Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business 1423: From Public Servant to Social Impact CEO w/ Carolyn Berg
In this powerful episode, Brian sits down with Carolyn Berg, a former civil engineer and public servant turned entrepreneur who is tackling society's most complex challenges. Carolyn shares her incredible journey from a stable government career to launching Koble Collaborative, a firm dedicated to helping communities solve massive issues like water scarcity, affordable housing, and climate resilience through facilitation and strategy. This episode is a masterclass in purpose-driven entrepreneurship, showing how you can build a thriving business by bridging gaps, fostering trust, and unifying diverse groups toward a common goal. Carolyn’s story proves that the most impactful entrepreneurs are often the ones who listen more than they talk and build connections before they build solutions.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
- How to find your entrepreneurial spirit in unexpected places (even a 16-year public service career).
- The superpower of deep listening and why you should solicit ideas long before creating solutions.
- A framework for tackling complex, multi-stakeholder problems that no single organization can solve alone.
- How to overcome the imposter syndrome that comes with forging a non-traditional entrepreneurial path.
- Why the hardest problems in business aren't technical—they're about getting people and organizations aligned.
- How to evolve your business model by listening to your clients' deeper needs and expanding your services.
- The strategic importance of naming your company to anchor its purpose and mission.
📝 About Carolyn Berg
Carolyn Berg is the founder and CEO of Koble Collaborative, a firm that empowers communities to tackle complex challenges. A licensed civil engineer with over 20 years of experience, Carolyn spent 16 years in public service leading multi-agency partnerships on regional initiatives in water, housing, and climate resilience. She built a career bringing diverse stakeholders together to solve problems that no single organization could solve alone, and she now channels that expertise into her own venture, helping leaders move from a shared vision to real-world implementation.
🎯 Carolyn’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Learn to listen to that deeper voice, kind of your deeper heart, and go beyond the fears you might have, beyond your ego, and listen deeply to where your intuition is leading you."
📢 Memorable Quotes
- "I recognized the hardest problem was never the technical aspects of it…the barrier was alignment. So bringing organizations and people and communities into the safe and trusted space where they could make decisions together.” – Carolyn Berg
- “I think it's an example of how we can step into hard problems… knowing I don't know all the answers, and certainly I'm going to need the strength of many to be involved in this process.” – Carolyn Berg
- "Building connection is at the heart of everything we do. And that deals with building connection across our own team, with our clients and the communities they serve, across ideas and sectors." – Carolyn Berg
🔗 Links & Resources