Conversations with Jenna Hushka

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Hushka.

Hi Jenna, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I will always think of myself as someone who is continuously evolving, I grew up in Phoenix Arizona and have been in LA for almost five years. Growing up, I was a highly motivated individual with a lot of aspiration (for better or worse). I was constantly pushing myself in my younger years to prove myself wrong.

While today, I don’t necessarily recommend stretching yourself thin, when i was younger I was constantly balancing different activities including professional, fun, athletic, and creative ones. Dance team, internships, hostess, academic clubs and competitions, and freelance writing.

This transferred into my post-college life. After establishing myself in a corporate setting, I still made time to pursue my other interests apart from just my professional career path. I never wanted to be boxed into one thing. I wanted to be a professional woman, succeeding in my job but knew that was only one side of me. This led me to becoming more authentic online – creating content, short-form videos, funny, serious, and everything in between. Doing things that really started to fulfill me. Today, people may know me from my IG reels/TikToks which focus on a bit on making light of the professional world, along with lifestyle and whatever else I want. I have also released a podcast this year – Hush and Be Bold, and continue as a contributing writer for the collective world. I feel really fulfilled and grateful for where I am, where I am headed, and the people that support me!

It is kind of a surreal feeling thinking about how your past self would be proud. I used to feel and be so unsure of myself. I used to feel like I couldn’t own my personality and what I want to do in this life, and today that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In LA, the roads are never smooth (ha, I had to!!) But truly, it hasn’t been easy by any means. For me, I had a huge breaking point during my first full-time corporate gig. I was a cutthroat job where I was working often 10-12 hour days, under high stress and made no time for myself or my health. While I didn’t know it at the time, I was experiencing extreme burnout. My mental health plummeted, I had my first encounter with anxiety, and I think worst of all, I began to truly dislike myself. I couldn’t recognize who was looking in the mirror back at me. I thought it was normal to feel this way. I thought it was normal to feel physically ill and tense all the time. My work had become my only identity. I felt like a failure.

This isn’t unique by any means. And in part, I felt guilty for disliking myself. – “I should have been happy” I used to think. I live in LA, I have a roof over my head, etc. And while I have been and continue to feel grateful for these basic privileges, it didn’t take away from the devastating truth that I was sad, falling apart, and slowly falling out of “Love” with myself.

Many of us will go through this loss of identity, varying on intensity. But I believe we all have this moment/moments where we realize we ought to start liking ourselves and what we are doing in this life. We ought to not take this life for granted.

It became a huge wakeup call for me. So slowly, I changed things in my life. My job for one, but I began to listen to myself more. I began to work on myself, both physically and mentally. I began to learn what the heck self-love actually meant and why it’s so important in this life.

This led me to taking more risks, and eventually, I got comfortable really being authentic. I began creating content without holding onto so much fear of what others might think. I settled into this mindset of not only doing what I think others wanted to see from me but what ME wanted to see from ME!!

While I would say I am a very confident and secure person today, It’s still a work in progress. Like a muscle, I have to constantly use and exercise.

But I have gotten to a place in my life where I truly and fully love myself, and a past version of me would be in tears hearing me say that. It breaks my heart how many people out their dislike themselves. Who are stuck in that similar past version of where I used to be. That’s the other big challenge in obstacle in life. I can’t fix that alone, but I want to help.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Most people know me from my TikTok/IG channels – (@JennaHushka) where I create majority of work-life and lifestyle type of content. During the Pandemic was when things really took off for me. It’s when I began to take content creation seriously. And gratefully, my videos have really resonated with folks who are in the corporate world and have generated such a positive response.

For a long time, I felt like in the social media world was dominated with very niche content with either traditional influencers in fashion, models, comedy, or some specialized talent. Something I thought I could never be. I used to always think to myself, “Those people are like… admirable? And who was I??? I wasn’t anything special.” (That was the negative self-talk speaking)

What was missing was this gap in people like me, you, and anyone reading this. People in 9-5 jobs who aren’t necessarily in the creative field. The ones who have always wanted to express themselves without a means to do so. Or without the confidence. I mean this in a very careful way, but ‘ordinary’ people. The world wants to see ordinary people succeed. I used to think I had to have this X factor in order to take on my side passions or go after my goals. But really, all I needed was that push and to get over my fears and self-doubt.

All I needed was to realize that truly, Every. Single. One. of us is special – even in our ordinary ways. Myself included.

I consider myself a very normal human. I have a full-time job which I love, but I also have a passion for making people laugh and inspiring others. And I think that’s what sets me apart from others. A “normal” professional millennial who is also being vulnerable, chasing my dreams, not always getting things right, and just trying my best to be some sort of role model in this life.

Beyond this, I have been writing for over 8 years. Most of my work is known on the Thought Catalog, https://thoughtcatalog.com/jenna-hushka/ which is now transforming into the Collective World: https://collective.world/

Writing was my first creative passion – and I am really proud of myself for continuously putting out work throughout the years. I used to write and write into the abyss of my word documents, and finally in college, I put my work out there. Some with very minimal views and some with tens of thousands. Same with my content. It all has to start anywhere. My motto has always been do it because it fulfills you first, and it’s an added bonus if people respond to it and enjoy it.

And I think when you do things with the right intention, with the intention of fulfillment and impact, rather than notability and accolades, things will fall in place. Life is beautiful in that way.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I am listening to a podcast at least once a day. I love them.

Some of my favorite Podcasts:
– The School Of Greatness
– Women of Impact
– Jay Shetty Podcast
– The Marie Forleo Podcast
– Stronger by Science
– Unlocking us with Brene Brown

I am also huge on Google Alerts fan. I like to set alerts on certain topics, ideas, people, and industries and it helps me stay on top of important trends that i am *actually* interested in vs just random news headlines.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://redcircle.com/shows/e8b5492c-ffa2-450d-9345-7e8a6405eaa3?_ga=2.262424332.1286825595.1671420229-1080271121.1664229757
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennahushka/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennahushka
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jennahushka?lang=en