Episode 326: Jenn Lim - What Comes after Happiness?

Jenn Lim helped build a global movement around happiness. As the Co Founder of Delivering Happiness with Tony Hsieh, and now founder of Beyond Happiness, she spent years helping leaders and companies create cultures built on purpose, values, and human connection.

But behind that mission, she was carrying a very different reality.

In this deeply honest episode of Limitless, Jenn opens up about writing Beyond Happiness during one of the darkest periods of her life. COVID had changed the world, deadlines were closing in, and just five weeks before the book was due, she lost her close friend and long time collaborator, Tony Hsieh.

What followed was grief, depression, emotional exhaustion, and the quiet pressure of trying to hold together an identity built around happiness while struggling internally.

This conversation goes far beyond workplace culture. We explore unresolved grief, burnout, coping mechanisms, emotional numbness, and the danger of constantly saying “I’m fine” when you are not. Jenn shares how losing Tony also forced her to confront the earlier loss of her father, and how years of intellectualising pain had disconnected her from fully feeling it.

One line from Jenn captures the heart of this episode:

“If I didn’t go deep, I wouldn’t feel this light anymore.”

We also discuss her upcoming book Beyond the Bullshit, why she believes the future of work is human, and what happens when leaders stop performing strength and finally start telling the truth.

This is a raw and deeply human conversation about grief, identity, healing, self deception, and the inner work required to rebuild yourself honestly from the inside out.

Contact Jenn to collaborate:

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/byjennlim/⁠

Find more episodes: ⁠https://www.nickjonsson.com/podcast