Bold Journey Publishes Article about Jennifer Nestor’s Career Transition

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Nestor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

I keep my creativity alive by doing things that spark inspiration, or joy. For example, writing my book and going through the process of self-publishing, allowed me to have creative control over the illustrations, layout, cover, and all of the marketing. While it felt like a second job at times, it was amazing to get the opportunity to do things like develop a plushie that looked like my main character Jane, or create a sticker that had one of the sayings from the book. Little things like that help me to keep my creativity alive.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My name is Jennifer Nestor. I currently live in Saint Augustine, Florida with my husband who is in the Army National Guard, and my sweet fur babies; Winnie who is a Goldendoodle, and Hermione & Binx who are two sibling tuxedo kitties that have the best personalities.

I am a recent Communications MA graduate from Southern New Hampshire University. I’ve been in marketing roles for over eleven years, and have always had a passion for writing since I was a little girl. I’ve been involved in community efforts such as serving on the board for the Women with Vision Council in St. Johns County, and part of the advisory council for an organization called Fostering Connections St. Johns prior to working remotely for Bamboo Health which is based out of Boston, MA. I’ve also been a mentor for an organization called Big Brother Big Sister of Northeast Florida.

Through my community engagement, I developed a passion for helping others and networking with other women who have big goals and dreams. After graduating from SNHU in April of 2023, I decided that I wanted to pursue my passion of writing a book. After writing my first children’s book manuscript, I wanted to learn everything I could about self-publishing. Since then, I’ve hired an illustrator, and started to develop a marketing plan. It has been extremely exciting to have creative reign over all the elements of this book, especially since being innovative really motivates me. I am so excited to see how this book turned out. The illustrations are beautiful, and the book has already won three awards – The Golden Wizard Book Prize Award, a Readers’ Favorite Five Star Review, and the Literary Titan Book Award. My illustrator, Victoria, has been incredible to work with, and she has been highly invested in the storyline, which makes the collaboration more special.

I would love for readers’ to learn more about my book, “Jane Escapes to the Jungle of Individuality.” This heartfelt adventure follows a young girl named Jane as she tries to navigate the challenge of feeling different in her own skin while experiencing bullying at school. Though she is soft-spoken and quirky on the outside, she struggles on the inside—desperately wanting to belong. Escaping from an uncomfortable moment on the school bus, Jane has a vivid daydream where she enters the Jungle of Individuality: a place filled with animals who all have unique characteristics just like herself. As she embarks on an incredible journey of self-discovery with some new friends, she quickly realizes her individuality is something she should embrace while also learning self-compassion and to be brave when things get tough.

The eBook will be available for pre-order on July 15th, followed by the softcover and hardcover which will be available to order on 7.29! You can visit www.jennestorauthor.com for more information.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three qualities and skills that were most impactful in my author journey thus far, have been my marketing background, my creativity, and my willingness to learn and absorb as much self-publishing education as possible to try and do things in a formulated way since this is my debut book.

The advice I have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve their skills in these areas would be to take a marketing course on Coursera, LinkedIn, or Udemy, Research self-published authors who are doing a great job on their book sales or marketing, and follow them. If they offer any courses, take them, so that you can learn how to be successful in those areas. Network with other authors, or those who are in the field you want to be in. Ask a lot of questions. There is no such thing as a bad question. Everything I’ve learned about self-publishing has been learned through other’s experiences or expertise. It’s always good to find someone who can be a mentor, and reach out to them to see what has worked for them, and what hasn’t worked. Both things are good to know whenever you begin a new journey. I like to look at these people as subject matter experts who can provide some sort of guidance.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I would love to collaborate with school counselors, mental health professionals who help children ages 4-9, or organizations that stop bullying within schools or in the communities. If you’re interested in collaborating, I can be reached at jennifernestorauthor@gmail.com, or through the contact form on my website at jennestorauthor.com.

You can read more of Bold Journey’s articles here.