Meet Catlin O’Shaughnessy Coffrin, the Founder and CEO of Captivating Consulting, LLC. She’s on a mission to help accomplished women reclaim their voices and navigate pivotal moments in their career with confidence.
Catlin’s journey to founding Captivating Consulting began with her own mid-career identity crisis. After 15 years of climbing the ranks in Washington, D.C., she realized that she was no longer fulfilled by following someone else’s path. The desire for more time with her family and a deeper sense of purpose led her to leave her corporate job in 2020. Harnessing her expertise in developing brand strategies, she redefined her identity—an experience that now fuels her passion for helping other women do the same.
In our conversation, Catlin shares the story behind Captivating Consulting, the lessons she’s learned along the way, and how her evolving definition of success continues to inspire women to reconnect with their true selves.
Tell us the story behind your company’s founding. How and why did you start working on Captivating Consulting?
My company grew out of my mid-career identity crisis. After rising in the ranks in Washington, D.C. for 15 years, building a family and doing everything on time and according to plan, I felt as if I woke up one day and discovered that I had no idea who I was or what I wanted anymore.
I had thrown myself into my career. And then sometime after my second daughter arrived, my relationship with work shifted. I no longer wanted to give all of my best energy to my colleagues and my company. I craved more time to focus on my family and myself. And I felt like I was capable of more than what I was doing.
But when I tried to envision what I wanted to do, I came up blank. It was as if all those years giving myself over to work and to others left me completely devoid of my own personal identity. Ultimately, I used the tools and frameworks I had learned to help companies define their identities to find those answers for myself.
The process of branding myself was difficult, uncomfortable, and very profound. I knew I couldn’t be the only woman dealing with these challenges in the middle of their career. So I ultimately decided to build a company designed to help others through the same challenges. Five years later, my business is thriving and growing as I refine my offering and expand my ability to help others. It is everything and nothing that I could have expected, and I absolutely love it.
What problem does Captivating Consulting solve?
Fundamentally, I am working to reverse the longtime corporate norm of telling women to be less themselves in order to succeed at work. We are told from a very young age to stand out less, listen to others more, work hard to fit in and smooth our edges, and change who we are in order to succeed in a world that is designed for others.
We strip girls of their knowledge of themselves and, as they rise in the ranks of success, we take away their ability to hear their own voices and know their own spectacular worth.
By creating a space, process, and methodology whereby women can explore where they come from, how they got here, and all of the hard-fought wisdom they have earned along the way—and then organizing and presenting this back to them with their own words—I am giving women both the chance to rediscover and redefine who they are.
What makes Captivating Consulting different from other similar companies in the industry?
Most of the resources for personal branding that are currently available tend to focus on implementation: how you get seen where you want to be and how you say the things that will generate the greatest likes and visibility. As a result, much of what’s out there feels noisy, self-important, and inauthentic.
I believe that’s all wrong. My approach focuses on quiet, deep exploration. I carefully examine who you’ve always been and how that emerges and manifests in who you are today and where you may go in the future. When it’s done right, personal brand strategy is a process that makes you feel more grounded in who you are—not less. It provides anything you may choose to do or say as you move forward a sense of purpose.
Fundamentally, I am working to reverse the longtime corporate norm of telling women to be less themselves in order to succeed at work.
Has your definition of success evolved throughout your journey as a founder?
Absolutely and very profoundly. When I started in 2020, I quickly came to see that I had come to externalize my definition of success to a very deep and troubling degree. It makes sense. I grew in my career by having a keen understanding of what others—whether bosses, companies, or clients—expected from me, and then meeting or exceeding those expectations. In my old company, we were always pursuing growth for the sake of growth—any new win was followed by an intense focus on how to get 10 more. There was never an endpoint. Enough was never enough. It felt like an endless cycle of pursuit.
Working for myself has required me to set all of this aside and recalibrate my expectations for myself. How much do I want to earn? How much do I need to be successful? What is the right balance of effort versus impact and dedication versus freedom? These answers look very different for every founder, and require a profound level of self-knowledge and understanding.
What would you tell your younger self if you were to start your entrepreneurial journey all over again?
Don’t waste your time listening to people who haven’t been down this road. People are always threatened by those who have the guts to do what they have never done. Choose your mentors and your target customers carefully, and drown out the noise from all the rest.
What’s next for you and Captivating Consulting?
I want to reach as many women as possible, especially those from marginalized communities and backgrounds, through partnership and creative offerings. I am looking to be inspired as I explore and innovate in this direction. I look forward to big things in 2025.
