We were lucky to catch up with Carol Enneking recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Carol thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Carol Enneking: A Legacy of Leadership, A Voice for Rebalance
Executive Experience. Transformational Impact. Human-Centered Insight.
I’m Carol Enneking—speaker, advisor, and author of The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom from Working Women for Success that Matters. I’ve spent more than three decades navigating the high-pressure worlds of corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, and global consulting. My journey spans six continents, 150+ organizations, and industries ranging from energy and finance to tech and healthcare.
My most recent executive role was Vice President of Talent Management, Learning, and Diversity for a $6B international building products company. I’ve led transformative work in operations, marketing, and HR, with a reputation for solving complex business challenges through people-first strategies.
Whether I was rebuilding cultures, scaling leadership pipelines, or aligning teams to strategy, one truth always emerged: the most ambitious professionals often feel the most out of alignment. And that’s where my work begins.
Author of The Rebalancing Act: Redefining Success That Matters
The Rebalancing Act isn’t just a book—it’s a rallying cry for professionals who are tired of chasing a version of success that leaves them burnt out and unfulfilled.
Through deeply personal insights and interviews with more than 70 women and men across industries and life stages, I explore the hidden traps of overachievement and the constant juggling act so many face. Readers recognize themselves in these stories—and discover practical strategies to rebalance their goals, energy, and expectations.
This isn’t about balance as a static endpoint. It’s about rebalancing as a dynamic, courageous practice—one that restores focus, fuels joy, and builds a life of enduring meaning.
Speaker. Storyteller. Rebalance Guide.
I’m not just a speaker—I’m a seasoned leader who has lived what I teach. I bring audiences into real conversations about leadership, identity, and the cost of always doing more.
My signature talk, The Rebalancing Act®, delivers a powerful mindset shift for ambitious professionals caught in the hustle spiral. I reframe rebalance as a leadership skill, not a luxury. With engaging storytelling, research-backed insights, and practical tools, I help teams and leaders reclaim clarity, boundaries, and purpose—without sacrificing performance.
I speak the language of business and the human experience. That’s why my message resonates across functions, industries, and levels—from C-suite leaders to rising talent. I don’t offer empty motivation. I offer a path forward.
Why I Do This Work
My purpose is simple: to be a difference-maker.
I help high-achieving people surrender the myth of perfection, trust in their path, and lead lives rooted in intention. Through rebalancing, they rediscover their energy, their voice, and their joy. That’s the kind of success that truly matters—and that’s the legacy I’m committed to helping others build.
Beyond the Stage: What Grounds Me
My greatest joy is my family—my husband Eric, our children Bradley and Bethany, my bonus daughter Alyssa, and our Great Pyrenees, Molly (a.k.a. the world’s best dog).
My favorite things? Faith, live music, chocolate, 70s and 80s song lyrics, trivia nights, meaningful travel, gift-giving, and gathering with the people I love.
These aren’t just hobbies. They’re a daily reminder of the kind of rebalance I help others create.
Carol, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m an author, advisor, and transformational speaker—here to ignite a new conversation about success, balance, and what it truly means to live a life that matters. As the author of The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom from Working Women for Success that Matters, I draw from more than 30 years of personal and professional experience—and the voices of dozens of women—to challenge the myth that “having it all” is the ultimate goal.
Driven professionals are often praised for their ambition, intelligence, and relentless drive. But beneath the accolades lies a quiet truth: the pursuit of everything often leaves us feeling like we’re not enough. We’re overbooked, overextended, and quietly burning out in the name of achievement. I’ve been there—and I’ve made it my mission to help others step off that treadmill and into something more fulfilling.
Through my speaking, I uncover the hidden traps high-achieving people fall into—perfectionism, people-pleasing, and performance pressure—and offer powerful, practical strategies to create space for what truly matters. My talks blend personal storytelling, deep insight, and audience-affirming humor to help professionals reconnect with their values, reset their priorities, and reshape their legacy.
Audiences don’t just listen—they see themselves in my stories. They leave not just inspired, but equipped to make meaningful changes. Because when we stop chasing balance and start practicing rebalancing, everything shifts.
Let’s transform the way we live and lead—one intentional choice at a time.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I suppose we don’t realize how strong we are until our strength is tested. I thought I was resilient, and thought I knew how to survive on my own, but when I went through a sudden divorce, my resilience was tested in ways I never thought possible. This was a bold decision because I don’t quit. And I detest failure. I grew up believing failure was not an option – ever. And I spent decades living my life exactly the way I thought I was supposed to…Get good grades, maintain a good reputation, go to college and graduate in four years, get a good job, get married, have children, buy a house in the suburbs, maybe with a white picket fence, and for good measure, have a pet. Check. Check. Check. I checked the boxes and life was going according to plan. Until it wasn’t. But even when it wasn’t, I wasn’t about to do anything as drastic as getting a divorce. After all, what would people think? And did people really ever have a happily ever after type of marriage? I was from a large family and no one had ever gotten divorced. I had many friends who had divorced, and while it didn’t bother me at all when others did that, for some reason I never thought I should do that. So I rationalized my unhealthy situation for years until I finally reached the turning point, knowing I could not continue.
The day we separated I knew everything would change. I needed to sell my company so I could have a stable paycheck and insurance benefits. College was looming for my kids and I thought the unpredictability of my entrepreneurial ventures would be too difficult to maintain. I was afraid. I knew I needed to sell my house, get a more stable job, and learn how to be a single mom. There were dark days when I felt completely overwhelmed. I worried about how a divorce would impact my kids, and I prayed. A lot. Surrendering to a higher power provided a peace that transcended my understanding. As I began to find peace, my friends remarked I looked better than I had in years. I was settling into my new normal. The love shown to me by my friends and family is what sustained me through the hardest days of my life to that point. Finally, I had made a brave decision. A decision that was totally for me. A decision that would change the trajectory of my life in ways I could not imagine. The road ahead was uncertain, to say the least. But it was also a chance to do things differently – to do things on my own terms.
This was over ten years ago, and the transformation that’s taken place since then has been profound. I went through tough times, as did my kids. There were times when I didn’t know how I would make ends meet ‘til payday. Between financial stress, job stress, and raising teenagers largely on my own, things were quite challenging.
But in the midst of all of that, my kids and I grew closer. I enjoyed the time we had together and there was a lot of love in our house even in the tough times. Eventually I found a good job and even found love again. I have been happily married to the love of my life for 7 years, and he is amazing! My husband cherishes me, and I cherish him.
My life is so different now than it was, and it is different than I ever expected it to be. Transforming from the person I thought I should be into the person I was truly meant to be has been more freeing, more fulfilling, and more fun than I could have ever imagined.
Three words that helped sustain me are surrender, trust, and faith. By surrendering my own plans, letting go of others’ expectations, and learning to be comfortable in not knowing how my future would play out, I was able to make room for the new and better things that were in store for me. In addition to surrendering, I learned to trust that good things would be ahead, and trust my instincts. I began to trust in my abilities, especially my ability to simply forge ahead. I trusted in the goodness of those who cared about me and cherished those relationships. And my faith helped sustain me through the tough times. I know my prayers have been answered and that out of a bad situation, good can follow – if we stay the course. I have watched my children grow into amazingly smart, resilient, productive adults. I have laughed with my husband and enjoyed more happiness than I ever thought possible. I even left the safety of my corporate job to embrace a new, exciting career.
Out of the worst time in my life came this amazing transformation I never knew I needed. Being resilient and living by these three words – surrender, trust, and faith – led me to a life I truly cherish.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” I believe this quote is attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt. I used to worry excessively about what everyone else thought and what they said about me. This quote really flipped that around for me. Why did I let their thoughts affect me so much? I was wrapped up in believing my self-worth was dependent on my accomplishments and if I wasn’t achieving, I felt I was ‘less than’ others. I learned to let this go, to embrace my imperfection, and to realize I am worthy, and I am enough. This has been critical to my career success. As a training facilitator for many years, my success was largely dependent on how others received my messages. So, I needed to know how they felt about my presentations. This feedback was important, and it is important to stay open to feedback. But it is also important to discern the difference between helpful, constructive feedback and that which is not. There are people who you will never please, and there are some who seem to thrive on tearing other people down. Learning to process this effectively and avoid letting it overwhelm or wreck me was important. This is even more important as people rise into leadership positions. Having leadership courage is important. People will not always agree with you or even like you, but if you have the right intentions, are fair, and handle difficult situations with respect and diplomacy, you can hold your head high knowing you made the best decision given the situation and your awareness at that time.
Along with that, I had to learn to say no and let go of letting everyone else’s expectations dictate how I spent my time. For years. I operated on the idea that if I was capable of doing something, I should do it. This often resulted in an overwhelming to do list, a feeling like I had to do everything for everyone else, and prioritizing myself last. I lived my life so filled with things to do that there was no time left to be fulfilled. Sadly, for me, it took a lot of health scares, including facing breast cancer, for me to finally learn to choose wisely and choose what matters. I had to say no to some things to be able to fully say yes to the things that matter most. By determining my own priorities, core values, and the legacy I want to leave in this world, I was able to say no – and mean it – without feeling guilty for letting others down. Doing so provided some much needed margin to focus on the inevitable ‘curve balls’ life can throw at us and be able to slow down enough to enjoy life around me.
Reframing these thought patterns led me to orchestrate my Rebalancing Act, which ultimately became the title of my book.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carolenneking.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carol.enneking/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolenneking/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroltenneking/
Image Credits
Photos by Megan Taylor Photography and Oxford Talks