AUTHOR TOUTS ‘ROAD MAP’ FOR CONFIDENCE
Local actress and filmmaker pens guide to self-confidence.
Overachiever and goal-oriented are words that come to mind when speaking to local filmmaker, actress and now author Jacqueline Journey.
Her new book, “The Diva’s in the Details,” a guide to inspire readers into believing that confidence, courage and style can be achieved by anyone, certainly reflects her outgoing and go-getter personality. But Journey says it wasn’t always that way, which led her to write a book not only about her personal and professional accomplishments but also how success often managed to elude her.
Journey grew up in Kansas City and Naples, attending boarding school at Pine Crest in Fort Lauderdale, from which she eventually graduated.
She moved to Palm Beach from Austin, where she was vice president and executive producer of an entertainment network in partnership with Time Warner. Since then, she’s called Palm Beach home, and although she travels frequently, has no plans to leave.
“I love it here,” Journey said. “I don’t think I could ever live anywhere else.”
But Journey’s career wasn’t limited to a role behind the cameras. She had a recurring part in the NBC series, “Friday Night Lights,” in which she portrayed Karen Stark. Journey has also appeared in several independent films, including one she wrote and directed, “Hidden Assets.”
Her film premiered at the 2015 Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) and was later screened at the Marche du Film at Cannes. Journey won a Leading Actress Award for her role in “Hidden Assets” at Florida Supercon.
One might wonder why with a career of proven success in television and film, Journey decided to venture into writing.
Journey clarifies that it wasn’t
really a conscious decision but that she decided to go forward with it because she wasn’t happy with her life.
“I got up one day and realized that it was my life dictating what was going to happen next instead of me,” Journey said. “And that can be a good thing sometimes, but I was getting off track, and there were so many things I wanted to do that I hadn’t been able to because I was so incredibly busy with other things. I’m incredibly grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had, but I felt like there was something missing. I sat down and made notations and observations of how certain people I admired behaved while they were offcamera, and what it was that all these extraordinary people had in common.”
The result was what Journey calls in the book, “her road map.” A list in which she detailed what she was good at and how she could achieve her goals in the way people she admired had done.
“Within a year, things were completely different for me,” Journey said. “And three years after I made this list, I was making ‘Hidden Assets,’ which was a lifelong dream of mine. My friends noticed right away, and they kept asking me: ‘What is this list you keep talking about?’ I shared it with some of them, and in turn, they asked if they could show it to others. I started to see that there was a really great opportunity here to write a book based on the list that could really help people.”
According to Journey, one of the most important aspects of success for anyone is being yourself. Something that, unfortunately, she says, is difficult for many.
“It really depends on the person,” Journey says. “You have people who are very self-aware, others who think they’re self-aware and others who really aren’t at all. We do a lot of self-sabotage and selfplacating and we do a lot of convincing that things are one way when they’re another.”
Journey confesses that one of the most difficult things in writing “The Diva’s in the Details,” was to cede control of her privacy. “When I started writing this book, I had no intention of telling anything personal about myself,” Journey said. “Talking about my personal struggles with cancer, things that are very personal and private. But in the end, I decided I had to because it’s one thing to talk the talk and another to walk the walk. If I can be honest about at least some of what I’ve been through and that can help someone else relate a little bit with my experience, that’s something worth doing.”
In the book, Journey talks openly about suffering from “Impostor Syndrome,” also known as “Impostor Phenomenon,” a disorder recognized by the American Psychological Association as “a specific form of intellectual selfdoubt” that can be suffered by both men and women. Journey says that she didn’t realize that she was struggling with something very real and not that uncommon.
“Coming from working in film and television my whole life, I would have never admitted to anyone that I sometimes walked into an audition thinking that I wasn’t good enough and that I was afraid I was a fraud,” Journey said. “I knew I had to address this in the book, because I feel the more you talk about it, the more it loses whatever power it has over you. Knowing that people like Maya Angelou and Kate Winslet suffer from the same thing makes you realize you’re not alone in this.”
Journey says that she faced challenges in getting her book published, but that the biggest hurdle was finding an editor who could understand and respect her writing style and the narrative structure of the book.
“I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want a ghostwriter or anything like that because I had always written my own screenplays and segments for television,” Journey said. “I wanted this to be in my own voice.”
What has surprised Journey while promoting the book is how much she has come to enjoy speaking engagements. She says it’s something she might think about taking further, and perhaps even include in her many future projects. But that may have to wait because, not one to sit idle, Journey is already at work on a new television series about life in South Florida titled “Passport to the Palm Beaches,” which she describes as a “luxury lifestyle and adventure show.” Filming for the series is ongoing, and she estimates that it will begin to broadcast nationally in the first or second quarter of 2019.
Journey also has an idea for a new film based on a true crime story that took place in South Florida 22 years ago. She says that the pieces are still being put together, so she can’t say much about it. As if these projects weren’t enough to keep her busy, Journey also launched a new line of spa products called Decadence Palm Beach, which offers candles, body lotions, gift totes and other items.
When asked what she would like readers to take away from her book, Journey’s answer is clear. That they can be and do anything they want.
“People like to say that, but they need to look within themselves and know that it’s true. That’s why I dedicated it to every woman who wants more. Because more can mean anything you want it to mean. People can achieve so much more than they think they can. Fear is the killer, we all have those, but you don’t want to live your life looking back and thinking, “I wish I would have tried this.’”