‘Be the Chef Special’: Multimillion dollar CEO on the power of following your ‘North Star’

The world of professional speaking is as competitive as it is unfairly weighted – especially where gender is concerned. For Jess Ekstrom (pictured), founder and CEO of Mic Drop Workshop, it is her life’s mission to stamp out gender bias in the sector – one insurance event at a time.

“One thing that I’ve noticed in the public speaking landscape is less than 30% of paid public speakers are women, and that is no longer acceptable by audience members,” she told IB. 

Ekstrom will be speaking at Insurance Business’s Women in Insurance Summit on October 29 in LA, opening the summit with a keynote session titled ‘Chasing the bright side – Purpose-driven thinking leads to unstoppable growth’. In this session, she will share insights on the shifts in the public speaking landscape for women, the motivations behind creating Mic Drop Workshop, and the power of purpose-driven thinking.

And for Ekstrom, this isn’t just business – it’s deeply personal. She told IB that she’s on a mission to amplify women’s voices in public speaking – a mission born out of her own experiences and observations in a male-dominated industry. The events space is shifting, realizing that diversity and equality on stage are not just ethical imperatives but essential for audience satisfaction. 

“We want to hire more women to speak”

However, while this realization is a “huge win” for women, the challenge remains in getting those women in front of the audiences that need them. 

“We want to hire more women to speak, we just don’t know where to find them. And so, on top of Mic Drop Workshop being a place where women can go to start their speaking career and learn how to build a keynote, how to pitch yourself as a speaker and what to charge, we’ve now started an Event Planner newsletter where events can come and discover amazing women speakers through our roster,” she said.

Ekstrom’s journey into public speaking began with her first company. However, the gender disparity in speaking engagements was evident early on when she was selected to speak at a conference because they “needed a woman”. This blatant admission highlighted the systemic bias within the industry, pushing Ekstrom to research and ultimately create a platform that would ensure women speakers are not just present, but sought after. 

“Don’t be ‘The Cheesecake Factory’ speaker”

And, during her session at the Women in Insurance Summit, Ekstrom will share her experience, along with advice for both women looking to break into the public speaking industry and those looking to become more confident with speaking every day, for example in their jobs.  

“The first thing I would say is what we do in Mic Drop Workshop is we discover what it is that you want to be known for,” she said. ”Don’t be ‘The Cheesecake Factory’ speaker where you can speak on 20 different topics. Instead, have one ‘Chef Special’ – we put that into what we call a Speaker Statement and that’s what we build your keynote around. That’s what we build your brand around.”

In addition to her work in public speaking, Ekstrom is passionate about instilling a growth mindset, both in her personal life and within her organizations. Another key focus for her keynote session will be on the impact of prolonged negative thinking on the brain and how to create motivation that lasts – so not just that spark of motivation that fades quickly. 

“Everything is going to take longer than you think”

“When you get your motivation from anything external – likes, followers, money, status – it’s uncontrollable and it fades easily,” she said. “But studies show that if you can program yourself to be internally motivated where you can connect the dots between your tasks in a bigger picture, that’s what’s controllable to you, and it lasts longer over time. So no matter what I’m doing, whether if it’s building a workshop, writing a book or starting a business, I always try to have that intrinsic North Star. Something that at the end of the day, if I’m tired and things are going wrong, what is this all pointing towards?

“After all, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from starting two multi-billion dollar companies, it’s that everything is going to take longer than you think. It’s going to be harder than you think and it’s probably going to cost more than you think.”