Align Your Business with the Real You

By: Jennifer Musser
Publisher: Penrock Press
Publication Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 979-8991544214
Reviewed by: Douglas C. MacLeod, Jr.
Review Date: January 9, 2025

According to Jennifer Musser, the founder of JLM & Associates Consulting, LLC and author of Align Your Business with the Real You, thirteen personal lessons must be learned to become more successful in business. These thirteen lessons stem from her “5C framework,” which developed throughout her years as a CEO and citizen. The five Cs are: connect; clarify; control; cocreate; and, change. Musser’s business framework may seem obvious, but what makes it more unique than most is that Musser writes about what owners need to do for themselves to become more effective for their customers, clients, and co-workers. Oftentimes, business communication books are more about how relationships can be lucrative for just the business owner. Instead, Musser’s work takes a more psychoanalytical approach, in that if one wants to be a business owner, the individual needs to first “LTY” or “Listen to Yourself” as “It’s the single most valuable business tool you own, and it’s accessible to you at any time.”

It is LTY that makes Align Your Business with the Real You a stronger text than most, because with “LTY” comes a recognition that “you” (because you are the audience who needs assistance with your budding business) must know yourself before venturing into a world that does not care about your well-being. Mental health challenges and a lack of self-care are contemporary issues discussed in houses, offices, and social media platforms around the globe; and Musser fully recognizes these points of interest and empathetically makes it known that without a clear sense of self--mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually--success (whatever that looks like for you) will be harder to attain. Musser’s caring demeanor is evident in her stylistic choices, which includes personal stories as introductions to chapters, and chapters that are consistently broken down to help readers reflect, learn, apply, act, and ask, all actions that positively feed into the thirteen lessons that should be learned while self-reflecting.

Each chapter in Align Your Business with the Real You is part of the process of learning about yourself so you can LTY, and each lesson that Musser presents is admirable and embraces humanism: change course if you feel it is right; collect skills and confidence; be kind; stay driven; persevere; and more. There is no doubt Musser has thoroughly vetted each of the lessons she is providing, and her affable mentality is a refreshing change from the barrage of vitriolic discourse we hear from powerful entities who use their platforms to disseminate negativity. And yet, there are potential questions: How long will Musser’s process take? If it took Musser years to figure out how effective this process is, should readers expect the same? In a fast-paced world where one feels the need to grab the brass ring before it quickly passes by, is LTY just another abstract mantra? Musser’s process has so many moving parts, so is it possible to hold onto each one of the thirteen lessons at all times? Throughout the book, Musser provides graphs and techniques to help readers map out their successes; however, can success take place if all thirteen lessons are not learned? What sorts of techniques can be used to help us keep all of the lessons in mind during moments of great professional strife? How can the thirteen lessons get us through each situation, being that each situation is unique in and of itself? Still, Align Your Business with the Real You presents a compelling and persuasive narrative to show that if you connect with yourself in a more profound and deeper way, and learn the empathic lessons presented by Musser, success, whatever that may look like for you, is bound to happen.

Quill says: Align Your Business with the Real You gives entrepreneurs much to work with and think about as it pertains to their inner selves and how to attain their own definition of success.

For more information on Align Your Business with the Real You, please visit the author’s website at: www.jlmaconsulting.com.