Today I am joined by Jessica Zweig, CEO of The SimplyBe. Agency, a personal branding firm in Chicago. She is a speaker, author and the host of a top ranked marketing podcast “The Simply Be” Podcast. In this episode, Jessica shares the ups and downs of her journey, how she went from hidden to authentic, and simple steps to follow to impact the authenticity in your own brand. What if success was as simple as Be.’ing yourself?
Show Notes:
2:48 FROM STRUGGLING ACTOR TO BUSINESS OWNER
Jessica graduated with an acting degree at the age of 22. She struggled through her early 20s figuring out what to do with her life. She stumbled into entrepreneurship at the age of 26 when she was temping in a side job, and started a blog which turned into the biggest platform for women in the city of Chicago for 7 years. That’s when she dove into entrepreneurship full-time. She then grew that into an online magazine. She felt like she was “somebody” because she was able to get into any club or event.
7:00 THE INNER STRUGGLES & MOVING ON
Jessica had a breakdown that set her on a spiritual path. When you get a call like this, it doesn’t make sense or compute, but she couldn’t ignore the voice. She spent the next year and a half cleaning up her side of the mess in her business, divorcing her business partner, and creating a path forward for her life. That’s when she started SimplyBe. Agency.
11:05 DROPPING THE “FRONT” AND START SHARING
The hardest part is the beginning. Once you throw yourself into the deep end, you get markers of validation that the truth was really needed and people resonate more with the truth than the surface-level stuff you were previously sharing. Being broke and in credit card debt, everyone thought Jessica and her team were killing it. Fast forward, she shared about her debt on a panel in front of 50 people. At the end of the panel, there was a line of people around the room waiting to talk to her.
24:25 HOW TO START SHOWING UP AUTHENTICALLY
The first step to showing up authentically is to get out of your OWN way, the rest of the steps are simply tactics.
- Branding is an exercise in clarity. How well does somebody understand your brand in less than 15 seconds?
- People are complicated and ever-evolving.
If branding needs clarity, and people are complicated, the hologram can help the reader work through this. If you could only talk about 4 things for the rest of your life, what would they be?
39:50 YOU ARE WORTHY OF WHAT YOU WANT?
To the woman who doesn’t feel worthy of having a big platform, you are needed. By not playing out your life big and on purpose, you are not only doing a disservice to yourself, but to the whole world.
Find Jessica on all social media platforms @JessiaZweig!
Learn more about Jessica’s book
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