A truth and a confession

Hi! I’m Jess. I live just outside New York City, and I am a really great second-in-command for Idea People running their own small businesses.

Getting clear on the fact that this is my Thing was, as everything is, a journey.

For many years, I’ve wanted to create something of value in service of women’s empowerment, and I consistently found myself returning to other professional-helper positions: as an assistant to a family law attorney, a legal secretary at an international corporate law firm, and as the executive assistant at a national not-for-profit organization. Even outside of the work world, in community organizing and volunteer work, I am always most comfortable as a get-it-done-tastic partner to Big Idea People.

I thought for a long time that couldn’t possibly be a valuable, authentic, heart-led way to follow my own bliss, because I was inherently following someone else’s lead. But time and again, there it was: I buzz with energy; I’m excited, motivated, and resourceful with other women’s great ideas.

A few things I know for sure

I want to see women’s businesses succeed. Big time.

I’m so grateful for my favorite women-owned businesses. What they all have in common are the relationships they’ve built with me as their client, their honest and clear communication about who they are and what they do, and a sense that I personally matter to them. Paying for their services feels like an investment in them, so I do it over and over. The more these kinds of businesses blossom, the better.

It’s important to invest in self-care. Small businesses and creative ventures especially thrive when the women who run them have that time.

Time spent recharging, revitalizing, nourishing creativity and vision = serious dividends. This is true for you and for your business, because both of you are living, growing, vulnerable and resilient creatures. (Clarifying note: when time is spent focusing on a business’s wellbeing, I call it “biz-care.”)

I love to help women make time for self-care.

So often I watch women work from their hearts with unmatched energy and creativity and grace. They work so hard to build their dreams and make their Right Livelihood real. They opt out of the prototypical luge track of life, and then:

they’re glued to their laptop or Blackberry on their one vacation a year.

“No, no, no!,” I insist as I hop up and down, “Please take care of YOU first! Everything depends on that!” Magically a bridge appeared between what I loved and what I did everyday. I now understand that my way of giving, my Thing, is serving as a trusted #2 for women’s businesses. And guess what? I completely, whole-heartedly adore my Thing.

A few more details

I’m also a birth doula and teach Birthing From Within childbirth preparation in northern New Jersey and NYC. I love being a doula and am always amazed at the ways my VA work and birth work nourish and sustain one another. So many parallels.

My roots grow all through the east coast soil. I grew up in Northern Virginia, went to college in Syracuse, and then grad school in Washington, D.C. I now live just outside of New York City, practice yoga, adore colorful gel-ink pens and Cyprus trees, and get high off of learning new things. I am head-over-heels in love with receiving local, seasonal, sustainably-grown food from our CSA. Also, I make the world’s greatest scrambled eggs. Come on over and I’ll make you some.

( <– ) Finally, that sweet little thing over to my left is Mable. She has mastered the art of self-care. No jokin’.