Inside Humla Health: A Nurse-Led Revolution in Staffing, Flexibility & Mental Health (With Jessica Sylvester)

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Welcome to Club Nurse. I'm Colton Lord, your host. By you being here today, it shows me that you are someone who wants to learn, grow, Laugh, connect, and just let your emotions flow. We are here to share real stories and hear real life experiences from real people. You are not alone in this, and Club Nurse is here to show you that. Don't forget to follow the show and share today's episode with someone you love. Now let's dive into today's conversation. Welcome back to Club Nurse, everybody. Thank you so much for being here. I have with me today, Jessica Sylvester, uh, who I had the pleasure to meet at the health conference in Las Vegas. It was really, really great to meet Jessica. She is the CEO and founder of the company Humla Health, uh, which is a tech platform that streamlines staffing and scheduling, connecting healthcare facilities with credentialed W-2 nurses. Humla Health was founded to reimagine how staffing could be sustainable and delivered in an alternative way that meets both nurses and facilities where they are. So Jessica, can you just introduce yourself? Kind of tell us a little bit about you, your nursing journey, and how did you get Oh boy.

Well, hello, Colton. The pleasure is all mine, man. My nursing journey, you know, and how I got into nursing, I think it's always fascinating when we talk to each other about what was that catalyst for us to even step into the nursing world, right? Which also seems like a million years ago and kind of was for me.

Yeah.

Right. I became a nurse 22 years ago. nursing assistant before that. And, you know, my journey into nursing started in northern Minnesota. I'm from the Range up there close to Canada. And I openly share with people that my childhood was extremely colorful. You know, whose isn't, right? But I was brought up by a parent who had pretty significant mental health issues. And that was an interesting journey. By the time I was 16 years old, my mother had died by suicide.

Okay.

And her dream had always been to have been a nurse. You know, she had started nursing school, then she would have, you know, manic events and kind of slip back, etc., etc. And, you know, I think just watching her wanting to do that and the passion she had had for it, but then also watching the challenges that we as a family encountered with not having good access to mental health in rural America, you know, was also kind of catapulted me into exploring the nursing area more, right? So little short clip of like why I became a nurse. I love hearing those stories for fellow people, which I'll punt back over to you, Colton, in a little bit. But, you know, fast forward a million years, I, you know, staff nurse, worked my way through leadership like a lot of us do. I could say now I've led like almost every aspect of nursing leadership in some capacity. In my last role, I was the director of emergency services at a big trauma center in Minnesota.

Wow.

And yeah, and just after experiencing COVID, again, none of us came out of that unscathed. But watching agencies and recruiters and MSPs and HR either, you know, just like artificially inflate our rates, Or not move quick enough to get us the staff that we needed. It just hope is not a strategy. Jump ship, and I think my family thought I'd kind of fallen off my rocker to like jump for a job that wasn't real. In my mind, it was gonna be real, but right, like not yet. And pulling together the most incredible group of nurses and engineers to look at like. You know, how do we create a space for nursing, right? Like all of those people that I spoke to that were taking a piece of our pie, or like logging up what we needed to like care for our patients. I'm like, how do we take a tech that already exists in our space? You know, so looking at Ubers, looking at dating websites, Poshmark, which yes, is a clothing platform online, Dog City. I think you might have heard some of these things already, Colton, but it was like, all right. What works out in the world and how do we apply it to our nursing workforce to give us a free zone to move all those people out? And so, you know, it's unlike anything else that's out there. And it's hard for people to really, like, wrap their head around it until they're, like, in the tech, because, you know, us as nurses can go and create our profile. We say credentialed nurses, the tech credentials us, right? We put in all of our inputs, and we pull from sources of truth. Once our profile is done, we match like a dating website and we self-schedule like a VRBO.

Sorry. So is it like— sorry, not to cut you off. Is it—

No, you jump in. Yeah.

Is it like a nurse uses the platform, creates their profile, and then are they choosing where they're wanting to go? Is it based on their area? Are they then coming into work for like a contracted set of weeks, or is it just like per shift, or how does that work?

Yeah, it's all of the above, which is why it's getting disruptive. You know, if you think Yeah, thank you. So you think about like the early ages of Uber, which by the way, when Uber first came out and I was in grad school, one of my fellow students was like, Jess, I did the coolest thing. I got into a black car today, or, and like got a ride with a stranger. I was like, do you care for your life? Are you crazy? You know, so, you know, God has a sense of humor, I think, coming around full circle to this. But, you know, the Uber model, you think of an authentic two-sided market. Or like what Netflix did to Blockbuster, right? There are other nurses working through this tech I have never met, I have never talked to, you know, who, you know, create their profile. And to your point, like, is it short-term, long-term? It's everything. We are seeing nurses who have created their profile, they live in Florida, they're picking up in Colorado. Nurses, right, the greatest saturation is still the Midwest, because it was like originally founded in Minnesota, but we have nurses, you know, Minnesota going over to North Dakota and et cetera. And so, you know, it's really that conversational piece or that direct connection where they are self-scheduling themselves like a Rover.com. Some of those nurses have been doing it from June and they shared with me, like, I'm like, how long are you guys gonna go? They're like, I think we're gonna be there through the spring, you know?

Yeah.

And then some nurses have picked up at various hospitals and are self-scheduling themselves as a global float pool.

So it's not like a— for, you know, because I've done some travel nursing. So when you sign a 13-week contract, you're contracted till the end of that date. With what you're doing, are they signing contracts or are they— because you're saying they're self-scheduling. So it's just kind of like, as long as there's a shift, they can just keep picking up. Yeah.

I mean, again, just we're developing this in tandem with our peers and systems as we go here, right, for what our mission and vision is. And I just saw for the first time, like, watching how people are using this because it's a tool, right? And watching how people use that tool to meet their needs.

Mm-hmm.

And Montana, a system is flipping their agency nurses over to this. And then, you know, the nurses were like, we wanna see that, like, you are going to make sure that we have those 13 weeks. And so there's a spot for them to write down in their own comment box that, yes, we agree to this. And then systems, like, we as nurses get to rate the systems. And vice versa, right? And so the spirit of this is, you know, we are giving the ecosystem a tool, and the expectation is that people don't abuse that tool, right?

Mm-hmm.

And so for systems, don't abuse the nurses using this mechanism because it is— we're, we're in single-digit markup, right? So that's another component of this. It's wildly less expensive for systems to use us. We're seeing nurses making more and it's like, don't undercut us. We won't overcut you. And like, if you say you're going to, you know, schedule me here, that follow-through, otherwise, right? Like there's those ratings, which, yeah. And you might have a lot more questions there, Colton. Sorry. I could just, I could just keep going, but—

Please do that. That's, that's great. And it's, uh, I can see the relationship to like what you're saying with Uber. Like, you, you know, if there's a very erratic, crazy driver, They're not gonna get ratings. Nobody's gonna ride in their car. So essentially, if these nurses— I, I love, first of all, my biggest want in this career, um, the, the thing that I can, if I want the most, is flexibility. Like I want, I have tried to portray this in the message that I put out on my social media and things like that is be the owner of your nursing license and understand that you do have a lot more control than you think. Yes. If you apply for a job and you take a job with an organization, you then Obviously, have to follow their policies, their whatever they have set in place. But these places need us more than we need them. There's way more options for us, right? That's just the truth of the matter. And it's not to not again like what you're saying. It's not to take advantage of that in a bad way, but just to understand that we that we have so much more control over these things and and our schedules. And I've tried to set up even my own schedule with with the nursing jobs that I have of. you know, part-time per diem to where like, I don't have to be stuck working full-time, 36 to 40 hours per week at a facility because I just, I want that flexibility. And sometimes you have to jump through, you know, more hoops to get that. But something like, you know, Huma is just, it's amazing. It's such a great idea. And I love what I loved about going to Health, and this was my second year going, was just talking to nurses who saw the need, saw something that just was like such a pain point for them in their career. And just like, instead of talking and complaining about it, like we all do, cuz you know, we need to vent, like, actually doing something, which is what I find so inspiring about what you did. So what was— if you— do you remember, was there a certain moment where you were like, I need to, I need to make a change, I need to be the one to kind of go down this path to help what's— what the pain point is?

Well, A, thank you for sharing your own life experience. Couldn't agree more. And I think there's like a culmination of things and like also listening to the people around me. So going back to My experience in my last leader role, which was kind of a while, like, you know, three years ago now, and COVID, obviously, like we had a lot of travelers like everybody else, and some of those people were like, Jess, like hire me directly. You'll like spend a heck of a lot less, and I'll make more. You know, like, but what people like don't fully understand, right? In Minnesota, you have to have an SNSA. There's fingerprinting. There's background checks. There's— you have to be a W-2 employee. That is mandated. And that was mandated even in our creation for Huma, which I think, as we think outwardly, will be the best thing for nurses in this modality, because it offers up that lifestyle with a little bit more security. But so your question of the catalyst, it was just a combination of things. But I think also being so short-staffed that we brought the Department of Defense in and recognizing like, Okay, like we way overprocess this. Like these people walked in, they were amazing with their job. The credentialing was super slick. It was just like, okay, the private sector, right, versus the innovative sector. It's just, it like kind of blew my mind a little bit. And so I think it was like the catalyst of like hearing from our peers what their want was and then watching like, okay, this can be done a lot easier and Then I'll lean back to the original story I shared with you of like, hey, my grandparents helped raise my brother and I, incredible people. My grandpa is a livewire, still lives in Northern Minnesota, and he was the police chief in our town. And, you know, when we were going through our own family struggles, he was very much an individual that was like, you don't complain about it, you do something about it. Like, this life is a choice.

Mm-hmm.

You can make of it what you want. And so, you know, That is just a part of my own core fabric of like, okay, this is what we see, this is what we need, what can— what role can I play? And not just talking about it, but actually doing something about it.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, I'm really just kind of the, the one that found the vein, the money to build it. You know, this has been a team effort with other nurses in this journey to build the space that we want.

I'm fascinated by the idea and that you were able to kind of like, you know, build what you have built. And it gave me goosebumps when you were talking about what your grandfather kind of instilled in you. I think that's just, it's something that a lot of us, again, a lot of us have these ideas and we have these, you know, we know what the problems are, we know where the holes are in healthcare. Like we're the ones, they say we're the ones on the front lines, like the nurses that are there dealing with everything.

Yeah.

But you know, then a lot of us just have that fear of like, oh, I don't, you know, I don't know, where am I gonna get the money? Where am I gonna, how am I gonna do this? And I think you can probably attest to this as a business owner and entrepreneur. You're never gonna have all the answers. You're never gonna feel 100% like ready to do anything in life. But if you have, you know, a strong enough reason as behind why you're doing it, you'll find a way. And I think what I try to, you know, tell myself too is like, if I do this and even if I fail, at least I can move on knowing, okay, well I tried it and it's not, I'm not gonna sit there and keep me up at night. Like, what if I would've tried this? Like, what if I would've tried that? Like, at least I know I tried, I failed.

Yes.

Oh well, onto the next thing. And you learn so much in that. And that's something, again, I kind of have picked up at going to things like Health+Talks, just talking to people is you just, you find out so much about yourself along the way. You never know who you're gonna meet and you never know like at what point you're gonna get that one thing that's gonna just like, you know, that investor or that whoever you're looking for, just sometimes they just show up in the most random spots.

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Visit nurse.org/discounts for the latest discounts made just for you. Oh my gosh. Well, amen. It's true, you know, that there is a healthy amount of fear in doing this and going for it. Very much a creature myself of like, I would rather know at the end that I like did my best or I tried than always wonder what would have been or what could have been. And I want to get into a little bit more, like, into the how for people who might be listening.

Please.

Is that it's actually a lot more attainable than what people think. So I want to plant seeds of encouragement, you know, because I think you can start to get into your own head of like boiling the ocean. And really, it's small incremental steps.

Right.

And the small things that you can do to like kind of move yourself forward and making it a reality. Like I said, I'm pretty sure my family thought I'd lost it where I'm like, I jumped ship for a make-believe job and now it's real. But, you know, raising money for me to do this, I mean, it wasn't like I got a VC out of the gate. It wasn't like there was like a tranche, a massive tranche of money. It was my brother's special ops team, you know? small incremental donations to get me to that MVP. It's like baby steps.

Yeah.

And it's a terrifying thing when you take other people's money, um, because I mean, I don't want to let those guys down, right? Then they believe in me. So that's highly motivating.

Yeah.

For a multitude of reasons too. But just, you know, encouraging people that there's a lot of different ways to build your concept, right? For me, it was raising money. There are incubators out there that take founder's equity but operationalize your concept, you know, institutions, bootstrapping. So there's lots of different ways to skin a cat, which is a terrible— sorry, PETA, if you're listening. Um, but you get the point. It's just like, there's— I think it's easy to maybe compare yourself and be like, oh, they have it all figured out. And I will tell people I've never been as uncomfortable as I've been my entire life for 3 and a half years. It's scary. There, there are nights where I like, you know, fall asleep holding a roll of toilet paper, which sounds a little dramatic. But, you know, it's just a journey. And nobody has a clear pathway forward. You make your own path, you know. And I mean, what's the worst of it? We're still nurses. That's exactly like—

that's literally the point I was gonna make is I'll say this, I've said this a million times, I've heard a million people say it. That's— that is the beauty And it doesn't even have to be, you don't even have to be a nurse who wants to start a company in, in the healthcare industry. It could be you have this other dream or ambition, this other career that you wanna pursue. You could wanna be an actor in LA, and that could just be where you, you, where you wanna go try. And the, the beauty of having a nursing license and even having some experience under your belt is it's, it's always here. Like even with, mm-hmm, I was talking, uh, yesterday with another guest about AI and all, and, and all the AI is bringing and the impact that it's gonna have on nursing. The fear that nurses feel behind it. And it's like, well, at this point right now, like AI's not taking our bedside jobs. So like we are in this position to where you have an advantage that if you have something on your mind that you wanna do, like you might as well just try because we always have, I mean, this, the nursing shortage is, you know, there's not a shortage of nursing. I get it. There's a morale issue. That's what they all say. But it's, it's gonna be there. There's gonna be jobs. So to, to your point, like why not just try it? Yeah.

Yeah, well, and just to like clear and sincere, like even myself, like 99% of startups fail, you know, like 1% of us get through our Series A, which we've hit that milestone. But there's always like roadblocks or things where it may not work. And you know what, like I think for individuals thinking about this too, what's your measure of success? And like It's a big one. Yeah. Like, I don't know what the end outcome for this will totally be. My hope is that it'll be transformational for our environment, but that also depends on whether our peers agree with me that it's transformational, right?

There's no guarantee, right?

Right. There are no guarantees, like you said. But at the end of the day, like, there are things I know that we've made a positive impact or like like a good wave out in the world for other people. So an example would be there was this rural hospital and an OR nurse had picked up through it. I had known her for a really long time and she picked up to help them. And long and short of it, they picked her up as a leader and she actually moved her whole life from the cities to like this rural area and just like loving life.

Wow.

Something that she needed. And You know, without Huma, it's just all that all Huma is, is like we distilled down, like we're highly professional, highly credentialed people. We just distilled it down to make connections easier, like a dating website, which you might have heard me say that people can laugh at me all they want. But like, hey, again, I think when dating websites first came out, again, I was like, you want to get abducted? Like, I'm not sure like how I feel about this. But I mean, the proof is in the pudding. There's something there that works. You know, and there's something that's there that's working with HUMLA, you know. And for the crew that helped me create this, it was like, all right, well, what is a reasonable way to remove all of the people in the middle? And it's just that. It's, you know, so—

Are you in all, all 50 states, or is this just certain areas that you're in right now?

Yeah, yeah. Technically, we are able to be in every 50, like all the states. Again, it's a little bit of the chicken before the egg and adoption, right? And just like that really good balance of making sure that we have nurses in almost every state now and then getting systems in there so people don't get disengaged in some capacity or, you know, oh, it doesn't work. But the states now where we see the greatest saturation or like nurses start to migrate out of those states, it's starting to go faster. It's starting to go Like quicker, I think, because we're like, those proof points are there. The other really fascinating thing, which I didn't really expect, this has all been organic growth.

Mm-hmm.

And so nurses who have been agency, like at a system in times past, have gone to old leaders and been like, hey, I'd love to come back. I saw you have an agency posting. Would you consider picking me up through Humly instead?

Mm-hmm.

And then we're starting to see some systems where we support grandfathering. Which if a system has a nurse, like they're like, yep, this nurse is here competent. Like we, like there's more to say about that, but they become like their bench. And so those relationships where people know each other historically, almost like a LinkedIn or Facebook, they're finding each other.

Yeah. And that's actually smart because, because again, I've done some travel nursing and I know I didn't really, I mean, I never went back to a facility that I had worked at before, but I knew people through traveling who had I mean, I know one nurse in particular that I can think of who he has like several facilities that he literally just bounces between, like, as you know, throughout the year he'll take some time off. And so yeah, if you already have that relationship built, you can just email them, be like, hey, and just kind of like remove that, that middleman, as you're saying.

Yep, exactly. And I mean, some of the systems that have picked us up, they're doing that— like the leader had shared that they're doing that with the nurse, but they're still paying the agencies where they don't Like really need the agencies to do because they have those relationships. So this is just becoming that mechanism for systems without the extra cost. So when we talk about the cost sustainability, it's like that tool, like you said, of that nursing, that nurse that was like, Jess, just pick me up directly. And, but there wasn't that mechanism before for us to do that.

Yeah, that makes sense. So how does, if there's, so if there's a nurse listening to this and they're interested, how, how does this work? How do they just download an app? Is it a website? Are they just like, is it, is it, Pretty simple to set up or is there like a consultation? How's that work?

Yeah, you can just go to our website and you can start a profile and, you know, you might hear from one of us as a nursing leader if you're in a state where there isn't as much usage because again, we're like, you know, shepherding our peers along as like new systems come in. But, you know, we pay a nurse to do their profile, we give them continuing education hours and we're like, it's their own little hub, if you will, too, for them to create their own little business. Like Rover.com, by the way, Ivy, maybe I'm like advertising for Rover.com, right? If you've ever used it, it's glorious.

I've used it.

Oh my God.

I used to, when I lived in Boston, I used it every day or weekly. Every time I worked, I had to use it.

Yeah. Hey, I've got 2 French Bulldogs. They're like my 4th and 5th children, you know, Rover.com, you know, it's just like, how do we like also create our own little space to market ourselves? And so long story short, they can go to the profile, like make their profile, and PASCO collect your money for creating it and your continuing education hours. You might hear from Sherri and I, not recruiters for the record. But, you know, what I'll lean into is that we're creating something with our peers for our peers. And so a part of engaging people, like we're finding out what's ticking them off. Like, how is this working for you? What did you like? Where were you like, Jessica Sylvester, I curse your name at night because this blows, you know?

Yeah.

I don't know. So yeah, but thank you for asking.

Yeah, yeah. No, I really think that this whole idea is just genius. And I had never heard of this until I came across you. I saw you speaking actually, I think it was like Sunday. It's actually funny because I only went to that. You were speaking with Nelson and Rebecca.

Yeah.

Then there was the— he was not a nurse, he was like an investor or venture capital person.

Yes.

Right. And I only went— I was so tired because I had woken up at like 3-something to fly from Tennessee to Vegas, did like the whole thing of getting my badge, and I, I had just seen that Rebecca was speaking. And so I was like, oh, I should just go see what this is about. So that's where I saw you talking, and I was like, this is genius. Like, how has— like, how have I not heard of this? So I'm glad that I, that I was able to kind of see you speak. And you, you, you speak about it so well, and you speak about it in a way that's like so relatable and digestible to nurses. Which is why I love nurse-founded companies, because it's so much more digestible for us as nurses to understand what you're saying. And you already can speak the language versus like somebody who has— and we all know the pain of people making policies and things like that in hospital who have never stepped foot at the bedside, right? Like, you're like, you can tell. So I'm glad I was able to catch you speaking about it there.

Well, thank you. And thank you for coming in, by the way. Kind of nerve-wracking. You know, going back to like us being at the table to solve our own solutions or our problem, like the close on our own gaps, we know what the problems are.

Mm-hmm.

I just don't think historically we have allowed ourselves to have the permission to, again, just go for it. It's like right, wrong, or different. People may not agree with me, but I think there's a little apprehension and maybe it's like Classical hierarchy of like it's not my role, like maybe a physician or maybe an administrator or like you know tech bros right wrong or indifferent. You know I think initially I had to get over that hump because I was like what business do I have doing this? But then I think like also flipping the script of why the hell not? Like you know bedside nurse like I know like the nursing leadership. space as well, you know, and live that for a million years. And so I think allowing ourselves the permission to just go out and do it. And then the other piece is there's never been a cooler time or like resources as accessible for us to do it, you know. So Josh, the gentleman that was on the stage with us, is actually one of HUMA's VCs, actually our only VC. But You know, AWS is like, you know, for us to be in the tech space or to do our own online marketing, or to find people to help us create our product in the tech social media world, the world is kind of nursing's oyster right now. And so this wave of like new nursing entrepreneurs or innovators getting out there, like you saw at Health, I was just like, hell yeah. Just the tip of the iceberg, right? I mean, it's time. Like, yeah, it's time for us.

Yeah, nurses are so smart. Like, then, like, I heard there someone said, like, natural entrepreneurs, because we've had to innovate, we've had to be resourceful at the bedside, we've had to do things that, like, you would not— people would be like, could not, probably could not even imagine, just because, just to get the job done, keep people safe and alive. Um, and I think when I think about, you know, the history of nursing, I mean, you think about, you know, it's obviously a huge industry. But also always been a female-dominated industry, which is probably why historically voices were not heard and it was more just, you know, brushed aside versus now it's like, you know, women are like— I always, I fully think that women should run the world. Like, I just, I just do. And because more women are speaking up, obviously now it's 2025. I just mean like historically, it's probably why we're starting to see this more, like surgeons and nurses that are just like speaking up and starting their own companies because now they can, like women are, have that opportunity to be able to now versus before the world wasn't always that way. So like you're saying, it is that time. Like you see all these nurses just doing amazing things where if it's starting a company or if it's someone like, you know, Nurse Blake, who's out there, you know, touring the United States as a comedian, has his own cruise ship with conferences that nurses go on. Like if you just think about those things, uh, and like I said before, it doesn't have to be. be like in healthcare or around nursing. Like if you, you just have that in you as a nurse already, um, naturally. And so I think just like if, if people can just like actually believe that and cling onto that, I think it's amazing. But you're probably even amazed at like what you've been able to do in just a few years.

A takeaway for today is that there are positives and negatives with all things in life, right? That's like also the trajectory you put yourself on and The mindset that you frame everything up with makes all the difference. Mm-hmm. And, and, uh, just like deeply appreciate and have gratitude for you talking to me today.

Yeah.

Thank you. Um, hope, yeah, hope our peers cheer HUMLA on.

Yes.

Help us create, continue to create this.

Um, I think people will be definitely, I think people will definitely be picking this up and using this cuz it's, it's a great idea.

Thank you, dear.

Yeah.

Well, Colton, we will talk again hopefully soon. And yeah, I guess I just wanna open it up to, to our peers out there. I mean, I do my very best to answer other nurses through LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram or like people emailing me, you know.

So how do people find you? Do you want to just give your hand? Like, what's your Instagram, your LinkedIn?

Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn probably the easiest. So Jessica Sylvester, like Stallone or the cat. Yeah. So that's probably the best spot. Okay.

All right. Thank you so much, Jessica. From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank you for being here at Club Nurse. I hope you gained something valuable from today's episode, and if you did, remember to share this episode with someone that you love. Follow me on socials at Nurse Daddies or Colton Lord 17, and be sure to follow nurse.org to stay informed with all of the hottest healthcare topics. Until next time, take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else. Love ya.

Bye.