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Connecting Our Passions to Our Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared
Jessica Honegger is the founder of Noonday Collection, one of the largest fair-trade jewelry companies in the world. She has a business degree from Harvard University and a fashion degree from Parsons School of Design. With those credentials, her success path was linear and clearly laid out from day one … not!
Isn’t it interesting that there’s this perception still that success is straight and that the path to your purpose is linear. – Jessica Honegger
This episode is packed with inspiring quotes pouring out of Jessica as she passionately narrated her circuitous journey of multiple ups and downs, the challenges and unexpected triumphs… before discovering what she was truly meant to do.
It’s not about scorning the rich nor glorifying the poor. It really is about walking in the Holy Spirit. – Jessica Honegger
People are hungry for opportunity. If we can use our opportunity to create more, there’s this multiplication effect that when we use our power to create more power for others, we can bring flourishings to our community and other communities around the world.
Our lives is not about accumulating comfort, it’s about creating impact for those around us and those around the world. – Jessica Honegger
Jessica shared some of her fears, from fear of failure, to the other end of the spectrum… fear of success. Here’s how she defines courage: Isn’t about being fearless. It is about being afraid and going scared anyway.
Every person dies, but not every person truly lives. – Jessica Honegger
Jessica left this as her final piece of advice: We can focus on what we don’t have, or we can focus on what we do have. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author of your faith. That’s how we can spend our energy creating good in the world, instead of comparing and staying stuck.
What You’ll Learn
- Jessica’s roundabout path to finding her life’s purpose
- The enormous impact of a $50 loan to a woman in Kenya who was able to put up a fruit stand and elevate her family from poverty
- What are people in developing countries really hungry for, and what we can do to give it to them
- How Jessica is uplifting lives with her jewelry company, Noonday Collection
- Jessica’s advice on how to face fear when one is about to do something significant
- Her practical definition of courage
Resources
- Jessica Honegger’s website
- Noonday Collection
- Imperfect Courage by Jessica Honegger
Bio
Jessica Honegger is the founder and co-CEO of Noonday Collection, author of Imperfect Courage, brand-new podcaster, and mom to three littles. She is passionate about encouraging others to leave comfort, go scared, and step into a life of impact. She’s also passionate about queso, Topo Chico, and a good pair of heels. (She’s a woman of many interests!)
It was during a trip to Kenya in her teens that she first witnessed the realities of global poverty firsthand. That trip ignited in here the first sparks of the social-justice flame that would eventually inspire Noonday Collection. She returned home a bit of an activist, volunteering in Bolivia and Guatemala after college where she dove into the development world head first (and made plenty of well-intentioned mistakes along the way). It was during this time that she began to understand the power of entrepreneurship as a sustainable solution to poverty.
Fast forward to 2010, when Jessica her husband Joe needed a way to raise funds to adopt their son Jack from Rwanda. Through friends, she got connected with two talented Ugandan jewelry designers named Jalia and Daniel who were living in poverty but just needed access to a marketplace to truly thrive. She grew up with a mom, aunts, and grandmas who loved their statements accessories—so jewelry was in her blood. To fundraise for the adoption, she purchased some of Jalia and Daniel’s jewelry and sold them to her friends and family at a Trunk Show in her living room. The unique pieces and even more captivating story behind the collection was a hit—and that’s when she realized the potential for fashion to create economic opportunity for worldwide communities. Before she knew it, she had doubled down on this big dream, and Noonday Collection was born.
