Chasing the Bright Side with Jess Ekstrom

01/06/20 • 53 min

Jess Ekstrom , Founder & CEO of Headbands of Hope joins Leah in the Nashville studio for a fun conversation about the humble of Headbands of Hope, why she started a social enterprise instead of a nonprofit, and some of the lessons learned from her book Chasing the Bright Side.

They discuss some of the challenges Jess faced growing Headbands of Hope, how she redefines what entrepreneurship means, and how she is passionate about humanizing the hustle of success and normalizing the mess in the middle.

Jess tells the story of hearing Blake Mycoskie from Tom’s Shoes speak and how he inspired her to believe that we don't have to choose between making a living and making a difference.

She shares how taking improve classes helped her look at life in the expansiveness of possibilities instead of just making strategies and plans, and that some of the turning points in her life happened because she said yes and showed up.

We also talk through the process of writing her book Chasing the Bright Side and the humbling experience of receiving the feedback. She said the rough draft of your book isn't supposed to be perfect,and that message helped her realize it is true in life too.

Through Chasing the Bright Side, teaches us how to “Believe in Better” and then go create it. We hope you enjoy this conversation!

Today’s episode is sponsored by Givful,philanthropy company that provides employers the ability to engage their workforce through volunteering and giving, helps nonprofits raise funds and awareness, and makes individual giving simple and fun though their technology platform. If you are looking to enhance your corporate giving or community involvement strategy, you can find more information at https://www.givful.com.

Our nonprofit spotlight today is Girls Inc. inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.

Their programming focuses on the development of the whole girl. A combination of research-based programming, long-lasting mentoring relationships, and a pro-girl environment that equips girls to lead fulfilling and productive lives, break the cycle of poverty, and become role models in their community. You can find more information at https://girlsinc.org.

Jess tells the story of hearing Blake Mycoskie from Tom’s Shoes speak and how he inspired her to believe that we don't have to choose between making a living and making a difference.

Through Chasing the Bright Side, teaches us how to “Believe in Better” and then go create it. We hope you enjoy this conversation!

Our nonprofit spotlight today is Girls Inc. inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.

Previous Episode

Growth & Belonging

Melissa N. Aldridge is the Director of Corporate Strategy and Development for Unum Group and the new COO and CFO of Her Story of Success. These roles allow her to fulfill her twin passions of deriving actionable insights to transform businesses and positively impacting women and families.

A talent for seeing the big picture and executing on details has enabled Melissa to have unique experiences in corporate strategy, investment portfolio management, technology commercialization, operations and finance for startups, and venture and angel capital funding. She is a trusted advisor and partner of business leaders and has held leadership roles in organizations ranging from not-for-profits to Fortune 500 companies.

Melissa serves as an investment committee member of the Launch Tennessee Innovation Capital Continuum Fund.

In this episode

Host, Leah Hayes, introduces Melissa Aldridge as her new business partner with Her Story of Success. They discuss Melissa’s background, what led her to join Her Story of Success, and what they are excited about in 2020 for Her Story of Success.

Melissa gets personal and shares how the experience of becoming a single mother and the process of doing the inner work necessary to move forward led to growth both professionally and personally.

She shares what she learned as a listener of Her Story of Success and how the common theme she felt in all the episodes was a sense of belonging, which was inspiring & motivating during that time of growth in her life.

Melissa and Leah reflect on their accomplishments and share some of the exciting opportunities coming in 2020 for the Her Story of Success community.

In This Episode:

Melissa discusses why she chose to return to a corporate position and while ultimately Unum was the best fit for her (1:43).
Melissa talks about how company culture affected her growth, “I never realized how much culture mattered, until I didn’t have a good one” (14:10).
Leah outlines all the work and research she and Melissa did to vet their compatibility, and why they were ultimately a match as business partners (23:20).
Why Melissa ultimately made the time to assess what she wanted from her career, by taking herself on as a client and “decoupling her passion from her paycheck” (26:22).
The AH-HA moment that turned a switch for Melissa and gave her the feeling that we are all in this together (30:46).
Leah and Melissa tells listeners about the great additions to Her Story of Success coming in 2020 (33:00).
Leah and Melissa talk about how the community and connectivity of Her Story of Success can help each listener grow, learn and give back (36:20).

Next Episode

Radically Generous Women Changing the World with Vicki Saunders

Vicki Saunders is Founder & CEO of SheEO, a radically redesigned ecosystem that supports, finances, and celebrates female innovators.

Vicki has co-founded and run ventures in Europe, Toronto and Silicon Valley and taken a company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. She was recently named as 1 of 30 “World-Changing Women in Conscious Business” by Conscious Company Magazine, one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from “EBW – Empowering A Billion Women”, and in 2001, was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.

In this Episode

Vicki shares stories of growing up in the farm version of Disneyland, her experience living in Europe when the Berlin wall fell, importance of finding your tribe, when she learned your environment will determine who you become, and her entrepreneurial journey that led to to start SheEO.

The highlights:

Vicki explains how she “mashed together” microfinancing, crowdfunding, and other funding concepts to create SheEO (9:08)
Why they give a 0% loan instead of funding the ventures and what happens when 500 women choose you, become customers, and become an influencer for you. (10:10)
process of applying to be a “venture”
She talks about being in Europe when the Berlin wall and how she became a catalyst for entrepreneurship before telephones and email were a thing. (18:20) -
Starting an incubator back in Canada and heading to Silicon Valley (22:05)
Everyone has something amazing to contribute, but what kind of environments stop you and what frees you. (23:05)
How she is seeing women rise to the occasion. (38:05)

The SheEO companies Vicki mentioned were: