What Jess is Really Good At:
What Jess is Working On:
- Running Headbands of Hope, her social enterprise that impacts hundreds of thousands of kids with cancer around the world
- Speaking about creating meaning in your work and navigating failure with purpose
- Making people laugh (one of her most consistent praises in testimonials!)
- Ping Pong
- Playing with kids and dogs
- Coaching women to share their story as a professional speaker
- Making inboxes more fun every Wednesday
What Jess is Working On:
- Using her GPS too much
- Trying to stop dabbing
- Sharing food
- Stretching so she can touch her toes one day
- Toning down her competitive spirit
- Reading celebrity gossip
- Talking about her dog too much
During the summer of 2011, Jess Ekstrom participated in an internship at a wish-granting organization for kids with life-threatening illnesses. She discovered that a lot of kids losing their hair to chemotherapy loved to wear headbands after hair loss, but they were only given wigs and hats.
Armed with inspiration, she spent her junior year at North Carolina State University developing her company, Headbands of Hope. For every item sold, a headband is given to a child with cancer. By the time she graduated, she had donated thousands of headbands to kids with cancer and was elected to give the commencement speech at her graduation to 20,000 people.
Along with her business, her message started to spread across America. Jess speaks over 40 times a year to campuses, corporations and conferences. She's keynoted at Leadercast Live, SAS Global Forum, Women's Business Summit, Newell Brands, Citrix and more. Jess focuses on increasing workplace engagement and employee empowerment through meaningful work and establishing a healthy relationship with failure.
Today, Headbands of Hope is in over 2,000 stores across the United States and Canada including all Ulta locations. They've been featured on the TODAY Show, Forbes, Seventeen, Vanity Fair, People Magazine, Good Morning America and the headbands have been worn and supported by celebrities such as Lauren Conrad, Lea Michele, Molly Sims, Tiffani Thiessen and more. But their biggest accomplishment has been donating over 200,000 headbands to every children's hospital in America and across 15 countries.
The company has launched impact initiatives such as hosting proms at children's hospitals and starting their headBAND Together program where they partner with a childhood cancer charity and donate proceeds from sales to their mission. They've also joined hands with art therapy by having the patients create their own headbands with the flower crown kits they provide.
Jess was named the Women's Health Magazine Ultimate Game Changer in 2017 and was also honored as the Most Outstanding Alumni of NC State University. She also serves on the board of District C to help high school students solve real world problems and she volunteers in prisons to help inmates get jobs. Jess is a regular contributor for Entrepreneur and started a weekly email series of positivity called Weekly Wink.
Her most recent project has been a course and community she created called Mic Drop Workshop in an effort to get more female voices heard in keynote spots.
Jess is totally transparent about her path to success (including the many mistakes she made) because she wants to paint the real picture for her audience. Her favorite way to deliver an inspiring message is through humor and story telling.
She believes that you shouldn't have to choose between making a living and making a difference and is passionate about helping others find those collision points in order to live a more fun and purposeful life.
Armed with inspiration, she spent her junior year at North Carolina State University developing her company, Headbands of Hope. For every item sold, a headband is given to a child with cancer. By the time she graduated, she had donated thousands of headbands to kids with cancer and was elected to give the commencement speech at her graduation to 20,000 people.
Along with her business, her message started to spread across America. Jess speaks over 40 times a year to campuses, corporations and conferences. She's keynoted at Leadercast Live, SAS Global Forum, Women's Business Summit, Newell Brands, Citrix and more. Jess focuses on increasing workplace engagement and employee empowerment through meaningful work and establishing a healthy relationship with failure.
Today, Headbands of Hope is in over 2,000 stores across the United States and Canada including all Ulta locations. They've been featured on the TODAY Show, Forbes, Seventeen, Vanity Fair, People Magazine, Good Morning America and the headbands have been worn and supported by celebrities such as Lauren Conrad, Lea Michele, Molly Sims, Tiffani Thiessen and more. But their biggest accomplishment has been donating over 200,000 headbands to every children's hospital in America and across 15 countries.
The company has launched impact initiatives such as hosting proms at children's hospitals and starting their headBAND Together program where they partner with a childhood cancer charity and donate proceeds from sales to their mission. They've also joined hands with art therapy by having the patients create their own headbands with the flower crown kits they provide.
Jess was named the Women's Health Magazine Ultimate Game Changer in 2017 and was also honored as the Most Outstanding Alumni of NC State University. She also serves on the board of District C to help high school students solve real world problems and she volunteers in prisons to help inmates get jobs. Jess is a regular contributor for Entrepreneur and started a weekly email series of positivity called Weekly Wink.
Her most recent project has been a course and community she created called Mic Drop Workshop in an effort to get more female voices heard in keynote spots.
Jess is totally transparent about her path to success (including the many mistakes she made) because she wants to paint the real picture for her audience. Her favorite way to deliver an inspiring message is through humor and story telling.
She believes that you shouldn't have to choose between making a living and making a difference and is passionate about helping others find those collision points in order to live a more fun and purposeful life.
