Blaze Your Own Trail - Empowering Women in Thought Leadership with Jess Ekstrom

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

TakeawaysHeadbands of Hope donates a headband for every one sold.Adversity can lead to significant personal growth.Showing up without an agenda opens up opportunities.Your story can serve as a survival guide for others.Everyone has a unique story worth sharing.Women are underrepresented in the speaking industry.Self-help is evolving to be more accessible and virtual.Empowering young girls is a key focus for Jess's future work.Courage is essential in transforming challenges into messages of hope.Chapters 00:00 From Struggles to Success: A Journey Begins02:51 Childhood Influences: The Seeds of Entrepreneurship10:55 Turning Adversity into Opportunity14:29 The Power of Showing Up: Lessons Learned17:22 Speaking and Storytelling: The Path to Thought Leadership23:59 Writing a Book: The Process and Challenges28:11 Empowering Women: The Birth of Mic Drop Workshop32:02 Innovating Self-Improvement: The Prompted Platform36:43 Looking Ahead: Future Aspirations and ImpactConnect with Jess:WebsiteBooksBook Jess to speak     Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I had a total 11 jobs between the age of 11 and 17, just trying to help and support my mom. When I gave away my ATS resume template, I used to charge $3,000 for it. If I were someone that wanted to work with you, I think the thing that would resonate with me the most is the fact that you have been as far as they will fall. I gave her all my videos, and today she sent me a message saying I got my first client, and it could not be happier for her. On my show, one thing I love to do is really get context into people's journey. eggs and I sold vegetables door to door. I saw newspapers. I do it because they truly care to help. Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host and I've got a very special guest today.

Her name is Jess Ekstrom and I'm going to have her tell you a little bit about who she is and what she does today. Hello, Jordan. Thank you for having me. I'm so glad that we connected on TikTok of all places. And I, my story starts as the founder of Headbands of Hope for every headband sold. We donate one to a child with an illness. And then starting that company grew into a thought leadership career for myself. So I started doing a lot of speaking engagements and wrote a book with Harper Collins called Chasing the Bright Side, realized there was not a lot of women in the thought leadership space. So I created a, a, course called Mic Drop Workshop where we train women to become paid keynote speakers. And then during the pandemic, I launched a self-improvement app called Prompted, where we solve your problems through experts asking you questions, which I'm so happy to have you as a thought leader on there. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. And man, you've accomplished so much. I know we connected on social media. And then I also heard you speak in Scott McGregor's group in the Oh, yes.

Yeah. Which was phenomenal. And I knew that once I heard you speak there, I was like, I definitely need to have her on the show because you're a true trailblazer. And in order to give our audience a little bit more context, my favorite part of the show, Jess, is we actually take a rewind. It's like that music from Wayne's World's like, do do do do do. We're going to go back to childhood. So if you can share a little context with the audience, you know, where were you born and raised? And then if you can, and we want to really dive to like elementary.

middle school, high school years and tell us, you know, what kind of kid you were? What did you get into? And just a little more context on you and your childhood. Oh my gosh. This is so fun. I love this question. So born outside of Baltimore in a town called only Maryland and moved to North Carolina when I was seven. And, you know, was always kind of an entrepreneurial kid in terms of like lemonade stands and just your typical like mowing. lawns and things like that. But I remember in middle school one day, my dad came home from work and he told me and my sister and my mom that he wanted to quit his job and he wanted to start a business and he wanted our blessing. And I just remember not thinking too much of it. I'm like, okay,

what's for dinner? Cool. And then over, you know, the course of the next year, I saw him pour everything he had into this business idea. He renovated our upstairs bathroom into like his office. And and ran this business. And I didn't realize it at the time, but now I realized, like, what a luxury it was to have, like, a front row seat to someone, like, going against the norm and choosing entrepreneurship and going for it.

And so I got to, by being a witness and having that under my own roof, it made me feel like it was, could be accessible to me in the future. But I, again, really didn't think much of it. I was not your typical overachiever student. I cared more about, you know, sports and AOL instant messaging with my crushes than I did about doing anything productive in school. And then it wasn't until my senior year of high school,

I got some really bad news with my family. And it turns out that my, one of my uncles did something really bad and it became just this really public scandal. And he's like, the biggest financial fraud in the history period. And we ended up losing everything, all of our money, all of our savings. So did the rest of my family. And then we're just really put in the limelight. And it was just one of those moments where like I saw my parents do everything right. And then it just not matter. And I saw just like what money and greed could just do to you. And now over 20, 12 years later, I realized that that was really a turning point for myself and for a lot of, you know, members of my family, you kind of took that experience and wrote their own story with it.

And I realized that as hard as it was, it gave me this gift of looking at life really introspectively at a young age. And so I think because of that, I started questioning myself. I started questioning what I wanted. I started questioning why I wanted it. And all of a sudden, I just kind of had this new lens of the way that I looked at my future and what I wanted to make of myself. And I didn't know what it was,

but I knew in that moment that I wanted to do something good and I wanted to do something big. And I wasn't sure what that was going to be yet. And then I found that out in college. So I'll stop there. Awesome. Awesome. No, I appreciate you.

in that context. And so let's let's hit on a little, a few of these points, because there's a ton of points. We don't even have enough time to really do a really deep dive into everything. But I'm in therapy right now talking about my childhood. It's good, right? It's good to go back. It's good to rewind. It's good to remember, remember the feelings that you felt back then, right? And so a couple of those feelings I'd love to draw out. You mentioned lemonade stands and you mentioned, you know, cutting people's, lawns and things like that, those intros into entrepreneurship. So in terms of those two activities that you did, what did that process look like for you? Because I feel like from a kid's perspective, there's always different kids. Like I have a 10 year old who's a super high

extrovert and she is not only selling the stuff, but she's like leading the crew. And she's yet this whole kind of business plan mapped out in her head of system and process. So I'd love to find out what you did, because I think it'd be helpful to kind of give people a little bit of an insight into how you process things and how you run from an operations perspective. Because I'm sure a lot of those similarities that you did back then with the lawns and lemonades are probably similar things that you're doing today. Totally. I think that lemonade stands gave me the method of trial near at like a young age. You know, for example, like we lived at the bottom of a cul-de-sac. And so my first lemonade stands, I would set up at the cul-de-sac and, like, wonder why there were no cars coming by.

It's like, well, of course, if you're at the dead end of the road, you're not going to get any foot traffic because the only people coming that way are yourself. And so then I learned, okay, well, where can I go? That might be higher, you know, foot traffic. I could go to the top of the neighborhood where people turn in. And so just from, like, that alone, I learned, like, every time. I set up a lemonade stand, I'm going to learn something. And then it got competitive. There was other kids in the neighborhood having their own lemonade stands. And so I thought, well, what is it that I could sell at my lemonade stand that could make me different? And so we sold regular lemonade. We sold

pink lemonade. And then my sister and I also came up with snack packs where we had like zip blocks of like two Oreos and like some pretzels or something like that as like an ups and like an ups. sell like, oh, you're hungry? Maybe try a snack pack. And so again, that was like a learning opportunity was like, maybe I don't have to have better lemonade or charge like lower prices than the other kids in the neighborhood. I could just provide something that they don't. And that is something that I take into my business to this day, anything that I start. It's like I don't want to run myself into the ground being the best or being the least expensive. I'd want to attract people by being different and being able to provide something that they can't get anywhere else.

I love it. And that and that's the way that a trailblazer thinks, you know, people that blaze their own trail, they're innovators. They think outside the box. It's like, why do I have to be in this box? Why can I be a little bit on the outside of this? I mean, snack packs, what a brilliant idea, you know, it's funny because I never did the lemonade thing as a kid, but I, I sold baseball cards. So my grandmother would like, my great grandmother would buy them on QVC or home shopping network. like the whole like box right and I would go to these card shows on the weekend and sell individual cards to people that were in their 20s and 30s and 40s because I studied the magazines and I knew the value and I would go and that's how I would make my money to buy all my action figures and

and stuff like that but again you have to get creative you have to do something that people aren't going to expect and and my 10 year old I was just telling you about what she did is she actually would walk not into the street, but she would walk towards. Like there's some type of action or motion whenever she'd see a car. And they're like jumping up and down and they're waving. You know, they're doing like cheerleading moves. And again, like when you do that, you set yourself apart. You have different stuff.

You set yourself apart. If you do some type of action, you set yourself apart. And I love also that, I mean, you were doing marketing things and you didn't realize it. Right. You're like, well, this location sucks. Let me change my location. And you just five X. your revenue and all you did was go up probably 300 feet, you know, in the neighborhood. But like all of

those, like you said, are lessons. And it'll be cool a little bit later in the show to see how you're using some of those things in your business. So all right, let's fast forward a little bit because I know you mentioned that you didn't know what you were going to do with this adversity, right? And I'm a big believer that adversity truly gives us strength and it enables us to see through a lens that most people won't ever get to experience. And so you had this stuff happen. It sucked. A lot of people, it sounds like were affected and impacted in a negative way. But one thing that you said that really caught my attention is everybody used their own story a little bit differently to bounce back. And I think that's so profound. So I'd love to find out what did you do in college? What was that

first thing? And just share with the audience here. Yeah. Yeah. One of the quotes that I would say is kind of the most popular that I give in my, my keynotes is that hard times give us a choice. They can be the excuse as to why we do less or they can be the reason as to why we do more. And so it's like that one single experience, no matter what it is, can always write two completely different stories. And so it's kind of comforting knowing that we, even when we can't control the experience, we can still control the story. And so with that adversity that I experienced in high school and that experience, you know, the story I wanted to write was doing something and doing something big.

And so it started freshman year of college. I saw a sign on a Bolton board in my dorm room for the Disney College program. And I wasn't like really a Disney kid or a super Disney fan, but I just thought it could be like great, you know, experience like let's go for it. And so I packed my bag second semester freshman year and went to Disney World. And I was a photopass photographer. I worked in Hollywood studios and Magic Kingdom. And I absolutely loved it. And one of my favorite things that I got to do was I got to photograph kids that were there on their wish through the Make Wish Foundation. And so when I got back to school, my sophomore year, I applied for an internship at Make Wish. And when I was at Make Wish is when I discovered

that a lot of kids were losing their hair to chemotherapy and being offered like wigs or hats. And a lot of them weren't really concerned with covering up their heads. They just wanted something to feel good about themselves after hair loss. So I would see them buying their own headbands and, you know, just thought like, oh, someone should be providing them headbands as an option. And so I went on to Google and looked up like headbands for kids with cancer and realized that That was a connection that hadn't been made yet. And so, you know, I call it the dumbest, smartest moment of my life being like 19 years old and saying, I could do that.

And that was my moment. Started headbands of hope. And for every headband sold, we donate one to a child with an illness and over a million headbands donated and counting. It's amazing that you saw this, you know, void, right? This void that could brighten somebody's day, right? Because it sounds like that was the goal for this mission. And it was, again, it wasn't about that they needed for the whole thing to be covered, but they needed something to feel normal, like to feel like a regular kid again.

You know, so I'm so happy that you started that. And just the fact that you got it into more than 100 people's hands is exciting. But a million, I mean, what a massive impact that you've been able to create. And I know that that's something that is going to continue to impact people's lives. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And kind of going back to the lemonade stand, you know, I think like one of the common themes of where I am today is like just showing up and just learning through experience and not through thought. I think so much we want to just think the answers. And a lot of times like we just got to show up and start selling on the cul-de-sac until we realize that we should be at the top of the neighborhood.

And so then, you know, just by showing up at Disney with like absolutely no agenda is ultimately what led me to make wish, which is what ultimately led me to start headbands of hope, which was really the root of this tree that grew into a pretty, pretty cool career. And so I'm like, just show up without an agenda and see what happens. There's just so many opportunities that we don't even know exist, but we can't think our way to them. You know, we just got to be there. Yeah. And there's a lot of people that are going to watch this and listen to this. And that's the hardest step for them is just showing up. So I'd love for you to give some tangible tips or tangible advice that have helped you along your journey because I'm sure there's a stage, there's a platform, there's an interview, there's something

that you've had to put on your big girl pants for and step up to the plate, even though you really didn't want to. So what could you share with someone that may be in that same position today watching or listening to this that does want to take action, but they're literally frozen in their place. Yeah. Well, I would rid yourself of the expectation to earn or gain anything. And I think that that's like what's paralyzing is like, got to show up, got to collect business cards, got to shake some hands and kiss some babies. It's just like, oh, it puts this pressure on you to get a result. And it makes it makes it not fun. And it makes sometimes those conversations like not as genuine. And so rid yourself of an expectation, show up without an agenda, purely curiosity.

Because I think when we can show up to places with a lens of like curiosity and not to solve or to gain, one, we learn so much. But two, I think that in conversations, it's so much better to be interested rather than interesting. And so like anytime I'm maybe put in a situation with a room full of people and like just what questions? can I ask and what can I learn instead of like trying to give my elevator pitch a dozen times. And so I think that showing up without an agenda and just stepping into the mind of like being

insanely curious about everything in it, everyone, you will never have a bad experience if that's the lens that you take. Love it. Love it. And, you know, as most people know that know your story and journey, you didn't just stop there, right? With headbands of hope. You know, you mentioned your book, The Bright Side.

And I want you to really talk about that. You know, how did this whole thing come to fruition? I know it, I know the back end story behind it. There's going to be people that don't know it. So if you can give some context there and maybe just kind of take us on the journey of, you know, hitting that millions of headbands getting to people's hands. And then what was it that sparked you to write this book and who is this book for? And then who do you hope that it impacts?

one of the things that I noticed early on with Headbands of Hope having not raised any money, having zero marketing budget was a really great way I could spread the word was through speaking. So I would like ask my college professors like, can I come say a few words, you know, like before class? And then that turned into like more. And it turned into speaking as a way to talk about my business, also get paid to do it so I could fund my business. and also as a way that the story of my business could serve others. So the thing with speaking that I thought was so cool was like, you're not there to give a pitch or talk about headbands pope. You're there to share one kind of universal lesson or takeaway that I discovered from starting

head bands of hope and then help other people do that by telling the story of headbands pope. So if you're thinking about, you know, being a speaker, I call these two things like the premise and the promise. So like the premise is your story that led you to have some sort of belief. The promise is like that universal takeaway that you can share based on your story. So for me, the premise, you know, was starting headbands of hope, but the promise was using the story to teach people how to train themselves to be optimistic so they can create the world that they want to live in. That was the thing that I felt like I trained myself to do, not being a naturally optimistic person, that I'm like, if I can just rewire my brain to see the good and go create it, then I can keep moving like the

pieces on the monopoly board and start something that truly matters. And so I started speaking a lot. And then that's when I got a book deal with Harper Collins for chasing the bright side. and yeah, just really kind of catapulted me into this world of thought leadership as like not just, oh, the headband girl, but like the founder of Headbant's Pope who has something to share. And I want to iterate that. I started speaking about Headband's Pope before it was even successful when we were still like in debt. And so to think that to be a speaker or to start sharing your thoughts, you have to have amounted to some insane level of like Ted, fame isn't true. You know, you can start today. That's why platforms like TikTok are so awesome is because it gives you a microphone to be able to start sharing your story, even if you don't feel like you're quote unquote qualified yet. I love that. Yeah. And, you know, for me, what it took for me was like sharing my mom's story and journey. And this is back in like, I think 2018. You know, she's passed away 10 years ago. And, you know, eight years after her passing,

there was something inside me that just said, I'm doing her a disservice if I don't share the world. Her story, her journey, how she inspired me. She's someone that lived, you know, with one lung for 54 years, you know, and was told she wouldn't have any kids and wouldn't live to 18 and ended up having five boys and living to 54. And so, you know, sharing her story, it started to make me see that actually I had a story of my own. And I had been through some adversities and hardships and things, but I couldn't see it until people started saying, wow, your mom's story impacted me. But didn't you go through this? Didn't this happen to you? Have you ever talked about this? Have you ever shared this?

And so I love what you said. You just have to start small. It doesn't have to be on a big stage. Like I went recently to my son's high school and spoke to the entrepreneurship students and talked to them about my story and my journey and gave out some books and resources. So you can start with a small platform because even though it may be small, the impact could still be big, right? The impact you can make speaking to some high school students could be far greater than going to speak to a corporate organization. You never know what future leaders could potentially be there and could hear your message and it could resonate with them a decade later. Like good leaders have invested in you and you remember those things a decade later. Oh, yeah.

I think my favorite thing being a speaker and an author is like getting a message or a DM or something from like someone who read my book like three years ago or like heard me speak five years ago and then decides to reach out because it's stuck so much and they've been able to apply it. And so that's like, you know, one of the things that I try to teach in mic drop workshop is like first, just understanding that your story, just as it is, could be someone else's survival guide. You have no idea who needs to hear exactly what you have to say. And so many of the things that you're like, oh, I wish I knew this earlier. Someone needs to know that right now.

And so you might as well start packaging your thoughts and advice and putting it in the form of content, whether that is, you know, on TikTok doing videos or as a speaker or as a writer. Yeah. So talk a little bit about that. the writing process because this is something I think it's not talked about enough. I just had a book come out called BranchArx. It's an 11 author co-collaboration project. And so I only wrote one chapter. And I can tell you it wasn't fun and it wasn't easy for me. Like I was stressing me the heck out until I figured out that I should just dictate. And man, it made things go by a lot quicker.

So I'd love to learn your process. Like, did it suck for you? Were there times when you're just like, I just want to give up? Because I'd love. literally felt that way and I wrote like 4,700 words. So I can't imagine with Brightside probably being triple, quadruple, you know, 10x, maybe the the words that I put out, like what was the process like for you? And then is there another book in jest? Do we do we have another, you know, book coming out in the future? Because I know for me, I'm working on the solo one now. And now that I, you know, hindsight's obviously 2020 now that I've been through even just writing a chapter for a project. I think the second one's going to be a lot more impactful, a lot better, like a lot less wonky. I feel like,

I'm like judging myself hard, by the way, on my chapter, I'm like, oh, man, why did I say, you know, but I think that's part of the learning process. So just share like what did you experience going through it. Yeah. What maybe lessons can you give to a future author out there? I feel like everyone has a book in them. Everyone, like you said, has a story and journey. So I know there's a lot to take in, but let's share a little bit about that. Yeah. Well, it's funny that you said dictations. because that's not, I definitely find my writing style through like writing, not through dictation. So everyone has to find their own style and also like hours. You know, most of chasing the bright side was written between the hours of like 5 a.m.

and 8 a.m. because I realized like once eight or nine o'clock hits and my phone starts going off or emails, like all of my like creative thoughts go out the window. And so really like figuring out what are those hours where I'm most creative and blocking those off. But I would say that the biggest thing that you can do, if you want to write a book or if you want to be a keynote speaker, for either one, it's the same method that I teach in mic drop workshop. It's decide your transformation promise. And so what I mean by that is like what is someone like before they read your book or hear you talk? And what do you want them to be like after they read your book or hear your talk? And then your book or your talk is the mechanism to help them achieve that.

And so your transformation promise is like one sentence, like after people hear me speak or after people read my book, they will think, feel, or do blank. Like what do you want them to believe and achieve after having read your book or heard you talk? And then whatever that thing is, that ultimate goal or that outcome, your book and your talk, your book and your talk are the things that they need to know in order to achieve it. So, for example, if my transformation promise for chasing the bright side or my keynote talk is like, after people read my book or hear me speak, they will be able to train themselves to be optimistic so they can create the world they want to live in.

Everything in my book is like a points to that outcome. So in order for you to train yourself to be optimistic, you have to learn that optimism isn't a mood. It's a strategy. It's not, you know, toxic positivity. You have to learn how to show up. You have to learn how to fail. And so all of my chapters or points in my talk are arriving at this one desired outcome. But I think it can be really overwhelming to be like, okay, I got to write 55,000 words on this.

Like what and you're just kind of all over the place. And so having that transformation promise is really like a North Star to your book and to your keynote. And making sure all of the things that you include are helping. someone achieve that desired result. Love that. I love that. And so essentially your book is the framework that delivers on your promise, right? Exactly.

And that's just business. You know, I mean, you go on like a shampoo aisle at CVS and all these different shampoos have a transformation promise on them. It's like, you know, cure your split ends, like revitalize your hair color. And it's like, what is it the thing that you need that you're going to pick? It's the same thing with books. It's the same thing with speakers. same thing with coaches, podcasts.

And so making sure that you're not too focused on topics. You know, I see a lot of speakers list topics on their website. Like I speak about leadership or confidence. Anyone can list topics on their website, but not anyone can say, this is the transformation that I provide. I call it being a cheesecake factory speaker. Like if you like cheesecake factory,

I apologize, but like no one wants to go to a restaurant that, like, drops a novel. No one wants to read that menu. Goodness grace. That thing is way too long. You can't possibly be good at all of those dishes. And so tell people your chef special, the one thing you do well. And that's what you should speak and write on and be comfortable being connected to that thing for five years. Because if you're just constantly changing, then no one's going to be able to learn who you are. Love it. Love that feedback. Love that advice as well. So I know you've mentioned mic drop workshops a little bit. So I want you to to,

share as we're wrapping up here, a little context into why you started it. And we're going to link that all in the show notes at the end of the show. And then the last thing I want you to talk about is prompted, talk about, you know, how valuable the platform is. I know from, you know, being a somebody that's a thought leader on there, how valuable that it can be for people. But I want you to dive in and share some context into why you started that venture. And then, you know, what's going to look like in the future as well. Sure. So my drop workshop started from, I was at a gig and I was a lunchtime keynote speaker. And there was a guy who was the morning keynote speaker. After the gig was done, a few weeks later, I got a call from the meeting planner. And she was like, look, I'm going to give you some information.

Choose to do with it what you will. We did like an audience review at the end. And you ranked, you know, the highest amongst our speakers. And I was like, oh, that's great. And she was like, we paid you $8,500 to come speak. And we paid our morning keynote $50,000 to come speak. And I was like, what? And, you know, it's not his fault. He quotes what he quotes, but I just realized how the disparity, right? Yeah, the transparency. Yeah, it's so much of it. And how few women are quoting, you know, above 10K to talk. And then I was at another event a few months later that was like an event for event planners. And I was speaking at that event. And I stayed afterwards for a panel. And the panel was a bunch of event planners from like the biggest, you know, companies in America. And they were talking

about diversity in the speaking industry. And one of the event planners was like, look, we want to bring more women on our stages, but they're only 12% of our applications. And so that was when I realized like, so many women have amazing stories, but I think that maybe they feel like they have to have amounted to something insane in order to apply to speak or they're not sure where to begin or what to charge. So let me just gather everything I know about my speaking career and create a course. And so Mike Drop Workshop was born. And now it's a course and community of women who are becoming paid speakers and also want traditional publishing deals and really just like how can can we help women become seen and valued as thought leaders?

So we have about 1,500 women in the course. And it's been incredible to see these women getting like five figure speaking gig, six figure book deals, and also be able to refer other women like in the group and have it be like more of a, just like a movement instead of just a how to. I love it. I love it. And I love, you know,

a lot of your journey is figuring out systems and processes. and then how do I replicate that process to teach it to somebody else? Yeah. And again, that's really the framework of all business. It's like, you know, once you have it dialed in, once you've tested it, once you've gone in and made a bunch of the mistakes and failures and learned lessons, now you can teach people. You know, and that's something I tell my clients all the time.

It's like, before you put something out, like become a practitioner of it first. You know, it doesn't mean that you have to have everything dialed in, but you at least have to test it yourself to know that it does work before you go and actually start teaching other people. Yeah, yeah. Makes a lot more sense. But I also say sell it before you build it, right? So you got to build up the curiosity, put it out to the marketplace, get these people that are

interested in it so that you know it will be viable. You know, it's scratch. You put all that money into actually building. Totally. Yeah, we did that with my job workshop for sure. I hosted a free workshop and then they could pre-order the course that could. be ready in like three months. And if I hit a certain amount, then I would build the course. And we well exceeded it. So I was like, yes, I'm building the course. Here we go. But yeah. And so then last,

or during the pandemic, you know, I just wanted to do something different. And I had read a lot of science around questions and prompts versus answers and how questions actually help you focus, because you can't think about anything else when you're thinking about the answer to a question. and they actually are more influential and changing behavior than giving answers is. And so I was like, where can I maybe ask, give more prompts or questions in this course? And I decided to create what I called a keynote pathway. And I was like, okay, if you answer these 21 prompts, then you'll have your keynote talk written by the end of it. And so I put it in micdrop workshop.

The students loved it. They were like, where can? And I called it a keynote pathway. And they're like, where can we get more pathways? You know, are there other topics? Is there a bookwriting pathway or a personal brand pathway or, you know, even if I'm feeling imposter syndrome or in a creative rut, are there pathways for that? And so I started talking to some of my other friends who were entrepreneurs or coaches

or course creators, podcasters, and they all had ideas for what they could create, a pathway they could create based on their area of expertise. And so that's when my wheels really started turning. I was like, what if we could create a self-improvement platform that instead of giving articles or blogs or answers, we tapped experts to ask questions. And so you can go onto prompted.io and search our library of like 300 plus prompt pathways. You can sort by category, personal development, professional development, and hit go and get prompts from an expert on that topic or area that you're interested.

in. And it's just been really refreshing in terms of like the self-help industry has been so many prescriptive answers for so long or just really high ticket. Like you, you know, got to spend 10 grand to go to like a Tony Robbins, you know, weekend. And, you know, I think self-help is changing. It's skewing younger. It's skewing virtual. It should be quicker. And so prompted, I think, is really helping it be more personalized and customized without like that high-ticket price point at the end of it too. Love it. Yeah.

And as a thought leader on prompted going through the process, I know we were talking a little bit offline, it's a little intimidating, I think at first, right? Because you're like, do I know what I'm saying? Like, do I have this information dialed in? You know, so you kind of question yourself a little bit,

but kind of seeing like for me before I wrote mine, I actually went through other people's like, just so I could kind of see what the workflow look like. And I'm like, all right, well, they can do it. I'm sure I can, you know, figure this out. And again, a lot of the times, folks, and when you guys check out prompted, you'll see it's very user-friendly. But we have the info in here. And this is a platform that enables you to get it out easily, right?

Because a lot of times it's stuck. It's like, we know we have the info and we want to like tell it to everyone. But I think like you said to your point, we're intimidated by a blog where we don't want to put out a video because we're afraid of what people might think. And so this is a good way to get your expertise, right? Your thought leadership into people's hands to where. where it's actually consumable and practical and actionable. Because I think that's where a lot of things where people fail is it's way too much info. Like it's like the fire hose approach and they took in way too much and you can never retain it.

Or there's just not enough info. So I think with prompted because you're given the ability to choose their level of prompts. And so if it's someone that can't do a lot of stuff, they don't have the bandwidth. They can do a smaller one. And then people that want more, they can get more. So I really love the way that you guys have set it up. Yeah. No, I appreciate it.

I was so pumped to have you on there as a thought leader. And for anyone listening, there's two ways you can get involved. You can sign up and join as a member. You can take Jordan's pathways on there and you can use the code Blaze and try it for one month free. Or if you do have a book or a podcast or you're a coach or any form of thought leader and are interested in being a thought leader on the platform, we'd love to learn more about you and so you can go to prompted.io slash leader and apply and we'd love to see if you're a fit.

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that and we're going to make sure we get all that info of guys down in the show notes. Well, I know that your journey is just starting and that's, I think, what I'm most excited about really meeting you and connecting with you is you're still so young and you've already accomplished so much. So what does the next, you know, decade look like for Jess? I know that there's going to be more technology. I feel like in the works for you. I'm sure there's going to be another book, you know, more workshops, but kind of give us a vision of what you what you have looking, you know, a decade in the future. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. That means a lot. I, you're also saying I have zero chill, which, you know, I agree with. But so looking forward

of my next book coming out is definitely unlike my last one. It's a book for tweens. So I'd love to send a copy to your daughter when it comes out November 19. I've got a 10 year old and a 13 year old daughter. So two daughters, that'd be perfect for them. They are like my prime target readership for this. It's called Create Your Bright Ideas. And they read about the story of Headband's Pope, but then there's also journaling pages after each chapter for them to think about their own ideas and problems they see in the world,

coloring pages. And at the end, they put it together in a business plan that they can tear out and start taking over the world. So create your bright ideas. Literally has London written all over it. So my dad came to visit recently. and he told her, and he's from the Philippines,

his English is still broken after being here for four years, you know. He's like telling her, he's like, yeah, my hearing isn't that great. And so she gets the neighbor kids and she like finds what kind of supplies she can get. They literally took like 20 jars. I kid you not, Jess. They get 20 jars. They go pick random weeds and flowers. They fill the jars with flowers and rocks.

And she starts going door to door and trying to run. and trying to raise money for Lolo's ears. So Lolo is Filipino for Grandpa. And she calls this project Lolo's ears. And she literally in an hour by knocking on doors in our neighborhood made $58. Oh my gosh. So she, you mentioned that book.

And it's like this, London needs this book because like she's already doing stuff like that on her own. Just with her creativity at 10 years old. And I'm just like, man, I see so much of myself and her. But I feel like she's like on another level. She's going to be, you know, a lawyer.

She can be something with negotiations because everything is a negotiation. Everything is a question. And she just uses that imagination like crazy. She's got that hustle muscle activated. I love it. Yeah. She's going to be in your workshop someday. I'm sure.

I look forward to it. But yeah, I mean, that's so aligned with like where I see myself going is with Create Your Bright Ideas and just like, how can I help younger girl generations start to believe it could be them just like my dad, you know, was renovating our upstairs bathroom into his office. And I got the luxury of of seeing it front row and center. I want to be that for for young girls and know that they can start now and that it could be them. Yeah. And I'm sure, I'm sure you saw some tough times. Right. I'm sure you saw time. Totally. And you're like, hey, we're not getting any takeout this week. Yeah. Yeah. It must be a harder week. Right. You got to see somebody that was grinding and was inundated

in it. And then, man, like, folks. I don't know if you remember, but everything got taken away. Everything got taken away in a moment. And like what a lesson for all of us that no matter how great your life is going, no matter you're doing everything the right way, it could all be taken away. And your story is a journey of courage. It's a journey of, you know, turning a mess into a message.

And how do we take these lessons and spin it around for the positive? And that's a trailblazer story. So I'm so glad that we've connected. having you on the show's been an honor, my friend. I'll make sure to link all your social, all your links in the show notes. And make sure, guys, go to prompted.io, use that code, Blaze. It's going to give you some type of amazing discount. And thanks so much for being a Trailblazer, Jess.

Thanks, Jordan. I appreciate it.