Leading Through Empowerment: How Jamie Gabriel Helps People Discover Their Strength and Step Into Their Potential
Some leaders measure success by the positions they hold, the teams they manage, or the results they deliver. Jamie Jamie measures it differently. For her, leadership begins with service, growth, and the belief that people often need someone to help them recognize what is already within them.
That philosophy took shape early. Growing up around her parents’ limousine business, Jamie watched them create comfortable, clean, welcoming environments while paying close attention to what their customers needed. Those experiences quietly shaped her understanding of leadership as an act of service. Later, at 16, her first manager at Wendy’s reinforced that lesson by investing time in developing her natural ability to serve others while teaching her the fundamentals of operations. Those early experiences became the foundation for a career spanning multiple industries and a leadership philosophy centered on empowerment, self-awareness, and continuous development. Today, as an Operations Plant Manager and through her work with W.O.V.E.N., Jamie continues to help people build confidence, understand their purpose, and create lives and careers that reflect who they are.
A Leadership Philosophy Rooted in Service
Long before Jamie held formal leadership responsibilities, she learned what it meant to help others through even the smallest acts of service. As an elementary school safety guard, she secured the office door, assisted children with special requirements, and helped teachers with daily tasks. What might have seemed like simple responsibilities became an early lesson in showing up for others with a cheerful heart.
That servant mentality stayed with her throughout her professional journey. Her career has taken her through limousine services, fast food, retail, insurance, automated time and attendance, manufacturing, building materials, and her own businesses. She does not see those transitions as disconnected experiences. Each one offered something to learn.
“I propose to be a lifelong student and learner,” she explains, emphasizing that growth comes from remaining open to lessons from those she leads, her peers, and those she reports to.
That mindset has helped her move through unfamiliar environments without losing sight of her core values. She describes herself as a “chameleon,” someone who can adapt when necessary while still standing confidently in her own uniqueness. For Jamie, career development is not something to rush. It is something to curate over time, absorbing the lessons offered by people and experiences along the way. The process can bring challenges and uncertainty, but those experiences become part of the education.
Helping Others Grow Through W.O.V.E.N.
Jamie’s commitment to helping people discover their potential eventually developed into Women Of Virtue Eliminating Negativity, or W.O.V.E.N.
The idea began during a 2017 conference called “Who Am I?” Jamie was already involved in speaking events focused on women supporting women when she realized the work could become something broader. The word WOVEN came to her, and after reflecting on its meaning, she began developing the concept.
W.O.V.E.N. became a platform designed to encourage people to eliminate negativity, build one another up, share experiences, and create environments where growth is possible. The organization later evolved through the “Fix Your Crown” initiative, which focuses on what Jamie calls the five areas of “crown of life” balance: mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, and financial wellbeing. Her philosophy is that these areas are interconnected. When one becomes severely misaligned, the effects can eventually appear elsewhere, including in professional performance.
“I know all too well how spiralling out of control in either your personal or professional life has a direct impact on the other,” she says.
That understanding has influenced the way Jamie approaches leadership and coaching. She does not begin by telling people what they should do next. She believes in understanding where they are first.
Finding the Person Behind the Career
One of Jamie’s strongest beliefs is that career development cannot be separated from personal development. People may feel stuck, lack confidence, or struggle to recognize their own potential because they have lost sight of themselves. Low self-esteem, difficult experiences, unhealthy environments, and neglected areas of personal wellbeing can all affect how someone shows up professionally. For Jamie, the first step is understanding purpose.
“People are not looking to be told where to go,” she explains. “They want others that can help them to understand where they are right now and the steps that will support them.”
Her approach is deeply personal. She encourages people to examine their experiences, understand their natural abilities, reflect on what they want, and create a roadmap based on who they are rather than trying to follow someone else’s path. Solitude also plays an important role. Jamie distinguishes solitude from simply being alone. For her, it is intentional time to think, process, reflect, and create space for personal clarity. That practice became especially important after she experienced a major period of burnout that affected her health. The experience became a wake-up call, forcing her to recognize that she could not continue pouring into everyone else without taking care of herself.
The lesson became both personal and professional: self-work is not selfish. It is foundational.
Empowerment Begins With Ownership
For Jamie, empowerment is not something people should wait to receive from others. She remembers a period in her own life when she was waiting for others to empower her, only to realize that she already possessed the ability to empower herself. Through journaling, self-talk, reflection, and learning to control what she could control, she began developing greater confidence in her own decisions.
That realization now informs the way she leads others. In the workplace, she believes empowerment and autonomy can transform a team. When employees feel trusted to take ownership of meaningful work, they gain confidence and begin discovering abilities they may not have recognized before.
The same philosophy shapes her approach to succession planning. Jamie believes leaders should identify team members’ strengths and give them opportunities to lead projects. The result is not only stronger performance, but greater ownership and a stronger pipeline of future leaders. A leader, in her view, should not feel threatened when someone on the team becomes stronger. The opposite should be true. When people grow, the organization grows with them.
Creating Space for the Next Generation
Jamie’s commitment to empowerment extends beyond professional environments. Through her support of EMIY, or Encourage Me I’m Young, she has also focused on helping young boys and teens develop confidence, leadership skills, and positive direction. She believes adults must remember what it was like to be young. The way adults speak to young people can influence how those young people see themselves for years. Jamie emphasizes listening without judgment, asking open-ended questions, providing safe spaces, and giving young people opportunities to assume leadership roles.
Small responsibilities can become important confidence-building experiences. When young people are trusted with meaningful roles, they begin to understand that their voice and contribution matter. For Jamie, empowerment is not limited by age, gender, career stage, or environment. It is a human need.
The Courage to Believe in Yourself
Perhaps the most personal lesson Jamie has carried through her career is the importance of having faith in herself. That faith encouraged her to pursue roles and industries where women were not always commonly represented. It also helped her step into positions that initially made her uncomfortable. She recalls one newly created position that she had originally recommended but did not want for herself. When another person took the role and the arrangement did not work, Jamie eventually accepted the challenge. The transition brought uncertainty, reflection, prayer, and sleepless nights, but she ultimately rose to the occasion.
The experience reinforced something she now teaches others: sometimes confidence comes after you take the step, not before.
“Faith in oneself is mission critical,” she says.
That belief is closely connected to her broader philosophy of self-fullness: investing time and energy into oneself so that what is built internally can eventually overflow into the lives of others.
A Different Way Forward
For anyone feeling stuck or uncertain about what comes next, Jamie offers a practical starting point: take inventory. Look at the people around you. Examine your environment. Ask what is happening internally and externally. Identify what is creating hesitation and determine whether the obstacle is a lack of knowledge, confidence, support, or simply the wrong opportunity. She also advocates journaling and intentional reflection, particularly in a world where people often feel pressured to accomplish everything immediately. Not every dream needs to be announced before it has had time to grow. Sometimes the next step becomes clearer when the noise is reduced and thoughts are put on paper.
Jamie’s own journey reflects that philosophy. From a childhood shaped by service, through a diverse professional career, to leadership, mentoring, W.O.V.E.N., and community work, her path has never been about following one predetermined route. It has been about learning, adapting, serving, and helping others do the same. Her message is simple: people are capable of more than they sometimes believe. With self-awareness, the right support, intentional growth, and faith in themselves, they can begin moving toward it.
For Jamie, the most meaningful part of that journey is not reaching the destination alone. It is helping others discover their own strength along the way.
