Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Yengyee Lor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Yengyee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the early days of establishing your own firm. What can you share?

Starting your own consulting firm can be a challenging yet highly rewarding endeavor. I started Faithful Consulting in June 2015 but did not formally make it known to others until October 2015. The steps that I took was really to get started by establishing an LLC. I already had a business plan that I completed in my Ph.D. program. Initially, I focused my services on life coaching because it was what I was most comfortable with. I had over a decades worth of work experience doing counseling and helping individuals and families. Life coaching was an easy alignment and I was also getting my certification as a coach and already had some clients.

After the first year, I knew in order for me to make money and be sustainable, I needed to use my Industrial Organizational Psychology knowledge and skills. I needed to work with businesses, executives, and individuals that could afford high level my services. I was also going through my divorce during this time so making money to provide for my two little babies was critical. I started doing strategic planning, professional development training, and coaching leaders in organizations. I got certified in the Hogan and DISC assessments to help support this new shift and add on to the services that I was offering my clients. Working with nonprofit organizations, government, and individuals that were looking to develop their leadership skills and entrepreneurs resulted in more consistent revenue. I knew I was on the right track. I needed to keep going and adapting to the needs of my customers and the market. Then the pandemic hit and all work stopped. I was a fulltime mom and business owner and now I was also a fulltime teacher. Thinking about these two years is still hard. I am grateful for a government that provided unemployment benefits to business consultants like myself so that we had a little revenue coming, the small $1000 – $5000 grants, and thankful to my connections such as LAK Group that pretty much gave me full time hours to do outplacement coaching.

I think that is the beauty of the challenges in life like a diamond can only be forget from high heat and extreme pressure. Starting, running, and having a business, one has to be able to handle all the pressure and wear multiple hats and do it well. I was able to endure divorce, rock bottom, climb back up, hit rock bottom, climb back up, raise two kids, be a teacher (never again!), hit six-figures in my business, and now having to pivot again.

My advice to anyone would be to have six-months to one year of income for your living and business operation expenses before starting a business. It will make things easier. You will have less pressure and can focus on thoughtfully growing your business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Yengyee Lor is a purpose-driven consultant dedicated to helping others through her expertise in industrial/organizational psychology. As the Founder, President, and CEO of Faithful Consulting, she has made a significant impact in the field and has garnered recognition for her exceptional leadership, business, and coaching skills since starting her business in 2015. Yengyee has won the International Association Women’s Influential Influencer Coach Award for 2022, Margaret Ashida Leadership Award 2021 and was recognized as first runner in the competition for small size outstanding minority-owned business award.

Yengyee’s educational background consists of a Doctoral Student in Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Masters in Counseling, and Bachelor’s in Social Work. Yengyee also holds many certifications such as Project Management, Prosci Change Management, DEI, Strategic Workforce Planning, Nonprofit Consulting, DISC, and Hogan. Her exceptional understanding of human behaviors in the workplace and extensive work experience are a testament to her passion for creating thriving workplaces.

Her consultancy firm specializes in providing tailored solutions to organizations seeking to enhance and improve operations, align through strategic planning, manage, engage, and develop talent (e.g., coaching and training), improve culture, and achieve business results. Faithful Consulting conducts an analysis to determine the problem and provide solutions that will maximize resources and results without breaking the bank for a company.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This year, I had to pivot my business a little as I am returning to finish my dissertation for my Ph.D. I know that the dissertation process will be intense with lots of research and writing so I am taking on more intentional projects that bring me joy and make the most impact and are longer-term projects that will provide me the revenue to focus on my research.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The lesson I had to unlearn is that scaling back is not a failure and is sometimes necessary in order to move forward faster at a higher speed. My business as it grew had many opportunities to fill spaces that I saw a gap in, and I was so excited for the opportunities that I lost the intentionality of my business. I was becoming a jack-of-all-trades business, and that is not a good thing for business. I needed to scale back to my business’s original intentions and areas of genius: leadership coaching, training, and organizational consulting.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.faithfulconsulting.com
• Instagram: @faithful_consulting
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithfulconsulting
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yengyeelor/
• Twitter: @yengyeelor
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@faithfulconsultingllc2462
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/faithfulconsultingllc