I’m Jess
I’m building a resilient life, and I want you to build one, as well.
It’s taken me 18 years and a ton of blood, sweat, debt, and tears to be here.
I’ve lived in the dark trenches of loss and an unexpected life. I’ve also done the work to use my painful story for positive change. My difficult circumstances are the driving force behind helping you use your unthinkable story to make an impact.
If I look closely, I can see the throughlines in my story that leads me to where I am today.
When I was eight, I dreamed I was speaking at a podium on the world stage.
Dressed in a suit and speaking in front of thousands, I asked leaders to change their minds and treat their people better. This dream has never left me and has been manifested in my life calling.
At a similar age, I used to play dress up and pretend I was a teacher and business owner. I turned my childhood home into an event for all the kids in the neighborhood.
When I was in college, I traveled to Central America to do volunteer work and for the first time, saw incredible poverty. But I met people with indelible spirits. I knew I wanted to serve others, advocate for the marginalized and teach people to view life from a different perspective.
In my senior year in college, my capstone team and I won an entrepreneurship award for the business we created. As long as I can remember, I’ve been a visionary, courageous advocate, leader, and entrepreneur who loves to gather people together and inspire them to create change.
Then life turned the page to my unforgettable story.
“It’s not what happens to us, it’s what we do with it. We get to decide how our story goes.”
— Jess Lindberg
When I was 29, my son, Ethan, was born with a rare heart condition; the left side of his heart did not develop properly.
Before he was born, I was the 30th woman in the U.S. to have an in-utero surgery to open Ethan’s aortic valve. This is also the year I quit a job I loved, and MBA school I was halfway through to care for my son.
As the years progressed, we went through the revolving door of medical appointments and procedures. Needing also to fulfill my ambitious spirit, I co-founded a non-profit, did marketing consulting, and developed a residential community alongside my husband.
When Ethan was 7, what should have been a simple valve surgery turned into the most arduous journey of my life.
My husband and I rented an apartment in Boston for a month to access Ethan's care. However, the complexity of Ethan’s heart turned one month into another.
And another month.
And yet another month.
During this season, my son Blake was three, and I was pregnant with my third son, Chase.
Thirteen months later, we left home without our beloved Ethan, in debt, despondent, and holding a story that turned out to be more painful than we imagined. We were grieving the death of our beloved 7-year-old Ethan while tending to a four-year-old and a 6-month-old baby.
It was the hardest thing to climb out of. The ripple effects on our lives, finances, careers, and mental and physical health had a lasting impact on us.
Ethan changed everything in our lives in every way. The joy he brought our family and world will always outweigh the hardship.
We took all that and created the Ethan Lindberg Foundation (now called The Heart Strong Collective) to serve families like ours so they would not have to be in our position. I witnessed families have a better outcome while I deeply suffered. It was simultaneously challenging and beautiful.
Life threw me another twist.
Two years after Ethan died, my fourth son, Bodey, was born with a rare muscular dystrophy, Muscle Eye Brain Disease. He is blind, cannot walk, talk, or feed himself, and is fully disabled.
Some days are soul-crushing, and some are sprinkled with immense grace. Each day-to-day is a physical and emotional mountain to climb. Strange as it is to say, Bodey’s journey is more challenging than Ethan’s, which I never imagined possible.
I struggle, but I keep going.
Bodey has transformed my heart, too. I love him dearly, just as I love and cherish each of my four boys and the roles they have played in shaping the woman I am today—I am thankful for the profound lessons they continue to teach me.
Through the years, I’ve continued to create from my story.
Life is a school, and our experiences are here to teach us and form us into the people we are created to be. But creation can only happen when we own what’s before us.
As I’ve owned my story, I’ve created retreats, non-profits, women’s events, a retail shop, and a podcast. I continue to develop myself as a leader, mentor, coach, and business owner. My mission is to help you align the jagged pieces of your life, manifest your vision, inspire growth, and encourage you to use your story for good.
My greatest hope is that people will look at the life I create from my story and experiences and say, “If she can do it, I can too.”
Thanks for meeting me here.
