About Jessica

This is where I’m supposed to tell you all about my skills, experience, and achievements so you’ll be impressed and want to work with me, right? OK, here goes:

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• Nearly 20 years of editing and writing experience in journalism, academia, marketing, publishing, and others

• Planned, structured, doctored, revised, edited, and/or formatted more than 14 books in just two years

• Taught myself how to typeset books and publish them on major platforms

• Co-founded a business—twice

• Awarded one of only two Assistant Professor roles granted to clinical faculty, and one of only two clinical faculty roles granted in the College

• Ranked in the highest 10–20% of all teachers in the IDEA database for teaching effectiveness

• Earned a Master of Arts degree in three years while working full time

• Earned a master’s degree from an IACBE-accredited business program

• Advanced from Editorial Assistant to Managing Editor in just three months at a large regional magazine

• Graduated summa cum laude from the #1 public university in the Midwest

• Member of The Phi Beta Kappa Society

• Married way up

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But here’s what these things won’t tell you:

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• Burned myself out repeatedly as an overachiever in high school, college, and grad school

• Got laid off from “dream job” in undergraduate teaching

• Have taken two medical leaves of absence for chronic illnesses that still plague me

• Missed annual revenue goals in both businesses on at least three separate occasions

• Learned the hard way to establish healthy boundaries, embrace JOMO (the joy of missing out), and resist the pressure to abandon my principles and priorities

• Have started over at the bottom three times when pivoting to adjacent industries

• Have had impressed upon me that my journey hasn’t been “linear” enough, my expertise hasn’t been “specific” enough, and my experience hasn’t been “buzzworthy” enough to get the job or earn the income I want

 

All in all, there’s nothing mind-blowing about my accomplishments. I’m kind of a jill-of-all-trades, behind-the-scenes person. I don’t have a phenomenal resume, a social-media-influencer presence, or a long list of high-profile endorsements. 

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But I do have a few aces up my sleeve:

 

1. I am ruthlessly committed to precise, attentive, and intuitive editing that evokes a writer’s best work.

2. I am deeply passionate about empowering authors to shape their stories into books of lasting influence and value.

3. I am versatile, strategic, process-oriented, collaborative, fast-learning, straightforward, upbeat, and solutions-oriented. I believe in kindness and hard (but smart) work. I am consistently helpful (albeit, inconsistently funny), and I’m as proud of my failures as I am of my achievements.

 

These are the reasons I add tremendous value to the projects I work on and build long-term relationships with virtually everyone I partner with.

 

I know I’ve succeeded enough and failed enough to be pretty darn good at what I do. And while I’m still learning all the time, I already have a unique combination of insights, skills, experiences, and values that you won’t find elsewhere.