What if the most important part of leadership begins after your biggest win?
Change has a way of forcing clarity—even when it arrives through uncertainty, loss, or exhaustion.
In this reflective year-end episode with our host, Brooke Skinner Ricketts, you’re invited to pause and take stock of what it really took to keep going. Through honest stories from senior leaders who navigated layoffs, reinvention, and rapid transformation, you’ll hear how resilience isn’t something you either have or don’t—it’s something you practice. And adaptation isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about staying willing to move before certainty arrives.
Guests share deeply personal moments, being laid off after giving everything to a role, rebuilding confidence after broken trust, and redefining leadership in a world reshaped by AI and constant change. You’re reminded that growth doesn’t always look like progress in the moment, and that community, integrity, and self-awareness often carry you forward when strategy alone isn’t enough.
In this episode, reflect on what this year demanded of you and what you’re ready to carry into what's next.
Key Takeaways:
- Why resilience is a practice, not a personality trait
- How adaptation becomes essential when clarity is incomplete
- The role of self-awareness in sustaining leadership through change
- Why community matters most when uncertainty feels personal
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Highlights
The key moments in this episode are:
[00:54] The Power of Resilience
[01:45] Personal Stories of Overcoming Challenges
[03:41] Mentorship and Midlife Wisdom
[05:43] Adaptation: The Key to Moving Forward
[04:00] The Power of Authenticity
[07:45] The Importance of Community
[08:51] Conclusion and Moving Forward -
About
Brooke Skinner Ricketts is a growth strategist devoted to transforming possibility into performance. Brooke is an experienced queer executive who went from doing market research at truck stops to sitting in the c-suite and on the boards of public companies before her 40th birthday. Beginning her corporate career at the age of 19, she has almost always been the youngest, and often the most vocal person in the room.
Brooke’s professional work has focused on solving the problems that constrain growth with innovative leadership, product, marketing and business strategies that unlock outstanding results. With a strong track record of optimizing business for growth and impact, and implementing forward-thinking business building strategies, Brooke’s work has enabled the success of dozens of Fortune 200 brands. She has taken two companies public and advised many others in their journey toward meaningful scale. She has led strategy, brand, product, marketing and customer experience for market leaders, challenger brands and unicorns including Twitter, CARS, SC Johnson, eBay, Sprint, FCB, DigitasLBi, Avant.
Brooke has been recognized as an innovative leader by Forbes, Crain’s, the Wall Street Journal, and Adweek. Brooke is a sought-after speaker who has taken the stage at SXSW, LiveRamp, Social Media Week, TechWeek, Lesbians Who Tech, Google, Facebook, and Northwestern Kellogg and Medill Graduate Programs.
Brooke received her B.A. from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In addition to her work at Beyond Barriers, Ms. Skinner Ricketts serves as a Board Director for OneCare Media, The Mather Group, Whole and Free Foods and Chicago Cubs Charities.