Meet Jewel Hohman of Connection With Jewel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jewel Hohman.

Hi Jewel, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today. 
I got into self-help when I was like 13, and I was a self-help junkie! I was trying to figure out the “right” answer to being confident and successful. I thought that if I was perfect, if I was confident in social settings, if I said the right things, at the right time, in the right way, if I had all of these achievements… then I would feel good about myself. When in reality that was not the answer at all. The answer really relied on me. As I learned from Dr. Kristen Neff and Dr. Brene Brown, the answer really relied on being self-compassionate, accepting of myself, and being vulnerable. When I stopped trying to be perfect, I (ironically) became so much more confident and really increased my self-esteem. I did bold things. I lived out of my car for almost a year- drove around the country by myself. I spoke up. I laughed more often. I said the hard, vulnerable things to others. I did all of these BOLD things because I knew at the end of the day, I would be accepting of myself. When my friend group started to grow apart, I started researching the science of meaningful connection and friendship. Because I felt self-confident, I was able to apply the science for fulfilling, close friendships with EASE and JOY. Applying the science to friendship, I created the friend group of my DREAMS in the middle of the pandemic! People kept asking me how I did it! I saw such a need for friendship and connection coaching, so I went all in, and that is what I have been doing since! I love it. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of my biggest struggles along the way was social perfectionism. I was trying to be perfect in social settings. I would take people’s ambiguous expressions- a facial expression, a look, a small comment- and I would make it mean that I wasn’t fun or interesting enough. When I started embracing myself as socially imperfect, when I started being accepting of myself, my confidence grew dramatically. I started showing up more. I started sharing vulnerable stories, and I put myself out there. I reached for opportunities. I tried new things. I found my own voice in my messaging. I was rejected over and over, but I also grew my business massively because I was willing to be imperfect! I was able to keep putting myself out there because I treated myself lovingly when I was rejected or embarrassed. I no longer made other people’s reactions to me my problem. This freedom to be myself helped me grow my business MASSIVELY. Another obstacle I came up against was trying to figure out “the right way” to do business. There are many people out there saying “this is the way to do it” or “you have to do this to be successful”. Trying to figure out the “right” way to grow my business had me confused, overwhelmed, and not taking a lot of action. When I really connected to how I wanted to do business, taking action got so much easier. Learning about how I wanted to do business gave me so much clarity and empowered me. From knowing what I truly wanted for my business, it was easier to find mentors that reflected my values and desires. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
I help people feel so good about themselves and create meaningful connections through one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and retreats. At the end of the day, I helping people create more meaningful connections! Whether that be in social settings, in their relationships or especially in their friendships, and more meaningful connected to themselves! I’m a very big advocate for friendships, and I have studied it extensively. I think friendship is really important and oftentimes overlooked. I love helping people create more meaningful friendships, but I also LOVE helping clients just be more of their authentic selves and ENJOY IT. My clients become more of their authentic selves and have more meaningful interactions. They actually want to hang out with people rather than be in their heads, overthinking social interactions and beating themselves up. 

I help people through a trauma-informed and evidence-based lens. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of self-help out there that hasn’t been fact-checked and is just someone’s idea. I pride myself on using research that is currently available to us to help people feel good about themselves and more connected in their lives. I deeply believe this is why my clients get such amazing results and why I get so many referrals from them! Further, there is no other program out there that helps people with confidence in social settings, that helps people with their relationship with themselves and their emotions, and that helps people have meaningful friendships. There’s not another program out that helps with all of these things, is trauma-informed, and uses evidence-based practices. 

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
There are two qualities that have been instrumental for my success. The first one is emotional management. I don’t think a lot of people know how much time management involves emotional management. Doing the uncomfortable things, managing overwhelm- all of these things that impact your time have to do with how you manage your emotions. I have ADHD, so emotional management is really important for me to start initiating tasks. Again, that’s why self-compassion is so key! The more compassionate I am with myself, the more I do what I need for my business. It’s so much easier to motivate myself when I’m like, “Okay, girl, of course, you have been a little distracted, no problem.” When I compassionately manage my emotions, it’s easier for me to get things done. The second thing and this is really again for my ADHD friends, is essentialism. My brain naturally has a really hard time with prioritizing. I can have so many ideas and want to do so many things. For me, I need to focus on what are the essentials to create what I want this month, this week, today. Breaking it down into essentials and focusing on them has been really helpful to me. The last quality I would say here is using a mindset and a strategy that really works for me. I think sometimes people try to go all strategy, or they try to go all mindset, but I believe the two work together like pedals on a bike. For example, my mindset about how so many people want help with their friendships fuels my lead generation strategy. 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectionwithjewel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifecoachjewel
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jewel-hohman-115b001b0
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfIq7WLVogjzA-ATf-XMntA

Image Credits
Maddie Auberle
Nashville Photowalk