THE ABER WEITZER PODCAST | SILHOUETTES OF SUCCESS
JESSICA BALADAD | EPISDOE 137 | SHOW NOTES
Unstoppable | Advocacy | Peace of Mind
FEATURED GUEST
Our VIP Featured Guest Jessica Baladad, six-year cancer survivor, is the creator of Feel For Your Life, a free mobile application that provides resources on how to perform self breast exams and when to get screenings, while allowing users to track and monitor their changes and set reminders. An unexpected breast cancer diagnosis at 33 years old empowered Jessica to channel her experience into a mission that is changing the way women advocate for their medical care. It’s the first of its kind created by a breast cancer patient and has been downloaded tens of thousands of times all over the world. In 2024, Jessica implemented an AI feature into the app to help patients interpret and better understand pathology reports from their breast cancer screenings. Jessica’s history with breast cancer catalyzed her dedication to building Feel For Your Life. She’s the fourth generation on her paternal side of the family to be diagnosed with the disease, and yet, no known gene mutation has been found in her lineage. She first learned how to do a self breast exam after having a benign tumor removed at 18, and nearly 15 years later, Jessica was diagnosed with Stage 2B invasive ductal carcinoma after performing a routine self exam in the shower. She underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, 24 rounds of radiation, a hysterectomy and 10-hour flap reconstruction.
Since launching the app, Jessica has expanded her advocacy into healthcare reform. She has helped write legislation in the State of Tennessee to promote risk reducing measures against cancer and disease. Billed as the Feel For Your Life Act, it requires high school students to learn about self breast exams, testicular exams and skin exams. Additionally, Jessica has spoken out against insurance companies before members of Congress. She is working to eliminate quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) scores, Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs) and co-pay accumulators. Jessica plans to grow her efforts further by working with medical providers, patients and vendors to bridge the gaps that keep individuals from getting access to the care they deserve.
Jessica has been featured on Good Morning America, Tank’s Good News, USA Today, The Dave Ramsey Show, UpWorthy and several national and international media outlets. She’s worked with the NFL on their Crucial Catch Campaign to promote cancer screenings, received the Hometown Hero Award from Ponce Law on Nashville’s Fox 17, has been recognized by the National Breast Cancer Foundation for her leadership initiatives and was the recipient of the Mona Lisa Foundation Grant in 2023. In 2020, the NFL’s Crucial Catch Campaign partnered with Jessica to spread awareness about the importance of screenings being missed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. She serves as an active committee member of the Tennessee Advocate for Breast Cancer (TA4BC) group.
When Jessica is not working on patient advocacy, she enjoys traveling and exploring new places, attending sporting events with her husband and photographing animals.
CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS
Unstoppable: Jessica’s desire was to be a journalist childhood was Barbie dolls and electronics growing up in the 90’s. Her dad put electronics and technology in her orbit consistently. She shares how she discovered a lump in her breast at 18 years old… tune in to her story, the journey of self exams and how she tied in her technology to
Feel For Your Life, a free mobile application. Jessica talks about how she was encouraged to share her story, advocacy and how it all came together. ICU, a Fire, having to restart at zero….she is unstoppable! Always innovation, she is translating and providing tools to constantly help change lives and be effective.
Advocacy: She is on a mission for legislation transformation ,
Telehealth, collaborative partners, providers and companies she is targeting.
Greatest sense of satisfaction; is helping someone else. Pure joy!
She advocates: Do your self-exams. Get screened. Know your breast density. Awareness of genetics. Have a doctor to advocate for you. Talking about challenges and best practices to overcome and reach a goal; she will ask herself: Is it hard or my brain is pushing back. Even-in knowing when to give up but failure is just data-feedback. Whoa!
Peace of Mind: “I want to be around the entities that are thinking like me.” Jessica surrounds herself with women doing things she wants to do. She is very mindful of the words she puts into her mind and heart so she can pour it back out.
She shares that she is afraid of failure-yet, when she looks at the feeling of “fear” which breaks down to fight, flight, freeze, she will turn it on its head and shift the meaning to plan, prepare and seek help. Tune is as she explains her strategy!
Going a little deeper, we talk about best practices to recharge or rest. She is able to get clarity and peace of mind by doing a little evaluation! She talks about fences (boundaries), finite resources and identity the resources that are depleting her time and energy. As a self professed control freak…she preaches and practices-seeking help.
Tune in for more!
INTENTIONAL INSPIRATION
Do your self-exams. Get screened. Know your breast density. Awareness of genetics. Have a doctor to advocate for you.
RESOURCE LIST
JESSICA BALADAD
Favorites:
Sydney Dozier | Renaissance Marketing
Book:
Rejection Proof | Jia Jiang
This episode is sponsored by:
