Scaling with Soul: Faye Yasmin Kalam on Leadership and Culture

 In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Rexhen sits down with Faye Yasmin Kalam, founder and CEO of Culture Impact Collective, to explore how leaders can scale their businesses without sacrificing authenticity and culture. Faye shares her journey of building organizations with purpose, the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership, and how genuine human connection fuels sustainable success. A powerful conversation for coaches, founders, and leaders who want to grow with impact and integrity.



Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fayeykalam/overlay/contact-info/
Website: https://www.cultureimpactcollective.com/

Transcript

Faye Kalam: 0:00

Yeah, I am looking to scale my business a bit. I'm looking to grow it to hopefully a little bit more monthly revenue every month. That's something I'm looking forward to. I think I'm also looking to focus in on the organizational development aspect of it because I really enjoy that. And I think that that's where that's really where I see my business growing. When you're starting something, your own business, you face a lot of challenges because there's so much uncertainty. And that's the trade-off that we have is that we have the freedom.

Davis Nguyen : 0:33

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Wynne, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Rexhen Doda: 1:04

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching To Wits Podcast. I'm your host, Regin, and today's guest is Faye Yasmin Kalam, founder and CEO of Culture Impact Collective and a culture and talent strategy expert who helps high growth companies scale without losing their human edge. Faye partners with leadership teams to align purpose, people, and performance, clarifying structure, putting the right people in the right roles, and upgrading manager capability. Her work spans organizational culture strategy, talent optimization and team design, executive coaching or leadership development, and high impact keynotes and workshops. And it's a pleasure for me to have Faye on the podcast today. Welcome to the show.

Faye Kalam: 1:51

Thank you so much for having me, Regin. I look forward to speaking with you about what I do.

Rexhen Doda: 1:56

It's a pleasure for us to have you on. So I wanted to ask you like it's been when it comes to your company, it's been around for more than a year now. What inspired you to start culture impact collectively and become a coach and then have it as a coaching business?

Faye Kalam: 2:13

Sure. Thank you. It's been a bit over a year now. My path to coaching and consulting was really born from my frustration. I spent years inside organizations where I could see the potential in people and teams, but the culture wasn't designed to bring it out. I worked in human resources and organizational development. So I felt like instead of being nurtured, I often felt stifled. And that gave me firsthand an understanding of how culture directly impacts people's happiness, their performance, their career trajectory, and also the company's performance and the company's turnover and how well that organization performed. I knew I didn't want to be just another HR professional pushing policy. I wanted to change the system. And that's why I launched Culture Impact Collective to align the strategy, the culture, and the talent so leaders can build environments where people thrive and the organizations can continue to grow sustainably.

Rexhen Doda: 3:15

And right now, through throughout the last year, and it's been more than a year now, but when it comes to the people that you work with, and we talked a little bit about in the intro as well, but how would you define your ideal client profile? Is there a certain industry, demographic, psychographic? Do they have some common goals or other commonalities that you're often seeing?

Faye Kalam: 3:37

So that's changed a little bit in the year that I've I've been in business. At first, I was going to target growing industries. I live in South Florida, so technology is huge here. And I really wanted to niche into that space. However, my background is so diverse that I realized I would be better suited just to open myself up to any organization that would work with me. Looking currently at some government organizations, which I do have a lot of experience with, some healthcare organizations as well. So I've decided instead of trying to niche, which I know a lot of people find a lot of success in, I still kept myself open. And perhaps it maybe even with time, I'll see where there might be a better niche. But I haven't niched yet into a specific industry. But what I do focus on, I know you mentioned earlier, is a certain area and it's specific to HR, if you will, or even just organizational development instead of just broad. Is coaching the leadership on how to navigate that. Sure, I cater my process to organizations and what their needs are because no organization wants a specific cutout of exactly what I did at the last organization. I do follow a process, and that process involves a deep diagnostic of where they are as a company, as an organization, where they want to be, conducting that gap analysis and finding out what would be the best strategy. It's never going to be a hundred percent the same from person to person. When it comes to working with the leadership and how I coach them, I really try to focus on their self-awareness and alignment. So by uncovering the leaders' values and purpose for themselves and aligning that with their role. If they're not leading from a place of clarity within themselves, then nothing that I coach them on is going to stick. I believe in outcome-driven leadership. So I use an OKR model, so objectives and key results, but for leadership behaviors. For example, instead of just saying I want to have better communication, we define a measurable outcome like reducing meeting time while increasing their team's participation in meetings, which gives leaders a way to track their success and their growth. And then I also try to simplify to amplify. I do have a six sigma background. So I help leaders cut through that noise and identify those habits, processes, or even the thought patterns that waste energy and redirect that energy into more impactful behaviors like coaching their team, making faster decisions, creating more clarity for their teams. So together, these pillars create leaders who aren't just managing tasks, but who feel really grounded and confident and are able to inspire the people around them, which will give them the best results.

Rexhen Doda: 6:38

What are some of the most common challenges that these organizations are facing now from what you've seen so far?

Faye Kalam: 6:45

So, as you might be aware, we're in a little bit of a challenging economic time. And so, although I do work with companies who are growing and scaling, what I've actually noticed is that a lot of companies are in a period of contraction. So versus growing, they're actually looking for ways to streamline their teams and operations. So they might be reducing their staff by 10%, something along those lines. So I look at what everyone's roles and responsibilities are and looking for ways to find the most essential things that they do and sometimes reducing that workforce, but also empowering those individuals who are working there and empowering them to do their best job. So finding ways to make their jobs easier, finding ways to utilize technology to improve their outcomes. And so it's kind of a focus, a little bit of a shift lately. What I've seen the most demand for is actually for the contraction, not the expansion right now.

Rexhen Doda: 7:43

Cool. And so right now, when it comes to marketing, and this is a question that other coaches are going to find useful, is there a certain marketing channel that is working really well for you?

Faye Kalam: 7:53

Or I've gone through a lot of different ways and methods of marketing from August of last year to now. It's October of this year. I find the best is just in person, face-to-face networking to be my best source of leads because I've done some, uh I've actually worked with a business development professional who was seeking, she was doing some cold outreach for me. She was doing different things, but we weren't finding a lot of movement and success. And I think that the in this type of space that I work in, I work really, it's a very personal type of work. And they have to trust you as a professional personally. And I think that the best way to get the business and to succeed is to actually be in person, then to see your professional demeanor, you to pitch yourself with your own services as clearly as possible. And that's what ends up getting the most traction. I think that it takes a lot of effort. It does take, you know, meeting people, being part of groups, being part of networks. And from there, I think that that's that's the best way to really grow your business or where I've found the most success.

Rexhen Doda: 8:58

We've seen, well, actually, with all the coaches that I've interviewed, most likely they've seen a lot of like higher conversion when it comes to the live events compared to like what they're trying on in social media or like LinkedIn or other marketing channels. So yeah, that is true. That it has we've seen that working very well. So when it comes to these live events, is there so like you're doing a lot of speaking? Is it like local?

Faye Kalam: 9:23

So I've done some panels, I've done uh speaking engagements, things of that nature. I've also just gone out to local events, even small conferences in my area, and that's where I find other folks that I just connect with and they may know someone, may refer me to someone, and that's where I've had a lot of the traction in the business. And also surprisingly, just from my existing network on LinkedIn, that's also been great because as I see that I'm doing my own business, I've had, you know, a client that I've known for a little while reach out. I've also met, you know, had someone from a previous organization I worked with years back see what I'm doing and be interested in wanting to work with me there too. So your own network that's existing, your friends, your family, though that's uh that's very helpful. But just expanding in person and live uh meetings, so conferences, networking groups that you can join and finding authentic people that that you connect with. Because when people connect with you, they're gonna be more inclined to want to work with you.

Rexhen Doda: 10:27

Absolutely. And so right now, um when thinking about the future for for your coaching business for Culture Impact Collective, looking at the next one to three years, do you have any specific goals or business goals that you're working towards?

Faye Kalam: 10:41

Yeah, I am looking to scale my business a bit. I'm looking to grow it to hopefully a little bit more monthly revenue every month. That's something I'm looking forward to. I think I'm also looking to focus in on the organizational development aspect of it because I really enjoy that. And I think that that's where that's really where I see my business growing.

Rexhen Doda: 11:04

When think about challenges, what would you say is a challenge that is kind of like holding you back at at this point?

Faye Kalam: 11:10

I think that when you're starting something, your own business, you face a lot of challenges because there's so much uncertainty. And that's the trade-off that we have, is that we have the freedom, but we trade our security for that. And so that that's the constant battle that that we face in staying in entrepreneurship, is is dealing with that. But when you start to see the returns on your investments and you start to see clients that you get really excited about their future, clients that are long-term, I think it's a little bit easier. And that's what I have to look forward to. But there's definitely challenges of just staying motivated. And it's, I personally enjoy the aspect of controlling the work that I do. I did work in the HR space for 10 years. So I do feel like I have a good understanding of it and being able to apply that expertise. But it's certainly, you know, definitely a battle to continuously look for the new clients, look for the new business. I think we all understand that that's a hustle and it's a grind. And so it can be wearing sometimes. But once you see a little bit of the payoff, it's a little bit of a reward that keeps you going.

Rexhen Doda: 12:19

So when you say looking for new clients, looking for a new business basically, you mean if we were to put it like a bottom line would be getting more clients in the role or thinking even earlier than that, getting more potentially leads, qualified leads that would actually work with you.

Faye Kalam: 12:34

Yeah, I think definitely getting qualified leads is always a struggle in this type of business. A lot of times you have people that are interested in working with you, but they may be completely off about what these type of services cost. So sometimes just uh having them have an understanding of where the this industry is and and what these type of services cost is part of it.

Rexhen Doda: 12:56

Yeah. So still they would be, in that case, not qualified by by their budget. Yes. Cool. So right now, what when it comes to investments, and this goes back to a research paper that we're trying to do, what have been some investments that you've done that you feel really good about? Either you learned a lot or got a good return from, and could be investments of time or money or both. What have been some investments that you wish you had avoided if there's any bad investments as well?

Faye Kalam: 13:24

I think investments in two areas are really important. Number one is if you're coaching or consulting in any way is a hundred percent your own self-education that you continue to do. I never, I always feel like that's 100% worth the investment. And I will forever be someone that continues to invest in my education, whether that be online conferences, in-person conferences, just learning the latest and best tools. And I think that there's always a huge payoff for that because you feel really confident when you're speaking with clients about this space and and what's trending right now and where the best way to go is. And coaching people, I think there's there's somewhat of a moral obligation to be most educated about what you're coaching them. And so for me, the education piece is always really, really well worth it. Um, I'm a senior HR professional and I also have a black belt and six sigma, master's degree, other certifications that I've earned over the years, and I think that that really impacts the way that I work with clients. An area that I probably wouldn't necessarily invest again is just any type of like online marketing that's not authentic. I think that for me, that I did very little of that, but right when I started, maybe just a couple hundred bucks here and there, I didn't think much of it, but there was no return on that. So I probably wouldn't use those tools. I probably look for more authentic ways to connect with others that I think that that actually does help your business in the long run. Because when you have a big network and I'm constantly looking for ways to expand my network, that's where your success will come from.

Rexhen Doda: 15:06

Absolutely. And actually, uh, you're lucky that you spend only a couple hundred dollars on that because I've had coaches on the podcast that have spent thousands um in either like email lists or like um whatever, cold outreach programs, systems that are supposed to work for everyone, but actually they're not, like you said, they're lacking on authenticity. Uh yeah, definitely. And for someone for for a lot of coaches starting out that don't have necessarily like uh uh um that ICP that is developed and is very clear to send to that marketing company, then it's gonna be even like uh I don't know why they would build expectations and they would do it better than you when you know them even better than them. So it really uh is definitely something that uh we've seen to be a bad investment. And the other thing that we noticed from last year's research is a lot of these certifications that coaches were doing now. This doesn't mean the certification itself or like getting training in being better, self-education, that is all good. But like just doing it for the title in your LinkedIn then didn't mean much for the coaches that we've interviewed. So yeah, that's what we've seen. But in terms of like scaling, as as you mentioned that there's a lot of coaches uh who are also listening to us want to scale, but want not just to scale on like revenue or like grow their business, they want to actually scale on their impact, make a bigger impact. Is there any advice you'd like to give to these coaches?

Faye Kalam: 16:37

Impact is everything. I totally agree and understand with that. If you're looking at every month as an opportunity to just hit X dollar amount, you're not focused on the right things. The shift that I saw for myself was thinking, focusing not on just the dollar amount, but on how you want people to feel. And even thinking back, I have an example of a time when I worked with a a client, a leader who was brilliant, but at the technical side of the business, but really struggled with his people leading. So I'm gonna rephrase that for the editor. I worked with a senior leader who was brilliant at the technical side of the business, but who really struggled with his people leadership. And his team was disengaged, his turnover was rising, but he felt stuck between the pressure from senior leadership above him and the resistance of his own team and working one-on-one with him. We focused on building his emotional intelligence, his communication, clarifying the expectations for his team. And we created a simple structure. So weekly alignment with his direct reports, feedback loops tied to his company's goals and values, and clear goals connected to what the leadership priorities were. And within three months, that shift was visible. Their team went from avoiding meetings to actively contributing in those meetings. And that leader himself felt more confident, less reactive. And he told me he's felt like he was actually leading with purpose instead of just managing the tasks. And that transformation reminded me of why I do this work. And so remembering those wins where people shifted their entire team, their entire organization, that's when I saw more success with pitches. That's when I saw more success with people wanting to work with me, is when I focused on actually the wins in the organization and the impact that I had. So I totally agree. Money is important and that will come as a result of your focus on the results and achieving things for your clients.

Rexhen Doda: 18:45

Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks so much, Faye. And thank you so much for coming to our podcast today. It was lovely to have you on the show. For anyone who wants to connect with you or find you, they can go into LinkedIn, they can go into Faye Yaspin Kalandil is the profile on LinkedIn. They can also go into Culture Impact Collective Duck, which I believe is the website. We'll put that in the description so people can click on it easily. But uh, is there any other way they could connect with you?

Faye Kalam: 19:17

Those are the best ways. LinkedIn and my website, there's direct links to contact me to book a consultation. Consultations are always free, and I'm happy to discuss any needs that you have or any ideas that you want to share with me. Cool.

Rexhen Doda: 19:32

Thank you. Thank you so much, Faye. Thank you so much for coming to the podcast.

Faye Kalam: 19:35

Thank you so much for having me, Regin. Thank you.

Davis Nguyen : 19:37

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.