10 Questions With Jordan
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Jordan, our resident wordsmith, recently told us about how a line from her dad has served as one of the most valuable lessons throughout her life and career. She also dished the deets on living without guilty pleasures and where she finds inspiration when she’s not working. Read on to learn more about our newest teammate!
What do you love about PR?
I love PR because it’s the business of actualization. As PR professionals, we partner with brands humming with potential. We identify their strengths, we nurture their weaknesses. We extract and put words to the greatness they already possess. Shaping and sharing their stories, in many ways, is the ultimate word game. We only need the right message, medium, and moment to make magic happen. And when it does, we haven’t just completed the New York Times Sunday crossword or guessed today’s Wordle in two tries. We have helped a brand, and all the people it serves, realize the potential that we detected from day one—all while realizing our own. I could go on.
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from?
When I was young and my parents asked me to do something, I would repeat the same petulant protest: “I don’t wanna.” Each time, my dad would offer the same rebuttal, “You don’t have to wanna, you just have to do it.” The logic was infallible (much to my chagrin).
While I have been lucky to receive an abundance of good advice in my life, this early lesson seems to ring truest. Doing the hard thing or the unpleasant thing is often the fastest path to the thing we want. As an adult, I think my dad was trying to teach me about integrity or responsibility—though he may have just wanted me to clean my room, and that is valid, too.
What advice would you give to your college self about planning for your career?
20-year-old Jordan, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that you can’t plan your life down to the minute like you’re trying to. You can’t map out every milestone or anticipate the exact trajectory of your career. The good news? You can stop worrying about it! Forget the five-year plan and focus on building your skills. Early on, the hard skills may help you get the job, but the soft skills will guide you to who you are. Everything you learn will be transferable, so don’t obsess about being put in a box, and start to think outside of it. Notice your interests, nourish your connections, know your value—and you’ll be just fine!
Do you have a hidden talent? What is it?
I am a subject matter expert whisperer. Give me your techy, your wordy, your jargon-filled masses, and I will ask the probing questions that produce clear and compelling content. I hope this talent isn’t too hidden, as it’s core to my work, but I certainly consider it a secret weapon.
What are three words that would describe you at work?
Friendly. Focused. Flexible.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
My guilty pleasure is having no guilty pleasures! I see indulgence as a form of self-love, from enjoying a sweet treat every night (hello, dark chocolate, and golden milk), to binge-watching a new Netflix docuseries all weekend. I also love the occasional just-because purchase. A used electric drum kit, a facial steamer, a heart-shaped cake tin—yes, these are all things I have bought. As long as there is balance and it’s in my budget, I greenlight all the guilty pleasures!
If you could write a book about your life, what would the title be and why?
If I could write a book about my life—which is an actual dream of mine—I would call it, Radical Practicality: How Positive Pragmatism Can Unlock Creativity and Confidence, a title that is equal parts aspirational and autobiographical. (Can you tell I’ve thought about this before?) As someone who long identified as right-brained, I’ve learned how my left-brain leanings can support my creative pursuits.
We live in a world where our plates are perpetually and increasingly full—and still, we are not doing/accomplishing “enough.” To me, radical practicality is learning about these naysaying systems and denying them space in our heads. For instance, if a mentor tells me, “You’re good at X,” I will choose to hear her, rather than the inner voice that says, “I’m not that good. It was a fluke.” Accepting affirmation, whether external or internal, is a faster and more efficient way to arrive at the confidence that will fuel our professional and personal goals. Who knew pragmatism could be so empowering?
If you could snap your fingers and become an expert in something, what would it be?
Oh, to be an expert in personal finance. I started digging my teeth into this topic after watching $avvy, a documentary that explores the historical, cultural, and societal norms around women and money, at the Boulder Film Festival. Since that viewing, my friends and I have been learning how to take control of our finances and plan for our futures—so, expertise is not too far away!
What advice would you give to your teenage self?
Teenage self: your differences will become your differentiators. Accept them, embrace them, accentuate them. Keep your journals. Don’t quit guitar. Learn to like mushrooms. Don’t fight your appreciation for Taylor Swift, she isn’t going anywhere. And most importantly, know this: young writers who doodle poems in the margins of their notebooks can grow up to not only find jobs but even be good at them!
What do you love to do when you're not working?
As a once Creative Writing major, I still enjoy writing nonfiction essays and spoken word poetry that I perform at open mics and slams in Denver. I also have a thrifting “habit.” I spend my weekends hunting for and upcycling vintage clothes, from bleaching and painting denim to sewing jackets from scraps of second-hand materials. I’ll wear my creations while cheffing up vegetarian dinners for friends, experimenting as a novice baker, and watching standup comedy—the rock n’ roll of rhetoric (says the English nerd). If you want a long-winded, one-sided conversation, ask me to list my favorite comedians, and I’ll debate myself to death.