Confidence Classic: Turn Your Passion Into Purpose with Jess Ekstrom

Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan

Heather Monahan

Entrepreneurship, Education, Business, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ever felt like failure is the end? What if it’s really just research for your next big move? In this episode, I chat with Jess Ekstrom, founder of Headbands of Hope, who turned her passion into a purpose-driven business helping kids with cancer. Jess shares overcoming a very public family scandal, building a meaningful brand from scratch, and how she learned to handle shame and vulnerability in the spotlight. We talk about how reframing failure helps to push through burnout, stress, and fear. Get ready to set boundaries and lean into optimism! In This Episode, You Will Learn Why I stopped seeing failure as a setback. What it’s really like balancing stress, health scares, and big life shifts. How to find meaning after life's toughest moments. How optimism is a strategy, not just a mood. How taking small risks helps break through fear. Advice for setting professional boundaries and standing in your power. Resources + Links Learn more about Headbands of Hope at headbandsofhope.com Learn more about Jess’s Mic Drop Workshop at micdropworkshop.com Get your copy of Jess’s book Chasing the Bright Side HERE Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/monahan Download the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning at NetSuite.com/MONAHAN. Want to do more and spend less like Uber, 8x8, and Databricks Mosaic? Take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com/MONAHAN. Get 10% off your first Mitopure order at timeline.com/CONFIDENCE. Get 15% off your first order when you use code CONFIDENCE15 at checkout at jennikayne.com. Call my digital clone at 201-897-2553! Visit heathermonahan.com Sign up for my mailing list: heathermonahan.com/mailing-list/ Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Follow Heather on Instagram & LinkedIn Jess on Instagram & LinkedIn

Transcript

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0:00.0	Failure is research. It's like we now have more information than we did before. Even if it's not the
0:06.5	outcome that we originally wanted, we have all this data. And so if we can think about like the
0:13.0	hiccups and the speed bumps as like just collecting research for what we're going to do next,
0:17.8	it makes it feel less like a death sentence and more like an educated
0:23.2	decision making because each time we fail, we have learned something new about ourselves or about
0:29.5	our business. And the other realization that was huge for me was this comfort knowing that
0:36.1	failure will always feel better than regret. How many times have
0:40.6	we like closed our eyes about something? You're like, man, you know, I wish what would have happened
0:44.8	if I had done that? And we might never know the answers. But at least when we fail, we know the
0:49.0	answers. And maybe we have something else that we haven't even thought of. So knowing that failure
0:52.8	will always feel better than regret and then classifying the failure as research is really helpful just for our mindset
0:58.7	when we are going after what we want. I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me,
1:03.6	we are going to chase down our goals. We'll overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow.
1:11.1	I'm ready for my close-up.
1:12.9	Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus confidence classics episodes we've been
1:18.1	dropping on you every week?
1:19.1	We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to.
1:22.1	So these bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones you may have already missed.
1:27.0	I hope you love this one as much as I do.
1:29.4	Hi and welcome back. And if you can tell, I have a major frog in my throat. Well, not literally.
1:36.7	It just feels like it sounds like it. So I have definitely let myself get run down and have had some high level stress going on the past two
1:47.7	weeks but things have worked out fine in the end i was not sleeping enough i was definitely pushing
	...

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