We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Lederhausen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.

Jessica, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

As a dentist, I’ve always prioritized oral hygiene. I brushed my teeth twice a day, flossed consistently, and had checkups twice a year. So I was surprised when my own dentist told me I already had receding gums and needed some more attention.

This could mean surgery, and I wanted to avoid that. As I headed home that day, I realized something: no one had ever talked to me about the cause of this issue. If I could figure that out, I could hopefully avoid surgery and help my own clients as well.

So, spending time thinking about my reseeding gum issue, I uncovered a truth I had forgotten: We frequently prioritize treating symptoms rather than addressing the underlying cause, and surgery could help, but I would still be at risk of encountering the same disease over and over.

As I spent time trying to understand more, I found one big piece in the puzzle: I needed to learn more about my oral microbiome and optimize it for better oral health. By doing so, I could hopefully avoid surgery. This journey has inspired me to share my insights and discoveries to help others achieve optimal oral health and overall wellbeing.

Jessica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Jessica Lederhausen is a dentist, author, public health advocate, mother, grandmother and founder of The Lagom Method™, a Swedish lifestyle-based toolkit (inspired by her Scandinavian upbringing) that helps people embrace a grounded and balanced lifestyle.

Her impact as a thought leader is informed and inspired by her diverse accomplishments as a dentist, former pro golfer, and serial entrepreneur, including founding TEDxChicago.

Jessica and her husband Mats moved from Stockholm to Chicago in 1999. They now reside in Chicago near their children and many grandchildren.

What I can offer to my community besides the book are: circles where I facilitate discussions in smaller groups, salons where the group is larger and we can still do enough interactions.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

Absolutely! I’d love to share my experience with selling businesses, particularly one that’s close to my heart.

 It was a business I co-owned in a suburb of Chicago with Northern European style of clothes, home accessories and more. Besides a store front we had early e-commerce and some wholesale as well.

As we decided to sell the business, we made sure to identify a potentially suitable buyer as we had worked hard to be part of the community and did not want the business to miss out on that. Once we had the person, we basically wrote down what we thought was a fair deal and with some discussion of course we agreed on how to move forward and with a handshake we were done, That is already over 10 years ago and we are still good friends all three of us.

My point why I want to tell the story is that we tend to get over technical and not trusting anyone. In this case we made things very simple and made sure we were all aligned and that we did not hide anything from each other. And the main message is that there are ways of doing business when everyone are ok with the outcome.

And by the way … the business is thriving and we are proud of our buyer who is doing so well.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My biggest pivot was when I moved from Sweden to Chicago, USA. The opportunity of such a big change gave me was somewhat freeing as well of feeling the uncertainty of what would be my next thing.

I had four kids at the time, ten years old and younger and had been studying and working with some interruptions since I started having kids.

The freedom of making a choice of what to do going forward was scary at the same time as a huge opportunity.

I took the opportunity and started thinking of why I felt so lost because I left my trade as a clinical dentist. Why was I so stuck on what I worked with would define me? Why did I need this?

What came out of that ‘work” on myself is that I believe you bring yourself wherever you go. Meaning I’m “me” with all my learnings, education, experiences etc along the way and I hopefully show up as me no matter what job I choose.

Looking forward at this new chapter of our family I had to figure out who I want to become and how do I get there??

To give myself a chance to re-think I went back to school for a master’s in public health, (epidemiology), which was more of an eyeopener than I had thought. After that I started my small business which my partner and I had for eight years and sold successfully. From there I took a summer off and cleaned out the house after all the kids were out. We moved away from the suburb, and I opened up to new endeavors. After some explorations I founded and became the director of TEDxChicago (2016) and early 2024 I launched my book ORAL – The Swedish Secret to Full Body Health Starting in Your Mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thelagommethod.com
• Instagram: jessicalederhausen
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-lederhausen-dds-mph-39a3302a/

Image Credits
Johnny Castle