Jo Dee Jacob - From Navy Blue to Girl Scout Green

Today’s guest on the podcast is Jo Dee Jacob. A Stanford Graduate and a Commanding officer of the US naval station in Guam, Jo Dee has accomplished many astounding feats in her life. Graduating from Stanford in the 1970’s in the heat of the Vietnam War and facing a tough job market, Jo Dee decided to join the Navy and stayed there for 27 years doing a wide variety of work. After her time in the Navy, she was recruited to head one of the most well-known non-profits, the Girl Scouts here in San Diego as CEO. Amongst many other accomplishments, she was able to organize one of the most impactful campaigns, Operation Thin Mint, where she, together with her Girl Scouts have been able to ship millions of boxes of cookies to troops overseas. 

 

I had the pleasure of having Jo Dee as my professor here at UCSD and was able to get together with her at our Rady School of Management to do the interview. This being my first in-person interview, I am not going to lie that I was a bit nervous in the beginning. However, once the interview started flowing, I was able to get more into a rhythm and Jo Dee’s answers were priceless so I really recommend listening to this one through. In this interview, we talk about how to deal with change, how to overcome and face rejection, how to be a successful leader and much more. So without further ado, I introduce to you, Jo Dee