Summary:

What do you do when your subject-matter expert walks out during an acquisition and hundreds of market-sensitive trades are on the line? In this candid conversation, Lauren shares how she shifted from panic to a repeatable playbook—mapping stakeholders, designing smart escalation paths, and preparing teams to operate confidently amid ambiguity. If you’ve ever led through change, this one hits home.

Chapters:

00:00 – Rapid growth, new role, and a brave question-asking culture

03:30 – The crisis: acquisition, trades at stake, and raising the bar for leadership

07:00 – Winning the role… and losing the SME; imposter syndrome hits hard

10:30 – From panic to plan: widen the network, define support, move fast

14:00 – Leading in ambiguity: ask better questions, find the true owners

17:30 – Champions matter: the leader who opened doors (and why that worked)

21:00 – Managing anxiety in high-stakes work: tactics that actually help

24:30 – Stakeholder maps, escalation paths, and the “unexpected” protocol

28:00 – Proactive outreach: how to make first calls less awkward (and more useful)

31:30 – Wrap and where to find Lauren

Host Alexa Beavers: linkedin.com/in/alexabeaverspmp

Guest Lauren Jenkins: linkedin.com/in/laurenhroschjenkins

Executive Producer Jim Kanichirayil: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Music Credit: "Lost in Dreams" by Kulakovka