243. Telling Your Story More Authentically + Cultivating Rabid Fans - Jess Ekstrom
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Overview
Meet Jess☀️ She's an entrepreneur, author, speaker and founder who's helping women tell, sell and uncover the value in their story so they can make a living and a difference at the same time. After starting Headbands of Hope in college (featured on GMA & Today show!), this female empowerer learned how to help women find their voices, tell their story authentically, and reminds us that little things matter. Tune in, only if you want to be massively inspired. It's an UNGETTABLE GET interview day! 💃
💡Learn:
Current landscape of women in thought leadership and public speaking? (only 32% of speakers are women, down from 33% in 2017) 😱
How nonprofit leaders can embrace public speaking & crafting their own stories
Advice around embracing optimism & battling compassion fatigue
Overview of her book: Chasing the Bright Side
Today’s Guest
Jess Ekstrom, Keynote Speaker, Entrepreneur, Founder of Headbands of Hope, Podcast Host, Business On the Bright Side, Author, Chasing the Bright Side, Founder, Mic Drop Workshop
“I realized in that moment that to be a thought leader, it isn’t about proving your credibility. It’s about using your story to help people in their story. Oftentimes, that means that it’s not making yourself look great. It’s about sharing the moments that don’t make you look so great.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode highlights
The Ungettable Get List (3:00)
Jess’s story and journey to where she is today (6:30)
The founding story of Headbands of Hope (11:00)
Leaders as thought leaders: Jess’s journey into thought leadership (14:00)
The current landscape of women in thought leadership and the opportunity right now for nonprofit leaders (20:00)
Moment to meaning (22:00)
Premise + promise (27:00)
The power of journaling and Jess’s new platform: prompted.io (28:00)
Use code GOOD for one month free 🎉
Stop wishing for a better world create one. Jess’s book: Chasing the Bright Side (36:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Jess’s life (42:00)
Jess’s One Good Thing: You are right on time. (45:00)
powerful quotes
“In my book, I call it throwing darts. Because you just have no idea what's possible when you actually vocalize and verbalize what you're wanting.” -Jess
“The step one to getting speaking engagements is putting the word speaker in your bio like that is that is it that is stereotyping because people can't book you to speak, if they don't know your speaker, and some people are like, but I haven't spoken yet.” -Jess
“When we think about entrepreneurship, or starting a business or an organization, it feels like this members only club that we have to get invited to you know that you have to get your MBA, or you have to know what like a p&l stands for. And you don't need to know any of that. It's about creating what you wish existed.” -Jess
“I try with whatever I create, to make things feel, you know, attainable, and, and reachable for someone who just wants to make the world a better place.” -Jess
“I'm such a big advocate for young entrepreneurs because you don't have all of those that data in your head yet telling you that failure is a possibility. All you have is that optimism that it could work out.” -Jess
“This idea that you have to reach this insane level of success in order to claim your space as a thought leader is not accurate.” -Jess
“I would try to think of what a speaker would say, not what Jess would say.” -Jess
“I realized in that moment that like to be a thought leader isn't about proving your credibility. It's about using your story to help people in their story. And oftentimes, that means that it's not making yourself look great. It's about sharing the moments that don't make you look so great.” -Jess
“What were those just like Polaroid snapshot moments, whether it was an interaction that you had with, you know, the postman delivering your mail, or whether it was a big moment you had where you gave, you know, a meeting or presentation or kudos to someone? And then what was the meaning that you can pull from that moment?” -Jess
“Whatever your moments are, there's also universal meaning that you can teach to others. So don't put yourself in a lane that's too small when it comes to thought leadership because the meaning is much broader than your your standing.” -Jess
“What do you want your message to be? There are two words that I talk about in Mic Drop Workshop, the premise and the promise. The premise is a story of how you got here, and the promise is what it means for the audience.” -Jess
“Always playing with this idea of, what's the premise, what's the promise is a really clear way to figure out like how you want to serve people, as a thought leader.” -Jess
“When we're feeling really overwhelmed, and we don't know where to begin, it's a lot of times because we're trying to hold too many pieces in our head.” -Jess
“In our house, I have two daughters, your thoughts, your opinions, your lived experience are precious, don't let them be fleeting, ground them plant those seeds. Because any ideas that come in are probably just going to be a part of an evolution of some journey that you're on.” -Becky
“When I thought about, like, what is the thread that keeps bubbling up in my life, it was just this rooted belief that the future is going to be good.” -Jess
“It took me a while to realize that where if I am creating a life where everyone agrees with me, then that means I'm not standing for anything.” -Jess
“I think oftentimes the things that stands in our way of starting is feeling like we need to start big, but the little things add up. And so don't discount them.” -Jess
“In a world that is designed to tell you that you're behind, just remember that you're on time. You're right where you need to be whether you're just getting started, whether you haven't had as much traction yet as you thought, everyone is on their own path.” -Jess
“There is no one size fits all to where you want to go. And that's just the beautiful part about life. Don't fall into these comparison traps. When you find something that you're inspired by. You're right on time.” -Jess
🎉 Use code GOOD at www.prompted.io for one month free!
Connect with Jess Ekstrom
Website / Mic Drop Workshop / Instagram / Book: Chasing the Bright Side / Podcast / Prompted.io
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Episode Sponsored by
Studio Selfie
Julie Confer, Becky Endicott, Jonathan McCoy & Jess Ekstrom
