I didn’t plan on a career in brand storytelling.

Like many meaningful careers, it started as a side project.

In 2006, I launched a personal blog called The SavvyBostonian. At the time, I was working as a public relations coordinator at a large company in Boston. I loved my job. I was learning a lot. But I felt something was missing.

I wanted a creative outlet.

I’ve always loved writing and photography, and one day a lightbulb went on: Why not start a blog and share this with others? It wasn’t a strategy. It wasn’t a career move. It was something I started almost on a whim, purely as a hobby.

What I didn’t realize then was how much that decision would teach me about myself.

Running a personal blog forced me to look closely at what I was passionate about, how I wanted to spend my time, and—eventually—where I wanted my career to go. It became a quiet but powerful driving force in my life.

Lesson One: Done Is Better Than Perfect

When I first decided to launch the blog, fear showed up immediately.

Can I actually do this?
What will my friends think?
What about my coworkers?
Is the layout terrible?
Am I doing this “right”?

The list of doubts was endless.

Like many of us, I was focusing more on what could go wrong than what could go right. The opportunity wasn’t perfection, it was creativity. It was fun. It was having something that was mine.

One of the most important lessons I learned early on was this: it doesn’t have to be perfect when you start.

If you go to my blog today, there are still a million things I’d change. But over the years, I didn’t let that stop me from publishing consistently. I embraced trial and error. I embraced learning in public.

That habit, showing up before you’re ready, is something that has stayed with me throughout my career.

Lesson Two: Perspective Changes Everything

About a year into blogging, something unexpected happened.

People started pitching me.

As someone working in PR, I was used to pitching journalists and bloggers every day. Suddenly, I was on the receiving end of those emails. It was a complete role reversal.

Some pitches were wildly off-topic. Others showed that the sender had clearly read my work, understood my interests, and respected my audience. Those were the messages that stood out and those were the relationships that lasted.

That experience taught me the real value of understanding your audience.

Professionally, it raised my standards. It made me more thoughtful about how I communicated, what I shared, and why it mattered. Later, when I moved fully into social media and brand storytelling, that one-to-one perspective became invaluable.

It’s easy for marketers to flood channels with content. It’s much harder—and far more effective—to share something people genuinely want to hear, engage with, and pass along.

If you ever have the opportunity to experience a role reversal in your career, take it. It will change how you show up.

The Pivot I Didn’t See Coming

For a long time, it never occurred to me to put my blog on my résumé.

Then I found myself interviewing for a role at a travel company. They liked my writing background, but they wanted proof that I had an editorial mindset.

And suddenly, it clicked.

I have a blog.

I talked about what I’d built, what I’d learned, how I thought about content and community. I didn’t have corporate blogging experience at the time, but they hired me and let me run theirs.

That role became a defining pivot. It helped me realize that social media and storytelling weren’t just skills I had, they were what I wanted to pursue. That realization ultimately led me to Dunkin’.

Something I’d been doing outside of work—just for myself—changed the direction of my career.

Passion Projects Shape More Than Careers

The blog didn’t just teach me about marketing. It taught me about life outside of work.

At one point, I noticed I hadn’t posted recipe content in a while. I was stressed, busy, and constantly rushing. And it made me stop and ask: What am I deprioritizing that actually makes me happier?

I realized how much I valued cooking on Sunday evenings – that time that helped me reset for the week. The blog became a mirror, reflecting back the things I needed more of in my life.

That’s when the lesson broadened.

Volunteer work. Side projects. Hobbies. Passion pursuits. These things don’t sit outside your career—they actively shape it.

Earlier in my career, I thought I wanted to go into sports marketing. I volunteered in the press room for the Boston Breakers for an entire season. I volunteered for the Boston Marathon in the press room helping to run the press conferences for five years in a row. Those experiences weren’t my day job, but they became proof points. Evidence that I was serious, committed, and capable.

Be the Driving Force in Your Life

All of these experiences led me to one core belief: you have to be the driving force in your own life.

My father has said this to me for years, so often that I used to brush it off:

“You’re the only person who can control your destiny. If you want something, you have to go after it—no matter what it takes.”

He was right.

Whether it’s starting something imperfect, raising your hand before you feel ready, or saying yes to opportunities that scare you a little, don’t be the person who holds yourself back.

That personal blog didn’t look like a career plan at the time. But it became the foundation for everything that followed.

And looking back now, the story makes sense.

This blog post was inspired by a TED-style talk that I gave at Hubspot’s INBOUND in 2013. You can watch the full talk below.

Jessica Gioglio is the co-author of The Laws of Brand Storytelling and The Power of Visual Storytelling. Professionally, Jessica has led innovative marketing and public relations programs for Dunkin’, TripAdvisor, Sprinklr, and more. Today, Jessica is a keynote speaker (book her here) and founder of With Savvy Media & Marketing, a strategic branding, storytelling, and content strategy consultancy.