Headbands of Hope with Jess Ekstrom
Episode Summary
About Our Guest
Show Notes
Christine is thrilled to welcome her dream guest and one of the reasons she started this podcast, Jess Ekstrom. Jess is the founder and CEO of Headbands of Hope, where for every item sold, her company donates a headband to a child with an illness. She is a rockstar entrepreneur, an inspirational public speaker, and she has her own Mic Drop Workshop that helps bring more female speakers into the industry. To hear her incredible story and the journey of how she started this Give Back company, pick up her book, Chasing the Bright Side, where she dives deep into her journey and gives you a look of what it takes to grab hold of your passion and just do good.
Jess tells Christine about her experience working with Disney and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and what inspired her to launch Headbands of Hope. She speaks about the importance of believing in yourself and your idea wholeheartedly, being motivated by other people’s entrepreneurial journeys without comparing yourself to them, and overcoming Imposter Syndrome. Jess explains why she loves the term, “It’s just business,” and encourages entrepreneurs to remove their ego and self-worth from what they’re creating so they can focus on solutions objectively. She shares how a gut wrenching setback early on actually drove her to become more resourceful, resilient, and optimistic. And you’ll hear about the many fun products, partnerships, and fundraisers Jess has underway to help children with illnesses feel confident and beautiful during such a difficult time.
Episode Highlights:
Had to represent my recent purchase from Headbands of Hope during my chat with Jess!
Jess’s Airstream adventures and her passion for traveling
Christine’s moving experience of hearing one of Jess’s speeches for the first time
Jess’s background with Disney and Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the inspiration behind Headbands of Hope
Her revelation that your career can be more than just clocking in and out - it can build up to something bigger than us
The importance of believing in yourself and your idea wholeheartedly
Asking for help and opinions, and using the promise of free food as compensation
Being inspired by other people’s journey rather than comparing yourself to them
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Removing your ego and self-worth from the thing you’re creating
Embracing the expression, “It’s just business”
Jess’s gut wrenching setback with a manufacturer early on, and how it led her down the path of optimism and resilience rather than giving up
Learning from mistakes and doing better in the future
The idea for Headbands of Hope, and giving headbands to children who have lost their hair due to cancer
The company’s fun products and website
Jess’s idea for the Worst Fundraiser Ever, a no-money fundraiser that raises gifts of kindness in place of dollars
Current collaborations with Under Armor and Sharpie, and personally supporting women business owners
Jess’s touching story of helping a little girl gain the confidence to go back to Kindergarten after losing her hair
November 2018
I had my name tag for the networking event on my necklace. Gosh, I was SO inspired after this talk!!!!
Quotes:
“From the moment you started talking, honestly, until the end - I could probably give that speech. I mean, I have just soaked it up. I laughed. You took us through experiences. You took us through your journey. And I cried. You got me hard. I’ve really enjoyed your transparency of your journey, and just being so open and honest.”
“I worked in the Magic Kingdom at Hollywood Studios, and I was a PhotoPass photographer. So I got to take pictures of people from all over the world. And I got to learn a lot about business and parks. But my favorite thing that I got to do, was I got to take pictures of kids that were there on their Wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
“I realized all the things that I was doing, no matter how small or tedious they were, it made sense to making a wish come true.”
“That’s why it’s so important to believe in your idea in this really rooted way, because you’ll never work that hard if you don’t believe in it.”
“It’s when you’re just like, absolutely, This is going to make the world better. People need this. There is no problem too big to stand in your way.”
“I used food as so many forms of compensation, especially in the beginning!”
“Everyone has their own path. Everyone has their own timeline. And you really just have to be inspired by people without comparing yourself to them.”
“Everyone has these rocky stories and no one really knows what they’re doing. They’re just not posting about it. We see all the highlights, but we don’t see what’s really happening behind the scenes.”
“The other part of it is removing your ego and your self-worth from the thing that you’re creating.”
“If you can separate your worth as a person from the things that you’re creating, you can become kind of obsessed with the problem that you’re trying to solve instead of riding this emotional rollercoaster, which is natural in starting a business. There’s going to be so many ups and downs. You don’t want to be strapped to that roller coaster all the time, or else it will break you down.”
“That kind of set the tone for my resilience. It happened so early on in the business - it showed me that if I can get past this, there’s nothing too big that’s going to stand in my way.”
“Optimism is really like the gasoline to your grit.”
“I think that we make mistakes in our life in one way, that prevents us from making those mistakes in a bigger way as our life progresses.”
“Failures in your life are really just research to do better in your future.”
“For every headband sold, we donate one to a child with an illness. And we’ve reached every children’s hospital in America… We are really, really close to donating one million headbands.”
“[The Worst Fundraiser Ever] is a really great way to reinvent what giving really is, and think about, What do I have to offer?”
“To have something like that story or those moments that really anchor you - it’s just so important when it comes to your grit and just being able to push through it.
Links:
The Give Back Model website www.TheGiveBackModel.com
Follow The Give Back Model on Instagram @thegivebackmodel
Headbands of Hope website www.HeadBandsOfHope.com
Jess Ekstrom’s website www.JessEkstrom.com