Executive Conversations: Carolyn Homberger’s Story

After almost 20 years in increasingly demanding corporate leadership positions with a diverse range of responsibilities, Carolyn Homberger found herself in the one position she never imagined: not working and questioning what she wanted to do next. Her choice: create her own version of a portfolio career, comprised of a corporate role, as President, Americas, of Featurespace, and owner of an Athletic Republic franchise in Naples, Florida, where she lives with her family.

Homberger began her career in GE’s Financial Management Program, which she describes as a “fantastic place” to get grounded in the basics of business. After four rotations in the program, she sought out a role as a finance leader, although by her own admission, it was the subject in which she was least adept in business school. “Finance is the language of business,” she says of her choice.

Post a brief stint leading finance for a U.S. Sales Region at St. Jude Medical, her acquired fluency brought her to payment systems company ACI Worldwide. There, Homberger’s roles ran the gamut from finance, operational and P&L leadership roles to leading global enterprise risk management, her last role when she left in 2021.

In her conversation with us, Homberger shared insights and advice for leaders looking to make a change, as well as for companies about how to think about the increasingly commonplace “gig economy” mindset and what it means for their executives.

Learn, Always

Homberger embraced learning as essential to both professional and personal success, starting with her commitment to “not just learn finance, but to master it.” When thinking about becoming a business owner, she engaged with a franchise consultant – “I didn’t know such a thing even existed,” she says – developing a level of knowledge that empowered her to feel confident about her decision.

During the year in between leaving ACI and joining Featurespace, she embraced a learning mindset. “It’s important to lean into it even in your restorative time, the idea of being a perpetual student.”

Business lessons are also life lessons

The lessons that serve you well at work will also serve you well in life, believes Homberger. Some examples: applying a “Six Sigma” mindset to relieve oneself of the pressure of absolute perfection; building the best teams to help you; and being willing to try things out without fully committing.

At work, one might call the latter endeavors pilots, she says. She thinks pilots can play an equally important role in testing things out in one’s personal life, seeing them as “things you put on your bucket list.”

“You don’t always have to go all in, and it’s ok if it doesn’t end up being something that you stay with beyond the trial period,” she says. During her year of exploration, she dedicated herself to re-learning the viola, an instrument she had played in high school. While she enjoyed playing as part of her church’s Christmas orchestra, it’s not something she plans to keep on pursuing.

Be your own advocate

As Homberger sought to transition from a finance role into a business one, she says she had to think about putting her own interests first. It can be hard to reinvent yourself at the same time the company itself is going through dramatic change, she cautions.

She again had to be reminded to put herself first when she transitioned out of ACI Worldwide. “One of the best of pieces of advice I got was ‘Carolyn, you really earned the right to do what you want to do, not just necessarily where the company needs you. Think about and prioritize that,’” she recalls.

Build your own board

Throughout her career, Homberger has always had her own personal “board of directors’’ – a group she advises limiting to at most seven people. It has always included mentors as well as her husband. While living in Naples, which she notes is full of retirees, she was able to find people who exemplified her belief that “you get three careers.”

“I wanted to see how these people who had been through more than one transition made it work,” she says. “I found people who had a type of experience I hadn’t encountered or needed before.”

It was through this process that she discovered a portfolio career would suit her best. “It really resonated with me because we've obviously seen a lot about gig work, and I thought, `Maybe I can still have a corporate career, but I can equally have something that is a personal passion.’”

Homberger developed a list of criteria important to her in the next role. Included on that list was owning a small business and having something that tied her more to the community while also giving back to it. She landed on Athletic Republic, which she describes as “a data-oriented fitness franchise concept that does sports performance training for kids as well as adults.”

Take advantage of tools and assets

She also immersed herself in LHH’s ICEO process, she says, doing everything from taking a battery of assessments to better understand herself, to learning how better to leverage LinkedIn, how to build a board profile, and availing herself of various peer learning opportunities – ad hoc or otherwise. “I really learned some things about myself,” she says of the ICEO process. “It forced me to ask myself some questions around what truly, intrinsically motivated me versus just work for the sake of work.”

Portfolio work isn’t for everyone

Homberger acknowledges that portfolio work won’t suit every person. “I’ve always been a careful risk taker, but this is the biggest risk I’ve ever taken,” she says. Not everyone is comfortable with the risk of owning a business after the relative safety of a salaried, corporate job. She advises anyone with outside professional interests to be candid and transparent with employers.

A few months after opening the gym, Homberger went to work for Featurespace, pursuing her parallel dreams of being a business owner and a corporate leader. Building a strong leadership team at the gym and getting buy-in from both Featurespace’s CEO and its founder were key to making the parallel paths possible, according to Homberger. She advises that anyone doing so must take care that neither the employer nor the business gets shortchanged.

She admits that not all employers would give the kind of support that Featurespace has. “I completely understand that some organizations need to be far more structured,” she says. “But I do think that when people have choices, they feel more intrinsically motivated and willing to give and do more and feel like they're in control of their time.”

As this gig mindset becomes more widespread among business leaders, she encourages companies to consider how they can adapt and benefit.

One role can inform the other

Homberger believes that one role can help inform the other, beyond accumulating and applying knowledge sequentially. When her Athletic Republic franchise was targeted for a phishing scam, she saw it as an opportunity to get real-time insights around scam prevention for Featurespace clients.

“I spent 45 minutes pinging back and forth with whoever my scammer was, trying to understand what merchant processors they were targeting and how they were exploiting time gaps in payment processing, so I could share these insights with existing and prospective Featurespace clients,” she recalls. “It was really amazing.”

Be yourself in all places

At this stage of her life and career, Homberger says there is no difference between who she is at home, in her corporate job, or as a business owner. “One of the most important decisions that I made for this chapter was that I just really wanted to be me in all three places,” she says. “I’ve worked in some tough corporate environments, and I had to put on armor to go to work. Now, I can just be who I am. That’s when I am at my best.”

Carolyn Homberger shared her story as part of ICEO’s Executive Conversation Series, a speaker series highlighting leaders who have navigated major career pivots, bringing to life the range of possibilities for executive career journeys. Discover the rest of the series here.

Learn more about ICEO’s portfolio of support for executives and senior leaders at www.lhh.com/iceo.