Unlikely Collaborators Presents: "Scared of Failure: Do It Anyway" with Ellen Bennett

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Unlikely Collaborators will host a Spark Salon featuring Ellen Bennett, chef, founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett and author of Dream First, Details Later, on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. PT / 10:00 p.m. ET. In Scared of Failure: Do It Anyway, Ellen will share her unfiltered truth about fear, failure, and forging your own path. She will discuss how she built her business without a safety net or outside investors, reframing setbacks as fuel, embracing action over perfection, and making powerful assets out of limited resources.

The Spark Salon will be held in person at Unlikely Collaborators' Santa Monica headquarters and live-streamed online. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. for a reception. The program begins promptly at 7:00 p.m., followed by a book signing and further reception. Admission is complimentary, but registration is required.

In person attendees will receive a complimentary copy of Dream First, Details Later.

Register now to secure your spot

Event Details

• What: Spark Salon – Scared of Failure: Do It Anyway with Ellen Bennett
  
  
• When: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 | Doors open 6:00 p.m., Program 7:00 p.m., Book signing & reception afterward
  
  
• Where: Unlikely Collaborators Headquarters, Santa Monica, CA
  
  
• Cost: Free (registration required)

About Ellen Bennett

At the age of 24 Ellen Bennett was working as a cook in a 2-Michelin-Star restaurant in LA and still tying on the same cheap aprons as every diner along Hollywood Boulevard. She took $300 in savings and turned that modest beginning into Hedley & Bennett, now a multi-million-dollar culinary lifestyle brand whose gear is beloved by kitchens everywhere. Through her talks and her book Dream First, Details Later, Ellen encourages people to stop overthinking, embrace what makes them unique, take bold action, and persist even when the path feels uncertain. Her story includes breaking into entrepreneurship with nothing more than grit, passion, and ideas, and growing a brand stocked at Williams Sonoma, Whole Foods, and worn by chefs like David Chang. Her insights have been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, and The Today Show.

About Spark Salons

Spark Salons are a signature program of Unlikely Collaborators, the nonprofit founded by Elizabeth R. Koch. These gatherings bring together grantees, researchers, artists, and collaborators for conversations that challenge perspectives and deepen connections. Past speakers have included leading voices who inspire participants to question how we make meaning, connect across differences, and transform the way we see the world.  Past speakers have included illusionist Harris III, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, nutrition therapist Kim Shapira, MS, RD, mythologist John Bucher, Harvard Business School professor and author Michael Norton, PhD. and Visionary Violinist Vijay Gupta.

Watch the Spark Salons Trailer

Upcoming Spark Salons include:

• Jud Brewer, MD, PhD, professor at Brown University and New York Times bestselling author of Unwinding Anxiety | September 29 at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET
  
  
• Candy Chang, Urban space artist behind the Before I Die walls | October 8 at 7:00 p.m. PT / 10:00 p.m. ET.
  
  
• Alexandra Samuel, PhD, Digital Workplace Expert and author of Remote, Inc. | October 21 at 7:00 p.m. PT / 10:00 p.m. ET.

About Unlikely Collaborators

Unlikely Collaborators is a nonprofit helping people develop greater awareness of how they perceive the world, using the Perception Box™ framework. Elizabeth R. Koch, its founder, believes that much of the conflict inside us and between us originates not in what's happening around us but in how we make meaning (our beliefs, assumptions, fears, identities). By becoming aware of that lens, we begin to change how we interpret our experience and how we relate to others. 

SOURCE Unlikely Collaborators