My story:

Jennifer Hawkins is the founder of Launched Performance, a leadership advisory firm that helps executives build enterprise-level strategists and scale next-gen leadership before the Boomer and Gen X wave of retirements hits. She’s known for developing strong leadership benches inside high-pressure environments, and she brings a track record of transforming underperforming teams into top producers across five industries. Jennifer stepped into leadership at 25, outperformed seasoned supervisors, and quickly rose through the ranks. At 29, she bought the worst-performing Sylvan Learning Center in the country on her credit card and turned it into a top 20% performer through two recessions (9-11 and 2008). Later, she built and led blood banking operations across 7 states while managing her son’s leukemia battle from a hospital room for 2 ½ years, scaling systems, leading remote teams, and growing through chaos and crisis.

I had teams spread out across Eastern Washington, North Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota who were responsible for blood supply across 200 hospitals and 480,000 square miles. My team continued to thrive, we were scaling and they were strong. I was still building, coaching, mentoring, and steering the ship. Over the next few years, I was promoted four times, tripled my salary and landed in the regional executive seat running operations across three states. Everything reported to me; Recruitment, Phlebotemy, Distribution, Fleet, Facilities, HR, Compliance, Labs, Manufacturing, Medical, Quality, etc. Then came COVID and I learned on the fly, leading departments I had never led before and moving them from the lowest performing teams in the division and system, moving them to a top ranking region. I build systems that hold under pressure, through recessions and pandemic. I lead with grit, heart & humanity, and I teach my leaders and staff to do the same.  Today, Jennifer partners with executives and HR leaders to prepare mid-level leaders for succession, equip them with strategic acumen and proven systems to ensure no legacy is left without someone ready to carry it forward.