When you want to sound off, do this instead.
Over the summer, a friend reached out to me and told me I needed to have Lu Parker on my podcast. Lu is a former Miss USA and a 6x Emmy Award-winning TV news anchor who was unexpectedly laid off earlier this year.
Lu and I both worked at a television station in Charleston early in our careers, but she left for a bigger market right before I got there. So I’ve known her from afar.
Lu’s layoff was big news in Los Angeles, where she has lived and worked for the past two decades. But that’s not why I asked her to be a guest on the podcast — not the news itself.
It’s how she responded.
She didn’t sound off. She didn’t speak publicly about it, not right away. She gave herself time to grieve, to feel the anger and the shame and the initial feelings of shock and disbelief. She turned down the noise, the headlines, and the advice she was getting about what to say and what to do next. She got quiet instead.
When she came back online a few weeks later, she told a truer story, sharing what it’s really like to be in transition.
And that’s the story I wanted to share with you.
When your identity is shaken, when the role you play in your life, personally or professionally, suddenly changes, it can rock your world. It can also help you reconnect with who you are beneath the surface, the part of you that stays with you wherever you go.
On the podcast this week, here’s what Lu and I talked about:
vulnerability hangovers (it’s a real thing)
sitting in the uncertainty without trying to fix it (oof!) and trusting the next step will reveal itself.
how fear can be our friend if we learn to use it in a different way
learning to use our authentic voice in our everyday lives, instead of shape-shifting to look like the good girl and keep the peace.
Listen to the full conversation here.
You can also connect with Lu Parker on Instagram and Substack.
