Clara Lucia Jaramillo-Carrier, M.A., PCC, is an executive and leadership coach, consultant, speaker, author, and founder of Breaking Through Consulting & Coaching. Her work explores the human being underneath leadership—and what happens to the way we think, communicate, and lead when pressure takes over.
Clara Lucia believes we have become dangerously disconnected from our own imperfect and beautiful humanity. Through executive coaching, leadership development, organizational culture work, and speaking, she creates the awareness and space for people to see and embrace who they are, recognize the beliefs and patterns shaping their behavior, reconnect with what matters, and intentionally choose how they want to live and lead.
Her approach goes beneath leadership techniques to the human experiences, pressures, fears, assumptions, values, and sense of purpose influencing how people show up. She brings humanity and accountability together, enabling leaders to navigate pressure with greater attention and intention, strengthen communication and trust, and make choices that honor both themselves and the impact they want to create with others.
A Colombian-American immigrant with a bilingual and bicultural perspective, Clara Lucia brings particular insight into identity, belonging, achievement, adaptation, visibility, and leadership across cultures. She holds a Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership and Coaching and is a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation.
Across more than 20 years of corporate, nonprofit, and organizational leadership experience, Clara Lucia has worked with leaders and organizations including McDonald’s, Ferrara Candy Company, Shake Shack, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Heineken, Eli Lilly and Company, AdventHealth, Ronald McDonald House Charities, the Valley Industrial Association, The Morton Arboretum, and the Westmont Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau.
Clara Lucia is also the author of PURPOSE and the creator of the Breaking Through Method. Her work advances a larger purpose: awakening humanity in the marketplace by bringing the human being back into leadership.
2 topics · no fee, no honorarium, no mileage
Review available topics below. Use the “Request This Free Speech” button and fill out the contact form. Clara Lucia contacts you to discuss the details of the request.
We are working harder than ever—yet trust is lower, relationships are strained, and leaders are exhausted. Today’s productivity culture rewards speed, output, and performance at the expense of presence, discernment, and humanity. The result is unnecessary suffering: fear-based decisions, fractured communication, and leadership that reacts instead of leads.
This session challenges the myth that more pressure produces better results. Participants will explore how chronic urgency narrows thinking, erodes empathy, and fuels chaos in teams and organizations. Through grounded insights and practical tools, leaders learn that reconnecting with purpose and values is a strategic choice—one that restores clarity, strengthens relationships, and enables sustainable, high-impact leadership without burnout.
Leadership today is not failing because of a lack of talent or intelligence—it’s being strained by chronic pressure, fear-driven thinking, and disconnection from what makes us human. In environments that reward speed, certainty, and constant performance, leaders often lose access to their most powerful resource: a grounded, positive mindset that creates clarity, perspective, and empathy.
This session reframes positive mindset as a leadership discipline—not cheerfulness, denial, or motivational talk, but the ability to choose thoughts, perspectives, and responses that expand capacity rather than contract it. Participants explore how mindset directly shapes leadership presence, relationships, and decision-making—and how reconnecting with purpose and humanity restores effectiveness, trust, and resilience in today’s complex world.
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