What are some challenges Jessica Zweig faced on her journey to success?
As an entrepreneur and business owner, what hasn’t she faced!? The founders reading this will likely concur that the road to success is not a straight path in the least. Jessica’s deepest challenge has been the churn of burnout that many entrepreneurs find themselves in. She started her company in 2017, and the first few years they were finding our footing and saying yes to a lot of opportunities. Hustle. They gained immense traction in the pre-pandemic world, and even after the pandemic hit, their business grew 65% in 2020. Hustle. The following year, she wrote and launched a bestselling book, followed by a year-long tour of press and media opportunities and live events. Hustle. The demand they saw after the book launch doubled their business and therefore their team. Hustle. If there’s a theme here it’s that her journey has been made up of hard and fast sprints of hustling, followed by burnout. The sheer pace that you feel you need to keep up with as a founder can be really hard on you. And it will grow and challenge you in ways that you never signed up for. Another area that has been a challenge is people. You start a business and it feels like your family. You pour everything into them because you assume they share your vision and your love for what you’re building. And in some cases, that’s true. In other cases, it’s not—this is just a job to them. So people leave (sometimes unceremoniously). And it can feel like a heartbreak. She has definitely gotten a thicker skin over the years and have come to accept that people will come and go and that’s OK.
How did Jessica Zweig overcome the challenges?
It’s taken her years to get to this practice, but she overcome her burnout every day in her own way. You kind of have to—no one is going to do it for you. But you also don’t have to do it alone. That said, she has surrounded herself with the right support staff, coaches, therapists, healers, you name it. It’s allowed her to take care of herself emotionally—because taking care of her business and the people within it takes a lot of me. As a leader, you have to fill your own cup first, she said. When it comes to her people, finding the right people, and putting the right infrastructures in place to support them and their individual growth, has been key. Ultimately, it comes down to setting your people up for success. Finally, having a deep level of humility and acceptance that you, too, always have room to grow. You have to be ok with that, be receptive and open to feedback, and know that you can always level up.
What are some of the lessons learned on her journey to success?
Lesson #1: If you have the right people around you, you can do anything. If you can find the people who really truly believe in and support your mission, and sometimes this may take a few hiring cycles, you really can achieve anything.
Lesson #2: You will be OK. You are resilient no matter what happens. She has been in seasons of total scarcity, but she has always found abundance. She has been in seasons of fear, but she always finds safety. She has worked in a world that we all thought was normal, and after a pandemic, we found a “new” normal. Jessica, along with so many other entrepreneurs, has ridden so many roller coasters. But they always, always, come out stronger on the other side. She wouldn’t trade or take away any of it. The resilience that she has built on her journey is one of her greatest assets as a leader.
What advice does Jessica Zweig wishes she knew when starting out that she would like to share with aspiring entrepreneurs?
They think that it’s a race. That every year they have to crush goals, make moves, expand, and grow, grow, GROW year after year. But that’s not life. That’s not actually how humanity or even nature works. Life goes in cycles and rhythms. It expands and contracts, things die and are reborn. Her best advice is to embrace your business not as a straight line or even a squiggly line, but as a circle. The cycles and rhythms will be a part of your journey whether you want them to be or not. So breathe and embrace the moment, because nothing lasts forever—if you’re in a dark place, know and trust it’s not gonna last forever. And… if you’re on top of the world, celebrate, clap for yourself and what you’ve achieved, but also know that that’s not going to last forever. Take every moment as it comes, and be ready for the ride.
About Jessica Zweig
Jessica Zweig is an international award-winning entrepreneur, an expert in personal branding, best-selling published author, and podcast host. As the Chief Executive Officer of SimplyBe., Zweig facilitates sold-out workshops and masterminds around the world and speaks on the power of authentic personal branding to corporations including Google, Blackstone, Morningstar, Salesforce, Motorola, Nike, Verizon, Mars, Pinterest, Bank of America, @properties, and Beam Suntory. Her work has been featured in Business Insider, MarketWatch, The New York Post, and Thrive Global.
Jessica’s awards include being named a Notable Entrepreneur of 2020 by Crain’s Chicago Business and a “Top Digital Marketer to Watch” by INC. She has also been featured in Forbes as a Personal Branding Expert. In 2018 and 2019, she was honored with the Gold and Silver Stevie® Award, respectively, for “Female Entrepreneur of the Year.”
Zweig published her #1 best-selling book: “Be. – A No Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net Worth by Simply Being Yourself” in February 2021 with Sounds True Publishing, a Macmillan imprint. As the host of the SimplyBe. Podcast, she interviews industry thought leaders and global executives.
If you would like to get in touch with Jessica Zweig or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page