About

Speaker Demo Reel | Global | September 2019 | Created by Sarah Gavin

From Harvard -> Happiness -> Healing
I thought I did everything "right." I went to Harvard. I thought I did everything "right." I became a professor. I thought I did everything "right." I became a Global Happiness Coach. I thought I did everything "right." Then I got depressed and when my 6 year old niece asked me, "What is the thing you know the most about?" and I answered "Happiness," I still thought I did everything "right." Then I got depressed for 2 years and realized that everything I knew to be "right" was actually externally validating me. Oh and there is no happiness without healing...

Humbled + Honored to have worked WITH

Work featured in

Individuals (Impacted)

Countries (Workshops Delivered)

Years (Depressed)

Hello awesome human!
My name is Kyla.

I could tell you that I graduated from Harvard where I won a prestigious teaching award. I could tell you that I gave a TED Talk (yeah, the one on this page). I could tell you that I was a professor for 7 years and won multiple awards for teaching. I could tell you that I have trained and inspired high-level executive clients from all over the world who work at Chevron, Merck, Microsoft, Samsung and several startups around the globe. I could tell you that I have delivered and developed my own workshops in 16 countries across 3 continents and traveled to 49 countries thus far. I could tell you that I was voted "51 Most Fabulous Global Happiness Leaders" for 2020 by World HRD Congress. Finally, I could also tell you that I was asked to join the Forbes Coaches Council in 2020.

I would rather tell you that shortly after my 40th birthday, I realized that I am an overcomer of workplace bullying - something I touch lightly upon in my TED Talk. It took me 5 years before I could actually go back to Boston where it occurred; it took me 8 years to be able to talk about another bullying incident (in my TED Talk Prequel filmed in Finland) and finally another 8 years before I created my very own antidote to workplace negativity and bullying called The Happiness Workshop. I would rather tell you that when I found out that I was voted "51 Most Fabulous Global Happiness Leaders" for 2020, I searched for every excuse as to why I shouldn't be chosen (Imposter Syndrome)--a similar feeling I experienced when I got accepted to Harvard.

And that's not all. I decided to go even deeper with my work on happiness on both a personal level and a professional level.

I became a certified life coach, certified happiness coach, and a certified Theta Healing® practitioner and instructor. As a result, I have had the tremendous opportunity to impact over 3,300 amazing individuals and give them the tools/strategies they needed so they can overcome any kind of workplace negativity/life negativity around the globe.

Ohhhhh and I turned my TED Talk into a book! You can read more about it here. Or feel free to buy it on Amazon!

I work WITH and empower corporations, organizations, institutions, individuals to succeed by creating a WITH lifestyle. The latest research shows that in order to be successful, you have to create a psychological safe environment first in which teams can be vulnerable and reach purpose; teams with high EQ (more than IQ) succeed more than their peers; diverse teams in terms of gender/race/ethnicity out perform homogenous ones; and ultimately happy workers are more productive, efficient, motivated (the list goes on!) which then impacts ROI.

I am particularly passionate about women's rights and the visibility of Asian women around the globe. I have made it a personal and professional mission to inspire young Asian women to speak up, succeed in their jobs, rise to executive levels, and be seen more. During my time at Harvard, I worked WITH countless women who had overcome domestic violence and/or human trafficking. I was left feeling inspired and empowered by their stories of courage and strength.