Let me take you back to a hot summer Chicago Saturday last July.
I needed some new bras.
Instead of Ubering downtown from my apartment, I decided to take the thirty-minute walk to downtown Michigan Avenue and enjoy the glorious 85 degree weather.
As I embarked on the iconic Magnificent Mile and made my way toward Bloomingdales (the safest bet for a wide selection of high quality undergarments), I weaved in and out of the mobs of people swarming the sidewalks, slinging their shopping bags from CHANEL, Coach, Nike, Zara, H&M, Prada, Tom Ford and the like.
A mere block away from the Bloomingdales building, I started to hear…screaming. It wasn’t just one person; it was a group of people shouting at the top of their lungs in unison, chanting in a call and response. Someone even had a blow horn. As I made my way through the crowd of tunnel-visioned shoppers and got closer, I saw a mass of protestors standing outside the store MaxMara. They were emphatic, passionate and emotional. (I couldn’t help but notice how nearly every single passerby walked right by them, as if ignoring people’s furies diffuses them, versus emboldens them.) I digress.
For what it’s worth, I did not ignore them. I could not. Rather, I was instantly consumed by them. They were holding signs of images of foxes in cages, clearly abused and even more clearly being utilized as products to support MaxMara’s fox fur inventory. This animal rights group did not care who ignored them, or stared at them like they were crazy. They were in a zone of true purpose and mission and that level of embodied authenticity brought me to tears. I wanted to stop and clap for them. Instead, I did my best to look into their eyes, smile and nod in a manner of solidarity and encouragement as I walked through them and their picket signs.
As soon as I passed them, I whipped out my phone and Googled, “MaxMara, fox fur.” Articles upon articles and images upon images blazed into my eyes and pierced into my heart. These foxes were shown in truly horrifying conditions, where cannibalism, disease (some suffering missing infected eyes and wounds infested with maggots), missing limbs, tails and ears, along with exhibited signs of self-mutilation due to the stress, runs rampant at these “fox farms.”
I stopped walking and I lifted up my head and took in my surroundings once again. Witnessing thousands upon thousands of people flooding the streets, amassing material excess, with the images of these sentient animals in my palm, I couldn’t help but ask myself: for what? Do we really need all of this?
The truth is: to some degree, yes, we do. I needed bras that day, but unlike my usual shopping habit, I didn’t pick up an extra lip gloss at the Bloomingdales make-up counter, or stop into the shoe department to buy myself sandals I didn’t really need, but looked cute enough to want.
Sure, I could afford it, but that day I untethered myself from my money as a resource to use to only satisfy myself. I am not standing on any pedestal here. We are all hooked into a world of consumerism, and that consumerism creates a feedback loop of scarcity. That enough will never be enough. I realized in that moment just how hooked into that loop I had been.
It’s important to note that animal activism is a cause close to my heart. Most people don’t know this, but I have long had the deep desire to transition my entrepreneurial career to the work of philanthropy and activism…eventually. As a mom of two dogs, a volunteer at animal shelters, and a regular tither to organizations that support animal rights and welfare, I do my best to play my part.
But it was that moment on Michigan Avenue in the summer of 2023 that I realized: I didn’t have to wait. That July, I had just started to lay the groundwork for my third business, and the website you are on right now, jessicazweig.com. Staring at those tortured and abused foxes juxtaposed against retail shops extending as far as the eyes could see, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, starting now.
What’s more, in my new work as a business, branding and spiritual coach, the host of my new podcast “The Spiritual Hustler,” and author of my next book set to publish in August, I knew I couldn’t stand up on any platform to teach women about business growth and wealth creation without walking my own walk of being in right relationship with Mother Earth myself. It felt out of integrity, out of alignment, and inauthentic not to have a bigger cause be connected to my business.
Please know I am not here to tell you to stop shopping. I am not even here to tell you to stop buying fur. (Yes, really.) I am simply here to hopefully stand as an example of two things:
- Align your business with something bigger than your own bottom line. What causes do you care about? Maybe it’s underprivileged communities, children, refugees, sex trafficking victims, cancer research, third world countries, social impact, or like me, it’s animals. How can you step out of the “I” mentality and step forward into a “We” consciousness with your business? This what a Lightworker knows is her mission. This is what a Feminine Financial Leader of the New Earth understands is part of her job. Just choose one, and walk the walk. You can do what I’m doing and donate a percentage of your revenue at the end of the year to the cause, or you can donate your time and volunteer. Buy a ticket (or a table) at the next gala. Sign petitions and share them on social media. Set-up a monthly donation and give $10 a month. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. It matters that you do it. And, what matters most, is that you attune the vibration of your business to that of reciprocity, well-being and abundance for all. This isn’t only how you support the world; it’s how you attract more of what you want.
- Trust, sister, trust. Trust that you have enough. If we all took home 95% of our wealth versus 100%, we are going to be more than fine. Really be with that idea, and see what comes up for you.
As part of my new business, I am donating 5% to the causes of the International Humane Society, an incredible organization that supports sentient animals across every continent: from elephants targeted for poaching in Africa, to dogs held inside dogmeat farms in Korea, to horses being slaughtered in Canada. I am also contributing to Animal Love Rescue Center, a shelter in Costa Rica that saves thousands of homeless cats and dogs every year, as well as Inti Wara Yassi, a non-profit based in Bolivia that rehabilitates illegally trafficked animals of the jungle, including wild cats, birds, monkeys, and more, while raising education to end the animal trade industry for good.
As my business grows, I will donate more.
Back to that Saturday in July… I ended up buying those bras, one of them being the black Calvin Klein bra I’m wearing under the white suit in the photos and videos across this website. It is my own reminder of the responsibility to embody what I am truly offering the world.
My hope is that, in reading this today, it reminded you of yours.
Are we friends yet?