Let's Talk About Brand

Let's Talk About Brand with Jess Zafarris

Oct 28, 2024

40:06

I first met today's guest, Jess Zafarris, as a journalist in the marketing and advertising space (she was an editor for Adweek and is now editor at large at Ragan Communications and PR Daily).

But what we're really talking about today is Jess's other career–and other personal brand–as an etymologist and etymology author.

On her “Useless Etymology” channels, Jess presents word origins and history in an engaging and entertaining way, and is working on her third etymology book. We discuss how she concurrently built her careers as a journalist and a “pop etymologist” and how she’s balanced both.

Listen and learn:

Jess’s career in journalism
Her Adweek chapter, and building a name for herself
“How could you be so incurious?...”
Why this topic interests me (Christine) so personally
Jess’s research background
”It's kind of like linguistic anthropology–linguistic sociology, more so…”
Useless Etymology blog
Building TikTok accounts for both Adweek and Useless Etymology
“Once Upon A Word”
Jess’s brand voice
“I didn't want to jeopardize the career that was affiliated with my primary income…”
Growing Useless Etymology
Content lessons
“Words From Hell”
The violent history of the word “decimate”
“Offbeat word origins for curious minds…”
Jess’s book development process
“Useless Etymology: The Book”!
“I actually let my audience choose for me…”
What lights Jess up about etymology
“Have you ever tried to read the OED?”
The positive opportunities “Words From Hell” has opened up
Words Unraveled podcast
The topic of Jess’s fourth book