Q: Who is Christina Jordan? Please tell us a little bit about yourself….
CJ: I was raised here in Leucadia. After I went away to college, at Chico State to obtain a business degree in 1996, I found myself back in San Diego.
After many years, working in corporate, I found my way into the non-profit world, and for 17 years I was at SharpHealthcare Foundation where I garnered a love of philanthropy and grew my fundraising career. It’s my love of connecting with people to guide them in their philanthropy that gives purpose to my life in fundraising.
My greatest joy in life is being a mom to two smart, caring, strong, and incredible teenage boys. One is a middle linebacker for his high school football team, and the other is a talented basketball player getting ready to enter high school. Basically, I’m a boy mom who strives every day to find balance in this life through mind, body and soul. These boys certainly keep me on my toes.
One of the things that fuels the balance in my life is a small online community I created during the pandemic – BeBrave Today. As the founder of BeBrave Today, it is my dream to help infuse this world with inspiration and encouragement. This beautiful community, mostly made up of women, has given me purpose. We have a freedom to talk and understand each other and share our woes and share our cares and help boost everybody up. In addition, I host a couple of in-person retreats. These retreats have inspiring speakers, activities to connect each individual with their own creative strengths and lively conversation to evoke connectedness and community above all. The inaugural BeBrave Today retreat took place in April 2021 and plans are underway for BeBrave Today in October 2023.
My work in fundraising and in building the BeBrave Community led me to do my first TEDx Talk in January 2023! My talk, The Power of Raising Your Own Human Capital, is about investing in one’s self to create a more abundant future. My signature program, R.A.I.S.E. (Revive, Accountability, Ignite, Share and Evolve) provides the listener with an easy five-step process to breathing life into a new chapter of living by making deposits into you own human capital. I am fully equipped to share this idea and teach it, because I have lived experience. I had 2 small boys, fifty dollars in my bank account and a whole life to go get – I had to put my boots on and just take ownership of my own destiny. To Learn about R.A.I.S.E please see my TEDx talk https://youtu.be/w8dxaQzArMs
Q: How did you find your way to Amazing Care?
CJ: Cora’s nephew Eric invited me to attend the Amazing Care launch here in San Diego. I didn’t really get it at first…Like why do I need this savings account? Why do I need this community? But I became a member and, that was about 10 years ago, fast forward…now I totally understand it.
At the time, I was 45 and I had a 7 year old and a 5 year old. And I was just trying to get by…like I was on a treadmill. But I was listening. I would go to the luncheons and listen to the stories. It was a community being created. That idea of a support community, should you need it, really resonated with me. When you look at my community of BeBrave and what I did with the Ted Talk, it all comes together. You want that group around you when you need it and you may not ask for help but they’re always going to be there and they can anticipate that you might need help. It’s been really incredible to watch Cora create this network and her passion for it. And the passion that is attracted to it.
I knew I needed to increase my savings…so I just started. And with an automatic deposit into my account, it just kept going. And growing. And then when COVID hit, and as the little crises appeared, there was such a sense of relief knowing that I had this little pocket of money. It made a real difference during that time.
As we’re emerging from the COVID era, Eric & I reconnected and the Amazing Care lunches were starting again and he says, you’ve got to come to lunch! And I think aha! Life has settled a little bit, my boys have grown up and I’m starting to think about what retirement looks like for me. So, building a community and being around a supportive network…
They say that the teacher appears when the student is ready to learn. The teacher had always been there and I was listening and then all of a sudden the lessons just started clicking and I have to thank Cora and the Amazing Care Network.
