Sylvia Wambui is a seasoned professional with over 7 years of experience in the dynamic intersection of marketing and technology.
She is currently the founder of Called to Purpose, a brand that provide a comprehensive suite of services to support visionaries and leaders in their journey to build impactful, purpose-driven businesses.
Sylvia shared with Today Africa what led her to close her former business, Mursly Digital, and starting Called to Purpose. Watch the interview here.
Tell us a bit about yourself
So our initial connection was based in regards to Mursly Digital Group. Right now I’m currently the founder at Called to Purpose. So it’s more of a mentorship platform specifically to entrepreneurs in the African continent.
And I’m going to be focusing primarily on leaders and visionaries. This particular coaching and mentorship platform is going to be very different. The core element of it will be based on faith and spirituality.
I’m going to give a little bit of context around that. But just taking you a little bit back, formerly I was at Mursly Digital Group and I founded that group.
I had quite a number of employees, running within the organization. But I took a different route based on how far I have come in this particular journey. I’m based in Nairobi, Kenya, and I’m so happy to be here.
You have moved away from Mursly Digital Group and now a consultant to entrepreneurs
More or less, yeah, I’m a consultant because I do believe with the years that I’ve been able to rank up, working one-on-one with entrepreneurs. Also being contracted to coach in different programs such as Melanin Kapital, Her Hustle locally as well.
I’m going to a place where I do believe I have gained quite some crucial experience based on the fact that I have done freelancing. I have also been in corporate, have done consulting with not only local clients, but also international clients.
One of my most recent clients was actually a Dubai-based firm. They are primarily people who do company registration for businesses in Dubai. And also they have opened their branch in Kenya.
So I was doing consulting for them. But just like any other person, after you have been in business and in corporate for a very long time, you need a new fresh thing. And I got to a point where I just felt like I hit a barrier, so to speak.
I don’t know whether you can relate to this, but have you ever found yourself where you have tried everything under the sun in regards to corporate and different industries? You find yourself at a place where you don’t feel inspired anymore. And I got to that place where I didn’t feel inspired.
I became extremely burnt out. I just didn’t feel my creativity boosting out of me anymore. And that was the beginning of the end of me in terms of being that leader. Because when you’re a leader and you’re working in different spaces and everybody comes to you for solutions.
And they’re looking at you like, solve this riddle, solve this puzzle, you get to a point where you start feeling like you’re uninspired and also you start to feel the pressure where everybody’s looking at you.
Not because I hate being a problem, I thrive in that environment but I have done the same thing over and over again. So it got to a certain point where I felt that it was time for a new thing. And the one thing that I have discovered listening to different entrepreneurs and CEOs and leaders.
They always hit a deadlock at some point in their lives where they just don’t feel connected anymore to what they are doing. They don’t feel like they are understood. And they feel like they are uninspired. Because they don’t understand exactly what their purpose is.
They were more shaped to fit a particular role, like in visa development, in operations, and you do the same thing over and over again. So that is where Called to Purpose was born from.
When I discover what my purpose is. And my core element in Called to Purpose is to help you discover what your next level looks like because of working that journey, discovering my own self and also discovering what I’m gonna help other people come up and ascend to new dimensions.
Read Also: How Kelechi Uchenna is Transforming Nigerian Educational System
What happened to your former employees or you moved them together to your new business?
So I did it for quite a number of years. And I was able to have both internal employees and also external contractors. But it got to a certain point where the scalability of that particular company at that point was not possible.
But mostly I believe looking back, because everybody does a synopsis of what went wrong and what you could have done better. I learned greatly from the fact that I had good intentions with that company and we achieved amazing things within that company. But I got to a point where it just felt capped.
There was no scalability present. And the one thing that I learned heavily is because I tried to be the main core driver and I did not have any other person that could step in and sort of support me during that particular growth process.
And then we grew too fast, too quickly. I could not be able to sustain that growth and also carry it to the next level. And that’s like a more transparent conversation that most people never really like to have because you don’t want to sit and face your failures.
You also don’t want to sit and acknowledge the fact that you may have probably bitten a bit too much and it puts you at that particular time. So I wasn’t prepared to get to that next level the same way. So I had to have a hard conversation with my employees. And to be honest, it was the most tearful, hard thing for me to do.
And I got to a particular point where I swore to myself, I’m never going to do this again. I’m not going to go back to entrepreneurship. I want to steer clear from it and I’m going to be fully known as a business consultant. That’s that.
And nobody comes to call me and tell me anything about business. But have you ever left something, it’s like an ex that you had a relationship that you can never leave. That’s how business and I have a relationship.
Where you always think to yourself, I’m never going to call that person again, I’m never going to go where they are again. But you find yourself in some situations where you go back. And I took a break actually from entrepreneurship for about, I can say a year or two.
I had to regroup, I had to dig myself from that pit of everybody looking at you and wondering now what are you going to do with your life? Now what is the next new thing in your life?
Now, how do you have a relationship with failure publicly? How do you have conversations with your employees, people that you have grown with, mentored, moulded? And I actually even recommended them for other jobs.
I ensured that I had that amicable relationship. They can always come to me. I can always help them and mentor them. And that’s just my nature of how I am as a leader. So that’s what happened with the Digital Group in full transparency.
You have a new business so can you take us through the process of launching your new business?
So let me take you back. We’ve talked a little bit about failure. We have spoken about deviating from it and focusing on going back into consulting full-time. But here’s the thing, you’re the only person who can be fully real with yourself.
And I got to a point where I had to be real with who I was. And I know maybe this is something that most people won’t talk about, but I met Jesus, that’s what happened. I discovered that I had idolized a lot of things in my life, money, success, and I had compared myself to so many people. In return, I had gotten to a place where I was under extreme pressure to perform in the coexisting spaces that no longer served me.
And it had to first start from acknowledging the point at where I was. And also start to look at my own shortcomings and look at my journey. Start to look back at where I had gone wrong and where I had dropped Jesus and focused on exalting other things in my life. So he began to walk me on that path to show me that I had to first heal from the matrix of the 9-5, the matrix of, we had to perform and move at a hundred percent speed.
The matrix of I have to survive so that I can be able to climb that ladder. I had to break off from that shell and that’s what happened. So that journey began with self-discovery of my true identity. That journey had to come with true healing because people do not relate God with business. They think business is a whole element on its own.
But let’s be real. I’m really afraid of saying that I’m very open. And you can quote me. Let’s be extremely real. But God and business are like a power couple.
You cannot do business and eliminate God from your business. Because what will happen is that we will do each to a particular level of might and power. But you’ll always have a cup where you feel like you’re not really achieving the next level.
And I had to come to a point where I had to acknowledge that I have done the best that I can from my own capability. And now he has to come in and show me what’s next. I had to discover what my true purpose is and that came at a point where I did not like it.
But I had to go through the process. So the process, the process of detaching from your own self and redirecting your identity and being shaped into the element of who Jesus Christ is and also truly cutting off pride and ego.
That’s where I had to get to. So you have to go low for it to be brought back up. You have to actually die to self for you to come back up. And I had to rise through that change. And that change has come with a lot of things.
Extremely fierce at what I do. I was fierce in the past. I’ve always been a fierce woman. But the difference now is I’m so authentic and so blatant in terms of how I speak and how I show up. I’m no longer in a shell of people pleasing, cuddling egos, cuddling people to accept me. I do not do that anymore.
I’m unapologetic about what I do. And that comes with looking at other people who are caught in the matrix of who I presently was. I was presently caught in the survival. I was presently caught in the people pleasing. And I was recently caught in the rabbit race and I checked out. I was like, God, I am done. And God brought me into rest.
I was fatigued, I was burnt out, and I was mentally not okay. My heart was weak. My body was struggling. I was surviving on coffee every single day. Coffee was my bread and butter. It got to a point where coffee stopped working on me.
I used to work long hours where I would work for over like in two days, only three hours of sleep. So that is unhealthy for you as a human being, also unhealthy for the people that are around you. And also in full transparency, I’m also a mother.
So you no longer show up for your community, you no longer show up for yourself. And with that reformation and transition, I am here to tell people that this new Sylvia is rested, she is restful. Okay. This new Sylvia helps people from a place of true identity.
Like I know myself a hundred percent and that cannot be shifted by other people in external parties. And the leaders and the visionaries that feel like they have to conform and be something else just to achieve what they want to achieve.
And everybody who feels like they’re lost in what they are doing, then that’s where Called to Purpose comes in. We help you identify your pitfalls. We help you identify your core skills and abilities. And then we start from there to be able to take you through a journey of transformation where you start to understand yourself in the way God intended you to be and the purpose that he has put in your heart and in your life.
Read Also: From Lab Scientist to a Luxury Cake Brand Owner – Elizabeth Solaru
What’s your business model and how does ‘Called to Purpose’ generate revenue?
What we do is offer free content on my platform on YouTube. And how the transition goes, we combine consulting and coaching. But we don’t do it in the form of a soldier in the army. We do it in the form of we look at the pitfalls in your business.
But also we relate that to the spiritual walk of an individual. And I’m not saying that we choke you down with the word, but we can’t relate a lot of how to grow a business when you’re walking close with who God is and who God has made you to be.
Because a lot of people are not able to grow their business to the levels that they want to grow them, not because only of the shortcomings and the problem bottlenecks in the business. So for instance, if a client comes to me and tells me, Sylvia, here’s my business. These are some of the struggles that I have been experiencing in my business. My operational processes are not correct, marketing is off, and my team is not motivated enough.
So first we start from the element of who you are as a business and as a founder. What was your initial vision as a leader and as a visionary within this particular business? Then we first deal with the person that is running the main machine and then we go to solving the bigger problems. Because what I have realized is every time I would walk into a company and we would do strategy sessions that would fix the problem.
But we have to come back and continuously also carry the founder together so they can fix the problem. Because we fixed one end, we didn’t fix the holistic aspect of it. So it’s coaching and consulting with a sweet source of spirituality. That’s what it is. So we definitely charge for our services. We offer free mentorship for youth and students. So if you’re new out of university, you’re trying to figure out who you are.
We do have those types of mentorship programs. But when it comes to an organization that has built itself, we do offer coaching and consulting, but we also deal with you as an individual. So it’s a holistic narrative.
How did you build systems and processes that help in smooth running of your business?
AI has played a very crucial role in setting up my business because I am able to do work that is like for 10 people or hiring externally that I can be able to do internally. So how my business is run is purely online as of right now and it’s conversion based. When you’re brought in through the intro call and we are able to have a one-on-one. Then you’re translated into another platform where you’re able to interact with your coach one-on-one.
So I have utilized systems, schedulers within my business, community platforms as well. I have a YouTube channel and an email newsletter as well. So with my prior knowledge in building other people’s businesses, I have brought that knowledge to this other side where I have built a seamless organization and a seamless process where I am able to tweak as I please.
I’m also able to equip another person, if I’m not able to show up, I’m able to bring in another person and they can be able to show up. So the model will be so to speak that as of right now being Sylvia, I am able to hire other people to come in and help in particular areas. Let’s say you’re good at strategy, you’re good at content creation, you’re good at PR. I’m able to hire more people because I have a streamlined process.
So the process of building for me starts from identifying what the consumer wants to see. So that’s how I built a system. I don’t build systems from what Sylvia or who Sylvia is because when you’re building as an entrepreneur, you build it from a passion and blinded perspective because you fall so in love with your business.
But you don’t look externally to see what the consumer will see. That’s the same way when a person has a product, you fall in love with your product and you know that your product is the most amazing product.
But your competitors have a similar product. So what differentiates the both of you? You have to look at the time of processing your goods, the time of creating your product.
So you limit the creation time, so that you can be able to have a mass inflow of your products in the market as quickly as possible to keep up with the demand and the supply, and compete with the other competitors.
For me, I want to build and continue building and expanding our business where it is not dependent on Sylvia. And that was the mistake that I made to begin with. I thought that I was all knowing. I thought that everything had to be dependent on me and that I could carry everything on my own. And I can tell you, Emeka, I have met so many leaders, so many CEOs. One thing that they struggle with is delegation.
And also being a hands-off person where if I give you that thing, I will allow you to take it away. And you’re allowed to come back and ask me questions. But you can take it away and follow the system processes that I have already created, and also the documentation and the training modules.
So you bring a full ship that is running with or without you. And that’s the thing that most CEOs and entrepreneurs need to understand, that if you die today, God forbid, your business will not shut down because you have left. It has to be bigger than you and larger than you.
There are people who are good at founding, but not good at being CEOs. So those are some of the nitty gritty that you have to start understanding when you come to us.
And that’s also a harsh reality that I had to learn, despite the fact that I have different skills. Like to be honest, I can be an admin at the front desk, I can be the customer service, I can be the operation, and I can be the CEO in the boardroom.
And God has blessed me to be very multifaceted. But then again, just because you are aware of something, it doesn’t mean that you’re excellent at it. And that’s where the difference between being a perfectionist and an excellent person comes in.
So you can see me going in with the coaching. So yeah, this is just how I see systems. I start from the consumer and I walk my way back. What are they seeing? What do they need to feel and what do they need to see? And then I come back and start building from that perspective.
There are a lot of brands doing what you do. What differentiates your brand from others?
What separates our brand as a brand? We are the type of brand that is not just about quick money and multiple numbers. Because most of the coaching industries that you see nowadays, and I’m not coming against any coaching brand. All I’m saying is we are focused on bringing multitudes in. And then when it comes to dealing with the issues, we fail at the operational process.
So when you lay the body on the table. You don’t fully do the surgery. You do it as quickly as possible so that you can move them along. For us, we’re through and through to a point where we want you to succeed, to a point where we also retain you in a community. We retain you in a community.
We coach you and give you access to resources and we bring external people to also work with you during that journey. You’re also allowed to come back in and ask questions and even get a second advisory type of feel.
So we are not only just coaching for sorting, let’s get out of here. We are here with you through your journey because we want your business to thrive from now until the time that you decide to switch for something else. We do with you as a family and as a community. And that thing with building as an entrepreneur, it’s a very lonely journey. And a lot of people don’t talk about that. It’s extremely lonely.
And that’s something that I experienced, building a brand. Nobody wants to talk to you because they feel that you’re going to steal their ideas. Nobody wants to give you strategies about building your brand. Yet they have already done it, but they won’t give you a full picture.
I am not a gatekeeper and our organization is not about gatekeeping anymore. Because we want to see more people step out of the matrix of having to work paycheck after paycheck, but come out and build their businesses that will impact Africa. Because we have so many problems, very few workers because they are stuck in the matrix of paycheck to paycheck.
When you come here, first you break your mentality and how you think about yourself and how you see the world. And we start to build a brand that is based on authenticity and also the kind of problems that we have in Africa. We want to see less people leaving Africa and more people staying and fixing the problems.
Read Also: How Dr. Jesca Mhoja Nkwabi is Building a Global Business with Local Impact
Since you launched your new business, what has helped in attracting and retaining your customers?
To be honest, I am a very hot throat, but also an authentic human being. And what I realized, a lot of people are attracted to the authenticity, who I am as an individual. So when you come to our organization, I don’t address you as somebody who is high and mighty and has not gone through what you’ve gone through.
And that’s why I’ve been called up to also mentor other fellow women and even men who are new to business is the fact that I’m extremely authentic. And I point out things even on the things that you do not want to hear about yourself. The honesty aspect and the authenticity aspect is what helps me retain the clients because when they come to me, they won’t find the stack up. I have never ‘failed type of Sylvia.’
They’ll find Sylvia who is like, yo, I have been down this road and I understand, but let’s get you out of this rut that you’re in. And let’s see how we can be able to bypass the problems that you’re currently facing. So that is the authenticity, basically.
What is your approach to hiring and building a team?
Let me take you back to when I was doing Mursly. Here’s the thing, this is the fine line that I came to understand when it comes to hiring. Don’t get attached. Do not hire from an emotional perspective, hire from a skill and ability perspective. Because at the end of the day, it’s a business.
For me, I came in with mentorship. Let me train you up to where you’re supposed to be. Let me help you get there. And yes, it’s a beautiful thing for people to grow within an organization. But the thing is, they didn’t have the necessary skills that I needed for us to take the organization to the next level.
And that’s because I hired sub-par skilled people and they’re amazing human beings. But they did not have the skill and the abilities that I require to be able to build this business to the next level.
So you asked me the question of how do I hire a team now? I hire based on the fact that when I ask you really an honest question about who you are as an individual and where you see yourself and what you’re passionate about. I am able to tell where you’re fighting, you’re just doing it because you need a job.
And a lot of people hire people based on the fact that you have a good CV, and you have experience, but it’s more than that. How are you when it comes to handling people? How are you when it comes to collaboration and handling tough situations?
Because at the end of the day, the business world changes so much. You need a person who can be able to adapt to the seamlessness of the different things that are being thrown at you.
So you don’t hire people who are forever going to stay from an employee perspective, hire people who think and would like to think like leaders. That’s my secret sauce. How you’d like to take over things and projects and make them your own.
Ownership in the things and the place that you’re being put within an organization. So it’s not only about what I see on the CV, it’s more about the person that I’m dealing with and their skills and their abilities and the passions that they have. That’s how I hire differently.
What are some of the key lessons that you have learned in your journey as an entrepreneur?
My God, I could give you 30. Number one, you’re not a machine. Rest is important for you to be able to run your business smoothly, you have to rest. There’s no other way to exit.
Number two, the passion that you have for your business is your own. Because other people don’t look at the passion behind the business, they look at how it’s solving their problems. So you need to focus more on what is your business actually solving? Because at the end of the day, your business is competing amongst so many other businesses.
Number three, know when it’s time to leave. Don’t dilly dally when you know it’s not working. It’s okay to acknowledge the fact that you have failed at that thing, but also pat yourself on the back and realize that you actually took a risk.
Then know how to shift and adjust as you go. Because when you’re too stuck in your ways, time will escape you when you’re trying to figure out something that is already broken and the time has already been served for that thing. So no one needs time to leave.
Number four, in as much as possible, seek God in regards to your business. I’m not saying that everybody has to do it exactly the way Sylvia does it. But seek God for your business. Because I know it the hard way.
How do you stay inspired and motivated even in the face of setbacks and failures?
If you asked me this question three years ago, I would have told you that I isolate and I wait for the waves to skip me and pass me through. That’s what I would have told you to be honest. But now I’ll tell you that I have built capacity to a point where I sit with myself and I do my own evaluation process. I understand this is a place I have hit a roadblock.
So what are my options on the table? I don’t solve things more emotionally. I solve them more logically in terms of being able to analyze your situation and see the possible options. If there are no possible options, then go back to the drawing book and acknowledge that, you know what, I have possibly failed at that thing.
But how can I try it a different way? I give myself time. And I can say this openly, I used to really struggle with getting up. I don’t know whether you can relate where you fall, and then now you’re struggling to get back up. And then the struggle bus takes like weeks where you’re struggling to get back up.
So the time to which I get back up is now limited, because I have found ways of being very okay with failure, like not creating a relationship with failure where you’re so comfortable in it.
It’s just rubbing shoulders with it and understanding that I have failed, but that doesn’t mean that I’m a failure. It just means that this thing just did not work out. I need to find other ways to deal with it. That’s what I do. And also, I lean on community, I have a really strong community around me. I also lean on God. Yes. Take it to the bank. So that’s how I deal with failure nowadays.
Read Also: Dare Olatoye – the Mastermind Behind Trueflutter, Africa’s Biggest Dating App
What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs who are just starting out in their business?
Be clear about what you’re not good at. Like, be very honest that you’re not good at it. If it’s people that you don’t enjoy handling, be very okay with that. And that will help you know where you need to delegate.
Don’t be afraid to delegate. Don’t be afraid to bring in coaches and consultants to help you on your journey. Do not be afraid to lean in on mentors because those people have done this thing before you. And it would help you cut on the struggle, figuring out phase, where you’re spending so much time figuring out instead of building your business.
So be okay with asking for help. And also lean on the things that you can be able to delegate, especially if you can be able to use technology for it, if you’re able to leverage AI and delegate some of the things that you don’t want to do. And also the main thing, be okay with the redundant tasks.
They’re important. They are annoying, but they are important. That’s what I will tell you. Because a lot of people run away and they delegate things that they are able to do. So they’re losing money by bringing somebody in to do something that they can be able to do for themselves. Be okay with the routine and their mundane because that’s the normalcy of being in a business.
Click here to read the rest of the interview.
To find out more, contact Sylvia Wambui via:
Leave a comment below and follow us on social media for update:
- Facebook: Today Africa
- Instagram: Today Africa
- Twitter: Today Africa
- LinkedIn: Today Africa
- YouTube: Today Africa Studio
