Her voice is well known in the “Windy City” as she’s talked with the stars of stage and screen for four decades.
Jeanne Sparrow may not be a native of Chicago, but it’s safe to say that it’s now home.
“I spent my formative adult years here – and that’s what shaped me,” said the seven-time Emmy winning broadcaster and author, who is sharing her secrets to success in 2026.
It’s already Q2. I don’t know about you, but 2026 has required far more of me already than I thought it would. I had to take a little adult spring break to stop, breathe, and just be. (& Let this be your reminder to USE 👏🏽 YOUR 👏🏽 PTO! 👏🏽)
That week was just what I needed. But make no mistake, all the things still needed to be done. The work didn’t go anywhere. Coming back from that break was daunting because the work of catching up is nothing short of overwhelming. Full transparency moment–I’m STILL getting back on track.
Even so, it’s not up for negotiation, because I value consistency. And so do you, whether you consciously realize it or want to admit it.
Here’s the thing about consistency: it isn’t sexy. It doesn’t make headlines. And it certainly doesn’t come with a dramatic reveal or a highlight reel. So it’s easy to miss how important it truly is. It’s the thing done quietly, running in the background without anyone noticing. It’s not the trendy “thing” people credit their success to, yet without it, we won’t achieve any of our goals or aspirations.
BUT—we live in a culture that glamorizes the reset. The comeback. The pivot. There’s a certain satisfaction in ripping up your plans and starting from zero. And there’s a flashiness to reinventing yourself (think of all the “new year, new me” posts that clog your social feeds every January – perhaps even mine, too 🤦🏽😂).
And here’s what those narratives leave out: resetting comes at a cost.
That’s not to dismiss the power and utility of a reset. Even the best laid plans don’t work out. Something went awry along the way. Expectations shifted. Motivation stalled. Something else became a bigger priority. Still, no matter the reason for why you didn’t follow through, your consistency took a hit.
And recovering from its loss is far harder than maintaining the momentum you already had.
When leadership communicates with a steady, reliable voice, that consistency earns confidence. When you’re consistent, you’re more likely to be trusted. And trust is essential to reaching goals and getting things accomplished, because the moment inconsistency creeps in—be it through mixed signals, unclear direction, or words that don’t match actions—trust erodes.
That sows doubt, delays decision-making, and slows action, which impacts how everyone functions.
And once trust erodes, it doesn’t come back easily. What you do consistently tells people who you are. Because, all intentions aside, that IS who you are.
WATCH AND LEARN: Foundations for Success
Going back to school? Show up consistently and you’ll have a degree or certificate, plus new skills and experience to show for it.
Recommitting to your fitness? Stay the course and you’ll see the change in your body, and in your spirit, because doing something that challenging transforms you in ways that go beyond the physical.
Changing a bad habit? It takes putting in reps to shift your muscle memory to a new behavior and change that story about yourself. (Trust me, I’m still working on my new year’s promise to be on time!)
There’s no way around it. Consistency costs something. It asks you to show up when the tank feels empty. It means keeping your word and honoring who you say you are, even when stepping outside of that would be so easy. It may ask more of you than feels fair in a given moment.
But losing consistency, and the trust that comes with it, costs so much more.
In your career: Do what you say you’ll do, and you’ll build trust. Commit to doing your best, even when you want to phone it in. Use your authentic value to add that special thing that only you can add to your work and do it in service of your colleagues and clients not just for the shine. Being impeccably consistent with your word and character is an underrated component of success and progress.
In your life: Look around. What is the thing you want to do that will require consistent effort and care? Think it through, make a plan, and start. Then show up the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. That’s how consistency builds—not with a grand gesture, but with the simple act of returning.
LISTEN AND LEARN: “I Can Only Be Me”
There’s no shortage of excitement in the pivot. It’ll give you a hell of story to tell. But consistency keeps you steady. And in the long run, steady is everything.
Consistency in communication builds trust. Inconsistency erodes it. If you’re navigating organizational change, leading through transformation, or building a team that needs to communicate across silos, this work matters more than ever.
Want to explore how Fearless Authenticity can support your team? Let’s connect.
“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life” is a piece of advice frequently given to college students and those in career transition. I’d argue there’s more truth to it than it’s given credit for. We don’t often think purposefully about what we do, who we are, or how we move through the world. But once we become intentional about all that, the outcomes we create are charged with a different energy. They become stronger and more impactful, and we, in turn, find connection and community.
From my 30+ years behind microphones and cameras, I know that powerful people are often insecure and can be uncomfortable in their own skin, especially in certain high-stress situations. I can’t tell you how many CEOs, executives, and celebrities sat down with me for an interview and stumbled through it, unable to put a coherent sentence together or even sit still for a three-minute segment, their leg bouncing nervously, while talking about what makes their company or product so great.
What do owners, freelancers, managers, and employees have in common? They all communicate! Here are 10 titles for 2025 to improve writing and speaking in any medium or circumstance — storytelling, marketing, persuasion, networking, negotiating, and more.
Fearless Authenticity: Lead Better, Sell More, and Speak Sensationally
by Jeanne Sparrow
Sparrow, an Emmy-award-winning TV, radio, and podcast host, sums up communication with catchphrases “Live It, Tell It, Sell It” and “Be Brave, Be Free, Be You.” Her book offers down-to-earth advice, inspiring stories, and practical tips to help readers build connections with their network, improve their leadership, and impact their community.
2025 is just around the corner. For many of us, a brand new year brings with it the familiar urge to start fresh or reinvent ourselves. Whether that’s through a more active lifestyle, eating healthier, saving more money, spending less time on social media, or getting organized.
It builds intrinsic motivation: New Year’s resolutions often fail because they’re driven by external expectations (e.g., peer pressure, social media, societal ideals, etc.) and unrealistic timelines, says Dr. Amanda Long, a clinical psychologist. Resolutions are also problematic as they are used to focus on everything that’s “wrong” or needs to be “fixed,” says Jeanne Sparrow, author of Fearless Authenticity. A self-audit is a better place to start as it’s based on self-awareness, curiosity, and a growth mindset, which builds intrinsic motivation. Research suggests intrinsically motivated people are less likely to quit than their extrinsically motivated counterparts.
I learned so much from my conversation with Page Turner of HGTV’s “Fix Your Flip.” She has overcome so much – a single mom of three at 23 years old. She never gave up on her dreams because she always had a plan. Now, she is a phenom in the real estate industry and as a TV host, executive producer, and entrepreneur. Turns out her philosophy for success is so simple … yet so wise – it’s just three words!
JS: Let’s talk about your challenges in life. Because you’ve already mentioned being a single mom, and you make no bones about being here for women, and especially for single moms and doing it on your own. And that is such a hard thing. Especially right now, I think, especially during the pandemic, when helping each other physically was difficult. What do you do when you need to bounce back from something,? What do you do when you’re disappointed and discouraged, because I can’t imagine that being a single mom moving to Nashville, and probably not having the support system there that you had in LA, even though you may have had a better chance at building something. I understand the reasoning behind it but it could not have been easy. So talk to me about the lowest point, the biggest challenges and how you climbed back from that.
PT: The first thing I do still I just cry, I just fall out, I roll, I just I cry, I yell and scream, I cuss a little bit or a lot. I cry again, and I scream again, and then I pick all the pieces back up and get it all out. And then I’m like, ‘Okay, now God, what’s the plan?’ So going back to what you said earlier, ‘You’ve got to write the plan, work the plan, and then the plan will work for you.’ I have been doing that since I before I had kids. I’ve just kind of been trained in that life to not just speak things into existence, because that is real, but also you got to work, you have to sow the seed, you have to till the land, you have to attend to whatever your seed is. A tree just doesn’t grow because it’s there. Otherwise, you get weeds, right?
JS: You are helping me, sis, because like, this is the thing about that I think people forget about entrepreneurship is that, like inspiration can hit you in the middle of something else. And then you forget it and you kick yourself because you’re like what if that was the idea? What if that was the thing? I can’t keep my hands around all of it. I think I need to do that (write it down). Because like I have so I have voice notes on my phone that I forget to go back to. Sometimes I remember to do it. But I think I have like 20 voice notes on my phone. Because I woke up in the middle of the night and recorded it, but then it never made it to that ‘see it’ piece.
PT: That goes back to time and time management and carving out time that ‘Okay, this is my voice memo time, 20 minutes a day, if I have to get up 20 minutes earlier.’ That’s what I tell people all the time. ‘How do you do it? You got to get tired. You have to be comfortable with being tired and sometimes weary.’ Because that’s how you push past to where, okay, now I have people who do that for me. So I can sleep in. Because one of my goals on my board was to not have to set an alarm. To wake up when the good old Lord wakes me up. Unless I have something great to do like this. Right? So but if not, I want to wake up and what I find is that I wake up at 530, 6 o’clock anyway. I have a pen here because I know we’re gonna have some nuggets drop. And I want to make sure that I’m able to write them down, and so even though we’ll have the replay, but am I gonna go back and listen to the whole replay and get all my notes?
JS: I got my paper and my Sharpie – it’s ready to go!
PT: You’ve got to write it down. Because the Word says you have to write the vision and make it plain so he who reads it will run. So what does that mean? Always be prepared when that person says, ‘Let me see your proposal.’ You have it. Boom, here it is. It’s already written.
(Edited for length and clarity)
I don’t think I’ve ever met someone more truer to their self than Jon Harris. To me, he is the definition of Be Brave, Be Free, Be You. He’s not afraid to be real, to show up as himself every time, and share his passions. As the Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer of Conagra Brands, Jon meets a lot of people and one of his gifts is bringing them together – it’s like magic.
JS: John, I know a lot of connectors, but you that’s like a superpower, like super connector! Man, I need to get you a cape.
JH: You’re very kind.
JS: No, I’m very honest. I’m also kind. But when did you know that that those things were gifts that you had for other people. Was it something you realized over time? Or was there like a moment where you’re like, “This is what I’m meant to do. I don’t know how it plays out. But this is what I’m meant to do.”
JH: I learned early on in my life, that the time to make friends is not when you need them, but always. I remember in high school, I had a job at Dial America telemarketing years ago, you know, there was telemarketing. Which is by the way, where I learned great rejection, I learned great rejection in my dating life. And Dial America telemarketing selling Weekly Reader and anything else I could possibly sell online. But I used to help folks get part-time jobs and that’s when I learned I really loved helping people, helping connect people. And so I did that. And then throughout college, I had jobs at the Student Union. I was on student aid. And I helped connect folks with jobs within Rutgers.
JS: Good old work study?
JH: Total work study. Do you know that the I was so close with the woman in the financial aid office? May she rest in peace Lesley Gilbert, she came to our wedding.
JS: I love it.
JH: I learned the value of real friends, real true friendship, real people being themselves and authentic. And what a blessing it was to have people in your life. And that’s why I always wanted to give back. And even though my home life might have been a little unique, I wanted to help folks because I realized that everybody had that. So I was connecting folks. I got a job at Lens Crafters. I worked at WXRK in New York. I worked for Howard Stern.
JS: You worked for Stern? In all our conversations, how did I miss your radio time with Stern?
JH: I’ll tell you a funny story. The other thing in life is moxie, right? So what you’re talking about being brave, be free, be you. I won tickets in 1990 to go see Billy Joel at Nassau Coliseum. My dad (had) died and I was raising my brothers. I didn’t have an internship. I was a communications major at Rutgers. And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I gotta get an internship.” So it was over the summer. And I had to go to WXRK to pick up the tickets. And I walked in I said, Oh, I’m also to a woman by the name of Diane Areyardy. If she’s listening, Diane, hello, and I love you and I owe you a lot. And I said to Diane, “Hey, Diane, I’m also here to talk to someone about an internship for next semester.” She said, “Oh, you mean Jeff Zaidman?” And I’m like, “Yes.” And she’s like, “Alright, come tomorrow.” So the next day I came in my Marshall’s suit that my mother bought me that was completely oversized. And I got the internship.
InStyle magazine naming her a BadAss Woman is probably the most accurate description of Kat Adams that I’ve ever heard. She’s been influencing and improving the game of tennis since she was six years old, playing on Chicago’s Southside. She’s always been an inspiration to me from our time at Northwestern University; her humility, determination, and understanding of who she is and the power she has on and off the court.
JS: One thing I find interesting about athletes is that you guys understand from a young age that there is a time limit on that thing that you have a gift for. And you have made some interesting changes that not all athletes do. Right? Of course, coaching and commentating, I think are always the obvious steps from the outside looking in. But moving into the C suite, not only in sports, but in the private sector is something that a lot of folks in your position never would have done. What is the thing that keeps you discovering and knowing what the next right things are? Is it that same feeling that you got when you were young? And picking up the tennis racquet? Is that the same feeling that guides you forward?
KA: Absolutely, I think it’s something that’s at the core of who you are. It’s the passion that is brewing inside of you to want to do whatever that next level is. For me staying in the sport of tennis, it’s in my DNA. It’s who I am. It’s what I have been raised to do. It’s the relationships that I built throughout my career from a junior all the way up to today. It’s being in those boardrooms and understanding the sport from a global perspective, not just from a national perspective, and being able to be that voice and the decision maker as to where we go from here. Our sport is an amazing sport. It’s a sport for a lifetime. It’s really from grassroots to the professional, to the US Open. We want American US Open champions. And so when I had the opportunity to be at the helm and making those decisions, not from the top down, but from the bottom up. The bigger the pool is from grassroots and you can get these players in a pipeline, the better chance you have of having a greater pool of champions at the top. And that’s something that we’ve done a great job at, if you look at the numbers and those that are ranked in the ATP tour and the WTA Tour, in the last in this year, it didn’t just start yesterday, they started years ago with a plan. And those players have progressed and are doing extremely well. So for me, being that decision maker for the growth and development of tennis was huge. And then of course, you had your staff that was doing all the other great things as far as making sure that the US Open was what it was, so that we could fund these programs and to get more kids into our sports. So that’s something that I think, inside me was brewing, to be that person, to be that leader. Because I’ve lived it, I’m the poster child of who the USTA was, or is when I was in that position. And it’s something that, you know, I will definitely keep close to my chest.
JS: One of the things that I loved in your book was how you talked about and illustrated that part so clearly, because I think a lot of times we look at that story with Serena and Venus in particular, but also Naomi and Coco and the other young Black women who have come up in the sports in a similar way. But one of the things I thought that was particularly poignant about the point you were making is that even though they are superstars, and you got to watch that very close up as they were developing, that it’s not the rarity that we think it could be, like we always think about this pie in the sky thing. And yes, that gift that they all have is super important. But this idea that we’re building a system that many of us have not had access to on a lot of different levels, and how important that part is, and I want you to dive a little deeper into that, because you did just hit on it. But to me, that’s power – building a system that creates access. And what does that mean for you?
KA: It’s huge. When you name the names that you mentioned that you know are champions, and then you know there was a big gap from Althea Gibson to the rest of us right? So we had players like Lesley Allen, Renee Blount, Kim Sands; people that no one unfortunately, know. And then you had that next generation of Zina Garrison, Lori McNeil, Camille Benjamin that people know. And then I came along with Chanda Rubin, Jeri Ingram, Stacey Martin, you know, some you’ve heard, some you haven’t heard of. And then now there’s just a slew of them, I can’t even name all of them, which is great. It’s great. Because when you look at Sloane Stephens, who is a US Open champion, Madison Keys, who got to the finals of that one, and 2017. And then you now have the emergence of Coco Gauff, Taylor Townsend, who’s a new mother who’s now coming back on the tour, etc. It’s great. But there’s a much larger pool of players, boys and girls that people just don’t know about. And they’re all playing college, there’s a lot of them that are getting college scholarships, etc. But the challenge, I think, for our people, for our community, is we can all develop, but the cost of getting to the next level is extraordinarily expensive. And if you don’t have your village that’s supporting you, that’s helping you get to these tournament so that you can continue to play so that you can have the opportunity, then that’s where we lose out.
(Edited for length and clarity)
Finesse Mitchell was one of THE best guests we ever had on You & Me. He would come on the show to promote his stand-up gigs and had the whole studio rolling with his take on current events and advice on relationships. I thought I knew all about my brother but he totally surprised me with his new role as President of Laugh Factory, the comedy club chain where he got his start. He says it’s a dream come true!
JS: I didn’t even know you wanted to be an executive and kind of running stuff. How did this happen? And where are you taking it?
FM: When I was younger, I always wanted to own my comedy club. And I got really close, I had an investor and everything. I was doing stand-up at the time. In fact, I believe I was fresh off of Saturday Night Live. So I wanted to own my own Comedy Club, got my investor, everything fell through. I moved back out to L.A. after New York, after a stint in South Florida and then moved back out to L.A. ended up getting a Disney Channel job and became China’s dad on the show called Ant Farm and that ran for four years. It escaped me; I got back into acting and the problem has always been with me is jack of all trades syndrome, you know what I mean? I always felt like I can do anything I can. Comedy was the escape from me trying to do everything and comedy ended up taking off and turned into Saturday Night Live and everything else. So it was like how do I become the business exec and real estate mogul and the strip club owner? I got goals, you know what I mean?
JS: But you know what, though, Finesse? I think you and I have talked about this a little bit. But I want to dive deeper into that. Because that happens to me too. Whenever you’re one of those people who acts and cuz it’s like for me it’s radio, TV, voiceover now podcasting and speaking and stuff like that. People are like, “Could you pick something?” No! Why would I? Why would I ever want to pick any one thing? My brain just doesn’t work like that. And I think so many times people tell you what you should be doing. And if you get known for one thing that people like, why you branching off to this other stuff? Like, that’s where I started. I’m just getting back to it. How do you manage that when other people have expectations of what you should be doing? And balancing that with what your heart says, and what you know you’re good at, because you are good at a lot of different things.
FM: Jeanne, people are different. People are wired different. And as soon as you realize that you’re not like your brother, or your sister, I mean, the connection can be that close. Even though you came out the same womb. You’re not like your roommate in college, you’re not like your fraternity brother or sorority sister. Once you realize that you’re different, and you have different capabilities, and you’re firing on different spark plugs. Or maybe you have more. Once you accept that, then you have to be strong enough and bold enough to stop listening to the people who cannot operate on that frequency.
(Edited for length and clarity)
