Hey there, I’m Jon…
Hola!
Let me tell you a little about myself…
I know, I know…my website says “Jonathon M. Seidl” and all my articles say “Jonathon M. Seidl,” but my friends call me Jon. I’m hoping you become one of those friends, so please, call me Jon!
Thanks for dropping by my little corner of the internet. If you’re here, that means you’d like to get to know me better. So let’s get to it. I’ve been in digital media for over a decade. I even started my own company to help others with that. I’ve been struggling with anxiety for much longer than that. I’ve written a lot of stories during that period. I helped start a news website in 2010 that went on to become one of the top 50 sites in the country, and it was all based on telling news stories a little differently. In the time since then, I’ve written over 6,000 articles and stories. As a result, I’ve seen what being open and vulnerable can do. I’ve seen people write thousands of letters to a dying stranger, tens of thousands of dollars raised in mere hours, and the hardest of faces transformed into tears all because of stories. That’s made me passionate about being open and honest, especially when it comes to my own struggles. And so I’ve dedicated my life to storytelling. I want to help people, businesses, churches, and non-profits tell their stories and transform those around them. I want to use storytelling to erase the stigma around mental health. And I want to connect people using the power of prose.
I have my own unique story. Growing up, I could tell something was “different” about the way I thought. I would want to stop thinking about things but I just couldn’t. I would have these weird episodes where my heart would race. I would have to have things done in a certain order. It was exhausting. It all came to a head in 2015, and that year I was officially diagnosed with anxiety and OCD. It changed my life. In 2016, I decided to start telling the story of my journey to being diagnosed, what it’s like living with mental health struggles, and how I’ve gained power of them. My book on the topic, “Finding Rest,” was released on September 28, 2021 and instantly became a #1 Amazon bestseller, toping the charts in several categories like anxieties and phobias, mood disorders, and obsessive compulsive disorder. In fact, it shot up to become the #17 new release on all of Amazon and became a top 100 bestseller on all of Amazon as well.
While I’ve gotten to meet some pretty neat people during my time in media, the most interesting people I’ve encountered don’t have famous names or polished resumes. They’re people like you — people with a story. And if we haven’t met, I hope we can change that soon.
How about an email you actually want to read?
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A little bit more about me: I met my wife while we were both living in New York City and going to school. We’ve been married since 2009. She’s much taller than I am, thank God. Because of her our kids actually have a chance of being over 5 feet! My daughter, Annie, is 7 and she has me wrapped around her finger. My son, Jack, is 4, and he’s named after my favorite writer and storyteller, C.S. “Jack” Lewis.
Although I’m originally from Wisconsin, my wife and I live in Dallas. I’m still a diehard Packers, Brewers, Badgers, and Bucks fan, but I really love it down South. I got tired of the cold and the winters! Still, I love my “motherland” and I can still pick out a midwest accent in about 3.2 seconds.
What I talk about
I’m passionate about storytelling because it has so much power. In fact, one of my first big pieces helped garner a $10,000 grant for a non-profit that was working to rescue women out of the sex industry. If you can learn to tell stories effectively you can transform your own life, your business, and your relationships. People like Phil Knight and Richard Branson realize that. So do companies like Dodge. There’s no reason why your business, your church, your organization, or yourself can’t harness that same power.
As a result, I talk a lot about storytelling as well as my own story. That story involves my journey to being diagnosed with anxiety and OCD, as well as subsequent bouts of depression. I’m passionate about both helping people with a similar story, as well as helping people discover and tell a story that may be different from mine.
I hope to talk with you about both soon.
“Wow! Everything you mentioned is me. I can’t believe this. I’ve never talked about these things to anyone. ”
Official Bio
Jonathon (Jon) M. Seidl has spent over a decade in digital media and is the founder and president of The Veritas Creative, a digital media consulting and content creation firm. Most recently he served as the managing editor of Kirk Cameron's TheCourage, where he oversaw content and material focused on faith, family, and culture. Before TheCourage, Seidl served as the editor-in-chief of I Am Second, a Christian non-profit that tells stories of incredible life transformation.
Previously, Jon worked as the managing editor of TheBlaze.com, a national news website. He joined as an assistant editor in 2010 and was one of its founding editors and first writing hire. Under his leadership, the site became one of the top 50 websites in the country, reaching over 35 million unique visitors.
His journalistic journey started when a college writing assignment called for a descriptive essay. After writing about the difference between his college town of New York City and his hometown in Wisconsin, Jon’s childhood newspaper decided to publish it. Since then, his writing has appeared in WORLD magazine, online with the American Spectator, at FoxNews.com, and in nearly 6,000 posts at TheBlaze.
In 2016, Jon opened up for the first time about his mental health experience: He was diagnosed with anxiety and OCD in 2014. He has become an ardent supporter of mental health awareness and is especially a strong voice for how the Christian church can better handle the issue. His book on the topic, Finding Rest: A Survivor’s Guide to Navigating the Valleys of Anxiety, Faith, and Life, was released on September 28, 2021. It quickly became a #1 Amazon bestseller and #1 new release in several mental health categories, including the #67 bestselling book on all of Amazon.
Jon is a person of strong faith and has served as a homegroup leader at The Village Church in Dallas and Providence Church in Frisco, TX.
He graduated from The King's College-New York City with a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics, and spent a total of seven years living in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.
Although he is a Green Bay Packers fanatic, he and his wife live in the Dallas, Texas, area with their daughter Annie, son Jack, and two dogs.
