Meet Jessica Faust

We recently connected with Jessica Faust and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I can credit my parents a lot for this. I was raised to believe I could do anything and to challenge those people or situations who told me I couldn’t. That being said, it has also taken a lot of work on my part. People can tear you down. Life can tear you down and being confident and having good self esteem takes work. I have a regular gratitude journal where I include things I’m grateful for about myself. It’s not just the outside things I’m grateful for—my family, my life, my home—but also the pieces of me I’m proud of—that I believe in myself, my health, my ability to speak out.

I practice daily gratitude and meditation. I celebrate myself and I celebrate others. I remind myself daily to be present and to give myself kudos when I’m owed them. Because we can’t guarantee anyone else will give them to us. At our monthly BookEnds meetings we have a moment of Bragadocious, when everyone shares something about themselves they want to brag about. This could be a work moment or a home moment. We cheer each other on and I believe it gives us more confidence to be who we are.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Twenty-five years ago I founded BookEnds Literary Agency. Our job as literary agents is to manage authors careers. We sell their book to publishers and work with them and publishers to do everything from negotiate their contract, brainstorm book ideas, come up with marketing and publicity plans and everything else that goes into an author’s career.

At BookEnds our mission is to advocate for authors and to make publishing more inclusive through the titles, authors, and illustrators we represent. All agents are actively seeking books written and illustrated by marginalized creators. Our mission is to create a more diverse publishing industry. We strive to be a safe space for LGBTQ, BIPOC, and all marginalized creators, working to lift their voices in publishing. Our agents work closely with their authors to bring the books we have fallen in love with to the rest of the reading public. Our goal is to be the agency that makes authors’ dreams come true.

We represent authors in all areas of publishing for adult and children. All of us at BookEnds have had our lives changed through books and being able to do that for others is our dream.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Courage—Starting and running a company takes a great deal of courage. So often during any given day I still have to take a deep breath and go bravely into whatever new journey this career is taking me on.

Curiosity—I love to learn more, to ask questions and to listen to the ideas of others. I was curious to learn how others ran their businesses and took some of that, from various people, into what I do.

Open to Change—I actually love change. I’m always looking for new systems, new ways to do things, and love hearing what others bring to the table. Getting stagnant is not something I ever want to do.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I read a lot of leadership books—Daring to Lead by Brene Brown has been instrumental in my journey. Being vulnerable, sharing my fails, and even crying or getting emotional in front of my team has been pivotal in making me a strong leader but also building a strong team. One quote I take with me all the time is Clear is Kind, Unclear is Unkind. Being clear with what I need, want and expect has, I hope, allowed for those who work with me to understand exactly what I expect from them.

Atomic Habits is a book I read or review nearly every year. It has been a game-changer in creating a life I love and getting all the things I want out of it.

My latest read is The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbin’s. I’ve already read it twice. Let Them feel the way they feel or react the way they react. Let Me make the choices I need to make for me without fear of what others might think.

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