A brain aneurysm didn’t end Tess Padmore's life; it unlocked an inventor who’s redefining inclusive design and water safety

A simple swim cap shouldn’t decide who gets into the water. That’s where our guest, inventor and author Tess Padmore, begins—transforming a personal challenge after a brain aneurysm into a patented headwear line designed for textured hair, chemo-sensitive scalps, alopecia, bald heads, and anyone who needs comfort, warmth, and confidence to participate. The story widens fast: disability-informed design choices, university partnerships that replace dollars with resources, and a feedback loop that turns customers into co-designers. Each detail points to something bigger—how inclusive products restore access to health, joy, and community.We dig into the realities of living and working with a traumatic brain injury—what breaks, what blooms, and why resilience isn’t just grit but smart boundaries and rerouted problem solving. Tess shares how journaling rebuilt her voice, how she learned to ask for clarity when cognition shifted, and how lowering inhibition unlocked a new kind of leadership. Her practical playbook for founders is gold: research before spend, treat local universities as your R&D lab, iterate with real users, and measure success by choices you create, not vanity metrics.By the end, “all you need is a head” reads like both a promise and a welcome. We talk joy—family, music, nerdy film love—and the global genealogy that helped Tess claim her voice and purpose. If you care about inclusive design, disability entrepreneurship, water safety, and the power of one determined builder to widen the circle, this conversation will stay with you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs the push to build the thing they can’t find, and leave a review to help more listeners discover thoughtful, human-centred stories like this.Website: http://eggheadsoques.com/Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/eggheadsoquesInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/eggheadsoquesLinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/tesspadmoreThoughts on the podcast? Send us a text message.Support the show