Jess Ekstrom – 00:00:02:

Welcome to Amplify with Jess Ekstrom, a show designed to help women get out of their head and into their zone of influence. Happy Monday, everyone. Here’s some food for thought to start your week. I want to share a story about walking through the door because recently I was going through some old stuff that my parents had dropped off. Like, you know, your parents hold all of these memory boxes for you. And then all of a sudden, when, you know, you have your own storage space, they’re like, here, you can take all of these boxes that we’ve saved for you over the years. And I was going through them. And one of the things that I found was my name badge from when I worked at NBC’s Today Show when I was in college as an intern. And I just looked at this girl in the photo smiling. And I was like, the fear in your eyes, because I knew what I was thinking in that photo, which I was thinking, I don’t deserve this job. I should not be here. And if I look back at that summer. Of interning at Today Show, I would have done it so differently because the whole time I was there, I was thinking that I didn’t deserve this position. I shouldn’t have been there because if I’m being a hundred percent honest, the reason why I got that job was because the Today Show was trying to do a story on my family. And if you’re like, who, what, when, where, why would they want to do a story on your family? Not going to get into it here, but you can read Chasing the Bright Side and skip to chapter two and figure it out. But the whole time I was at the Today Show, I was like, the only reason why I’m here is because I’m related to someone infamous. And now I look at that exact same scenario and I just want to go back and tell 17-year-old Jess, yeah, so what if all of that is true? What if you’re not there based on your credentials? You’re there because you had an in. What if that’s true? You’re still there. Make the most of it. Sometimes we can get so hung up on why or how we got somewhere that we don’t even realize that our feet are already planted. Opportunities are rarely linear and almost never how you imagine them to be. If the moment that you’ve been waiting for arrives via horse instead of a car, you’re not going to turn it away because it’s not how you thought it would arrive. The matter of the fact is that it arrived, not how you thought it would be, but it’s here. So as long as it’s not at the expense of other people. Walk through doors when they open for you. And then that gives you the chance to hold doors for other people. I spent so much of that summer worrying if people were going to find out. And then I realized almost every intern there had some sort of connection or reason that they were there. And so if I could go back in time, I would just tell myself, you’re here. Now make the most of it. So I’ll leave you with this quote. We can’t always control our experiences, but we can always write our stories. Thanks for listening to Amplify. If you are a fan of the show, show us some podcast love by giving us a rating and review. And give us a follow at Mic Drop Workshop and @jessekstrom. Coming up on Amplify.

Marc Randolph – 00:03:45:

I kind of realized from putting together my very first keynote that so many of the things that I learned about how to start a company. So many things I learned about how Silicon Valley innovates so rapidly. We’re not just applicable to tech startups, but we’re applicable to anybody who has some dream they would like to see if it can make it real. Whether it’s starting a company, whether it’s just changing jobs, whether it’s doing anything, that process is the same.

Jess – 00:04:14:

This episode was edited and produced by Earfluence. And I’m Jess Ekstrom, your host. Remember that you deserve the biggest stage. So let’s find out how to get you there. I’ll see you again soon.