Jocelyn Journey: From Texas Farm, to Nashville music to Marketing

Born in Fort Worth, TX, Jocelyn is a fifth-generation Texan who grew up living a small town farm life. From an early age, she was drawn to music and loved to sing. By the age of seven she was on stage at local oprys and began performing at local functions. But her main draw to music was the storytelling in the country music she was exposed to. She poured over liner notes and lyrics, identifying her favorite writers behind the songs she loved. By 6th grade, she began writing songs of her own, and started guitar lessons.

In high school, you could find Jocelyn almost everywhere. She worked, played basketball, was editor and photographer of the yearbook, showed cattle, and every other weekend was on a stage, singing at various oprys and events. The summer after she graduated, her dairy heifer won Grand Champion and her county fair, and she used the winnings to buy a car.

Her first job was working in her paternal grandmother’s flower shop, where she worked alongside three generations of family: her great-grandmother, both grandmothers, and mother. Rounding out this formidable experience were the additional women who worked there, all lifelong town residents who were full of stories, quick-witted quips, and affection for her. “Working at the flower shop taught me so much. There was work to be done like mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms, and organizing. There were social and sales cues I learned when waiting on customers or delivering flowers, especially in delicate situations like funerals. And there was almost boundless space for creativity: helping to design window displays, creating gift baskets, building corsages, and just experimenting with color and texture. But ultimately I think the biggest impact was being in that intimate community of women and getting to know their perspectives.”

Her love of music and writing brought her to Nashville, where she attended Belmont University and earned her BBA with a focus in music business and marketing. She did publicity at Dualtone Records and spent eight years on the marketing team at SESAC, growing the brand and working to elevate the importance of songwriters. After more than a decade, she decided it was time to get out of her comfort zone.

She landed a role doing marketing at a healthcare startup, where she honed her skills in creating simplified communications out of the complex, as well as managed a large rebranding effort. After two years, with the support of a friend, she then made the leap in 2017 to start her own boutique consultancy, Password Creative.

At Password Creative, she helps organizations and business owners tell their story in a way that identifies with those they serve. In making that leap, she also became a Certified Guide through StoryBrand, a framework that utilizes storytelling techniques in communications. “I’ve loved stories and storytelling my whole life, so this was natural to me. Whether it’s a song or an elevator speech, it has to draw people in while being efficient and clear.”

Some of her favorite work is helping organizations develop (or redevelop through a rebrand) their core identity, creating brand platforms that inform every way an organization communicates. She contends, “Having a strong, clear brand platform is imperative to your organization, especially if you’re using AI to build marketing materials. If what you’re putting in isn’t authentic and good, you’re not going to get quality output. In fact, you can quickly lose sight of any identity at all. Using these tools well means doing this critical foundation work first.”

Jocelyn has been married to her husband David for almost 15 years, and together they have a four-year-old daughter, Inez, as well as a blue heeler dog named Doc Holliday. She taps her farming and floral roots through gardening and genealogy research. Jocelyn says there is no shortage of intensity and creativity in her daughter, who is now in a phase where every night she asks for… what else? “Tell me a story from when you were a kid.”

I really enjoyed getting to know Jocelyn during the shoot and reveal. She is fun yet down to earth. She models for her young daughter what a strong, confident woman is and can do.

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40 over 40: Jocelyn's Story

Jocelyn Journey: From Texas Farm, to Nashville music to Marketing

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