In the midst of a global pandemic, healthcare workers have become modern-day superheroes—risking their lives every day for the health and safety of their patients. 

Today’s guest is Jessica Kim, Co-Founder of IanaCare, a passionate team of caregivers, supporters, patients, and medical professionals. They’ve been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle faithfully working with the hopes that all 43.5 million caregivers in America will feel the love and support they deserve. 

Jessica shared what life looks like for IanaCare amid this global crisis, as well as her entrepreneurial journey—including raising $1mil for a business she started in college—and all the stories that led her to where God has her today.

Episode Transcript

*Some listeners have found it helpful to have a transcription of the podcast. Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it. The FDE movement is a volunteer-led movement, and if you’d like to contribute by editing future transcripts, please email us.

 

Henry Kaestner: Guys, welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. I'm here with Rusty and William and get ready for another great episode. We've got Jessica Kim on today, so I'm fired up about that. And also reflecting guys on this conversation we had earlier this morning about the next season in the next 30 or 40 episodes that we're going to be doing. And we had just, I thought, a really good dialog about that.

Rusty Rueff: Would you have ever imagined we'd be talking about the next 30 or 40 when we started? One hundred and ten ago. Pretty amazing, pretty amazing.

Henry Kaestner: It is amazing. You know, I guess at the beginning, I think I might have even thought that now maybe I will have enough material for 20 or 30 of these episodes, now we're 110 in. And I think that when I look at our list of ideas, I think that that list is probably longer now than it was back then. So it feels like it's just kind of expanding. And a lot of that, I think, is from the input that we've been having from the audience about, hey, explore this topic or look at reconciliation or look at this entrepeneur. So and so has this incredible story.

William Norvell: You know, I think it really pushes us in directions, right? I mean, I think to tougher topics we covered, one on depression with Max Anderson on depression and one with Rob and Jeff on confession. And I feel like we went to the second one because we got such great feedback from our audience on the first of like, wow, man, we have not heard a story like Max and people sharing they struggle with all kinds of mental health. And so let's go deeper into that. And so, you know, we really appreciate everybody shooting us notes and commenting because that creates the next angles, because we know so many great entrepreneurs, we'rere about to get into Jessica story. And there's 10 stories she could tell. There's probably 50 stories she could tell about her journey. But we use our audience to kind of say, okay, well, but this is why we want you to talk this time and we'll have you back next time to talk about that piece of your story. So it's fun.

Henry Kaestner: Yeah, there's a little pressure for you, Jessica. You know, there's probably 50 stories, right? We get 50 episodes, minimum, no pressure. Maybe that can go into 20 or 30. So we have Jessica Kim with us today in the virtual studio, so to speak. And when I think about Jessica, a word comes to mind that I actually don't. I love Jessica. I don't like the word that comes to mind. And I'll tell you what it is. It's serial. Serial entrepreneur. At times I've been described as a serial entrepreneur or I hear other people described as a serial entrepreneur. And for some reason or another, I just don't like that descriptor. What it means as somebody who's had just a succession of different enterprises, they've started. But when I think about serial, either I think about a serial murder. And so serial doesn't mean anything good there or it means that here's a guy that, you know, just continues to come up with businesses that are about granola or cornflakes or something like that. And that also doesn't resonate. And yet, Jessica is an entrepreneur that has repeatedly seen problems in the marketplace that need to be fixed, opportunities that need to be seized. And she leans into it with a creativity and an energy that's really compelling. And I'm just really happy, Jessica, that you've joined us and that you'd be willing to share some of your story.

Jessica Kim: Oh, I'm just really excited. I'm a big fan of what you guys do and how you talk about it. And it's what you were just talking about. It's a level of depth of where you go in these conversations. That's so refreshing. So I'm excited to be here.

Henry Kaestner: Thanks. Well, thank you. Thank you. So we're going to get right into it with you and talk about this serial aspect of you looking to solve these problems that you see. And it started for you when you're 19, I think. Right. Jessica's wonders. How did that get started?

Jessica Kim: Yeah. I did not intend to start a business. I was a Brown University student. I was an anthropology major. And I think I was always obsessed with people. And so even at the age of 10, people would say, what do you want to be when you grow up? And like, I have no idea. But I know that I want to study people. I've just been intrigued by culture and upbringing and situational experiences and how that literally shapes the way we see the world. And so starting a baked goods company was really random. I walked into a pizzeria, I saw a banana bread being sold on a plate and was saran wrapped. It had a dollar sixty nine sign on it. And I said, oh my gosh, I could do so much better than this. Who made this. And the owner said, Oh well, the woman down the street. And I was like, I can do so much better and he was like, bring it in. So I brought it in. It's sold out. I brought 10 more and it sold out. And I was like, wait a second, you need to pay me for this. And he said, Well, what's the name of your company? And I said, Jessica's wonders, it's so good it'll make you wonder. And it was just a random I was just following, you know, an opportunity that I saw. I knew I could do it better. And it was a very raw experience. But I ended up selling to 13 different locations, all baking out of my dorm room. I ended up raising a million dollars my senior year. I had braces. So it looks like I was 13 years old and we grew it to national distribution, several million revenue. And so it was just an incredible first experience of starting a company from scratch.

Henry Kaestner: Wow. And the woman that made the mediocre banana nut muffin didn't even know what was going on. Didn't even know what hit her. So then you go on from Jessica's wonders. And actually, before I go to baba company, and I do want you to take us there. How did Jessica's Wonder's land I mean, can you still buy your stuff somewhere else or was it bought up by somebody? What happened?

Jessica Kim: So many lessons there. I think the biggest thing that I learned from that is when you're really envisioning your brand, the channel of which you sell through is a huge part of it. It's a huge part of the execution. And so we had this whole vision of building a Ben Jerry's of baked goods. Starbucks was just popping up and they said we're nine months away from kind of doing a deal with you. Stop in shops, supermarkets and all the supermarkets heard about us. They called us. Said, can you get their stuff in our store? And I said, no, thank you, we're not a supermarket band. Click. And looking forward, my investors were like, what are you thinking? You know, with one call, you can have hundreds of stores. And that's kind of the direction we took it. But it really changed kind of the path of how it grew. So you know, had a sale. You know, we sold it. It was a small sale. And then I went to business school after that to really understand all that happened from it.

Henry Kaestner: OK, so now bring us the Babba company in. The Babba company is not going to be our final destination. We want to spend most of our time talking about ianacare. But tell us about Babba company, please.

Jessica Kim: So after business school went to Kraft Foods. I wanted to stay in the food industry to kind of get that apples to apples comparison of what it's like to run a big business, small business. And so I was there for about three years and then I had my first child, Kayla, and I was on maternity leave and my whole world changed as I understood what parenting was. And so I saw this opportunity to create this brand because this was back in 2007 where there were still the Gerber brands where everything made parenting look so perfect. And as I looked behind the scenes, I saw all men in suits running these companies for these new moms. And I said there could be a better brand that's so relevant and authentic. And so that was kind of the initial thought behind BabbaCo. And we created all these products that were sold in like car seat covers and self-inflatable play mats that were sold in big box stores. And then social media started really coming out and we said there's an opportunity to really directly connect with our moms. And so we got into TechStars, an accelerator and we pivoted the business to subscription activity box companies or boxes. And so a new box would come to your door with a different theme of activities. And so we grew from there. It was the first time that were VC backed. And then after a few years of growth, we got acquired by Barefoot books, which is a children's publishing company, and we had a book in every box so that was just a really natural progression for us.

Henry Kaestner: Awesome. Rusty, will you take us through, and by the way, am I pronouncing Ianace right?

Jessica Kim: Eye-on-a-care.

Henry Kaestner: Ianacare. OK, so the answer is no, I'm not. I guess, we're doing a podcast about it, might as well get it right. But it is Jess-ic-a, right?

Jessica Kim: Yes, it's Jessica. You got that right.

Henry Kaestner: OK, good.

Rusty Rueff: I actually love the name. Ianacare because Ianacare. Right. I mean, isn't that it? I mean, it's service.

Jessica Kim: Yeah. Well the IANA stands for I am not alone. And so, you know, at the core of it all, as we really dug into this space, we realized that it's a very lonely and isolating experience. And so we may not always have a cure or we might not always have a very simple answer to things, but we can ensure that people are not alone on this very long, complex journey. So that's why I called it. We called it ianacare.

Rusty Rueff: Yeah, well, see, I read it the whole other way. And that's awesome, too, because it's your eye looking and caring. So that's great. It sounds like your personal entrepreneurial journey is really been about, you know, a bit of a coinciding of events. Right. You know, you walk in, you see something, you see something else that needs to be improved. Is that true with ianacare as well?

Jessica Kim: Yeah. I mean, you know, there are a lot of different reasons why people start companies. And I've come to realize that I have to really understand and actually feel that pain point and it becomes that deep empathy that is that drive for me to push down any walls to kind of come up with that solution. And some of it comes from very deep place. And what really solidified it for me was when I was an entrepreneur in residence at a venture capital firm. And so I had a whole year to explore all these different ideas. And it was really freeform. And so I went through that academic and analytical exercise of what's a good business and what is thriving and what's needed. And it was very much in my head. And what I realized was that, you know, when it comes, you know, to my free time or at night, I wasn't driven to be obsessed with the end user or the problem where I had to solve it. And so for me, it's a very personal mission that I experience at some point my life that I then realized other people are experiencing. And that gets me to really create that solution.

Rusty Rueff: And in this case, your mom had something to do with it, right?

Jessica Kim: Yeah, yeah. So my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she had it for about seven and a half years. And when they came back the third time, her body, she had nothing else to give them. My dad was completely burnt out. And so they ended up moving from New Jersey to Boston with me and my family. I have three kids and I was always a working mom. It was the first time where I quit my job to become her full time caregiver. And so I was thrust into that position of just navigating all her medical care. I was performing all the nursing duties. I was pumping her stomach several times a day. I was feeding her and bathing her and eventually carrying her. And she eventually passed away in my home in hospice in 2017. And it was the hardest and loneliest time in my life. And I think when I really think about it, I didn't know how to get support. I didn't know what existed. I was too exhausted to do research and search for things. And so in my deep grief, I was so frustrated more than anything, I know it was probably part of the grief that it was anger.

I was frustrated because having been an entrepreneur in technology, I knew that there could be a solution. I knew that it was possible we could build it. And I have always reached people in individual homes as a direct to consumer entrepreneurs. So I knew that we could reach them and engage them. So knowing that it was possible and seeing how under developed those solutions were, I said we have to do something about it. And so I connected with my co-founder, Steven Lee, and we just started that whole process of really digging into it.

Rusty Rueff: And tell us about it. What's the business?

Jessica Kim: So, you know, it really starts with really understanding and defining the problem. And so we say one out of seven people in the US alone are diagnosed with a chronic illness or condition where they become reliant on a caregiver. Right. So we're talking about stroke, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes. And when we often think about these conditions, we tend to focus on the medication, the surgery, what's happening in the hospital. But over 90 percent, the actual time being care for happens in the home, not in the hospital. And they're typically cared for by family caregivers who are unsupported, unpaid and untrained. And so there are forty three point five million family caregivers in the US alone. They do twenty four point four hours of caregiving per week. And that's typically on top of full time jobs. And if you added up all the hours of caregiving, you would equate to four hundred seventy billion dollars worth of care. And so our entire healthcare system and society would absolutely collapse without family caregivers. But this is our aha moment. So our a ha moment was when we dug into it, we realized that there are thousands of resources and services that already exist. They are out there, but it's really hard to connect them. It's highly fragmented. It's not even searchable. You don't, people don't even know what to search for. And it's not curated in a very user friendly way to empower that layman caregiver in the home who is super exhausted. And so that's what we do. Ianacare is one platform that's a personalized navigator. We aggregate the thousands of resources and then we create the best three to four matches based on your income, your location, the condition you're caring for. And so it becomes a very curated experience to say there is help out there. And we're here to connect you to that.

Rusty Rueff: That's great. And that couldn't have been easy to get off the ground.

Jessica Kim: No.

Rusty Rueff: So tell us about the early days.

Jessica Kim: Yeah. No, I'm so glad you asked that, because sometimes it seems so clear when you hear what it's about. The beginning was very messy because there weren't clear solutions already out there. And so, you know, I was in deep grief. This was a couple of months after my mom passed away. And having been part of this organization called Praxis, and I know you guys are aware of it. And I've been a fellow in that program and just really deeply loved that community and the leaders there. And so I met with the co-founder and CEO, Dave Blanchard. And, you know, in my grief, you know, I was telling them about all these problems, about caregiving. And, you know, having been part of Praxis and the redemptive framework, I started really seeing the world as what is off in the way that God intended and how can we as entrepreneurs fill that gap. And so I just told them all these things that were wrong with caregiving. He said, do you want to start a business around it? And I said, no way. Like, that is the last thing I want to do. I am just saying there's something off, but I am grieving. I just can't take a job right now. I just need to, like, figure out why this is so wrong. And then he said, well, you know, we're thinking about piloting the venture lab program. You know, typically they have programs for existing entrepreneurs and help them accelerate in venture lab was to be at the very beginning when there's a stirring and an entrepreneur's heart. And he said he wanted to help us pilot that. And I said, no, I do not want to start a business. That's the last thing I want to do. And he said, no pressure. I want to just go through the process and deeply learn and then just see where God takes it. And so we did that. So we spent the next eight months. My co-founder Steve and I went in and matched me up with Philip Morris, who is a PhD who God just placed. Because they had him identified before Dave and I talked, but he had done 10 years of deep dive of the role of medicine and agency and life and death. And he did 10 years of that. And so he was like a perfect match for me. And we ran it almost like a mini PhD program where we learned the history of hospice care and palliative care and read death manuals together. And it was just such a human focused, deep dive. And we forced ourselves not to have to create solution because that tends to be as an entrepreneur. It's like, OK, what do we do about it? And we said, don't think about what we can do about it. Let's just absorb and embrace and understand and going through that in a disciplined way. It was like a learned discern and design process that was so eye opening. I recommend it all the time and we draw upon those learnings still to this day, because that is what we're trying to solve and how you solve it will always change. You know, the technology is always changing. Methods will always change. But what you're solving in the history of where you're going from is really the core.

Rusty Rueff: You said something about a death manual. What is that?

Jessica Kim: You know, it's actually even fascinating that you ask that because it's such a new concept for us. But in the 14th, 15th century, they had death manuals where it would be almost to this day, like a pamphlet or written out instructions of how to kind of usher people through death. It speaks to how before we faced it a lot more. And in our culture, we had some ceremonies or ways to do it, like we knew what to do. And in today's culture, we have no idea what to do. And in fact, I find that we're often so much in denial and we want to avoid death at all costs. And if you get me started on the health care system, it's really around the key metric of don't let them die. But what we're realizing, especially in caregiving, is that people are living so much longer. But what is the quality of life? So the technology and the medicine has gotten so much greater that people are living longer. But who's caring for them then when there is no cure? And it really is all coincided with the deep research that we did.

Rusty Rueff: I know William is going to talk about the future, but I'd be remiss not to ask you a question about the present. As we're sitting here in this COVID-19 time, how has it changed your business? I mean, where do you see health care going? And what's the role of that in-home health care provider in a moment like this?

Jessica Kim: Oh, my goodness. COVID-19, has completely accelerated the need to support all the care that's happening in the home because we have no choice and you know, caregiving, I always want to make it clearly caregiving has existed before COVID19, but what COVID 19 did is it increased the awareness of the vulnerable, who are our elders, people who are sick and the caregivers who are caring for them. And so for us at ianacare, it's increased the demand tremendously and increased the usage. But the interesting thing is we had to really redefine what care looks like during covid, because typically when we think about support and care, we think about very in-person physical care. I'll come over and take over. I'll give you respite care. I'll drop off a meal and give you a hug. And so we really started shipping it and we call it care without contact that people who are isolated even more in the home, they still have a support system out there. And there are so many ways and, you know, through technology and through our app, they were able to get support with grocery runs and meals that were delivered and virtual check-ins and that they could still get this type of support even without the physical contact. And when I look at it in terms of health care in general, you know, what I think it's really exposed is the need to create a better infrastructure to care for people outside of the hospital walls.

Right. And so everything has typically been centered around what's happening in the institution, but it needs to go beyond that. And so telehealth has really been increased. It's something that's been around for decades. But because of this, people had to force themselves to know how to use video conferencing. And then, more importantly, the healthcare system, a lot of the issues are how the payment flows. And so with COVID, they had to accelerate and say, you know what, we will reimburse a virtual visit. Do zoom. Whereas before that wasn't covered under insurance. And so in my mind, there's a lot of hurt and pain and a lot of things that COVID exposed. But in terms of accelerating the need for the infrastructure of caring, what's happening in the home, it's accelerated in a good way.

William Norvell: Thanks for walking us through that time. Just going to go on a slight tangent, because something you just said just made me really think about our relationship with God different and what you were talking about. We just don't, as a culture, think much about death anymore. And it's sort of more trying to remove it out of our minds and get away from it as fast as possible and to cure it in some people's minds in the Valley and other places, I know people are trying their best to make us live longer. But when you're talking, it reminded me, years ago I read Jonathan Edwards Resolutions. He had like 100 things he told himself every day. And one that stuck out to this exact point is because I never thought about it, said I resolved to think much on all occasions of my own dying and of the common circumstances which attend death. And so that was more part of his world. And something he thought of as a holistic picture of God, as a holistic picture of the universe that God had built. And so the question I have for you is, as you've dug into a world that most of us don't dig in too much, has it shaped your opinion or understanding of the nature of God and what he's trying to do for us here?

Jessica Kim: Yeah, that's a great question. I think about this a lot. And I don't know if I have, like, the clearest answer, but the way I've been thinking about it is, you know, it has emphasized that our life here on Earth is such a small time. That there is death. But we have eternal life. And so that has become even more and more true. And that, you know, our God carries us through the suffering and the hard time. But seeing my mom pass away and seeing all that suffering, the thing I'm grappling with right now is that we believe in the eternal life. But walking with people as their suffering is something that we cannot ignore. Right. And that is, I think, where our culture needs to change that. You know, as we see someone suffering or dying, that it's not like, oh, well, you have eternal life, but that there is pain and suffering in that. And how do we walk with them in the way that God has comforted us? And like, how do we be there and show love for each other during that time? I think we're still awkward about it.

And then sometimes there are different rituals or ceremonies or like I was shocked that after my mom passed away, that 30 minutes after I had no idea what to do and there was no manual and there's no script. There's nothing in the Bible. But that's the reality of my life. So there was a huge disconnect of us having the joy of eternal life. But how do we also address the pain and suffering as we are going through those transitions for the family and the people going through them? And that's part of my mission, is to say how do we do that with the Christian mindset to say, yes, there's joy in entire life, but there's still suffering and mourning and weeping and Jesus wept. Right. It's like, how do we do that? I think that's the missing piece. And so I would love to see us to be part of that understanding of even conversations like that, of like how do we walk with people during that time, even in the midst of knowing, firm and firm, that we have eternal life and joy in that.

William Norvell: Amen. It's a different time, but it's surrounded by headlines of unfortunate death right now, as Rusty was just talking about. I mean, would you have some pieces of advice? I mean, you know, you're involved in health care. You know, there's quarantine there, social housing there. There's people dying. The different types of pain, their social isolation. There's pain in the environment. Some people want to reopen now. Some people don't. Some people feel like rights are being trampled on. Some people don't. There's all kinds of suffering and grief going on. So to ask you to give advice to everyone is not quite proper. But if you had advice to some version of that, you know, as someone who's in health care, someone who's struggled with this probably more than most. How should we think about walking through this time? And what I love about you said, how do we walk alongside others during this time?

Jessica Kim: I think that's exactly it. I think you're right. There's so much happening right now, I think what COVID has really exposed is some of the ugly parts of our world where there is racism and there's the have and have nots. And it really exposed the socio economic difference that even being able to stay safely in your home is a complete privilege to be able to do that and be fed and entertained. And, you know, it may feel like it's infringing on our freedom, but that is a total privilege to never leave your house in three months. And so what I am trying to do and what I would say to everybody is that if you are in that position, how do we use our time and our talents during this time to show love for other people, you know, through donations or safely running errands for other people? Like, how do we use this unique time in our world where everybody is going through this at the same time? And it's a big call for us and everyone listening to to really understand the reality of what's happening. So don't shy away from it. It's hard to hear story after story of pain and suffering, but if you are in the position of listening to that safely in your home, it's like, what can you do about it? And I think that's what Jesus would do. You know, I joke around, of course, you know, I have my Netflix bingeing moments, but Jesus would not be bingeing Netflix. He would be out there in the world in whatever way he can. And there's so many ways that we can be out there serving people virtually, safely. And, you know, that's a call for us to do. And that's what's going to set us apart as believers from anyone else that's just focusing on themselves and their own freedom.

William Norvell: OK. So taking us back to ianacare, And so take a moment.

Jessica Kim: I know I get very passionate. Sorry.

William Norvell: No, it's great. I just know when you come out of a tough topic, sometimes it's good to just give freedom to take a second. And I know the business you are in is a tough topic almost a lot. And so I do want to switch back to what you see your technology doing, both in the future in general, but also in a post COVID 19 world where I mean, I think most people think this is a tragedy, but other viruses will come, you know, other things that maybe not quite like this, but some version of this may reoccur. Just how do you see ianacare trying to shape the health care world that you clearly just care so much about?

Jessica Kim: Yeah, well. I'll start with very specifically what we do today. And it was our very clear go to market first layer of support. So when you're thrust into this position, you are just saying what is out there? How do I even get any help? And before you even know the full medical plan or what you need to do, you first tell your friends and family. Right. However big or small, we have people in our lives. And what did they say? They say, Oh, William, I'm so sorry. Let me know what I can do to help. It's the most common response and phrase that we've probably been on both sides of. And you're thinking, I don't even know what's happening. I don't even know what I need help with. And it's not in our social construct to text a bunch of our friends and say, you know, I'm exhausted today. Can someone cook dinner for me? So, you know, you quietly suffer on your own and then even your friends and family and church, like they may say, oh, William's going through a tough time, but I don't want to bother them and burden them. It's going to, I don't want to intrude. So help is not exchanged. And the number one reason why help is not exchanged is just because of burden, the feeling of burden. So our guiding principle was how do we utilize technology to lift this burden? So help can be exchanged so people can show up for each other, so we can actually act as a community. And so what we created is this free app that mobilizes that first layer of support. So you invite your friends, family, church members, you know, school parents, and then you're able to request very specific things like meals and rides and rest, care, child care, pet care. And we make it super easy where one click at the button, it gets on both people's calendars. So there's no translation needed. And we took all the logistic burden out. Just figure out what the needs are and how people can help. And so that's what we do today. We have thousands of users and over seventy five percent of all requests are fulfilled. So people are getting the help that they need that they didn't get before. But on the bigger level and where we're going with that touches upon is, you know, our hope is to lead the navigation of care that happens in the home of all the social determinants of health to all the non-clinical layers of help. And what I mean by that is the social determinants of health is all defined by where you live, what community you're in, your transportation, your job. It's like all the other aspects of care that is not the medical side that impacts over 80 percent of someone's health outcome. Like, that's ridiculous. When we heard that right. 80 percent of your outcome is impacted by the non-clinical things. And so, you know, in order to impact that, we realize we have to reach the person who tends to be navigating all of that, which is that family caregiver, especially for people who cannot care for themselves because they're that sick or old. And so what we want to do is make it tangible, trackable, and just really utilize technology to empower people in their home in a very efficient way.

Henry Kaestner: Jessica, William is going to close us out here in a second with a question he always asks at the end about what God is talking about through his word. But I want to ask you a question about what do you know about God that you didn't know in 2016 because of this process, personally?

Jessica Kim: I know that in deep pain or suffering, that even when I feel like I ask and cry out and say, why is this happening, that as I was coming out of deep grief, I realized that God was carrying me through that. And so I want to use that as an encouragement. You know, there are probably many people listening right now that are in a deep part of pain or something that is going through, whether it's a lost job or a loss of a family member. That's it could be so easy for us to say why and where are you? And I think it ties to actually my verse of just Isaiah 41:10 where, you know, it says, “Do not fear I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.“ And I always think about that very well-known image of the single footsteps in the sand and how people say, Where are you? And he's like, I have you in my righteous hand. I have been carrying you. And sometimes when you're being carried, you don't know who's carrying you because you can't see it. But he is. And I think I hold on to that during any times of crisis or pain or suffering. And that's the word of encouragement I give especially to the caregivers on our app and people in our community.

Henry Kaestner: Amen.

Jessica Kim: I feel like this is heavy. You know, it's interesting because I'm a very joyful person, Henry. You know, I love to laugh. I have so much joy. And I do have to say that, you know, it's interesting, having been in this space where I can feel very heavy. Actually, the core of ianacare is a lot of hope. Caregivers say, you give me hope, you gave me a community. You gave my independence back. You gave me my dignity back because I don't have to grovel and ask for help in ways that's so awkward for me that technology and that distance actually empowers me. And so I just want to make sure that, you know, that joy and hope and positivity comes out because, you know, that is really the core of what we are doing. And that's how I want people to see family-care. That it's one of the greatest acts of love that we can ever do. And showing up for people is a joyful thing. And so it's really about empowering that movement.

William Norvell: Amen. Well, this is one of the few that I wish we had a video podcast because your energy is contagious. And if people could watch you tell these stories, it would be. They probably wouldn't like watching us quite as much. But I wish we had that because your energy of telling these stories and your passion for them does just jump off when someone sees you. And I have one more question. I have a good friend named Jesse Draper that started a venture fund specifically for women. She thought that she could understand their journey in a different way. Right. And that she could come alongside them and walk with them in ways that she might not be able to with other entrepreneurs, that she just knew that journey. And I love her. She's one of the hardest charging people I know. And I would love your perspective on that. If you could talk to the female entrepreneurs in our audience, what are some your hopes and dreams, you know, for them and maybe some encouragement? Because I know it's a different, I don't know well, but I know some pieces because I try to listen. That's a different journey for sure.

Jessica Kim: Yeah. I mean, the first thing that really comes to mind that really helps me is I root myself in the fact that God created me as a female for a purpose. And so it's nothing that I should apologize for because that's saying God made a mistake. And that's like a truth that you can't take that away.

And so, more than anything, you know, rooting our identity in Christ as a child of God. And what our number one commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors. And that no matter what gender you are, is really the true root of all of us. Right. And my dad's a psychiatrist. I grew up with him. So it's almost like growing up with a motivational speaker every day. And he really shaped my mind. And he would always say, you know, it doesn't matter if you're male or female, tall, short, dark skin, light skin. If you have a vision, if you have a deep conviction and vision, let that drive you and utilize all the unique ways that you've been built to live out that greatest commitment and to allow other people to flourish. And so I realized when I talk to a lot of female entrepreneurs, it's not about being traditional or new. And, you know, sometimes now females feel like, oh, I have to be this girl boss or I'm not good enough. Right. It's not about that. It's about knowing and rooting yourself in what God has called you to. You know, I was a stay at home mom. I was caring for my mom. And then in other years, I was a co-founder and CEO of a high growth business. Life is a string full of roles and phases. And so our identity is not in what we're doing in that moment, but it's who we are and how we're living and who are loving. And so, you know, I think that's giving me the confidence because it's not about me, but it's about what I'm doing and the vision that God has put in front of me. So I think a lot of times we hold ourselves back because of what people say that we have to be. And then I think it's surround ourselves. I love what your friend is doing because it's about surround yourself. In a tribe. So having other female mentors. I have a lot of other female founders, accountability partners, because, you know, there are different challenges and to be able to connect on that level in a very honest way is so encouraging.

William Norvell: Thank you. Thank you. And we had Diane Paddison from 4word on a podcast a while back. Well, she gives some phenomenal advice. If anyone's listening to this and want some more advice on how to find that mentorship, 4word is great organization. And Diane gave some great advice as well from her experience and then why she started the org. And now we are going to come to a close and what we love to ask is we love to see how our listeners and our guests connect through God's word. And it's always a really fruitful time for us to see and hear from our guests of how scripture that God put in front of you may impact our listeners.

And so if you wouldn't mind sharing something that's come to you through God's word, could be today, could be this week, could be a season, could be a season of years potentially, even though maybe something he's been having you meditate on. We'd really appreciate it.

Jessica Kim: Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting because during COVID, one thing that we did as a family was and we've never done this before, but, you know, as I said, our three kids and us partnered up with two other families and we started daily Monday through Friday Bible studies every morning through Zoom. And each parent kind of took turns teaching. And so last week was my week.

And something that really came out to the kids was Psalm 46:1-3, which says, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." Because the kids were really grappling through, you know, we try to expose them to what's happening with COVID and why they can't go to school. And so just holding onto the fact that God is our refuge and strength at all times, especially in times of trouble, is I think is very tied to everything we are talking about. That is what also came up with our kids. And so we've been really just meditating on that.

William Norvell: Thank you. Thank you. There's been a lot of fun.

Henry Kaestner: Yes, it has. Thank you so much, Jessica. You rock.

Jessica Kim: Thank you. Thank you so much. So fun being on.