Inspiring Conversations with Kali Jaye of Kali Jaye LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kali Jaye.

Hi Kali, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Ten years ago, I was shattered. I was in my mid-30s and living at my mom’s, dealing with PTSD and undiagnosed ADHD and trying to stay sober as a single mom without much emotional support. My personal life was a hairball of chaos, but professionally, I was crushing it. Work had always been my coping mechanism when everything else was going to shit — and back then, it definitely was.

I’d already had a rock bottom that got me sober, but this was a different kind of reckoning. It was a slow-burn anxiety spiral that I had to crawl out of if I wanted to be a present parent (which I absolutely did). So I went full-throttle into healing mode. Meds. EMDR. Meditation. Yoga. Brazilian jiu jitsu, taekwondo, and an absurd number of Les Mills workouts. I studied Kabbalah with a rabbi on Zoom. Did Buddhism training at a Shambhala center. Joined a recovery community. Found group coaching and with it, a tribe. You name it, I tried it (which could’ve been the title of my addiction memoir, too, honestly).

The biggest turning point in all that self-help and rebuilding was learning about boundaries. So simple! So misunderstood! The power of boundaries is unrivaled, I swear. As one of my mentors said, boundaries are about controlling your own narrative and sense of self, and for me, that’s exactly how it felt. It was like this Rosetta Stone that gave me a whole new language, and it made me realize I’d been playing life in Supporting Character mode. So I swapped out for Main Character mode, and I haven’t looked back.

Meanwhile, work was still going well, although I’d been through so much that my tolerance for corporate B.S. was laughably low. Oddly, that became a superpower. I wasn’t afraid to say the hard thing in a meeting, and I wasn’t trying to be perfect. I’d already seen perfectionism implode, so it held no attraction. I could advocate for change, handle difficult people, and back myself and my employees, because I knew who I was. And ironically, the fewer fucks I gave, the more people trusted me. My team became one of the highest-performing in the company, not because I pushed harder but because I modeled how to do things without self-abandonment.

Eventually though, that world started to feel like a sweater I’d outgrown. Still soft, but itchy in the wrong places. I realized being the corporate leader didn’t hold the same appeal it once had. What I did love, though, was the coaching I was doing as part of a pilot program in the organization: I was helping colleagues bounce back after layoffs, navigate burnout, manage their employees’ performance without losing their minds, and it felt like a calling that had followed me from my healing life into my professional one.

But that wasn’t the only fire I relit.

After a breakup, I’d ended up in Ireland at a creative retreat, writing poetry for the first time since I was a kid. I signed up for an open mic one night, walked onstage, and felt something in me unlock. It was the most surreal thing — I wasn’t a performer! What was I doing? But there, in front of the microphone at an inn in Belfast, I felt like myself in a way I hadn’t in years.

That experience changed my life. I realized that storytelling was where I came alive, and since then I’ve spoken at conferences, performed at The Moth, told stories about my checkered past to rooms of strangers, and have had people come up to me afterward saying, “Thank you. I needed that.”

Today, I’m a storyteller, coach, and sober single parent helping other women rewrite their own stories and remember who the fuck they are. I work with women who are completely over superficial bullshit and tired of gaslighting themselves into submission. Women who don’t want performative healing anymore and are itching to throw away their own ill-fitting sweaters and design a whole new wardrobe.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Ha! Smooth? No. More like Route 66. Fun to drive, broken down in parts, lots of twists and detours, but ultimately gorgeous and a great ride.

So many detours: PTSD, undiagnosed ADHD, single motherhood, addiction recovery, relationship trauma, codependency, burnout, basically a grab bag of roadwork signs and potholes.

Some routes were about survival and self-loathing, others full of hope and magic. Really, though, the magic was always there, only some of it wasn’t visible until it was in the rearview mirror.

There were the “just try not to have a panic attack” years. The “feel like you’re failing at motherhood during a pandemic when everyone else is building forts and obstacle courses in their backyard” years. “Waking up at 3 a.m. in a cold sweat” years.

These days, there’s still chaos, but like a crow, it brings me little souvenirs once I befriend it. Learning to navigate late-stage-capitalist systems made me scrappy. Supporting myself and my kid as a single parent taught me resourcefulness. Healing from the shitshow of my past taught me boundaries. Finding the unexpected magic in the microphone taught me how to cast a spell by telling the truth.

The road is anything but smooth, but the thrill of the drive is always there.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I help people rewrite the stories that are keeping them stuck.

Not in some fluffy, new-age-y way — I mean actually looking at the bullshit narratives you’ve inherited, internalized, or been bullied into and setting them on fire, then sifting through the ash and smudging it on your cheeks like war paint.

I offer transformational story-rewriting workshops; an in-depth storytelling course called Spark, Fire, and Light, and a high-touch personal coaching partnership called Remember Who the Fuck You Are. Everything I offer is made to support people navigating big life changes with no blueprint.

I work with burnout survivors, former gold-star chasers, relationship pattern breakers … anyone who’s ready to bet on themselves instead of settling for familiar pain any longer. When burnout becomes a breaking point, when the high-paying role that used to define you starts hollowing you out, when you realize your love life is a broken record playing all the wrong songs … that’s when I step in.

I help you find your inner compass, sharpen your decision-making, and make bold moves one small step at a time. I give you practical tools and steady support through the freakouts, meltdowns, and “what-the-hell-am-I-doing” moments. I hold your bigger vision steady when you feel wobbly. What I really do is help you become your own adventure guide, so you can navigate any life transition like a badass.

My goal? That by the time we’re done, you don’t need me anymore. I’m not cheap, but I’m damn good at what I do.

The reason I’m so good is because this work isn’t just theory; it’s also grounded in real, lived experience. I’m a former counselor, former corporate leader, certified coach, and sober single parent who rebuilt her life from the inside out more than once. I don’t do performative healing or corporate palatability, and I’m not here to optimize your habits or build you a better morning routine. There are other coaches for that.

What I do is help you become chaos-proof.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is having my own back no matter what.

It’s not checking boxes climbing ladders, being on brand, or whatever the fuck LinkedIn is calling it. It’s waking up and feeling alive, not dead inside. It’s walking out the door and feeling this delicious thrill of possibility, like I’m living an adventure, not some sanitized simulation.

It’s having soul-level friends, a ride-or-die tribe who would do anything for each other. It’s laughing in the car with my son while we headbang to what sounds like a WWE walk-on song. It’s watching anime with him, getting emotional during the heroic arcs, and smiling at the ridiculous joy of it all.

It’s NOT trying to squeeze myself into some contact-lens-case-sized set of expectations that come from people I don’t respect.

It’s being able to create, feel things fully, and not run from the hard shit.

It’s looking back at my teenage self — the girl who absolutely refused to accept mediocre experiences — and telling her, “You were right. We made it.”

Pricing:

• pricing available on website

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kalijaye.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalijaye/

Image Credits
Gala Semenova