Meet Jenn Halweil | Chief Story Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jenn Halweil and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jenn, why did you pursue a creative career?
I didn’t choose the artistic life; the artistic life chose me. I am actually a recovering electrical engineer with a focus on sustainability. I worked at the Department of Energy in FreedomCar (their alternative vehicle division) when Tesla launched, and advocated for the electrical vehicle infrastructure.

I then went to work for the biggest utility company in the country on renewable energy, as well as several high-growth, sustainability-focused startups. I transitioned out of that career because engineering is a discipline that deeply values efficiency, yet the process by which we do engineering is inefficient and hasn’t changed much in the last hundred years.

For me, it’s more interesting and impactful to problem solve on bringing non-technical audiences into innovation earlier in the process so engineering is more efficient, sustainable and diverse?

So I started organizing community events, and fell in love with entrepreneurship and media. In college, I started a nonprofit that organized eco-tech festivals in my hometown of Raleigh, N.C. We featured a sustainable fashion show, an alternative fuel vehicle showcase, an organic cook-off and showcased a slew of local vendors and musicians. The City of Raleigh ended up acquiring that event series and it’s still a recurring event on Hillsborough Street.

To promote the festival, my business partner Will McGuire (https://weagle.medium.com/) and I created a guerrilla commercial that we shot on the bridge overlooking downtown Raleigh. We threw some playful, fun old-school animations over it, and secured donated ad time to show the commercial during a major basketball tournament’s half-time. The video went so viral after it aired that (I’m dating myself here) my flip phone overheated because so many people were messaging excitedly about seeing the promo.

That’s when I realized you could plan an event and get tens of thousands of people to come OR you can spend that same amount of time capturing a story through media, and end up reaching exponentially more people – in the millions and billions. The content I’ve worked on has received over 5B+ views. That’s mind-blowing to me.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Every artist and creative entrepreneur struggles with how to keep going. There’s burnout, second-guessing, and long hours. And of course, we need money to survive. Money for a nonprofit is like oxygen: we need it to live.

It’s important to figure out creative ways to get meaningful stories funded. Right now we’re working on our pilot documentary series and podcast project, “Torch.” The first person we’ve filmed as part of this project was Lauren Kuntz (https://www.f6s.com/member/laurenkuntz#experience), who is a fellow sustainability-focused electrical engineer.

She was consistently the only woman in the room fighting for opportunities while she studied at MIT and Harvard. She coached the decathlon for men there, and yet she was told that because she’s a woman, she cannot compete in the decathlon. There is a women’s event, but it’s very different. When she was told she couldn’t be in the Icosathlon, she fought her way into it anyway, raised a sponsorship, paid to be in the Icosathlon – and won the world record.

Yet, they still wouldn’t let her into the race the next year. So she raised funds again – this time to launch her own Icosathlon. It was the world’s first gender-inclusive Icosathlon, which was really exciting because it let us see what it looks like in sports when men, women, intersex, transgender and gender-nonconforming people are able to compete together, side-by-side. We can ask: How do we bring out the best in each other while everyone is well-represented in a fair, fun competition?
It is immensely hard to tell this story. We pitched Lauren’s story to networks that all came back and said, “Women’s sports don’t sell.” “We can’t put ads against this.” “We can’t fund it.”

Everything Lauren heard at MIT and Harvard, we heard, too. Distributors come back and tell us, “We love this, we’re happy to put it on our sites for you and give you exposure, but we’re not going to pay you for it.”
Essentially, as a team of women producing the project, we’re being asked to work for free to make a documentary about equality in elite athletics. It’s ironic. Or is it? I need Alanis Morrisette to chime in here.
But I’m grateful my entrepreneurship gives me the ability to swing for the fences and tell stories that hopefully build a more inclusive future for everyone.

We’re creating an artistic movement with Theytriarchy. Outside of the t-shirt product line, we have candles (https://www.theytriarchy.org/shop/p/pegasus-candlemagenta), which feels appropriate at a time when the world could use a lot more light. It’s a visual representation of lighting the old narrative on fire and blazing a new path. This product line is how we are able to build a diverse and inclusive community. We’re growing and expanding beyond our initial launch, and finding fresh stories to tell.

Our designer for these products, Jennifer Tate (http://jennifer-tate.com/), is a friend I’ve known since college. We’ve been collaborating now for almost two decades and have created a deep, meaningful friendship. I have so much love and respect for her work as a designer, and it’s exciting to launch a product line with her: It’s a cool evolution and a great reminder of the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” I’m immensely grateful for my creative friends who have become my tribe.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m an introvert who fakes extroversion well, but honestly, give me a small crew on set, or better yet, some hiking trails and the Hollywood sign – it’s a cliche, I know, but there’s something about it, right? The perfect escape.

Running the Venice Beach boardwalk at sunrise is one of my favorite ways to start the day. It’s so peaceful, you get to see the world waking up.

I don’t really drink, so bars aren’t my jam. I love what’s happening with LA drinking culture and the rise of non-alcoholic options. There are amazing non-alcoholic drink companies popping up, like Sans by Taejin. Kevin Krieder (https://doyousans.com/about/), a roommate of mine in New York who also moved to LA, became a reality star and launched Sans, a new line of tasty N/A sparkling beverages.

As for food, I embrace LA food truck culture. There’s a small-town feel to it, in our world that’s getting more commercialized and franchised, food trucks are the last staple of local-owned, diverse food. The other cool thing I find fascinating about a lunch truck is this beautiful metaphor taught to me by my mentor CJ Meenan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cjmeenan/), who leads XP Startup Labs. He says that when you’re running your business and you’re thinking about marketing, you should ask yourself: Where do I park my lunch truck? Should I park my metaphorical lunch truck out in the middle of the suburbs? Or in a busy downtown hotspot packed with hungry workers waiting for an excuse to step outside and into the 72 degree LA weather to grab a bite?

I consider that metaphor whenever we’re creating content or scaling a new product offering. Virtually and digitally, where do I park my lunch truck? Where does my audience hang out? Where can I meet them at-scale?

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I love this question because a lot of our mythology and storytelling as a society is based around the myth of the self-made (wo)man, and many silly archetypes that foster unnecessary conflict. In reality, the world is much more nuanced, vibrant and diverse. I view my work as shifting our narratives from black-and-white to technicolor.

Success is very much a team sport. The reality is nobody is self-made. It took at least two people to make me (not counting grandparents and ancestors), and a whole village to raise me. My success is their success and vice versa.

I am very lucky to have been part of so many communities over the years that have supported me in the work that I’m doing. The one I’m grateful for right now is what we’re building with Theytriarchy (https://www.theytriarchy.org/) – a nonprofit that’s focused on more inclusive storytelling.

Our pilot project is a documentary about equality and elite athletics. We’re exploring the medium of sports as a visual metaphor for posing the question: how can we create not just healthier arenas but healthier societies?

What does healthy competition look like? We are looking to create a sustainable future where everyone, regardless of gender identity or ethnicity, has a level playing field where they can excel and inspire.

Plus Theytriarchy has some really cool swag (https://www.theytriarchy.org/shop). Right now, I’m all about the redefining minority t-shirt (https://www.theytriarchy.org/shop/p/minority-unisex-tee-in-black).

Website: www.theytriarchy.org

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theytriarchy-foundation/

Image Credits
1. Theytriarchy is redefining inclusivity.
2-6. Theytriarchy SWAG
7. Filming a science education pilot with Tamara Robertson (https://therealtamararobertson.com/) of MythBusters in Puerto Rico. 8. Interviewing Pardis Sabeti (https://www.sabetilab.org/pardissabeti/) on her research at the MIT / Harvard Broad Institute (https://www.broadinstitute.org/bios/pardis-sabeti) focused on infectious diseases and the microbiome.