Jessica Killings Generated Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Online Before ‘Influencers’ Were a Thing

Fans online see a bombshell, but what they don’t know about Jessica Killings is that she built a marketing powerhouse generating hundreds of millions of dollars in influencer campaigns before "influencer" was even a word in the dictionary.

While most people were still figuring out how to upload content to social media, Killings was running campaigns that would quietly shape the entire influencer economy.

The corporate executive turned model and content creator didn't stumble into success through luck or a viral moment. She engineered it, starting with magazine spreads and video modeling gigs that became her laboratory for understanding what makes people pay attention. High-profile partnerships with Fashion Nova, Lyft, Anheuser Busch and 1st Phorm only scratch the surface.

"I've worked in a lot of different fields and I have never really been afraid to try something new, fail and try again," she explains.

That fearlessness traces back to elementary school, where relentless bullying over wearing the same clothes pushed her to get two jobs by age 14. However, the girl who got mocked for her wardrobe now runs her own clothing line.

Killings says she accidentally created a marketing agency by hiring friends from her modeling days for club hosting gigs and magazine shoots. When social media exploded, those same friends already had built-in fanbases from car shows and modeling work.

She'd unknowingly assembled the blueprint for influencer marketing before the industry had a name, and she did it all while pivoting between careers that would make most people's heads spin.

Now Killings focuses on holistic health and, she says, inspiring people to take risks regardless of age. Her message cuts through the noise: resilience isn't about never falling down. It's about getting comfortable with the possibility of failure and doing it anyway.