Jennifer Thomas, M.A.

I attribute my success to staying true to who I am. I’ve always tried to lead with authenticity, integrity, curiosity, and a genuine respect for people. I’ve never believed I needed to pretend to know everything in order to be credible. If I didn’t know the answer, I said so—and then I went and found it.

I also believe success is built in the way you show up every day: following through, communicating clearly, keeping your word, asking good questions, and investing in relationships over time. Some of the most meaningful opportunities in my career have come from the trust I built with people long before I ever needed anything from them.

More than anything, I think my success has come from being willing to keep learning, keep evolving, and take on things I hadn’t done before—without losing sight of who I am in the process.

The best career advice I’ve received is to never be afraid to ask questions. I’ve built much of my career by being curious, admitting when I didn’t know something, and then doing the work to understand it. I think there can be a lot of pressure, especially as you become more senior, to feel like you’re supposed to have all the answers. I’ve found the opposite to be true. Some of the smartest people I’ve worked with were the ones willing to ask the question everyone else was thinking.

That mindset has also taught me to seek out people with different experiences and perspectives rather than relying on one person for every answer. That idea ultimately became part of the thinking behind my Power of Five framework.

Learn the business, not just your job. Ask questions, understand how decisions are made, learn the numbers, and pay attention to the people and functions outside your immediate role. The more you understand how the whole business works, the more valuable you become.

I’d also tell young women not to wait until they feel completely ready before raising their hand for an opportunity. You don’t have to know everything to be confident; confidence can also mean trusting yourself enough to ask, learn, and adapt. Be willing to try something you haven’t done before, and surround yourself with people who will challenge you, teach you, and tell you the truth.

And never underestimate the value of your relationships. Careers are long, industries are small, and how you treat people matters.

One of the biggest opportunities I see right now is in connecting industry experience with new technology. The beverage industry has a tremendous amount of knowledge, data, and relationship-driven decision-making, but many of the processes people rely on are still fragmented, manual, and inefficient.

At the same time, the industry is changing quickly. Consumer behavior is shifting, teams are being asked to do more with fewer resources, and AI is creating both excitement and uncertainty. I think the opportunity is not to replace experience with technology, but to use technology to make experienced people better at what they already do.

There is also a real challenge around leadership and culture. Many organizations are operating with leaner teams, higher expectations, and less margin for error, but they have not necessarily changed the way they lead people. That creates burnout, disengagement, and a disconnect between what companies say they value and what employees actually experience. I think there is a tremendous opportunity for leaders to build cultures that are more transparent, accountable, collaborative, and human—without lowering performance expectations.

More broadly, organizations need leaders who can ask better questions, connect information across functions, and make thoughtful decisions in environments that are changing faster than traditional processes can keep up.

Integrity and authenticity are probably the two values that matter most to me. I want the person I am professionally to be the same person I am personally. That means being honest, keeping my word, treating people with respect, and being willing to acknowledge when I don’t have the answer.

I also place a tremendous amount of value on curiosity, self-awareness, meaningful relationships, and continued growth. I think we should always be learning and evolving, but not at the expense of losing sight of who we are.

And increasingly, intentionality matters to me. How we spend our time, who we surround ourselves with, and what we choose to build our lives around are all decisions. I try to be thoughtful about those choices rather than simply allowing life or work to dictate them for me.