Have you ever realized that the person who shaped you most never once thought of themselves as remarkable? Have you ever sat down with someone you've known your whole life — and learned something that changed everything?

This episode is a little different. Today's guest isn't a founder or a bestselling author or a keynote speaker. She's something harder to find and harder to hold onto. She's Laurie Ekstrom — Jess's mom, Lala to the grandkids, and the woman who quietly, consistently made it possible for everyone around her to go for it. Jess recorded this episode to celebrate the launch of her book, Making It Without Losing It, because Laurie is — in so many ways — what that book is about: finding peace in the present while still believing in something bigger.

This conversation is warm, funny, unfiltered, and at times, genuinely surprising. There's a Waffle House run at midnight. There's a confession about being unplanned. There's the story of a FLaurieda beach, a shared earbud, and a wedding song played during the darkest financial chapter of their family's life. And there's a two-minute message to Jack and Ellie — Jess's kids — that might be the most honest parenting advice in the whole episode.

Tune In For:

• The 2 AM email Laurie sent Jess after watching her first local news segment — and the revelation it sparked about purpose, motherhood, and what contribution actually looks like
• "My brainwaves are so flat I don't think I could work a toll booth" — Laurie's honest account of what the early stay-at-home years actually felt like, and the one thing Jess's dad said that turned it around
• The Bernie Madoff chapter — what it was like when a family betrayal and a financial collapse arrived at the same time, and how Jess's dad responded with a single earbud and their wedding song on the beach
• Why the candy drawer matters more than you think — and what Laurie got right about raising kids with an abundance mindset around food (and everything else)
• The midnight Waffle House run and what it taught Jess about building a home where kids call you first when things go sideways
• Two generations of "go, go, go" — a raw moment about busyness as armor, a silent retreat, and 60+ years of unfelt feelings finally showing up all at once
• What Laurie is still working on at 65 — including a woodworking class she will never take again, and why trying the wrong thing opened up a whole new world
• The advice Laurie wishes someone had given her in high school — and the message she wants Jack and Ellie to carry with them

This episode drops on the same day as Jess's book, Making It Without Losing It — grab your copy wherever books are sold.

Resources & Links

• 📖 Making It Without Losing It by Jess Ekstrom: Available now wherever books are sold
• 📸 Follow Jess on Instagram: @jessekstrom
• 🎙️ Making It with Jess Ekstrom: Subscribe + leave a review wherever you listen

Produced by Making It with Jess Ekstrom and Walk West

🧡 Soulful Sidebar: What If Your Purpose Was Always the People?

Laurie spent years quietly wondering if she had done enough. Was she contributing? Did she have a purpose? The answer came at two in the morning, watching her daughter on the local news, handing out headbands to kids in hospitals.

She hadn't built a company or written a book. But she had built the person who did.

There's a version of making it that looks like a highlight reel — the launch, the press, the milestone. And then there's the version that shows up in a two AM email, a Waffle House booth at midnight, a shared earbud on a dark beach. The people who love you the loudest don't always have the most accolades. They're just the ones who showed up — every time, without being asked — and made it possible for you to go.

That's Laurie. And if you're lucky, you know someone like her too.