Let’s get this out of the way.

Chocaholic.

Boom chocka laka.

Chock-full of ideas.

(Now you know how to pronounce my last name.)

Hi. I’m Jess and I’m, among other things, a content strategist and copywriter.

I use words and ideas to influence people to do things—like, for example, buy juicy tomatoes, take up the thrilling sport of paddleboarding, or start a new skincare regimen.

I have helped my clients make millions of dollars and achieve more success than they ever dreamed possible. Looking back, I probably should’ve asked them to pay me in profits rather than my day rate. Ah well. You live and you learn.

As for living, there’s this thing called gravitas. I love that freaking word. You know why? Because I have it now.

I’ve been doing this for a long time and I have lots of incredible experience under my belt. Launching new brands from scratch. Breathing new life into older brands. And finding killer strategies and creative ideas to make them thrive. I went to the client side halfway through my career and never looked back.

I have a nerdy brain and a crafty mind that was well suited to cool stuff like aerospace and defense, software, thin form batteries, fiber optics, biotech, medical devices, mesenchymal stem cells, and even tankless hot water heaters. Oh, and fintech. I’ve done a lot of that since I moved to the Bay Area seven years ago. And I’ve loved all of it.

I graduated from Lake Forest College with a degree in English Literature but that doesn’t tell the whole story. I also spent several years at both NYU and Emerson College thinking I might be an actress. Despite my rousing audition where I pinned the very surprised director of the acting program against the wall, making him the lover in the scene I was acting out, and despite the accolades for that, so I’ve been told, compelling talent, after a few years in NYC and LA auditioning, I just didn’t want to be an actress badly enough. I wanted to tell stories as a writer instead.

Those raw, vulnerable, and sometimes downright humiliating, experiences made me more grounded, thoughtful and worldly in my overall life. Most important, today I really understand the power of human nature and motivation, and the importance of communication that's genuine and thoughtful.

What I write gets to the heart of the matter, and makes people care. It’s almost like pinning an acting program director to the wall. Unexpected. And rather effective.