the bossbabe podcast - 402. Building & Selling a Multi 7-Figure Agency, Deep Spiritual Awakening, and Starting Her Next Chapter with Jessica Zweig

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

The incredible Jessica Zweig joined Natalie on the podcast today! She goes into so much detail on what it looked like to build a multi 7-figure agency, exit that agency, have a complete spiritual awakening, and then step into her next chapter. From navigating business partnerships (+ divorces), seasons of burnout, the full story of Jessica’s transformational experience in Eygpt, how she slowed down, and so much more - this conversation was SO amazing and one we know you’re going to love.  TIMESTAMPS 1:30 - Jessica’s First Business Venture 4:40 - Navigating Business Partnerships + Divorces 9:15 - Seasons of Burnout  14:20 - Jessica’s Transformational Experience In Egypt  26:15 - Integration, Marriage, Nervous System Work + Joy 29:00 - 2 Things Required To Sell Your Business 30:15 - Intentionally Slowing Down 34:15 - Practicing Non-Attachment 37:20 - Identity Shifts 39:10 - Doing Things Differently Next Time 43:00 - Light Language 46:30 - Daily Rituals for Self-Care 50:15 - Jessica’s Brand New Book “The Light Work” RESOURCES + LINKS Pre-Order Jessica’s Book Here + Use Code “BOSSBABE” To Enter The Giveaway To Receive A Signed Copy & A Free Gift! Join The Société: Our Exclusive Membership To Help You Build A Freedom-Based Business. Get Our Weekly Newsletter & Get Insights From Natalie Every Single Week On All Things Strategy, Motherhood, Business Growth + More.  Drop Us A Review On The Podcast + Send Us A Screenshot & We’ll Send You Natalie’s 7-Figure Operating System Completely FREE (value $1,997)  FOLLOW bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Jessica Zweig: @jessicazweig

welcome back to the boss with podcast all right we've got an episode and a half for you so in this episode i am interviewing jessica zwig she is incredible and I will warn you this episode is very woo woo when we talk about the the spectrum of woo we're up there we're definitely up there um it was amazing we had an in-person conversation she was talking a lot about what it looked like to build a multi-seven-figure agency exit agency, have a full spiritual awakening and then step into her next chapter and we go into so much detail. I will say I had some kind of sinus infection during this. I don't sound the best but we stuck with it. I literally had to leave this interview three times to cough just being totally real because she'd flown in. I was like I'm not cancelling, we're

gonna make this happen but we definitely had a lot going on so if you notice anything weird with my voice that's what it is but with that it is a great great episode and I know you're gonna love it let's dive into the episode okay I'm just gonna call out for anyone watching the video or listening this is my only fan's voice if things go tits up this is what I'm doing next but we're rallying we're rallying we're rallying uh welcome to the what I'm doing next. But we're rallying. We're rallying. We're rallying. Welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to do this with you. I'm so excited to do this with you. So I want to dive in at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. What did you get started with in business? What was your first business venture? So I went to college for theater. I was an actress, graduated college, waited tables, temp job. And then at one of those temp jobs, I met a girl.

I had a business partner too. We became fast friends. And within three months of knowing each other, we decided to start a blog, which turned into, well, it was never really a vision for a blog. It was always like an online magazine for women of the city. We became good friends. We were trying restaurants, nightlife. There was no resource guide to the city through a girl's lens. So we decided to create it for ourselves. And it was called Cheeky Chicago. We raised about a quarter of a million dollars in friends and family, quit our temp jobs and like literally never looked back. I thought I would be an actress. I turned out to be an entrepreneur kind of by accident. I had never really even heard that word when I was like 27, 26.

And the business was critically successful. We grew a huge audience. We published 35 articles a week, amassed a huge social following. This was in 2008. Wow, you were early to this. I'm 43, babe. I'm old. I've been around a while.

A 43-year-old girl. I know. I shouldn't say that. But you're an OG in this industry. I'm an OG. I OG I am I was sort of the this was pre-instagram wow um we were sort of the original food and fashion blog even though we covered more than just that content we talked about dating and wedding planning and arts and culture we like covered the guide the whole city was a guide to the um the whole magazine was a guide to the city sort of like a daily candy if you remember or like a refinery 29 but local we had a mass email list long story short um while the business was critically successful we had

a massive brand in the market the business was financially uh a mess um Had a very challenging relationship with my business partner. We were together for seven years. We ended that relationship in a pretty painful divorce. And, you know, I had really come to a point where I had sort of graduated from the business and really wanted to go off and do new things. I was starting to get sort of unsolicited requests from companies and other brands in the industry and in the city to like consult because I knew like some shit now and I had built this audience and people wanted to like work with me. And I was like, wow, this is called consulting and I can do something new with this maybe one day. And, you know, she and I were very different people and she wanted to keep the business.

I wanted to fly free. And, you know, seven years of a lot of lessons and hard knocks, some credit card debt, you know, dysfunctional team, dysfunctional partnership. I got my real life MBA and took all of those lessons and apply them to my second company, Simply Be. But that's where I started. I was a former actress slash cocktail waitress that stumbled into entrepreneurship and, you know, became a serial entrepreneur. I love that. And on the business partnership, I'm so curious, going through that experience, how has it made you think about business

partnerships and collaborations and things like that moving forward? Because I've been through similar. I know. Yeah, it's a lot. It's like a full divorce. It's a divorce. And I followed that story. And I thought the way you two handled it was so beautiful with so much grace and integrity and respect for one another. We were young, you know, we were really young. I was 26. She was 24. You know, we ran it till we were in our early 30s. I would say that, you know, I never want a business partner ever again. That's one of the things that I've learned. I had a lot of, I had a lot of trauma, Natalie, from that divorce. You know, I, I had to really learn how to trust women in my business, in my

inner, inner world. And I say this in my new book, like, I feel like we sometimes have to learn the same lessons over and over again until we heal them. And in the Simply Be chapter, which was another, you know, seven years of my life, I brought in not partners, but like integrators. And I kind of kept attracting a very similar type of energy. And the first two integrators were not like kind of what came before. And then I'm actually very blessed this final integrator that I hired about two years ago. Not only did she help me scale my business to help me sell it like it was already on the path to being sold but she just took it to the next level to really tighten it into an asset my relationship with her has been so healing so I shouldn't say

I never want a business partner again yeah I shouldn't necessarily even say that but it was it was one of the greatest soul contracts of my life she was one of my greatest teachers I send her love I send her gratitude I really do it's been 10 years right but when I do I look back on that version of myself and herself we just we didn't have this I didn't have the tools that I have today and it was all divine and I don't mean to bypass it by saying like oh it was all like meant to be but it actually was totally and it can feel like a shit show in the moment after the fact I totally feel yeah I was 26 when I got into my first business partnership and I feel like that stage in your life you just grow and evolve and change a lot absolutely and you often

don't anticipate how successful a business is going to be. And if it is, you know, oftentimes you turn into different people. You do. But it's interesting when I was going through that too, I had said to myself, I don't know that I'll ever do partnership again. And I did.

And I have done two since. But what I have realized that's a big lesson for me is I'll never do 50-50 again. Yeah. I don't feel like that is a recipe for success. I agree. Because I feel like everyone brings different things to the table and it's it's nice to have those those written rules of like you're gonna lead this and this part's gonna be your responsibility or vice versa

and the equity is gonna reflect that yes but when I I mean I was so young and um we went and you don't really I didn't have enough business knowledge to even think to think of those things whereas now that perspective like you say at the time you know going through any kind of divorce no matter how graceful and respectful both of you are it's hard you're losing your business partner your best friend like someone that you're essentially business married to sister um so it's hard but then that perspective and maturity coming out of it is so priceless. Priceless. I could not agree more. I had never dealt with lawyers. Same.

I had never stepped into a lawyer's office before that situation and that relationship. And while it really did suck in the moment,, there's a certain type of stress and anxiety that comes with that dynamic in the first place, let alone when you go through some sort of separation, that was a total like dark night of the soul for me to walk through. And then on the other side, it's given me like a thicker skin. It's given me like a deeper wisdom a stronger sense of myself like a sensibility of business and relationship and self-awareness right that I couldn't I could not and I've been through a lot I've had a lot of ups and downs in my career that specific situation was such an accelerant of my growth as an entrepreneur yeah yeah those things you never

want to go through them, but on the other side, the amount of wisdom you have. Yeah. So another thing that I want to chat to you about, I love your book, by the way, it's phenomenal. And we'll get into that. In your book, you talked about founding the agency and growing the agency, which you ultimately exited. And I want to get into that. But you talked about, you know, you were portraying this one life on social media where everything was perfect. Everything was going really well. But on the inside, it didn't feel like that.

It was really challenging. And you talked specifically about being on this trip, going to Egypt and you felt like you just were fully burned out. Can you go into that a little more? Of course. I feel like a lot of women listening can relate to that season.

Yeah, it was a season for sure. It was a long season and you feel like you're never going to get out of that season, but there is, there is another side to it. So I started Simply Be in 2016 and I had taken all those lessons, like I said, from my first business failure and applied it and it clicked. And within, you know, 18 months we had hit a million. We kept doubling, tripling the business. The first five years were like a hockey stick. I wrote a first book that doubled my business in less than 12 months, doubled my team. So, and I was super on purpose with Simply Be. Like I had a vision. I wanted to stand for more than just personal branding on the internet. I wanted it to bring to life authenticity, humanity through people online, and a really clear alignment at the

time. And it just, it worked. And it worked faster than I thought it would. And it created a lot of abundance. Yes, in a sense, but you have to remember that I went broke at the end of Cheeky Chapter. I went through a big bout of scarcity scarcity credit card debt had to ask my parents to help me pay my phone bill at 33 it left a trauma response in my body right so here I was seven four or five years into running simply be making all this money but I was really running from scarcity right I had never really fully healed that. And you find me on the other side of my book launch, really in 2021, 2022.

I'd reached burnout a few times. Like I think that's a common experience. You feel really tired, a little uninspired, bitchy, moody. I was unable to leave the house. I was unable to shower. I was crying every day. My therapist diagnosed me with situational depression. I mean, it was real physical, mental, emotional, creative depletion. And that was about a year of my life.

I went through a ketamine protocol to help me heal my brain, which is a psychedelic modality that just it's a psychedelic, but it really gets your brain back functioning. That's what it does in a very short amount of time. Still had to hold up the sky with this massive payroll, a dysfunctional team, tons of chaos in the business because we had grown so fast and systems and processes had broken. We were not right sized with clients. We had like legacy clients that were paying us this much. We had new clients that were paying us this much. We had new clients that were paying us this much. I was the spokesperson for the book.

I was the podcast host. I was on stage just speaking while managing the team, being the face of the clients, bringing in new sales, like 100 hour work weeks, so much stress and pressure. And I reached probably the darkest place I've ever been in my life professionally, but also personally. And because the universe is in constant co-creation with us, I had very serendipitously planned a trip to Egypt at the end of 22. So it was diagnosed with depression in January.

In November, I went to Egypt after like this wretched year and that trip can i swear on your show you can say whatever you want egypt will fuck up your life like it fucks your life in the best way yeah you go one version of yourself and you come back different and um it'll just put everything kind of into right relationship. And it's not a vacation. You're up at 3, 4 in the morning, aggressively getting from one part of the country to the next, on a boat, in small hotels, on buses, airplanes,

having massive physical, emotional, spiritual, psychedelic, no-medicine experiences with other people who are going through their own shit and um each temple is sort of a recollection of your identity like your dna i know that sounds kind of woo but this is what i'm all the way great go deep this is beautiful we're going to talk about aliens and goddess wisdom and i got so much um information in that country from temple to temple to temple each each set of like walls they're alive with um codes with frequencies with beings and you tell the stories of what happens to you there and it sounds like it sounds batchy it sounds like i totally believe it yeah yeah it's you literally sounds like it's out of a movie and

not real tell the story of um i remember reading this one in your book the sickness you got yeah i that blew me away and also like i mean i've done a lot of psychedelics in my time like i believe in all this stuff so reading it i could viscerally feel what you were sharing through that. Can you tell that story? Yeah. There was a couple of times I got sick when I got hit by lightning in Hathor's temple or the visitation of the dream from Sekhmet. First one. Okay. So this is sort of the second half of the trip. I've had multiple massive experiences. And share any of them too, but I've... Yeah. That's the most significant one.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So Hathor is the goddess of bliss. She's the goddess of play, of pleasure, of frequency. And her temple is in a town right outside of Aydos where the first flower of life was ever found where i didn't know that yeah it's like lasered onto the wall it's like not a hieroglyph so egypt is a cosmic galactic doorway to the higher civilizations and galactic beings so all this to say you're in this like very specific part of the world, this portal where this temple Dendera is located. I get into her grounds. We walked through the temple. You work with like, you have an Egyptologist who's sort of the academic in the group that takes you through

the history of the buildings. Everything is sort of funny there. It's sort of protocoled because there's so much ancient wisdom there and the Egyptians I think know it and you have to sort of follow some certain process when you get into these temples to learn the history and then you're left to roam wait sorry to interrupt you but is that also a thing where you're not allowed to sit in circle and ceremony in some of the temples many yes doesn't that blow your mind though because it obviously shows that people know what goes down that's what I'm that's what it was kind of weird. Like there's, there's like these guards. Right.

That don't want you to own or chant or have any sort of spiritual experience. But if you pay them, which we, you have to go with guides and leaders who are sort of dialed in, who know what time to go, know where to go, know, have relationships with certain guards at all of these places.

And when we paid one of the guards, like $4,000 as a group to get into Sekhmet certain guards at all of these places and we paid one of the guards like four thousand dollars as a group to get into Sekhmet's chamber at Karnak like no one gets to go into that chamber we got access we had to pay for it right so it's a very weird feeling like the Egyptians are sort of protective of what's happening really which thank god because it helps preserve it correct but then also when they don't allow certain circles or ceremonial like you say oming and chanting there's obviously a reason like i want to know from the gods what shit they've seen when that has happened like you can just imagine it and there's and you can feel it too because all of these sacred

ceremonies and yeah rites have taken place in these temples for eons with like priests and priestesses and you know the original isis and her queens and medicine and galactic beings like it's it was it all happened there it's recorded on the walls it's wild yeah so back to hathor's temple we do the egyptian egyptologist walk through and then i'm like i'm gonna go off by myself and there's these little chambers up in the ceiling that you have to climb up a ladder and the guards were like those are her music chambers and she's the goddess of frequency she's the goddess of music so i climbed up and by myself and i just hear a message from my higher self to press my body against the wall

so I literally press like my third eye like my nose my like my heart my whole body as much as I could get onto her wall I just felt so called to like immerse myself in that energy and the second I closed my eyes I got struck by white lightning literal diamond white flash of light pierces my whole body and I start expand I like dissolved I left and my whole body started to expand beyond the temple expand beyond Egypt expand beyond the planet I was one big endless ball of light and I started to hear very specific voices and they were speaking to me in rapid succession and chorus or multiple voices as if they were like trying to get my attention they're like okay she's open let's let's make sure she hears this and it was like like constant and I I took away I wrote it down in my notes app it's

still on my phone because the second I got back onto the bus I'm like I cannot forget what I just heard and they said to me that in essence that I had missed the whole point of the human experience you know this was on the heels of my burnout like still processing this very dark couple years actually. And they said, Jessica, the point of this human experience is to have fun. I heard them say, you get to kiss your puppy. You get to eat chocolate. You get to have sex. You get to wear cute clothes. You get to follow a purpose for a living. You get to travel to places like this. Every single minute in the human experience is a gift. And if you don't enjoy it for yourself,

please enjoy it for us. And they said that the feminine frequency, this goddess energy, the women leaders of this time are rising and returning. And that I am a leader of that but not just me all women are that's our responsibility it's our time to step forward and use the power of our feminine gifts to recalibrate this world into a better right relationship and anyway so there was a lot more they said I I walk out of this temple. Literally, I remember Natalie walking out sashaying.

I was like, this is me. This is the real, I know this energy. I know this feeling. It was like a homecoming. And I get on the bus. We start rolling three hours to our hotel. And it's a very bumpy bus ride. And I'm by myself in a two-seater

and I start shaking and I start like shivering and I felt like as if I got the flu within a matter of minutes and I couldn't understand I was freaking out I was like what the fuck's happening to me I didn't say anything I like couldn't talk I was like literally like this. And we get to our hotel finally. And I rushed to my hotel room. My best friend's my roommate. She puts all these blankets on me. She puts all these towels on me. I was freezing.

I couldn't get warm. She went down to dinner. I was like, I just need to lie here. And I'm in bed feeling so indescribably miserable. And I have a conscious thought to hum. I'm just like, if you hum, maybe the vibration of the humming will help your body. So I start humming like, I'm like, it's not strong enough. Open your mouth.

So I'm literally lying in bed like a sick person moaning. And I started to speak with my mouth open like wide open moaning a monotone sound i started talking like in tongues essentially it sounds like you know that but it's beautiful and it's so pure and it's so fucking clearing and healing and all of a sudden i lost my own language and this was the only language i could speak and i spoke light language for at least two hours in bed by myself and a part of my my rational mind was like i can't this this is happening like should i get out my phone and record this so I have proof that this is happening? And I just let it be. I wanted it to just keep happening.

I didn't want to disturb it. And I felt better. After two hours, my whole body calmed down. And light language, they say, is the language of your soul I learned weeks later that abydos is where they were language on this planet was formed I ended up falling asleep woke up the next morning I write about this in the book and I because I will never forget this moment I went to breakfast and I'm like where where's Hatem our our guide who was like the mystic of the trip and I went to breakfast and I'm like, where's Hatem, our guide, who was like the mystic of the trip. And I went to him and he was sitting with our Egyptologist and they were having breakfast.

And I explained everything that happened the night before. And that what happened in the temple, the light language, the shaking, the messages, everything. And they listened and they looked at each other. They did not look at me and they were like hatem said this to mo this is why people come to egypt he's like so that they can remember who they are and they can go make the world a better place verbatim and I just stood there and took that in and the next our trip was we probably had like six or seven days left of this trip and I deleted Instagram I deleted everything I was still metabolizing what had happened so how I define what had happened to me I was struck by light and in that striking there was

this huge upgrade to my system like my DNA my cells past lives trauma like old lineage shit that was stuck in my body on a quantum level cleared upgraded upgraded, moved. And my human body of like flesh and blood and bone and skin couldn't handle it. And I was literally not only physically sick, I couldn't eat. I couldn't, I could, I had no energy. I was so emotional. I was so raw. Everything was offending me. I was so sensitive. And I went through the rest of my trip like that, just kind of purging emotions, having my body do what it needed to do. Old childhood trauma, memories of that started coming back and like working their way out. And I came home from Egypt after I had like really alchemized it all.

Like a completely different person. And there was only one way I could describe it was like, I'm new. And I say this in my book, like the girl that got on that plane to Cairo, the CEO of simply be the bright yellow boss, babe with her pineapples and, you know, bright blonde hair and hustling and, um, something, something new came online and I came back and a lot of things happened. I almost got a divorce, you know, it was like very intense time with my husband and, um, got the book deal for the light Work and channeled that book in three months. It channeled through me.

Wow. I didn't hire a ghostwriter. I didn't use AI. No shame if you do. But I wrote the whole thing in three months. And a few months later, got an offer to sell my business. A lot of things happened that year. But thank you for being such a beautiful listener and hearing that story all over again I know you just read

about in the book but that's one little tiny sliver of what happened in that country it sounds magical and I'm so curious going through that kind of experience like you say get the person that got on the plane isn't the person that came home but when you did come home you came back to the same life that you left you know the same marriage the same business the same clients the same social profile how did you navigate that I'm so um I'm happy to talk right um how did I navigate that um when it came to my marriage not so gracefully you know my husband was like who where did my wife go who are you who are you it's really hard to integrate after you have a big experience like that especially in personal relationship I'm just gonna say that and make everyone feel better if

they struggle too even if you go away for a couple days you know it's always tricky to reintegrate um but we we have a very amazing relationship coach and we called her and we had some emergency sessions with her. I'm a big advocate for support, healers, coaches, guides. I was privileged that I had put in place Shauna to help me integrate my integration with my integrator. And I really slowed down. I just, I had the opportunity to take space and not be in my business constantly. I moved from Chicago to Nashville for the winter. We rented this beautiful house. I got into nature. My word for 23 was joy. Because in Egypt, I was like, I don't think I've had much joy in my life for like two years straight. It's been all build, it's been all work, it's been all do. It's all it's

been about crushing the next revenue goal and juggling all the plates like where's me. So I made me and my simple pleasures a priority and I healed my nervous system. I grounded every day. I got into nature. I started incorporating my minerals, changed my diet, like brought it more protein in. Like I took practical and spiritual tools and incorporated them into my lifestyle in a way that I hadn't really done before, even being a spiritual person. And, um, you know, I decided to host some retreats. They sold out. I did them for fun. Like joy became kind of an experiment. Mm-hmm. And then in the summer of 23, about seven months after I got home from Egypt, I got a, an email from a buyer who wanted to buy my company. And I had been approached by other companies in the past as I was building Simply Be, and I never felt ready. And I think,

you know, to sell your business, a lot of things have to be in place but I think two main things need to be in place your business has to be an asset that can fully run without you one and two you as the founder have to be really ready right to let it go and that was sort of a dance for a few years for me and when hawk media called the company that ended up buying me in july both of those things were in place and i was like okay i'll entertain this conversation and the more i entertained it the more i liked what i was hearing the more it made sense signed a term sheet in august went through about five, six months of due diligence. It was a process. Um, wasn't a cakewalk. There was stressful parts to it for sure, but it

was all leading me to, I guess where I am today. And it was very much a, a turning point that trip for me and integration was beautiful and it was challenging and it was all aligned so when you came back and you said you slowed down I'm curious what that looked like because when you're in a scaling business where it can feel like a magic carpet right like every year you're doubling tripling you know things are breaking because you're growing so quickly and I've been here before that's how I can really resonate with this feeling it can be Like every year you're doubling, tripling, you know, things are breaking because you're growing so quickly. And I've been here before. That's how I can really resonate with this feeling. It can be really challenging to slow down because, you know, you know, that next client is going to change this trajectory. And how do I turn down this money intentionally slow down intentionally make really challenging decisions about team about systems so what did that functionally look like for you

because I can't imagine it was as simple as saying I want to slow down it was probably so layered and I'm you know I'm sure I'd lay out with work addiction and all the things that so many of us relate with? Yes, great question. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place, so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that

this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's Kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. So I used to say that your business is only as good as your people. Your people are your business.

I still believe that to be true, but I actually believe that your business is only as good as your management leadership team. Right. So I had had a pretty touch-and-go experience getting my leadership team right for like two years. So I had not only put in my integrator, but I had right sized my management team over the agency, over like the billable side of the business, the team that was really doing the work. I had actually done a reorg. I had to demote some leaders. I had to fire two, like that was painful. And then I put in place a salesperson, like somebody who could really sell, sell the business for me. And that's also its own onboarding training trajectory. Um, and I, I will say that of course I was still in the sales process. And it's funny

that you bring up like turning down money for me it was it was that in an essence it was like I am not willing to kill myself right so the business is going to slow down and am I really willing to accept that and that was stressful and that was hard and there were months and quarters throughout 23 we went like this because Jessica wasn't running like this anymore and that was tough on me and my mindset and the business at certain points we had had you know our industry is funny like it was the agency space so things get really slow in the summer like people check out like July through you know July 4th through Labor Day and we had a very big Q4 right before we sold, which was epic that we could close it with all of that revenue. But I will say that having,

replacing yourself is in as many rooms as possible. Like that was one of the things my integrator did. I was the most important person in most meetings throughout the week. She's like, I'm taking you out of basically half of these meetings and some of them you'll be in biweekly and I'll report up to you. And so we created a lot of process when it came to management and leadership and really directing my time so that it was, I had more of it to do more of what I wanted to do. And having a counterpart to help me sell was everything and creating a sales process with her where I'd come in to open the deal she'd run the whole thing and I'd help come in and close it like I was kind of her bookend versus me being the main rainmaker which is what I was for like

six and a half years so a lot of those things started to come into place yeah and to be really be really fucking honest with you, Natalie, I was really fucking over it. Yeah. So you've already one foot out the door and the universe is kind of like, OK, here's an offer for you. Yes. And so do you feel like it wasn't so hard to part with the business because you felt like mentally you'd already done that? It's funny because it's never it's never over till it's over.

Right. Signed on that dotted line and the money is in the bank. Like that's when the deal is closed, not when you're conversating that it's going to be closed. And there was a part of me that had to practice non-attachment. You know, my husband is my CFO and we're a team. And I remember saying to him, like, I really need this to happen. I don't know what else I'm going to do.

And he was like, we'll figure it out like if it's not if it's not gonna happen it's not meant to be and you have to trust that I've taught my husband a few things he's very much a muggle and um I'm proud of him and and yet you know one thing I really will say I'd love to share this with your community and anyone who's ever interested in selling a business, it's easy to take on that energy of like, please let me get this. I want this so bad. No, they want you. They actually want you badly or they wouldn't be pursuing you in the first place. They wouldn't make you an offer. The offer is the symbol of how much they actually want you. So what I did in the very early stages was build rapport with the CEO. I flew to LA. I met him for coffee. I created a relationship. I was like, let's be on text. Create rapport. Be a real person. Show that buyer who you are the ceo uh dna is kind of the dna of the company so i get to know them and at that coffee date in la with him i told him what i wanted it's like here's my criteria

i want this to be a very good financial deal for me i want you to take my entire team over i don't want no one's going to lose their jobs. I want to have the ability to stay involved, but enough freedom to go start another thing. And I don't want any conflict of interest or any weirdness. I want support. And I want your PR team internally to make this a big announcement with mine. And like, and I want the freedom to go do what I want. And he was like I can meet you and all of those criteria so there was a real sovereignty that I had throughout the process a level of trust that I had to have with the process it didn't make it any less stressful right it's not a perfect it's another marriage but I was I was ready and I kept trusting

like is this coming from your desperation or is this really coming from a full body grounded green light and it was green light after green light after green light throughout the process and I would say the hardest part of it all has been actually post acquisition right when it's no longer your business and it's a different culture it's a different process and it's different mode of operations and how things get communicated to leadership and it was immediate like oh I'm not I'm not in that meet well I wasn't copied on the email like why didn't fucking someone talk to me about that like you're done you're like no longer the owner. It was like a cliff.

So the first few months of this year were really more, I think, painful and anxiety ridden than getting the offer itself. And in addition to all of that change within the company, how did you feel about your identity did it shift at all when you weren't attached to the business and you know it's one thing to be attached to this really huge business that opened so many doors did you feel that shift when you no longer were a part of it I felt that shift before okay you know so you had asked actually earlier about like social media I think for the last quarter of 23 I was was, I didn't post anything on Instagram. Like my grid was basically mute. I would do stories and stuff, but when I was going through the process of selling my business

and I knew things were going to change and I was deeply immersed in that, it took a lot of energy to go through that process. But I didn't feel like the girl on the grid was the girl here right and so I felt a lot of lack of inspiration lack of motivation a bit of confusion like paralyzed actually to like share anything and I had gone through this huge alchemical transformative experience for the last 20 you know all of 23 that no one really did see except my creative director that was helping me with my new brand logo and like I I knew we were going to sell the business I wanted to start my own platform so when I basically hard launched it in February right after I sold the business

and I was ready I was holding that identity to like finally share with the world but the months of 23 that was it was a lot of um it just felt out of alignment it felt very heavy to share anything on social and I gave myself permission to like yeah not and so from what you've learned from running the agency and now stepping into a whole different chapter a whole different season what are some things that you will not repeat this time around I don't think I'll ever have that big of a team. Lean and mean is really the motto at my new business. I will probably continue to work with my husband. That was a beautiful blessing that came through and we have

new language and new tools now because it was a bit of a learning curve for us to work together in business at the beginning. I want to devise my schedule differently. I would love to build a four-day work week, only start my days at 10, not nine. We're trying to make that work. I'm in the middle of a book launch right now, so it's a little wild. But creating different boundaries, having a remote life. I had a physical office during the Simply Be years

that I was very attached to. I opened this beautiful, beautiful space in February of 2020. Perfect. And it was like really yeah we had an office in LA we had it we opened it the late 2019 huge team in-person office COVID was a blessing though because I realized actually I don't want to be in an office correct and that was a big I had a very dysfunctional codependent relationship with that office because it was like the manifest manifestation of my business my dreams look I'm a success I have an office and it was a beautiful space and I decorated it and spent all this fucking money on furnishing it

and you know to be able to work from anywhere is really um really what I want to be able to do. And if I'm going to be honest with you, one of the things I'm most proud of that I built within Simply Be, which I will take with me into this new, which I am taking with me into this new business, is my emphasis on culture. Right. And leading a business with feminine values

and giving people the space to feel seen and valued and cared for and to lead with love and to have everything come from a place of intention. And that we're not just here to make money. We're here to make the world a better place with every interaction that we have, every person we touch, every piece of content we create. There's an energetic alignment that we have to come from if we're going to preach spirituality and light. And I would often say that at Simply Be, like if we're going to be about authenticity, we can't have anything but that inside of our four walls, which was, you know, a challenge as you build a bigger team and things get a little, you know, clicky and whatever.

And so I really want to keep the vibration of my business as high as possible. But that requires me keeping my vibration as high as possible as the founder. And I have new tools now. I hope I never burn out again. I don't want to repeat that. Having better boundaries, choosing joy, having the reminder every day like I get to do this right like I how fucking amazing to create a business call it my name create products that are based on my own genius make money and help people it's like what a time to be alive and I

forgot that throughout simply Be towards the end and I don't want to ever forget that again I love that so speaking of you know transitioning into your new company and your book is incredible and it's very on the woo-woo scale like if we're talking scale it's very very woo-woo and we're talking on this podcast about speaking light language and all the things right I absolutely love it um is there a sense of you that's like nervous about putting this out in the world or does it just feel like are you ever met with what the fuck are you talking about what is light language you crazy yes how do you feel that's a hard yes uh i like i said i wrote this book in three and a half months it's it's a process to write this book yeah a book you write

it you send it to your editor you get it back a few months later you tweak it you get it back anyway I got the physical copy the one you got I got myself an advanced reader copy sent to me about a month ago and I hadn't seen I hadn't been with the book for like a good three months yeah and I'm like oh goody my book is here I'm gonna I'm gonna start reading it it's so fun it's in my hands and I literally get ready for bed I read at night I'm in my oh, goody, my book is here. I'm going to start reading it. It's so fun. It's in my hands. And I literally get ready for bed. I read at night. I'm in my bed, like opening this book.

And I literally start feeling like I'm going to fucking throw up. Like, I'm like, heart is racing. Stomach is flipping. And I'm reading this book. I'm like, are you serious? You put this in a book. You're going to share all of this with the world? Like, it's a full. You didn didn't hold back I didn't hold back and um I was meditating a couple days later I meditate a lot I really practice what I preach and was sitting at my altar

feeling all of that anxiety move through me and I just heard a message from spirit and it said Jessica this is not even about you this is this is not about you at all this is your time and your moment to just get out of the way and what is your hope for people that discover and read the book that they remember who they are that they accept the assignment that they're not here by accident that they were put here at this time in humanity on this planet for a very specific reason to remember the truth of their full human experience the light the dark it's all meant for them it's all meant to empower and grow their expression of their authenticity um to return to their power and to make this world a better place with it and And I just think women are, and I say this throughout my whole book

because I use my personal story as the metaphor. We have been so programmed to believe that we're not worthy of love, that our pain has to be our story, that we're not special, that we hate our bodies, we compare, we carry these wounds from women being mean to us when we were younger heartbreak like all of those dark parts of life is actually where you

feel and find your light and my book is a true invitation home and a roadmap back to finding that light within yourself by owning and taking accountability and responsibility for the things in your life that have hurt you, um, that have broken you. Um, they've, they've shaped you, they've refined you. And I just want women to remember that they're not a victim to any of it, that they hold all the keys. That's why there's a key on the cover to unlock their true identity. And it's their job and their responsibility to play that role at this time as a woman on the planet. Like you're so fucking needed. You're so needed and don't take that for granted and I hope my book just makes her feel less alone I love that and and one thing you said too was on this new journey you're really committed to

not being burned out again and you have different tools what are some of those tools that you're using this time to have a different experience yeah so I've been on the road a lot. Um, so I bring with me a handful of supplements. I microdose mushrooms. We love a good micro. Yeah. They've been life changing. I'm on them right now. Um, when I'm home, you know, it's easier to kind of take care of myself when I'm home. I religiously pimp mat. Um, It's a grounding mat that helps me with my nervous system. I infrared sauna, acupuncture. I get outside on the ground. I take walks in nature. If I can get into nature for like an hour or two, a couple times a week, it completely harmonizes my body. I feel such a palpable difference. I started eating red meat. I use minerals every single day. I have an aura

ring. I track my sleep religiously. I do breath work. I use an app called mastery. Shout out to my girlfriend, Seska. You know, I, it's a, it's a commitment, you know, it's a devotion. I meditate, I journal, I use a little bit of salt under my tongue every day called pyd salt from egypt wait tell me about this i haven't heard about this this is this is a very like boutiquey brand my healer actually one of my many healers she went to egypt herself a few years ago and got all these codes of the great pyramid that they're like the salt in the water is is alchemical holds gold is healing and so she created this little bottle of salt that she infuses with all this quantum energy and intention and reiki and it's like she's got all these

machines in her place in florida it's crazy and it's just a couple granulars you put under your tongue every single day and it expands your auric auric field it opens up your pineal gland it helps with immunity it's it's really really powerful um and i use it every single day so i have a toolkit yeah um and i i'm pretty much a homebody i don't go out at night i don't go out on the weekends i i will be very intentional with my social plans, but I sort of feel like to maintain a healed nervous system, you have to really be in your own energy. And it's hard when you're a busy entrepreneur and especially when you're public and you're doing all of these things that is foundational I think you or was Lindsay shared a meme and I saved it on Instagram like and it said success isn't measured in your bank account

success is measured in your nervous system I was like save ding ding ding this is just the biggest one of the biggest unlocks I've had in the last few years. And it's literally my, it's, it's my full-time job taking care of myself, my body, my body, like it all starts in the body. And for us to be able to show up and do these big, beautiful and very important things in the world, we have to take care of ourselves. You cannot put a price on peace of mind. Oh, amen. You're preaching to the the choir i feel like everything i went through a couple years ago just showed me that so strongly peace of mind above everything and so much of what outer life is the state of your nervous system it's a reflection of the state of your nervous system and being able to understand that and

prioritize my nervous system has changed everything to understand that and prioritize my nervous system has changed everything so i love love that you brought it back to that yeah so tell everyone about your book and where they can get it and i heard you might be giving away some copies for the community yes yes yes tell me everything so the light work reclaim your feminine power live your cosmic truth and illuminate the world. Michael Beckwith wrote the foreword and you can go buy it at the lightworkbook.com. And if you buy it, you get a bunch of bonuses. But I want to also share with your community that I'm giving away 25 free copies. Oh my God. Yes. Yes. Okay. And they're going to be signed by me to the Boss Babe community. I'm going to personalize

them. So it's really easy. First 25 people who go to jessicasweig.com backslash Boss Babe, use code Boss Babe, enter in your mailing address and we'll send you a book. And if you're not one of the first 25, I still have something for them. I built out this actual beautiful bonus called how to reignite your inner flame. It's a meditation, a video and an ebook all brought to you by, by me based on what I have learned of how to really cultivate that light again after experiencing burnout at any level. So everyone gets something. They had to Jessica's white.com backslash boss, babe, use code boss, babe. Use code boss babe. Amazing.

Thank you. And I'll put all of those in the show notes as well. Jessica, thank you for being on here and sharing your story and all the things I can relate to so many things that you shared. And I know so many women listening can too. I'm so honored to be here. I related to your story through the ethers too. It was such a gift to be here.

You are the real deal. And thank you for having me. Wait, wait, wait, before you go, I would love to send you my seven figure CEO operating system completely free as a gift. All you've got to do is leave us a review on this podcast because it really supports the growth of this show. This is my digital masterclass where I'll show you what my freedom-based daily, weekly, and monthly schedule looks like as an eight-figure CEO, mama, and high performer, and I'll walk you through step-by-step how to create this for yourself. It includes a full video training from me and a plug-and-play spreadsheet to literally create your own

operating system. It's one of our best trainings and it's worth $1,997, but I will unlock access for you for free when you leave us a review. I know, wild, right? All you have to do is leave your review on the podcast, take a screenshot of it, and then head over to bossbabe.com slash review to upload it. And then you'll get instant access to the seven-figure CEO operating system. Again, head over to bossbabe.com slash review to upload your screenshot and get access. We are so, so grateful for all of your support and can't wait to hear how the podcast has supported you.