📚 I preordered The Transformation Economy: Guiding Customers to Achieve Their Aspirations by B. Joseph Pine II after hearing Joanna Penn mention it on The Creative Penn show a few months ago—and had completely forgotten about it until it popped onto my Kobo this week. I'll have more to say once I've made a bigger dent in it, but after devouring the introduction over breakfast this morning, I'm pretty confident it'll be worth your time to read.

Anyone up for a Story Rebel Book club? Let me know.

💃🏻 On Friday, I attended a small meet-up of local community organizers where we got to talking about the best ways we can support our communities today. The fabulous Megan Eckman (a customer psychology expert who runs Fat Cap Design) brought up the Eventbrite TRNDS 2025 report—which points out that people are seriously looking for connection. According to the report, attendees are leaning heavily into live and in-person events for 2026, with many anticipating the experience by buying tickets months in advance.

And, building on The Transformation Economy, I found this little tidbit interesting:

"Two-thirds (65%) of consumers are hungry for transformative experiences. Attendees looking for transformative events want events that improve their lives (53%), contribute to their mental health (52%), or help them reset / re-energize (48%)."

How are you providing your audience an opportunity to connect and transform next year?

👩🏻‍🎨 Speaking of marketing and economy shifts, I attended a virtual conversation between Nathan Barry (founder of Kit) and Daniel Priestly (founder of ScoreApp, author of Key Person of Influence) called "6 Creator Economy Shifts to Prepare for in 2026," and there was a lot to chew on.

My key takeaways:

• AI-generated content is becoming a lot better, and fully AI-generated social media accounts are growing in popularity—so how can creators compete? By leaning into the human element, as we've been talking about. Sharing content only you can and experiences only you have had, and creating real opportunities for connection through online and offline events. As Nathan Barry said, "The best way to be interesting online is to do interesting things offline."

• Email—and other ways to fully own the consumer relationship and communicate with them one-on-one—is going to continue to be critical. As social media platforms are fragmenting (which is exactly what I've been talking about here lately), it's going to be increasingly important to own your customers' information and build real connections.

• We're in an attention economy, but not all attention is created equal. The attention you get from people who follow you because you've built a personal brand and are putting out content they like (attraction) is 10x more valuable than the attention you can buy via ads (interruption). Nathan Barry called building a personal brand "one of the highest-leverage activities you can do for your business." And, as Daniel Priestly pointed out, even big-time CEOs like Jamie Dimon are going on podcasts to humanize their companies and grow business.

• Every business is becoming a creator business—focused on authenticity and direct connection with fans. From celebrities starting newsletters to woodworking shops starting TikTok accounts, said Nathan Barry, "everything is converging on creator-style marketing of telling great stories, being authentic, and showing up as human."

How I Write 2000 Words an Hour

At the end of last week, I was coming up against a book deadline—and I was falling behind.

Which meant I needed to push.

One morning, I sat down for a virtual write-in with my local Sisters in Crime chapter. It’s an hour-long call where we chat for a few minutes, then do a 45-minute sprint. I knew that was going to be my one shot to work on the book that day, and in order to meet my deadline, I needed to hit 2000 words.

Now, writing 2000 words an hour (let alone in 45 minutes) hasn’t always been my usual speed, but lately I’ve been leaning hard into a couple of tools that have sped me up in the past—with great results.

So when the sprint started, I was off to the races. And I hit 2000 words in 45 minutes very easily.

In fact, with my current process, I can write 2000 words an hour pretty easily—fiction or nonfiction. And in this post, I’m going to tell you exactly how I do it.

First: Why Draft Fast?

Let’s be clear: I’m not chasing speed for bragging rights. And it’s not just because I’ve got a packed schedule.

Drafting fast makes me a better writer for two reasons:

1. I much prefer the revision and polishing phase, when the piece really starts to turn into gold. The faster I get the first draft out, the sooner I get to that phase—and into my happy place.

2. When I draft fast, it means I’m in the flow, which means the writing is better.

Now, let me slow down on that. ;)

I’m not saying writing fast automatically makes your writing better.

I’m saying that when you know where the story (or argument) is going, and you’re not stopping every thirty seconds to second-guess yourself, you naturally move faster. You tap into that place where it feels like you’re downloading the story or essay, rather than scraping it up painfully word-by-word.

Draft speed is an indicator of writing in the flow. And writing in the flow is an indicator that the draft is already on the right track.

And yes: “Okay Jessie, cool, but how do I get into that flow state?”

That’s what this whole post is about.

Because the real secret to my recent kick of writing 2000 words an hour isn’t that I suddenly became a different kind of writer. It’s that I built a process that:

• removes friction
• cuts down distractions (and perfectionism)
• keeps my voice intact
• and makes it super easier to start

Dictation is the engine underneath all of that.

Dictation: The Key to Write 2000 Words an Hour

I’ve been dictating for years, and it’s honestly changed how my brain works as a writer—I feel more nimble, more conversational, less “stuck,” and way less physically drained than when I end up hunched over a keyboard for hours.

But dictation is definitely a learned skill, and the learning curve can be steep.It’s extremely well worth learning, though.

​I created a course on dictation for thought leaders, but I’m going to break down the basics for you in this post. We’ll talk about:

1. the prep that makes the actual speaking part super easy
2. the simple tech stack I use
3. and the actual process of dictating fast drafts

This skill is especially useful for entrepreneurs, business owners, coaches, and anyone else who’s trying to write a book to grow their business—it really speeds up the process while preserving your actual voice!

—> Read the rest of the post on the Story Rebel blog.​

💃🏻 I was on the Indy Author Podcast last week, talking to host Matty Dalrymple about finding and creating community as a writer. I've been on this podcast a few times before, and I love the insightful questions and conversation that Matty provides. Go give it a listen!

📞 I'm serious about offering free mini-coaching to anyone who's working on a nonfiction project! Use this link to schedule a 30-minute call.