You don’t always pivot because you know exactly where you’re going.

Sometimes, you pivot because the version of success you’re chasing no longer feels aligned with who you want to become.

Suchi Sairam is a chronically curious arts entrepreneur, Bharatanatyam artist, teacher, choreographer, author, speaker, and founder of the Quiet Ambition Project. With a background spanning chemical engineering, executive leadership, global marketing, entrepreneurship, and the arts, Suchi has spent her life bridging worlds — East and West, business and creativity, ambition and fulfillment.

In this episode, we unpack what it really looks like to walk away from a successful corporate path, reconnect with creativity, and redefine ambition on your own terms.

What you will learn from this episode:

  • Why career pivots often begin with moving away from misalignment — not toward a perfectly clear destination.
  • How creativity and the arts helped Suchi embrace career detours instead of fearing them.
  • Why “quiet ambition” resonates deeply with women navigating success, identity, and fulfillment.

“Art kept my mind open to those ideas because without art, I wouldn’t have thought about it so creatively.”

– Suchi Sairam

Topics Covered:

03:58 – Returning to Bharatanatyam after resisting it as a child and rediscovering cultural connection through the arts

09:08 – How art cultivated creative thinking and openness throughout Suchi’s corporate leadership journey

10:02 – Realizing corporate success was pulling her away from her values and identity

13:18 – Leaving corporate life, exploring entrepreneurship, and co-founding a toy company

16:08 – Recognizing strengths and stepping into entrepreneurship with uncertainty

17:05 – Becoming an accidental author and how writing sparked the Quiet Ambition Project

22:35 – How StrengthsFinder shifted Suchi’s confidence and understanding of her natural abilities

24:38 – The emotional challenge of leaving behind a corporate identity and navigating entrepreneurship

26:32 – Why a pivot doesn’t always mean becoming a solopreneur

27:42 – Where to connect with Suchi and learn more about the Quiet Ambition Project

Key Takeaways:

“A pivot can be with others within a bigger container organization, within a smaller one, whatever that is.” – Suchi Sairam

“I realized a lot of my ambition through my life has been quiet.” – Suchi Sairam

“Engineering and business helped me as an artist, and being an artist helped me in my engineering and business career.” – Suchi Sairam

Ways to Connect with Suchi Sairam:

Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown:

 

Full Episode Transcript:

(AI helped us put this together, so if you see any weird grammar or missed words—just know we nailed it during the actual chat.)

Suchi Sairam

When you’re making a pivot, it’s not restricted to only going out on your own. A pivot can be with others within a bigger container organization, within a smaller one, whatever that is.

Sarah E. Brown

Hello, everyone. 

Welcome to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women, where we talk about challenges senior female leaders face in being happy and successful at work. 

I’m your host, Dr. Sarah E. Brown.

My guest today is Suchi Saram. 

She is a chronically curious arts entrepreneur, forming artist, teacher, and choreographer, what she calls as an accidental author, a voice-over artist, and I’m going to delve into that a little bit, a speaker, and a Kai-aholic.

Her mission integrates the arts, science, culture, leadership, and entrepreneurship to develop great people and spread good in the world.

Her work reflects a deeply personal blend of Eastern and Western values, methods, and aesthetics. 

Her professional journey in corporate spaces spans engineering, technical services, IT, project management, global channel marketing, product and market development, and executive leadership. 

She co-founded and served as a principal of a toy startup. 

In parallel, Suchi’s forty-year journey in the arts fuels and inspires every part of her life. She is a Bharatanatyam and Nattuvangam, these are South Indian dance and percussive arts, artist, teacher, and choreographer. 

She founded Kala Vandanam in 2002 in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she nurtures students and aspiring artists to achieve artistic excellence and experience art as a vehicle for self-expression, humility, and confidence.

And she is the award-winning author of children’s books, Dancing Deepa, which was released in 2002, and Singing Surya: Dreams to Dance, released in 2025. 

Building on her professional and personal experience, Suchi created the Quiet Ambition Project, a newsletter and platform to help professionals align impact, legacy, and personal fulfillment.

She’s honored to be named the India Association of Minnesota’s 2024 Person of the Year, and the Universal Women’s Network in Calgary 2024 Vision Builder Woman of Inspiration.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from MIT and an MBA from the University of Texas in Dallas. 

Welcome, Suchi. 

Suchi Sairam

Great to be here with you, Sarah. Thank you so much. 

Sarah E. Brown

So it’s obvious from her bio that she has pivoted corporate to being an entrepreneur and from tech to the arts, and we’re gonna explore that and how she discerned those steps for herself, and I’m really excited to be having this conversation with you about that.

So I’m sure I bungled some of the Indian names, but I did my best. 

Suchi Sairam

So- No, you  did an amazing job with them. Thank you so much for that. 

They’re all a mouthful, so thank you for that.

Sarah E. Brown

Yes, they are. In South India, there are always more syllables, I guess. 

Suchi Sairam

Yes. Right? 

Sarah E. Brown

And there are a lot of syllables in South India, for sure.

Suchi Sairam

Yes. So were the arts always a part of your life? I think the arts have been a part of my journey from, even from my childhood. 

And my mother, she, of course, you know, had that aspiration as an immigrant parent. I immigrated as a baby, I was just over one year old when I came with my parents, to instill culture, have a connection with culture, and so she put me in Bharatanatyam classes when I was seven.

But at the same time, I was in tap dance, I was in soccer, and I think I just wanted to be an American kid. And about six months in, she just was very clear and, and I give her so much credit for saying, “You know, if you don’t like this, I’m not going to drag you to this class.” 

It was not near our home. It was quite a exceptional thing for her to try to do, to take me, and she just very wisely let me be.

And I actually came back to it when I was 15. We lived in a different community. We had moved, and somehow it just connected with me at that time. But in the meantime, I had always had music in my life. 

I had Western music in my life, and at some point I made a pivot to be able to embrace my own culture, something connected.

And I think because of that decision she made by letting me come to it later, it’s still with me now, as opposed to if she had forced me when I was very young, I might have let go of it very, very early in my, even in my teen years. 

And so, I think because of that, it has stayed with me, and it has stayed a very, very integral part of my life.

Sarah E. Brown

So, as I shared with you, my audience may not know this, I was married for quite a while to a man from South India, and his whole family did a lot of Indian cultural dances, and it’s very intricate. 

It’s very, very detailed and they had to really work at it. It was amazing. So did you do that as a young child?

Suchi Sairam

Very much. I think when I was very young, my reaction to the art form was… It wasn’t actually because of the art. 

I think I made some assumptions about it. I think I made some excuses about it that, “Oh, the girls in my class were mean,” and, “Oh, the teacher is too strict.” 

And I think it was just a tug of war from a cultural standpoint for me at that age. Whereas when I came back to it when I was a teenager, I was just drawn by the level of detail. 

I was drawn by the level of subtlety that we could bring in. Now, it takes years and years of work to get that. 

I’m still working at it. Here I am in my mid-50s, and I’m still working at it. But there’s so much scope, and I think that is what is so attractive, and it provides a lifelong challenge.

Even as you gain so much expertise in it, you’re still never done, and that is something that’s very challenging, but also incredibly beautiful. 

Sarah E. Brown

Hmm. 

So you went to MIT, you got a degree in chemical engineering, and you had quite the corporate journey in that space. 

Do you believe that you were drawn to that, or did you… What was the impetus for going in that direction? 

Was it you wanted to be more Western, or what was the impetus for that? 

Suchi Sairam

Yeah. I think there were two things.

One was coming from an immigrant family and from my parents’ family background as well. 

There was, there was very much a focus on education and opportunity, and at that time, about safety for, I’m putting air quotes, but it’s about stability.

And there were certain stable careers: engineering, law, being a physician or being in, in medicine, being an accountant, being in finance. 

Those things, being a teacher. Those things were very, very steady, stable. And so that was encouraged. 

Art was encouraged as something to develop you as a person, but it was always going to be a hobby or something on the side.

And I was fortunate in that on one hand, of course, I, I wanted to… That pull from art was always there, but I was always very fortunate that I was a math and science-oriented student and person, that was always intriguing to me. And so studying engineering didn’t feel like a, I was dragged into it. I didn’t feel like I was forced into it ’cause I, I genuinely- Enjoyed it.

And so as a result, I had the good fortune of being able to pursue these passions side by side as I went along. 

I think early in my career, there wasn’t a big vision for what I was going to do or what I was going to be. 

When I started my career in engineering, I worked in manufacturing, and so the big thing was, “Oh, I’m gonna be a plant manager by the time I’m 35.”

That was my… 

Because that was all that was in front of me. That’s the only thing I can see from a career standpoint. 

But then different doors started opening, and different opportunities came up. I didn’t realize I enjoyed customer-facing work, and I fortunately had a couple of people in, in my professional life at that time who saw that, “Oh, maybe she’s…Let’s try her in front of customers.” 

And that ended up being a really, really interesting path for me. And so that ended up opening doors that I didn’t expect. It definitely took me away from the goal of being a plant manager by the time I was 35, and I’m so grateful for that. 

But I, but I also think that art kept my mind open to those ideas, too, because I think without art, I wouldn’t have thought about it so creatively.

I wouldn’t have been willing to think about it so creatively. 

I wouldn’t have been willing to take those little detours and not think that it was a step backward or a step sideways. 

It was just exploring, and that’s what art is all about, is that you’re constantly exploring some other thread and some other idea to take something forward.

Sarah E. Brown

So how did you know that it was the right path for you to exit the corporate world and go and become an entrepreneur and to exit tech at some level? 

I realize you haven’t left it altogether, but at some level and really focus on the arts. How did you know that? 

Suchi Sairam

I don’t think I, I didn’t know it as something I was moving toward.

I think that whole thought was instigated by something I need to move away from. And I found myself in a situation in my corporate career where the next steps would require me to become somebody I didn’t want to become.

And it was taking me away from my values. It was taking me away from my personal development, who I wanted to be as a leader, how I wanted to lead, and it may have been a situation in a particular environment, but it really made me stop to think about, okay, what is the path that I want to take?

What is it that I want to do? And I knew that it included more time with my art. It didn’t include less. 

Because as I was going further and further in my corporate career and higher up the ladder, so to speak, I was finding myself with less time for my art, and that is exactly the opposite direction that I needed to go for my connection with my art.

And it forced me to think about which direction do you wanna go as a person, which direction do you want to go as a leader? Which direction do you want to go as far as what kind of legacy you want to be a part of? What part of… what kind of legacy do you want to leave? And so that’s what took me away from corporate. 

And I think at that time when I decided to leave corporate, there were two things that were happening.

One was I still couldn’t think about my art as an entrepreneurial venture. It was still my art, and it’s very much a cultural thing that’s instilled from our teachers, is that art is not for your… It’s not for your wealth. It’s not for your promotion. It’s your job to promote the art. 

And yes, you know, you might get recognition along with that, but that’s your focus.

And so I didn’t think about it as a business, but something entrepreneurial was still calling, and so that’s what led me to co-found this toy company, and it was a… I’m really glad that I did it. 

Looking back on it, I think there are other factors that I should have taken into account before I dove into that. But at the same time, it taught me so much about what I did and didn’t want to do and value alignment, and it eventually led me to the path where I’m supposed to be, which is where I’m at now. 

Focus on the arts. Focus on using arts as a personal development vehicle, especially for young people, but even for those in their 20s and adult, older adults.

And it has also opened the door for me to see little corollaries and parallels and parallel tracks to the art that have opened as well, such as writing books, which I never expected. 

Sarah E. Brown

So did you just quit your job and start up the toy company, or were there other incremental steps?

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Suchi Sairam: 

There was a… I would say, about a year of discovery after I left corporate.

And that year time, I actually spent a lot of time just in my art and I- just learning. 

And getting back to, I love being a student. Yes, I’ve been teaching for a long time and performing and doing a lot of work, but I love being a student.

And so, I focused time and went back to that, and I also took time to explore several different ideas that were calling me entrepreneurially. 

But one that I kept coming back to was this toy company. It was an idea that was shared with me by a colleague, the company that I had been working for, and I just helped him with a few ideas and then said, at that time, “Good luck with that. I don’t have time to help you.” 

But that idea kept coming back to me because I found something very, very interesting and creative. 

I knew how to build things from a blank slate when it came to product development, when it came to branding, marketing, positioning, those types of stuff, channel. 

And I’d never done something in business to consumer, and so of course, you know, I dove right in. And like I said, there were certain things that looking back on it, I should’ve evaluated a little bit differently. 

But I’m very grateful I took that leap because it was… I think it was the first time I took a leap into something truly into the deep end of the pool, where I genuinely… I knew I had some skillsets for it, but it was very unknown to me.

Whereas some of the other paths that I took, it was still within kind of the quote unquote safety of a container, the safety of the container of a corporate structure, and this was truly on your own and you gotta figure it out. 

Sarah E. Brown

Were you conscious at the time of the strengths that you were bringing to that venture?

Suchi Sairam

I think of certain things I was.

But a whole bunch of things I was not. I think I was not conscious of those things. I’m fortunate that I had those experiences or strengths or, you know, even just, just enough foolishness or just enough stubbornness to work it through. 

But looking back on it, it was actually an amalgamation of a lot of different things that I had experienced over a period of time that brought me to that and gave me the opportunity to look at that venture in a really positive way and make something happen with it.

Sarah E. Brown

So when you tell people now what you are doing, what your day job is, how do you describe it? 

Suchi Sairam

I won’t lie, sometimes I struggle with it, but to describe it succinctly. But I describe myself  as an arts entrepreneur and a teacher and someone who really loves to help people be at their best. 

Sarah E. Brown

Okay. And so tell me more about the Quiet Ambition project. 

Suchi Sairam

So this came out of, this was another in some ways happy accident, but it’s one of those things where you don’t, you don’t realize it’s developing as it’s developing. 

So rewind a little bit to 2022, and I had just published my first children’s book, which was also a separate accident.

And it actually gave me this opening to start thinking about my dance studio and company as a business, ’cause just a couple years prior, I had done some merchandise fundraisers for artists through COVID and just trying to help. 

And so then I realized, oh my gosh, I have… Yes, I have this performing arts segment. I have this education and outreach segment. 

I might have a merchandise business here. 

Oh, I might have a publishing arm here. 

And so all of a sudden it’s creating these different ideas. I couldn’t get clarity on these ideas because there was just so much in my head. 

I need some vehicle to help me sort this out. And so I ended up in a writing cohort called’Ship 30 for 30’, online cohort, digital writing, and the idea was to ship 30 pieces of content in 30 days. 

Sarah E. Brown

Hmm. 

Suchi Sairam

And that opened the door to writing, and it helped me just delineate, okay, these are all the different things that I have in my experience that I’m writing about.

So it’s this combination of business experience and the arts and bridging cultures, which has been across my life, bridging between the arts and business, bridging between storytelling and experience and history and those types of things, entrepreneurship. 

And so what was my unique Venn diagram there?

And how was I using that to help develop what I wanted to leave for others, or how I wanted to help others along their path? 

So through that, I realized a lot of my ambition, I am an ambitious person, but my ambition through my life has been quiet. 

I didn’t want to be loud, but I was in certain situations early in my career where you have to, quote-unquote, “be a certain way” for your ambitions to become reality.

But then I also thought hard about, okay, are… Whose ambitions are these? 

Are they mine or are they somebody else’s that have been superimposed? 

And so that’s where the ‘Quiet Ambition project’ came from, was really taking all of these ideas as I was writing, as I was synthesizing and amalgamating these experiences and points of view, and I realized that it turned into, okay, this is an expression of my ambition.

And as I was writing online, basically on a daily basis for this long period of time, I was hearing a lot from women especially about, “You’re speaking to me. 

You’re speaking to me about how I want to take my ambition forward,” or, “I want my ambition to be my own and not-“Be acting on, on somebody else’s ambition.

So that’s how I started formulating this project. I’m still formulating it right now, but I finally took the leap and started a newsletter, which I publish on a weekly basis. 

And now just over, just over a year. I’m coming up on issue 60, I think. 

And so taking these ideas and giving women tools to look at their ambition, look at how they want to take their ambition forward, what are the things that we need to tune out, what are the things that we really need to hone in on, how do we get help from our community, how do we stay true to our values?

So these are the things that I really wanted to focus on through that. 

Sarah E. Brown

Got it. 

So what do you think you carried over, or what has been helpful in your technical training that you are now applying in your new world in the arts? 

Suchi Sairam

Yes. I… There is no question, I’ve never had a doubt about this, that my engineering and business career have helped me as an artist, and me being an artist has helped me in my business and engineering career.

When it comes to my what impact has my engineering training, and, and of course it feels like five lifetimes ago that I was an engineer, but I think once an engineer, always an engineer. 

There is a thought process that you go through, a problem-solving process that you go through, and I actually utilize that a lot in even my artistic work and my artistic thinking because as an artist, on one hand, you think you want a blank slate.

But constraints are good. 

Guardrails are good, you know, if you have to stay within certain things. When, when I’m designing something, when you’re designing something as an engineer, sometimes your constraint is space. 

Sometimes your constraint is financial resources. 

Sometimes your constraint is you have to retain certain pieces of equipment, but you can bring in some new things.

And I think that idea of constraint I apply in my artistic work, and it’s actually very, very helpful. 

And it allows you to, to think big, but at the same time, stay focused and move things forward. 

Sarah E. Brown

Hmm. Okay. 

So how did understanding your strengths, ’cause I know you have taken StrengthsFinder and been a proponent of that, how did that help or hinder this pivot?

Suchi Sairam

I think, you know, the first time I was exposed to StrengthsFinder, I was actually a culture shift for me because we’re so, it’s so drilled into us about work on your weaknesses, work on your weaknesses. 

I think there is a… That’s from schooling, that’s in your professional life, and I think culturally as well, we, from an Indian background, there were a lot of things about working on your weaknesses.

And we don’t take much time to stop and celebrate our strengths. 

We don’t celebrate them, acknowledge them, utilize them. And I think that just opened my eyes. 

In some ways I look back and I feel a little bit silly that I didn’t notice them before, but it opened my eyes to what my strengths are, and helped me just look at them in a, maybe in a broader sense, in a broader sense than rather than looking at my strength that I’m organized, right, as an example, as opposed to being a skill, a strength that is skill, it looked at my strength in not just character, but as an umbrella for different aspects of my character, my, the way I go about work.

And I think opening my eyes to that was a huge shift, and it actually allowed me to, number one, take some steps. 

At that time I was still working in corporate, take some steps in corporate that I maybe wouldn’t have felt were in my reach. That was one. 

But then having, just having that mindset in my back pocket, in the back of my mind when I made this pivot and I left corporate and I really wanted to focus on the arts and bring that forward, I had the confidence that I had all of these things in my tool belt, and that I’ve carried forward and it’s been immensely helpful to me.

Sarah E. Brown

Mm-hmm. What do you think was the hardest part about the pivot? 

Suchi Sairam

Oh, gosh. I think the idea that I was leaving something behind. 

Sarah E. Brown

Mmm. 

Suchi Sairam

And I absolutely, in one hand left it behind voluntarily, but in some ways felt like my hand was forced in the sense that having to become somebody else to be considered successful in that particular space.

And so, that part was challenging, and then the other part that was challenging that I underestimated was how much you look at seeing people, and of course at this time was pre-COVID, but being around people on a daily basis. 

And so when you’re on your own, when you’re a solopreneur or even running a small business, you really have to make an effort to go out and connect with people, ’cause it’s really easy to just be in your office and be working.

But that active connection with people was a big shift. 

And now I look back and it’s really is a gift, because I didn’t consider myself a good networker. 

The idea of networking was just horrifying to me. But I didn’t recognize that I’m actually a pretty good connector. 

And I think this shift, this pivot from a corporate environment to this challenged me to connect with people on a reach out actively, and as a result I’ve been able to be a pretty good connector with people myself, and then connecting people to others.

They may have some mutual- interests, they may have some mutual connections, they may have a path forward to collaborate in some way. 

And so that has really been a gift. 

Yeah. That at the time if was a huge challenge. 

Sarah E. Brown

Mmm. 

So Suchi, what question should I have asked you that I didn’t that will help our listeners think about a potential pivot in their life?

Suchi Sairam: 

I think one question to always consider is pivots don’t always have to mean doing your own thing. 

And so the question is really around does a pivot always have to mean creating your own track? 

And especially nowadays, you hear so much of, you know, the creator economy and this and that, and go out on your own and be a solopreneur.

And it’s not for everybody, right? 

I think you can make these pivots and be in a container that works for you. 

I think everybody has to consider some of it is risk tolerance, some of it is how much independence do you want? 

What’s the balance between independence and stability? 

There’s those types of things that I think each person has to consider.

So when you’re making a pivot, it’s not restricted to only going out on your own. 

A pivot can be with others within a bigger container organization, within a smaller one, whatever that is. 

So I think that’s an important question to consider. 

Sarah E. Brown

So one final question, Suchi, where can the women listening today find you and get on that newsletter?

Suchi Sairam

Yeah. So suchisaram.com. 

Find me there, connect with me there, and subscribe to the newsletter that I would love to be able to share about the Quiet Ambition project with people on a weekly basis for those who are interested, and I would love to connect. 

Please reach out and, and drop a line, or find me on LinkedIn as well.

Sarah E. Brown

Well, Suchi, thank you so much for being with me today. 

Suchi Sairam

Absolutely. Thank you so much. 

Sarah E. Brown

Thanks for listening to the KTS Success Factor podcast for women. If you like what you are hearing, please go to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave a review. And if you would like more information on how we can help women in your organization to thrive, then go to www.sarahibrown.com.

You can sign up for our newsletter, read show notes, and learn more about our podcast guests, read my blog, browse through the books, or contact us for a chat. 

Goodbye for now.

Sarah E. Brown
Sarah E. Brown