Jess Ekstrom

Has community service become a requirement? Something we have to do to please those evaluating us? From college applications to campus awards, so many students are engaging in service projects within their organizations. But, are they really making the connection to the good work they are doing?

In this keynote, Jess Ekstrom encourages student leaders to “redefine philanthropy” from a requirement to a lifestyle. “We’re so worried about crossing philanthropy and service requirements off our list that we forget the purpose behind it. We forget to feel the passion.”

Jess uses examples from her own development as a student leader and philanthropic professional. As founder of Headbands of Hope, she has learned the amazing power of service – changing thousands of children’s lives. She understands that service often means doing grunt work, but she knows how a connection to those who are served makes all of it extremely worthwhile.

If students at your campus need to make a stronger connection between their service activities and the ethics of service, this program will open their eyes and hearts. If you are planning a large campus service event (dance marathon, Relay for Life, etc.), Jess will get your coordinators better equipped to communicate the crucial messages to other students.

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.

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

Let’s get one thing straight: meaningful work is not assigned to you, it’s created by you.

Most of the time we believe that in order to do something meaningful, we have to do something else: live somewhere else, work somewhere else, do something else, be someone else.

But what if we didn’t have to change our circumstance to do something meaningful, but changed our mindset around it?

Nowadays, people don’t want to just clock in and clock out. People want to feel like what they’re doing matters- it’s human nature. We want to know that all of the tasks are building blocks to something greater than themselves. We want to zoom out and say, “Yes! I’m a part of something that matters.”

When employees, leaders, entrepreneurs can create meaning in their work:

They show up with more passion
Their hustle muscle is activated
They’re more engaged in the big picture
And the ordinary tasks now have an extraordinary purpose

When we build meaning in our work: A single sale becomes a fist pump of forward progress. A customer service call becomes a deeper connection to a future customer. An end of quarter review becomes an impact report….

In other words, our jobs are no longer jobs…they’re a service to humanity.

Jess’ keynote is certainly not a namaste, save the world, love-what-you-do-and-you-never-have-to-work-a-day-in-your-life manifesto. She uses her experiences and market research to make an inspiring yet entertaining experience.

After hearing this keynote, the audience will:

– Fulfillment is not a destination we hit one day, but a choice to how we live today

– Develop an entrepreneurial mindset to increase your agility and handle what’s thrown your way

– It’s not about the task, but what you make the task mean

– Learn what is success (purpose) and what is achievement (reward)

This keynote is perfect for: purpose building, audiences seeking fulfillment, hitting goals + targets, improve retention rates, improving connections to customers/clients, recentering your career to remember why you started.