About Zest

Zest’s Origin Story

During my decade in tech leadership at high-growth, fast-moving companies, I experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to support wellbeing inside demanding work environments.

The tools that helped me show up better — meditation, coaching, communication training, intentional goal-setting — were the first to fall off the calendar. Not because they didn’t matter, but because time, capacity, and bandwidth were constantly under pressure. Sessions were canceled. Workshops were missed. Personal development became something to “get back to later.”

I watched the same pattern play out up and down the org chart, from the C-suite to interns.

Everyone wanted to do good work. They wanted to grow, collaborate well, and sustain their energy. But the very skills that would help them regulate stress, communicate clearly, and stay grounded under pressure were treated as optional — something to pursue outside of work, on personal time, if there was any left.

I realized something important:
If skill-building and wellness-supporting education were brought into the workplace — treated as part of how work is done — people would actually be able to access it.

So I began bringing in experienced teachers and facilitators to lead yoga, fitness, meditation, and development workshops during the workday. Employees showed up. They practiced together. They built shared language and skills. Cross-department connections formed. Teams felt more cohesive. Recruiters noticed. Retention improved.

These programs worked — not because they made people happy all the time, but because they helped people regulate, focus, and show up more skillfully at work and at home.

But another challenge quickly became clear.

When ownership of these programs shifted to HR, they often struggled to sustain them. Not due to lack of care or commitment — but because HR teams were already carrying full plates. Designing, launching, promoting, and managing ongoing programs required time and capacity that simply weren’t available. And Jen couldn’t keep running two full-time jobs: marketing leader and internal wellness champion + program manager.

That’s when Zest was born.

Today, Zest partners with organizations to run wellness-supporting development programs on behalf of HR teams. For companies that see the value of group-based programming — but lack the internal bandwidth to make it happen well — Zest offers a practical alternative.

We design and deliver programs that treat wellness not as happiness or a perk, but as a set of learnable skills: nervous system regulation, clear communication, sustainable performance, and personal agency under pressure.

Zest supports employees by helping them build the skills to navigate demanding work and life conditions with steadiness and integrity. And Zest supports HR teams by being fully customized, thoughtfully designed, and highly turnkey — so programs are engaging and effective without adding to internal workload.

Wellness doesn’t need to be aspirational or performative to work.
It needs to be practical, skill-based, and supported where people actually are.

That’s what Zest exists to deliver.