About Me

Welcome to Jump Start Your Joy®!

This site has been my online home since 2015, and before that I blogged at a site called Welcoming Spirit. It’s my mission to bring more joy to the world, and I do that on my podcast each week, and help small businesses share their unique, game changing message with the world through podcasting.

I’m a student of joy, a mom, a wife, a dog owner.

For over 20 years I managed big digital marketing projects at various advertising agencies, and loved doing that until I didn’t anymore. I loved the chase, the pitch, and creating new things out of thin air. I came to have a hard time with the micro-managing, big egos, and long hours spent crafting things that never saw the light of day.

After the birth of my son, it hit me that somewhere along the way I’d lost MY dream. At the time, I was leading retreats “on the side.” And it hit a point where it was no longer acceptable to me to be talking about spirituality and finding your purpose on the weekends, just to walk back into an ad agency on Monday and throw my energy behind selling car products, bleach, flu medicine, or making white papers for a consultancy group. I wanted more. More woo, more alignment, more time for myself, more of a focus on what would ultimately change the world: JOY.

“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy, and keep choosing it, every day.” – Henri Nouwen

The other foundational piece of my history is that after the birth of my son, which was 56 hours of labor, and ended in an unplanned C-Section, I was diagnosed with PTSD. It was a fight to find help. It was a fight to believe in myself enough to get help. It took all that I had to believe I would get to the other side of it, and feel like me again. I did it by choosing joy. By choosing to be the mom I knew I could be, and by choosing each day to show up in a way that felt good. There are still days that feel harder than hell and I have to remember to choose joy again and again and again. Joy is a practice. Joy is a muse. Joy saved me. My son and my family saved me. I saved me.

In 2015, I got certified as a life coach and started my podcast. Joy called back out to me, and something in the Universe asked me to start a show that would talk about joy being a choice, and that would give the stories of people choosing joy a place to live. If the show touches one life, if it reminds one person of their own divinity, and to keep going, keep fighting, it’s done it’s job. The show is here to remind people that you are in choice, that you can do things that feel hard, and that if you point yourself towards joy and contentment, you can find your way there. I am proud of the show and I love doing it.

These days, I’ve left the 9 to 5 job and I work from home, producing podcasts and providing marketing consulting for businesses. In addition to my show, I produce three super amazing podcasts that also bring joy to the world in their own way.

I do look back with a smile to the girl I was, before school, before perfectionism and over achievement became too familiar … and I remember the time when someone asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Her answer? “Happy.” I know she’s smiling and delighted by what we’ve built together.

I believe in you. You’re a spitfire. I see that amazing part of your soul that’s just waiting to be set free.

If you’d like to work together to find your joy, or to create your show that will change the world – let’s do it!.

 

And, the official sounding, third person bio, in case that’s what you’re looking for: 

Paula Jenkins is a certified life coach, and host of the popular podcast, Jump Start Your Joy ™.  Her mission is to bring more joy into the world through coaching, podcasting, and helping others create podcasts to share their voice. Jump Start Your Joy™ launched in 2015, and has been on iTunes New & Noteworthy, What’s Hot and bounces around the Top 200 under Personal Journals.  After receiving her Master’s degree in Religion from Yale University, Paula was a project manager for 20 years in the digital marketing space for big clients like Clorox, Visa, Genentech, Xbox, Robert Half, and Chevron Federal Credit Union.  She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Sean the Chef, their 9 year old son, and their friendly rescue chihuahua-mix named Chewbacca Baloney Jenkins (who goes by Chewie).

Jump Start Your Joy Trademark
Jump Start Your Joy® is a registered trademark that is protected by trademark law. Paula Jenkins claims ownership and authority over the Jump Start Your Joy trademark EVEN IF NO (R) SYMBOL IS DISPLAYED. The Jump Start Your Joy Trademark can only be used with the express permission of Paula Jenkins, and such permission must be offered in writing prior to use. Utilizing the name or images that display the registered trademarks without express permission from Paula Jenkins is prohibited. Usage includes derivations of the name such as Jumpstart Your Joy, Jump-Start Your Joy.

Want to binge listen … here ya go!