Katherine Ann Byam: Career consultant turns journalling into writing books

VISHANNA PHAGOO

Moving to a different country will always be a challenge, especially if it's thousands of miles away from family and friends.

This is what author Katherine Ann Byam dealt with in 2009 when she first moved to the UK to pursue her career in Big Tobacco – a term used to refer to the largest companies in the tobacco industry.

The six largest tobacco companies are China National Tobacco Company, British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Imperial Brands, Altria Group, and Japan Tobacco International.

At the time, she held many roles and did jobs such as financing, internal audit, supply chain risk, project management and change management. Byam now works for her own self-titled company, and her brand and podcast Where Ideas Launch deals with career consultation.

"I provide consultancy services to small to medium enterprises on environmental, social and governance implementation, materiality assessments, and sustainability strategy. I also coach leaders on implementing change, either through group programmes or one-to-one. I run the courageous career club, a group coaching programme to support positive impact career transitions."

After having to celebrate a birthday in her 30s by herself in the winter of 2010, she started feeling depressed, and to process her feelings she started journalling as advised by her therapist at the time.

"I was excited to be in Europe, in the UK to be exact because it was after the financial crisis, so it was an interesting time. But in 2010, I became really depressed because it was my birthday which is in January and it was also winter. I remember thinking 'oh my God, why have I done this to myself? Why did I move to this cold place? Why did I do this?'"

With the intent of feeling comfortable with her decisions, Byam started writing and eventually finished her first book – The Naked Finger – that is yet to be published.

"This is a book about me being single and drifting through these experiences I was having in my life, my job at the time required me to travel all over the world and I was doing this as a single black woman so that brought lots of interesting experiences."

But since the writing fever infected her, she didn't stop there and wanted to help every one that felt the way she did 12 years earlier with her newly published book Do What Matters: The Purpose Driven Career Transition Guide.

"What I was going for with this book is something useful and well-researched, but still accessible, allowing the reader to feel like they're having a conversation with their slightly eccentric best friend. I wanted to write something that convinced people that they had the power to take action because I think a lot of us feel so overwhelmed at times."

Byam said the book is to invoke a sense of purpose in every one whether they be seniors or fresh out of school and get them to think outside of the norm when it comes to their careers. She said while pursuing her master's in business administration in France in 2015 it allowed her to expand her interest on inequality, geopolitics and frugal innovation.

"I knew then that I wanted to make a pivot to sustainable innovation in general, and I wanted to also encourage others to do the same, hence the coming together of my coaching and consulting work, and my environmental and social activism in general.

"When I started my podcast Where Ideas Launch – The Sustainable Innovation podcast in 2020, I was really at the beginning of my journey in building credibility in this space, but luckily I could lean on years and years of what I will describe as adjacent experiences, to help me navigate some of the ethical and social questions.

"Having my community, women in sustainable business as well, this helped me to consolidate my knowledge and translate it into the incubator I also run."

For her downtime, Byam enjoys travelling either domestic or overseas and it all started because of her job.

"Travel started with my job. My first international audit assignment was in Mexico, then Honduras. The interesting thing about the way my work was organised at the time was that we would have a multinational team going to a location for time periods of one week up to seven weeks.

"We would spend all our time on assignment, so naturally evenings and weekends you got to explore the country you were in with either your clients, your multinational peers, or on your own.

"This meant that you got an immersion in a new culture whether you wanted to or not, just by hanging out with the diverse group, and if you were lucky, local management would organise excursions for you to really experience and appreciate who they are and where they come from.

"After you’ve had that sort of experience it changes you. It’s impossible to have the same beliefs, thought processes and behaviours once you’ve lived your life in another person’s shoes."

She said it was also during that time that she began writing short stories, self-deprecating pieces about encounters she had on her travels which were entertaining for her friends and peers.

Once she saw how much people were engaging with this content, she started journalling more and so this format has found its way into her book. But more of her stories will be featured in her upcoming books, Designed by Diversity/Built by Inclusion and The Naked Finger.

Byam added that she also makes time to walk along the coast as it's something that she cannot resist and takes every opportunity to do so either at the south of the UK, or on the west coast of France.

"I also consider writing a hobby; this is the first time in 15 years of consistent writing have I managed to commercialise any of it! I also love music, singing and dance, although I have to say I’m not particularly good at any of those. "

She has been doing this since 2007 as a means of solace while travelling every where without her family and she said this helped her develop her own voice as a person and author. Though her book is filled with helpful advice, she still had some more to add to those who are looking at migrating or who has done so recently.

"Before you take a decision to leave your homeland and migrate, know that integration takes time and be gentle and kind to yourself, while being curious about others. At first you may consider that you don’t necessarily want to join communities of your own country folk, because you want to learn the new culture, but I recommend starting with country folk as they help you with that integration, knowing where you came from and being able to anticipate things that will be weird, different, uncomfortable or huge adjustments for you."

Byam said people should also develop hobbies that will help them meet new people so it can be easier to experience the new environment.

"Finally, you will need to find the right blend for yourself between being authentically you, and trying things a new way, and that’s not an easy thing to know if you are getting right, but be open to exploring and learning," she added.

As for aspiring authors, she said that writing is a demanding process and non-fiction does not sell as well as fiction but reminded people to always be clear on what they are writing and respect the process.

She gave ten pieces of advice to new and upcoming authors:

"Design for the outcome upfront; create a detailed manuscript plan; decide on your team; decide on what's critical to your quality; plan your research; manage the writing journey; involve your beta readers; manage proofing and editing; manage marketing and promotion; and plan and execute your public relations campaigns."

Lastly, she said to try and enjoy the process though it may be a long and seemingly treacherous one. The paperback version of Byam's book can be purchased on Amazon.