We Talk About:
- Highlights and lowlights
- Dealing with high expectations
- Leaving space in your life for joy
- Why playing at a high level brings more challenge
Resources:
- Follow Jessica: @jessicazweig
- Follow Alli: @alliwebb
- Follow Lori: @loriharder
- Follow Brittany: @britdrisc
Show Notes:
Jessica Zweig is CEO of the SimplyBe. agency, a premier personal branding firm based in Chicago, and serving clients across the globe. Named a “personal branding expert” by Forbes, a “top digital marketer to watch” by INC, and honored with the gold and silver Stevie® Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018 and 2019, Jessica facilitates sold-out workshops and speaks on the power of personal branding to corporations including Google, Salesforce, Virgin, Nike, Motorola, Red Bull, and Bank of America. She also hosts the top-ranked marketing podcast, The SimplyBe. Podcast. Jessica’s debut book, Be: A No-Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net Worth by Simply Being Yourself, launched in February 2021 with Sounds True, an imprint of Macmillan.
After growing up in Highland Park, IL and attending The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jessica co-founded CheekyChicago, one of Chicago’s premier lifestyle magazines. The website was a huge success and, although Jessica was known as a top ten Chicago “it girl,” behind the scenes, her life was far from perfect. The website began to lose money, and Jessica’s relationship with her co-founder turned toxic, but she still strove to maintain the façade of success. After overdrafting her checking account and becoming unable to pay her cell phone bill, Jessica realized she wasn’t being her authentic self. Instead, she was operating from a place of fear which prevented her from true success. This revelation led Jessica to found her own company, SimplyBe. Agency, in 2014.
At SimplyBe., Jessica and her team work with corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and creatives to become recognized industry experts and thought leaders. SimplyBe. works with clients including Heineken, Morningstar, Blackstone, Mars, Vishen Lakhiani, Jason Rosenthal, Andrea Levoff, Larry Jordan, and many more to successfully develop their personal brands while highlighting their greatest business asset: their authenticity. Her business provides customized branding, marketing, and creative services with an emphasis on core values like kindness, truth, service, and, of course, authenticity.
Jessica believes authenticity is the key to true success, and that being yourself opens up a new world of empowerment that’s not just about how much money you’re making. She’s also on a mission to debunk the perception that personal branding is an act of vanity; instead, when done right, personal branding is an act of service, social responsibility, and a positive investment toward a positive future.
Jessica has brought her life-changing and trademarked methodology to clients around the world, taking many from unknown expert to recognized thought leader. In her free time, she loves traveling, meditating, journaling, working out, and reading. She is involved with multiple charities including The Humane Society, The Human Rights Campaign, I Grow Chicago, Black Lives Matter, and more. Jessica currently lives in Chicago with her husband and two dogs.