Member since March 2026
Connelia Z. Houston is an attorney, transformational leadership coach, speaker, and author of The 7 Giants: Conquering the Hidden Obstacles That Keep Capable Women from Building What Comes Next.
For more than 30 years, Connelia has worked in environments where decisions matter, expectations are high, and capable people are expected to keep moving—even when they are questioning what comes next. Today, she brings that experience to the stage, helping women and organizations recognize the hidden patterns that can quietly undermine confidence, engagement, decision-making, and forward movement.
Her work explores an often-overlooked truth: capable women do not suddenly lose their ability, ambition, or value. But they can become stalled by fear, distraction, self-reliance, settling, people-pleasing, limiting beliefs, and shame—the seven “giants” at the center of her forthcoming book.
Connelia speaks on reinvention, personal leadership, decision-making, employee engagement, and what it takes to build what comes next. Her presentations combine humor, relatable storytelling, strategic insight, and practical frameworks that help audiences recognize what is keeping them stuck and leave with a clearer understanding of what to do next.
Her signature topics include “They’re Not Done. They’re Disengaged.,” “Who’s Making Your Decisions?,” and “Build What Comes Next!” Whether speaking to professional women, leaders, or organizations navigating change, Connelia delivers a message that is both challenging and encouraging: experience is not something to move beyond. It can become the foundation for what comes next.
Classic episodes of The Simpsons. I have an almost encyclopedic memory for quotes, which means there is usually a Simpsons reference floating around in my brain for nearly any situation.
I also love observing the small, funny quirks of everyday life—the things people say in meetings, the habits we all pretend are perfectly normal, and those moments that remind you how delightfully ridiculous people can be. Humor, human behavior, and a good story will get my attention every time.
After graduating from Davidson College, I did something that made perfect sense at the time and sounds slightly crazy in retrospect: I moved to Japan for a year to teach high school before starting law school at Tulane.
I arrived in a culture that was completely unfamiliar to me—and I was just as unfamiliar to many of the people around me. Suddenly, the rules, expectations, language, and social cues I had spent my whole life learning weren't particularly useful.
That year taught me something I still carry into my work today: transitions have a way of stripping away the things we normally use to define ourselves. When the familiar disappears, you find out what you actually know about who you are.
There were plenty of awkward moments, misunderstandings, and stories that are much funnier now than they were then. But learning to navigate a world where I couldn't rely on the usual cues taught me adaptability, curiosity, and the value of being grounded in yourself even when almost everything around you has changed.
More than 30 years later, that lesson still shows up in the work I do with people facing their own version of “What now?”
For most of my adult life, I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I was an attorney. I was a mother. My days were filled with court dates, deadlines, school events, practices, and recitals. I was building a career I cared about while pouring myself into raising my daughter.
Then the structure that had shaped my life for years quietly changed.
My daughter left for college and was thriving—exactly what I had worked and prayed for. But one night, I found myself sitting on the edge of my bed asking a question I had never expected to ask: “What am I supposed to do now?”
Nothing was wrong. But something was different.
As I began trying to answer that question for myself, I realized how many capable, experienced women eventually arrive at some version of the same moment. A child leaves home. A career changes. Retirement gets closer. A relationship ends. Or the life that once fit simply doesn’t fit the same way anymore. They still have talent, experience, ideas, and ambition—but the structure that told them where to put all of it has changed.
That became the beginning of my work.
I started studying reinvention, coaching women through transitions, and paying close attention to what actually keeps capable women from moving forward. I discovered that the problem is rarely a lack of ability. More often, there are hidden obstacles—fear, distraction, self-reliance, settling, people-pleasing, limiting beliefs, and shame—that quietly influence what we believe is possible and what we are willing to do next.
Those insights eventually became the foundation for my Reinvention to Revenue framework and my book, The 7 Giants.
Today, my work is about helping women recognize what is keeping them stuck, reconnect with the value of everything they have already lived and learned, and use it to intentionally build what comes next.
At some point, success stops answering the question, “What’s next?”
A career changes. Children grow up. A long-held goal is accomplished. Retirement gets closer. Or someone simply realizes that the life they built no longer tells them what they want to build next.
In this energizing presentation, Connelia Houston helps capable people move beyond simply asking “What now?” and begin intentionally designing their next chapter. She explores why experience is not something to leave behind but raw material for the future—and why clarity often comes through action rather than waiting for one perfect answer.
Audience members leave ready to:
• Reframe transition as an opportunity to build rather than simply adjust
• Recognize the value embedded in their accumulated experience
• Identify what may be keeping them from moving forward
• Take a practical next step toward the work, leadership, or life they want next
Ideal for professional women’s events, leadership programs, associations, conferences, retreats, and audiences navigating career or life transitions.
Experienced employees are often described as resistant to change, checked out, or simply counting the days until retirement. But what if the problem is not that they are done—what if they have become disengaged from work that no longer recognizes or uses what they bring to the table?
In this provocative presentation, Connelia Houston challenges organizations to rethink how they view experienced talent. Drawing on more than 30 years in professional environments, she explores what happens when capable people stop seeing a meaningful future for themselves inside an organization—and what leaders can do about it.
Audience members leave with a new perspective on:
• Why experienced employees disengage even when they remain highly capable
• The organizational cost of overlooking institutional knowledge and experience
• How leaders can reconnect experienced talent to contribution, growth, and purpose
Ideal for HR leaders, people managers, executives, employee-resource groups, leadership conferences, and organizations navigating retention, succession, and multigenerational workplaces.
We like to believe our decisions are rational, intentional, and completely our own. But fear, expectations, old assumptions, people-pleasing, and even past success can quietly influence choices long before we realize it.
In this engaging and practical presentation, Connelia Houston helps audiences recognize the hidden forces shaping the decisions they make about their careers, leadership, relationships, and what comes next. Using relatable stories, humor, and actionable questions, she shows participants how to distinguish between a decision they are truly making and one being made for them by fear, habit, or someone else’s expectations.
Audience members leave better equipped to:
• Recognize the hidden influences affecting their decisions
• Identify where they may be operating from fear, habit, or outdated expectations
• Make clearer, more intentional choices about what comes next
Ideal for women’s leadership events, professional associations, conferences, retreats, and organizations focused on leadership development, career growth, and change.
After graduating from Davidson College, I did something that made perfect sense at the time and sounds slightly crazy in retrospect: I moved to Japan for a year to teach high school before starting law school at Tulane.
I arrived in a culture that was completely unfamiliar to me—and I was just as unfamiliar to many of the people around me. Suddenly, the rules, expectations, language, and social cues I had spent my whole life learning weren't particularly useful.
That year taught me something I still carry into my work today: transitions have a way of stripping away the things we normally use to define ourselves. When the familiar disappears, you find out what you actually know about who you are.
There were plenty of awkward moments, misunderstandings, and stories that are much funnier now than they were then. But learning to navigate a world where I couldn't rely on the usual cues taught me adaptability, curiosity, and the value of being grounded in yourself even when almost everything around you has changed.
More than 30 years later, that lesson still shows up in the work I do with people facing their own version of “What now?”
For most of my adult life, I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I was an attorney. I was a mother. My days were filled with court dates, deadlines, school events, practices, and recitals. I was building a career I cared about while pouring myself into raising my daughter.
Then the structure that had shaped my life for years quietly changed.
My daughter left for college and was thriving—exactly what I had worked and prayed for. But one night, I found myself sitting on the edge of my bed asking a question I had never expected to ask: “What am I supposed to do now?”
Nothing was wrong. But something was different.
As I began trying to answer that question for myself, I realized how many capable, experienced women eventually arrive at some version of the same moment. A child leaves home. A career changes. Retirement gets closer. A relationship ends. Or the life that once fit simply doesn’t fit the same way anymore. They still have talent, experience, ideas, and ambition—but the structure that told them where to put all of it has changed.
That became the beginning of my work.
I started studying reinvention, coaching women through transitions, and paying close attention to what actually keeps capable women from moving forward. I discovered that the problem is rarely a lack of ability. More often, there are hidden obstacles—fear, distraction, self-reliance, settling, people-pleasing, limiting beliefs, and shame—that quietly influence what we believe is possible and what we are willing to do next.
Those insights eventually became the foundation for my Reinvention to Revenue framework and my book, The 7 Giants.
Today, my work is about helping women recognize what is keeping them stuck, reconnect with the value of everything they have already lived and learned, and use it to intentionally build what comes next.
At some point, success stops answering the question, “What’s next?”
A career changes. Children grow up. A long-held goal is accomplished. Retirement gets closer. Or someone simply realizes that the life they built no longer tells them what they want to build next.
In this energizing presentation, Connelia Houston helps capable people move beyond simply asking “What now?” and begin intentionally designing their next chapter. She explores why experience is not something to leave behind but raw material for the future—and why clarity often comes through action rather than waiting for one perfect answer.
Audience members leave ready to:
• Reframe transition as an opportunity to build rather than simply adjust
• Recognize the value embedded in their accumulated experience
• Identify what may be keeping them from moving forward
• Take a practical next step toward the work, leadership, or life they want next
Ideal for professional women’s events, leadership programs, associations, conferences, retreats, and audiences navigating career or life transitions.
Experienced employees are often described as resistant to change, checked out, or simply counting the days until retirement. But what if the problem is not that they are done—what if they have become disengaged from work that no longer recognizes or uses what they bring to the table?
In this provocative presentation, Connelia Houston challenges organizations to rethink how they view experienced talent. Drawing on more than 30 years in professional environments, she explores what happens when capable people stop seeing a meaningful future for themselves inside an organization—and what leaders can do about it.
Audience members leave with a new perspective on:
• Why experienced employees disengage even when they remain highly capable
• The organizational cost of overlooking institutional knowledge and experience
• How leaders can reconnect experienced talent to contribution, growth, and purpose
Ideal for HR leaders, people managers, executives, employee-resource groups, leadership conferences, and organizations navigating retention, succession, and multigenerational workplaces.
We like to believe our decisions are rational, intentional, and completely our own. But fear, expectations, old assumptions, people-pleasing, and even past success can quietly influence choices long before we realize it.
In this engaging and practical presentation, Connelia Houston helps audiences recognize the hidden forces shaping the decisions they make about their careers, leadership, relationships, and what comes next. Using relatable stories, humor, and actionable questions, she shows participants how to distinguish between a decision they are truly making and one being made for them by fear, habit, or someone else’s expectations.
Audience members leave better equipped to:
• Recognize the hidden influences affecting their decisions
• Identify where they may be operating from fear, habit, or outdated expectations
• Make clearer, more intentional choices about what comes next
Ideal for women’s leadership events, professional associations, conferences, retreats, and organizations focused on leadership development, career growth, and change.