Barbara L Brooks

10/23/2026

Meet some folks from the Sundance Film Festival this Sunday as we welcome Emmy-winning filmmaker Dianne Myles to She's Got Drive. Women's Money + Life Summit, presented by the Sundance Institute.

Dianne launched Dope Mom Life in 2018 and grew it into a documentary company. She’s a Heartland Emmy winner, a 2025 Emmy nominee, and a three-time Gold Telly winner. She’s also proof that building a business in film takes as much money savvy as storytelling.

She joins Monica Miller of Sundance Institute to close our day with It’s Never Too Late for Your Close-Up as they cover how indie documentaries get funded, owning your seat at the table, and how to “fest” now that the Sundance Film Festival is headed to Boulder in 2027.

Before the credits roll, you get a full day on money, business, health, and AI that works for your income. Plus mimosas, DJ Cyn, free coaching, and pop-up shopping.

Sunday, October 25 | 9 am to 3 pm | Mercedes-Benz of Denver

Only 5 tickets left. secondactwomen.com/shesgotdrive

10/22/2026

Thirty women in tech. One long table at a restaurant in downtown Denver. And I'm speaking about the ageless and undocumented value we bring to our workplaces, especially in a male-dominated industry.

On Friday, November 6, I'm the featured speaker at the SheLeads Tech ISACA Denver Chapter Leadership Dinner.

The topic: Brené Brown's book Dare to Lead, which the ladies are reading before our night together, and it's a perfect complement to my talk, Own Your stAge.

Brené makes the case for courage as a skill we practice and not necessarily a trait we're born with. I believe that, but I also add that the most experienced woman in the room is often the quietest about what she knows. Meanwhile, emerging and mid-career women in an industry that can overshadow them tend to hold their big ideas close, waiting for the moment.

All of them. Different career stages and even different life stages, but moving the same. We fix things, catch AI gone wrong, mentor the new hire, are the new hire, and then let someone else present the win. I have done it. Humble? Sure. But that's keeping us from being seen for our worth.

Owning your stage takes the same idea Brené writes about. It's saying out loud what you bring, clearly and confidently.

What a beautiful night we're going to have together.

10/21/2026

60 Days INTO 60. I'm reversing course and talking about what it feels like (for me) to have entered an entirely new decade.

So far, so great. I'm not sure when the light switch turned on, but I feel enthused, joyful, and excited about my future in business, my company SecondActWomen, and my life.

I think it all started on October 7th when I celebrated my birthday journey with more than a few amazing women from Denver to NYC. My friends of over 30 years were there to cheer me on, and it only continued for days and days.

Before that day, I was in a slump. That's the power of friendship, love, and caring for one another that I wish for everyone.

So, what does it feel like to be 60? The same, only with exaggerated excitement for what's next.

10/15/2026

Holy cow! The post on LinkedIn about women 50+ in the workplace and age bias has blown up! In one day, it's hit over 750 likes and 100+ comments from women, men, and others.

Here's the link in case you can relate and want to hear what others are saying so you know you are not alone.

You're over 50, and you're out. Just like that, you're considered over the hill, outdated, not willing to continue learning, maybe even a technophobe. All myths, when really, today, we're not past our prime. We are IN our prime at 50 and beyond. Companies leaning into the bias will lose the plot. Mo...

10/14/2026

"Why Some Women Are Happier at 60 Than They Were at 40 — The 6 Quiet Beliefs They All Swear By"

What interesting times we live in, where we can proudly exclaim our age without doubt about what we bring to our world. And for me, only a week into 60, I feel exactly as I did at 59. Like me, but a wee bit more content, confident, and ready for freaking more!

Cheers! 🥂

https://graziamagazine.com/us/articles/why-some-women-are-happier-at-60-than-they-were-at-40-the-6-quiet-beliefs-they-all-swear-by/

10/07/2026

🥳 I'm 60 today, and yes, I fell for the AI magazine trap but also wanted to see an unknown woman [me] on a magazine cover (gray and all) because I wanted to see what 60 looks like, with matching headlines.

I say, not too shabby, Claudette and Gemini.

Sixty years in, I have been the new hire, the boss, founder, and advocate. Some of those chapters I planned; others showed up on my doorstep, asking to be let in. Those are the ones that taught me more than I thought I ever could.

Today I'm still building, still innovating, still curious, and still learning. As a matter of fact, sometimes say, if I had this yearning to learn more in college at Colorado State University, my GPA would have been even higher!

So, to everyone who has shown up in my career and life as a whole, I thank you and look forward to celebrating tonight at the girls' dinner and tomorrow night at Birch Road Clubhouses, where I will for sure have mixed-tape-style, old-school music playing.

Aging is living.

hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag

10/01/2026

Give me a stage and I'm on like Donkey Kong. Last week's speech had folks asking me, "Can you bring this to my team?" And of course the answer was, and is, yes.

In case you didn't know, I bring two keynotes and working sessions to companies, associations, and conferences based on 'generational dynamics,' -- Own Your stAge. Make Your Experience Impossible to Ignore and Five Generations and One Work Culture. Leverage Your Team to Boost the Bottom Line.

Both are hot topics for any leader or organization in a crunch to get their multigenerational people working better together.

Book a 2027 date by December 15 for your intergenerational team or women's group, and your attendees get Own Your stAge: The Workbook on me. It applies to both topics.

Scan the code or grab 20 minutes on my calendar to talk about your needs and how I might be able to help. [link below]

Your next event could just get a lot more interesting..

09/29/2026

Age. We have to stop thinking that because someone is a certain age, they can't get the work done. THEY CAN and most often, better than they did when they were younger.

Of course Whitley (Jasmine Guy) has aged. WE ALL HAVE, and that is a good thing. It means we are alive -- literally, and the internet trolls should be ashamed of themselves for going after her for aging instead of relishing in her acting chops.

A Different World debuted in September of 1987. 39 years ago. 39 years.

What did the world think or expect Jasmine, Kadeem, Cree, and Daryl to look like? Really. That's the question we should be asking because, of course, they aged in 39 years. Of course they (we) look different from our 20-year-old selves. The point shouldn't be about looks. Dangit! Yet, it always comes down to that when it should be about talent. Full stop.

Since when do looks hinder work? Correct. They don't.

Culture needs to stop placing value on how we look or should look at ANY age. Can we get the job done? Of course we can, regardless.

So, to the trolls. Mind your business. It’s getting done 39 years later, and done well.

09/28/2026

Ahhhh. AI. It can write the answer in four seconds, but what's forgotten is that it takes somebody to still know whether it's wrong. I mean, I have caught my Claudette giving me bad stats, only to have the critical thinking to know something wasn't right with the number.

I don't believe AI will make the years of experience we've built obsolete but rather needed. After all, I say it time and time again. We are the "I" in AI, and we can spot the mistakes as confidently as our machines want to deliver them to us. We simply can't prompt our way out of the undocumented things we know, we've experienced, we've provided solutions to.

To me, it's the organizations and workplace teams in the room that can catch the errors before our customers ever do. So trimming down your staff to save a buck or two can actually cost a company thousands of dollars, if not millions, without human intervention and institutional knowledge.

This is at the heart of what I preach – the Return on Experience we bring to every situation, workplace, and culture. The more machines do the work, I believe the more need for people who can sense something is just not right.
So take a look around. Who's checking the machine's work? If seasoned talent is in that loop, who's been around long enough to recognize when trouble is missing -- I'd say there's a real gap.

09/25/2026

Make your experience impossible to ignore. It's what I say. It's what I do. It's what I share, and it's never more important than today to "be seen" more to gain that next opportunity.

16 days to 60 were spent on stage sharing your experience; it's never more important to share your value outwardly than today. Your resume will not be the only thing that gets you in the right rooms, opening the right doors for you to enter. It's that and then some. It's, you guessed it, if you know me. Visibility.

Visibility is NOT Vanity, folks, and it was my killer until I said yes to me. Yes, that I would start showing up and sharing what I know. I ignited my own flame.

We can't rely solely on what we've done to get ahead. Your experience on paper needs to be paired with sharing your knowledge, what you bring to the project, and your next job inside those same rooms. Because what may stand in your way is your age, when in actuality, that's what's gotten you where you are -- your ROE! Return on Experience under that chapter number.

Thank you to South Metro Denver Chamber and Nikita Jhaveri for thinking I'd be one of the right women to hit the stage. It was my pleasure.

And to those attending, THAT was showing your visibility up, y'all! I was so happy to be there with you, and thank you to those with kind words afterward.