Kitchen Chats with Aimee Kandrac Episode 9: Helping Friends Who Live Far Away

Kitchen Chats with Aimee Kandrac Episode 9: Helping Friends Who Live Far Away

You can’t always physically be there for someone when a life-changing event happens, so Aimee chats with Ali Cudby about how to help long-distance friends and family. Ali opens up about how she’s supported her family from a distance and navigated the complex emotions that sometimes come with being far away. She also shares how she remotely connects with friends for support when they can’t be at her kitchen counter.

Episode Highlights

Not being close to relatives comes with mixed emotions.

Ali moved from Washington, DC, to Boston around the time her mother’s health started to decline. The move came with mixed emotions, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, she doesn’t get to visit her mother as she used to. This has meant that Ali largely manages her Mom’s care remotely.

“For everything I do to support her, it also comes with a side dish of guilt that I’m not there doing it in person,” Ali said.

Hiring support can help when you’re not close by.

If you have the financial resources, hiring support can be a great way to aid family members you don’t live close to. For instance, hiring a dog walker can ensure a beloved pet gets adequate exercise and that someone is regularly checking in on your family member.

“You have the benefit of having another person coming in and checking on the human, but it’s also a nice neck and balance to make sure the dog is getting the care they need,” Ali said.

Your “kitchen counter” may be digital.

Many of Ali’s closest friends, the ones she calls during hard times, are all over the country, so she can’t sit down with them at her kitchen counter. But she can talk with her friends over the phone or through WhatsApp.

“It’s having those friends to talk to and be able to say the hard things that aren’t always the socially acceptable things, or the pretty things, or the things that you would ever put on any kind of social media,” Ali said.

Sometimes being further away can bring you closer.

Sometimes not always being in the same location as friends and family can make it easier for them to talk to you about sensitive topics. This is the case for Ali and her teenage niece and nephew.

“My niece and my nephew know that I’m family but also that they can talk to me,” Ali said. “Sometimes, it’s helpful to have that friend or that person to talk to who is a little bit outside the circle.”

Resources + Links

• Ali Cudby’s Socials: Twitter, LinkedIn
• Ali Cudby’s Websites: Alignment Growth Strategies, CXology 
• Aimee Kandrac: Website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• WhatFriendsDo: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

About Aimee and WhatFriendsDo 

Aimee Kandrac is a speaker, consultant, and the co-founder and CEO of WhatFriendsDo. Her work is instrumental for organizing support during life-changing events, and she speaks to organizations about creative ways to help friends and family during times of crisis. Aimee has been recognized as a Top 50 Mompreneur by Babble.com and is the first female CEO in the state of Indiana to close a $500,000 funding round. She has been featured in Forbes, Time, the LA Times, Oprah.com, the Indianapolis Star, and more.

WhatFriendsDo is a simpler way to create organized and actionable support during a time of crisis. The free, online platform empowers healthcare facilities, HR departments, families, and friends to easily coordinate meals, errands, transportation, childcare, communication, and more for those in the midst of a life-changing event. The women-founded and women-led company started as a solution for a friend with terminal cancer. WhatFriendsDo is based out of Indianapolis.