I didn't set out to start a movement.
I really didn't. I was just done negotiating with myself about...everything.
Now I build spaces for people done asking for permission to be who they really are.
I learned to succeed the way many women do.
Be capable.
Be agreeable.
Be likable.
Be strategic.
Don’t take up too much space.
Smile through the discomfort.
And it worked until it didn’t
Until the cost of shrinking, shape-shifting, and should-ing became a cost I wasn’t going to pay anymore.
What I was calling success was actually self-abandonment.
I was calling it success but leaving me out of the equation.
Who I actually was inside.
What that version of me wanted for and from my life.
The impact I’m here to create.
It was never about protecting myself.
It was only ever about making others more comfortable.
And that’s the part no one ever really talks about—the energetic cost of doing that.
I stopped trying to be the version others wanted me to be.
I stopped putting on a performance that looked good but made me feel like a shell. I stopped negotiating with what I actually wanted. I healed what needed to be healed.
And in the process, I became who I wanted to be.
What changed? Practicing self-trust until it became second-nature.
Not as a concept but as a way of being.
Every uncomfortable, clarifying, and irreversible step of it because there was no way in hell I was going back.
I learned how to own my power.
I unwound why I self-abandoned and started having my own back.
I started creating from a place of self-leadership and integrity instead of internal compromise.
None of this made me any less successful.
Only more.
Turns out burning the rulebook is absolutely a viable business strategy,
Today I lead We the Unruly.
We the Unruly is a cultural movement for people who refuse to lose themselves while building lives, work, and legacies that matter.
It's where we don't perform for gold stars.
Unrulies intentionally choose:
- Honesty over performance
- Depth over hustle
- Impact over approval
We are a group of successful, ambitious women who lead from self-trust, have our own backs, and refuse to negotiate for belonging.
We are rewriting what success gets to feel like and we’re doing it together.
Who am I though?
I’m Jen Vertanen. Modern day edge-walker who’s spent decades building, leading, and helping humans turn desire into reality.
I’ve worked in executive strategy, coached founders and creatives, and guided people through deep transitions.
Not by fixing but helping untangle and unwind the stories, shoulds, and expectations and tapping into what they actually want.
Now all of that experience lives inside We the Unruly.
The work we do isn’t about making you better.
It’s about making it harder for you to abandon yourself, especially when it matters most.
We the Unruly is a way of being.
A culture shaped by people done checking boxes and calling it a life.
This is where you:
BE.
Honor your identity by coming home to yourself.
DARE.
Own what you really want and become the person who trusts and believes you can make it happen.
CREATE.
Take intentional, aligned action to create a life, legacy, and impact that has you written all over it.
Unruly women make history.
If you’ve ever been told you’re too much…
And felt like you had to tone it down it be taken seriously…
If you’ve ever succeeded but felt disconnected…
If you’ve ever sensed there had to be another way to do this…
You're not alone.
And if something in you has been nodding quietly while reading this…
You know what to do next.
