Ten years after marriage, yet the love Jessica and Jon share stays evergreen. We love how they do not only make parenting look effortless but they also constantly share their truth on life behind all the glamour.
Join us on this special annual edition as Jessica and Jon share a truckload of inspiration filled with love, beauty and brilliance.
Here’s To An Annual Celebration of Inspiring Couples in The Creative Industry
Being a Creative is a lot in a world full of ‘noise.’ To find someone who can listen, relate with your words, your dreams, the happy tears, and even the challenging moments is one of the best gifts to have, not just for a moment, but for a lifetime. We understand that having the right partner can make life a lot more enjoyable and fulfilling. Having someone to support your creative journey in all sincerity and love all you do and all you are is a priceless gift.
Enjoy and Stay Inspired:

To Jessica, you are not just an awe-inspiring wife and mother, you also thrive in your creativity at the green-house salon. Can you share with us some highlights of how your husband has contributed to the growth of your journey as a creative?

JESSICA:
Yes! You see, I started my salon about 10 years ago and it was actually when we were just starting to date. We were very quickly engaged, but we’ll get to that later. I was like, Jon I want to take a leap of faith here and start my own salon and he was completely on board, he was very supportive of my decision, even though I was making almost no money to start, but he was like, ‘I’ve got you’. So I’ve been able to grow that for 10years and it has been awesome. We have been doing hair for almost 17years now

While we know it is not easy, you and Jessica make parenting a total delight to see. What would you consider mostly about having the right partner, like Jessica.
JON: it may seem like it’s a delight to see, it is hard and it has been hard. We had our second born right before 20 and it was just kind of a stressful time with both kids. As babies and dealing with things like postpartum and the new transition. We always decided even before having kids that we weren’t going to put them in a full time day-care or anything like that. We wanted to be with our kids as much as possible. So with her being an entrepreneur in a salon and I was a personal trainer before social media, we just wanted to split it up, so what we did was make our schedules fit being with the kids more. So I’ll work early in the morning and be with them during the day, go back to work at night and she would work in the day and take like a day off. It was really nice to have a partner that wanted to do that as well. We both wanted to be with our kids as much as possible and raise them ourselves and also continue to have careers. I think we have done a pretty good job but it has been stressful. It is also nice, if I’m down, she will pick me up, if she’s down I do my best to pick her up. We are like a really good team and that’s what it is. It is not perfect . It’s hard. Parenting is hard. I think we’re really good at working as a team through all those difficult struggles
HELLO ICON: We love the fact that you guys are a team. There is this friendship, there is this love, I just love your relationship, it is perfect in its own way. Your shirt says, ‘tired dad’, are you tired?
JON: Yea, always tired! It kind of developed into a meaning more than that. It’s kind of like, ‘if you’re tired, you’re doing it right. We are tired from parenting and if you put in a lot of work into anything you truly care about, you’re going to be tired, and this is related to parenting. ‘Tired dad’ ‘Tired mum’

HELLO ICON: How did you meet? Was it love at first sight?
It’s kind of crazy how everything draws in my mind now I cannot necessarily say it was love at first sight.
JON: It’s kind of crazy in my mind how I met my future wife. I was always like you’ve seen the love at first sight in movies and stuff, and I can honestly say, it was Love at first sight for us. Everybody thinks you’re just saying that, you’re just saying that, but it is kind of a long story. I just moved here to Nashville Tennessee, and my brother-in-law went to get his haircut from her and he said, ‘hey! My brother and I just moved here too, maybe you guys can link up or something ‘. We did link up and talked that night for hours, we ended up meeting the next morning in a coffee shop and the first time I saw her It was really special, we hugged and had a very long conversation at the coffee shop and I think we both went home. After that, we knew it was something we never experienced and it was something very very deep. We were talking about getting married just a few weeks after that.
JESSICA : You forgot…his brother-in-law called him on his way home from the salon and said, ‘I think I found your wife’
JON: And I was just like, Go game, whatever. You know we have been married almost 10years and that feeling that I had when I first met her, I still get that feeling, so I will say it was love at first sight, for sure.
HELLO ICON: We really love the love in your relationship, Jessica kind of reminds me of Genie and Georgia
Jon: I’ve been saying that, I’ve been saying she looks like her
JESSICA: That’s a big compliment, I don’t know. I love that girl.

HELLO ICON: You sound like Georgia, the way she lives, how she’s serious about her business, team spirit. I believe you have that relationship Georgia had with genie. It’s a really beautiful thing.
‘You give 110% everyday and we are so lucky to have you’, these are your words for your husband and you give a beautiful glimpse of how you see him. You also call him the best, what was the first attraction for you and that do you think has kept the connect strong?
JESSICA: The first thing, obviously I saw him and thought he was super-cute. Then when we went into the coffee shop, we just talked, we talked for hours and we didn’t want to stop and then we called each other after and then we talked for longer. We have always communicated really well, and then we get along really well , can work through things and I think being really open with each other has just helped us through 10years and to always come back to that, to be able to solve any problems we have. I think that’s it; communication.
HELLO ICON: Wow! Communication is key. Very important for the peace in any relationship, union or any kind of ship, communication is paramount.
‘I am extremely grateful for my beautiful family and i wouldn’t trade anything for my life to be different ’, please what was that one thing that made you know she’s the one?
JON: Right when I met her, I knew she was something special, as you can see, she lights up the room. Everybody says that, it’s what all her clients say. It’s what my brother-in-law says, he’s never asked her before. He just said, ‘I don’t know, there’s something about her, about her smile. I could tell she was a compassionate person and really caring, a great listener to me. Right when you meet her, you just know that she cares a lot and I think that’s the number one thing I wanted in the mother of my kids and she’s so good at loving our kids, she’s an empathetic person and that’s what I wanted in a partner too. That was how I knew she was the one for sure.

HELLO ICON: That’s so sweet!
We understand that life comes with it’s hurdles sometimes, how do you both manage challenging times?
JON: She talked about communicating through our problems. She is very helpful and has no problem expressing her emotions and stuff. I’m a little different, but she’s so good at noticing when something is wrong with me. she helps talk through it with me and makes me open up, but in the challenging times, the communication and knowing what each other wants at that time, is important. She knows me so well, I know her very well, what she needs, what would make her better, she knows what I need. So it’s about communication and dealing with our needs.
HELLO ICON: I just got out something from what you said. Most of the times, when couples are interviewed, they be like, ‘she’s my person, we think alike, we do things alike, we’re very similar’. I love the communication, connection in disparity. You’re both different, but able to live together because you understand communication is important. I really love your relationship.
Social media has made the picture of love, marriage and relationship quite blurry sometimes. One moment, we see love everywhere, the next moment we have breakup stories, but these words below by X1, one of our pioneer interviewees on the love series make the picture clearer: “understand what you see is not the complete story, do not assume to know. Strength, power, independence, wisdom, love is just beneath the eye-catching cover”.
To either Jon or Jessica, can you please share some quick tips on how couples can better manage social media and its influence on their relationships?
JON: Yea! We always talk about how social media can be a highlight for a lot of things and a lot of the reasons why people get on social media is that sometimes, they want to see that unattainable picture of life or whatever, but what it comes down to is that, no one’s life is perfect. We all struggle no matter where we are, no matter how much money we have. Everybody is going to have some sort of struggle and problems, so I think it’s just first of all, consuming real stuff, things, problems, and obviously in moderation. You don’t want it to consume you, but really just understanding that, it’s everybody’s struggle, everybody has their set of problems and that there is no perfect relationship. Marriage is hard. I think we have a really good marriage, it can get really hard at times. Parenting is really hard, there’s no perfect kid, kids are just kids, they don’t know how to manage their emotions, as adults don’t really either. Just understanding that concept that what you see is like a movie sometimes, it’s great to look at, entertaining but it’s not necessarily real. Every single person has their struggle and its not just ,’ happy’ all the time. It’s impossible to attain that.

HELLO ICON:
To Jon, who was the first person you told, about Jessica when you knew she was the one.
JON: My brother-in-law and my sister who lived in Tennessee at the time. We were close, I told them because they were the ones who told me about her and said to reach out to her. I literally called them that night and said something is crazy. I basically told everybody that I was in contact with couple days after that, that ‘yea, I might have found the one’. I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t want to jump into anything crazy. I was ready to get married but I was picky. I kept questioning if it was real and I didn’t really have to talk myself into it that much, because we felt the same way. I knew this was it and it was crazy. We were talking like that just a week later.
HELLO ICON:
Jessica , what song best describes your marriage?
JESSICA: I would say our wedding song, ‘can’t help falling in Love’ by Elvis Presley . The whole song says how fools rush into marriage or love and we definitely did that, because we got engaged after 5months.
JON: You know, you look at other people and they just don’t know how you truly feel towards another person. A lot of people despite their past relationships might have a stance on moving so quickly. There were some people that advised us to make sure to take a little time. Honestly, it didn’t take 9months, because we got engaged and married within 6months. The wedding didn’t take so long. We were ready to go somewhere on the beach. We would have gotten married a lot sooner. It was 11months after we met, we got married that pretty quick in America, but I would have done it within a month.
HELLO ICON:
Wow! Such high level of maturity and discernment. Like you knew what you wanted and you were going to get it regardless other people’s opinion.
What does Art mean to both of you?
JON:
Art means to me, to freely, fully express yourself in things that are inside your heart, how you view the world and to just freely express it with no limitations. Basically, how you see the world and how you see situations.
JESSICA: Creating things from your heart, just being very creative yourself.

HELLO ICON:
Another thing I admire about you is the simplicity
Jessica, as creatives we understand the high tendencies of getting stressed out even while pursing our passion. There are days even when depression may creep in or just the inexplicable feeling of overwhelming-ness. Do you have any relatable experience to this? If so, how are you able to manage and thrive beyond phases like this? Any quick tips on mental health for creatives?
JESSICA : Yes, I definitely relate. I’ve dealt with depression, especially after having my children and I had postpartum depression. Also, going back into being a mother of two children, keeping my house in order and managing my business. It was hard, it’s been hard to do all three really well. I feel like some days, if I’m doing well at this place, then I’m failing a little bit over here or I’m not doing as well and I think as a creative person, I want to do everything very well, create the best and the most. My mind sometimes drives me crazy, because I can be very critical of myself, work, mothering, so I just have to work through that. With mental health, taking time for myself, talking about it with Jon. If he knows that, then he can help me, he can be aware of those things and it really helps for us to have each other. We have both struggled with things, even with him being a creative, media takes a lot out of him daily and to recharge at night, we got to have time together, unwind.

HELLO ICON:
I also admire the fact that you depend and rely on each other. This goes a long way to show how much you trust and have confidence in each other, because many do not have these things, they tend to allow a third party creep in and have problems in the marriage but with such characteristics as yours, it goes a long way to show how deeply you love each other. It’s a good thing.

Jon, do you think creatives in developed countries are at an advantage than those in developing countries?
JON: The simple answer is Yes, but I think it’s kind of complex because I think that in developed countries we have access to a lot and that could aid creativity in a way. I also think that the developing countries might see life differently and that could help creativity. As far as creativity in general, there could be advantages to both, but definitely in developed countries giving your all out there is easier. We see some of the creatives from developing countries that are so creative if they just gave their all out, they’ll do well. So yes, I’ll say.

We understand balancing work time and rest time is a struggle for many Creatives. Please share a few tips on how you try to balance work time, rest time and family time?
JESSICA: For me, I need to put away the phone, just zone out. I like down time, I like to read, watch a show like, ‘genie and Georgia. I like to go away, allow my brain shut-down and not type or focus on things like, my work, the house. I love baths, the sun, relax and I’m done.
HELLO ICON
What does success mean to you?
JON: for me, success will be to do something that you enjoy, also having it not limit the person you are and really doing something good for the world whether it’s big or small and good for people.
JESSICA: Being able to do something that you truly are passionate about, you love and feel like it’s helping others, because your message always ought to help other people.
JON: Everybody needs to be fulfilled in what they are doing daily in life. It might be your main job or something like a hobby or you do to unwind. Doing your best to fulfil other people. Everybody thinks success is financially right away and obviously that’s a big part, but importantly, the love you show to people and family is most important because you can be successful financially and lack in some of those areas. I think it has to all work together.

Let’s go a little poetic: If poetry is a rainbow and you have a choice of one color in that pallette, what would that be and why?
I like light colors, so any light color, like blue, yellow, because it reminds me of sunshine in day time and the sky. It can’t resemble so much to get poetic, but It resembles hope. A dark day or cloudy day is going to become a light day eventually or above the clouds is the sky.
Happy, bright because you are going to have many of those dark days, but there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.
JESSICA: blue, green colors, because I like water, plants, sand, life, earth. I love those colors that make me feel.

Massive Love Jessica and Jon!
The ICONIC Team