Meet Jamie Kolnick

We were lucky to catch up with Jamie Kolnick recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jamie, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I have always been a strong believer that the challenges we face in our life, as hard as they are, are our greatest gifts. Starting at a very young age, I watched my mother Cheryl undergo chemotherapy for Breast cancer. I watched her lose her hair, and deal with the challenges that came with her life changes while dealing with three young children. I watched her do this with resilience and with strength. She taught me that it is a part of life to have challenges and  with each challenge, look at it as a gift-  to learn from and to gain perspective from. I then watched my mother grieve and cope with the loss of my oldest brother Alan who passed away in a car accident. I watched her mourn the greatest loss of all, her own child, while continuing to care for me and my brother and keep our family together. I watched her laugh again, work again, enjoy the sunshine while living in a world without Alan. I watched her then care for my father Murray as he lost his battle to Leukemia only 5 years after Alan passed away. She did so with such strength, while continuing her own treatment for cancer.

After my dad passed away, I watched my mom, once again, discover what this world was without two of the people she loved the most, that made up her world. A giant chunk was missing, keeping the world from turning the way it once had. Once again, she had to reinvent what her world looked like without them, while continuing to be a wonderful mother to me and my brother Mike. To be there for us, and be a strong family unit no matter what we had gone through to that point. My mom lost her 15 year courageous battle to cancer only 5 years later in 2009. It was then my turn to carry the torch of strength, to take everything I had learned by watching her handle life challenges with such grace. It was my turn to figure out how my world would continue, how I would laugh again, enjoy the sunshine, work again, and love life, without her in it.  Without my father. Without my brother. I would take everything I witnessed throughout my life and gain my resilience just having watched how these guides handled life.

This is how I approach my life and my ability to work, and take care of my family. I don’t take it for granted and I live every second as much as I can. I work towards my resilience and ability to be present every day. It doesn’t always come easy, but I know how short life can be, how quickly what matters most and who matters most, can be taken from us. That’s always the gentle push I need to regain that important perspective to put one foot in front of the other and see the bright side in life.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I started my company Jam with Jamie in 2008 right before my mother passed away. Jam with Jamie is a children’s entertainment and education company offering birthday parties, classes and events to ages 0-10 nationwide and is now going into its 15th year! We recently hosted a first of its kind family music festival in Miami, Little Jam Fest, our newest and most exciting venture. This festival brought together over 400 families and 50 brands. The queen of kid’s music, Laurie Berkner and Grammy award winning artist, Joanie Leeds, performed at the event along with multiple local children’s musicians and fun family activities. It was a huge accomplishment and I am beyond proud of our team for making this dream a reality. We are already planning Little Jam Fest 2025 in Miami, if you’re in the area, please come! If you are a brand, please reach out about partnership opportunities

The other hat I wear professionally is co-running my families scholarship foundation that my parents started after my brother Alan passed away, The Alan Epstein “Reach for the Stars” Scholarship Foundation. This foundation grants financial aid to graduating seniors from South Florida High schools. Since my parents passing in 2004 and 2009 respectively, my brother Mike and I have continued the legacy of this foundation and to date have awarded over $500,000 to 250 recipients. Running this foundation alongside my brother Mike is one of the most rewarding things I do annually, giving back to our community and continuing to honor our families legacy.

And with all this said I am first and foremost a mom of three. I have an 8 and 6 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. They are my lifeline, my greatest gifts that keep my heart beating alongside my husband Shaun who is the most incredible partner in this life.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Delegate. You cannot do everything yourself, nor should you! I know how tempting it can be, especially in a startup and as a type A individual to say “Well, I know how to do it and what I want, it will just be easier if I do it myself.” You may be able to for a little while but soon you will be so spread thin and unable to focus on the big picture. Make a list of your ideal role as if you were writing a job description for yourself. Then make a list of everything you don’t want to be doing. Slowly but surely- re-delegate those tasks to others so that you can be putting your energy into what you do best and what you WANT to do. You’ll thank yourself later and so will everyone around you.

2. Embrace Failure. To get to where I am now professionally, I have failed a lot. There were plenty of times I wanted to throw in the towel, find another CEO for my company and focus on my family. There were times I was worried I was missing something by immersing myself in work and growing my company. Still to this day, I don’t always feel like I am doing everything “right.” I think we are always growing and learning from every failure. And the failures are a good thing, because without them how would we  grow. How would we know and learn from those mistakes?

I have often felt guilty or regretted certain actions throughout my career, and it is only recently that I have begun to embrace those actions more as a pivotal experience. Beginning to embrace failures in work or parenting and life overall is such a blessing. We can do an entire other interview on parenting!!!

3. There’s no such thing as perfection. Say it again and again. Flow with the problems, Flow with your family, your friends. Take every challenge as a gift to learn from, to grow from. Brush off the small problems and look at bigger issues with curiosity. Don’t take things so personally- Now this has been one of my biggest challenges in my career, I am a sensitive person and quite the sponge to how other people feel which is good as I am empathetic but also can get me into my own head when it’s not actually my issue but someone else’s.  I still grapple with not being able to please everyone. What I know is if we are leading with our heart, then that is our “best.” As long as we are doing what we love, and dealing with each thing that comes our way with love, then success will follow. And please, go easy on yourself and take care of you. You can’t take care of anyone else if you aren’t taking care of yourself.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

One of my favorite things about running Jam with Jamie and Little Jam Fest is connecting with people to create fun musical experiences for and with. If you are a family, event planner, school, mall, apartment building, the list goes on- please reach out to chat with us about how we can work together. We customize jams for all different types of clients and would love to talk with you.

For Little Jam Fest, we are currently speaking with family/parenting/kid centered brands about partnering for our 2025 event and would love to discuss how we can work together to elevate your brand to our community!

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Michelle Rose Photo

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