Come Talk Story 🌺

Meet Jess the Creator

A Written Interview Series from the Living Aloha Collective

There are people who resist being put into one box.

Jess is definitely one of them.

She’s a nurse.

A writer.

A stock trader.

A fitness and nature lover.

A dog person.

And a devoted chaser of sunrises and sunsets.

At first glance, those things might seem like completely separate pieces of a life. But when I read Jess’s answers, I saw the connection.

Freedom.

The security of a profession she can rely on.

The financial knowledge to create income beyond a job.

The writing that belongs to her simply because she loves it.

And ultimately, the freedom to decide how she spends something none of us can earn more of:

our time.

But Jess is also wrestling with a tension I recognize.

How do we keep reaching for more without allowing “more” to convince us that what we already have isn’t enough?

Aha.

There’s our conversation.

Jess, pull up a chair.

Come talk story. 🌺

I’m glad you’re here.

1. Before we talk about what you do, who are you when nobody is asking for your résumé?

Jess:

When no one is asking for my résumé, I’m still a nurse no matter what until I die.

But I’m Jessica. I’m a writer no matter what as well.

I enjoy working out, being in nature, hanging out with my dogs, being a verified stock picker, and chasing sunrises and sunsets.

2. Give me two things in your life that might look completely unrelated to someone else but are absolutely connected in your mind. Connect the dots for us.

Jess:

The fact that I’m a nurse, a stock trader, and a writer.

As a nurse, I will always have a job.

As a stock trader, I will always have my high-income skills.

And as a writer, I’ll always do something I love that no one can take from me.

I can make money outside of a job from writing, put money and profits into the stock market, and invest it.

It’s all connected.

3. What does taking care of yourself look like in actual practice, not the Instagram version?

Jess:

Taking care of myself looks like doing a morning yoga flow as soon as I wake up, working out daily, Epsom salt baths, and sauna seshes.

4. What’s one ridiculously small thing that brings you an unreasonable amount of joy?

Jess:

Sunrises and sunsets.

Every single day.

5. Of everything you’ve written, created, built, or contributed to, what’s ONE thing you wish more people had seen? Why this one?

Jess:

My piece about overcoming disappointment.

How To Deal With Disappointment (When It Hits Hard)

Because I’m already intrigued by her choice:

Overcoming disappointment.

Especially when we get to her final answer.

Sometimes the piece a writer most wants us to see tells us something about what they themselves are still learning.

6. Who is doing work you think more people should know about? Who are they, and why are you passing the lei to them? 🌺

Jess:

Chris B. Writes

Because he is awesome, and his son Bray Bray’s voice needs to be heard and his light needs to continue to shine on the world and create a massive ripple effect.

🌺 Passing the Lei

Chris B Writes

https://substack.com/@chrisbwrites

I love that Jess didn’t frame this only around the creator.

She pointed toward the why behind the work.

Bray Bray’s voice.

His light.

And the ripple effect that can happen when one person’s story reaches another person.

That’s what passing the lei is supposed to do.

7. What’s something about being human you’re still figuring out?

Jess:

How to find peace and balance being happy with what I currently have versus what I currently strive for.

I want to achieve financial freedom and build relationship wealth, to be free and in control of my own time, and to be able to help people.

A Little Aloha Before We Go 🌺

There it is.

The through-line I kept seeing in Jess’s answers:

Freedom.

Not freedom as in doing nothing.

Actually, Jess sounds like someone who does quite a lot. 😂

Nursing.

Writing.

Trading.

Investing.

Working out.

Learning.

Building.

Dreaming.

What she’s reaching toward is something different:

Ownership of her time.

That made me think.

We talk a lot about financial freedom.

But Jess slipped another kind of wealth into her answer that I don’t want us to miss:

Relationship wealth.

Aha.

Because what good is having complete control of our time if we’ve built a life with nobody we want to spend it with?

What good is financial wealth if obtaining it costs us our health, relationships, purpose, or ability to notice a sunset?

Maybe wealth needs a bigger definition.

Money, yes.

But also:

Time.

Health.

Purpose.

Relationships.

Choice.

And enough spaciousness in our lives to notice when the sky puts on a show.

🌅 And Then There Are the Sunrises and Sunsets

I smiled when Jess answered the “ridiculously small thing” question.

She didn’t choose anything complicated.

Sunrises and sunsets. Every single day.

There’s something almost mischievous about that.

Because while we’re busy building the future…

Nature keeps offering us something extraordinary right now.

Free of charge.

No subscription.

No premium tier.

No portfolio required.

Just look up.

And maybe that’s part of the answer to the question Jess is still figuring out.

Perhaps being grateful for what we have and striving for something more aren’t opposites.

We can build tomorrow without refusing to inhabit today.

Ambition and contentment can sit at the same table.

🌺 And the Lei Keeps Moving

Jess passes the lei to Chris B Writes.

But she also tells us exactly why.

Because she wants Bray Bray’s voice and light to continue creating ripples in the world.

That matters.

Because Come Talk Story isn’t really about handing somebody a little digital spotlight and moving on.

It’s about connection.

One person says:

You should know this person.

So we pull up another chair.

We listen.

We follow the thread.

And the circle grows.

That’s the ripple effect.

🌺 The lei keeps moving.

Mahalo, Jess, for reminding us that a person doesn’t have to be only one thing.

You can be the nurse and the writer.

The trader and the sunrise chaser.

You can build wealth while recognizing that wealth itself needs a much bigger definition.

You can want more for your future without declaring your present inadequate.

Maybe that’s the balance.

Not extinguishing ambition.

Not pretending money doesn’t matter.

Not forcing ourselves to be satisfied when something inside us knows we’re capable of building something different.

But every once in a while…

looking away from the numbers long enough to watch the sun come up.

Because financial freedom may buy us greater control over our time.

But the sunrise?

That was already ours.

Jess, the lei is officially yours to pass. 🌺

Who will we meet next?

Aloha,
Melin 🌺

Living Aloha Collective

People | Perspectives | Possibility

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