Hi, my name is Jenni Gritters!
If you met me eight years ago, you’d have met a very different person. In 2016, I was a journalist working for an online media company as an editor, pulling 12-hour days on a laptop while covering politics and activism. I experienced chronic shoulder and neck pain, and near-constant insomnia. I was focused on performance, hustle and proving myself.
Then everything changed.
In 2018, I was laid off from my full-time job as an editor at a large media company. After nearly a dozen job interviews, I realized that I couldn’t go back to full-time work without risking my mental and physical health. Instead, I decided to launch my own writing and editing business. I created a business plan, onboarded clients, and nearly doubled my full-time salary within a year. When I wrote about my first six-figure year, the post went viral.
Since then, I’ve launched three additional businesses: A community platform and podcast business called The Writers’ Co-op, which I co-founded with another journalist in 2020 and exited in 2022. The Riverwoods Media Group, a content and community agency I run with my website-designer husband. And JWG Coaching, where I offer coaching and education for creatives interested in running sustainable businesses.
Since 2018, I’ve brought in over a million dollars in revenue. But it’s not really about the dollar amount: The money I made working for myself also allowed me to take two long maternity leaves, and it helped my family buy a house in the woods. In 2023, my work allowed my husband to leave his toxic job as a critical care nurse and re-imagine his whole career. Working for myself has given me freedom and a sense of agency that I once thought was impossible to achieve.
I help passionate solopreneurs build businesses that support their lives.
How did I get here?
My undergraduate degree in psychology (and that best-selling book I ghostwrote about emotional agility) primed me to address the psychological needs that often underpin our deepest desires.
My masters degree in journalism from Boston University taught me key skills like interviewing, reporting and close listening, which are invaluable in coaching conversations.
My 200-hour yoga and meditation training program schooled me in how to center myself during anxious moments, which is knowledge I pass along to both my coaching and writing clients. It also got me interested in the ways we can take control of our own daily experiences.
My decade spent working in the journalism industry — and getting laid off— has given me a very close, very painful look at why clarity, empowerment and boundary setting are requirements if you want to work within our capitalist system without serious mental health effects.
Launching four separate companies has taken me through ups and downs so drastic that I’m able to empathize and strategize with self-employed folks at many stages, as well as recommend best business practices and strategies that will help you succeed.
My professional coaching certification from IPEC schooled me on how to work with clients to push through barriers and make progress fast — because strategy is nothing without self-trust.
And I’ve also taken numerous continuing education trainings focused on money mindset, sales, energy leadership, authentic branding, marketing, relationship mediation, financial systems, and beyond.
Here’s what I know from personal experience: The “standard” of entrepreneurship fails to serve most people.
I’ve lived it. I’ve experienced the migraines, the existential angst, the anxiety, the burnout, and the stress no vacation could fix.
I know firsthand that it’s possible to build a business that feels like home.
Your business can bring you fulfillment while paying the bills, serving incredible clients and adapting as your needs change.
Your business can feel sustainable — easeful, even.
When you work with me, I want you to know that my approach is not business as usual. It’s way better. And I’ll help you dream up (and build) your version of that, too.