Sometimes pushing the limits means climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and sometimes it means making the fertility journey more proactive and inclusive. Today's guest can attest to both. Kt sits down with Jessica Bell van der Wal, co-founder and CEO of Frame Fertility, to talk about her purpose-driven path to help people navigate family planning with confidence and care. She shares her insights on as proactive care, embracing mistakes as a founder, and how taking care of others is one successful path to raise millions, represent women in leadership to the next generation, and live a life full of purpose and adventure.
Key Takeaways:
- Purpose at the Core: Jessica shares how her purpose of taking care of others is deeply tied to her work in healthcare, where she finds meaning by supporting others through complex systems. She reflects on her background in public health and how her early experiences shaped her career focus on mission-driven organizations.
- Proactive Care in Fertility: Jessica highlights Frame Fertility’s unique approach of focusing on early identification of fertility risks. She emphasizes the need for fertility screening at routine health checkups, not just when individuals are actively trying to conceive, and discusses how Frame is building a new standard for proactive fertility care for both men and women.
- Personal Wins: Jessica reflects on a special moment when her daughter watched her speak on stage, a moment that brought together her roles as both a mother and a business leader. She shares how important it is to her that her daughter grows up seeing women in leadership roles, especially in spaces where they can make meaningful change.
- Entrepreneurial Lessons: As a founder, Jessica talks about the inevitability of making mistakes and how embracing those mistakes creates a culture of transparency and learning. She believes that the ability to pivot and adjust quickly is key to success in entrepreneurship.
Links & Resources:
Quotes from the Episode:
- “At my core, my purpose is to take care of others. I feel most at home when I’m aligned with that mission.”
- “We should be screening for fertility-related risk factors much earlier, so people aren’t reacting to challenges after the fact.”
- “The best thing you can do as a founder is to encourage openness about mistakes — because they will happen. It’s all about how you learn and move forward.”
