Jessica Zweig - Be: A No-Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net Worth by Simply Being Yourself

Do not be surprised how quickly the Universe will respond once you have decided.

To Mom and Dad, for every opportunity to Be.

To Rea, for the constant reminder to Be.

To Brian, for the wings to Be.

All worksheets available for download at

jessicazweig.com/be

I was sitting in my home office in my apartment in Chicago, staring blankly at my bank balance.

My checking account was $113.09. I had already borrowed money from my boyfriend. I had promised to pay him back, knowing the future of our relationship depended on it.

I was running my own business at the time, a popular online magazine for women. Between the six separate credit card accounts we had opened to help run the business, we were collectively over $75,000 in debt. Perhaps worst of all, my phone bill was overdue. And I needed my phone. Without it, I could not run my fledgling business, keep my audience engaged via social media, check my email for the unlikely news that I was closing a deal, and stay in contact with my then business partner, who I not so secretly resented for our situation. With no money in either my business or personal account and zero clients in the pipeline, I had no idea where I was going to find $250 to pay AT&T. I was desperate.

I got dressed, walked down to the parking lot of my building, started up my ancient Honda Accord, and drove forty-five minutes north to my parents house in the suburbs. My mom and dad were sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee, and rummaging through the Sunday paper. They looked delighted and grateful to see their busy, successful, entrepreneurial thirty-three-year-old daughter.

Their smiles faded as I explained to them, well, everything. My father is the one person I had worked my entire life to make proud, and I will never forget the look on his face. He was not angry. He wasnt even disappointed. To be either would have meant he understood what I was actually saying. He looked, quite honestly, confused. My mom, the quintessential Jewish mother, exuded sheer worry. I tried to make it clear I wasnt coming to them to bail me out. I just needed $250 to pay off my phone bill so I could still operate my business. Even though I was terrified about my future, I knew what a privilege it was to even have parents who could me help out with that kind of request. This made the humiliation even worse.

To be frank, the rest of our conversation that day remains a blur. What I do remember is walking out of my parents house with a check in hand for $500, sobbing uncontrollably with shame.

In that moment, I made a vow to turn my life around. And I could sit here and tell you that I did. You could easily assume, simply by looking at the picture of my life as it stands today, that I finally figured it all out.

Yes, I currently run a seven-figure business, the SimplyBe. Agency, an internationally award-winning personal branding firm, servicing clients from Silicon Valley to New York, Europe, and Asia. Yes, I develop the personal brands of CEOs and entrepreneurs who have built multimillion and billion dollar companies. Yes, I get paid to travel the world, speaking on the topic of authenticity and teaching masterminds on the power of personal branding in places like Bali and Costa Rica. Yes, I have been featured as a personal branding expert on todays top media platforms, including Forbes, Inc., MarketWatch, and HuffPost. And yes, that boyfriend eventually became my husband, and today I am the breadwinner of our family.

So things worked out, right? Yes and no. Because thats only part of the story.

Throughout the many rock-bottom moments I have experienced in the past decade of my career, whether that was going through a bloody professional divorce with that old business partner of mine, taking a corporate gig I loathed for financial security shortly thereafter, offering investors I barely knew over 60 percent of a new company because I believed I needed their money, demoting myself within another agency who wanted my brand name because I felt like I needed their validation after those investors backed out, or going broke at thirty-three and asking my parents to help me pay my phone bill while simultaneously running the most popular womens magazine in the city, it all came down to one thing:

My self-worth.

If I look back at every moment of success I have experienced in the past few years, each of them has been directly associated with a very simple belief: that I was enough, and the only way out is through.

There is a misconception about net worth, and it says that in order to have a lot of it, you have to go to a really great college. Or be born into it. Or have a great resume in order to achieve certain corporate positions. Or even be the type of person who just works really, really hard. I believe thats all bullshit.

People who live in abundance, financially speaking, all have one thing in common: They feel, at their core, that they deserve it. That they are worthy of it. Self-worth is the cause; net worth is the effect. All the high-paying retainers Ive earned, the five-figure speaking fees Ive charged, the press hits Ive accrued, the talented team Ive attracted, the millions of dollars in revenue Ive grown, and even the relationships Ive successfully maintained happened after I finally chose to believe that I was worthy of all of it.

Flaws, fears, mistakes, and failures included.

When you free yourself to simply be yourself, your confidence grows, your joy expands, and your value increases. This is a daily practice, not a destination. At least its been mine. In picking up this book, you have officially begun your own journey toward simply being.

At its core, this is a book about being in your truth. Its about living that truth. And you must come to learnjust as I didthat you are worthy of sharing that truth. Once you do, your life and your career become unstoppable.

Thats because your truth is your superpower, your magic, and your competitive advantage. Its what I like to call your personal brandwhich is, quite simply, how you show up for the world. Its the platform you build around your truth that, when communicated consistently, constantly, and clearly, becomes an invaluable asset for achieving success beyond your wildest dreams.

There are so many misperceptions about what the term personal brand even means. In these pages I am going to bust the myths, redefine the concept altogether, and hold you accountable to building yours. The more you become willing to show up authentically, the more magnetic you become as a person and as a professional.

And what do magnets do?

They attract.

Its therefore no surprise that the most authentic people are always the most magnetic ones, and thus the individuals who seem to effortlessly attract their ideal opportunities, clients, and revenue. You can and will become one of those people too. Because you actually already are. Im going to teach you step-by-step how to uncover it.

You can either stand inside your story and own it , or stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness.