HI I’M JESSICA
I’m into remote/distributed work, organizational behavior, creative culture, career hacking, and making friends. I’m currently on the remote-work thought leadership team at GitLab, and studying Organizational Psychology at Harvard.
How I got here
Remote work expert
A dream job appears! Working alongside the Head of Remote at GitLab, I had the incredible luck to flex my 15+ years of distributed work expertise and spread the word about best practices. Little did I know that, as I started work in March 2020, the world was about to change.
The Smithsonian basement
I bid farewell to the desert and moved to another world: Washington DC. Replacing DIY and large-scale Burning Man art with fine art and artifacts, I volunteered doing programming support for the Smithsonian’s educational sessions – in an underground cubicle beneath the National Mall.
Remote work goes global
10+ years earlier, I gambled on remote work – and in 2017, it paid off. I re-entered tech with tons of WFH experience and skill, plus a strong foundation in business via past clients. At Toptal, I was lucky to work with a community of thousands of high-skilled professionals on six continents.
Wrote my first bestseller
My last ghostwriting client was an extraordinary person with an incredibly compelling story. I helped this person create the first draft of what ultimately became a bestselling business memoir that was featured in Tier 1 outlets’ reading lists.
I’m With You
After the incredibly divisive 2016 US presidential election, I created a t-shirt campaign promoting universal allyship and intersectionality. The proceeds were donated to the ACLU.
CEOs as mentors
Through my ghostwriting work, I was spending more time talking to industry leaders than most people are fortunate enough to do. As I listened to these CEOs’ life lessons, I learned from them. In the process, I gained insight into my own life and understand my goals and aspirations.
Wrote my first book
Through a content marketing agency specializing in personal branding, publishing & blogging, I began branching into longer-form and platform-based content. After editing a few books, I was hired as a ghostwriter for a startup founder. The book placed #1 on category lists on Amazon.
The content mill years
2012-2015 was a challenging time to be a writer. I wrote for VICE, Organic Authority, Huffington Post, and the ever-present Demand Media. I produced hundreds if not thousands of articles at an average rate of $20 for 500 words. This was unsustainable, so I decided to specialize and hone my client base.
Gender equity work
I organized, wrote, and printed a zine-style manual for female and gender non-conforming event workers, a notoriously dangerous job for non-male people. The guidebook explained personal and worker rights, offered advice from experienced workers, and ultimately helped draft new policy at Burning Man and other events.
Burning Man sustainability campaigns
Burning Man, the world’s largest Leave No Trace event, hired me to do some communication & education campaigns targeting internal and external audiences in order to increase knowledge and effectiveness of best practices. I worked with the head of Playa Restoration to run the hugely popular MOOP Map series from 2011 to 2015.
Love & Trash
In 2010-2011, I ran a popular DIY & sustainability blog with 20+ contributors. We had an amazing time sharing our punk crafts, hacks & builds. Just one highlight: one contributor (Amber!) refused to wear pants for the entire year of 2011, and ran a fashion series all about clothes hacking.
Uprooted
In 2009-2011, I traveled all over the United States with a backpack, a tent, and $5,000. I won Tripbase’s “Best Eco-Travel Blog” award for my chronicles of a search for a better way to live, which took me to farms and sustainability outposts throughout America.
Writing the community management rulebook
2006 was the best and worst of times for kids online. I was hired to moderate the user forums at a tween-focused site called Meez. I had a front-row seat to the 4chan raids, and was actively involved in crafting community moderation & response guidelines that had never existed before.
My last office job
After a couple of attempts to fit into the working world, I quickly decided it wasn’t right for me. I was already getting lots of freelance work; I decided to commit to that path so I’d be able to set my own hours and work from home. My remote-work career begins here.
Burning Man blog
I was the first blogger to officially document the entire setup, teardown, and environmental restoration of the Burning Man event. Living in the desert and working on the construction crew from August to October 2005, I created the standard for a liveblog that continues to this day.