Hi I’m Jenn. I’m a 29-year-old writer living in Los Angeles. I haven’t taken that leap of faith to rely solely on freelance work in order to survive because bills are due now. As a result, I’ve worked at least a hundred different jobs and gigs. It’s almost embarrassing when I go to an interview and my resume is a short story about someone who does everything. I’m a Workforce Chameleon. I can walk into a coffee shop, clothing store, restaurant, you name it... and just start serving customers, no one would question it. I can barely go shopping without people asking for assistance-- what am I gonna say no?
I've been working since I was fifteen years old when I became a telemarketer. At sixteen, I convinced a metal rock club in Brooklyn to let me be a cocktail waitress. Few years after that, I had gone through a break up and with the insane cost of rent in NY there's no way I would have been able to pay it without him. Out of desperation, I went into a bar and instead of getting drunk- once again, I convinced someone to hire me. I went home and watched YouTube videos about mixing drinks. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The next day I went in for training but somehow, I kept covering people's shifts. I ended up working the rest of that night, brunch the next morning, followed by lunch and dinner shifts. I hadn't slept, so I felt like I was in a Black Mirror episode. Like I was running through a simulation of serving patrons for 12 years in virtual reality in order to learn bartending. Very effective.
Similarly, I was applying for bartending jobs and accidentally applied to a Budtender position. Those of you who aren't familiar, a budtender is like bartender but for marijuana. Which led to managing three different Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in California. I have been a bra specialist, that’s the woman who tells you what your real bra size is. I’ve produced a couple films. Currently, during the day I am managing a hair salon in Beverly Hills. But, by night I am most likely dog-sitting or checking the Guest List at the door of some Rave in Downtown LA. Working in new places forces you to interact with so many different types of people. Some of which, will really impact your life and you may never see again. While others can irritate the hell out of you and you're stuck seeing everyday.
It's given me a wide range of experiences, people skills, business skills and A LOT of stuff to write about. Ironically, I always choose jobs that are supposed to be easy enough to focus on my creative endeavors-- but they all end up consuming more time and energy than expected. I used to really beat myself up about it. I’m a highly capable person but my hard work isn’t building my own success. Instead, I'm working my ass off making my boss’s dreams come true. While the things that are important, like writing, get pushed aside after the day job burns me out. What I’ve slowly come to learn is that all of this is leading me somewhere. It may feel further away from my goals, but I am learning everything I need to know and experiencing everything I am supposed to in order to become the person I am meant to be.
Like many, I have been craving an honest platform. This is something new and we can set the bar high for quality content and I'm compelled to be apart of it. The concept is fascinating and I think Steemit will become the model for many future social media platforms. I grew up on social media, I joined everything early on. I was an early member of Myspace in high school. I got my first screen name when I was 8 years old and AOL was still beta 2.0. I've kept up with most of them until today, playing the part required of me on each platform. I'm ironic and witty on Twitter. I'm an opinionated "good person" on Facebook. On Instagram, I edit my pics like I have perfect skin and post pics in fancy places to appear more successful than I am.
A lot of people from my generation are conflicted. We know we have to play along and adapt because we don't want to fall behind with the growing value that social media creates in our world. At the same time, we want to revolt against the things that are having a negative impact on society. It's causing the human brain to be rewired to addictively require false validation in a steady flow like an IV drip. Steemit does have the potential to intervene the negative effects that social media is having on people's identity because it values the quality of the content. More so, the censorship and invasive advertising that has taken over the other platforms has become far too aggressive. I am tired of getting Facebook ads for things they invaded my privacy to know that I wanted.
These reasons led me to create my own outlet. I host my namesake podcast, Carmody Central Podcast, which is available for you to listen on iTunes and Spotify. I’ve had some really cool guests on including Amy Schumer, Jim Norton, and Colin Quinn. Carmody Central is a lifestyle podcast, focusing on topics in culture, comedy, sexuality and “the unknown.” Yes, I told Colin Quinn about my UFO/Alien experience. No, he didn't believed me.
Interviewing creative professionals at all different stages in their careers has given me a major outlet to learn new things and to share opinions in an uncensored way. The episodes are free-form, so they can be 45mins or 2+ hours depending on where the conversation takes us. I like to feature up-and-coming talent, especially in Comedy like Camilla Cleese -*yes the daughter of John Cleese.* Some of my favorite episodes have featured guests like, The Mentalist, Lucas Handwerker. He’s a brilliant young man. Mentalism showcases how magic is just an illusion in the most mind-blowing ways. That was a fun interview because I wanted magic to be real so bad that I kept asking questions hoping he’d just wave his fingers in my face and say it unexplainable. Speaking of magick, another favorite episode of mine was with a witch, Marcella Kroll. Check out her podcast- Saved By The Spell. Another personal favorite, was my interview with OCD Specialist and Psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis. I’ve published over 100 episodes and one time I actually ranked in the Top 10 Comedy Podcasts and Top 25 on all of iTunes.
I really hope Steemit can be a similar outlet for me, a place for expression and respecting different people's perspectives while still engaging in an intelligent conversation about them. Thanks for taking the time to read this longer than usual introduction post. I feel like a lot of what's trending on Steemit is about Steemit, but there's room for different types of content and I hope to bring my jill-of-all-trades lifestyle into this growing community.
Here's some Steemit posts
you'll be seeing from me in the future:
-Things I Learned as a Budtender
-All my Terrible Jobs and What I’ve learned from them
-Dating advice from Someone who always gets Cheated On
-Poor Vegetarian, not Eating Animals on a Budget
-Why all your Friends should take the Myers-Briggs Personality Test
-How do People from NJ have so much Pride
-Why I don’t do drugs... anymore
-Modeling Horror Stories
-YouTube Vlogging Gone Wrong
-Dick Pics. Hey, Not Everyone Hates Them
-Reposts from my Gothic Raver Journal circa 2003
-That Alien/UFO encounter I mentioned above
-That time in High School that my Mom chased my bf, and caught him!
-Conspiracy Theories
I just want to be a source of entertainment, information, experiences and opinions.
So whatever medium allows me to share that with others, even in a good old fashioned face-to-face conversation feels like I'm on the right path.