Meet the Founder

What's the End Game?

That's the question I've learned to ask after 40 years of serving as a strategic advisor to founders, CEOs, and boards at their most defining moments.

— Joanna Broussard | Founder & CEO

When leaders are navigating transition, responding to crisis, or building their legacy—when what they've spent their life building feels vulnerable—most focus on tactics, timelines, and immediate problems.

But that question cuts through complexity and reveals what actually matters: What does success really look like? What needs to endure? What are you protecting?

I help leaders answer it. And then I help them execute with strategic precision and leadership confidence.

Let's Talk

The Three Defining Moments Every Leader Faces

Leadership Transition & Continuity

When leadership changes hands and the organization's continuity depends on managing the narrative, relationships, and emotional dynamics that no transition plan addresses.

Crisis & Reputation

When external or internal forces threaten what's been built and require immediate strategic response, stakeholder management, and leadership under extreme pressure.

Legacy & Impact

When leaders intentionally shape how their contribution will be remembered and ensure their values and vision outlive their direct involvement.

What Makes My Approach Different

Integrative Intelligence

Most consultants specialize narrowly. I integrate.

After four decades, I've learned that complex leadership challenges rarely respond to single solutions. They require someone who can read what's actually happening beneath the surface and orchestrate the right combination of strategic communications, leadership coaching, problem-solving, and narrative architecture.

Pattern Recognition Across Four Decades

My training as a historian taught me to recognize patterns—how situations typically unfold, where the pivotal moments lie, and what usually happens next.

Working across dozens of industries, I've seen these defining moments play out hundreds of times. I know what works when leadership changes hands, how organizations rebuild trust after crisis, and what makes values survive beyond founders.

I operate from a 360-degree perspective, seeing not just the immediate challenge but the stakeholder dynamics, organizational patterns, and second-order consequences that determine whether a transition succeeds or fails.

Judgment Forged in the Ultimate David vs. Goliath Battle

For eight years, I served as worldwide communications strategist for the plaintiff attorneys in the Castano Tobacco Litigation—coordinating reputation management and strategic response across 60+ independent law firms challenging the unlimited resources of the tobacco industry.

I had to influence without authority, create alignment without control, and maintain strategic unity when egos and competing interests constantly threatened the coalition—all while facing an opponent with armies of lawyers and unlimited PR budgets.

What I learned managing communications in that high-stakes environment taught me everything I know about crisis leadership: how to maintain strategic clarity when under relentless attack, how to align complex stakeholders without formal authority, how to protect mission and reputation simultaneously, and how to succeed with strategy and creativity when the opposition has superior resources.

Who I Work With

I partner with founders, CEOs, boards, family-owned businesses, and nonprofit leaders facing moments that will define their organizations and legacies.

My clients have included leadership at Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Northwestern University, Waste Management, and dozens of organizations across financial services, legal, healthcare, education, and nonprofits.

I work with leaders who:

  • Are navigating planned or unexpected leadership transitions

  • Face reputation threats or organizational crisis

  • Must align stakeholders with competing interests

  • Want to ensure their impact endures beyond their tenure

  • Value someone who's succeeded when the odds were against them

Credentials & Background

  • 40+ years of strategic communications and leadership counsel

  • Certified Professional Coach (CPC), Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC)

  • Master Practitioner, Energy Leadership Assessment (iPEC)

  • BA, University of New Orleans, History

  • Entrepreneur and business owner

What's Your End Game?

That question reveals what you're actually protecting, what truly matters, and what success looks like on the other side of this defining moment.

What distinguishes my work isn't methodology—it's integrative intelligence: the ability to read complex situations, recognize patterns from four decades of experience, and orchestrate the right combination of approaches to protect what you've built when everything feels at stake.

I help you answer that question. Then I help you get there.

Let's talk if you're facing one of these defining moments.

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.

— Edward DeBono