I'm a Bit
Like Water
I've never been comfortable being confined, compartmentalized or labeled, which is what life tends to do. It became evident early on I wasn't meant to hold a proper job.
ABOUT
THE BACKSTORY
I grew up in a steel town that stopped making steel when I was very young.
I’m one of six kids, and all our names begin with “J,” which made it hard for my mother to remember which one was which. So she coded us with shorthand. My eldest sister is the “smart one.” Next up is the “pretty one.” I was still three kids down the line. All things considered, it didn’t bode well for me.
I’M THE “WEIRD ONE.”
I LEANED INTO IT.
I earned my first byline in a daily newspaper in the fourth grade. I discovered I liked writing — and a byline was cool.
My dad was a huge influence here. He was self-made and wanted the same for me. He handed me a copy of The Wall Street Journal and told me to start reading it every day. If I was going to be successful at anything, I’d have to understand business. He didn’t care I was only around nine at the time.
I’ve been working with media ever since.
In college, an investigative piece I wrote forced the resignation of a tenured professor. That landed me in headlines — and quite a few attorney’s offices.
Then I became editor in chief of that college paper, the Hofstra Chronicle.
We had one continuous problem: We brought in too much advertising and made too much money. Our staff of 60 was immensely talented. It was more than fun. It was life changing.
And I worked for local newspapers, too.
I was a stringer for The New York Times’ education section back when you phoned in your story and said the punctuation out loud along with the copy. If you forgot a period or comma, you had to hang up, call back, and start again. If I was lucky, I wouldn’t get a call around 3 a.m. from a loud, overly caffeinated copy editor determined to teach me the consequences of my word choices.
Then I turned 22.
I set my sights on working for a major daily by 30. I did it by 28. I was hired by the newspaper to create a newspaper for the people working at the newspaper — to explain how a newspaper worked.
IT’S CLEAR TO ME NOW THAT I’M NOT MEANT
FOR A PROPER JOB.
I was an associate publisher for a business newspaper where the publisher considered it a crisis when we made too much money. I excelled at ignoring him. The upside? He let me write the way I like. That mattered to me, because many newspaper editors tended to hate my writing.
They told me my style was too hard to edit. I leaned into that, too.
I’ve been in newsrooms around the country to see what’s what and who’s who. I began recognizing patterns at play.
I worked as a freelance writer for magazines. I helped make award-winning magazines. I moved into PR and, along the way, inadvertently started an eyewear trend while representing one of the biggest brands in the world — Giorgio Armani.
I’ve created events on Long Island that are now traditions for businesses and families — including a groundhog I birthed named Malverne Mel, the estranged brother of Punxsutawney Phil, who would be a nobody without Mel. That’s a true fable.
I’ve scored awards as a journalist, marketer, events creator, podcaster — and ballroom dancer. That last thing had me competing around the country. My rhythm was always there, but sometimes the spray tan would kick in a day too late. Hello, San Juan Open. I’m a champion in three styles and a non-certified personal trainer. That’s when I started studying energy.
My career tried to take me to LA (smog). And Denver (altitude). It once threatened Idaho — landlocked in carb heaven? No. Thank. You. I prefer beaches and international cities, so Long Island it is.
If I had to name five people — living or dead — I’d want to have dinner with, Secretariat would top the list.
The love of news, dance, and dogs has taken me around the world.
Eventually, all of it — the journalism, the PR, the pattern-watching, the decades inside media systems, energy awareness — converged into what I do now. As CEO and Executive Director of the Fair Media Council, I work at the intersection of media accountability and public trust. I write weekly on the forces shaping how we think, what we believe, and why.
And then there’s The Sign Edit. Same skill. Different frequency. Heck of a lot of fun.
The throughline in all of it?
I’ve always been more interested in the part of the story that’s overlooked, undertold, or ignored. That’s where the interesting stuff lives.
If that makes me weird, then all I can say is, mom called it.
A FEW MORE THINGS
The Questions People
Actually Ask
How life would look radically different if people followed their own truth instead of the identities systems handed them.
WHAT SHAPES YOUR THINKING?
“What if…?” and “Why not?”
What questions guide you?
Patterns. I see the patterns inside systems — and what they leave out. Systems are built to function, not to find truth.
What do you see that others miss?
It depends. Sometimes it brings peace, sometimes desire, sometimes it’s a blunt hit on the head. Yet somehow it always opens a door.
What does truth feel like?
I regard clarity as a natural law, like gravity. But unlike gravity — which is always evident — clarity only comes to you when you’re open to the vibe.
Where does clarity come from?
A greater sense of self — and an appreciation for the fact that they exist at all. From there, anything is possible. That’s stardust in play.
What do you want people to carry with them?
A seagull.
When you were five, what did you want to be?
Google.
... And if you knew then what you know now?
It’s pronounced Jackie.
The thing you say most often?