Why a PayPal Executive Walked Away to Lead Differently – Farah Hussain

Farah Hussain spent more than a decade building a successful career at PayPal. From the outside, her trajectory looked like momentum. Promotions. Influence. Global impact.

But internally, something had shifted.

In this episode, Farah shares the moment that changed everything. A quiet realization during a coaching session that made the burnout disappear and revealed the work she truly wanted to do.

We talk about the myth of corporate meritocracy, the emotional cost of high performance, and what happens when leaders stop benchmarking their success against everyone else.

Farah now helps founders and executives become more effective leaders by starting with something most organizations ignore: self-awareness.

This conversation is about purpose, clarity, and the courage to choose a different path.

Enjoy!

Stay connected with Farah Hussain
Website: https://coachingwithfarah.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farahhussain/

The Pivotal Leader: https://coachingwithfarah.substack.com/

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Transcript

Brian Aquart (00:22)
Hello, and thanks for tuning in to this episode of Why I Left. What happens when a high achieving executive at one of the world's biggest tech companies decides it's time to walk away? Not because she had to, but because she wanted more. In today's episode, I welcome Farah Hussain. We explore what it takes to pivot with purpose, reimagine leadership, and embrace a different kind of success. Let's go check it out.

Brian Aquart (00:49)
All right, welcome back. So our guest today is Farah Hussain, a Fortune 200 executive turned leadership coach. After nearly 20 years as an operator, including a decade plus career building marketing strategy and scaling global teams at PayPal, Farah made the bold decision to leave corporate life and dedicate herself to helping leaders drive high impact change, starting from the inside out. With over 700 hours of coaching experience,

and a client roster dedicated to early and growth stage startup executives, Farah now leads with a mission rooted in oneness, transformation, and impact. She's been featured in Forbes and spoken at global conferences like Money 2020. She is the author of the Pivotal Leader on Substack, and her story is a powerful, very powerful reminder that the biggest pivots often begin within. So Farah, welcome to Why I Left. How you doing?

Farah Hussain (01:44)
Good, it's Sunny here and I'm well. Thanks for having me.

Brian Aquart (01:48)
Absolutely. I love what you were doing. So much alignment with what your topic is and how you're helping leaders. And I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your sub stack as well. And so now here you are.

I would love to start by just taking us, having you take us back to the beginning. What were some early influences that really shaped your approach to leadership and work?

Farah Hussain (02:10)
Hmm. You know, this question makes me think of one particular person in my life. This last, this past summer, I lost my uncle, who was one of the founders of our Muslim community here in Boston, where I've grown up. And one of the reasons why he comes to mind for me is he was one of the most unassuming people, but he was so committed.

to creating a place of belonging, to creating a place where people could gather and where people could feel like they were included. He taught so many people in our Sunday school, kids who did not want to be there every Sunday, but he was committed to creating that space for them to learn, to have that sense of belonging.

knowing that the impact that he was having on them may not, he may not even realize until well beyond the time that he's gone. And so he, my own parents, a lot of the other community members that we had are really who taught me what servant leadership is. I didn't learn it in a Harvard Business Review article. I did not learn it in any of the corporate

leadership development trainings that I went through, through all of my time in corporate, I really saw it in this space that was outside of the dominant, predominantly white, non-Muslim environment that I grew up in through school and also through work. And so when I think about how that influenced me as a leader, when I was in corporate and even today, was it's always been important to me

to create a space of belonging for people. And I don't think I even realized where that value came from, but it really did come back all the way to my beginning and almost this, I don't want to call it an oasis necessarily, but it was kind of like this safe space where I wasn't a minority as I was in most of the other spaces that I was in.

Brian Aquart (04:16)
And I appreciate you sharing that and my condolences to you and your family. It always takes that person to kind of bring in folks together that really leaves that mark. You mentioned something, especially as it relates to your community. Your daughter of immigrants, woman of color in tech, how did those identities really shape your experience in the corporate environments that you referenced?

Farah Hussain (04:39)
Well, first I would say for most of my career, I really believed that work was a meritocracy. It was rough to learn that it wasn't. But I think that that perspective largely came from the fact that I grew up in a family that came to this country with a belief in the American dream, which I would say was alive and well in the late 60s when my dad came here.

Brian Aquart (04:48)
You

Farah Hussain (05:04)
in the early 80s when my dad came here, where the premise was that if you put your head down and you work hard, you can create the life that you want. And so I absolutely took that into my own career, particularly corporate career, because that was a path to financial security that I was drawn to, that I always just grew up believing I would be a part of.

And so, yeah, I put my head down. I worked hard. I did grow throughout my career. Although what I will say is, I think one of the things that kept me so focused, one, was this value of community. How can I grow so that I can be a model for the people coming after me in my own community? And I think...

I think what also helped me grow in my corporate career was that I really kept my professional and my personal identities separate, which is not something that I would advocate for today. But in some ways, because I almost lived this double life where my weekdays were in these predominantly white, not Muslim communities, putting my head down, working hard, and then the weekends were for being a part of these smaller communities.

my Muslim community, my South Asian community, my identities were always so separate that coming to work just felt like why would I bring my personal identity to this identity because it is very natural for them to be separate. And if work is a meritocracy, those personal identity markers don't matter. What matters is what I'm bringing to the table, how I'm treating people, what I'm producing.

Those things really influenced my mindset around work and really what kept me focused for most of those years.

Brian Aquart (06:50)
And I'm sure a lot of people hearing that, will be able to, to resonate with that. And I'm sure some of them are probably in those spaces right now, right? Can, because you do have to have that, that delicate balance, especially as a person of color, a woman of color, right? So I hear a lot of that in some of the conversations I've had as well. so this show we talk about career pivots, big transitions, all of those things. And so you ended up leaving a role.

So what was the turning point that made you say, it's time to leave the corporate world and start something new? And if you wouldn't mind, tell us kind of when you left and where you left from.

Farah Hussain (07:26)
Yeah, sure. So I had been at PayPal for over a decade when I left and I really had no intention of ever starting my own business and going off on my own. And I think a lot of that is from those early influences, this desire for financial security, this understanding that being on a corporate path could give you that. So I do want to share that I had absolutely no intention of ever doing this, but that turning point that you're talking about

really was a moment of clarity for me. And I still remember the day and the time. It was October 13th, 2022. I was in a coaching session with a client because I was coaching on the side while I was at PayPal. It was a hobby. I just did it for fun. I was in that session. I was in the depths of burnout. At this point, we were over two years into the pandemic.

working from home, isolated in so many ways. And I also had just been at PayPal for so many years and gone through so much change from when we spun off, we went public on our own. I used to take the initiative to take on a new role every couple of years. And so I was just tired, physically, mentally, emotionally tired. But I was in this session with this guy. And when I got off of the Zoom and got

up from my chair, walked to my kitchen, I realized that in that hour, the entire world had disappeared. There was no burnout in that hour. That was the moment of clarity that there was something here that I wanted to, one, honor, but two, lean more into.

And then it was, there was a second point that was kind of just the moment of clarification for me. And then it was October 25th, which coincidentally happened to be the day that I got COVID for the first time. But I remember that day too, I just felt so grounded in myself and having sat with this moment of clarity for the couple of weeks before. Something just said to me, you are meant to be doing this.

You have no idea where it's going to lead, but you are meant to be doing this and you will never know what it could be unless you go for it full time.

Brian Aquart (09:39)
love that and good for you for listening to that vision and just moving it forward. And what I think I'd love for you to explore too is this piece around, you mentioned you didn't ever think you'd be leaving PayPal. And to be honest, you were rising pretty fast at the company. So what was the hardest part about walking away from all of that momentum that you were building in this corporate space?

Farah Hussain (10:06)
You know, it's interesting because it wasn't hard at all. I think if I would have imagined that it would have been hard and it wasn't hard for a couple of reasons. If you look at my resume, as you have, it looks like I had built a ton of momentum at PayPal. And I would say for most of my time there, I did have a lot of momentum. I took initiative to pay attention to what aspects of the business were growing.

move into new roles that would allow me to continue to support the business and continue to grow in my own career. I felt like I was so engaged and creative and proactive, and I really wanted to be part of the community and support the company in its goals. But I will say in my last year at PayPal before I left to take my own business full time, I would say I was losing momentum. And I think about momentum as

my own desire to be engaged, my own desire to contribute. And I will say, I found in that last year that I wasn't being as creative. I was kind of just doing what I was told, which is never who I had been. But I think that happened for a couple of reasons. One, I had outgrown the place. And two, I had been coaching on the side for how many...

three, four years at that point. And so I had something else in my life where I was building a lot of momentum, where I had a sense of purpose, where I saw a runway, even though I didn't know where this runway would lead to. I found myself wanting to shift my energy more and more towards that, not towards the environment I was in. So even though from the outside, it looks like, why did she leave? She was doing so well.

To me, it felt like I've lost momentum because I'm not as engaged anymore, not just because of my external surroundings, which I will tell you PayPal was a hard, very hard place to be those last couple of years I was there just because of the pace of change, so many changes in leadership. I took on new roles every few months and having to manage people and manage yourself.

through change that's happening to you rather than change that you have been able to initiate and have control over. It's tough. It takes a lot out of you. But really, to your question on momentum and was it hard to leave, it wasn't hard to leave because I had something I really wanted to continue to invest in.

Brian Aquart (12:35)
I love that you shared that. That's a powerful perspective because, you mentioned like outside looking in, I'm seeing all this movement, but you just never know what's like beneath the surface. Right. oftentimes people do get caught up in, in seeing what it looks like, seeing the optics, but not knowing really what's going on with folks. And so it sounds like you had a really nice and very smooth transition.

And so what, did those first few months now that you then left, what were those like first few months like as you shifted into full time coaching? Was there fear? Was there relief? A little bit of both? Like, what was that like?

Farah Hussain (13:11)
Yeah, you know, when I left PayPal, I just felt a sense of joy. And it wasn't a sense of joy because, I'm free of this place that's going through all this change that I don't want to be a part of. It was a sense of joy that I got to now be fully committed to something that meant so much to me. So ⁓ at that point, you know, because I'd been coaching on the side, I had been seeing the impact that coaching was having on people.

how it was changing their lives, how it was changing their leadership. And those first few months, I will say my first month out of PayPal, it was December. I left early December and I thought, I'm going to chill for this month and like prepare myself for my new year. And in those four weeks, I organically, well, I shouldn't say organic because I did build momentum towards this, but I had six

clients sign on with me. I have never had that many people sign on in such a short period of time. But when I left PayPal, it was kind of like a launch announcement. I have a marketing background, but I didn't even realize that that's what was happening. It was a launch announcement. A lot of people in my network and people who I had been networking with in the several months up until that point saw like, she's available now. And so,

I ended up being much busier in those first few months than I would have expected, but it was in the best way because I was spending most of my time coaching. was spending most of my time doing the thing that got me so much fulfillment and made me want to leave. I will say, if you fast forward to now, more than a year and a half later, I have learned so much about thinking about what I do more holistically as a business.

But those first few months, I really wasn't thinking about pipeline building or improving my systems or hiring people. It really was just like, wow, I get to do this thing I love. And I will admit, I thought, is this going to be easier than I thought? Like if I launch like this, does it just mean the momentum builds from here? Yes and no.

I mean, yes, because the more people you coach, it also increases the number of referrals that come in over time. You get exposed to more people. But also, no, because businesses go through cycles, humans go through seasons. There are going to be peaks and valleys in your business and people change. The way people want you to communicate with them is going to change. That kind of influences what your marketing messaging is going to look like.

technology changes, the political environment changes. And so even if your core purpose does not change, how you choose to show up in the world as a business owner, as a coach, as a leader, does need to take those macro shifts into account so that you can continue to fulfill your purpose in a way that is sustainable.

Brian Aquart (16:09)
a lot of sense. You you talk about helping leaders see around corners, right? What does that actually look like in practice?

Farah Hussain (16:16)
I think about seeing around corners in two ways. One way is very much focused on the individual leader. And I see this a lot in startups, but it happens across any size company where when you are so focused on what's right in front of you and you don't put your head up, you start to lose sight of where you're going.

And so part of the seeing around corners is about keep your head up.

Be thoughtful and intentional about the choices that you're making today, what you want them to impact in the future, but also think about the broader context in which you are making, taking these actions and making these decisions. So seeing around the corner for me partly is about putting your head up and thinking a few steps ahead.

even when you don't know what's going to happen after you take that first step, which is what entrepreneurship really is about. It's just having full faith that you're making a good first step with clarity, with purpose, and then you see what happens. The second thing I would say around seeing around corners, some of this really is about having witness companies grow.

And there are phases that businesses go through and there are phases that leaders go through as their businesses change. So for example, I've worked with early stage companies as they've moved into their growth stage. And sometimes the founder CEO, if that person was there right from the beginning, had started that company as a builder. They were so close to building and so close to the day to day.

But as they enter growth stage, they have to really step into that role of CEO. So that's one example of a transition that most founders make as their businesses grow. so helping you to see around the corner is helping you to understand how are you going to have to change as your business changes? I have seen it both through coaching people.

but also in my own experience, work experience at small and large companies.

Brian Aquart (18:20)
And it's actually a good segue into a lot of times leaders struggle with overthinking things and execution, right? Because like you said, they were, they've been in that builder stage, but now it may be difficult to pivot into now being an actual CEO. How do you coach someone who may feel stuck despite their credentials or success? Like how does that work?

Farah Hussain (18:42)
When people feel stuck, they also feel trapped, trapped in their thoughts, trapped in their feelings. And the first step I take as a coach is to support them in not avoiding the feeling. What happens when you resist that feeling of being stuck, it's like you're becoming even more trapped in the feeling.

and it gets harder to get out of it. So first is just understanding and accepting, I feel stuck, and then exploring why you feel stuck. Where do you feel stuck? How is feeling stuck impacting you? This is where the introspective part of what I do as a coach is so, so important because sometimes people also feel stuck because their minds tell them,

It is illogical for you to be stuck in this moment or the world outside them. To your point on the world seeing certain credentials and seeing that you have certain skills will say, well, somebody with your skills and credentials should not be stuck. so step one really is looking inward, shifting your attention inward away from outward expectations.

And even your inner voice that is telling you that what you're experiencing is illogical. Because whether it's logical or not, you feel it. And so the way out of it is not by disparaging yourself. The way out of it is not by trying to meet other people's expectations. It's just meeting yourself exactly where you're at, having self-compassion, moving through it so that

you can then get to a place of choice around how do I want to be in this experience that I'm having right now? And how can I translate how I want to be, how I want to show up into behaviors and into decisions that I'm going to make to help me move forward?

Brian Aquart (20:41)
Yeah, I like, I like how you reference how you frame that because this, this work that you've done and the things that I've, I've read, you know, bridging this introspection and high performance. Cause to be honest, some of the people you're working with, clearly high performers or, or striving for more. Right. So how do you help some of those executives not only embrace that vulnerability, but simultaneously still work on

you know, driving results, right? Cause they do want to get to a certain place.

Farah Hussain (21:10)
You know, over the last almost six years that I have been coaching, I have had a number of clients who do not know each other say to me that I'm gentle but tough. And it makes me smile to hear that because I had never thought of myself in that way. But I think it really gets at what you're saying here, where how do you support them through vulnerable moments, but also make sure that they're still driving results?

One of my clients wrote to me, wrote in a testimonial of mine, for me, sorry, that she holds your hand but she also makes you work and she put like two exclamation points at the end of that. And you know, it is, how do I do both of these things? The first thing that I think is unique in a coaching relationship or any sort of relationship that is focused on self-development,

Brian Aquart (21:48)
You

Farah Hussain (22:01)
is the relationship itself is a safe space for you to be vulnerable. There are a lot of people, most of the people I work with are strangers to me and I am strangers to them. And yet they are choosing to let their guard down. Sometimes it takes some time, but they're choosing to let their guard down in this container that I've created so that they have a place where they can learn to be vulnerable.

that is not out in the world where they feel like they need to project a certain image because they have a certain leadership position or a certain responsibility where other people are looking to them for guidance. So that's kind of the vulnerability piece. I see the coaching container as a safe space for you to try things out. On the performance side of things,

This is where I introduce a little bit more structure into my engagements. So for example, in my very first session with people, we start with goal setting, which I will have had you think about before you come into the session. But I want us to be aligned on what exactly are we working towards? Why are we here? And even if the topic is something that feels very squishy, like

I used to be confident and I'm not anymore and I'm trying to get it back. I will take the squishiest topic that you have and we still create some sort of quantitative metric against it so that we can assess where are we today and where are we trying to go next. That's purely like performance within the coaching engagement. But because I do work with a lot of leaders who run their own businesses, we also have objectives for their business.

We will track those things at the beginning of the coaching engagement, decide which business metrics are the ones that are most critical for you to move. I usually don't, I'm not here to help you run your entire business for you, but I am here to support your, how you're showing up as a leader and making sure that the things that we're working on are going to support you in driving the business metrics that you're trying to hit.

Brian Aquart (24:05)
And one of the also pieces that I'm hearing throughout, know, emphasizing this oneness and transformation as a part of your mission. how does that show up in some client work, especially in to your point, these high stakes environment?

Farah Hussain (24:18)
Well, let me define them both for the audience in case they're not familiar. Oneness for me is respecting the interconnectedness of all things. And transformation really is about continuously striving to be your best self. Both of these things absolutely show up in my coaching engagements because on the first point of oneness,

Yes, I am supporting you first and foremost in deepening your self-awareness so that you can show up as the leader that you want to be in your micro context and also in your macro context. So I'm supporting kind of this self-centeredness, which is not selfish. It really is finding your center and finding your place of grounding. But I don't want you to think about yourself in isolation. You live in a

bigger world around you. The way you choose to show up does impact other people, does impact your environment, it does impact your business. And so that's the, does this value of oneness show up in my coaching? Partly it's teaching you to think about yourself in context. And I may ask you questions that can help you get out of being insular in your thinking.

throughout an engagement. So for example, if I see someone stuck in a certain perspective, I might help them through exercises to see the exact same topic from multiple different angles. They can then choose which angle that they want to lean into, but I want you to be able to see the same thing from four, sometimes five different lenses. Sometimes if I find that people are

not considering the impact they're having on others or they're viewing a specific challenge from just one lens to the point on perspective, I might say to them, what are you assuming? Typically that helps them also see, hold up, I wasn't considering X, Y, and Z. So that's how oneness is integrated into the coaching. And the transformation piece is once you have that awareness of self in context,

It's being intentional around how do I want to evolve so that I can be my best self and I am having an impact that is beyond just my own goals.

Brian Aquart (26:37)
as someone who's really coached across pre-seed startups to even Fortune 50s, what consistent patterns do you notice in what holds leaders back?

Farah Hussain (26:49)
The biggest one I would say is low levels of self-compassion.

People are so hard on themselves. I used to be, yeah, likewise. I I have been through so much coaching myself over the years and therapy over the years. And all of those things have definitely helped me get to the other side of that, I would say.

Brian Aquart (26:55)
Mmm.

I'm guilty, I'm guilty, so I hear it, I get it.

Same. Same.

Farah Hussain (27:16)
Self-compassion is so critical in supporting you to get to your goals. It really is because when you don't have self-compassion, you don't allow yourself to make mistakes. You don't allow yourself to explore. You don't allow yourself to really think beyond the bounds of what you have seen work before.

which I will argue is one of the downsides of corporate. are so many benefits of working in corporate. There are so many skills I gained there that have absolutely helped me as a business owner and even in my life today. But there's a lot of boxing in that happens. And I think when people don't have self-compassion, they box themselves in because it's safe and they're not going to disappoint themselves or disappoint anyone else.

Brian Aquart (28:07)
Yes. And you know, as, as you say that, I would argue that it's also those types of themes are very evident in conversations that I've had on the show, right? Like when, when people hit that space where it's like, you know what? I, why am I really doing this? Right? Like I, I really want to explore this, but I've been so afraid because it is this safe container of a box and it's

Farah Hussain (28:15)
Mm.

Brian Aquart (28:30)
consistent income or whatever it is. And you know, people look life, life, life's right. So you need to support that. But I think, I think that is an important point that you raise. And there are things that pop up on this show that talk a lot about that. So I appreciate you mentioned mentioning that here. I want to ask you a little bit about some, lessons that, that you've learned throughout this entire process. And I want to start with really, you know, what's like one thing that you believed early,

in your career that you now see differently.

Farah Hussain (29:00)
Mmm.

I used to think you need to know where you're going. I don't believe that anymore. If I did believe that, I would never have left corporate to go off on my own. You don't need, you really don't need to know where you're going, as crazy as that sounds. You need to know what is purposeful for you. You need to know,

Brian Aquart (29:09)
Yeah.

Farah Hussain (29:21)
where you want to invest your energy. You need to know how you want to grow and how you want to impact the people in the world around you. You do need to know that. And there are people who, I know people who even when they were kids, they're like, I'm going to be X when I grow up. And they are X and they're thriving. But for most people, I have found that to not be true.

Brian Aquart (29:43)
Yeah, I'd agree with that. So I love that you mentioned that. Cause yeah, I think it's some of those things you kind of live inherently. You're just like, Oh, how did I end up here? But I always think about like being open to the possibilities of you just kind of go with it. But what you mentioned about purpose that is, is so important, so important. So I'm glad you mentioned that. Um, when you think about now internally,

Farah Hussain (29:58)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Aquart (30:05)
What's been like the biggest internal shift that you have made in becoming the kind of leader and coach you are now?

Farah Hussain (30:12)
I think the biggest shift that I have made is not benchmarking my growth against anyone or anything but myself.

Brian Aquart (30:22)
great point, especially in the world of social media. Like, yeah.

Farah Hussain (30:26)
Yes.

Yeah. It's so easy. And it's not that I'm free of it. Of course, sometimes I catch myself thinking, ⁓ well, that coach is doing it this way. Maybe I should be doing it that way too. But I'm able to catch myself in it because my journey is not somebody else's journey. What's worked for someone else may not work for me. What makes sense for someone else may not make sense for me. That is absolutely the...

one of the biggest internal shifts I have made. And as I'm telling you this, I'm also seeing how it aligns so closely to deepening your self-awareness. Because if you don't have that core sense of self, then you will, you know, blow in the wind in whatever direction other people's paths seem to be following and making you think that you're supposed to follow the same path.

Brian Aquart (31:15)
So true. In a past life, probably a couple of lives ago, I used to teach a course on emotional intelligence. And one of the foundational aspects of EQ, as they call it, is that self-awareness piece. And so when you don't have that, to your point, you are just kind of flowing with the wind. And that can be a very dangerous place to be. But when you do have it, it provides that grounding and just that opportunity for you to be like, all right, it may not be

up.

perfect thing, but I know in my heart of hearts, what my values are, what my purposes are, what principles are driving me. And that should help you steer the ship. So I'm glad you mentioned that there. ⁓ one of the sections of the show that people really love is this advice piece and be seen as you're a coach.

Farah Hussain (31:53)
Mmm.

Brian Aquart (32:00)
And by the way, I heard you say someone, they're like, you're, you're, you're calm, but firm. I can see that I can feel that, that your, your voice is feels very much like, okay, I could, I could see you.

providing some constructive criticism to a client in the very nicest of ways. And so I think that type of feedback is spot on. But for someone who is on the edge of a major life or even career shift, what's one question they should ask themselves today?

Farah Hussain (32:28)
Imagine yourself on the other side of that shift and imagine what's possible from here.

Brian Aquart (32:35)
And how can someone develop the clarity and courage to lead with more purpose, even if they feel like they're actually in the wrong career?

Farah Hussain (32:45)
This ties back to one thing we were talking about earlier around helping people see things from multiple perspectives. I think that is probably one of the most important things in order to get to a place of purpose, especially when people are feeling stuck in a career. They end up having a single fixed mindset about their position.

about how they feel about that position, about what's possible in that position. And sometimes it's a negative one because it's not working for them at that time. I feel stuck. Everything sucks. It can't be any other way. And it's very normal to get to that position, especially when you're experiencing all this evidence that says, yeah, this does suck. Like, why, how could this be any other way?

But being able to step back from it and as I mentioned earlier, consider four to five different perspectives on the exact same situation. As you do that, you will naturally start to find yourself looking at the situation, not just from the lens of what's not going well, but from the perspective of the things that matter to you.

what those values are and through that purpose can start to surface.

Brian Aquart (34:03)
Can you tell us a little bit more about how all these themes now then come together in the Pivotal Leader substack as well as the podcast that's attached to it?

Farah Hussain (34:13)
yeah. Here's how it comes together. The pivotal leader is about two things. First, it is about pivotal leadership, which is leadership centered on truth. Truth I define as reality that is unencumbered by bias, by assumptions, by performative behavior. It's like facts laid bare. That's truth.

So, Pivotal Leadership is about centering yourself on truth. And I am framing it within this concept of the pivots that you make in your business, in your leadership, and in your personal growth. How can you center all of those changes on truth? And together, these things force introspection. That's what I try to do a lot of the content.

Brian Aquart (35:02)
Mm-hmm.

Farah Hussain (35:03)
on the

pivotal leader. They force that introspection and they offer what I call practical inspiration, tools that can help you not only think deeper about these shifts that you're making, but will also give you some frameworks so that you can start to go lean into that change.

Brian Aquart (35:21)
When you think about what's next, what are you looking forward to most in the future? Not only with your coaching business, but also the Substack and the podcast. What's it look like? What's on the horizon?

Farah Hussain (35:33)
Yeah. So the thing that I really want to impact next is supporting leaders and thinking about themselves in a macro context. So if I back it up to share how my business and my own leadership has evolved over the last almost six years of coaching, I would say that it has moved through two progressive phases and I'm totally entering the third now.

The first phase was focused a lot on supporting leaders in deepening their self-awareness. A lot of people who came to me in those first few years of coaching came to work on their confidence. And I'm using that word just because that's the word that they all used when they came to me. So they really wanted to be more self-centered without realizing that's what they needed. And those first few years, like,

That was the dominant topic I coached on. In the last couple of years that I've been doing this full time, I have evolved more into supporting leaders on leadership effectiveness, leadership in their micro context. So I think about micro context as your day-to-day. Who do you engage with? What do you engage with in your day-to-day? And are you leading in a way that is

both authentic and effective. That's been predominantly what I've been doing and it builds on that first phase of supporting people and deepening their self-awareness and not thinking about themselves in their micro context and just being better leaders. Where I'm moving towards next is like phase three, which is leading in your macro context.

You know yourself really well, you've gotten good at managing in your day to day, but now you're thinking of yourself in a context where you can have much more impact by being inspirational to people who are even outside of your day to day. This is where macro trends like the changes in the political environment, society, economic environment, technological changes is really important.

And so I'll give you an example. Just last week on my Substack, I wrote an article about leading in an AI first world. I did that very intentionally because that is a macro trend. And I want people to start thinking about themselves in that context, not just the context of their micro environment and not just in the context of their own personal experience.

Brian Aquart (38:02)
I like that, I like that. And given us seeing as your host as well, now I'm gonna flip the mic for you to ask me a question that I can hopefully answer about anything, the show, business, whatever. So go for it, the mic is yours.

Farah Hussain (38:18)
I would love to hear how hosting this podcast has influenced how you lead at

work.

Brian Aquart (38:27)
it's actually very timely question. what this show has helped me think about is as I've been in this storytelling space, right? And, and not only, yes, sometimes I tell my story, but truthfully, I'm really highlighting the stories of others and their, and their career transitions and things like that. I've also been, approached by folks who are interested in how

I then balance what I do day to day and healthcare and also what I do with the show and then asking for advice on how can I bring all these things together? How can I raise my voice in certain spaces? So what it's allowed for me to do at work is to be more of a champion around leaders either in my space or

around the organization that, if you're working on something, you gotta be talking about it. There's a lot of people who are doing great things and unfortunately their work is just kinda buried. And it's nothing nefarious going on, at least for all I know, I don't think it's anything nefarious. It's just that people are uncomfortable doing that. And so I'm often that guy in meetings and stuff like that, like, what are we, so who's gonna be talking about this?

online or who's going to be mentioning this or someone going to write a piece about this, you're to do a post about it. And oftentimes it's crickets, right? And I'm, truthfully I ended up, you know, I've kind of gotten a decent following kind of coming up and I'm still growing my own brand as well, but I often find myself like, Hey, I'll write the thing for you. You just put it out there, right? But I think you have got this great thing that you're, you're doing. The world should know about it. And, ⁓

Farah Hussain (39:42)
Hmm.

Brian Aquart (40:02)
Some people are more comfortable with it than others. But I found that this show has helped me become a bit more comfortable in raising my voice in that way and applying some of the things that I do not only to highlight the show, but highlight some of the work I'm doing. Now I'm also helping folks elevate their own leadership from a branding standpoint and just putting that out there to try and help in a more succinct and effective way.

Farah Hussain (40:27)
I love that because what I'm hearing what you're saying is encouraging people to share.

Brian Aquart (40:31)
Yes, yes.

Farah Hussain (40:32)
It

isn't just about self-promotion. Sure, there's a piece of it that's important. When you or your organization have a certain purpose you're trying to fulfill, then yes, you want people to know about it. But also, you want to share what you're doing in a way that is going to inspire other people to share what they're doing because all of us can learn and grow better when we get more exposure to different perspectives.

Brian Aquart (40:58)
S.

Farah Hussain (40:59)
different ideologies and yeah, making it safe to share too.

Brian Aquart (41:03)
Dan,

no, absolutely. So I love that you asked that question. It's so important. I'm still finding my footing in that space at work because sometimes folks are a little uncomfortable with that. I don't do like the humble brag stuff. It's just more of the impact and the work that we're doing. It's so important. We got to get it out there. Got to get it out there for sure.

Farah Hussain (41:20)
Yeah, yeah.

Brian Aquart (41:22)
Well, Farah, this was a great, great conversation. I'm really glad that we connected. I love the vibe. just, and I love what you're putting out there on Substack. And where can our listeners and our audience find you and support some of the work that you're doing online?

Farah Hussain (41:41)
I would love for more people to check out my Substack, the Pivotal Leader. I publish content every two weeks. It's succinct. And I have started to build a community there around other people who also want to be self-reflective leaders, who want to make a difference. So that would be the number one place I'd love for people to come join us.

Brian Aquart (42:07)
love that and I'll make sure I put that in the show notes. So look, that'll do it for today's episode. Again, I wanna thank Farah Hussain for joining me today. I hope you all got a lot out of this. As I mentioned, all of her information will be in our show notes. So Farah, thank you so much for joining and I hope you all have a great week and we'll definitely see you next time.

Brian Aquart (42:29)
Thanks for listening to Why I Left. Join us next time for more inspiring stories about growth, resilience, and transformation. Visit us online at www.whyileft.co. That's whyileft.co.