Jess Ekstrom

Here's what I did about it.

And now here's what you can do too, which is how to start something that matters, how to look for problems in your own, you know, organization or community.

And then I remember the first time I got an email from Marshall University saying, what's your fee to speak to our students?

I don't do you remember like the first time you got paid to speak?

Because like anything, we have no knowledge walking into it when you're their knowledge.

I was like, wait, people pay you to do this.

This is insane.

And I did exactly what I teach my mic drop workshop students not to do was I negotiated against myself.

And I said, I would it would be an honor.

Just take me to dinner.

You know, I would love it.

And then I just realized like this could be a way to power Headbands of Hope.

So I would speak the money that I would make through speaking.

I'd reinvest it into the business.

People in the audience would then know about Headbands of Hope.

They'd go buy it.

Eventually Headbands of Hope went on to get acquired during the pandemic, which was a whole other identity crisis, which I talk about in the book.

It was funny.

I was like recording the audio book a few weeks ago and I,

I thought I knew when I would cry, you know, during the audio, like I talk about, you know, I thought it was going to be during the birth of my daughter, postpartum depression, or, you know, my family went through this like really prolific scandal when I was in high school and just like all this stuff that I thought I was going to cry.