How trainer Jessica Tangelder is helping entrepreneurs to give their best

Jessica Tangelder has never shied from experimenting, and then experimenting some more when she found herself not enjoying what she was doing.

Born and brought up in Amsterdam, she literally lives on an island in the centre of Amsterdam called ‘Prince Island’. She grew up in two different houses, her mother’s and her father’s. When she was five, her mum was single while her dad was living with his girlfriend.

As a child she chose to be happy, even when circumstances were not. When there was trouble at home, she would withdraw into her ‘Amelie’ (a French movie) world, an imaginary world she shared with her stepsister. “We would go on adventures and build our own stories,” she says.

A very active young girl, Jessica had a penchant for causes and could not stand injustice in her life, towards her family or the environment. From feeding abandoned donkeys, and saving love-beetles from drowning in the ocean to washing cars for money so her sister could afford her ‘teenage’ holidays, and buying her mum the newest vacuum cleaner from all her savings—Jessica did it all.

Currently, she is a trainer. “I train and facilitate emerging entrepreneurs and startups in which I really focus on their mindsets. I believe when your mindset is in place your behavior will be dependent on that and this will turn out to be an effective product or service which will be beneficial for the market.”

She is running Host2transform.com, an online and in person program that transforms co-workers into a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem as well as the Global Entrepreneurial Minds.com, an accelerator program that helps emerging entrepreneurs and startups to tap into their full potential.

Jessica’s programs for entrepreneurs are a result of her own personal journey and the learnings and experiences she has gained from it. HerStory spoke with Jessica to know more about her life and journey and what brings her to India.

Formative years

In the final years of secondary school, which she found tedious, she moved to an adult (evening) program. She found it motivating and saved a year by completing two years of learning in one. This was a personal accomplishment she found hard to believe. So before she joined university she decided to treat herself to a year in Australia.

It was my second time in a plane, first time by myself, to the other side of the world. This international adventure was the best thing that happened to me. I had complete freedom and suddenly I had all the time in the world to work on my own beliefs, values and challenges. At home there was often so much distraction and negativity, in both house holds, I felt there was little space for ‘me’.

Australia was a great experience. From her first experience of reaI love with a woman, to working in the local community centre to studying English at LA Trobe University or buying a car with her friends and girlfriend and travelling across the country.

“The latter was a life changing experience. Camping here and there, not planning, perceiving the day as it comes was so much fun!”

University days

In 2003 she went to do a Bachelors in Sociology from Utrecht and while there, she experimented with other modules in Liberal Arts alongside her studies.

She also found her attention shifting from national research to international qualitative methodologies of observing the world. She based her research on Costa Rican fire fighters. She joined them as a volunteer in order to observe and participate and collect stories and data. “I got to know people and the stories from the ‘ground’ and from the top level too. I realized I loved translating this data into potential strategies, which would help the organisation moving forward.”

For this research she had to learn Spanish, and as languages do not come easy to her, this was a tough challenge. She moved to Madrid and lived with the locals and not on campus to master the language.

While in Spain, she realized that she wanted to get a deeper understanding of the macro processes in the world at large. This led her to a Masters in International Relations from Amsterdam.

In 2008 she qualified to become the Dutch Youth representative in the UN. “Since I had quite some work and study experience I preferred to do an internship at the UN headquarters in New York.” But soon enough she realized this was not her cup of tea.

After her stint in New York she became vice-president at the Green Party of the Central Board of Amsterdam and started her first job at the Dutch Ministry of Health, Sport and Welfare, while writing her Masters thesis. Since she felt she did not belong, she called it quits after nine months and started exploring her drive and passion, based on experiential-learning.

Finding her dream

When she was a child she was never able to choose her environment, but now she could. This set her on a path of discovery. It started with her co-authoring the manifesto to accelerate the Energy Transition in the Netherlands where she hosted multiple projects for Wikimedia (GLAM camp Amsterdam) and got an offer to teach at a private business school.

During a left-wing oriented ‘expired food dinner party’, she met people who inspired her to row the Danube in 7 days (400 km) for Human Rights in East Europe primarily for food security and gay rights.

“I had joined this tour the summer before which was a life changing experience. With six strangers, all ladies, we managed to obtain rowing skills in less then three months, raised over 8000 Euros and made the finish rowing the Danube, sometimes with very little stream, in 40 degrees.”

While teaching Product Development and Project Management to BA students she started integrating her Improvisation Theatre skills into her lectures. However, she and the school were not a fit. So again, she began her journey. After her experience at the Business School she started to combine her learnings from her success and failure, her drive, passion, core values and talent. “As of today, this is still part of a journey, however, every choice I make, is no longer based on a ‘coincidental opportunity’ but based on the question if this project or assignment is a fit and enhances my foundation.”

Bengaluru calling

While working on her training programs, Seats2Meet International, founder Ronald van der Hoff, showed interest in her approach and after a meeting invited her to Bengaluru to help kick-start the first Seats2Meet in India, initiated by Naresh V. Narasimhan – architect and Urban planner.

“Of course I said ‘Yes’ and before I knew I booked myself a flight to Bengaluru. The controversial philosophy and disruptive business model of Seats2Meet was not easy to implement in one of the first co-work spaces of Bengaluru.”

In order to make things smooth, and bridge the cultural gap, she provides weekly workshops on topics like social innovation, future of work and falling forward. “The workshops shifted participants attitude from talking heads to dare to be vulnerable that opened them to tap into collective wisdom.”

Jessica is now straddling three cities with her work, namely Amsterdam, San Francisco and Bengaluru.

Watch this space for more inputs for entrepreneurs from Jessica.