Emma Jacobs

A Foundation Built at Disney

Before entering the staffing and technology world, Emma spent 15 years with Disney as both a performer and a leader. She began at just 17 years old, performing as several princess characters before transitioning into live entertainment under the Actors’ Equity Association. Over the years she performed across Disney properties, including opportunities in Tokyo, on Disney Cruise Line, and throughout Walt Disney World.

Even by Disney standards, her experience was unusual. “I had the rare luxury of being considered a park swing,” Emma recalls. “In one week I could perform in ten different shows.”

The performances were memorable, but it was Disney’s leadership culture that left the deepest impression. One leader in particular, a stage manager at the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, played a significant role in shaping her leadership philosophy. "He builds leaders without intentionally doing so," she says. "He sees people's strengths and finds ways to bring those qualities forward."

Through Disney, Emma learned lessons about excellence, service, leadership, and creating meaningful experiences, lessons that would follow her throughout the rest of her career.

Learning the Power of Human Connection

After Disney, Emma joined Sephora, where she worked in corporate retail leadership, training, and regional support roles. There she focused on artistry education, skincare knowledge, and helping teams deliver exceptional customer experiences.

The work reinforced something she had already begun learning at Disney: people are often at their most vulnerable when seeking guidance, support, or confidence. “You have a really rare opportunity to touch somebody at a vulnerable moment and impact something like self-esteem or self-empowerment,” she explains.

Whether she was helping a customer feel more confident, supporting employees through development opportunities, or guiding clients through hiring challenges, Emma found herself drawn to work that centered on understanding people. Those experiences eventually led her into sales and, later, into the recruiting and staffing industry.

Bringing a Human Approach to Technology Recruiting

Despite spending much of her career in entertainment, beauty, and customer-facing environments, Emma eventually found herself in technology staffing, a transition she still jokes about today. “I laugh about the fact that I somehow ended up selling technology solutions,” she says.

The industries changed; the underlying skills did not. Success in recruiting, sales, and leadership, she believes, comes down to the ability to connect with people quickly and authentically. Whether she was portraying a Disney princess, helping someone build confidence at Sephora, or speaking with a technology executive, the goal has always been the same: understand what matters most to the person in front of her.

“You’ve got maybe five minutes to make a lasting impression with people,” she says. For Emma, that means listening beyond the surface-level conversation to uncover the real challenge, concern, or opportunity being discussed. She often finds herself translating highly technical conversations into meaningful business problems, helping clients feel understood even when they speak an entirely different professional language.

The Lost Art of Listening

One of the themes that has shaped Emma’s career is the belief that true listening is becoming increasingly rare. Too many people, she says, enter a conversation focused on what they want to say next rather than fully understanding what the other person is trying to communicate. “People forget to talk to listen,” Emma says. “They talk to respond.”

Whether in recruiting, sales, leadership, or everyday life, she believes meaningful conversations require curiosity, patience, and the willingness to let discussions unfold naturally. “The conversation will guide where it’s going to go,” she explains. “Your job is to ask the questions that help guide it.”

That mindset has allowed her to build strong relationships throughout her career and to navigate industries that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. For Emma, people skills are among the most transferable skills a professional can develop.

Advice for Talent Leaders Heading Into 2026

As technology continues transforming recruiting and business operations, Emma believes the fundamentals of human connection matter more than ever. New tools and innovations will keep changing how work gets done, and her advice to talent professionals is to keep developing the ability to listen, understand, and connect with others.

Success, in her view, is not about having every answer prepared in advance. It comes from being present, asking thoughtful questions, and allowing conversations to reveal opportunities that may not have been obvious at the start.

The future of recruiting and talent leadership, then, is not simply about technology or process; it is about maintaining the human skills that make meaningful relationships possible. By combining empathy, curiosity, active listening, and a commitment to service, Emma Jacobs has built a career that demonstrates the lasting power of human connection in every industry she has touched.