Today I'm sitting down with Jennifer Buaas. We first connected at work conferences over the years, and I knew there was a story here worth telling. Jennifer's path took her from driving a beverage cart at a golf course to the Texas Workers Compensation Commission, then to the Texas Department of Information Resources, and now to KPMG. Every door that opened came through a person who saw something in her first.

We talk about mentors who invest their time for no reason other than wanting someone else to succeed, why relationships and connection matter more than we give them credit for, and how public sector workers rarely get the credit they deserve. Jennifer shares the books and voices that shaped her along the way: children's books like Curious George during her early parenting years, Brené Brown's work and her podcast The Curiosity Shop with Adam Grant, the devotional Devotions from the Horse Farm by Kara and Dan Whitney, and Kristin Neff's book on self-compassion, which met her in one of the darkest seasons of her life.

We close on listening as the most underrated leadership skill, why AI will never replace human connection, and Jennifer's own book that's been taking shape in her mind for years.

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