Your personal brand isn’t just about what you deliver. It’s how you show up. If you’re exhausted, stressed to the point of breaking, or gripping your way through the week, that comes through too. No amount of polish can hide what’s happening underneath when you’re not actually taking care of yourself.

Jessie Spressart gets this. As founder and managing director of Optia Consulting, she helps law firms build cultures where people can do excellent work and be well at the same time. Her core belief is simple: doing your job well and taking care of yourself aren’t two separate conversations. They’re two sides of the same coin.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula and Jessie unpack what really stops professionals from prioritizing their well-being and how stress quietly builds long before it becomes a crisis. Jessie shares practical resets you can use in five minutes or less, and explains why chasing perfection undermines the consistency your brand actually needs. They also dig into what it takes for leaders to get more comfortable talking about mental health, and why your brand suffers when what you think, feel, and do are out of alignment.  

1:19 — Jessie on personal brand, her three words, and her favorite quotes

5:44 — How moving from New Jersey to Louisville shaped her

7:48 — Jessie’s path from music historian to medieval history to law

11:14 — How a temp job as a legal secretary became 13 years at a firm

12:28 — The move from legal secretary to professional development

13:56 — Starting Optia Consulting in 2019 before the pandemic

15:44 — The shift from management training to well-being and mental health

19:42 — Why personal branding (and well-being) is about consistency, not perfection

22:09 — The biggest obstacles lawyers face around prioritizing well-being

26:22 — Shifting well-being from a program to part of the culture

28:39 — Mental Health Essentials for Leaders and why leaders must get conversant

33:23 — Stress and energy tools that take minutes, not hours

41:39 — Building a scaffolding of practices before you hit crisis

43:29 — Brain, body, behavior — and how all three show up in your brand

45:00 — Congruency and why misalignment kills your personal brand

50:02 — The part of her brand Jessie will never compromise

Mentioned In Self-Care Isn't Separate: Why Your Well-Being Shapes Your Brand with Jessie Spressart

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Sponsor for this episode

PGE Consulting Group LLC empowers individuals and organizations to lead with purpose, presence, and impact. Specializing in leadership development and personal branding, we offer keynotes, custom programming, consulting, and strategic advising—all designed to elevate influence and performance at every level.

Founded and led by Paula Edgar, our

We're starting off 2026 with a bang with my New Year's Intention and Goal Setting session on January 3rd, and then my new three-part series, LinkedIn Strategy for Lawyers: Build a Brand that Works for You, running January through March. 

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