Episode Description

What do you do when the moment doesn’t go according to plan?

In this episode of The Grace Space Podcast, Kaitlyn Rios is joined by Haylee Foy, founder of Building Better Mindsets, for an honest conversation about navigating difficult situations when there’s no script, no perfect response, and no one-size-fits-all solution.

Haylee shares her personal journey through toxic workplaces, followed by an early and humbling moment in her coaching career — when a client took a phone call in the middle of a group coaching session, freezing her in her tracks and forcing her to confront the reality that leadership often requires adaptation, not perfection.

Together, they'll explore how hard lessons, creative pivots, and unconventional tools — including the introduction of art into Haylee’s coaching practice — can fundamentally reshape how we lead, respond, and grow. This episode is about learning to navigate complexity creatively, trusting yourself in real time, and allowing difficult moments to shape you into the leader you’re becoming.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• How toxic workplaces quietly shape leadership instincts and self-trust

• An early coaching moment that forced Haylee to rethink control, authority, and adaptability

• Why there is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership or growth

• How creativity and art can unlock new pathways for communication and healing

• What it means to lead in moments that don’t go as planned

• How hard lessons become formative — not failures

Reflection Prompts for Listeners

• Where am I clinging to a “right way” when flexibility is needed instead?

• What difficult moment shaped me more than any success ever did?

• How might creativity help me navigate a situation I feel stuck in right now?

Guest Spotlight

Haylee Foy is the founder of Building Better Mindsets, a leadership and creative wellbeing practice centered on helping individuals and teams move out of survival mode and into intentional, adaptive leadership.

After navigating toxic workplace environments and confronting early challenges in her coaching career, Haylee began integrating creativity and art into her work — transforming how clients process difficult experiences, build self-awareness, and respond to complexity.

She is known for her grounded presence, trauma-informed approach, and belief that the hardest lessons often become the foundation for the most effective leadership.

Resources Mentioned

• Building Better Mindsets

• Creative and art-based leadership practices

Connect

• Kaitlyn Rios / Faced With Grace

www.facedwithgrace.org

connect@facedwithgrace.org

• Haylee Foy / Building Better Mindsets

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayleefoy/

If This Episode Resonated

If this conversation resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who might need permission to lead a little more creatively — and a little more honestly — today.