Member since October 2021
Carolyn Brooks-Collins is a keynote speaker, organizational performance strategist, transformational coach, and former CPA with more than 45 years of corporate experience spanning compliance, risk management, process improvement, financial accountability, and organizational leadership.
Carolyn speaks at the intersection of people, performance, and purpose.
For organizations, she challenges leaders to look beyond traditional training and ask a more important question: Are we truly investing in the people we expect to drive performance? Drawing on decades of experience leading cross-functional initiatives, she helps organizations explore how leadership, employee voice, recognition, development, and culture influence performance.
For women, Carolyn speaks to accomplished, high-achieving women who have spent years succeeding, leading, caregiving, and meeting everyone else's expectations—only to discover they have lost sight of what they want for themselves. Her Successful But Unseen message challenges women to reclaim their voice, confidence, and purpose and intentionally create their next chapter.
Known for combining practical insight with personal storytelling, Carolyn leaves audiences with more than inspiration. She challenges them to examine what is working, recognize what needs to change, and take meaningful action.
Her message is simple: Don't let your age be your cage—and don't let past success determine the limits of what's possible next.
Women’s Leadership | Organizational Performance | Investing in People | Employee Engagement | Confidence & Purpose | Financial Confidence | Life & Career Transitions | Women 50+
When Did You Realize You Weren't in Control of Your Own Life?
For me, that moment came at 55.
Three years earlier, I had lost my husband to cancer. Seven months after his death, I left a consulting position that required significant travel and joined a company because, after so much change in my personal life, I wanted one thing: stability.
Three years later, our department of approximately 70 employees was being outsourced, with only about 20 positions remaining.
We were given a week to decide whether we wanted to stay in the department, pursue another position within the company, or leave. I chose to pursue other opportunities and interviewed for 25 positions in five days.
Then came Friday.
One by one, we met with HR and received a sealed envelope telling us what the company had decided for us.
After 25 interviews and two weeks of uncertainty, my future was sitting inside an envelope.
I remember feeling like a puppet—as though someone else was holding the strings to my life.
My envelope contained an opportunity to remain with the company in another role. I accepted it, eventually sold my home, and relocated to another city.
But the experience stayed with me.
I had come to that company seeking stability, only to discover that stability and control are not the same thing.
And eventually I had to confront a harder question: How much of my life had been shaped by circumstances, responsibilities, expectations, and the needs of others rather than by what I actually wanted?
That's a question I now challenge other women to ask themselves.
We can't control everything that happens in our lives. But I believe every woman deserves to have a voice in the direction of her own life—to know what she wants, make intentional choices, and stop handing the strings to everyone and everything around her.
Who's holding the strings in your life?
For more than 45 years, I built a successful career in accounting, leadership, compliance, fraud prevention, and risk management. I earned advanced degrees, professional certifications, and recognition for my work. By most measures, I had been successful.
But somewhere along the way, I realized I had become very good at doing what was expected of me—at work, for my family, and for others—without stopping to ask myself an important question: What do I want now?
As I reflected on my own journey and began speaking with other accomplished women, I discovered I wasn't alone. So many of us had built successful careers, raised families, supported others, and checked the boxes of success, yet quietly felt unseen, unfulfilled, or disconnected from the women we had become.
That realization changed the direction of my work.
Today, as a keynote speaker and transformational coach, I help high-achieving women recognize when they have become Successful But Unseen—sometimes even to themselves—and reclaim their voice, confidence, and sense of purpose.
My mission is to help women stop simply living the life they've built and intentionally create the life they want next—becoming as fulfilled on the inside as they appear successful on the outside.
When Did You Realize You Weren't in Control of Your Own Life?
For me, that moment came at 55.
Three years earlier, I had lost my husband to cancer. Seven months after his death, I left a consulting position that required significant travel and joined a company because, after so much change in my personal life, I wanted one thing: stability.
Three years later, our department of approximately 70 employees was being outsourced, with only about 20 positions remaining.
We were given a week to decide whether we wanted to stay in the department, pursue another position within the company, or leave. I chose to pursue other opportunities and interviewed for 25 positions in five days.
Then came Friday.
One by one, we met with HR and received a sealed envelope telling us what the company had decided for us.
After 25 interviews and two weeks of uncertainty, my future was sitting inside an envelope.
I remember feeling like a puppet—as though someone else was holding the strings to my life.
My envelope contained an opportunity to remain with the company in another role. I accepted it, eventually sold my home, and relocated to another city.
But the experience stayed with me.
I had come to that company seeking stability, only to discover that stability and control are not the same thing.
And eventually I had to confront a harder question: How much of my life had been shaped by circumstances, responsibilities, expectations, and the needs of others rather than by what I actually wanted?
That's a question I now challenge other women to ask themselves.
We can't control everything that happens in our lives. But I believe every woman deserves to have a voice in the direction of her own life—to know what she wants, make intentional choices, and stop handing the strings to everyone and everything around her.
Who's holding the strings in your life?
For more than 45 years, I built a successful career in accounting, leadership, compliance, fraud prevention, and risk management. I earned advanced degrees, professional certifications, and recognition for my work. By most measures, I had been successful.
But somewhere along the way, I realized I had become very good at doing what was expected of me—at work, for my family, and for others—without stopping to ask myself an important question: What do I want now?
As I reflected on my own journey and began speaking with other accomplished women, I discovered I wasn't alone. So many of us had built successful careers, raised families, supported others, and checked the boxes of success, yet quietly felt unseen, unfulfilled, or disconnected from the women we had become.
That realization changed the direction of my work.
Today, as a keynote speaker and transformational coach, I help high-achieving women recognize when they have become Successful But Unseen—sometimes even to themselves—and reclaim their voice, confidence, and sense of purpose.
My mission is to help women stop simply living the life they've built and intentionally create the life they want next—becoming as fulfilled on the inside as they appear successful on the outside.
