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Jess Ekstrom        

Chief Creative Officer at Mic Drop Workshop, Founder of Headbands of Hope, Bestselling Author of "Chasing the Bright Side" & "Create Your Bright Ideas"

Jess Ekstrom is a Forbes Top Rated Speaker, 2x 7-figure social entrepreneur, new mom and Harper Collins bestselling author of "Chasing the Bright Side" and "Create Your Bright Ideas." She’s on a mission to help audiences adopt a success-driven mindset so they can outplay imposter syndrome, expand their presence and achieve influence.

It all started when Jess launched her first social enterprise called Headbands of Hope. For every headband sold, one is donated to a child with cancer. Today, the brand is sold in all Kohl’s locations, they’re the official headband provider for the NBA and WNBA, and most importantly, they have donated millions of headbands to kids who deserve them.

One of the ways Jess was able to globally scale her idea with little budget (and experience!) is through the power of public speaking. After becoming a Forbes Top Rated Speaker and speaking on stages all over the world, she realized one blaring problem: only 30% of speakers are women.

In 2018, Jess passed the baton at Headbands of Hope and started her next venture: Mic Drop Workshop, a company with the mission of helping women become more confident speakers and thought leaders on stages and within companies.

Today, Jess is the Chief Creative Officer at Mic Drop Workshop and continues to rack up her airline miles speaking at companies like Edward Jones, Zappos, Canva, Leadercast Live, Magnolia and more. You can find her either writing her next book or traveling in an Airstream with her family.

If you're looking for a refreshing experience to help your people get out of their head and into their potential, look no further than Jess Ekstrom.

Speech Topics


The Growth Mindset: Change Your Mind So You Can Change Your Future

The quality of your future is entirely dependent on the quality of your mindset. The first step to achieving influence and massive success is editing your thought patterns and the negative feedback loops that are holding you back, then find the growth mindset that will take you to the next level.

Jess Ekstrom knows this better than anyone. She’s started two multi-million dollar social enterprises that have helped women and girls all over the world, but not without a few trips and falls (okay, maybe more than a few!) on her climb to the top.

This keynote will help audiences identify the five core mindsets we have and how to use them: The Reactor (happens in times of pressure), The Student (happens in new territory), The Lawyer (happens in conflict), The Dreamer (happens on the edge of opportunity), The Evaluator (happens when we reflect on our life and progress).

If you’re looking to motivate your people to get out of their own way, outplay their imposter syndrome and feel fulfilled at the end of a work day, this is your keynote.

Audience Takeaways:

  • Feel confident in their career so they can increase productivity and overcome challenges and change.
  • Understand how we talk to ourselves in moments of pressure, new territory, conflict, opportunity, and self-evaluation.
  • Learn how to reflect and evaluate their progress without judgment or comparison so they can avoid burnout and workplace anxiety.
  • Develop a toolkit for their thoughts so they can articulate their ideas and communicate with influence.

Chasing the Bright Side: Purpose Driven Thinking Leads to Unstoppable Growth

This keynote is perfect for: workplace engagement, overcoming burnout, adapting a more positive mindset at work, employee retention, increasing fulfillment, navigating change and hardships, startup struggles and culture building.

Nowadays, it’s so easy to get warped into negative thoughts and constantly feeling like you’re moving from problem to problem.

A recent study at the American Academy of Neurology found that prolonged negative thinking diminishes your brain’s ability to think or reason clearly and it quickly drains your energy. You’d think the solution to negativity would be to tell yourself to “just be positive!” but we all know that doesn’t trick your brain, it only frustrates it.

In Jess’ bestselling book, Chasing the Bright Side, she talks about how optimism isn’t about eliminating the negativity, it’s about using it to create something better. Even the spark of her business, Headbands of Hope, was started because of a problem she saw: kids with cancer wanted to wear headbands after hair-loss. Now, her company has donated millions of headbands to kids with illnesses and has reached every children’s hospital in the United States and 22 countries.

But it all began because there was a problem. Problems are where a lot of great ideas begin if we let them.

If you’re looking to find a keynote speaker who can deliver inspiration infused with humor and entertainment, then Jess is your choice. In this keynote, she aims to inspire audiences to not just envision a better future for their life, work, and community, but go create it.

After hearing this keynote, the audience will:

  • Discover that optimism is the key to positive growth
  • Find their overlap between passion and profit
  • Learn how to turn setbacks into comebacks
  • Realize a better future starts with a brighter mindset

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