972: Jennifer R. Hudson: Leadership, Loss, and the Quiet Power of Midlife Transitions

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Self-improvement, How To, Business, Management, Education

4.7 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In early 2025, my dear friend Jennifer started telling me about how she was preparing for her youngest child to leave for college. She was celebrating this parenting milestone while also preparing for the grief. Simultaneously, she was watching her father’s health deteriorate. She knew 2025 would be a year of massive change. And, it most certainly was. I had the opportunity to connect with Jennifer throughout the year, and when she felt ready, I was honored to invite her to the show to discuss the overlap of life, grief, work, and the magical opportunities that arise for midlife women. Professionally, Jennifer R. Hudson is an award-winning communications leader with more than 25 years of experience helping organizations strengthen and grow their brands through strategic, effective communication. She has led communications programs, facilitated workshops, launched businesses, and secured high-impact media coverage for both corporations and nonprofits. Before founding ThinkBeyond Public Relations, Jennifer served as Vice President of Communications at British Airways, overseeing internal and external communications across 18 markets, and held senior communications roles at Sabre and American Airlines, where she was a Spanish-speaking spokesperson. Jennifer is an accredited public relations professional (APR), a certified mentor and coach supporting entrepreneurs and social impact leaders, and a past president of PRSA Greater Fort Lauderdale. She was named PRSA Greater Fort Lauderdale’s 2024 Communicator of the Year. Most notably, Jennifer is the proud mom of two grown children who still love coming home to visit their mom on a regular basis. Listen in to hear Jennifer share: The difference between mentally preparing for change, loss, and grief and actually enduring them How navigating change and life transitions has improved her leadership focus and personal and professional goals Practices that help leaders stay centered and purposeful when personal life changes collide with professional responsibilities The unique opportunities that come out of hard seasons to create new and transformational experiences How vulnerability builds leadership trust and perfectionism erodes it The importance of giving yourself time to reflect on 2025, release what needs to be released, and claim what you want to own and carry forward from 2025 The PR framework leaders can use to sustain visibility and consistency in their communications without burning out or losing themselves in the process Links: Learn more about Jennifer and ThinkBeyond: wethinkbeyond.com Reach out to Jennifer: jen@wethinkbeyond.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenrhudson/ Connect with Jennifer on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thinkbeyondpr/ [Open Enrollment] Join Sara’s Aligned Leadership Incubator: saradean.com/aligned Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to shameless leadership. I'm your host, Sarah Dean. This show is for women, transgender people, non-binary folks, as well as allies, who are committed to advancing their leadership while also advancing the leadership of those around them. In each episode, we will offer practical tips, leadership strategies, and inspiring
0:21.9	stories to help you become a more confident, compassionate, and inclusive leader. The truth is,
0:27.5	you were born to lead. What might happen for you if you were to wholeheartedly embrace that
0:32.2	part of yourself? So let's start now, together. Hello, shameless leaders. Today, I am sharing an interview with my dear friend Jennifer Hudson, and I'm so excited about
0:42.2	this conversation.
0:43.1	Jennifer and I know each other because we share a speaking coach, and we're in a mastermind
0:48.2	of speakers where we get to be together in person a few times a year, online, a number of
0:52.6	more times per year, talking about speaking things,
0:55.3	but also getting to know each other as women, as moms, as leaders, and sharing all sorts
1:00.7	of inside scoop. She's ahead of me in the motherhood journey. Her youngest daughter, her youngest
1:05.7	child, went to college in this last year. And so about a year ago or so, as we were communicating,
1:12.8	she started talking to me a little bit about like the complexity of emotion with your youngest
1:18.0	baby leaving the nest and the exciting opportunities that come with that, the pride you have in
1:22.9	that, and also how bittersweet it is, the sadness, the grief. I mean, for me, I anticipate the devastation.
1:30.2	So we started talking about that at the same time she knew that her father's health was deteriorating.
1:35.1	And so she really anticipated 2025 being a year that would just be massive change for her.
1:41.5	And as life moved on throughout the year, there came this point where we
1:46.2	started having a conversation about what would it be like to talk about navigating grief
1:51.2	and loss as a leader on the podcast and going through some really specific things that she
1:56.0	thought she had been preparing well for this year. And to some extent, definitely had been.
2:00.5	And then also,
2:01.6	what are the pieces that you can't prepare for? So even if you are the most organized person and the
	...

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