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Jessica lawlor

June 18, 2020 by

Jessica is the founder and CEO of Jessica Lawlor & Company (JL&Co), a writer, personal branding expert and speaker. She has been blogging since 2008 and, since 2012, has consistently documented her business journey.

Many business owners have deleted posts relating to previous blog brands. Jessica didn’t, and readers are able to learn a lot from her blog archive. This profile is a fascinating case study of pivots, taking chances and working hard.

Jessica Lawlor & Company

Jessica has documented her journey turning her side hustle into a business.

  • I Quit My Job to Take My Side Hustle Full Time. Here’s Exactly How I Did It.
  • 3 Reasons I Knew It Was The Right Time To Quit My Job and Start My Business
  • Here’s Exactly How Much it Costs to Run an Online Business: A Peek Inside My 2016 Business Expenses

She has provided regular overviews of the her business year.

  • The State of Jessica Lawlor & Company: A Look Back at Year Two in Business
  • The State of Jessica Lawlor & Company: A Look Back at Year Three in Business
  • A Peek Inside JL&Co’s Record Year

She has also been incredibly open about the changes and struggles she has faced as her business has grown.

  •  My Business is at a Crossroads (And To Be Totally Honest, I’m OK With It)
  • The Smartest Decision I’ve Made as a Business Owner: Hiring a Team Member
  • 3 Major Changes I’m Making to JL&Co This Year
  • Going All In With Content Management

Becoming CEO

In February, 2016, Jessica resigned from her full-time job working in public relations to take her business, blog, brand and teaching full time.

She shared more about the process in her Becoming CEO series. You can learn more about her intentions with the series at Why I’m So Transparent About How I Make Money, Starting a Business and Becoming CEO.

  • Becoming CEO: Two Weeks Out
  • Becoming CEO: Your Questions, Answered
  • Becoming CEO: More Answers to Your Burning Questions
  • Becoming CEO: Reflections From Week One of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month One of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Two of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Three of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Four of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Five of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Six of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Seven of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Eight of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Month Nine of Solopreneurship
  • Becoming CEO: Months 10, 11 and 12 of Solopreneurship

From Side Hustle To CEO series

In her second year, she changed the series title and posted quarterly updates.

  • From Side Hustle to CEO: Celebrating One Year in Business
  • From Side Hustle to CEO: A Year 2, Quarter 1 Update & Income Breakdown
  • From Side Hustle to CEO: A Year 2, Quarter 2 Update & Income Breakdown
  • From Side Hustle to CEO: A Year 2, Quarter 3 Update & Income Breakdown

Website redesign

Her blog has undergone redesigns in both 2012 and 2019.

  • Building a Website: The Dirty Details Behind the Rebranding and Launch of JessicaLawlor.com
  • From Blogger to Business Owner: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at My Website Redesign

Earlier Brands

She shared more about her early experiences at A Blogging Evolution: Looking Back at 7 Years of Sharing My Life on The Internet.

Cover to Cover

Jessica launched her book blog, Cover to Cover, in August 2009. The blog was described as a one-stop shop for book reviews, book chat, author interviews, anecdotes from her novel writing journey, writing and publishing news and much more. She wrote more about the ‘why’ behind the blog at Top 10 Reasons I Love Book Blogging. She later shared what she learned from this blog at 10 Things I’ve Learned From 2 Years of Book Blogging.

She celebrated her first Blogoversary in 2010.

She started to experiment with separate PR work during this period. She helped Kristin Walker with PR for her debut novel. She wrote a follow up to the case study one year later. In 2010, she started experimenting with personal branding by launching a separate website at JessicaLawlor.com. 6 months later, she moved the content over from Blogger to the JessicaLawlor.com brand.

Getting Gutsy

In 2012, Jessica rebranded and launched the new JessicaLawlor.com. The first post she wrote for the site was Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone. She used the ‘Get Gutsy’ phrase a couple of times in that and incorporated it into her website branding. The phrase took off within her community and become associated with her personal brand.

She wrote a number of posts about the brand evolution.

  • What’s Around The Corner For 2015: A Peek Behind The Curtain of the Get Gutsy Brand/Biz
  • Getting Gutsy is a Lifestyle: Reflections on the Third Anniversary of the Get Gutsy Blog/Community

She also wrote annual ‘Get Gusty’ reviews:

  • Get Gutsy: Celebrating One Year of Life Outside My Comfort Zone 
  • The Get Gutsy Annual Review: Top 10 Highlights from 2014, Lessons Learned and How I Really Felt Throughout The Year

In 2019, she decided to say goodbye to any remnants of the Get Gusty brand as it no longer served her.


Clients

The Write Life

In 2016, Jessica became The Write Life’s new managing editor. 

In 2017, she wrote a Behind-The-Scenes of the Launch of The Writer’s Bundle

Muck Rack

Jessica is the features editor at Muck Rack. She was discovered by the founder of Muck Rack after sharing one of his articles on her weekly roundup post. Jessica tagged Greg on Twitter and he reached out to ask if she would be interested in writing a guest post.

She shared more at How I Landed My First Freelance Client + The Exact Strategy I Use To Find New Business


Fitness

Teaching Yoga

In 2015, made the decision to become a yoga teacher. She had written about her personal yoga experience at 100 Lessons From 100 Yoga Classes,

She shared more about her journey in a blog series.

  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: One Day Before Yoga Teacher Training Begins
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Yoga Teacher Training Weekend 1
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Yoga Teacher Training Weekend 2
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Yoga Teacher Training Weekend 3
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Yoga Teacher Training Weekend 4
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Yoga Teacher Training Weekend 5
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Yoga Teacher Training Weekend 6
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Yoga Teacher Training Weekends 7 & 8
  • My Journey to Becoming a Yoga Teacher: Final Weekend Recap and Life After Teaching Training

In June, 2015, she taught her first yoga class. She shared her experiences at 25 Lessons From Teaching Her First 25 Yoga Classes and One Year of Teaching Yoga: Milestones, Gifts, Lessons and Gratitude

Running

It took two years for Jessica to start referring to herself as a runner. Fortunately for other newbies, she shared her running experiences on her blog.

Philadelphia Half Marathon

  • Conquering the Philadelphia Half Marathon
  • 5 Thoughts 5 Days From The Philadelphia Half Marathon
  • Countdown to the Philadelphia Half Marathon: One Month To Go

Broad Street Run

In 2012, Jessica participated in the Broad Street Run race for the first time. She ran it again in 2013. She shared her advice in Broad Street Run: 10 Tips For Runners


More About Jessica

Other Interesting Posts

  • A Little Trip Down Memory Lane: My Writing History
  • Lessons from Traveling Abroad (Also Known as The One Where I Get a Serious Case of Wanderlust)
  • Adulting: Moving Out + One Year of Living On My Own
  • Back to School: What It’s Like to Teach Public Relations as an Adjunct
  • Celebrating Five Years On Twitter: How 140 Characters Can Make a Big Impact

Features

Jessica was featured in the Penny Hoarder post She Quit a $50K Day Job to Follow Her Dreams — And Earned More by Month 3. This post ended up attracting some criticism. She wrote To The “Haters”: You Never See The Full Picture, So Please Stop Judging in response.

Day In The Life

  • I Run My Own Business: Here’s What A Typical Day In The Life Looks Like
  • Another Peek Into A Day In The Life As a Side-Hustling Solopreneur (Plus, An Amazing Deal for You!)

Connections:

She works for Alexis Grant as the managing editor of The Write Life.

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