About Us

Karen Bentlage is a lifelong entrepreneur, Certified EOS Implementer, leadership coach, and firm believer that business success should create a better life—not consume it. Having built, scaled, and sold three businesses, she brings firsthand experience to the challenges her clients face, from sleepless nights and growing pains to building strong leadership teams and creating lasting financial freedom.

Today, Karen helps entrepreneurs and their teams gain clarity, strengthen accountability, and build businesses that can thrive without depending on the owner for everything. Her approach combines practical business experience with candid conversations, thoughtful facilitation, and genuine care for the people in the room. She understands that growing a company and growing as a leader go hand in hand.

A longtime member of EO Connecticut and the chapter’s first female president, Karen is passionate about mentoring entrepreneurs and helping them see what’s possible. Her entrepreneurial journey is featured in The Everywhere Millionaire by economists Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick, and her European Wax Center experience has been the subject of a Yale MBA case study.

Karen’s work has also become a family endeavor: her daughter, Josie, now works alongside her, supporting clients and developing her own path toward becoming an EOS Implementer. Sharing that experience adds another meaningful dimension to a career built around helping others grow.

Outside of work, Karen is intentional about living the life she encourages her clients to create. Married to her husband, Twan, for 34 years, she treasures time with their two adult children, Dillon and Josie. With homes in Guilford, Connecticut, the Lake Winnipesaukee area of New Hampshire, and Utrecht in the Netherlands, where she and Twan were married, she enjoys travel, pickleball, golf, yoga, biking, and connecting with friends around the world.

Giving back remains central to Karen’s life. She supports the Boys & Girls Club of Lower Naugatuck Valley, schools and educational opportunities in Uganda through the Pearl Community Empowerment Foundation, and A More Balanced World, which helps students overcome financial barriers to education. She is passionate about opening doors for young people and helping them build brighter futures.

For Karen, success is about more than what you build or what you earn. It’s about having the freedom to choose how you spend your time, the people you share it with, and the difference you make along the way.

Josie Bentlage brings a different generation, perspective, and skill set to Bentlage Consulting, working alongside Karen in every stage of the client experience while developing her own path toward becoming an EOS Implementer.

Since October 2025, Josie has participated in every EOS session alongside Karen, serving as the scribe and helping Leadership Teams stay focused on the conversation rather than the notes. Behind the scenes, she manages client communication, gathers input from Leadership Team members ahead of sessions, coordinates preparation and follow-up, and serves as a go-to resource for the platforms and tools clients use to run EOS. The experience has become what she calls her “second MBA”—a front-row seat to conversations about leadership, accountability, people, priorities, and the realities of running a business.

Josie’s leadership experience began at European Wax Center, where she worked her way into a Regional Assistant Manager role. When COVID brought retail operations to an abrupt halt, it also unexpectedly changed the direction of her career. Despite having studied literature as an undergraduate, she decided to pursue graduate school and discovered a love for entrepreneurship and business.

While earning her MBA in Entrepreneurship and Certificate of Advanced Management from Babson College, Josie was simultaneously building her career in the technology and AI startup world. She joined an early-stage company as its tenth employee and first sales hire, helping build the sales function from the ground up. She eventually became an SDR Manager while continuing to manage smaller deals herself. The experience gave her firsthand exposure to the challenges of a growing company and a more recent perspective on sales, technology, management, and the way younger generations are approaching work. She has also completed training in conflict resolution through Unified Justice and a Mastery of Leadership and Communication workshop.

Naturally hyper-organized and highly tech-savvy, Josie loves taking something that feels overwhelming and turning it into something manageable. She isn't afraid to challenge Karen (and frequently does), bringing a different generational perspective to their work together. As she continues learning the EOS Process from inside the room, she's preparing to step into a larger role with clients and ultimately become an EOS Implementer herself.

Working together has also given Josie something she values beyond professional experience: more time with her family. Her parents are two of her best friends, and building something alongside Karen—and getting a lot more time with her dad, Twan, in the process—has made the experience especially meaningful.

Outside of work, Josie is happiest spending time with her dog, playing golf, pickleball or ping pong with friends, watching movies, playing games, or settling in for a great conversation. She also teaches pickleball at her local YMCA and has a particular soft spot for animals, with hopes of one day building a business that combines her entrepreneurial interests with her desire to help them.

For Josie, success is ultimately about helping people find clarity. She's drawn to the person whose mind is moving a thousand miles an hour—the endless to-do list, competing priorities, and feeling that there's always something else that needs attention. Whether in business or in life, she finds fulfillment in helping people sort through the noise, create structure, and find a little more peace. Her goal isn't simply to tell people what to do; it's to understand what they need and help them in the way that serves them best.