplaces. Being part of change makes the work feel purposeful and personal, and it keeps me grounded and invested in The Rise Journey.

As a business owner, community is everything. In what ways do you serve your community and how has your community served you?

Community is at the heart of how our Lunch and Learn program began. It started with folks I had previously worked with and respected greatly during my time in an L&D role at a tech startup. These were people I had learned from and genuinely wanted to hear speak again. From there, it grew organically–those speakers began referring others who they admired, respected, and learned from, which enabled us to develop an incredibly diverse community.

Because the recommendations came from trusted networks, newly referred speakers knew we were committed to real diversity and inclusion–not just talking the talk, but following it up with action. We also were specific and intentional about seeking out diverse voices, perspectives, and backgrounds. We’re not looking for “cookie cutter;” we wanted authenticity and range.

With this referral-driven approach, we are really able to uplift voices that are not often elevated and support folks who historically are underpaid in the workforce compared to their white male counterparts. It’s been lovely to see the growth of our speaker program into a cyclical, supportive community.

What advice would you give to others who want to start a small business?

A piece of advice I would’ve loved to hear is to niche down your offering. My business partner and I wanted to be everything to all people, and it pulled us in too many different directions, which became impossible to manage. We thought it made more sense to be as expansive and open to the widest client base as possible; it actually made it more difficult to establish our core clientele because our elevator pitch and value proposition wasn’t as focused on a specific audience. It took us a bit longer than we would have liked to build our client base, so it definitely would have been to our benefit to niche down our offerings earlier in our journey. I would recommend for startup leaders to take time early on to identify your ideal client and tailor your services specifically to their needs. Start small, test your niche, and refine it as you grow—clarity is key when it comes to building momentum.

What do you think are the most significant challenges for small business owners or women in leadership positions?

One of the most significant challenges for women business owners and women in leadership roles is navigating the tension between professional ambition and personal priorities—especially when motherhood enters the picture.

In reflecting on my own experience, becoming a parent can fundamentally shift how women relate to their work. When The Rise Journey first started, I was not yet a mother. After I had my first child, it made me want to spend less time working, which was a strange experience for me because my work and my career has always been extremely important to me. I had to figure out how to become more efficient and effective with my time management because, suddenly, my time carried a different weight.

Another major challenge is setting and maintaining boundaries. The expectation to always be available can be difficult to unlearn. I became very intentional about having my workspace be a completely separate area in our home, in an effort to ensure that I could truly enjoy and engage in the time spent with my family. Creating both that physical and mental separation between work and personal is very difficult, but it was essential for me to continue to be an effective leader and maintain meaningful, personal relationships.

Overall, the challenge isn’t just “doing it all,” but doing it in a way that feels aligned, intentional, and sustainable—without sacrificing presence at work or at home.

We were the first organization to conduct ERG research, and we have just launched our sixth ERG Compensation and Impact survey. Our 2025 ERG Annual Impact Report can be found HERE.