Jessica McGlory

A DESIRE TO MAKE PROFOUND CHANGE. Throughout her career, Jessica McGlory has been motivated by making a positive impact on the lives of others. Instigating genuine change is the foundation of her company, Guaranteed, a care company that blends at-home treatment with cutting-edge technology to create a better hospice experience.

The inspiration for Jessica's business is deeply personal, starting, unknowingly at the time, with her father's death in 2020. After suffering a series of heart attacks, a two-week stay in the hospital ensued, after which Jessica's family was informed he needed to go into hospice. At her father's request, they opted for in-home care. "We had no idea of what to do in hospice. We had aides and nurses, but they were very overworked and had far too much caseload. Suddenly, we were thrust into being caregivers; a word I didn't even know I was until I ended up starting my business."

Guaranteed aims to ensure a better hospice experience by providing thoroughly vetted, expertly-trained empathetic care. As well as having hospice aides and palliative-trained nurses on-call, caregivers can also message Guaranteed with concerns of any nature or arrange a video telemedicine appointment. "We've taken that hybrid approach so that the patient can spend time with loved ones with true comfort, care and pain management and make sure that the end-of-life experience is the best it can be."

Before embarking on Guaranteed, Jessica's eagerness to make an impact had been a recurring theme in her life. She recalls a pivotal moment when she won the AdColor Rising Star award for her work in Brand Marketing in 2017. As she walked on stage to accept the award, wearing a tuxedo, she acknowledged her sexuality as a gay woman in front of over 1000 people. "It's something my family and close friends knew about, but I'd never expressed it so openly before."

WITNESSING THE RIPPLE EFFECT. Jessica immediately saw the impact of her speech. "I'll never forget the woman, who was also wearing a tux, coming up to me later that night and saying, 'I was so nervous about wearing this tux before I saw someone who looks like me up there winning an award. I now know that can be me.' To me, that felt even bigger than the award. After that, I thought, if what I'm doing isn't making an impact, I don't want to continue doing it."

Shortly after, Jessica embraced the opportunity to make her mark at cult-favorite sock and apparel brand Bombas by leading their 2019 Pride campaign. "By bringing together different team members and talking directly to the LGBTQIA+ community about how they wanted to be represented in this, we created a campaign that sold a lot of socks with proceeds going to homeless people, specifically in the queer community."

Ultimately, Jessica's mission for Guaranteed is ensuring the last chapter in someone's life isn't their worst. She also believes the company can help to shift the narrative around the later years of our lives. "People traditionally don't like to talk about death and dying, but we actively want to talk about it. We want people to feel empowered and supported and be real with how they discuss it.

"Hospice is not the only part of the end-of-life experience. Our big vision is to see a world that doesn't make it impossible to talk about death and dying honestly; and that the people experiencing it feel supported with a care delivery model built for how people choose to die today."