Photo by Eliesa Johnson; Hair and makeup by Sarah Drews
Jessica Cordova Kramer
Tragedy can send you into a state of free fall where you find yourself grasping for something, anything, that you can extrapolate meaning from. In the depths of grief, Jessica Cordova Kramer found her footing in storytelling, exploring the universal truths that touch on the gritty and dark and beautiful parts of life. She walked away from a career on Wall Street to team up with her now business partner to provide a platform for people who were going through it, including herself.
“As we became bigger, we were sort of faced with, ‘Is this going to work?’” she says. “And we were both like, ‘Who cares? The worst thing is that our business fails? The worst already happened—our brothers died.’” Kramer, together with voice actor and author Stephanie Wittels Wachs, created Lemonada Media, a podcast network centered on the unfiltered version of the human experience.
Before having 35 podcasts under its banner, Lemonada Media got its start with your flagship show, Last Day. Tell me a little more about that.
It’s a bit of a sad story—well, not the ending. The ending gets happier. My little brother, Stefano, passed away in 2017 of an accidental overdose. A few months after he passed away, I saved this episode of Terrible, Thanks for Asking, locally produced by Nora McInerny, and on it Stephanie Wittels Wachs was talking about her brother [Harris Wittels, producer and writer of Parks and Recreation] dying of an accidental overdose. Listening to it was the first time since Stefano passed away that I had felt any sense of comfort, humor. Long story short, I made her talk to me on the phone and asked if she wanted to do a podcast with me on the opioid crisis. She said absolutely not, but I wore her down, and we started co-creating. As we were making that we thought, this is our particular barrel of lemons, but there’s so much out there causing people to struggle—why don’t we create content that helps people get out of bed in the morning? So that’s what Lemonada is all about: bringing a little bit of sweetness to hard things.
You’re the CEO of a successful women-driven start-up—what has grief taught you about leadership and about yourself?
I’ve learned there’s no such thing as a podcast emergency. Yes, we are trying to save lives, big and small, with our content, but also… it’s a podcast. We have this kind of shared constant around that’s like, let’s take risks, let’s not worry about failure, because failure is 10 rungs down from loss. It’s been three and a half years and we have a staff of 60 full-time employees, so the stakes are higher, but we still have the same ethos: What matters is people are healthy and safe and kind.
Running Lemonada has also taught me, in addition to a myriad of skills, things I never had to do before I now know how to do— from raising venture capital to managing a board. But partnership has been the single most important thing. Stephanie is now my sister. She manages our entire production, she’s the chief creative officer, and we co-run this company. Period. If it weren’t for her, I don’t think I could do this.
What do you want your style to say about the kind of person you are?
I am a woman who’s leading a company, and so I want to present like a CEO, but I have to be comfortable; otherwise, all I’m thinking about is how my feet hurt or if the outfit fits right. I would say it’s a combination of feeling confident and comfortable. I want to go do my thing without thinking about what I’m wearing.
Tell me about your styling experience with Evereve.
It’s not the first time I’ve gone to get styled at Evereve—anytime I have an awards show [or a high-profile event], I’ll go in and ask for someone to help. They’re incredible. My first experience was when I had to go to The Webby Awards, and the stylist was like “Jumpsuit.” I was like, “Huh?” Then I put it on and was like, “Genius. Genius.”
On Cordova Kramer: Z Supply “Brandy” jacket ($189), Evereve “Mimi Leaf” necklace ($44.99), P448 “Skate” sneaker ($325), Spanx “The Perfect Pant” slit hem pants ($168), all from EVEREVE, evereve.com
This article originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine as part of our series, The Foreword, presented by Evereve.
