“[What stands in the way of you] building the life or career you want is often… your brain telling you ‘oh, too many people are doing this’ or ‘oh, why me?’. The secret is that everyone has those. And once you get past those and take action, that’s when you get to build the thing you want.” -Jenni Gritters
Freelance journalist (and brand new mama) Jenni Gritters shares her path to “non-linear success,” the questions she asked to figure out what she wanted, and the self-judgments that nearly derailed her along the way.
More About Jenni:
Jenni Gritters is a freelance journalist, yoga and meditation teacher, and the owner of ZEST Storycraft, a content-focused business. When Jenni was laid off from her staff job at the New York Times’ product review property, Wirecutter, in March 2018, she made the decision to go freelance. During her first year working as a freelance writer and editor, she made over $120,000 — a figure that most people balk at— which led to her speaking publicly about the different routes to non-linear success. Prior to Wirecutter, Jenni completed a Masters degree in Journalism from Boston University, then worked as an editor at MedTech Boston and Upworthy. She currently writes about health, human psychology, and the outdoors for New York Times Parenting, Medium’s Elemental Magazine, the REI Co-op Journal, and beyond; she also provides coaching for writers who want to build successful freelance careers.
Highlights
- How Jenni made the decision to become a freelance journalist after years of working for other people
- How focusing on her values instead of her skills helped Jenni build a business she loves (and that supported her through her a difficult pregnancy)
- The revelation Jenni had about living the life she wanted by visiting friends in Hawaii
- The magic of thinking of life decisions as experiments, and how this perspective helped Jenni find her path
- The question that helped Jenni overcome her fear of “not being taken seriously” if she didn’t have a corporate job
- Why Jenni was vigilant about creating boundaries around her work, even when she was in control of her own schedule
- How Jenni knows when she’s about to burn out – and how she adjusts so that she doesn’t
- Why “getting out of your own head” is so important to knowing how to move forward
- What happened when Jenni’s pregnancy became so difficult that she wasn’t sure she could maintain her business
- What Jenni has learned about resilience from losing clients and getting negative feedback
- Why true self-care is often “the boring stuff” (and why that’s a good thing)
- How becoming a mother has changed Jenni’s perspective on self-care
- The health trends that Jenni thinks you should avoid
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
The New Rules of Work: The New Rules of Work: The Muse Playbook for Navigating the Modern Workplace (Amazon affiliate link)
The Muse (career website)
Connect with Jenni: Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter
Thank You for Listening!
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