#43 – Embracing Ambition: How to Overcome Challenges, Feel Supported, & Keep Your Spark Alive | Empowerment & Career Advice

[00:00:00] Loree Philip: Hi, and welcome to the Daring to Leap podcast. I'm your host, Loree Philip. I am so excited to dive into this week's episode with you. Have you ever been shut down for your ambition? Being told that your goals are unrealistic. Do you feel like you seem to be facing unexpected challenges as you try to navigate your career? Well, our guests this week, Khalilah OSHA can relate. She was faced with setback after setback and was laughed at, by her manager. After telling him she wanted to be a CEO. In this episode, you will learn how Kalila bounce back after being shut down and burned out how leveraging your strengths can feel your confidence and how you can overcome obstacles and build support in your career so that you can embrace your ambition. And keep your spark alive. Let's dive in.

[00:00:55] Loree Philip: Kalayla Osha is here as a former chief of staff. [00:01:00] Kalayla Osha has helped biotech startups. Fundraise, go to market, and scale. As she grew in her career, she realized that the challenge she faced existed for many other women and in turn became passionate about creating diverse and inclusive work environments.

[00:01:17] Loree Philip: She noticed that there were limited professional resources to support women early in their careers and wanted to create more opportunities for women to lead. As a solution, she started Brillie, a community dedicated to inspiring, coaching, and training women to reach their full potential. Welcome to the podcast.

[00:01:36] Kailea: Thank you so much, Lori. I'm so excited to be here.

[00:01:39] Loree Philip: I'm so excited that we finally got to have this conversation. And I think I really want to get started with you a bit about you mentioned in your bio you had some amazing experience in the startup and tech world.

[00:01:54] Loree Philip: And I'd love to hear from you Based on that experience, what [00:02:00] was it, what went on with you that caused you to decide, okay, I'm ready to go from here. To starting my own business and supporting women. What does that look like for you?

[00:02:13] Kailea: Yeah, absolutely. So I think I had a very interesting career journey.

[00:02:19] Kailea: I graduated college with a neuroscience degree and like many other science majors really left college thinking MD or PA.

[00:02:27] Kailea: And the second one becoming, getting a PhD and doing research for the rest of my life. And so I really didn't have any sort of understanding or awareness of what industry or start up life looked like for me. And as I started off, I did start off in, in clinical operations. I was running clinical research trials in academia labs.

[00:02:46] Kailea: And that was my first eye opener to A, that I had What has now become my superpower, which is operations and process improvement. In that I could actually build an entire career out of that in this crazy world called [00:03:00] industry, which again was completely new to me at the time. And so I really went from being,, somebody without a lot of career goals or ambitions.

[00:03:10] Kailea: I really, being the four out of five kids growing up in Texas, I. You know wasn't really looked at as somebody that was going to do big or great things. And so I was in turn really didn't have a lot of ambition myself. But as I started moving into and got my first job at a biopharma company, again, just, entry level clinical operations associate, I started realizing hey, I can have a lot of dreams and I can really have opportunity and ability to achieve things that I really never thought was possible.

[00:03:41] Kailea: That two years into my career, I think, was a big turning point for me, where I went from I don't know what I want to do with my life to all of a sudden I want to be a CEO of my own pharma or biotech company, and that really changed my trajectory and my ambition and my drive and my goals tremendously.

[00:03:58] Kailea: And so, as I set out on that [00:04:00] new path of I'm going to move up this corporate ladder, I have these main skills, I'm going to get up there as quickly as possible. My eyes started opening and I started experiencing a lot of unexpected bias and really situations that were constantly set up to hold me back and push me back.

[00:04:19] Kailea: One of my kind of You know, I, biggest eye opening stories early on was again, when I realized I wanted to be a CEO, I was excited. And I told my manager at the time and the manager literally laughed and told me that I needed more realistic goals. I was never going to reach that. And I was on a fool's journey thinking that would ever happen.

[00:04:41] Kailea: And I went home that day and I was like, well, what, and it was so confused and so flabbergasted because why would this person just shut me down? And so again, that kind of set me on the path of trying to understand why when an ambitious young female says they want to be a CEO, why is the first [00:05:00] response?

[00:05:01] Kailea: A laugh and telling them that's not possible. So again, just kind of continue through my journey, moved into the startup world, really out of the goal of being able to see more, parts of the business as well as again, continue to move up and wear a lot of different hats, which I'm Proud to say within the first two years that my first startup got through promotions, went from entry level associate to then, executive level, chief of staff and helping them raise over 190 million, launching new products, the market and supporting the scaling of that team.

[00:05:33] Kailea: But again, as I continue to rise, really the amount of bias, that I was facing also continued to rise. And what I was actually most surprised by. Was really the lack of resources and tools that I had to be able to prepare myself to handle that. And because I didn't really have any female mentors at the time, everybody, , I'm happy and, and really fortunate to have amazing male mentors.

[00:05:56] Kailea: I really didn't have a lot of kind of female leadership [00:06:00] in my life who were helping support and guide me. And in turn, I ended up really. Kind of internalizing a lot of what I was experiencing and making myself feel like I was doing something wrong And it was all my fault and I needed to be different and I needed to be better and so what happened is I ended up going through a massive burnout Which now I can look back and realize it was a massive burnout But at the time I thought I was a failure.

[00:06:25] Kailea: I thought I was lazy and I didn't know what was wrong with me and so that really, the fact that I went from being so crazy ambitious to like on top of the world, I can do this, and then five years later experienced such burnout was really the kind of catalyst that drove me to then create really.

[00:06:42] Loree Philip: Wow. What, what a story and you summarized it. It is what I was thinking about was you were here like, uh, I'm at the top of the world. And then you were down here in this burnout space. And I have a few questions for [00:07:00] you as far as., back when you started to think about, you know what, there are a lot of opportunities.

[00:07:08] Loree Philip: I could be a CEO, right? And before that, you had mentioned that you didn't really have much ambition prior to that. If you could recall at the time, like what was it that was shifting for you? That made you start to really see yourself in this leadership role in this creation role where you could be the one Leading the charge on some on it on a startup, which is really impressive Yeah,

[00:07:38] Kailea: I think the big thing of me is that I was never Great at structured learning.

[00:07:44] Kailea: I really never enjoyed school. I enjoyed I loved learning I loved participating in activities, but when it came to taking tests and studying I was awful. Like, I dreaded it my entire, education journey. And so I think that led [00:08:00] me to believe, especially, with siblings and seeing other people that were so amazing at school the fact that I just didn't enjoy it and I didn't like it really led me to believe I wasn't smart and I wasn't capable.

[00:08:11] Kailea: And therefore, I really don't have a lot of opportunities. And so then when I got into, honestly, that first academia job and I started realizing there's so much more to work than studying and tests. In fact, that's not really relevant at all. But all of these other soft skills of being able to build relationships and being able to see the bigger picture and.

[00:08:32] Kailea: See around the corner and be able to look at a current process and improvement in a way that allows for more capacity and allows for more efficiency. That's where I started realizing I was able to pick up on really, really quickly and was able to make monumental changes in programs and infrastructures that had been like that for years.

[00:08:53] Kailea: And so I started realizing, especially as I started getting called on to fill responsibilities that they were asking [00:09:00] executive levels. People to do that they couldn't do. So then they were bringing on me. I really started realizing that there was so much about me and my ability and my, my strengths that while wasn't necessarily amazing in school, actually really was amazing and building businesses.

[00:09:16] Kailea: And so realizing that, that there were other parts of the business that allowed you to use those skills really started opening my eyes to actually, I can be really great at this. And really the people part of it was huge too. I'd always been a people person and being able to get to use that in a way that allowed me to develop as a leader really was, was really instrumental.

[00:09:36] Loree Philip: Yeah, that is, that is so interesting and a journey I think a lot of people are on because we have these sort of ideas, beliefs, assumptions that we have in our minds around what a successful person in. Career looks like and what they need to have and in your example, right? You were thinking about what it took to be [00:10:00] successful in school and then when you went in and you actually got the Experience and got to see what it actually took and where you shine Specifically that's when you started to build your confidence around What you could really bring to the table Yeah On the other side, go ahead.

[00:10:21] Kailea: Yeah, I was just going to add on to, I think there's, there's so much, uh, perception on experience in terms of more experienced people are the more capable, but I actually think looking back at, and my experience, what has allowed me to be most successful and propelled my career at rates That myself and a lot of people around me didn't expect was actually a little bit about my unexplained my inexperience in terms of they say ignorance and bliss.

[00:10:52] Kailea: I think that's true because I just had a complete lack of fear whenever I dove into any huge initiative because I didn't really [00:11:00] know what to expect and therefore I didn't think there would be any way I could fail. And so I blindly and I would say a little bit naively jumped into these huge roles and these huge initiatives without any sort of experience.

[00:11:11] Kailea: And I was able to really take a new perceptive perspective on it, learn some new ways of doing it and be able to then, uh, as a result, be able to execute it more successfully and more efficiently than even the other people around me that had the experience were able to. And so I do think, right, that there's so much power to, quote unquote, the inexperience and be able to.

[00:11:35] Kailea: Be able to really dive in and to things that you really don't have any experience or, or understanding.

[00:11:40] Loree Philip: Yeah, I, I'm actually starting to really appreciate this ignorance is bliss phenomenon, because I also, like I dove out of corporate America to start my own business, not having a clue what it was going to take, right.

[00:11:58] Loree Philip: Just like, Oh, I can do it. [00:12:00] And, if you ended up really knowing from the start what it was all going to look like, a lot of us would have not done it, right? Because it was like, oh gosh, like all of the challenges that came up thing after thing after thing. And then, then you start to get in your head and you start to hesitate and then you start to worry and then all the things.

[00:12:23] Loree Philip: And so, there is always, always, always such a great perspective when you can. Take a step back and look at things with fresh eyes and and not be too concerned about the what ifs and the potential problems and this, this, and this, and this happened last time. And so I don't even want to go there and all of those types of things that don't have when you don't have the experience and on the other side of it too, I do, I do believe.

[00:12:58] Loree Philip: There is a lot of [00:13:00] value in experience and I think we need balance and so it's it's about Having both because some of that experience is so useful and then also you want to have those people, those fearless people to go push and push and push and not realize, , what it's really going to take at the end of the day.

[00:13:20] Loree Philip: Yeah,

[00:13:20] Kailea: absolutely. I think there's a quote about something like taking the wisdom of the more experienced and combining it with the passion and the energy from the inexperienced and together, right, that's the perfect combo.

[00:13:31] Loree Philip: Yeah, it really is. And so I think what, what I heard from you and you can, you can tell me, give me more feedback on this.

[00:13:40] Loree Philip: But what I heard from you earlier in the conversation is, so you had this drive and ambition that came through and you started successfully moving up the chain and taking on these big projects. And then, Yeah. You started to get that pushback, the, well [00:14:00] who do you think you are kind of thing, right?

[00:14:02] Loree Philip: The pushback. And with that, what do you think as you look back on it and, and you've probably talked to a bunch of your clients around what they're experiencing in their careers, as far as That lack of support . What are the things that are coming up that women are struggling at with right now?

[00:14:24] Kailea: I think the first one is a really, a lack of direction. I think a lot of, especially, within just our community, a lot of questioning and confusion of what is even possible for me, where can I even go and how okay is it for me to even think we can get there? I can get there. And so an example of this is You know, and this has been a big trend among a lot of my conversations is, , when you ask an early, I'm going to generalize, but an early woman professional kind of what are your long term career goals, right?

[00:14:59] Kailea: We're [00:15:00] commonly getting, I don't know, I'm not sure, right. There's a fear of even being able to put out what their long term goals are. And it isn't until, 15 to 20 minutes into that conversation. I will finally discover, okay, actually you do have huge goals, but when asked about it at the beginning, right, there was that initial fear and hesitation of addressing it and putting it out there for, so many different reasons.

[00:15:23] Kailea: So definitely one of the biggest things is, a lack of clarity in terms of potential career paths and a lack of like security and confidence to be able to, to say, and put it out there in the world that. We can pursue those. Another one is really a hesitancy, especially in these more male dominated environments.

[00:15:43] Kailea: Of What mannerisms and communication styles and leadership styles. Is it okay for us to show? Without kind of being able to see, especially if you don't have an example of what a woman leader looks like within your specific organization. [00:16:00] It's incredibly overwhelming and stressful. I think for so many.

[00:16:05] Kailea: Trying to figure out kind of how do I create that now as being one of the only ones in this specific environment? Especially if you know you speak up and you get pushed back for whatever reason so definitely a meeting additional support and Pretty much encouragement right to be able to express yourself and the way that you feel comfortable with and for whatever communication and leadership style you Are most comfortable with maybe some iterations based off of okay, what's most effective for this, group of people and your colleagues.

[00:16:37] Kailea: And then another one, which I, we touched on within the first two, but is really mentorship again, male and female mentors, but mentorship to be able to help guide and support and in the day to days where maybe certain situations come up where you feel like there was an inappropriate comment.

[00:16:56] Kailea: Or maybe you feel like you got excluded for a certain reason, but whenever the day [00:17:00] to day, biases come up, being able to have somebody that you feel comfortable and safe with, that again is, the more experience has gone through it, and therefore you really value and appreciate their perspective and their support.

[00:17:12] Kailea: So those are main, the main three, I would say.

[00:17:15] Loree Philip: Yeah, in, in your experience and what you're seeing, so these are things that... Would be great to have, right? Like mentorship, being able to have role models in, in, in leadership that can show authentically, this is an option from, for, , what a leader could look like and sound like, and we've actually talked about this particular one on the podcast a few times because this has come up quite a bit and across industries and especially in.

[00:17:51] Loree Philip: The male dominated industries, which are like tech, aerospace, engineering type firms, , these kinds of [00:18:00] spaces where historically have been male led organizations would love to have more diversity of female leadership in with the male leadership in their organizations. It's just so beneficial. The research shows that it's so beneficial to have this.

[00:18:18] Loree Philip: It's a mix of perspectives amongst other diversity initiatives and factors. But some of the challenges I've seen and what you're mentioning here are so consistent. It's about to like, how do we support women to show up in these leadership? Roles in a, in an authentic way where they feel comfortable in their approach and their messaging and who they can be and not feel like they have to model somebody else's style or what works currently based on what they see in that environment.

[00:18:56] Loree Philip: Is that similar to what you, you've [00:19:00] experienced?

[00:19:00] Kailea: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, and then we'll get to this, but the fact that we don't have enough diversity and female representation at TOP really is a large driver for why Braley has structured The way that we are now where we are targeting and focused on working with women day one of their careers to really help solve for that pipeline issue later on.

[00:19:25] Kailea: So helping promote and empower the women that organizations already have and get them into those leadership roles.

[00:19:31] Loree Philip: Yeah, what are some of the tools that if we don't have right now, we don't have as many role models as we'd like to have. So when you don't have somebody to look up to and see yourself in them and see, you know what, that is a great style.

[00:19:48] Loree Philip: I love the way that she presents herself that way. I love the way she communicates all these types of things. How do we, as an individual, [00:20:00] start to work on bringing forward our our own style in those conversations? What, from your perspective, has been useful for, for developing that type of a skill?

[00:20:13] Kailea: So I would say from my own personal experience Really, what was most powerful was building my own personal network. And it wasn't at the time that I was in corporate, uh, it wasn't female executives or leaders. It was my mom, my sisters my best childhood friends. And while they didn't know exactly what was going on, and of course, the specific work environment or the specific players at work, having their constant support and encouragement of, hey, you're good, we've got you, no matter what happens, you're going to be okay, but we need you and we're going to encourage you to keep doing what feels authentic and true to yourself really was huge for me.

[00:20:59] Kailea: [00:21:00] And Again, at the point that I decided to kind of leave corporate, I hadn't built up this brilliant community at all. I didn't have this amazing network of seasoned executives that we do have now. And so my family and my friends were the ones that really supported and encouraged me through that.

[00:21:17] Kailea: So that was huge. And then for others that may not have that right, there are amazing online resources and communities. So of course really is one of them, but they're now just between podcasts like this from yourself and all these other amazing coaches and individuals that are supporting, finding your inner empowerment and your inner confidence are definitely amazing tools that I would lean on and really having the confidence and creating the comfort for yourself.

[00:21:45] Kailea: If you're doing everything you can to be true to yourself and authentic to yourself and create the boundaries and safe space within your environment, and if you're getting pushback and if it's not possible, then it might just be time to, to try to find a different a different opportunity if [00:22:00] possible.

[00:22:00] Kailea: But definitely kind of building up your, your outside resources as

[00:22:04] Loree Philip: possible. Yeah, that's a great perspective. And. As we talk a bit about confidence, I'm really curious. So when you left or the last part of the story that you were telling me about your career, you were in this burnout phase before you decided to leap out and start really like how did you move from burnout to confidence to start your own business?

[00:22:30] Loree Philip: Can you walk me through that?

[00:22:32] Kailea: Yeah, absolutely. So I think my story is even more unique as part of when I became extremely burnt out. Part of what was happening there was also a big personal change where I just called off an engagement and moved into my first house on my own and was really creating a completely different life for myself.

[00:22:51] Kailea: And so as I went through kind of that big personal change, I started looking at all. Aspects of my life. So including my professional [00:23:00] life and really sat there and wondered, is this actually what I want to do? Is this making me happy? No, it's making me miserable. I'm completely burnt out and I need some space on.

[00:23:12] Kailea: And so what started as a three month gap for me to start building up my relationships with my family again, my friends start You know, exploring this new single life of being on my own as an adult for the first time. I started realizing that this idea behind Brilli had been something that stuck with me for The previous five to seven years.

[00:23:37] Kailea: It was a topic that I was most passionate about. I had kind of already started mentoring a lot of different Individuals helping just support and encourage them through their professional situations. And it was a problem that I really didn't see being solved anywhere else. And so as I was taking this break, I realized and kind of thought, why not?

[00:23:59] Kailea: [00:24:00] And this was the time if ever. While I was shifting and changing so much in my life already, this is the time to really give it a shot. And so I would say, it really was created during the peak of my burnout, which is kind of strange looking back on now. Again, I didn't know what was wrong with me. I just thought I was lazy.

[00:24:23] Kailea: I was never going to be successful. I was going to just like be a couch potato for the rest of my life. And I just slowly started. Building up really, and I just slowly started forcing myself to reach out to now. What are our amazing, brilliant mentors, uh, reaching out to my business coach and my amazing friend now relying heavily on my mom who has been huge in the whole process and just started slowly building it up.

[00:24:50] Kailea: And what was interesting is as I. Started building up really and creating this amazing community. I started actually healing myself a I Realized I was [00:25:00] in the peak of burnout. I realized you can have burnout. Even if I don't have kids I really didn't think I had any excuse to have burnout. So once I realized oh wait, maybe I Actually wasn't burnout then I was able to start figuring out the resources and support needed to get myself out.

[00:25:16] Kailea: And Started learning so many of the experiences and stories of our brilliant mentors that again created a lot more awareness for me of everything that I've gone through and really how hard that actually was and starting to create a little more grace for myself and a little more understanding of everything that I've been through.

[00:25:36] Kailea: And how that might have eventually taken the toll that it did. And so as we built, really, I realized I really started building something that I needed for myself. And I think that's, what's so powerful about the resources and the training and the people that we have right now is because it truly did.

[00:25:54] Kailea: Change my life, and I'm really hoping it can change so many other people's lives, too. And I would [00:26:00] say I don't think I'm fully out of burnout yet, but I'm, I'm getting there.

[00:26:03] Loree Philip: Well, I, I'm glad to hear. That you were able to come through that, maybe not a hundred percent, but as much as that you did and now you're creating something that you're so passionate about and talk to me a bit about. Your experience building something that is so near and dear to your heart.

[00:26:28] Loree Philip: How does it feel? Does it, is it different than when you were working building on something that maybe you weren't as passionate about?

[00:26:38] Kailea: It is, it has been so beyond terrifying. I, uh,

[00:26:43] Kailea: I'm actually at a loss for words. It was surprising how completely different it is. This is. When I was working in corporate and I did a lot of fundraising, so a lot of creation of investor pitches and materials and telling the story and really selling them as a [00:27:00] company. However, when it came to Brilli and I was having to sell myself and sell the idea behind Brilli, I had such an incredibly hard time about it.

[00:27:09] Kailea: I still have a super hard time. And I think it just speaks to A I still feel super uncomfortable kind of quote unquote bragging about myself I'm, like, why does anyone care who I am and what my story is? And so that's something i'm still working through and then be the idea of putting Really, which is you know my Passion and my dreams and who I am completely into like one organization putting that out there for others to potentially hate Or criticize or not want to be a part of That is feels so much more personal.

[00:27:45] Kailea: And so that has actually been a big awareness that I've realized because I'm like, why have I been so hesitant to do certain things that would make really larger, more scalable, etc. And I do think so much of it is [00:28:00] about because this is so personal to me. And it is like, The thing I am most passionate about.

[00:28:05] Kailea: And so it's so much scarier to take those steps with it. Hmm.

[00:28:09] Loree Philip: Yeah, I think that that hits really close to a lot of people because I mean, I feel similar about my stuff that I'm creating. And I think it goes back to the conversation we had about feeling comfortable to even bring your full authentic self to work because that's vulnerability right there.

[00:28:32] Loree Philip: All of a sudden, you're you. These are your best ideas. You love them. And. You're putting it out, and somebody might criticize, and somebody might push back, and somebody might say no, and that vulnerability is so scary. How, how are you handling that? I know you mentioned you're still working through it. And I think a lot of, I mean, this is a lifelong [00:29:00] journey and being able to put out your heart's work.

[00:29:05] Loree Philip: What are some of the things that have helped you so far with that?

[00:29:10] Kailea: The people. I would say my, my community of people, again, whether it's my mom, my business coach, even the Brilli team they have continued to push and encourage and support. I think big piece of my continuous work to address my constant kind of fear and fear of being too vulnerable and and and fear of failure, which is been huge for me has been the ability to try to be as authentic as possible with the really team, with the really community, with my family, with my friends to say this has been terrifying.

[00:29:49] Kailea: I. And so scared of this failing of disappointing etc. And really the response and encouragement I've gone in return for just being [00:30:00] that authentic and transparent has been huge and I think has created such a camaraderie across the really community. And has created a feeling across my personal team and family and friends of this feeling of we're all doing this together and we've got each other's backs.

[00:30:15] Kailea: So I definitely say that my, my community and network of people have been huge and continue to be huge. Yeah.

[00:30:24] Loree Philip: And I, I think that's where I want to close this out because I think What the call to action for listeners and all the people that are looking to be more daring and bring, bring your full authentic self forward and your passions and put them out there is that.

[00:30:45] Loree Philip: We need to be allowing support from other people. We do not have to do it alone. And not only can you be supportive of others on their [00:31:00] projects, on their goals, on their dreams, but also really allowing that support network and, and utilize it. And I've been I've been not great at this myself.

[00:31:11] Loree Philip: I'm still working on it as well. Like I have a lot of. Support network that I don't use and and it's just it is a journey And so it's like taking one little step and taking one little step and taking one little step so I I think I really appreciate your vulnerability even in this conversation and I want people to notice that you can go create a company and be the CEO of a company and it doesn't matter who said you couldn't and it doesn't matter what everybody else thinks and you can get through the fears one step at a time and to allow others to bring in their support for you and to tap into that when you need [00:32:00] it.

[00:32:00] Loree Philip: Kalila, how could our listeners really learn more about you, about Brilli, about your work, and connect with you? Yeah, absolutely.

[00:32:10] Kailea: You can head to our website, which is just www. brilli. org, and Brilli is spelled B R I L L I E. Or you can check us out on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest the handle, at I am Brille, and again, Brille is B R I L L I E.

[00:32:31] Loree Philip: Well, thank you so much, I really appreciated this conversation. Thank

[00:32:36] Kailea: you so much, it was such a pleasure kind of getting to talk with you today, and I hope you

[00:32:40] Loree Philip: have a wonderful day. You too. Talk soon. Bye.

[00:32:44] Bye.

[00:32:45] Loree Philip: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you've enjoyed it, I would love for you to subscribe. If you're already a subscriber, don't forget to share the podcast with a friend. Hope you all have an amazing week. [00:33:00] Until next time. Bye.