Protect Attention
Attention is the rarest resource of modern life.
Protect it intentionally.
Where your attention goes, your life follows.
I'm not asking you to follow my light.
I'm inviting you to discover your own.
Stories that make you think. Creativity that helps you see differently. Practical ideas that help you protect your light, lead with courage, and leave people brighter than you found them.
When I was little, my Aunt Judy handed me a Mason jar and together we chased fireflies through warm summer evenings.
I thought we were simply catching tiny lights.
Years later, I realized we were collecting something much more important.
Wonder.
Hope.
The reminder that even the smallest light can change the way the darkness feels.
That little Mason jar became more than a childhood memory.
It became a way of seeing the world.
Today, every keynote, every book, every conversation, and every person I encourage is another chance to help someone protect their own light — and perhaps help someone else find theirs.
That's why I still carry the jar.
Because there is always enough light left...
to begin again.
A firefly is an unlikely thing to build a philosophy around.
That’s exactly the point.
Because history has never been changed only by the loudest voices.
It has always been changed by people willing to keep their light on.
Attention is the rarest resource of modern life.
Protect it intentionally.
Where your attention goes, your life follows.
Creativity isn't reserved for artists.
It belongs to anyone willing to stay curious.
Wonder is where innovation begins.
Courage rarely arrives all at once.
It usually begins with one small brave decision.
One spark. One conversation. One step.
One firefly is beautiful.
A field of fireflies changes the night.
The brightest leaders don't create followers. They create more light.
Everything I create begins with one question…
Does it add light?

Through storytelling, creativity, laughter, and interactive experiences, every keynote is designed to help audiences think deeply, reconnect with purpose, and leave carrying ideas that last long after the event ends.
Leadership begins by noticing. This interactive keynote helps leaders reclaim attention, reconnect with purpose, and rediscover the courage to lead authentically. Participants leave with practical ideas—and a renewed sense of why their work matters.
The smallest sparks often create the biggest change. Through reflection, creativity, and shared experiences, this keynote helps audiences discover how one conversation, one idea, or one person can illuminate an entire room. Every audience brings its own light. No two experiences are ever the same.
Attention. Creativity. Belonging. These are leadership skills for today's world. This keynote invites participants to slow down, think deeply, and discover practical ways to protect what matters most—in themselves and in the people they lead.
Great leaders don't carry everything—they carry what matters. Using the simple metaphor of packing cubes, this engaging keynote explores how to organize priorities, release unnecessary baggage, and create space for what fuels your best work and your best life. Participants leave with practical strategies to lead with greater clarity, confidence, and intention.
Presented by Jerri Kemble & Hanna Kemble-Mick
A high-energy, interactive workshop created by a mother-daughter leadership team. Together, Jerri and Hanna share practical life hacks that help women lead with confidence, protect their energy, strengthen relationships, and create lives that are both successful and sustainable. Participants leave with a personalized toolkit of small changes that create lasting impact at work and at home.
When the world feels overloaded, great leaders don't simply work harder—they reset with intention. This interactive experience helps participants identify what they can control, choose healthier responses, and delete the habits, distractions, and assumptions that no longer serve them. It's a practical framework for leading with clarity in a distracted world.
I never believe I have all the answers.
I believe the room already holds remarkable wisdom.
My job is simply to create the space where people discover it together.
When we leave… we all carry a little more light.
My presentations are not lectures delivered at an audience. They are experiences created with the people in the room — filled with stories, reflection, conversation, creativity, and ideas participants can carry back into their lives and leadership.








A few of the rooms I've been trusted to hold — and what participants explored together while they were there.

A day designed for women in leadership to name what they carry, celebrate what they've built, and imagine what they still get to become. The room explored courage, identity, and the quiet power of women championing other women — and left holding a very different picture of what leadership can look like.
Bring This Experience to Your Community
A real jar. Real reflection. This signature keynote invites every person in the room to add their own light to a shared jar as they consider what they want to protect, release, and carry forward. Participants leave with practical language for attention, creativity, and courage — and a story they tell for a very long time.
Explore This Experience
A high-energy mother-daughter workshop for women navigating the real, messy overlap of leadership, family, ambition, and identity. Participants explore small changes that create lasting impact — protecting energy, strengthening relationships, and building lives that feel as successful on the inside as they look on the outside.
Bring This Experience to Your Community
An interactive keynote for leaders navigating overload. Together the room maps what they can control, what they can reframe, and what they can finally delete. Not another productivity talk — a permission slip to lead with clarity in a world engineered to distract them.
Explore This Experience

Some books teach.
Some books entertain.
This one invites you to remember.
The Badass Firefly Effect grew from years spent collecting ordinary moments that quietly changed my life — stories from classrooms, conversations, family, leadership, failure, courage, and wonder.
Every chapter is a reminder that the brightest transformations rarely begin with grand gestures. They begin with someone choosing to protect one small light.
Part memoir. Part leadership guide. Part creativity journal. Part permission slip.
And unlike most books… I illustrated every page myself. The sketches, handwritten reflections, and artwork are woven into the stories because creativity isn't something I teach — it's how I think.
My hope is that when you close the final page, you'll begin noticing your own fireflies.
"Every firefly in this book was real.
I simply wrote down what it taught me."

Every signed copy reminds me that books are really conversations waiting to happen.
Nothing makes me happier than knowing these stories will find their way into classrooms, homes, leadership teams, and hearts I may never meet.
If this spark resonated with you, I'd love to share the rest of the journey.
Every chapter explores another firefly — moments of courage, creativity, resilience, and joy that remind us that even the smallest spark can change everything.
7 Practices for Staying
Lit at Work
A free printable guide
Work can be meaningful and still drain your energy. Join The Firefly Jar, my occasional letter with one story, one practical idea, and one reminder that your light matters.
Inside, you’ll find practical ways to protect your attention, recognize what dims you, make room for creativity, and keep leading without losing yourself.
A quiet community for people who believe small lights matter.
Every month I'll send you one story, one practical idea, and one reminder that your light matters.
No spam. No noise. Just one spark worth keeping.

For more than 200 episodes, Jerri Kemble and Jamie Saponaro have been amplifying the voices of educators, innovators, students, and leaders who are making a meaningful difference in education.
Powered by ClassLink, LinkedUp explores the ideas, challenges, and breakthroughs shaping schools today. Every episode is rooted in curiosity, authentic conversation, and the belief that sharing great ideas helps all of us grow.
Whether you're driving to work, preparing a presentation, or looking for a fresh perspective, LinkedUp offers conversations that inform, inspire, and connect.
"Every conversation is another firefly — small on its own, but together illuminating the future of education."
As we celebrated our 200th episode, we reflected on many of the conversations that have informed, challenged, and inspired educators throughout the years. Here are a few highlights from the journey.
To celebrate our 200th episode, Jamie Saponaro and I recognized some of the remarkable guests and conversations that have helped shape the LinkedUp journey. Together, these voices reflect what LinkedUp has always been about: amplifying the people, ideas, and stories making a meaningful difference in education.
A powerful conversation about elevating student voice and empowering young leaders to make a global impact.
Watch the Conversation
Episode 43How design thinking helps students solve authentic problems with creativity, empathy, and innovation.
Watch the Conversation
Episode 27Building school cultures where relationships flourish and excellence becomes contagious.
Watch the Conversation
Episode 63A thoughtful discussion about recognizing bias and creating more equitable learning environments.
Watch the Conversation
Episode 142Helping schools create safer, healthier, and more supportive digital environments.
Watch the Conversation
A thoughtful look at how technology, connection, and identity are reshaping the future of learning and work.
Watch the Conversation
Episode 77Practical strategies for developing creative problem-solvers and innovative classrooms.
Watch the Conversation
Episode 181A conversation about authentic leadership, purpose, and the work that begins within ourselves.
Watch the Conversation
Episode 69Exploring research-based approaches that help more students become confident readers.
Watch the ConversationA slowly-growing collection of articles, reflections, prompts, quotes, downloads, and things I'm reading. No feed. No schedule. Just the notebook.
7 Practices for Staying Lit at Work
A practical and reflective guide for protecting your energy, reclaiming your attention, and leading without losing your light.
The printable PDF arrives by email — one signup, the whole guide.
7 Practices for Staying
Lit at Work
A free printable guide
Work can be meaningful and still drain your energy. Join The Firefly Jar, my occasional letter with one story, one practical idea, and one reminder that your light matters.
Inside, you’ll find practical ways to protect your attention, recognize what dims you, make room for creativity, and keep leading without losing yourself.
"Every great idea begins as a messy sketch."
This is where ideas are born before they become books, keynotes, workshops, or conversations. Welcome to my creative notebook.
The current sketch on my desk — the idea I keep circling back to this month.

A messy first sketch beside the keynote, workshop, or chapter it eventually became.
A tiny prompt each month. Draw it badly. Share it anyway. That's the whole point.
Printable prompts, sketch templates, and margin notes you can carry into your own notebook.
A slow-growing gallery of the pages behind the ideas. Starting with Spark 32: Packing Cubes and Power Moves.

Send a doodle, a sketchnote, an iPad page, or the messy first draft of something you're building. The good ones end up taped to the wall.
✏️ Send a pageMost of what ends up on a stage started as a scribble in the corner of something else. This room is for the corners.
Books making me pause, underline, scribble in the margins, and see things differently.
I rarely read only one book at a time. There is usually a stack beside my bed, another in my travel bag, and at least one filled with sticky notes and underlined passages. Some books teach me. Some challenge me. Some arrive at exactly the moment I need them. Here is what is capturing my attention this month.

Leading Out Loud in the Era of School Choice
by Dr. Chantell Manahan
Chantell reminds educational leaders that doing meaningful work is not enough if no one knows the story. Strong communication is not vanity or self-promotion. It is part of building clarity, connection, and trust. This book is timely, practical, and especially important for leaders who want their communities to understand the extraordinary work happening inside their schools.
"Good work does not always speak for itself. Sometimes leaders have to give it a microphone."

A Framework for Educational Leadership
by Dr. David Aderhold
The octopus is intelligent, adaptable, observant, and able to respond through an interconnected system rather than relying on a single center of control. David uses that fascinating metaphor to explore distributed leadership, resilience, and the flexibility required to lead schools through constant change.
"Leadership was never supposed to mean carrying everything with only two hands."

by Cal Newport
This book continues to influence how I think about focus, creativity, and the conditions we need to do meaningful work. In a world that continually interrupts us, protecting our attention may be one of the most important leadership decisions we make.
"Attention is not just something we spend. It is something we protect."

by Cal Newport
This is not about rejecting technology. It is about becoming more intentional in our relationship with it. The ideas connect deeply with my work around attention, distraction, creativity, and making room for wonder in lives that have become increasingly noisy.
"Technology should support the life we want—not quietly become the life we live."
I'm always looking for the next book that will challenge my thinking, light a spark, or become covered in sticky notes. Tell me what you are reading.
“There was one firefly I never let leave the jar…
because no matter how distracted life becomes,
there is always enough light left to begin again.”