Jessica Aiello is the Chief Strategy Officer of TCS Teams, a company that provides accessibility solutions and promotes inclusion for people with disabilities in the workplace. She has a rich history of leadership, including her prior role as CEO of the same company, and has been featured in Kiplinger, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Success Magazine. A passionate advocate for accessibility and inclusion, Jessica is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and actively mentors and coaches disabled entrepreneurs while serving as a judge for various pitch competitions. With two bachelor’s degrees from James Madison University, Jessica also serves as a board member of the EO Washington D.C. Metro Area chapter.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [02:14] Jessica Aiello reflects on lessons from fixing watches
- [04:12] The impact of growing up with deaf entrepreneur parents
- [07:51] How society’s attitudes toward disabilities have evolved over the past 30 years
- [10:49] Jessica shares her experience of adopting a deaf child
- [15:22] The emotional and practical challenges of going through a divorce
- [19:59] How a DMT experience became a seminal, life-altering event for Jessica
- [24:53] Redefining identity after years of being shaped by accessibility advocacy
- [29:17] The journey from a go-go mentality to conscious leadership
- [32:21] Why serving others begins with serving oneself
- [35:29] Role of psychedelic medicine in modern society and its regulations
- [37:47] How Jessica introduces plant medicine concepts to her children
In this episode…
Life often throws challenges that leave us feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or disconnected. Whether it’s navigating a difficult relationship, facing identity struggles, or confronting the weight of societal expectations, these moments can make it hard to find clarity and purpose. Finding tools to break free and reconnect with oneself becomes essential, but the path is rarely straightforward.
Jessica Aiello shares how she overcame some of the toughest periods in her life, including a divorce, a business breakup, and career enmeshment. By turning to unconventional tools like psychedelic medicine, Jessica found ways to confront deep emotions like shame, guilt, and fear, allowing her to reconnect with her true self and redefine her identity beyond work. Her journey highlights the importance of self-reflection, surrendering ego, and balancing ambition with authenticity, offering actionable insights for others seeking transformation in their personal or professional lives.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Jessica Aiello, Chief Strategy Officer of TCS Teams, about her transformative journey with psychedelic medicine. Jessica discusses how growing up with deaf parents shaped her passion for accessibility, the emotional challenges of raising a child who regained hearing, how to balance hustle with heart in leadership, and the potential for transformation and healing through psychedelics.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Jessica Aiello:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook
- TCS Teams
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization
Special Mention(s):
Quotable Moments:
- “I have always had a thirst for learning, and I learned by doing. I want to tinker with things and experience them.”
- “People are uncomfortable with grief; they say things to try to make you feel better without understanding the situation.”
- “In 15 minutes, my life completely transformed in ways that I am still processing today.”
- “I realized that having deaf parents and using American Sign Language is just one branch on the root of the tree that I stand in.”
- “I used to think you had to give up your heart to hustle… but you can hustle hard with heart.”
Action Steps:
- Explore alternative healing methods: This approach can be effective because it offers a new perspective on personal growth and healing, particularly during challenging life periods.
- Engage in self-reflection and personal growth: Taking time for introspection can help individuals understand their true identity and align their actions with their inner values.
- Embrace change and redefine personal identity: Embracing change allows individuals to see beyond their circumstances and discover new facets of themselves, which can be empowering and liberating.
- Seek support and guidance from communities: Engaging with communities can help individuals navigate complex emotions and decisions with shared experiences and knowledge. Whether it’s through entrepreneurial groups like EO or personal networks, having a supportive community can provide valuable insights and encouragement.
- Balance professional ambition with personal well-being: This balance addresses the challenge of burnout and ensures sustained success without sacrificing personal health and happiness.
Sponsor: Rise25
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Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
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Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran 0:00
All right, today we’re talking with a guest who went through an incredibly challenging period of time in their life, a relationship, divorce, a business, divorce, and then they actually ended up turning to psychedelic medicine, a popular topic right now. A lot of people talk about it, and they use that to get through one of the most difficult periods in their life, and it really changed their life. So we’re going to hear her story. Her name is Jessica Aiello. I’ll tell you more about her in a second. So stay tuned.
Intro 0:29
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders and thought leaders, and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran 0:45
Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here, I’m the host of this show. And you know, every week we have interesting and smart entrepreneurs, Founders and CEOs from all kinds of companies. Check out the archives. We’ve had Netflix and Grubhub, Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, YPO, EO, Activation Blizzard, lots of great episodes for you to check out there. And of course, this episode brought to you by Rise25 our company where we help B2B businesses to get clients, referrals and strategic partnerships done via podcast and content marketing. You can go to our website, Rise25.com, learn about podcast copilot, or email us at [email protected], all right, excited to have our guest here today. Her name is Jessica Aiello. She is now the Chief Strategy Officer of TCS Teams.
Previously was the CEO of that company, and she has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from James Madison University. She’s a certified interpreter, and she has a varied career. And what’s interesting is she says that her friends say that there’s Jessica before psychedelic medicine, and there’s Jessica after psychedelic medicine. And we’re not going to be getting into the details of the legality of those things or anything. We’re just here to share her story. And Jessica, I’m excited to hear your story, and I know you grew up, actually the child of entrepreneurs. And you say that you started working at a young age. You were doing these entrepreneurial side hustles, babysitting, and at 12 years old, you went to work in the mall. That is pretty young.
Jessica Aiello 2:14
I did. I was 12 years old in my first job. That is not
John Corcoran 2:18
I mean, I don’t even, is that even legal? Like, how did you even get permission to do that?
Jessica Aiello 2:22
I had to get a permission slip from the Career Center. My parents had to sign off on it, and the organization had to be okay with paying me at the time. I started volunteering and then started getting paid right before I turned 13. Wait,
John Corcoran 2:37
you were working at a watch stand, right? So you were volunteering. Does a watch day. Need volunteerism. It’s not like those for the homeless.
Jessica Aiello 2:46
No, not at all. But I did learn how to fix watches and repair batteries and all the things you
John Corcoran 2:52
were motivated. Jeez, yeah. What was that? Was it something in your upbringing? Was it your parents, who were entrepreneurs? Was it just you wanted to put some money in your pocket.
Jessica Aiello 3:03
I think it was, it was more my curiosity. I have always had a thirst for learning, and I learned by doing. I want to tinker with things. I want to feel things and see things and experience them for myself. And I was really young at the time, and not a lot of people were interested in having me along for the ride, for job, for, you know, volunteer or an internship at that age. And so I found somebody who would, and I learned a whole lot of things just about, you know, people interaction. And I learned about collecting money, and I learned about what it was like to have a B to C business, and, you know, all the ins and outs of transactional education and learning. So it was great. It was a great experience.
John Corcoran 3:58
Now, you had an interesting upbringing, because you and your parents are entrepreneurs, your parents also are hearing impaired so that you have your hearing but they did not tell me a little bit about what that was like for your upbringing.
Jessica Aiello 4:12
Yeah, so both of my parents are deaf. My first language is American Sign Language. I learned English when I was five years old in school, and I would say it had a really big impact on my life. It still has a big impact on my life. A lot of my passion and my career, for as long as I could remember, has been in the accessibility space, supporting the deaf and hard of hearing community. You know, both of my parents being entrepreneurs, having a disability, came with me, observing just how resilient they needed to be, one as entrepreneurs, but also as people that were told over and over and over again.
That they were not going to be able to amount to anything or be able to succeed or start their own business. Both of my parents’ families are also entrepreneurial families. They have their own family businesses, and both of my parents were excluded from those family businesses because they are deaf, and they set out to show both of their families, but also the world that deaf individuals can do just as much as hearing individuals can do. And so watching them as I grew up inspired me a whole lot to go out and make an impact in the world and put forth my energy and my passions to create a space and to do things that were bigger than myself.
John Corcoran 5:54
So at 12, you’re working in the mall. What were the next businesses after that, what were what other businesses did you start? You
Jessica Aiello 6:04
I think it was a lot of it was just kind of going from one thing to the next, learning to see what it was that I liked, learning to see what was aligned with me. I did everything growing up, from being a camp counselor to a lifeguard to working in retail, to working in marketing, to just about anything. I worked at the bookstore in college. I worked at a several restaurants when I was in college, really anywhere that I could get a full rounded sense of what it was like to be on the front end of the business, knowing full well that my parents and the experience that I had even working with them when I was younger, working there in the summers, working there over my breaks, knowing that I would get the back end experience of what it was like to actually run a business. I wanted to gain that experience, that real world experience on the front end of things in just about anything, and that’s what I spent most of my life doing.
John Corcoran 7:07
So your company, TCS teams, I guess we’d say it’s in the broader disability space. How have attitudes changed over the last 30 years? I mean, 30 years or so towards people with disabilities. It wasn’t that long ago that the American Disabilities Act, the ADA law, was signed. It was in the early 90s. You know, 30 years ago, not that long ago, which was really kind of the beginning of bringing people with disabilities into the workforce, among other things. So just what’s your observations on how society has changed for people with disabilities?
Jessica Aiello 7:51
Yeah, I think it’s a great question. There’s been so much movement, and at the same time, so much more movement needs to happen, right? And I think that that can be said for just about anything that we are dealing with in society, that that has anything to do with social justice and social movement and just the idea of creating spaces and environments where people can belong, people can belong just who they are and how they Are, and the world can continue to operate around that. I think for a very long time, we were living in a society where we were taught to believe that you have to fit a box, you have to fit this mold, and if you don’t fit this mold, then something is wrong with you, and you can replace the word disability with anything else, right, other than what we have created a definition for in terms of the word normal, right?
So anything other than the word normal, if you don’t fit that, you can replace that word. We’ve seen a tremendous shift in employment. We’ve seen a tremendous shift in mental health, we’ve seen a tremendous shift in all of the ways leading towards really a true sense of inclusion and a true sense of belonging. The ADA is still in its infancy, and for the longest time, up until very recently, the federal government was the largest employer of people with disabilities because they were required to and mandated to. Now what we’re seeing is a very large shift with big companies, Amazon, Apple, T-Mobile, Verizon, all of these very large companies are creating Microsoft, Google are creating teams within their organization, and we see them hiring Deaf people, deaf and hard of hearing people, and it’s been wonderful.
They are learning about accessibility. They are creating accessibility. 84 clients. They’re doing it internally. They are really standing behind their own DEI practices. And so we’re seeing a lot of those shifts. We’re seeing a lot of just in general, people more willing to accept that there’s that we all have differences, and I think that’s really big as we kind of move forward.
John Corcoran 10:24
I want to get into your divorce, both your business partners and your ex husband. So you go through a relationship, marriage, divorce, and you go through a business divorce. But before we get to that, you have three kids, and you actually adopted one who was born deaf, yes, and she came home deaf, but she didn’t remain deaf. Tell us about that.
Jessica Aiello 10:49
Yeah. So I have four children today. One of them was born deaf. She was born premature, and our hearing nerve is the one of the last things to develop. She was born premature. Her hearing nerve did not develop. And in 2% of children that are born deaf with neuropathy, which means she had nerve damage. 2% of children or less are born with neuropathy, which means that they have the chance to regain that hearing that was lost from nerve damage.
She was in that less than 2% so in that zero to two year time period, the nerve does have a very small chance at regeneration, and she is in that less than 2% and we brought her home from India at 14 months, and within the first several weeks of nourishment of being home with the family, there’s, you know, a variety of reasons on why it could have happened. She regained her hearing and hearing at a normal level.