We had the good fortune of connecting with Jena Sinclair and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jena, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
In the beginning of my career, I didn’t focus on balance. I tended to overwork and grind for hours and weeks at a time. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized how crucial that balance is. Enjoying life outside of the daily grind of work as proven to be more beneficial. I work better and more efficient when I take time for myself. I work a handful of jobs so creating that space and time away allows me to think clearly on organize my time efficiently.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
In the past couple of years, I’ve not only grown my illustration business but have helped create an architecture and design firm with one of my dearest friends. I’m proud of both because it hasn’t been easy, especially during a pandemic, where I felt both succeeded instead of failed.

I’m very excited to start creating bigger content as an illustrator (books and new characters), while be equally excited to expanding the architecture firm, bringing in bigger clients and growing our internal team.

Getting to where I am today had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of trial and error and a lot of picking myself back up and moving forward with confidence. I had to be okay with failure and realizing that success comes from failing forward. Understanding my mistakes and how to grow my confidence and my talent. I believe it was also my stubborn persistence to achieve exactly what I wanted and to create bigger goals along the way.

The above statement was one of my biggest lessons learned. As a perfectionist, I don’t accept failure in myself… however, realizing that I had to fail in order to learn and be better has taught me a lot about myself and about the businesses I’m involved in.

After understanding the balance of work and life and learning more about myself along the way, I’ve realized how much I want my character and personality to be seen in my work. As a brand, I think that’s important and also allows others to feel connected to my work as a whole.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in Portland, OR and my best friend lives where we grew up back in New York. I’d take them everywhere. A week is a long time to tackle Portland (but also not enough time at all!). I’d bring them out to the gorge and around forest park for some hiking adventures and make sure we bike the city and find a spot at overlook park for sunset. Enjoying all of the neighborhoods would be ideal. Each neighborhood has it’s perks. We’d check out all of the vegan restaurants, comic shops and record stores in Hawthorne, Division, St. John, NW and more. And lastly, Powells and a board game bar. Portland has so much to offer that just exploring each neighborhood and nook would snowball into other ideas and places to see.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have an absolutely amazing support system between my family, friends and co-workers. They always trust my decisions and give me confidence to follow my heart and my achieve my goals (which that I have many).

 x

Website: www.jenasinclair.com

Instagram: @jena_sinclair

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jena-sinclair-37b09524/

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