Jennifer Layman

Most businesses know they could be doing more. What they don't know is how to do it. They have spent a lot of time and money on things that didn't bring the results they wanted, leaving them guessing at what to do next. There's a better way. And you can do it.

Jennifer was working as a golf pro when she started her business. She was in the top 1% of women golfers as a female pro in Canada, and she competed on the Canadian women's professional golf circuit. She put in the work to be a high-performer, in her playing career and her non-golf life. She was always the employee who worked harder, took the time to build relationships and always looked at how standards could be elevated. While many golf clubs were keen on having a woman pro on staff, a change in leadership where she was working chose otherwise, and Jennifer was out of a job. That's when she decided to take control of her own career and start her own business.

Prior to turning pro in golf, Jennifer had been on the women's golf team at Campbell University (NC), an NCAA Division 1 school. She was part of a team that earned its first collegiate win, and left the team as the Big South Conference Player of the Year. She also left with a degree in communications. In the Canadian golf off-season, she worked in many demanding roles, from handling communications for a controversial development project to researching for a civil litigation law firm. She became adept at finding solutions and building strategies using the same skills she developed in professional golf competition. When the time came to launch Forward Thinking Marketing Consulting, she was more prepared than she realized.

Marketing is about getting people to become aware, or more aware, of what you have to offer so they can choose to do business with you. It's an area where many businesses struggle because they have a difficult time communicating in a way that spurs a potential customer to take action. Jennifer's results drove her success, and 2026 marks her 20th anniversary in a business she started from scratch.

Having worked with hundreds of businesses and organizations, from home-based operations to international companies, Jennifer found that while many businesses were capable of achieving the results they wanted (and often more), they lacked a strategy for how to do it. They were getting derailed on small, insignificant factors that monopolized their resources and didn't deliver what they promised. The advice leaders received was from people who had never owned a business and didn't understand how actions in one area impacted results in other areas. Businesses were frustrated, and rightfully so - they were spending time and money on courses of action that weren't informed by the experience of actually running a business.

This prompted Jennifer to write Forward Thinking for Your Business, a marketing desk reference for businesses that knew they could do more, but weren't sure how to accomplish it. The book earned many awards in marketing and entrepreneurship, and continues to drive results from readers. The publishing of that book led Jennifer to expand her own business as a professional speaker.

Jennifer's signature keynote - Think Like a Pro: Use professional golf strategies to drive results in business - uses a framework that prompts action from high-performing individuals. Whether the person is an event planner wanting to reinvigorate their business or partners in a national law firm wanting to elevate their firm, Jennifer shows people exactly what to do and why it works. When you have a strategy, you have a way to achieve what you want, and it encourages a commitment to make it happen.

Her keynote has been given across North America, always customized to the audience, and built on the lived experience in professional golf and entrepreneurship. The stories are real, tangible, and relatable. Audiences know that she knows, because she's done it. There are no theories or guesses or untested trials. It's real-life success, and it's obtainable.

In December 2025, Jennifer released her second book, Forward Thinking for Future Entrepreneurs. While there have been many books written on how to start a business, this is a book with insights from people who have actually done it. It's an inside-the-ropes scoop on how to prepare, what to do, and how to cope with the inevitable factors beyond your control. For people who have never owned a business before, this book provides the experience needed to do it better. Learn from others and build a stronger foundation that supports your goals in life.

In the time after keynotes or during book signings at events, many attendees tell her how the examples she shared are relatable and how they draw parallels to their own businesses. That's the insight that happens when someone is on par with the audience, when the speaker or the author knows what they're talking about, and the advice is rooted in real life opportunity. People attend these events because they want to do something better, and Jennifer is the person who delivers exactly what they need to know they can do it.

Jennifer is a member of the National Speakers Association and the PGA of Canada. She has spoken at more than 100 events in her career, without PowerPoints or flashy gimmicks. She is a high-performing communicator who invests in her audience throughout the event. She's easy to work with, adaptable and professional.

Sometimes you need an event participant with a million social media followers or a form of celebrity status. And sometimes you need an event participant who causes attendees to be late to their next session because they just have to talk to that speaker a little more, ask some questions and talk out some scenarios. Engagement matters. Experience matters. and Jennifer's Lived Experience delivers both.