Shelley Huff got fired, went through a bankruptcy, and lost a good friend in one year. It took her months to call it grief. Shelley Huff led Serta Simmons Bedding as CEO through Chapter 11, and when the company changed hands, she was out of the job that had defined her. At a retreat, Arthur Brooks told her she'd gone through three deaths. Months later her brother asked if she'd ever researched grief, and she finally had a word for what she was feeling. Two years of reflection followed, along with a therapist-prescribed puppy and a new practice of giving up control. Today she's the co-founder of The Interval, a community for senior executives and founders in the in-between. 🎯 In this episode: - How to grieve a job loss when your identity is your career - Why getting fired feels like a death (and a bankruptcy does too) - Who are you without your job title? Processing the end of a work identity - Why the next job can be a painkiller, and how to know if you're escaping pain - Letting go of control and trusting the process: the sabbatical, the therapist, and the puppy - Leading 3,700 employees through Chapter 11 with prayer ▶️ Watch the full episode now. Subscribe to Heartful Wonders for new conversations every other Tuesday about following your heart when the path isn't clear. 👤 About Shelley Huff: Shelley Huff is the co-founder and CEO of The Interval, a community for founders and C-suite leaders navigating career transitions and the space between leadership chapters. She is also a Contributing Columnist at Inc. Magazine. Through her writing and interviews, she explores how ambitious leaders reflect, redefine, and shape what comes next - whether returning to the C-suite, building portfolio careers, launching new ventures, or pursuing entirely new creative paths. Shelley brings more than 20 years of executive leadership across global consumer and retail organizations, including serving as CEO of Serta Simmons Bedding and as a Global Officer at Walmart. Throughout her career, she has led major transformations spanning e-commerce, merchandising, supply chain, and product innovation. She is an Executive in Residence at the University of Arizona and a board member of her YPO chapter, SF Bay. She is a member of the International Women's Forum, and the Fortune Most Powerful Women network. 💻 Shelley can be found: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelley-huff/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/huffshelley/ The Interval: http://theintervalcommunity.com/ ✨ About Vlada Bortnik: Vlada Bortnik arrived in the U.S. from Ukraine as a refugee at 11. She went on to co-found Marco Polo, a video messaging app that helps people feel close, with over 10 million downloads, 2.5 million five-star reviews, and a Webby Award. The company remains independent and profitable, with no ads. Newsweek named her to its Most Loved CEOs list, and Anthem named her Product Leader of the Year. She built Marco Polo alongside her husband Michał while raising two young children, and she's open about what it takes to do both. 💻 Vlada can be found: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlada Substack: https://heartfulwonders.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vladabortnik Marco Polo: https://www.marcopolo.me/ 📎 Resources mentioned: Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans: https://designingyour.life/ Arthur Brooks: https://arthurbrooks.com/ Access Alignment: https://www.accessalignment.com/ Episode is produced by: Mun Yee Kelly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mun-yee-kelly-769868/ 💛 More Heartful Wonders, in writing — Vlada's reflections, poems, and personal notes about an ongoing choice to stay open-hearted and listening inward → heartfulwonders.substack.com #HeartfulWonders #CareerChange #PersonalGrowth #HealingJourney #EmotionalIntelligence #ConsciousLeadership
