How to be Happy: Jessica Rowe’s ‘pretty crap’ work admission

Three years on from leaving the “best job I’ve ever had” at Studio 10, Jessica Rowe has admitted to having a “pretty crap” career run.

It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a year none of us were prepared for – just ask Jessica Rowe.

In the three years since leaving Studio 10 – a role she admits was the “best job I’ve ever had” – Rowe had got used to wearing many work hats.

She’s appeared on The Real Dirty Dancing, released a book Diary of a Crap Housewife as well as working as an events MC and mental health advocate.

But Rowe said the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that a lot of her usual work was now non-existent.

“Well, I gotta be honest in my professional life it’s been pretty crap,” she told news.com.au podcast How to be Happy.

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Jessica Rowe admitted she had found it harder to get work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Picture: Richard Dobson

“A lot of my work has gone, it’s disappeared because a lot of my work has been talking to people, hosting events, advocating for mental health but doing that with people, with an audience.”

Rowe said the loss of work had been tough, especially because she thrives on “connecting with people”.

“It’s been hard and like so many other people you do have to reinvent yourself and I think for me I’ve tried very much through my whole life, it’s been a series of reinventions,” she said.

“But I’ve really struggled this year because what I thrive on is people, is connecting with people, having conversations.”

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Rowe said it was important to remember that ‘things happen that are beyond our control’. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Rowe told How to be Happy host, journalist and former news.com.au editor-in-chief Kate de Brito, that while her career had seen many transitions, she doesn’t get tired of the constant striving.

“I like to think of it not as not being a hustle,” she said. “I think sometimes in life things happen that are beyond our control but what we can control is how we decide to deal with it.

“That was a really good life lesson that my mum taught me.”

During her decades-long media career, Rowe said she had learn “what brings you that sense of joy and happiness is different” at different points in her life.

“There have been various times in both my professional and personal life where I’ve thought OK, enough wallowing, time to think what can I do, how can I find a sense of joy, what can I do that will bring me a sense of happiness and contentment,” she said.

“And I think what I’ve learnt over time is that changes.”

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Rowe said her Studio 10 hosting role was the ‘best job I’ve ever had’. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

This ethos was what drove Rowe to depart Studio 10 in 2018, despite her popularity as host on the show.

“When I decided to leave Studio 10 I’d been there five years, it was the best job I’ve ever had in media because I think I was happy within myself,” she said.

“I loved that job, but it came to a point where I thought you know what I’m not happy anymore doing this.”

Rowe said she knew it was the right time to go “because I listened to my heart”.

“Too often we don’t tap into our heart and it could be different things for different people – it might be intuition, it might be a feeling in your gut (or) a sense of things not being right and too often we ignore that we try and be logical, rational,” she said.

“My heart was saying to me you are tired, you are juggling too much and you aren’t happy.”

Listen to the full interview with Jessica Rowe on the How to be Happy podcast, available to stream now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.