We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ed Hennings. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ed below.
Hi Ed, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
I spent 20 years in prison, and I realized I was in a dark place because I had stopped DREAMING. As a young 20 something year old man, those dreams I had as a kid were gone. When I identified the fact that I wasn’t even living at all, because with no dreams, are any of us truly living. So I started a quest to purposely get my dreams back., to dream so big that it would scare me. For the last 26 years I’ve been dreaming like a 10 year old child, and it has been my source of life. Dreams come with risk, in order to live I must dream, and I will take the risk any time over losing my dreams. I have made a full commitment to never shrink in the face of the risk of going after my dreams, and the moment I made that commitment, I got my life back
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
The Ed Hennings Co. company creates stylish, durable footwear from steel toe boots, to business sneakers Working in laborious industries like trucking, construction, farming, and hospitality tends to require workers to wear safety or steel toe shoes while on the job. Workers are often stuck with basic colors and styles when it comes to purchasing these types of shoes. We’re saying so long to big, bulky and heavy safety shoes and hello to more lightweight and comfortable shoes. We want to take safety and work shoes up a notch, as a truck company owner and driver myself, I was always looking for the latest steel toe shoes that I could wear while working. Unfortunately, what I found year-after-year on store shelves and online were the same basic work shoes. There wasn’t anything exciting or stylish about them. I wanted to create work shoes that not only provide the top level of safety and comfort, but that people would be proud to wear and would even want to wear outside of
their jobs,
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think the fact that I spent 20 years in prison really showed me how resilient I was/am, but not how you may think. My resiliency has come in the form of purpose, meaning that things in my life are bigger than just me. I encountered thousands of “broken” men while I was in prison and all I wanted them to do was know that we were better than the situation we found ourselves in. I knew I couldn’t just be another person that said these type of things, I had to “LIVE” it! I had to fight to better myself everyday for those 20 years, then come home and make something of myself, because I know the people from where I’m from needed to see it, not just hear it. I’ve had multiple businesses, a barbershop, a trucking company, and now a shoe brand, but in all actuality, I’m in the inspiration business. I wake up and fight through the adversities of an entrepreneur everyday because my life’s purpose is to inspire people .
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
My backstory, we all have one, and being that my story is from lived knowledge, people seem to relate to it. Facing some form of adversity is promised to all of us, so hearing about what I experienced makes a lot of people ask how did you make it through? When someone hears or sees the Ed Hennings Brand, they see the will, the resiliency if you will and the inspiration. That’s my market, the people that’s on the grind everyday, making it happen through all of the pain, obstacles , etc……
Contact Info:
- Website: edhenningsco.com
- Instagram: edhennings.ceo
- Facebook: Ed Hennings
- Linkedin: Ed Hennings