We were lucky to catch up with Irene Ekdahl recently and have shared our conversation below.

Irene, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I began to write in my first journal as a young girl in a San Diego, CA orphanage. The habit of writing helped me release stress and fears as well as plan my future goals and dreams. I had a challenging journey ahead of me to navigate after being rescued from years of sexual abuse by a family member. Out of this sadness, I decided not to settle for the loneliness and depression but pivoted and learned the transformative power of journaling. I started to dream big dreams again. I wrote about traveling the world. I wrote about dancing. It was healing to journal my loneliness. I felt safe and jotted down my dreams of graduating college, achieving career success and to believe in myself. In short I motivated myself to not quit on the good things in life. I developed special journals with foster care children/former foster youth in mind. I am offering the opportunity to dream again. I want to be an inspiration to children who have had adverse childhood experiences as I did.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I self-publish guided journals which help with personal development and self discovery. All my journals are daily prompted journals. My Daily Wellness Journal, my best selling book has many categories in health and wellness to track personal health goals day by day. Anyone can purchase my journals to use in their personal development. They can also purchase them to donate to Foster Youth. I also have Gratitude Day and Night, which is a gratitude journal focused on thankfulness, things small and great to be grateful for, tracking daily emotions and lessons learned though life. In one year I built my business and now my journals are sold online at Target, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and other retailers worldwide. Being bilingual, I offer Spanish versions of my popular journals. I am self taught in publishing which was a huge milestone for me to reach. I learned how to rank my journals on Amazon which opened doors to Walmart and Target.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Initially, my business idea was a weekly meal planner that was saved on the refrigerator. For each day, you could place the recipe card with a magnet on breakfast, lunch or dinner and meal plan accordingly. I wasn’t passionate about this product and became bored with this. My second rendition of this business was selling packs of recipe cards on Amazon in order to work with other homeschooling moms who cook frequently. I thought that my audience was geared towards homemakers. I have 4 kids and I homeschool them. One day I realized that I have a lot of journals and I have been journaling since foster care. I remembered all the benefits I gained from journaling. Kids in foster care don’t go to sports. Many kids don’t go to regular school or have any extracurricular activities..50% of homeless people were in foster care as kids. My passion for journaling is to share this tool with those in need. It is an effective tool to those who use it. I believe that given the right tools, kids will focus on good things and that will lower the statistics of homelessness and drug addiction in adults. I believe it’s easier to influence kids while they are young to establish good habits like journaling to keep them motivated. Many kids in foster care quit in life and when they get out of the system they make bad choices. I want to become a motivational speaker through journal parties with these kids. I will motivate these kids to use the resources available to them such as college scholarships, housing and other assistance to set them up for success.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had five years of therapy during this process. For five years, my therapist told me to cut off my family. She said that would make me happier and that I could create my own family once I got out of foster care. My therapist said that my family didn’t deserve a relationship with me as they didn’t protect me from sexual abuse. However, a couple missionaries visited my orphanage one day to pray with the girls. They explained that I needed to forgive my abusers and I would be set free. Forgiveness would benefit me and not my family. After prayer that night I told the devil that I would not let him destroy my life. My thoughts of suicide, fear, paranoia, fear of the dark and anxiety left me. It was my pivotal moment in foster care. I convinced my social worker to enroll me into public school. I got into the public speaking/debate team after school. I won a speech competition sponsored by Rotary club my senior year. Rotary club sent me to France, Brazil and Switzerland as a student ambassador after I graduated high school. I was greatly influenced by the successful people that sponsored me to live in these countries and my outlook on life was changed forever.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ekdahlco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ireneekdahl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ireneMekdahl
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ireneekdahl
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ireneekdahl

Image Credits
Some of the images by Corianne Santana.