Exploring Life & Business with Tracey “Jewel” Palmer of Modern Faery Media

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracey “Jewel” Palmer.

Hi Tracey “Jewel”, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am from Westchester and Long Island, New York. I was born in Manhattan. My parents met at an ad agency in Manhattan in the 70s. My father was a marketing executive and my mom was an artist and graphic designer.

I had been working as a yoga teacher and wellness liaison for the George Soros foundation for 7 years before I was diagnosed with left breast cancer in December 2018. I took a long, spiraling road of feminine healing back to health. As a wellness practitioner and recovering during the Covid pandemic, I was present during the online wellness and energy healing/coaching boom of 2020/2021. But none of that was really for me, I had a hard time taking myself seriously doing that even having worked legitimately in wellness for 12 years.

I left New York drove across the country in 2023. I stopped in Austin, TX thinking that was going to be my final destination but I was only there 6 weeks before out of nowhere an old friend from my massaging days when I lived in Costa Rica (2008) reached out to me and asked me if I needed a break from society and to come live with her off-grid in the California desert an hour outside of Las Vegas. I said yes. I spend 18 months out there recovering, bathing in hot springs and then decided to press on with my life in grad school.

Almost dying makes you really want to do something legit before you leave the planet. If I was going to go back into the world, it had to be doing things from a place of purpose. I chose the “planet ally” package because as I recovered, it was the planet and its creatures have really been my most generous allies. She (the planet) needs all the help She can get.

Living in the desert, you see how much stuff the world discards because it all ends up out there. This friend, Isabelle, started a resell shop on Etsy and she did so well that it grew into a physical store. It was with the same spirit that I chose to study sustainability in LA because I found an M.A. not an M.S. program and me, with my BA in English and being a healing arts practitioner, thought it was a good next step. I’ve just finished my first year.

Also, my mother’s mom and sisters had all migrated from NY to settle in LA. My sister had already been here for 12 years and I was about to complete the same arc.

People like Isabelle, and those who are physically practicing sustainability within their daily lives, are the ones saving us in small, cumulative ways. Traditionally, stories like hers have been invisible or have been actively washed out or hijacked to suit a mainstream narrative. And yet, she thrives because she knows she’s part of a larger natural system. I saw first hand, the success of a sustainable small business.

I had worked in social media at a crystal shop on Balboa Island the Summer 0f 2024 and was writing campaigns for my feminine coach friends, and so when the CSUN Sustainability M.A. program director, Dr. Amanda Baugh, was looking for someone within the cohort to work for the program telling stories. I was like “that would be me.”

I am excited to work with the school this Summer (CSUN) as my thesis case study to see how these traditionally invisible stories can be seen, amplified and accounted for.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenge has been building a media business and going all-in on sustainability in a time when policy seems to be getting weaker around it internationally. But there are certain inevitabilities that won’t go away until they are collectively addressed. Everyone needs to adapt if our great grandchildren have any hope. The amount of damage we have done to the planet in the last 80 years is staggering. The conundrum is if we were to slow down into a sustainable pace, corporations would lose money over the short term but then, as they start to build more resilience in their practices, they would be able to retain skilled workers and be in business even longer. However, we live in a world of convenience, image, A.I. and single-use plastic. Of luxury name brands that are worshipped.

We saw during Covid how resilient the natural world can be, when sea wildlife flourished after a few short months of everything shutting down. We are not separate from the earth. We are inside its systems.

On some level we know what do: recycling, reusing, etc. — it isn’t enough. Corporations need to be willing to take a hit while they transition but most of them won’t budge without stronger policies.

Most businesses who are well-organized around sustainability are run by people who already care. These are my people. There are good stories to tell in these organizations.

The challenge really is making these stories more visible than the ones that are destructive and doing it in a time where the people in positions of power are not actively demonstrating that they care. They are placing band-aids on things and calling it a solution or they are actively abusing their power.

When we shift the power dynamic back toward the people, we find that most people are actually natural environmentalists. The word “sustainability” speaks to the ones who could use a little more accountability in their relationship to the planet via their business policies and practices. This goes way beyond marketing and into an infrastructure shift.

It goes into a decolonization of the CEO mind and a restoration of original legacy, but that’s a rant for another time.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Modern Faery Media?
I am part sustainability consultant, part media firm. I come in and check if the story you’re telling about your business/brand actually lines up with how you manage land, workers, and materials. If there’s a real equity thread, I help you bring it forward. If there’s a gap, I name it and give you actionable steps to align with a sustainable brand transition so you can tell a transparent story.

This Summer I am working with California State University, Northridge because they have so much amazing sustainability stories that no one is telling. However, having a university as a client is easy; schools are already designed to ask questions and nurture their students. It’s corporate America that needs accountability the most. No one inside those companies is less human, but the culture often treats them that way.

Of course, no brand is perfect. Closing this gap helps consumers align their money with their values, which is what we need to do if we have a hope to preserve what resources we have left. Most mid to large businesses are working within some type of accountability framework to help them achieve goals. This is ethical business. So if they aren’t, they really should be.

The media can always make a brand’s image look cool. What matters to me is how they treat their workers, what their supply chain really looks like, and how they relate to the land they profit from. That’s what makes a sustainable image real and its “cool” image valid.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
1. Integrity — let’s move beyond greenwashing and band-aids, please. Let’s not flinch at or look away from the deeper problems that in the end may cost you more than you’re making.
2. Systems brain – I see how the environment, policy, culture, money, and media fit together, so I can spot where a tiny narrative tweak or operational shift will change the whole picture.
3. Resilience – I’ve rebuilt my life and career more than once, so I’m not scared of hard truths, long arcs, or messy starting points.
4. Mythopoesis —. Stories that move people are rooted in myth. When speaking about the earth, this comes through.
5. Power translation – it’s always with the people. We, as humans, are the earth precious resource. When we embody that knowing, the power shifts back to us.

Pricing:

• $250-$450 initial consultation
• $2k up – Media Packages

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @modern_faery
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ithika.jewel/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ithika-jewel/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/csun.sustainability.masters/