Naeemah Elias

I attribute my success to a blend of lived experience, discipline, community, and an unshakable belief that people can rise when they are seen and supported. I started my career as an actress, which taught me to read a room, understand human behavior, and communicate with presence. Storytelling became my foundation.

When I moved into corporate finance, I brought those skills with me and built a reputation for clarity, partnership, and people development. Growing up in poverty on the South Side of Chicago shaped my work ethic and made me resourceful. It also helped me understand what it means to navigate spaces that were not built for you. That outsider perspective became a strength instead of a barrier.

Throughout my 13 years in finance, I coached and mentored thousands of employees while leading complex operational initiatives. I saw firsthand that career mobility is not only a business strategy but an equity issue. Helping build a Talent Marketplace that placed employees into new roles instead of layoffs showed me what is possible when organizations choose people outcomes.

When I was later laid off, I made a decision that changed my life. I stopped dividing my time between coaching and corporate work and committed fully to helping others navigate transition, visibility, and leadership. That clarity helped me build a business rooted in impact, equity, and thriving as an outsider.

My success also comes from disciplined structure. I design my week intentionally to balance strategy, workshops, coaching, and rest. Burnout is not a requirement for excellence. It is a warning sign I learned to respect early.

Some of my proudest moments include speaking to 9,000 women at the Texas Conference for Women and delivering my TEDx Roxbury talk. Both experiences affirmed that my voice, my story, and my path resonate with people who are searching for possibility. My academic background in psychology gave me language to understand systems. My lived experience taught me how those systems shape people. The combination is what fuels my work today.

Create your own stages. Visibility translates to power and opportunity.

My advice to young women entering this industry is to operate in your zone of genius, even if you start small. I built my coaching and consulting practice over 13 years while working in corporate America, which gave me time to learn and move strategically. Don’t deny your true calling. Equity, visibility, and honest conversations about power can feel uncomfortable, but discomfort is often the price of progress. My focus is simple: reach more people, expand networks, and elevate lives through clarity, communication, and opportunity.

One of the biggest challenges in my field is resistance from companies to trainings focused on navigating “from the outside.” There’s often a misconception that these programs are about targeting specific groups or reinforcing stereotypes, when in reality they help any professional who feels disconnected or experiences imposter syndrome. Organizations can also hesitate because equity initiatives sometimes take a back seat to other priorities, and funding may be limited. At the same time, this challenge presents an opportunity: to educate companies on the value of inclusion, show that career mobility benefits everyone, and create systems that support talent from all backgrounds.

Community is at the heart of both my work and personal life. I’m actively involved with organizations like Tomorrow’s Women Today, Boston While Black, Innovation Women, and Entreprenista. I’m deeply committed to giving back, offering workshops and trainings to underrepresented communities at reduced rates or on an honorarium basis, because access to opportunities and knowledge should never be a luxury.