My name is Jennifer Gallo. I’m a writer.
Born in the less desirable recesses of Poco-nowhere, Pennsylvania, I learned fast and young to use my words. To gather them close, little rapscallions, until with them I was able to build a solid scaffolding right up and outta that dead-end boneyard. My writing took me overseas at 16 where I studied and lived for a year with host families in Finland, Estonia, and Russia. And then it took me around the globe – a far cry from my humble beginnings as a tyke with a penchant for wordplay and a truly lamentable haircut.
A voracious student, I wound up attending 4 universities here and abroad. (My background is in philosophy and literature so I’m a real scream at cocktail parties what with all the Italian Renaissance jokes). The honors program at Bucknell University was very Dead Poets Society; it taught me that rules are made to be strictly adhered to and irrevocably mastered - and only after such mastery, broken, with a kind of honorific abandon.
Believe me when I tell you, I know where the commas go. So itty bitty illicit deviations are always calculated and wholly deliberate. In service of the feel, the swing, the sheer cadence of the thing, I have been known to lay waste to business as usual. When I read, my ears are listening to my brain. I want rhythm and I want impact. And so should you - if you want to be wanted.
But back to my long-winded biography…
It was a curious series of events involving a farmer’s pig roast in Burlington, VT and a motorcycle kerfuffle that landed me at The University of Queensland, Australia where I took up with studying and writing from the warm embrace of sun-soaked paradise. Returning to the U.S., I embarked on some stateside shenanigans in our nation’s capital while cutting my teeth as an ad agency copywriter.
But the longing to be back in the classroom led me up the street to graduate studies at Georgetown University and into a job writing for its president. And the president after that. Let it be said that if I can pass as a septuagenarian Jesuit priest, I can pass as damn near anything. Not only can I mimic the idiosyncrasies of well-established, oft-documented voices, I am just as adept at inventing them. So, if you’re struggling to identify a tone - or voice - to market your business, let’s talk. Because this is literally what I do.
D.C. began to lose its luster (if you know D.C., then you know), so I set my sights on Gotham and went to work for the president of Columbia University. 12 prolific years and 2 babies later, I left Columbia to help promote the martial arts studio where I trained my heart out and humbly served as Executive Director. Most gratifying - for reasons we won’t get into here - I served as right hand to the CEO of one of NYC’s most revered construction management firms, writing and editing most of what crossed the big man’s desk. It must be said, this girl’s got range.
I’ve now spent the better part of 20 years doing what comes very naturally to me wherever I hang my hat: writing, (ghost)writing, copywriting, and editing. Print and web content, bios, ads, slogans, letters, business proposals, newsletters, scholarly articles (published under the names of people waaaay fancier than me). You get the gist.
My mind whirls and wordsmiths while I’m in the tub, engaged in guerilla parking at Trader Joe’s, drifting off to sleep (I’ve been known to come up with a killer idea and literally laugh myself awake). I’m that rare breed who relishes writing a speech, a crackerjack wedding toast, an essay from one point of view and then the counterargument from its opposite. Your impossible assignment is, for me, an enticing challenge to take an uninspired concept and spit-shine that sucker clean. Words can do that. The right words.
There’s majesty to taking a set of disjointed ideas and finessing them into a cohesive and absolutely unmistakable tone. That’s my shtick. There’s mischief to storytelling in such a way as to subtly coax others on a journey that they hadn’t known they so desperately needed to be on. I own that road. I wrote that road.
Persuasive messaging – even when it’s business-laden and super unsexy – MUST lull and tug. Think of the cuttlefish with its mesmerizing ability to emit an array of hypnotizing colors - only to lure its prey close enough to lop off its head. Nothing malevolent going on over here… (insert evil cackle).
If you’re in need of some crystal clear, bright-eyed copy, chances are, I’m your guy. It’s the words we set to paper that crystallize, indeed, memorialize that elusive vision we’ve got locked up in our wonky noggins. It’s the right words that help to substantiate the actual thing we’ve got to give. And most of us can’t dream up the big idea AND the magic words to illustrate it. I’m a lousy cook. I married a chef. See how that works?
Let me help you craft the right voice or tone for your product, service, web site, etc. The right story. Meaning yours. Only better! Let me reinvigorate the beloved ideas to which you’re already deeply beholden. Gussy em’ up a tad. I can distill and communicate precisely what sets you apart for everyone out there hunting for exactly what you got to give. (You’re going to meet me and be enlightened to a bazillion things you have to offer that you weren’t even aware of). Think about that for just a second.
My name is Jennifer Gallo. I’m a writer.
I want your name and I want whatever you do for a living to be explained to me in such a way as to lull and tug. If you’re already hitting that mark, then you don’t need me. But if you’re not, then what the hell are you waiting for?
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