Meet Jeanette Hurt

We recently connected with Jeanette Hurt and have shared our conversation below.

Jeanette , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Early on in my career, I was fired from a newspaper reporting job. During the firing process, an editor told me that I “wasn’t good at writing so that I needed to find a career I was better at.” Another editor suggested I get a job at the Department of Motor Vehicles because I spoke Spanish.
I felt devastated. I had wanted to be a writer since I was a young girl – I wrote stories before I could read, dictating them to my mother. And here, people I had respected, were telling me that I was terrible at a job I loved.
It took me nearly two full years to build back my confidence, In the process, I learned one very important lesson: never value someone else’s opinion of my own skills or talents above my own. Also, they’re just opinions – they’re not God’s truth.
I also learned that there’s a big difference in constructive criticism and destructive criticism. Constructive criticism includes advice on improvement, and it’s usually very specific. Destructive criticism is usually aimed at you as a person, telling you you simply aren’t good enough.
I’ve since published 16 books, ghostwritten three other books and edited three other books, not to mention worked with dozens of different editors at dozens of different publications.
And the one editor who told me I wasn’t good at writing? Well, that same newspaper did a full, Sunday feature spread about my work, and recently, one of his reporters interviewed me on another subject. His reporter told me to tell me that this editor said to say hi. Apparently, I’m not that bad of a writer after all.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a writer, author and cocktail historian. I’ve written 16 books on food and drink. Two of my books are bestsellers – The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook and Wisconsin Cocktails. My latest book was just published by the University of Kentucky Press: The Whiskey Sour. Other notable books include Drink Like a Woman, Cauliflower Comfort Food, and three books about cheese.

I regularly contribute to Forbes, Simply Recipes and other publications, and I’m a regular guest on Fox-6 Milwaukee morning shows, demonstrating cocktails and explaining cocktail history.

I love diving deeply into subject that catch my interest. The way most of my books have happened is that I find an interesting story or two, then I write about it, and then I see a possible book idea develop…and then I spend months or years researching it and then writing about it.

I went from writing about food to writing about cheese and wine, and then just wine, and then writing about spirits for wine publications. Three cocktail books later, I am now considered a cocktail historian, and I did a TedxOshkosh talk, too.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Be curious. If you’re interested in something, someone else will likely be interested.

Work hard. Success is going to take a lot harder work than you ever imagine, but just keep going. My book proposals were rejected more than 40 times before I sold my first book…and then I sold my second book a week later.

Don’t take rejection personally – eventually, the right yeses will come.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

If you plan to be a writer or an author, get a writing goal buddy. I met my writing goal buddy, Damon Brown, at a writing conference nearly two decades ago. He and I just hit it off, and what really helped us, is that while we are great friends, we specialize in entirely different subjects. He started out as a video game and tech writer who is now an entrepreneur coach and business writer (The Bite-Sized Entrepreneur series is one of his book series). We encouraged each other, and both of us helped each other when we were discouraged or down. He was ready to self-publish his first big book…and I found the small press that eventually accepted his book proposal later that day. Damon introduced me to his agent, who became my agent. I would not be the writer or author I am today without having my writing goal buddy, and he would probably say the same thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jeanettehurt.com
• Instagram: ByJeanetteHurt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanette-hurt-4442aa7
• Twitter: ByJeanetteHurt

Image Credits

Whiskey Sour – University of Kentucky Press
Wisconsin Cocktails – University of Wisconsin Press
Drink Like a Woman – Seal Press
The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook – Ulysses Press