We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Janelle King a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Janelle, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I started out serving as a life coach to women, helping them uncover their purpose and channel it into meaningful work. Many of these women came to me as a result of being in toxic and non-inclusive work environments or work environments with poor leadership, where they felt stalled or stifled and unable to use their passions and gifts at work. At the time, I could relate to them as I was part-time in my business and working at a job I didn’t enjoy. However, one day during my quiet time, I stumbled across a Scripture that informed me of the way I believe God intended us to experience work, “There’s nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand (Ecclesiastes 2:24).” This Scripture led me to do some digging where I discovered that 85% of people worldwide hate their jobs, and over 67% are actively disengaged at work. I thought those statistics were striking, as they described the state of the workplace worldwide, not just in America.

I knew that work wasn’t originally meant to be this way. It was meant for our fruitfulness and flourishing but over the years, we have been sold into this hustle culture mentality, where we work for hours without end for the sake of collecting a paycheck. Our work has become devoid of meaning and purpose. These insights and experiences led me to go back to school to receive my master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, with the goal of improving workplace behaviors and environments. Soon after finishing my program, I rebranded my business as the Purpose & Work Institute, which is a center of excellence for purpose and meaningful work where we offer research, insights, resources, and training for people and organizations to live, lead, and work with more meaning, purpose, and intention all with the goal of restoring God’s original intention for life and work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Through the Purpose and & Work Institute (PWI), we provide insights for organizations, learning and development for leaders and teams, and personal and professional development for individuals through the institute’s foundational programs Excel, Excel Leadership, and Excel Women. We offer several workplace solutions such as purpose discovery and activation at the organizational, team, and individual level, organizational culture and effectiveness, employee experience, team/job crafting, and more. We also offer professional development solutions such as job crafting, which is designed to help professionals craft their purpose, passions, strengths, and values into their roles, professional development courses, as well as private coaching for professionals who need high-touch support.

Unlike other consultancies and organizations, our research, programs, and trainings involve a multi-disciplinary approach that glean from the insights of industrial-organizational, vocational, and positive psychology as well as theology to create holistic methodologies and practical practices that empower and equip people and organizations to flourish in life and work.

We are currently working on our flagship courses that will be the foundation from which we expand and grow the institute.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot I’ve made in my life, career, and business has been the result of my children. I gave birth to my firstborn during the fall of 2020 and then to a set of twins in the spring of 2022. Both pregnancies caught my husband and me by surprise, which naturally brought many transitions. I went from having a steady flow of client work to hardly any at all due to the drastic reduction in my capacity. I immediately became a stay-at-home mom, a role I never imagined myself in. I knew that to be a present mom and still do the work that I was called to do, I was going to have to be very strategic and intentional with what and to who I gave my time in both my life and business. This caused me to take a step back and cast the vision of what I wanted this season of my life and business to look like. Due to my husband’s work schedule, I knew I was going to be the primary parent and needed to redesign and realign my business around my children’s schedule. This led me to reduce the amount of client-facing I was doing and spend more time designing courses and trainings that don’t require much of my time or physical presence.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

While I’ve been through many transitions in my business, this most recent one, with the addition of my twins, has taught me how resilient I am. There have been many times when I’ve wanted to quit, but then I was reminded that purpose is a process – a process of learning, unlearning, doing, undoing, sometimes suffering, and also becoming. I am still learning how to navigate this season, and I’m sure that I will continue to adapt along with each new milestone and developmental period that my children experience. God has been teaching me, through them, that while it is good and wise to make plans, I have to hold on to those plans lightly, trusting that His ultimate plan and purpose, even if I don’t understand them, are good. Although it’s been challenging, I have the opportunity to design a business that supports me, my family, and the season that we’re in while staying true to the purpose and roles He has called me to. For that, I am grateful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pwinstitute.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janelleaking/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janelleaking/