The power of vulnerability: Park City author’s new book explores healing through connection

Photo: by Molly Bice-Jackson

PARK CITY, Utah — For Molly Bice-Jackson, connection is more than a social skill—it is essential for healing, leadership, and resilience. In her new book, The Commodity of Connection, the speaker, actress, and coach shares how embracing vulnerability transformed her grief and how it can help others navigate their challenges.

Bice-Jackson’s career has spanned acting, music, and corporate leadership, but she said performing was the foundation for her understanding of connection.

“You’re trained to be vulnerable,” she said. “As an actor, you have to connect with the audience, and you have to connect with the material. Otherwise, it’s not authentic. It doesn’t resonate, and it doesn’t move people.”

That lesson became deeply personal after the sudden loss of her two-year-old daughter, Lucy. The experience exposed gaps in how society supports grieving people, particularly in professional environments. “After seeing my husband try to go back to work at his law firm after burying his oldest child, and just seeing that struggle—not only for him, but within the culture of companies and the lack of knowing how to deal with something like that—I realized I had something to offer,” she said.

Bice-Jackson began incorporating her performance background into keynote speeches, blending humor, storytelling, and personal experience to guide individuals and organizations toward deeper relationships.

A Universal Journey

The book is structured into three sections—The Rise, The Fall, and The Call—a framework Bice-Jackson said reflects the universal cycles of life.

“We all have had moments and seasons of our lives that feel like the rise,” she said. “We are pursuing something great, we’re falling in love, we’re traveling the world, we have goals. But because of the nature of life, we all will also experience the fall. Whether that’s ending a marriage, losing a job, losing a child, a parent, health problems—we all will have the fall.”

The final section focuses on how people choose to move forward.

“The ultimate question is, will we be able to answer the call?” she said. “Sometimes that call is small and private, and it simply means choosing to get out of bed and answering that call not to give up and to keep going.”

For Bice-Jackson, the call became a mission to help others process their losses. “I have been surprised at how many parents have thanked me for doing what I do,” she said. “They want to share what it’s like to go through this so that people can better support and understand them, but they have said, ‘I can’t do that. Thank you for doing it.’”

Connection in Leadership

Beyond personal healing, Bice-Jackson said that connection is critical in business settings. “I have been so shocked at some of the leadership I’ve seen in action,” she said. “I’m always surprised at the lack of emotional intelligence displayed in leadership.”

She believes that fostering authentic relationships in the workplace leads to stronger teams and more tremendous success. “Many of them are just taking the wrong approach,” she said. “They’re not even aware that there’s a better, more heart-centered way to achieve their goals.”

Her work includes corporate coaching, where she helps leaders refine their messaging and better connect with their employees. “We’re already struggling for paternity and maternity leave in this country,” she said. “But there is a whole language and need for bereavement leave and support. I hope leaders will take a moment and think about the inner life of their employees, their gifts and struggles, and how they can utilize that to reach their goals with a little more heart.”

Finding Joy After Loss

Despite the gravity of her subject matter, Bice-Jackson weaves humor into her storytelling, a natural extension of how she processes life’s challenges. “I have really learned to embrace the ‘ands,’” she said. “I lost a daughter, and I’m really funny.”

She believes holding space for both grief and joy is crucial. “Whether it’s spontaneous or planned, we have to make space for fun, for play, and it’s just as important as the therapy sessions and the crying that we do,” she said.

What’s Next

Bice-Jackson is set to be featured in an upcoming Good Morning America digital segment, highlighting a viral Instagram post in which she reflected on the kindness of strangers after Lucy’s funeral. She is also expanding her speaking engagements and launching a series of mastermind groups and online courses.

She hopes her book will serve as a reminder that connection is always possible. “I hope that when people are just out in the world, they can always remember that every person has a story,” she said. “And they deserve to be treated with kindness and tenderness—not only because they have a story, but because I have something in common with them.”

For those struggling with grief, she offers the reassurance she once sought for herself. “You will smile again someday,” she said. “Even if you don’t believe it’s possible right now.”