IN just two years since transitioning into full-time entrepreneurship, Cordell Williams Graham has already garnered a reputation as “The People Transformer”.

Graham’s journey to entrepreneurship is anything but conventional, having to overcome a multiplicity of challenges including financial setbacks, a broken home, molestation, and a divorce.

But the narrative around her life’s journey has since shifted, and today she is recognised for helping over 200 businesses — primarily young professionals, entrepreneurs, and small enterprises — to streamline their business, as well as attracting equity investments amounting to over $300 million through her company, Transformational Life Solutions (TLS).

A certified John Maxwell coach, Graham has also served as president of Young Entrepreneurs Association of Jamaica (YEA) for the past four years, another avenue she uses to advocate for the growth of the micro, small and medium-size enterprise (MSME) sector, which accounts not only for 80 per cent of jobs in the Jamaican economy but also makes a significant contribution to GDP.

She credits much of her personal growth and success in business to her resilience despite the hardships she faced as a child, her faith, alongside her relentless pursuit to further her studies.

Those experiences, Graham says, enable her to connect more deeply with others in the face of challenges. In short, she considers herself the link between organisations and effective change management among employees.

“I started out in what I would classify as a stable, middle-income family and community. However, life’s challenges left us moving from house to house, only to end up living in a one-bedroom space in a tenement yard in Vineyard town.

“There I experienced every challenge imaginable: from having a storeroom with no windows for a bedroom for years, going months without running water and light, to watching people physically fight almost daily,” she recalled.

Her struggle worsened when her father left the family.

But Graham found solace in watching her mother navigate the turbulent times. Despite the challenges, she managed to secure academic achievements which landed her a spot in one of Jamaica’s top-performing schools — Immaculate Conception High School.

Still, the feelings of insecurity and economic shame stayed with her throughout high school and into her adult life.

“I found myself hanging around with the wrong people, exhibiting all kinds of negative behaviours, allowing people to treat me poorly, and shrinking back from opportunities because I didn’t think I was worthy,” Graham told the
Jamaica Observer in an exclusive interview.

That later led Graham on a journey of self-discovery and reinvention.

“The turnaround for me came from developing my faith in God and him showing me the vision of where he wanted to take my life. I realised I was worlds away from the vision, and that’s when I recognised that I had to change my life, beliefs, attitudes,” she said.

Graham went on to do a course in strategic planning, and in doing so recognised that she could apply some of the concepts she learned to her personal life.

“I felt very encouraged by the positive results I experienced, and I was determined to share this knowledge with others and so that’s when I launched my business, in 2015,” Graham said.

She developed her first workshop — Personal Strategic Planning and Wealth Creation — and began teaching people how to transform their lives, from a makeshift office in her living room. Concurrently, she juggled her duties as a mom and her job as a project manager.

During those years she also served as project lead on the Michael Lee-Chin-steered Economic Growth Council in the Office of the Prime Minister. But prior to embarking on her entrepreneurial journey Graham had completed her BSc in Management and Economics, followed by an MSc in Management Information Systems.

“As I began to help people with their personal lives and careers, I found that people had ideas to start a business and so I began applying my technical and business skills to help them to structure that as well. The rest is history,” she said.

Today, TLS provides training, coaching and consulting solutions to individuals and corporate professionals alongside small, medium and large enterprises.

The company offers standardised coaching programmes designed to support individuals in their personal lives, careers, and businesses. Additionally, it provides training courses in various areas such as customer service, leadership, entrepreneurship, change management, and project management. The company also offers consulting services in project management, change management, marketing, and strategic planning.

Leap Of Faith

Since taking the leap of faith to go fully fledged into business in 2022 the company has seen remarkable growth, marked by an expansion of its clientele to include some esteemed organisations such as the HEART/NSTA Trust, The University of the West Indies, Mona School of Business; National Conservation Trust; Jamaica Business Development Corporation; and the recently rebranded Monaire Financial Services, among others.

Moreover, TLS has forged numerous strategic partnerships and recently became the exclusive regional provider of people-centred change management solutions in collaboration with Changefirst Limited, which is based in the United Kingdom.

“This partnership has positioned TLS as a trailblazer in the industry, allowing us to deliver unparalleled value to our clients across the region,” Graham said.

The partnership with Changefirst has significantly enhanced TLS’s capabilities, enabling the company to cater to a larger network of corporate clients in Jamaica.

Moreover, it has positioned TLS for substantial growth throughout the wider Caribbean region. This collaboration has also afforded Graham the opportunity to serve as an associate trainer for Changefirst Ltd, thus providing training services to some of the world’s leading organisations.

“While our clientele continues to expand it’s important to note that we remain a small firm with limited human resource capacity, however the partnership with Changefirst also provides access to a global network of certified and experienced associates and partners in Australia, Europe, and Brazil. This enables us to tap into additional human resource capacity when needed, particularly for project execution support, ensuring that we can continue to deliver exceptional results for our clients,” she said.

Such relations help to set TLS apart in the highly competitive consulting, training, and coaching landscape. TLS not only competes with international agencies entering the Caribbean market but also with advancing digital innovation such as artificial intelligence.

“Despite these challenges, I firmly believe in the assured success of our approach. We distinguish ourselves through a holistic methodology, blending spiritual strategy with technical expertise and cultural insight — which sets us apart from the competition. While many coaches and consultants can assist with strategic planning, few can offer spiritual guidance or possess the technical competence required for effective execution,” she said.

Graham’s five-year vision for TLS is to establish the company as the premier consulting and coaching solutions provider in the Caribbean. Its strategic roadmap involves cultivating ongoing value creation through regional partnerships and implementing a comprehensive suite of digital solutions and programmes designed to empower individuals to reach their highest aspirations in their personal lives, careers, and businesses.

Outside of Jamaica, TLS currently does business in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.