Choose Laughter
The JAS Collective: legacy building through laughter and memory making
Run by sisters Shannan (Shans) and Alexa (Lex).
Who we are
JAS is our dad’s initials, James Allen Simms.
He always signed it that way.
Dad teased everybody, found himself hysterical and might have invented the bad dad joke. It was his stress relief.
In our family, sarcasm is a survival skill and a rite of passage. You see it develop young. The trick is learning the right tone… otherwise you just sound like a jerk.
There are things we should have done with Dad before it was too late, and things we’ll never get to do or say. We’re not making the same mistake with our mom. So this is our legacy building, through laughter and memory making, the two things he was big on. We want to pass on what we’ve learned, what we’ve built to help us, and a little lightheartedness and hope.
The JAS Collective is run by sisters Shannan (Shans) and Alexa (Lex). We keep each other in check, and we realized not everyone has that luxury. We say what we’re thinking, build the science into our stuff to make things easier, and keep it affordable on purpose.
It’s home to 10PM Somewhere, for adult kids caring for their parents, and The Wind Talks, for stories, memory and legacy.
We design what we need first!
The sisters
THE PhD
Shans
a.k.a. The Instigator
PhD, behavioral scientist, former exec turned certified stress coach, who understands the science of the mind and stress.
She teaches psych and business after coaching leaders for 20 years. At 5’2″, she’s the oldest, the one who overthinks the problem, builds the strategy and gets us both into trouble.
The secret? She has a PhD but can’t do basic math, and she loses her credit card at least once a month. (If she gets “Dr.-ish,” Lex brings her back to earth.)
THE OG
Lex
a.k.a. The Troublemaker
Veteran HR pro who speaks fluent medical insurance, FMLA and corporate BS.
She now helps leaders stay off the front page of the paper when migrating their payroll systems. At 5’4″, she talks like a sailor with a trucker accent.
The secret? She’s ooey gooey, like a warm chocolate chip cookie, and fights hard because she cares deeply about people. She’s the OG because say her given name, Alexa, and it turns on every device (no royalties or thanks from Jeff Bezos).