Jenna Edwards is an Actor (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Malcolm in the Middle), an Award-Winning Film Producer (iTunes, Netflix, Hulu) and a #1 Best- Selling Author who is passionate about spreading the idea of Aggressive Optimism as far and wide as she is able to. She believes the skill of Aggressive Optimism is crucial to living an entrepreneurial lifestyle. Growing up in a small town in Minnesota, Jenna was (what she calls) a “walking statistic.” According to the experts, she should have been pregnant at 16, living in poverty with an abusive husband, addicted to some form of drug. Instead, she made the choice to break the cycle and since then she has traveled the world (beginning as an exchange student in Thailand her senior year of high school), been on TV, and in movies, co- authored a #1 best-selling book and currently lives (not in poverty) in Los Angeles with her loving and supportive husband and she has just recently traveled the country for a year. She attributes her incredible life to being aware that she has a choice, that our circumstances do not have to define us and that if we practice aggressive optimism when the going gets tough, we truly can create the life we dream of living.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Jenna’s Mom & Great Grandma
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I think the biggest thing that most people have to overcome is that belief. And mixed for me with that belief was being surrounded by a community… Because I grew up in a really small town… And the belief is that not everything is possible which is completely counterintuitive to me because I always believe everything is possible. And so that idea of Who Do You Think You Are? so you say these big dreams to certain people and immediately you are smacked with you can’t do that Who Do You Think You Are? and so I really had to consciously overcome that belief… So, Who Do You Think You Are? Needs to become I am Jenna Edwards and I can do whatever I want.”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear Book by Elizabeth GilbertFavourite Quote:
“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier” Gen Colin Powell
Recommended Online Resources:
- Katie Jefcoat
- Katie Jefcoat – Kickstart With Katie
- Community with Katie Jefcoat
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“find your people. But more importantly than that even the first step is figure out what your dream looks like ultimately and understand how that manifests on a daily basis. Like what that looks like on a daily basis. And then you have to believe in it, aggressively optimistically, like 100 percent. You can’t let anyone poke holes in it because the world freakin need you to be the entrepreneur that you are going to be. It’s just a requirement”…[Listen for More]
More About Jenna Edwards:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” Henry David Thoreau
Other Quotes From the Chat with Jenna Edwards:
- “those limitations stop people from going after their actual dream…figure out what you can create that looks like that in its essence with what you have right now”
- “really understanding your intuition – huge”
- “really understand what your dream is and why… Also, what is guttering going to bring to your life? What is your daily life going to look like when you have achieved that dream?”
- “Really believe in yourself and your core values and understand that opportunity (Magic) is going to come and go. And we don’t have to grab hold of every opportunity because that’s just fear-based. Opportunity is never-ending so if you lose one and it goes to somebody else that’s fine you are going to find the one that is for you”
- “it’s like inspirational oxygen and I love it so much”
- “any time anything remotely off-track or negative comes into my life I’m like this to shall pass. I am going to be optimistic and I’m going to believe that optimism is reality”
- “one of my biggest pet peeves in life is that whole idea of people being like ‘oh you are not being realistic’ and I am like when did negative become real. Like who decided that was reality”
- “no hole pokers allowed. So, it’s this idea that as entrepreneurs we are out in the world and we are often times surrounded by people who are going to poke holes in our dreams. And you can’t create in that world, it’s next to impossible. You have to be super aggressively optimistic to be able to create with hole pokers around you”
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