Element three
Earth
I fix things for a living. That's not the side of me I hide from the stage. It's the reason the stage trusts me.
The labor is the teaching
There's an old idea that a carpenter can also be a teacher, and that the two aren't in competition. I believe that more every year. Showing up at someone's home at eight in the morning, solving the problem, leaving it better than you found it — that's the whole philosophy, with a drill.
I apprenticed from 2020 to 2022 with no tools of my own. Before that I was an elevator technician. Now I run The Palm Beach Fixer in the Northwood historic district. It's the bread and butter and it keeps the rest of this honest, because nobody on a job site cares how you talk about mastery. They care whether the thing works.
What the trades taught the performer
The part that can't be undone. That's the line I carry into everything. In tile, it's the drill hole. In fire, it's the fueling. In a talk, it's the first ten seconds. You slow down before the expensive part and you get the angle right. Then the rest is reps.
The hands also keep me from drifting into guru territory. I'm not theorizing about discipline from a couch. I did a day's work before I lit anything.
The hands, elsewhere
Ten careful holes in tile. A staff on fire. Same hands.
Jake Jackson
Talk to the whole man
If you want the builder on your team's stage, that's a speaking inquiry. If you want a wobbly fan fixed, that's the other site.
Book Jake