In this week’s episode of The Light Watkins Show, Light sits down with Jessica Zweig, author of The Light Work: Reclaim Your Feminine Power, Live Your Cosmic Truth and Illuminate The World. Jessica shares her incredible journey from a struggling young entrepreneur to a powerful voice in personal branding, authenticity, and spiritual growth.
Listeners are invited to delve into Jessica's upbringing in the affluent Jewish suburb of Highland Park, Chicago, and explore how her early challenges with body image and fitting in shaped her path. Jessica candidly discusses her experiences with the "fake it till you make it" philosophy and offers valuable insights into navigating a business divorce—a scenario many entrepreneurs face.
Jessica's story is filled with relatable moments, including her struggle with body dysmorphia and her transformative journey to Egypt. She reveals how her visit to the temples and pyramids opened her eyes to a new perspective on life, joy, and spiritual fulfillment. Jessica emphasizes the importance of mentors, both in business and spiritual growth, and shares actionable tips for integrating a personal and professional brand.
Throughout the conversation, Light and Jessica explore the deep and sometimes painful lessons learned from family dynamics, especially her relationship with her father. They also discuss the power of authenticity and the necessity of embracing one's shadow to fully express their light.
This episode is a treasure trove of actionable insights, nuggets of wisdom, and personal anecdotes that can inspire anyone on an entrepreneurial or spiritual journey. Join Light Watkins and Jessica Zweig for an engaging and enlightening discussion that promises to leave you with a renewed sense of purpose and a fresh perspective on living your best life.
In this week’s episode of The Light Watkins Show, Light sits down with Jessica Zweig, author of The Light Work: Reclaim Your Feminine Power, Live Your Cosmic Truth and Illuminate The World. Jessica shares her incredible journey from a struggling young entrepreneur to a powerful voice in personal branding, authenticity, and spiritual growth.
Listeners are invited to delve into Jessica's upbringing in the affluent Jewish suburb of Highland Park, Chicago, and explore how her early challenges with body image and fitting in shaped her path. Jessica candidly discusses her experiences with the "fake it till you make it" philosophy and offers valuable insights into navigating a business divorce—a scenario many entrepreneurs face.
Jessica's story is filled with relatable moments, including her struggle with body dysmorphia and her transformative journey to Egypt. She reveals how her visit to the temples and pyramids opened her eyes to a new perspective on life, joy, and spiritual fulfillment. Jessica emphasizes the importance of mentors, both in business and spiritual growth, and shares actionable tips for integrating a personal and professional brand.
Throughout the conversation, Light and Jessica explore the deep and sometimes painful lessons learned from family dynamics, especially her relationship with her father. They also discuss the power of authenticity and the necessity of embracing one's shadow to fully express their light.
This episode is a treasure trove of actionable insights, nuggets of wisdom, and personal anecdotes that can inspire anyone on an entrepreneurial or spiritual journey. Join Light Watkins and Jessica Zweig for an engaging and enlightening discussion that promises to leave you with a renewed sense of purpose and a fresh perspective on living your best life.
JZ: “I got an agent right away. And as soon as I started getting put onto the audition circuit with casting directors, I was immediately told that I needed to lose weight. And those conversations, those reflections of like casting directors, literally telling me I needed to lose 25 pounds If I ever wanted to be an actress sent me deep on a body dysmorphic orthorexia sometimes and purging, binging the whole thing for about eight years. I lost so much weight. I didn't get my period for two years cause I was so underweight. And meanwhile, I was hustling the acting life, waitressing, nannying, temp jobbing, trying to make it as an artist. Fell in love with a much older man in my twenties and went into a deeply addictive codependent relationship. And it wasn't until my late twenties that I got the spark to start my own business, which I didn't even really know I was doing, becoming an entrepreneur at the time. I just really loved food fashion. I love writing. I've always been a writer at heart, even more so I think than an actor. And I got this download to start an online food and fashion blog for the women of the city of Chicago. And it was like within a minute of that download, I basically quit acting. I quit the boyfriend, hat was very painful. And started sort of, this was around age 28 to 30. And I said goodbye to acting, never looked back.”
[INTRODUCTION]
Hey friend, welcome back to The Light Watkins Show. I'm Light Watkins and I have conversations with ordinary folks just like you and me who've taken extraordinary leaps of faith and the direction of their path, their purpose, or what they've identified as their mission in life. And in doing so, they've been able to positively impact and inspire the lives of many other people who've either heard about their story or who witnessed them in action or people who've directly benefited from their work.
The goal of these episodes is to expose you to as many luminaries as possible, who found their path and to humanize them and their stories. And after hearing story after story after story, hopefully eventually you'll give yourself permission to move further in the direction of whatever feels like your path and your purpose because what you'll see is that anyone who's done that has had to overcome many of the same obstacles and challenges and blocks that you might be navigating right now.
And this week I'm in conversation with Jessica Zweig, author of The Light Work: Reclaim Your Feminine Power, Live Your Cosmic Truth and Illuminate The World. Jessica is a long-time entrepreneur whose work focuses on personal branding, authenticity, spiritual growth, and feminine empowerment. And in this interview, we of course talk about Jessica's upbringing, which took place in Chicago.
We delve into how she navigated body image challenges as a younger person, how she first got into entrepreneurship using the fake it till you make it philosophy. We talk about her tips for navigating a business divorce. I know a lot of people experience that where you split ways with a business partner.
We talk about how to integrate a personal and a professional brand, which is also something that a lot of people are facing right now. How do I become more and more of a personal brand? And we discussed the ins and outs and ups and downs of personal growth based on her transformative experiences that she had when she visited egypt for the first time.
So many of the takeaways are around business and the importance of having mentors, even on your spiritual growth. And we talk about how she came up with the book that she has out now, The Light Work. This is her second book. And as usual, this conversation was just jam packed with actionable insights, nuggets of wisdom, and anecdotes that could help you live your best life in the here and the now, especially if you are challenged by the entrepreneurial slash spiritual journey. And so without further ado, here's my conversation with the author and branding expert, Jessica Zweig.
[00:04:19] LW: Jessica Zweig, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. It's so great to see you again. I haven't seen you since I was on your podcast, which was almost a year ago because that was the launch of my book, Travel Light. So anyway, great to see you again.
[00:04:35] JZ: Oh, it's wonderful to see you again. I loved having you on my podcast. We had such a beautiful connection. I've loved you from afar for many years and I love that I've gotten the opportunity to come on yours. So thank you for having me.
[00:04:47] LW: Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for titling your new book after me.
[00:04:50] JZ: You're very welcome.
[00:04:52] LW: The Light Work. You didn't have to do that, but yeah, it's much appreciated.
[00:04:57] JZ: You're very welcome. We've been friends now for a minute. I thought you'd like it.
[00:05:01] LW: Yeah, I was excited about this theme of the light and the light within and all of that. And we're obviously going to get into what all that means, The Light Work. But before that, I always like to start off talking about the early days. So you grew up outside of Chicago. You said it was in the book, it was a Jewish suburb, which is a part of your core identity. And you have a brother, Doug, you have parents, Ron and Suzanne, right?
[00:05:30] JZ: Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
[00:05:32] LW: So, what was that like growing up in the Jewish suburb of Chicago? In those early days, what do you remember? Your parents indoctrinating you all to understand about the world and that kind of shaped your path, leaving the house later on.
[00:05:54] JZ: Beautiful question. So where I grew up was a very affluent community…
[00:06:01] LW: Which suburb was this by the way?
[00:06:03] JZ: Highland Park.
[00:06:04] LW: Highland Park. Okay. That's where they shot those Brat Pack movies…
[00:06:07] JZ: Yep. Yep. The North shore of Chicago is like an iconic, it's a bunch of suburbs.
[00:06:12] LW: The Breakfast Club. Was that in Highland Park? You go to that high school?
[00:06:16] JZ: I did not go to that high school. It's another high school close to that neighborhood. It's all like Deerfield, Winnetka.
[00:06:21] LW: Bueller.
[00:06:23] JZ: Ferris Bueller was shot in Highland Park. Yes.
[00:06:25] LW: Nice. Home Alone.
[00:06:28] JZ: Home Alone was shot like down the way in a town called Wilmette, which is right by my house. Like North Shore of Chicago is very wealthy, not entirely predominantly Jewish. Parts of it are and where I grew up was, and as long as I can remember, just surrounded and affluence and my parents were self made people.
And I remember one of the most formative conversations or moments with my mother, I was in her in the with my little And my mom, she was like driving steering wheel, my brother and I were in the back and my brother goes mom, look at all these big houses. Look at that big house. And look at that big house because we were old enough at the time, like probably three, four or five able to see the world around us.
And I'll never forget my mom was just driving the front. She leans her head back behind her shoulder and it's like, Doug, it's not the houses that matter. It's the people who live in those houses that matter. What we should be considering to be impressive are the hearts and souls of the people. And my mom and my dad really did a beautiful job raising us with perspective. But they weren't perfect, like no family is. And because I was gawky, I never really felt like I fit in. I really believe I'm a star seed, meaning I don't really believe I'm truly from this planet. So I had a big struggle with belonging a lot of my life.
I was not ever comfortable. In the popular crowd, I had a lot of unfortunate, dysfunction at home that played itself out in my insecurities at school. Boys were mean to me. The girls were meaner. I'm not in any way saying I look back on that sweet little girl and she was really just trying to find her way. But being an outcast, if you will, or not really always feeling like I belonged in this world that seemed to have where everyone seemed to have a perfect family and a perfect home and a perfect body.
And, my mom shopped at TJ Maxx while my classmates were rocking Chanel bags and Kate Spade. Like it was just like that. And I'm grateful for my parents though, because they raised me, although it was very dysfunctional at times with a lot of moral integrity and a lot of love.
And I look at my brother, how he's turned out and how I've turned out. I think they did a great job, even though it was painful along the way in certain points.
[00:08:56] LW: So I don't want to turn the audience against your dad, but you mentioned this in your book so I want to ask you about it. Jessica Zero.
[00:09:04] JZ: Yeah.
[00:09:04] LW: What prompted him to call you that? Was he being silly or was he being serious? And how did thatimpact your teenage years?
[00:09:12] JZ: That impacted my whole life. That statement, he was not being silly. To be honest, that chapter in this book has caused a fortunate a lot of reconciling now in my forties. He offered a lot of grace at the same time by not asking me to delete that sentence or change it. He probably doesn't remember it.
My dad experienced real trauma, like there's a spectrum of trauma, of course, but my dad had he came from parents who had zero tools and he was traumatized from that. And so when I came out into the world, as what I say in the book is first and only spitfire of a daughter with a bunch of rebellious hormones.
By the time I turned like 12 through about 19 we really clashed and he didn't have the consciousness that I needed him to have to raise me with the like tenderness and compassion. It turned into a lot of anger. And there was a particular fight that we got into where I was being defiant and he said to me, I am going to call you Jessica Zero because you're going to amount to nothing. And that one statement drove my entire professional and personal life from that moment forward. Until recently, like all I've ever wanted to do underneath all of my accolades of all of my success of all of the sparkly shit I've accumulated in my life, like at the core. And I've done a lot of work with my own healers and therapists to understand that this is why I just wanted to make my dad proud of me and prove him wrong.
And I've really gone through the portal of alchemizing that, it led me to a really dark place. It's actually where I started writing the book from a point of burnout. But I really am very clear that my relationship with my father is my greatest spiritual teacher. And I am very blessed that he's my dad.
Because despite the pain, there was a tremendous amount of love that I did get from him, which makes it so complex, right? Like our parents, they're the people we come out of the womb loving the most. And ironically, they're the ones that hurt us the most. And it is that dichotomy that literally shapes us and forms who we are on so many levels.
And so I'm a little tender right now, if I'm going to be honest talking about that chapter, because I've just had some tough conversations with my dad recently as the book gets closer and it's become a little contentious, frankly. And and yet I believe, and thank you for giving me the space to talk about this, because I really believe this to be true that I didn't write that chapter in this like 3d identity for a book. I feel like my higher self channeled that chapter onto the paper. So that I could reconcile a lineage trauma and whether it's my dad who can receive and alchemize that in this lifetime. I know that's was the intention, why that came through the invitation that it offered for my dad to really move through a lot of the pain that we both, experience whe he was raising me. And I hope most of all that it's going to help a lot of people who read the book as well. So it's, it's not just about me. The whole book isn't about me. The whole book is hopefully a mirror for the person reading it. Thank you for that.
[00:13:14] LW: It's interesting being an author. Your book is much more of a memoir than anything I've written before. And you share a lot. I'm sure it's really interesting. It's a process and just to decide what you want to keep in versus what you want to take out, especially if you're painting a picture other people, other figures in from your history.
And curious just what that internal process was for you, for people who want to be honest, want to tell the truth, but then you encounter people with different memories of the truth. And how do you navigate that?
[00:13:29] JZ: It's a beautiful question. write about my husband in the book. I write about my best friend in the book. I write about my medicine…
[00:13:36] LW: Is he upset with the whole…
[00:13:38] JZ: No he's cool.
[00:13:39] LW: He agrees that he's in scarcity sometimes.
[00:13:41] JZ: Yes, he's been through the whole book. He's amazing, very different than like my father. I write about how I went to therapy with my best friend, I write about my body dysmorphia, like there's a whole bunch of, aspects that are very raw, very naked that I address in my life. And that's one of the biggest points of the book is where our light gets the most tested, where we find the most polarity struggle is in relationship right with other people. And so, it's a really good question, like, because I learned from my first book, B, that I went to Pat, my mentor, the woman that I speak about at the end of the book, like I asked permission for every single person to use their name, to tell their story.
If they didn't want me to use their name, I changed their name. The situation with my dad was the most delicate slash kryptonite. And you know, if I'm going to be in the deepest service to my father, when he first read the first version of that chapter, he was so hurt not because of the things that I said about him that were negative, but that I didn't paint a full 360 picture of the good of which there was much good and love and how much he fiercely tried to be the best father he could be.
And I offer that to your listeners who might, like me, it's been a quantum leap in like healing my relationship with my father this last year, writing this book to not just see our parents in the lens of like how they hurt us, but truly their humanity and how much they loved us and did the best with what they had. And that was my father's biggest complaint, if you will, was that it didn't really show the full breadth of his fatherhood and he was right about that actually.
[00:15:34] LW: How he was a father, it was about you and your own process. And we have a tradition in my family where we get on a zoom call for everyone's birthday and we reflect on memories. And when my mom's birthday rolled around, I have three brothers, all we talked about in a very lighthearted way, was the times we got spanked because she would spank us in the most creative way. I made a mental note of that. It was like, oh my God, it's all like trauma.
[00:16:04] JZ: Yeah.
[00:16:05] LW: That's what you remember as a kid, you don't really appreciate all the good. You just remember the times that people hurt you and you remember shit like, Oh, I ran away when I was 16 years old.
So talk about that. You didn't believe in yourself. You ran away. You ran out of your big house to someone else's big house or what?
[00:16:25] JZ: We didn't live in that big of a house.
[00:16:27] LW: Well, you didn't have one of those…
[00:16:28] JZ: No, my parents live in the same house I grew up in. It's a very modest, small house. I give them a lot of credit. They've saved their money well, but my mom and dad had a fight one night. Typical. I was 16. I was a thespian in my high school. I was part of the theater department and I had a best friend and he was, My gay male best friend, and he was my only friend.
And he knew that there was some struggles at home, but not really. And I ran out of the house in the midst of the fray. And I remember running to the downtown area of my home. So it was like, I don't know, like a 20 minute walk to get to a pay phone. This was in like, I don't know, the 90s, right? There was no cell phones. And I just knew the grocery store had a pay phone. And so that's where I went and I called Brett. I actually remember asking the guy behind the checkout cashier counter for a quarter, bcause I didn't have any money. And I called my friend Brett and I was hysterically crying and he just came and he picked me up and Brett lived with his single mom.
And Pat was independent. She was witchy. She'd been divorced from her husband or ex-husband for quite some time. Her home was like this portal that her home was this world of like, And she had crystals everywhere and beautiful artwork everywhere. And she was so fully expressed and images of her girlfriends traveling the world on her wall.
I'm like, who is this woman who is single? She ran her own business. She had a stationary company. She was empowered. She was awake. And I stayed with her for two weeks and that experience opened my eyes to the power of like mentorship and what it's like to really be activated by somebody who isn't your parent, who isn't necessarily even a professional mentor, but somebody who gives you the gift of what's possible simply by witnessing how they live their lives.
And I felt so safe with her and so seen by her. And she had like angel card decks. She had like runic stones. She had all of these like magical tools that again, I had never seen before. And I really feel in so many ways that I am the woman I am today because of her influence. She just opened my eyes to the world of feminine energy and spirit. And am very grateful for that experience. And I went home to my parents house two weeks later a different person
[00:19:03] LW: Did she, did Pat negotiate that two week sabbatical with your parents like right away or does she play into the whole, hey, you're running away thing or how did that all go down? I'm sure your parents would have gone crazy.
[00:19:16] JZ: Yeah, gosh, that's a good question. I think I was the one really leading the ship. I think I was the one that was pretty defiant and clear when I was 16. I wasn't like super young, but I didn't want to come home yet. And Pat was the conduit and safe space, but I don't recall her getting involved too deeply. I think she really was there to just hold me and protect me for as long as I needed her to. And when I was ready because my parents did want me to come home. I remember they kept, begging, asking, getting frustrated. I wasn't and she didn't meddle. I don't remember Pat meddling in that. I think she really just allowed me to work out my own stuff with my parents and with myself. And she was just a container.
[00:20:06] LW: So give us a little bit of a montage of what happens next. You go to university of Illinois. Your body dysmorphia. You fall out of love with theater and it's a love of entrepreneurship. Just take us through like your fashion blog that you started.
[00:20:23] JZ: I’m smiling so hard because you read every word of my book, Light, and I am grateful. Yeah, I graduated high school. I went to college for theater. I loved the theater. I was actually quite good at acting. I got a gold star in sword fighting. I learned all the dialects. I got classically trained at this college program.
I went to at U of I. I also gained a lot of weight as college girls do from the beer and the pizza. And yet I was talented and I got an agent right away. And as soon as I started getting put onto audition, the audition circuit with casting directors, I was immediately told that I needed to lose weight. And I had never really had my body, be such a forward, vocal confronting issue in my life until then. And those conversations, those reflections of like casting directors, literally telling me I needed to lose 25 pounds. If I ever wanted to be an actress sent me deep on a body dysmorphic and purging, binging the whole thing for about eight years.
I lost so much weight. I didn't get my period for two years cause I was so underweight. And meanwhile, I was hustling the acting life, waitressing, nannying, temp jobbing, trying to make it as an artist. Fell in love with a much older man in my twenties and went into a deeply addictive codependent relationship.
And it wasn't until my late 20s that I got the spark to start my own business, which I didn't even really know I was doing becoming an entrepreneur at the time. I just really loved food fashion. I love writing. I've always been a writer at heart, even more so I think than an actor. And I got this download to start an online food and fashion blog for the women of the city of Chicago.
And it was like within a minute of that download, I basically quit acting. I quit the boyfriend. That was very painful. And started this was around age 28 to 30. And I don't know if you're familiar with your Saturn Return. This is a astrological cycle. A lot of, women understand what this is 28 to 30 is really when you, and it's for anybody it's for any human at that mark. It's the Saturn returns back around the sun based on the rotation of it every 28 to 30 years. And it's a hugely sort of transformational disruptive alchemizing time of your life, or like everything kind of changes, including your identity.
And so that was the dawn of my entrepreneurial career. I said goodbye to acting, never looked back and began pursuing the world of social media and content creation and marketing and branding. And it was really, like I picked it up real fast. I was like, oh, Facebook, it's just another stage, except I get to play myself now, and really like got good at communicating there and creating audience and connection and conversion.
And that magazine did really well critically. I ran this platform for seven years called Cheeky Chicago.com. Cheeky with a Y. We were the girl's go to guide from 2008 to 2014 in Chi town, huge following. But that business left me broke at the end of it broke. It’s not a joke, on my knees with financial scarcity, literally actual financial scarcity, I had no money and took a corporate job for two years.
So lick my wounds and pay off my debt and then got them crazy idea to start another business. Like, the lunatics we are as entrepreneurs, rub some nickels together and started simply be.
[00:24:02] LW: Okay. Before we get into that, there's a conversation you had with one of your acting, I think teachers about believing in yourself. So I want you to take us back to that moment. And then I want you to talk about how did you embody that? Because I think that's something people hear all the time.
You got to believe in yourself, right? How do you start believing in yourself? And did that translate to Cheeky Chicago? And was that one of the reasons why it was successful? And then why did you go broke?
[00:24:32] JZ: So I'll start with the acting teacher comment back to my high school days, I always loved theater before I went to college for it. I was in the acting department in high school and I wasn't getting cast in any lead parts. I wasn't even getting supporting roles. I was always ensemble and I was pissed.
I was frustrated and was ready to quit the department. And I went into my acting teacher's office crying, telling him how sad and upset I was. And he was like, Jessica, you're not getting cast because you're not talented. You are talented. The reason why you're not getting cast is because it's not you. Evident you don't believe in yourself. And that's one of my favorite parts of the book. If I'm going to be honest, when I really tell that story, I call it chasing the spiral of worth. And it was from that moment. I was like, okay, well, if that's the case, I'm going to pretend to believe in myself. I'm going to fake it until I make it. And I got really good at faking it until I did make it. I was like, okay, I'm going to fake it so hard that I believe in myself. And I got the leading role in the next year. I got into one of the most competitive acting departments in college. I started getting the roles out of college, lost the weight, whatever, got cat, met a boyfriend, felt beautiful, felt successful, quit the boyfriend, quit the acting group, felt free, started, the new business I started simply be and making money, felt powerful, got a book deal, felt important, got a platform, felt special. And it's just this constant outsourcing.
To answer your question on why I went broke. We were just bad at managing money in that business, frankly. But there was a lack of integration. When I say lack of integration, like who we were painting ourselves to be as a business was very different than what was going on inside. There was a deep lack of authenticity. And I don't think that's sustainable. Like you will crash the car at some point if you are living out of alignment. And that's what happened really ultimately with that business, I think on a 3d level a cosmic level. And so I was writing this book, The Light Work after my real apex of my burnout breakdown.
I had just come back from Egypt, had a massive experience there. And I posed the question like, what if we were to take away the leading role, the big platform, all the money in the bank.
[00:26:42] LW: You mentioned fake it until you make it. Does that mean you would own the room when you walked in there and you would put on an air around how confident you were? Because we just talked before we started recording about how you're an introvert and you're not a natural extrovert.
So I'm just, for other people who hear fake it till you make it, what does that actually mean in a real world sense? Because you started landing these gigs and what did you do differently?
[00:27:07] JZ: Yeah. Heard of like Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours, right? There is a certain level of confidence that experience and consistency begets confidence. It just, when go out, you show up, you find your people, you find your opportunities. Get the yeses. Even if there are a few no's, you get enough of those and you start to really just trust that it's not a reflection of your character or your worth. If you don't get it, or if you don't land it, or if you fail. I think there's a muscle you have to build in building that confidence. It's like, you don't go to the gym one time, then you’re buff. It's microfibers, over years that shapes your body.
And I just feel like I'm very risk tolerant. I'm an entrepreneur. I've put myself out there a lot. And I've just grown to believe that, not just what I'm doing is important, but who I am embodied in who I am. And I'm, you know, 42 light. I've been, at this for a while, but if I look back at the cheeky girl and like, where did she get her confidence from while she was faking it? I would just say my passion, like I had an ambition and a drive that was bigger than my fear. And that's not to say that I didn't experience fear or didn't feel like an imposter at times, but there was something deeper driving me, I think my whole life that kept me putting one foot in front of the other because it was, that noise was bigger than the noise of the fear.
[00:28:36] LW: Right. And you also, it sounds like you understood process you were putting in the reps and a lot of it was just coming through that. Plus with your blog, you had hundreds of thousands of followers, which, you have to be very intentional about very consistent actions in order to grow anything to that size and when you eventually got to the other side of that and you went broke, that list is still very valuable. So what did you do with that list of hundreds of thousands of followers?
[00:29:09] JZ: Oh my business partner had it. We went through a business divorce and…
[00:29:15] LW: Okay. That's interesting. What did you learn about that? Business partners and divorces.
[00:29:19] JZ: That I never wanted a business partner ever again. to be honest.
[00:29:24] LW: I had the same experience right around that.
[00:29:26] JZ: Right.
[00:29:27] LW: After my Saturn returned, I was 32, 33. It wasn't that bad, but it was like, I don't want any more business partners after.
[00:29:33] JZ: Yeah. Think about it. I often say you create this thing that you both love, but you have different loving styles. You want to raise it differently. You're not in love with each other, but you're in love with this thing you created potentially and you mix in money and strong personalities and different ways of thinking.
I look back on that relationship with so much. And I know I'm not just saying this from the bottom of my heart, so much gratitude. She was a teacher and I grew immensely from that relationship. It gave me a thicker skin, which you need in business, unfortunately, like you really have to learn to be discerning and have your heart protected to some degree. And she and I are just from different planets. Like I'm not better than her. She's not better than me. I'm not worse than her. She's not worse than me. We are from different planets. And I really had to space and time really allowed me to see that there was a soul contract there.
And I am deeply grateful. And I wish her so much love and success. I harbor zero anger or resentment towards it. But at the time it was brutal. It was bloody. We went through a business divorce. It's like a divorce. And it was over 10 years ago. And really had to do a lot of work on forgiveness.
[00:30:52] LW: Did you have those tools and this language of the spiritual stuff back then? Was there a practice that you had that kind of helped to give you internal perspective? Or were you just end of the pool and trying to survive?
[00:31:04] JZ: Yeah. No, I was very blessed. I had a coach at the time. She unfortunately passed away. Her name was Kirsten. She's my angel now, but she was a very evolved spiritual teacher that came into my life right at that exact time. And she actually told me to channel in a journal, like from my highest self, what I would say to her.
Cause I was really in the 3d, like human. pain of that experience. And never forget it. I went to Costa Rica. I was there on like a little mini yoga retreat for myself. And I was by myself in my introverted style. And I got out a journal and I channeled this passage just honored the sisterhood that we had. It was neutral. It was more than neutral. It was loving. It was of the highest consciousness as to why she and I were really business partners, which had very little to do with the business and more with how and why our souls came together so that could evolve and grow.
And I'll never forget that passage. And the last thing I'll say too, on that front. When I say forgiveness, it wasn't necessarily like forgiving her for how she treated me. But forgiving myself or letting myself be treated that way. It was very nuanced around forgiveness and that took some time. And that was a practice I only could get through because I was being supported some really incredible people.
[00:32:33] LW: Okay. So you mentioned you took on a corporate job and I think this is something that a lot of people can relate to. You had this corporate job, you're on planes four times a week, you're getting a six figure salary plus bonuses and you're married, right? So obviously you guys are allocating your income to household stuff.
And you mentioned in the book, your husband had the scarcity thing around money. And so that was a big deal for you to think about quitting your job. And you also had a story about being bad with money at the time as well. And I posted something today. I said, most risks aren't really risks. They just feel like it. Remember if all fails, you can always return to mediocrity. It will always welcome you back with open arms.
[00:33:22] JZ: That's good.
[00:33:23] LW: And so you, obviously said your risks tolerant, but now that there's someone else in the equation. So what conversation do you have to have in order to honor the other person's concerns, your partner's concerns, because now you're married, right?
So you just can't really do whatever you want to do without at least running it by the other person, especially if it affects the household income. And I'm just thinking somebody listening to this, who's maybe in that same situation, they want to take the leap of faith. They have a great job on paper. Everyone thinks they're successful and they want to do something that, may or may not work out and maybe they have money, scarcity money things happening as well. So just walk us through how we can do that.
[00:34:08] JZ: Yeah. So I was working my corporate job. I wanted to quit to start my agency, which was really at the time a consultancy, a one woman shop. And we got really practical, it didn't make my husband necessarily feel that much better, but we got out our budget and I said, I will get enough clients before I quit, like let me line up some side hustle money before I give my two weeks notice that will equate to enough money to cover my half of the rent because we were 50/50 and groceries and utilities. Like I will make enough money just to carry my weight in the relationship financially. And I kept my word. It took me about a month and a half, two months.
[00:34:51] LW: Were you working like five to nine? Were you optimizing those off hours?
[00:34:56] JZ: I was, yeah. And consulting contracts. So they were, 20 hours, 30 hours a month. Like it wasn't like a ton of work. And they weren't paying me a ton of money, but I had just enough to prove to my husband I have a little bit of a cushion here. I'm not totally quitting with nothing lined up.
And I will also say, the most nonpractical terms. I do believe in the power of leaping and then knowing the net's going to catch you in an energetic frequency, vibrational capacity and choice. It's called leap in the net will catch you. Don't tiptoe…
[00:35:37] LW: Both feet need to be in the air in the air, getting momentum…
[00:35:41] JZ: Yes. And because I brought that sense of self trust and back to what I was saying earlier, I was so passionate about this. I had this fire in my belly starting simply be those two clients turned to five clients within three months. And then those five clients became 10 clients three months later. And then by the end of the year, I had made more money in my entrepreneurial endeavor than I did at the corporate job.
And I think my husband, you can't tell your man what to do. Like, I don't know if you know that, I'm sure you do. Husbands really don't like to being told what to do by their wives, especially. So I've given up on that with Brian and instead I'm just the example in action. And that has really been a massive quantum leap for our relationship, frankly. And here we are, I sold that business that I started with two clients and as a side hustle seven years later.
[00:36:39] LW: But also just to be clear, I'm sure we hear all about manifesting and you just envision it and it'll happen. You busted your ass…
[00:36:45] JZ: Oh, it almost killed me. That's no joke. I was going to say like, I sold it seven years later after blood and sweat and tears and grind and diagnosed burnout and depression and hustle, and I'm on the other side of that, which is really the inspiration behind the new book. But it's, not glamorous being an entrepreneur. It's not easy running a business, being your own boss. Sometimes I'm like, wouldn't it be nice to collect a paycheck every two weeks? What would that be like again?
[00:37:16] LW: So you lace your book with all these references to the things that you experienced in Egypt, the temples you visited, the pyramids and all these things. How did you remember all of that? Are you a journaler? Do you take notes on a regular basis and write all these little details down knowing one day you're going to get a book deal and it's all going to be in this book or did you already have the book deal? And you thought this would be a great experience to add to the book.
[00:37:43] JZ: Well, to answer the first part of your question, I live and die by my Notes app on my phone. So I have something called Egyptian magic. It's in my Notes app. You know how it saves it in your phone I took notes throughout that whole trip. Wanted to record it, not for a book, but for myself.
And I actually had worked on the proposal for The Light Work. I pitched it to my first publisher. They made me an offer, but I wasn't 100% happy with it, but I was considering it. I went to Egypt. Came back and tweaked the proposal. Because I was like, now I know what I really need to say in this book.
My agent was pitching the book because I wasn't going to necessarily go with my first publisher. We were exploring our options. And I got on the phone with Joel Fatino at St. Martin's essentials. And he was just like, I want to know everything about Egypt. I want you to write about that trip. I want you to tell me all about the Pleiadians. That's your message and go for it.
And it just felt like the right publisher for this book. He really saw me and I channeled this book in three months. I didn't use AI. I didn't hire a ghostwriter. No shame if you do, but I didn't. I wrote every word and it came through me so fast. And I really do believe it's because I got that activated in Egypt.
Have you been there, Light?
[00:39:05] LW: It's been on my short list. So I haven't been there yet, but I'm fully planning on going there at some point soon.
You use the F word very liberally in your book. Was that something that your editors are like, Jessica just use a couple fewer fucks.
[00:39:23] JZ: Funny. Actually, you have an advanced reader copy. I toned it down in the final edit. I was like, wow, Jessica, this is unnecessary.
I just am passionate. You know, I have like a fiery Leo. I can't help myself. I tone it down a lot in the final edit and I use them sparingly for emphasis on certain points. But I do have a potty mouth and that's just part of my brand
[00:39:49] LW: Interesting. You mentioned skinny bitch in the book and I don't know, do you know Rory Friedman, the girl who wrote Skinny Bitch.
[00:39:57] LW: So it's like for the listeners, there's no nonsense guide to plant based diet. It came out in the early 2000’s.
And she's a friend of mine. And I remember running into her like many years later. And that book was like the most purchased vegan book in history or something like that. But she would do all these appearances and she had her own sort of transformation. And she said, I just got tired of people expecting me to have the potty mouth and to be cursing. Like she cursed all through her book. The book is nothing like that. But it's interesting because when we do present ourselves through a book, it's like people it's like archive and people hold us to that version of who we are when that book comes out. And if you have, as you continue to evolve and that becomes a conversation in your head around, how do I want to present myself.
[00:40:47] JZ: Yes, I mean, I used to, frankly. I'm friends with Danielle Laporte. And she was a potty mouth too, for a long time. That was like her brand. And I connected with that, I really did. And then she doesn't swear at all anymore, and I, it's part of her evolution.
And I think that's a beautiful thing and that we're all on our own timelines. But it's funny that you say that because the process of writing a book, you wrote one, your book's beautiful. You write it, it's such a long process, and then, so write the rough draft and then by the time you're at the third or fourth or fifth edit or whatever it's a year and a half later and you're a different person than you were when you first wrote it and I took out a lot of the fucks. It's funny you say that. I was like it’s too much, but I was going to say back to Egypt fucks up your life in the most beautiful way.
[00:41:48] LW: I'm looking forward to experiencing it, especially after reading your book. I wish I had more like reference points for just to, because it's one thing to hear it and read about it, but to be able to see it in your mind's eyes, it's a completely different thing.
But you mentioned brand and I want to ask you about some of the concepts in the book. Now, there's no difference between your personal and professional brand. Can you talk about that?
[00:42:12] JZ: This is what my entire business and agency was about. Yeah. I, I, my company simply be the company. I quit my corporate job to start, freaked my husband out that I grew after seven years was a personal branding agency. So we worked on the personal brands of hundreds of clients. And I just believe that we need to be who we say we are and that there is magic in the mess and that the authenticity of a brand the brand for a person comes through when you are deeply human and real.
And that there shouldn't be some nine to five version of yourself and the five to nine real version of yourself that when you integrate your humanity with your professional value, you become magnetic. And so that's why I say there's no difference between your professional brand and your personal brand.
It's all one and the same. There's of course people who are listening who are like, well, I don't want to share my kids on Instagram, or there are certain things that are private that don't belong. Online. And I often say that's a beautiful choice. You're completely empowered to be discretional and write your own narrative and go super specific on the things you want the world to see you as and create that story.
It doesn't make it any less authentic. if you hold things private you're allowed to do that, but I think that when we really look at our personal brand as a sort of, I have, this is from my first book. It's like a hologram with different pieces that make it light up.
What lights you up the most? What is the thing that really gives you fuel that you could talk about endlessly that you could talk about to the day you die, because you know the most about it and you're the most passionate about it and make a list of those things and then narrow it down to four because branding is an exercise in clarity, as I often say, and you can't talk about all the things, all at once, or you're going to become an expert at nothing and a master of everything.
And that to me is, That's a long winded answer to that question. I clearly have a lot of feelings and thoughts about it, but yeah, your professional brand shouldn't be different than your personal brand and vice versa. At least in today's world
[00:44:20] LW: when you mentioned The Light Work, we're talking more about what you're here to express. And there's a flip side to that, which is shadow work, which is what you've unconsciously repressed. So what's an example of that?
[00:44:36] JZ: Of what you've unconsciously repressed?
[00:44:38] LW: Like maybe someone is here to express and what they may be repressing and is that repression? Getting in the way of what they're here to express, or is the expression going to naturally diminish the repression or expose the repression? How does it work? Is there a sequence to it?
[00:44:56] JZ: I have a big philosophy on shadow work. Our work, on our shadow is typically looking at our trauma, our pain, our self limiting beliefs, our shame. These things in our lives that have, happened and manifested that we want to like lock away and ignore or just not tend to and/or reject.
And I think the first step towards truly consciously expressing the light, which is, I believe is the truth of who you are, the loving, conscious human being who's here to experience everything he or she wants and deserves. We have to go into our dark to face it, address it, of course, heal it. But the way that we do that is by loving it.
That to me would be step one is, and confronting, it takes so much self awareness and humility and self responsibility to face those parts of ourselves. And we all have them. And when we become unwilling or unconscious of them, if they remain unconscious, they start to run the show.
It takes a real honest willingness to hold yourself accountable. And also, the commitment and the devotion to the path of your own healing. Because I believe ultimate reason for being here is to express our light, but we can't find our light in the dark. Like that's the beauty in that. The pain of this polarizing dualistic human experience.
And so, I tell a story in the book about how I had this experience in one of these temples in Egypt where all this dark shit, all the shame, anger, rage of against the machine called my life came up all my shadow that at least been accumulating for those few years.
And we were staying on this boat in the Nile river, and I wanted to get rid of my dark. Like I was like, I'm going to release it. I went back to my little room on the balcony I had over the Nile river, wrote all of the things I saw in that temple, all the dark shit, and I ripped it up and like a ritual and I like threw it into the Nile river and I sat down and I closed my eyes and I just heard a voice, I heard my higher self say verbatim.
She goes, these are not the pieces of you to rip up and discard, Jessica. These are the pieces of you to love. And, I'm on this human experience to learning a lot of the same lessons over and over again.
But that trip to Egypt was really a life changing experience where I was really able to tap into the depths of my dark to really come out of that with so much clarity around my light.
[00:47:38] LW: Give us a couple more takeaways from that Egyptian trip because you wrote about it almost like an Egyptologist, right? And we don't want to overwhelm the listener with those details because obviously we want them to get the book, but what can they come away with that can help them in a real world practical sense from reading these parts of the book about your Egypt trip.
[00:48:01] JZ: I say it very clearly at the beginning that the book isn't here to convince you to buy a plane ticket. It's here to show you that you hold exactly what you need in your hands right now, by reading this book and also just in your life. I would say the headline of what I took away from Egypt that I would impart to your listeners, and then we can break it down into practical steps was that I had missed the memo of this human experience and that it's supposed to be joyful. Like it's so amazing to be in a human body, to experience the human life of having sex and eating chocolate and kissing a puppy and wearing cute clothes and traveling the world and living in places like Mexico city if we feel like it and hosting a podcast because we want to share our voice.
We live in this beautiful existence transcribed and not to bypass it and say that it's not hard at the same time, but we focus on our suffering, I believe more than our pleasure. At least I did. And I came home from Egypt making a radical commitment to joy and it necessarily look like going and buying cute outfits and traveling to more countries.
It was, I'm going to take a walk this afternoon instead of work till five. I am going to go to a local art store and pick up a sketchbook and draw. I am going to find an ecstatic conscious dance party in my neighborhood and go dance on a Saturday from 10 AM to 12 and move my body. I'm going to read a fiction book instead of a nonfiction book, like joy, cultivating joy as a practice, as my birthright which I believe the programming here on this planet conditions us to feel like we have to do something to deserve it. And I just would say Egypt allowed me to take back the debt I felt like I owed to the matrix and tap into my highest birthright and vibration, which is joy.
[00:50:01] LW: Talk about the divine laws of light.
[00:50:06] JZ: I was in Hathor's temple, I got struck by white lightning and I know that sounds crazy. And one of the things about Egypt. Like I said at the beginning or a few minutes ago, it fucks up your life. It's not a vacation, you go and you have these really wild experiences that sound like you're crazy when you tell them, but that's what happened to me.
I was in her temple, the temple of Hathor, who's the goddess of bliss and pleasure and joy and fun. And as soon as this white lightning hit me, I started getting all of these downloads. I started hearing the Pleiadian. Hathor speak through me. I tell the story extensively in the book. And they shared with me that there are three divine laws of light. Truth, information, and love. And information is really the synonym for light. It's according to the Pleiadian point of view. always believed this as long as I've been studying them. We as human bodies hold light in our DNA. We're made of light and these trillions of cells store information that comes from eons of the universe intelligence. And we are literally asleep to that power inside of us. We're walking through with the light switch off.
Back to your question around dark and like shadow. Shadow isn't dark, evil, wrong, bad. It's just simply lack of information. Truth is your unique expression of your unique blueprint, your DNA, your unique design. It's what you've come here to express fully unapologetically and authentically. And when we unlock our information when we realize that we've been in the dark to sleep to our own power, sleep to our own magnificence. We switch on the light. We can express our truth. And love is the master lock that unlocks all the keys.
It's what I call The Pleiadians called the basic building block to the entire universe. It's what we've come here to remember. Reclaim, share, express, receive. And Earth is school, and we live in a plane where there is the opposite of love. There is a lot of fear here on this planet, and you can turn on Instagram or the news and see that playing out everywhere.
And we've forgotten the highest truth of them all, which is love. Love heals all. Love is the answer. Love is just the way. And so those divine laws of light came through me in Hathor's temple. And those three elements make up the triangle throughout the book. Those three core elements is the light work express of information, truth, and love.
[00:52:41] LW: You also mentioned in the book that we didn't come here to coast. We came here to get our heart broken, to burn, to fall apart, to grieve.
[00:52:50] JZ: We did.
[00:52:50] LW: Sounds very dramatic.
[00:52:53] JZ: I know you've experienced all that, Light. This is why you have your spiritual practice, why you're a spiritual teacher, to help people through this human life and you, I believe we are students of what we are here to ultimately teach. We have to be.
[00:53:07] LW: Yeah. And that's why we choose the family we have and the people that we are surrounded by, even though some of those dynamics may be very challenging because they're actually, they're curated to help us. refine and learn what we need to learn.
[00:53:23] JZ: We're fine. Yeah.
[00:53:26] LW: What do you mean by one plus one equals 11? I think that would get red flagged in your basic math class.
[00:53:34] JZ: Yep, Math has never been my strong suit, but that is not a mathematical equation. Okay. I'll explain. It is a metaphor for be a whole person. So one is you, one is them. You don't shape shift or you shouldn't, I should say morph, shape shift, bend into a completely different version expression of yourself just by the fact that you've gotten into a partnership. So it's a metaphor around romantic relationships. So one plus one doesn't equal to 2 because when you get into your relationship, you shouldn't be unrecognizable to yourself if you were a one metaphorically before you met this person. One plus one equals 11 is the symbol of whole people attract whole people. Don't lose yourself in relationships. Be a whole person. Once you get through that relationship, don't lose your identity. And the number 11 is numerically greater than two. It's a greater power number than two. And it's a divine number, 11 is we all know that 11 we see it on the clock. Like magical divine number of unity. And when I was going through my horrific breakup in my late twenties and healing after a codependent, very addictive, very toxic, hot and heavy kind of situation. saw that in a newsletter, that metaphor. And I was like I'm going to go get that tattooed on my body.
And so I did, and it's on my rib cage. And I got that while I was single. And I met, my boyfriend, now my husband, probably about a year later, I really worked on my wholeness. And I say in my book, just because you're a whole person, doesn't mean you're a healed person. You still have to do your work.
But there is a difference, I believe in looking for that relationship. That Jerry Maguire, like you complete me kind of energy versus really standing in your, yourself and calling it a partner who stands in their self. It's a beautiful difference.
[00:55:47] LW: Awesome. Well, a couple more questions. How has your relationship with money evolved? What does it look like today?
[00:55:54] JZ: I talk about this in my book too. And I would say that my relationship with money has completely evolved. I don't really operate from scarcity. I have embodied a different feminine trust around money and non attachment to money. I've loosened my grip on money. I sold my business. So that's put me in a position I can share. Like that's a privilege worked hard for that. But one of the biggest things that I never really unlocked until recently was simply the power of receiving. I feel like we, especially as women are givers are doers are exerters.
And I don't want to sound flippant, but because this is true. The more fun I have, the more joy and trust and high vibration I have around my work, the more money I make. It's really interesting. Like, not to say I'm always in that state. I actually had a very tough April, like I was in a state of constriction and stress and lots of things weren't flowing and neither was my money.
And I set the intention at the beginning of May to have fun that I was going to have the most fun this month that I've had all year and my revenue tripled. It was really interesting. And so not to say there wasn't strategy and, whatever behind that there was, but my energy and my frequency was a match if that makes sense.
[00:57:23] LW: And how are you thinking about the concept of success these days?
[00:57:27] JZ: Success to me is peace of mind is the space to rest. To have enough alone time while also being able to make a big impact in people's lives. But I have so much sovereignty over what I choose to do in a way that I didn't before. I gave away a lot of my energy because I didn't want to lose the opportunity and really called that back and I feel like success is peace. Success is a healed nervous system.
[00:58:00] LW: Love that. Well, obviously your work caters more to a female. And if someone's listening to this and they love what you're saying and they want more, obviously get the book, but take us through your, funnel? How do people, what's the first step someone should do if they want more after reading your books?
What's the second step? Where does it all culminate? Are they going to end up in a room with you at a retreat or how does it work?
[00:58:27] JZ: I love this question. I love you for asking this, Light. You get it. The way to really engage, you can go to my website. I have a quiz. You can take my light worker quiz. It'll show you your light worker identity. There are four archetypes. I also have something called the radiance realm.
It's a 12 month membership. It's only 197. You get six, virtual calls with me all year long taking you through the book. It's basically like one big national book club and you get monthly drops to your inbox with extra invitations and keys, meditation, somatic practices, journaling prompts, the whole thing and a bunch of extra goodies and giveaways and bonuses in that program. It's 197 for the year.
I also do retreats. I'm doing another one coming up in January of 2025 in Mexico. I do coaching. And then I'm launching a school I'll give you a preview. Your audience will maybe be the first to hear this. Hopefully they do jump into the the book. I'm hosting a Lionsgate virtual event, August 8th with Michael Beckwith, and Danielle Page. And we're opening up the portal for 888 because it's 888. And I'm opening the doors to what's called the feminine frequency business school, and it's a 12 week program and it's a certification on how to become a divine feminine leader in the world and in your industry.
And so that is also happening tomorrow and I'm opening the doors to a brand new way working with me online and an intimate cohort. So lots of different things that I do and, I'm very grateful that I get to, call in a beautiful community and I just love, I love people. I love women. I love powerful women on a mission to do their work in the world. And just my favorite thing to, to hold more space to see themselves more powerfully through, through my eyes.
[01:00:22] LW: Love it. Well, the book is The Light Work: Reclaim Your Feminine Power, Live Your Cosmic Truth and Illuminate the World. And it's been an honor having you on the podcast. Jessica will put links to everything that we talked about in the show notes. And we still haven't met. Have we met in person before?
[01:00:41] JZ: No, we need to…
[01:00:43] LW: So that needs to happen at some point.
[01:00:45] JZ: I feel like we will soon. We need to, I've feel like I've met you and I've known you through the ether years, but we'll make that happen.
[01:00:53] LW: And you also are still doing your podcast, right? Yeah.
[01:00:56] JZ: Yes. I'm doing my podcast. Yeah. I rebranded it. It's called The Spiritual Hustler.
[01:01:00] LW: Oh, wow. Congratulations.
[01:01:03] JZ: Yeah.
[01:01:04] LW: Okay. Well, you guys have to also check out The Spiritual Hustler and there's an episode where we flip the tables and I'm the one being interviewed. And you're such a wonderful interviewer. Yeah. We'll put that in the show notes as well. And yeah. And looking forward to staying in touch.
[01:01:21] JZ: You're a light. You're wonderful. You're working medicine in the world is so deeply felt and you've been a very potent teacher to me in a guiding light, and I just love the way you show up in the world. And I know how many lives you touch. So I'm very honored to have been on your show today.
And like I was saying earlier, I don't have too many superpowers. I only have a few. And see people. I just really see people. It's one of the things I, do. And I see you so clearly, and you've been just such a sage wisdom on this planet. And you've given your community so much permission to really drop into the truth of who they are live from a place of peace and simplicity. And I just think it's what we need in the world right now so desperately. And I'm honored to call you a friend.
[01:02:17] LW: Thank you. That's so sweet. Thank you very much. I received that. And again, thank you again for bringing your light to this show and sharing your experience and also just, I don't think people realize when you hold a book in your hand, this is lots of work. Hours and hours.
First you have to have the experience, which means you have to take the leap of faith. It means you have to go through all the drama that you know, you talked about in the book and kind of figure out a way to make it make sense. Organize your thoughts. Edit edit revise, right. Getting the book deal. And then marketing promotions, you get to start several months out and just so much, so many inputs just to have this conversation. I'm always just honored that people are doing that and going through that process, because again, I know what it takes and it's not passive at all. There's nothing passive about it.
[01:03:15] JZ: it's insane actually.
[01:03:17] LW: Yeah.
[01:03:18] JZ: When you have, like you did, with your book, you have the download and the clarity, even if it's not all shaped yet to do it. It's one of the most beautiful things. I love writing books and I'm very grateful that you read it. Like you asked the best questions and you really spent time with it. And the feeling like there's no better feeling than that. So again, for honoring that.
[01:03:46] LW: Beautiful. Well, Thank you again.
[01:03:48] JZ: Amazing.
[END]
Thank you for tuning into today's episode with Jessica Zweig. You can grab a copy of The Light Work everywhere books are sold, and you can also follow Jessica on social media @JessicaZweig which is J E S S I C A Z W E I G. And you can also find links to our discussion in the show notes at lightwatkins.com/podcast.
And if this conversation has sparked some ideas about other people that you would like for me to interview, please email me your guest suggestions at light@lightwatkins.com. And one simple but very powerful way that you can help me make those interviews happen is just by leaving a rating or a review for this podcast, it really does make a huge difference because a lot of guests will go to the podcast page and they'll look and see how many reviews, how many ratings does this podcast have, and they'll make their decision based purely on that. So you leaving one, it only takes you 10 seconds is absolutely free and it could make or break the difference in me getting that guest versus them declining or giving me the run around or whatever. All you do is you go to your Apple podcast app, you click on the name of the show, you scroll down past those first few episodes, you'll see a space with the five blank stars and that's where you can leave your rating.
Just click one of those stars and if you're feeling generous and you want to go the extra mile, just type. Into the blank box, one line, just something that you appreciate about this podcast. And that will go a long way. Also, you can watch these interviews on my YouTube channel. If you prefer to have a visual component to the conversation, please don't forget to subscribe there as well.
And for those of you who crave even more. I post the raw unedited version of each podcast episode in my Happiness Insiders Online Community. So to access that, you have to join the happiness insiders. com. You can get a free two week trial just by listening to this podcast.
So you don't have to pay anything for those first couple of weeks. You can listen to as many episodes as you want. You can also access my 108 day meditation challenge, as well as a bunch of other masterclasses and challenges for becoming the best version of yourself. And finally, you may have noticed that I'm now releasing bite sized plot twist episodes each Friday.
A plot twist is a shorter clip from a past episode where the guest gets right to the pivotal moment in their story where they had to take a big leap of faith. And that's really inspiring because it can help us to remember to lean into those leaps of faith and those plot twists when they happen in our life as well.
So look out for those each Friday. And in the meantime, I hope to see you back here next week with another long form, inspiring story about somebody. Who's doing something extraordinary and until then, keep trusting your intuition, keep following your heart, keep taking those leaps of faith. And remember if no one's told you that they believe in you, I believe in you.
Thank you so much. Have a fantastic day and I will see you for the next plot twist this Friday.