The Bold Lounge

Jenny Wood: The 9 Bold Traits to Free Your Wild Courage

Leigh Burgess Season 1 Episode 147

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About This Episode

Would you ever chase a stranger off the subway? That's exactly what Jenny Wood did, and it changed her life forever. This stranger became her husband and the experience became a powerful metaphor for embracing what she calls "wild courage," the ability to take bold action despite our deepest fears. During her 18 years at Google, Jenny Wood grew from entry-level to executive leadership, running operations teams that drove billions in annual revenue. The heart of Jenny's philosophy is her framework of nine counterintuitive traits: weird, selfish, shameless, nosy, obsessed, manipulative, brutal, reckless, and bossy. These deliberately provocative terms represent qualities we're taught to suppress, especially women. Jenny brilliantly reclaims these traits, showing how embracing the right version of each empowers us to achieve extraordinary results. Whether you're considering a career pivot, seeking promotion, or simply want to live more boldly, this episode will give you the tools to embrace your own wild courage.

 

About Jenny Wood

In her 18 years at Google, Jenny Wood grew from entry-level to executive, and she most recently led a large operations team that helped drive billions of revenue per year. In 2021, she started a passion project within Google called Own Your Career, which grew to one of the largest career development programs in Google’s history. Through the program she founded, she has trained tens of thousands of people on: acing a job search, building relationships, personal branding, effective email writing, landing the right mentor, maximizing workplace influence, and most importantly, increasing confidence. Jenny’s writing has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes. She is an FAA-licensed private pilot, a daily hiker, an improv student, a tap dancer, and a zucchini bread connoisseur. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her two young children and her husband, Jon. She met Jon by chasing him off the NYC Subway, and the New York Times featured their story.

 

Additional Resources

Website: itsjennywood.com

Check Out Her Book, Wild Courage 

Instagram: @itsjennywood

LinkedIn: @JennyWood

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