I’m joined by the incredible Jennifer Knight ~ creative entrepreneur, voice actor, rock singer, coffee company owner, and more!
What happens when you stop trying to fit in… and forge your own path?
Hey y’all, welcome to More Lovin, the podcast that brings more laughter, light, and love into everyday life. I’m your host LeAnn Austin, and together we’ll rediscover the beauty of connection to your body, your mind, your spirit, and the people you love.
Today’s episode #216: Forge Your Own Path with Jennifer Knight
I love observing and connecting with people who bring More Lovin into their lives and their relationships. It’s so inspiring to see how each person does it in their own way.
We have the incredible Jennifer Knight sharing some beautiful love and relationship insights with us today. Alright Jen, tell us a little bit about you.
Hi, I am so glad to be here LeAnn. I really appreciate you having me on. It’s so funny that use this to tell us about you because honestly, that’s one of the questions that is the hardest that for me to answer. Because a lot of times when we ask this question, we’re asking you know, like well, what do you do? Like, how can we put you in a context right?
And I do a lot of things, and so what I’ve kind of settled on is I’m a creative entrepreneur. You like that? I love that! Because it kind of am means I do a lot of stuff and frankly it is, you know, some of these things are a little random. I guess I should say first, I’m a mom of two teenagers and a wife, which is really fun. I live in the Napa Valley.
The things I do: I’m a voice actor. I voice mostly commercials, but I do a few video games and talking toys and some fun stuff, and some boring old, like corporate narration stuff. I’m a singer. I have a rock band, an original rock band called Mama Said, and we are releasing music currently from our second album now, which is very exciting.
I own a craft coffee company with my husband. We have a production facility and a roastery here in Napa. And then we also have a mobile truck and two coffee shops in wine country, one in Napa and one in Sonoma. And I’m our creative director, so that keeps me busy. And several years ago after experiencing so much transformation with life coaching, I decided to certify as a life coach myself. So I’m a life coach as well.
And that’s how, for your audience, how I know LeAnn, because we did a pretty life-changing, advanced certification and trauma-informed coaching, where I got to meet some amazing women and yeah, go deeper into that work, which is very satisfying as well. I love that.
Oh my goodness, creative entrepreneur. Is that what you said? Is that what you called it? Kind of. That’s what I’m going with: creative entrepreneur. There are so many amazing things in there Jen, I love that. Ah, beautiful. Well tell us, how do you bring more lovin into your life and businesses, and how has that impacted your relationships?
Okay. Such a good question. As I was thinking of this, I was thinking I consider myself a giver of permission. I like to encourage others and myself to really just go for it. Like whatever makes you feel most alive, I really love. Thinking about what is the fullest expression of myself and because, you know, I think that the world needs our fullest expression, and I think a lot of us play small.
So we have these sort of secret desires, like we know on some level that we’re meant for more, but we meet that with, you know, preconceived notions, our conditionings from childhood limiting beliefs, that sort of thing. Like we’re not enough. It’s too late, we’re not good enough, etc. But those voices are not necessarily telling the truth, right?
I believe that we are immensely capable and powerful when we are aligned with our true desires. And so that’s the love that I want to bring into the world. And so I try to do this with my personal relationship just by encouraging others, and also for the women that I coach.
And then I like to bring this message through my music. Like my band, we are in our fifties, we’re Gen Xers, right? We’re writing or releasing this, or original music and playing shows. And in a lot of ways, this doesn’t make sense, right? For sure the industry did not give us permission, like for women to be seen as powerful on stage, or to have a voice even, right?
So it takes a lot of courage to put myself out there. And I hope that other women will see me, see us out there and think, well if they can do it, maybe I can do it right? And so that we can start to just empower each other, seeing ourselves living bigger lives that just actualizing those secret desires.
You know, that’s really what I hope to bring and what our music is about too. Our music is about empowerment, self-actualization, radical self-love, right? But wrapped up in good old rock and roll, right? It is definitely like big alive, not take itself too seriously, rock music. So that’s kind of fun. That’s really how I like to bring more love. I love that and I love your music.
I’ve been blessed to hear you sing at the retreat that we were at, and I’m like, oh my goodness. Jen has the most beautiful voice and I love how you make it rock and roll and all the empowerment that you bring. So I highly recommend listening to her music and it’s amazing. So that’s very cool. Alright, so what is something you love about yourself and why?
I like that, at this time in my life, I’m a little bit of a rebel. I’m like a recovering rule follower, like that good girl pleaser. And I’ve really worked in my later years to forge my own path. Like, right now, I feel like finally I’m living life on my terms.
And it wasn’t always like that, right? I went to college and I went to grad school and I worked in healthcare for 15 years because that was sort of what was expected of me, and I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. Even though I felt much more of a creative calling to do something more creative.
So I kind of, you know, I went against myself in that way. Really wasn’t until my daughter was born in 2008 that, ’cause you know, when you bring a child into the world it kind of brings things into snaps, things into focus, right? So I realized and decided that trading time for money with a child at home, that wasn’t gonna be enough for me anymore, so just no longer acceptable.
So, because that was time away from her, right? So if I was gonna work, I was gonna have to do something that fed my soul. Right? So I left healthcare and I became a voice actor, which makes no sense. But I always thought I had this creative calling and I always loved commercials.
Like, I know that’s such a weird random thing. I just loved commercials. And when I had that moment where somebody gets paid to voice those commercials, right? Well, that could be me. Why not me? So that was sort of the beginning of me really listening to my own voice as opposed to the outside voices that can be, you know, really loud.
So I certainly had that voice, like, this is too risky. It’s too late. I’m too old. This doesn’t make sense. It’s too competitive and all of that stuff. But I just decided that I was going to be the fullest expression of myself. I decided I was willing to be seen trying. I was willing to be uncomfortable, and I was willing to be with myself through all of it, right?
I knew God loves me. I love me. I’m gonna be okay no matter what. The upside of that, you know, there’s been a lot of discomfort, you know, all of that too. But the upside of that is, you know, I’ve gotten to walk red carpets. I have my music. I get dms saying that my music has moved people from all over the world.
I’ve got to announce live, announce as a voice actor, a sitting president, like, and the vp and the last administration. I had a go-go play, play with my band, the drummer from the Go-go played a song with my band. So the upside is you have all these amazing experiences. So it’s worth it. Yes.
And I love that you love your voice and you were willing to be uncomfortable to share all this amazingness with the world, that is so tender. And it was a decision. Yes, because I decided I would stay, and it’s not always easy and sometimes I’m like, I’m crazy.
But it was definitely a decision that I have to recalibrate too. Periodically, you know, because it’s not always the fun stuff. So yeah, and being willing to feel that discomfort and the growth that has come because you’re willing to feel it. Yes, that’s incredible Jen. Yes, I love that. Cool, cool.
Alright, so what do you think about connection with others or yourself and anything come to mind with that? Yeah, I love this because this has been on my mind a lot. When I think about connecting with others and myself, the thing that comes up very strongly is unconditional love. God loves us unconditionally and that is so powerful and I wanna be more like that.
So it doesn’t mean that I don’t have boundaries, of course I do. But I grew up as a perfectionist and somehow along the road I learned that I had to earn love and be worthy of acceptance. It was always tied to performance, you know. So now in my life to experience unconditional love, like even when I’m doing it wrong, when I’m grouchy, when I’m not my best, I’m small, I’m, you know, acting from anxiety and fear. Even when I’m not awesome and I’m still loved, that is so incredibly powerful. That is the safety right? That is the force that allows us to be our best self, our most connected and our most guided. So, and I think that a lot of bad behavior, a lot of hurtful behavior stems from people feeling they don’t have love. They’re lonely. They don’t feel understood. They don’t feel connected. So I try to dish that out judiciously in my relationships personally. But I hope that really, that it moves the needle in a more global way.
There’s a lot going on. And a lot of people are scared and upset. And so I just think when I’m tempted to withdraw love, I think to myself, more love, not less. How can I be more curious, less judgmental and that’s my walking when it comes to that. I think it’s truly transformative. And when you’re the recipient of that. Oh my God, that’s so good. It feels great.
That’s amazing. Just the more lovin, I mean tying in, more lovin to all of these things. And I think that unconditional love, especially for ourselves, like you’ve shared that so beautifully. Growing up as a perfectionist and all these kinds of things, but willing to let that go and have unconditional love. Whatever we’re doing and whatever mess we’re in makes it so much easier to share that with others. Beautiful. Thank you, I like that.
Alright, anything else you wanna share? And where can our listeners connect with you or go to learn more about you? I am not above a shameless plug. Yeah, let’s do it. To connect with me. There’s a lot of places. Honestly, the best place where I changed my Instagram handle to Jennifer Knight with a K underscore HQ for headquarters, because that’s sort of where I funnel all of it.
So on Instagram: jennifer_knight_hq that’s where I post about anything that I’ve got going on, music, coffee coaching, voice acting. But if you wanna follow my band, which I highly recommend, you can go to mamasaidband.com or you can go to mamasaidbandnv that’s for Napa Valley on Instagram or Facebook.
And then we’re on Spotify. So go to Mama Said and listen to our music on Spotify. We’ve got a whole album called Change in the Weather, and then we’ve got two releases from our second album out there. OHM Coffee Roasters. If you are a coffee lover. You might wanna try ohm coffee. It’s OHM. Ohm is the measure of electrical resistance.
My husband is the roaster and founder, and he’s also the guitar player in the band. So he’s very into amplifiers, guitar, playing music, coffee, it all sort of is interwoven. So ohmcoffee.com, we ship everywhere in the US and you can find that on Instagram, Facebook, and at Ohm Coffee Roasters.
And I’m a voice actor. If anybody cares about that, you can find me at Jennifer Knight voice vo.com. And my coaching is JenniferKnightLifeCoach.com. And I’ll put all these in the show notes as well so people can find them. But I love that you have so many different things. I mean, it just shows that creative entrepreneurialness. Like doing all these amazing things. That’s so cool, Jen. Awesome. Thank you.
Alright, so what is your favorite quote about love and how has it shaped your life and relationships? Okay. It’s a long one. I have to read it. It’s by Rilke. I think I’m probably not pronouncing that correctly, but R-I-L-K-E.
It says: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves. Like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them now. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
And I just love that. That is beautiful. Live everything and live the questions now. Live the questions now because I had this notion that problems were problems and we need to solve them and we need to solve them now.
And that, you know, I very easily got into an activation of just fight or flight. Like we have to fix this, we have to figure it out. And I would spend, just there was a lot of ruminating and trying and urgent action and trying to fix things. But this quote sort of was the beginning of me living into the, oh, like first of all, creating solutions from the energy.
That created a problem like that’s not always the best place to solve things from that sort of anxious, frenetic energy. And to realize that I could just be with what is now. And accept that and allow that and see how that informs me and just to give it space.
That was really big for me ’cause I was very much a fixer and a doer. So I return to this quote when things are going wrong and remember that nothing’s gone wrong. There’s something for me in this now, even the question. And to live that question now and not try to rush into solving it. And being open and curious just to what is now, so that it was powerful for me as a young woman. And I’ve returned to it many times.
That is beautiful. I love that quote. And definitely something to think about, the nowness of it all, so awesome. Well thank you so much Jen, for sharing your love and your insights and all the amazing things you do with us today. So appreciate you.
You are appreciated too. Listen, we are so lucky to have your podcast, these little bites of inspiration and nuggets of transformation really. So thanks for all you do too LeAnn. Ah, bless you.
Well, here’s to unconditional love, forging your own path, connection, and More Lovin. Have a good one y’all.
Thanks for tuning in. If you are ready to take what we talk about here and make it personal, let’s work together one-on-one. I’ll help you calm your nervous system, strengthen your relationships, and create more loving, laughter and calm in your life. You can find all the details at leannaustin.com
Until next time, keep choosing fun, connection, and a whole lot More Lovin. Have a good one y’all.