Hello. Enchanté.

 
 
 
 

Founder’s Summary Profile

Jennie Souiade is the Founder and CEO of Magentic, a creative transformation agency that expertly guides brands to a place of authentic alignment and identity with end-to-end creative direction. She previously served as an International Art Director at leading global advertising agencies (Saatchi & Saatchi in Singapore & McCann in Paris) and as a Director and Creative Leader with two east-coast tech startups.

Jennie believes in leading with kind compassion. The depth of energy that she extends to her clients is built on a foundation from big, international experiences, paired with midwestern roots and humble startup grit. Balancing life and work with three beautiful young kids, her yogini serenity is practiced and her patience is proven (yet ever-challenged).

Jennie serves as an expert in helping brands filter through the process of decision-making. With shrewd, big-picture vision and meticulous craft, she’s here to take you on, whatever your scope or pace (within reason). After collaborating with you on your goals, she'll name or rename your company, create your logo, craft your website experience, project-manage your offshoot startup-company from your 100-year-old growth-plateaued company, or run an introspectively inspiring values workshop for your organization's ever-evolving culture — Jennie and her team work with you to create magnetic brand resonance, so every expression of you and your company ripples out with clear, conscious energy.

“When we are in alignment with ourselves, decisions become simple. We flow. You can start by asking questions of yourself: Is this in line with my integrity? Does this support my mission? Will this make me feel good? When we are guided by a focused vision, a clear trajectory opens to accelerate our path and empowers our force of good. Authentic alignment begins within. The space we create for you to bravely dive in isn’t just magnetic, it’s Magentic.” — Jennie Souiade


An Interview with Jennie Souiade

Jennie Souiade, Founder of Magentic

Jennie Souiade, Founder of Magentic

Why Magentic?

The company or the name? For the company, our goal is to help you dig deep, discover your vision/mission, clearing the way from anything that isn't with values. We help you create strategies to shoot for your stars with presence, to make conscious choices along your path, and to guide you with purpose to fulfill your purpose.

Our work is a creative and strategic mix of branding, advertising, startup consulting and life coaching. At the core, we use our expertise with creativity and branding on a surface level to make awesome brands and the whole 9 yards. But we also work on a deeper level—inward, on the truest form of what informs a purpose, a brand, a persona, a person, and a journey—and that’s the transformational work we love to do with and for our clients. Oftentimes, life and business are so intertwined, so when everything aligns—and flows—it's so lovely, really. I’ll send you a talk I did.

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WHAT’S IN The name?

Magentic plays with three meaningful words and ideas: magenta, majestic, and magnetic. There's a little hint of magic in there too. I can go deeper, but that's good for now. People often mistake it for “magnetic”—and while the energy is magnetic, the brand is Magentic (gesturing underlines).

Biggest Challenge?

Transformation only occurs if people are willing to be transformed, in and of oneself; in and of an organization, etc. So if someone comes and kind-of wants to transform, it'll only kind-of work. I’ll sense the inauthenticity, which tests my patience. I’ll likely move on when our contract is up.

If and once you're open though, you're on your way—the flow gets faster, and things begin to click. That's my favorite part—it's magical. That's when Magentic can guide the craft (design, write, deliver) all the collateral around you, to support you, so that it's easier to stay aligned inside and out. Craft is our ‘grounded’ competency.

Transformation, especially toward transcendence, is an 'all-in' experience. We help people commit to themselves along the way. For me, I know shifts—as subtle as they may be—can feel like whiplash. Some clients even joke, like “buckle up”! I feel its shocking acceleration sometimes too. I’ve learned to embrace it, really, buckling myself into it to help me hold on. We try to pace it as gracefully as we can—yet, we’re on our own journey too.

My goal with Magentic is to hold the space for founders to feel safe and supported with gentle guidance so they can transcend themselves to deliver the positive evolution of future societies and experiences with deep integrity.

Why you?

Haha, why not? I think my stars aligned for this kind of thing. My family tree is full of ambitious entrepreneurs—risk-takers who creatively exercised their freedom and flow as business-owner to bring win-win situations to life—pickle-makers, plumbers, architects, educators… Each taking a stand to empower people beyond themselves.

My background in international advertising agencies is my true foundation and a source of credibility, for others as well as myself—I worked at Saatchi & Saatchi in Singapore and McCann in Paris before I started working in-house at startups in Boston and New York. Each place taught me. Together, my career is intentionally atypical.

My collection of work experiences gives me the fundamentals to deconstruct a product to find the 'unique selling point' or the true essence of why a particular product might exist; And then to create a brand around the truth, that's what I liked. I really lit up when I got to work on stuff that had deeper purpose and greater impact, like birth control and family planning in APAC. Or aligning the clients’ Cheerios team around the world on its brand.

Now, I get to work with companies to dive deeper and make an impact (draws an infinity sign in the air)—it’s a virtuous cycle of brand and business equity through deep branding. It’s great. I really love the work I get to do.

Magentic is the manifestation of my life's purpose as a mission.

So, what kind of work do you create?

Beyond creating ‘transformation’ in the businesses, brands, and the individuals we works with—in the more grounded sense, I deliver high-quality creative craft to support the brand and business mission and magnet.

As an executive creative director—or depending on the levels of the clients I’m collaborating with, a chief creative consulting officer—(raises eyebrows in a silly way) fun and fancy. Ha. As an ECD, I hire, or help hire, and then guide creative agencies, creative directors, designers, writers, data, and other specialist partners to facilitate creative flow for our clients to increase the brand magnet. Ideally, we’re making “slow brand” stuff that lasts.

Who are your favorite clients?

Seekers. Founder-led companies willing to evolve within themselves and their cultures with thoughtful intention, utmost integrity, and transcendent vision are my favorite—especially if their VCs are aligned on their long term success so I can hone the ‘deep brand: magnetic field creation’, or they’re privately held and profitable.

Sweet Spots:
I love working with mature companies that have reached a growth plateau and are looking for a fun spark to create some sizzle again. Working with wise, seasoned professionals is fun when there’s hunger for innovation.

I love helping Series B companies pitch and prepare for the rapid-scale of hyper-growth with new—hopefully well-aligned—Series-C VC funding. I’m especially helpful to French tech startups gearing up to go to market in the USA—guiding clear communication with smooth enthusiasm.

When I started, I wanted to offer individuals or small businesses anything a ‘big-brand’ could get (and does) without the need for a mega-budget. Magentic creates brands from scratch. Clients come with fuzzy ideas they have been rolling around for years without knowing how to bring it to life. Magentic is a catalyst in those cases.


What’s your favorite thing to do?

I love how we love exploring the thought-processes, learning and asking questions (that often shake things up) to get to a point where we, Magentic, can see enough of what a client sees, and crystallize or clarify their vision into something that’s real—shareable with others. Then, we deeply align the brand and products or services internally and externally, strategically, culturally, commercially, and competitively viably (often through informal ‘mvp’ style testing). We refer to this process and goal as “deep branding”.

I love to be able to offer my expertise, attention and guidance—as well as my humility. When I don’t know something, I’ll tell you, and then depending on what you want to do, I’ll either I’ll find out myself, ask someone who does know, or pull them into the project for extended services. You’ll hear me say this a lot, it’s all about win-win-win-win-win for me… as many wins for as many people and entities as we can string together, the better.

Above all, my joy is guiding people to discover their own creativity and supporting them in their own process of (re)branding or (re)defining themselves, or evolving their entire companies—whatever that may look like—with purpose, vision, and integrity.

So you’ve got three kids and a company, how do you seem so zen?

(Laughs.) Mmm. You know, almost everyone asks me this. Practice? When in alignment, everything feels playful and easy—and that’s the goal, for everything. Alignment is the ultimate comfort, though that word ‘comfort’ may be misleading. It’s is comfortable because it's 'right'. It's easy, because I'm not fighting ‘myself’, I’m flowing—I’m ‘in’ the flow with something greater than me, or my energy alone. ‘Comfort’ or ‘ease’ don’t mean that I don’t have difficult conversations, or that I never feel crazed, overtired or whatever—au contraire—it means I do my best to flow right into them and in doing so, release any tension before it actually builds up. In theory. Home-schooling during the quarantines was a great way to practice my ‘zen’—and build out a bigger team for Magentic, fast.

After the pandemic, I needed to cool everything down a little, but that turned into signing myself up for a 200hr RYT yoga teacher training with a focus on the yogic philosophy. Taking that training helped put many of the ah-ha discoveries I’d cultivated on my own into a beautiful organization system for deeper comprehension, contemplation, and connections. (lilaflow.com—awesome YTT program btw—one of my childhod bffs founded it: Taryn!)

My kids are three of my greatest teachers. I learn from them every day, and they often teach me things about myself through their reflections of me, and my behaviors with them. I heard once that if you’re the parent you want to be at least 50% of the time, your kids will know the difference. Being able to be intentional in those moments matters—like when my son pulled a dozen eggs off the counter into a splatter on the floor, I didn’t scold him. I asked him how the eggs felt and described textures. Meanwhile, my girls had climbed onto the counter cracking up and ‘ewwing’ at the sliminess of the mess. I videoed it too, and I so glad I did—it’s become one of our kids’ favorite home videos and memories. So it’s those moments, when the “eggs hit the floor” that happen at home and in business—and there’s always a choice of how to respond. I’d rather learn and laugh.

What does alignment bring to you?

Presence. Peace. Magical moments. Flow. And cashflow. All-in-due-time-patience.

I’ve always been laser-focused—like, almost weirdly so. I can envision the future, in a way that’s so real. A multitude of possibilities. And I get to choose which one to experience with my body by being intentional. It’s not just that I feel compelled to reel it in, it’s a gift to get to.

I use alignment as a long-term tool combining all of my experiences and passions and lets me funnel my energy into me the stuff that truly matters to me, so I get to work on, do, and play with more of that stuff. And then, every day, I get to focus on bringing value to others in a unique and meaningful way—how cool is that?! 

By staying within integrity with myself, I get to evolve my dreams—future realities—and reel them into reality.

Are you always in alignment?

[Laughs]. No. I'm a work in progress. We are all works in progress. The notion that anyone would expect anyone, including themselves, to be anything all of the time—it’s just not human, or healthy.

When I’m not in alignment, for me, it’s usually becasue I’m not setting proper, authentic boundaries—I notice because things start to feel overwhelming, heavy, or just plain un-fun. Plus, motherhood and creating this company keeps me on my toes—I’m dancing to find my next step, all the time.

Here’s a tip for how I realign myself: when I notice my mis-alignment, I calmly thank myself—practicing gratitude, speaking kindly to myself—for the opportunity to choose to reset my intentions, or to release my fears until I know they’re founded… then I move on to whatever’s next!

I am in charge of setting myself up for success, and that means making sure I have the tools and skills to take charge of my life. If I’m ever unsure, I’ll ask. If I can absorb more knowledge, I’ll read—if I still need more help, I’ll enroll in a class, or hire someone with an expertise I don’t have or ’need’. (I saw need with air quotes because in those cases I do need the results, but I don’t need to do it myself.)

For instance, when I started Magentic, I was anxious about taking on the responsibility of starting a company on my own because I'd literally be responsible for everything—at least at first—and I am not an expert in everything [laughs], but the finances and accounting scared me the most. So, I enrolled myself in the hardest Financial Accounting class I could find and easily do expeditiously—so I enrolled at Wharton, on Coursera—to prove to myself that I was capable. I passed. I’m still no expert, but I stepped through my fear and moved on. Haha. And the most important lesson is that I learned is that I need a good accountant!

Touché. What do you love the most?

“There’s magic in the mundane” —Jennie Souiade

“There’s magic in the mundane” —Jennie Souiade

Okay, I’ll play! Love? Life. People. My family. Creativity. Possibility. The magic in the mundane… yeah…

People are ever-evolving. The way I see it is that we are always a version of ourselves, and we are all reflections of our the stories we tell ourselves. The world sees us on the outside how we see ourselves on the inside, what we choose to reflect in each moment.

I’m reading a book (Your Brain is a Time Machine, The Neuroscience of Physics and Time, by Dean Buonomano) and it talks about ‘presentism’ versus ‘eternalism’ — that kind of stuff is my jam!

I love thinking about quantum physics, neuroscience, the Universe, and how people are so small yet so big. I get to reflect the life I want to create for myself, and facilitate creative flow for others! It’s a joy!

This question wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t reiterate how crazy I am about my family. My kids teach me my greatest lessons—in life, in creativity, love, my truth—they’re my gurus. My husband too—he grounds me, in a good way. He’s an ISTP and I’m an ENFJ. Along those lines, an astrologist in India once told me that based on our stars at birth, we would either be a terrible match, or a very challenging growth-opportunity for each other—we’re still… well, usually… the latter.

I also love to listen to the whispers of intuition—gentle whispers. And I do have to credit Oprah for that beautiful way of putting it… “whispers”. Mmmmmm. Even though my kids are already too cool, if you were a fly on my wall, you’d hear me belt out Frozen II’s “Into the Unknown” when I need to give myself an existential push. Ha!

And freedom—though it’s not really ‘free’. I appreciate the freedom I feel which comes from my grit, due diligence, creating and following a structure, practicing boundaries—it’s not always easy, but it’s pretty rewarding. It’s all about presence. And, I acknowledge the privileges I’ve had in my life, through traumas and all.

Parting thoughts?

Well, first, thank you for this interview. It’s been fun. Hmm.

Everyone is creative. Everyone. We are all the creative directors of our lives. We get to choose. So, choose.

In being bravely authentic, we transform ourselves, each other, society. We transform together. And we support each other. Right? In doing this, in creatively transforming with intentional choices, we choose how we feel, we choose what we do, how we respond, the energy and the magnet that we put out into the world to attract that magnetic match. Okay. So, now we've got people in alignment with themselves, with their goals, and practicing living life in a whole new way—love abounds! Literally, this is how we shift into the abundance mindset. Magentic encourages evolutions, gracefully guides awakening true purpose—whether within a project, a corporation, organization, brand, or within a human. Once aware of awareness, presence to make conscious choices with creative alignment becomes easy—we're alive, manifesting a better path, for ourselves, for all.

Creativity is pretty spectacular.

indeed. Thank you.

Haha, thank you! 

 

Speaker Videos of Jennie Souiade

a personal transformation story (7 minUTES)

“Creativity is Eternal”, Jennie Souiade | Founder & Creative Director, Magentic

 

A QUICK PERSPECTIVE ON PATIENCE (3.5 MINUTES)

“Jennie Souiade On Patience” | For the One Club For Creativity’s “One Creator Lab”