Episode 141: The Art of Story Telling & Selling with Kendall Cherry
In this episode of the F*ck Saving Face podcast, host Judy Tsuei engages in a candid conversation with Kendall Cherry, founder of the Candid Collective.
They explore themes of mental health, storytelling, and the challenges faced by Asian Americans and voices of color. Kendall shares her journey as a ghostwriter, the importance of challenging traditional narratives around money and success, and the need for representation in wealth-building discussions. The conversation emphasizes the value of creative work, the impact of societal narratives on personal identity, and the importance of creating safe spaces for authenticity and self-advocacy.
More about Kendall Cherry:
Kendall Cherry is the founder and executive ghostwriter of The Candid Collective—a one-woman content ghostwriting agency that delivers world-class storytelling that sells your products and services. She's on a mission to create a world that's more candid and kind. Kendall has written for $100M+ startups, email empires with 750,000 subscribers, and thought leaders with 7 million followers. Kendall also writes about the art and craft of telling stories that sell in her weekly newsletter, Wallflower Fridays.
Sound Bites
"We don't talk about money, especially in rooms of women."
"It's so easy to be undersold and undervalued."
"It's safe for me to make money as a writer."
"I want to create a safe space for someone."
"Let your authenticity be your biggest differentiator."
Takeaways
Empowering mental and emotional health is crucial for Asian Americans.
Challenging traditional views on money is essential for personal growth.
Entrepreneurship can take many forms, even within corporate structures.
Reframing success involves recognizing the value of creative work.
Embracing one's identity is vital for personal and professional success.
Episode Highlights
00:00 Introducing Kendall: Empowering Voices and Breaking Taboos
06:02 Challenging Money Narratives
20:58 The Importance of Representation in Wealth Building
27:13 Embracing Identity and Individual Advocacy
Links Mentioned:
Judy Tsuei LinkedIn
Judy Tsuei Instagram
Kendall Cherry LinkedIn
Kendall Cherry Newsletter
There may be affiliate links included in this blog post.
Transcript:
Welcome to the F*ck Saving Face podcast where we're empowering mental and emotional health for Asian Americans and voices of color by breaking through taboo topics. Life may not always be pretty, but it is indeed beautiful. Make your story beautiful today. Kendall Cherry was so much fun to talk to. She is the founder and executive ghostwriter of the Candid Collective, a one-woman content ghost writing agency that delivers world-class storytelling that sells your products and services. she's on a mission to create a world that's more candid and kind. She sends out a newsletter every Friday called the Wallflower Fridays. And it talks about the art and craft of telling stories that sell. She has written for a hundred million plus revenue startups, email empires with 750K subscribers and thought leaders with 7 million followers. So I think you're going to really like this episode with Kendall.
Judy Tsuei (00:02.688)
She is very open and honest and I actually don't know if she shared some of these things in her other spaces and platforms. So I'm very honored and grateful that she decided to share it here too. And you know, this is what this podcast is about is breaking through taboo topics. It's the opportunity to speak to people who are willing to be open and vulnerable in a space that the world is just different these days. I have been so lucky and so grateful to have been able to interview Chris Doe, who if you are a creative,
If you are an entrepreneur, you want to follow him. He has 2.65 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. He is all about advocating for the value that creatives bring in terms of increasing your prices, of understanding the worth that you have, of doing things differently and having an opinion and speaking up. And I was so grateful to facilitate a conversation in a fireside chat for the authentic Asian where I am.
one of the league coaches and get to really peel back the curtain in ways that maybe some of these individuals haven't done before. So that is what I'm hoping that you'll get out of today's conversation. It is very much in line with my book, in line with all of the ways in which we've quote unquote, disappointed our parents to find the life that we believe in. And I hope you will enjoy this interview with Kendall as much as I have.
Judy Tsuei (02:19.074)
This is going to be a super fun episode because I think that for a lot of people, we don't talk about money. think especially in rooms of women, we don't talk about money. I've noticed this a lot. And when you grow up with immigrant parents or anybody who had a scarcity mindset to start out with, you adopt certain stories around it. And then in our capitalistic society, we definitely come away thinking that that is the ultimate measure of success. So I'm happy to have Kendall here and I'm to ask you to share a bit about your
life story as well as your professional story. And then we'll dive into, you know, this step 10 of how to disappoint your parents in 10 shameless steps, which is money doesn't matter and also by crypto, but it's more about challenging traditional views on success and financial security. So I'm going to turn it over to you because you're a founder of the Candid Collective. I met you on LinkedIn and then we got on a call and became like fast in sync buddies of like life and beliefs and all.
Yes. yes. Let me turn it over to you. Yeah. So I'll say I'll start with what I do today right now and then I'll kind of take you back. Yeah. Because it's been quite the evolution. my name is Kendall Cherry. I'm the founder and executive ghostwriter of the Candid Collective. And I'm on a mission to create a world that's more candid and kind. So what I'll say by day, I am basically a ghostwriter. So
I write content and copy on behalf of clients. I do mostly storytelling, but I'm subliminally selling someone's product or services. So I'm pretty much, if you think about a day in my life, I am quite literally always writing. I also write for my own brand. So anytime if you're on LinkedIn or if you read my newsletter, anything you see by Kindle Cherry is quite literally written by my own hands plus.
you my own clients. I tell people I'm usually cranking out about half a book's worth of content every month across everything. And one thing I love about our story, it is truly like very parallel. We are both also working on manuscripts and books right now and exploring self publishing as I'll say nonfiction authors for sure. I don't know if you have plans to do any fiction, but really exploring
Judy Tsuei (04:39.643)
being a business owner and a female business owner, but also figuring out how to monetize our art and our writing, which is very alternative. And this will kind of come up again later, but doing, think first and foremost, being an entrepreneur as a female, that's wild. And then monetizing a writing career also kind of unheard of, at least based on how publishing was set up in the past. And so,
I love that we're kind of both on that journey because it is very new in this new kind of world of creator economy. So I'm super excited to chat more. But yeah, I pretty much am a writer all day every day is my main income stream right now, I'll say. And I want to advocate for that because I think both of us have experienced, you know, in building a business of specifically this type of work.
It's so easy to be undersold and like undervalued. And I think as a creative, for sure, but like creative design is valued so differently and much higher, I would say, than writing, even though this is the baseline of how we communicate with one another. We see words everywhere on everything. And it's so essential and to do it well. But I think that, you know, I've had even my own team members share, they're so grateful for me and the business that I've built because they've been able to prove to themselves.
Yes, I can be in a career that values and honors my creativity and my strengths, and I don't have to sell out quote unquote. And by the way, if you were designed for corporate life, all the more power to you, way to go. I highly advocate every person go pursue what's aligned for them. It just wasn't aligned for me. And to not have that as a template beforehand and to only see like doctor, engineer, lawyer, maybe accountant if you're like stretching it, but like nothing that was the intangible.
nothing that was like the creative field. So can you speak more about that and like how you decided to pursue this path as well? Yeah, well, it's it's super interesting. It kind of does go into my I'll say like my backstory a little bit. So I've for some background, I grew up super blue collar family, like my family was I think my dad did go to college, my mother dropped out in college, I think she made it through like maybe the first semester. But I grew up in a
Judy Tsuei (06:54.948)
severely blue collar household where my dad was a firefighter, working hourly shift work. My mom was basically a preschool teacher. And growing up for me, first off, I grew up in a household where money was always, well, there's not enough. we had, I'll say we were primed to have two kids in the family. Then we had a third kind of come up on accident. So my, financial planning and just kind of growing up, you know, at the income class that we did,
It was very normal for me to see my dad as the breadwinner. My mom's kind of more of a, know, she's making some money, but she's really there as kind of the person who is making sure the clocks and the trains run on time in the household. But my dad was a quote unquote firefighter on paper for one fire station, but he was also picking up side work where he would work at two fire stations. He would draw maps for side work. Like my dad was side hustling.
as much as you can side hustle as a firefighter. So I grew up in this very like, there's never enough. Everything is shift work based. Everything is hourly based. We're trading time for money, investing, classic. Dad handles that. Mom handles the budget and that's it. There's no money conversations. And I also grew up, you know, being, I think, I'll say 90s kids, also in the South, like women primarily. I was primed. I was gonna be a teacher.
you either get like teacher or nurse, but like that was your two options. And so I was really primed for that despite having a gift as a writer. And so I always wanted to be like a songwriter or a writer of some sort as a kid and even like made it to Nashville in the music industry, working in country music. Like I'd gotten that far and I quickly saw that, you know, I could kind of run the numbers enough to see like, okay, this doesn't.
this doesn't go well. I'm gonna be in this industry for 15 years and make not a lot of progress and there won't be the kind of financial goals that I really want. It's just gonna take a really long time for that to happen. So I did the corporate route, you know, when I graduated college and I tell people I had a fluke of a first job, I like somehow ended up at 21 years old, ghostwriting in a Fortune 100 company in the C-suite. Like this was not supposed to happen. Like this was very rare.
Judy Tsuei (09:12.468)
So I promoted very quickly and within about five years I could kind of see the writing on the wall of not unlike my Nashville experience where I could see and they were grooming me to be a VP and I was technically writing. I mean, I was writing all kinds of stuff for people, but I could see like, okay, this is kind of boring and I'm not stimulated. I'm very good at it, but there just kind of became this moment where I started to see, I'm having to advocate for my salary.
That's pretty much my only income stream, quote unquote. I'm working all the time. I hate this. I'm traveling. And I could kind of see like, okay, there just becomes a point when I'm going to cap out and it is good money, but I'm trading time for money again. And I could see I was very entrepreneurial. so, and this sounds kind of egotistical, but I was like, I feel like I'm pretty smart. Like I feel like I can, if I were going to start a business, like I really think I could do this. And so.
I also got a master's while I was working full time. I did all the things you're supposed to do to make all this money. And then I just sat there and I was like, I don't think this is it for me. And so I started a business just thinking maybe this was a path or another revenue stream. And then really quickly I could see the earning potential and kind of unlimited earning potential just dependent on my progress. And so then I've been an entrepreneur pretty much ever since and left corporate back in 2020.
near the tail end of the year. And how do you define entrepreneur? Entrepreneur to me is somebody you work for a corporation or I'll say an organization. It doesn't necessarily have to be a big, big place, but it's somebody who like I was building programs from the ground up. I was kind of building smaller businesses inside of departments or ideas. I was technically, you know, selling ideas to executives. I had a team and it was very much like I had this little like
Kind of like this little training business was my last role. I kind of had this little in-house training program that I'd built and I just kind of started selling it to these other departments. So was very like, I had to come up with the messaging. I had to come up with the like, here's the ROI. And truly like looking back now, I'm like, oh, I was just a salesperson number one for my own idea. And I think that process also, I was in what's called an ERP.
Judy Tsuei (11:37.664)
transformation, so enterprise resource planning. It's basically the whole IT, you know, backstory of a business. I was really getting like a crash course in finance and sales and IT. And so I could kind of see the pieces of like, this is how a really big business works. Like I'm kind of running my own little small shop in-house. Like I, so I kind of got a little bit of a training ground, but entrepreneur to me is, is someone who either you either have an idea or.
program, even if you're like an employee resource group or something, and you're, I don't know, doing events and stuff like that is still entrepreneurial. But it's somebody that, you know, you either have an idea, you're brought on to a special project, and then you like make the project happen. Like you are, you know, you just kind of are a go getter in that sense. And so those roles really exist. For some people, it's like how you can scratch the entrepreneurial itch, you know, if you're not entrepreneurial.
I think unfortunately for me, it just showed me, I can do this if I stick with it long enough. But it's a really good test to like test out entrepreneurship if it's for you. What you're talking about, I think is really valuable for anybody who's earlier in the stages of trying to figure out what do I really want to do? I don't know how to take the leap from here to there, but for what you shared is you identified like, wait, these are transferable skills. And I think for so many of us, can get
boxed in and forget that a lot of the things that we're learning and we're doing can actually be applied in different ways if we just took a different angle and looked at it. And so it's a wonderful opportunity to kind of see why can build success. And I was actually just talking with a business advisor who was saying, he's like a top business strategist on LinkedIn. And he was saying, we need to redefine what it means to scale a business because scaling a business could be you're serving customers to bring them from this point to the next point. That's scaling.
or this is how many souls that I've helped and impacted in a positive way. It doesn't have to be a number that you hit or building a new division or international. I think that it all involves us reframing a bit and kind of going back to our core values and what's important. And I'm curious for you too, because you grew up in that blue collar environment, how did you shift that money story? How did you start identifying that unlimited potential and then seeing like,
Judy Tsuei (13:59.435)
that it's important for you to know what brings you joy and what satisfies you because those are also markers of success. Yeah, it's such a journey. I think it's so much of the work that should be happening in the first years of entrepreneurship. And I think a lot of people don't think to even go back and review their money story. that, you know, I feel like I'm kind of finally emerged where I'm like the story has shifted because it is.
it shows up subconsciously all over the place, whether I want it to or not. And I think for me, I don't know that story, so much of the shifting of it at first, and it sounds so silly, you know, once you're on the other side of it, but some of it was when I first started writing, like I would approach things as like, well, do I just, you know, set an hourly rate or, I mean, it would even go as foundationally as like, how am gonna structure my business? How do I wanna get paid for?
what I'm doing. And so much of my work now, after enough iteration, after enough trying out different offers, different types and styles of clients, different types of writing, like it's all different ways of writing. And some people are, I've talked to copywriters and ghostwriters who are really good at certain things and not so great at others. And I think for me, so much of the process has been just experimentation, figuring out what am I really good at? Because I found that
The thing that is so much like breathing for me is the rich storytelling and also the selling side of writing that I think writers, there's like this weird dichotomy of like, you know, it's the starving artists narrative all over again. It's like that was probably the biggest, I'll say like mindset thing I've had to overcome is this idea if you think, you know, growing up as kids, right?
know, Devil Wears Prada, or if you ever watched Moulin Rouge and the main character Christian, like they're all penniless, starving writers, like, you know, you're an intern at a magazine, but you're not making any money. Like there are no, like, it's really rare for you to see a writer who's wealthy in just the media. And yet most of the main characters who are women and a lot of these rom-coms are some form of a writer. 13 Going on 30, Jenna Rink, like, or if you are like in that example, Jenna Rink is kind of a bitch when she's 30, and she's terrible.
Judy Tsuei (16:16.537)
So there's this really big image, I'll say for my trade for writing, that I kind of had to overcome of like, it's safe for me to make money as a writer. It's safe for me to create and let that be what allows me to create an income, an abundant income in many different ways, whether I'm writing for my own projects or on behalf of clients. So that in and of itself, and that is more of like a collective narrative that, again, I mean, think about it.
freaking movies have I watched and just it gets reinforced and reinforced and not only that, I mean, if it's reinforced in my little brain, my friends, my family, they also have the same narrative. So I would say some of it was kind of rewiring the time versus money versus figuring out high leverage ways for me to make money, but also just this narrative of this starving artist. I just, I don't know, I think eventually one day I was like, well, this is, I'm just over this, this is bullshit.
I don't believe in it anymore because I had it took, I think for me, kind of reverse engineered. I had to like see the money first to believe it and not the other way around. Like this was not fake it till you make it. The money's going to come. I was like, it didn't work like that for me. had to like, it took enough repetition of being like, wait, what I'm doing is valuable. Wait, people like people.
don't know how to write, like, because it comes so naturally to you and your gifts come so naturally. So it's I think if there's this weird like moment where you have to understand to your point, like your like what you do is valuable. But so much of our gifts, we don't even realize it. Like for me, it feels like breathing. I'm like, what you can write a sales email in six minutes, like that's not normal. And but realizing like the the value of what you do, it usually it's so valuable, you can't even recognize it and see it.
And I love that you're saying that because I think that that's what it is for a lot of people who are creative minded and whatnot because it comes so naturally to us. don't know. And because society doesn't value it, then how would we know to value it? And, you know, I actually, my book proposal had written this thing about the Gina Davis Institute and she has this amazing documentary on Netflix, but she demonstrated all of the messaging that young girls are getting in all these like cartoons and fairy tales and whatnot about how they're like subservient and they're secondary and all of these things. So they're getting those messages from a
Judy Tsuei (18:36.284)
very young age. And so for us to rewrite that narrative is huge. And even just like even now, if I were to calculate how much money I brought in since I started working, I'm sure it would tally and like, you know, seven figures, if not, like multiple seven figures, but I don't know it because I'm living and paying expenses along the way and like doing that. But that's been built off of my craft. And yet when we had to do this exercise recently, where it's like if you were given a $5,000 check, a $50,000.
check and then a $5 million check, what would you do with that for your business? And a lot, pretty much the majority of people are like, I don't know what I would do with $5 million. Like, I can't even fathom what that would mean to scale my business. Like, because we're so used to, you know, grinding and like when you're a startup or a small business, you're like, okay, well, let's just make the most with what we've got. And so it was so interesting to see so many people who could not fathom what they would do with that amount of money.
And so I think we all put ourselves a little bit into little, you know, confinements that like people have said to us. And I'm so curious too, because, you know, you were moving into like the financial space too. And I love when we got on our last call where we were just getting to know each other. The thing that I love the most about you is you are all about owning your intellectual property. You're all about advocating for a different way and speaking up and really having that sense of presence. And so.
when it comes to like the financial element or taking control of what you think success is, what are some tips and tools you've learned along the way that would help anybody else find their void? Yeah, okay, well, don't make me cry over here. That's like a very, that's like a frequently very well-timed compliment for just many, many reasons. So that I needed to hear today. Well, and I think the thing about
And just for some backstory, I tend to write a lot in the financial journalism space. And this was not something I grew up knowing a lot about. So it was honestly not unlike my first job, kind of a fluke. I kind of started reading these books about wealth, energetics, and abundance, and money mindset, and all of these things, and kind of was working on my own money story. And then it was like, as soon as I started doing that, all of these opportunities came through.
Judy Tsuei (20:58.587)
I think the thing for me that feels so counter to what I see in the financial journalism market, so much of what this kind of side project and these episodes are about, there is a lack of representation for minority entrepreneurs in general, be it you're a person of color, you have some form of disability, you're neurodivergent, you're...
LGBTQ, whatever, like there is just such a lack of awareness and consciousness of what it means to build wealth. If you come from, we're going to just call it, you're not a white male cisgendered person. It's just very, very different. And that for me has been consistently the thing that it's like, I'm like, where are the voices? Where are the people saying this? Like we're hearing the same fucking budget. know, save your money, scarcity, all this shit. And I'm like, that's not actually how this works out here.
And also, I mean, the capitalistic nature of it as well, even, and it shows up in entrepreneurship. Well, we're gonna applaud you when you make all this money, but then we're gonna shame you for when you use the money to reinvest it in your business or you reinvest it in yourself. And I think for me, one of the biggest things that was so hard the first like three and a half years of business is feeling bad that I wasn't quote unquote profitable or that I was reinvesting so much or like.
You paying my personal bills was hard because all of my money, I'm a single income household. Like it's either my rent or my business and I'm going to choose my business because I can see the long term ramifications of that. it was so I just spent like looking back, I'm like I spent so many nights like crying, feeling like shit about myself and and even having friends and lack of community. I had a lot of friends who were.
in I'll say like, quote unquote, normal jobs, like they get a paycheck every two weeks. And so then they're like, why do you need me to help you pay for dinner tonight? I'm like, well, because my cashflow fucked up and I had this bill due. if you want to hang out with me, you're gonna have to sponsor me like is really the vibe of like, like so much of the first few years. And I just wish looking back and I just don't see this conversation. And it's super vulnerable. It's being like, yeah, I'm kind of broke founder life, right, but
Judy Tsuei (23:15.284)
You know, I wish looking back, wouldn't have been so hard on myself. Yeah, because the reality is we all hear the metric, you know, X percent of businesses close in the first year and everyone thinks they're going to be, you know, not that one, but.
Like the number is so high and yet we see on the internet, everyone's killing it. Everyone's crushing it. Everyone's making a million dollars in five seconds from some growth hack they found on LinkedIn. And so it's like, there's this lack of, I'll say the other side of the story or the not so shiny side of the story that I feel like financial journalism is just, it's not even itching for, it's not even craving for. It's like the people need that truth. That's actually what's going on out here.
And so that even so much of my own work in my byline or the brands that I even work with is, you you can hire me to write those things. Like I've supported enough clients that have that narrative, but yeah, it's just something I don't see very much. I think even just like, know, what Brene Brown says the thing about like something about shame, like when you, I don't remember it, but it's like, if you, if you talk about it, like shame can't live here essentially. And that's kind of my thing is like, you know,
I guess I'll go first and be like, yeah, y'all, first three years was a ride. But that's the thing is it was a ride for everyone, but most people aren't gonna, they're not gonna say that. But I think in the financial space in particular, there's so much shame that lives on and subconsciously. I have a client that I'm writing for right now. She does a lot of like wealth building and mindset programs. And she's told me this crazy statistic this week. I'm still like shook. So she's all about building generational wealth. And she said,
Kendall, most people don't know that 90 % of generational wealth goes away by the third generation because of like mindset and there's addiction, there's bad investments made. Like that number, that's crazy that all of the work you do can get, you know, so, taken aback just from lack of education and lack of the healing of the subconscious. It's not, it's no different than generational trauma working its way down, you know, the genes. It's the same thing. And so.
Judy Tsuei (25:19.637)
I don't know, that's kind of the stuff that I think about a lot is, we can have the capitalist with like, get your bag, whatever you want to do, but also like you can do it in a really conscious way that is going to share the nuance and be authentic and also spoiler alert for all the capitalists out there. That is the thing that also creates more connection and that ends up, I don't know, at least in my business is how it works is the more open I am about stuff.
more connected I am and the more money I end up making. I don't know what we're all doing out here pretending we're making a million dollars in five seconds. I don't know. And that was one of the things that drew me to you as well is your newsletter has that sense of openness and honesty and then also encouraging and cheering other people on. think that one of the things that you were talking about, I love you paralleling intergenerational trauma with like intergenerational wealth because I'd heard that stat before about people losing all the wealth, but I hadn't thought of it.
in parallel to trauma. You can inherit all of that. I think that the other thing that you're saying is it's so important to just make sure that you honor yourself in the journey. Because for a lot of the financial advisors and the advice that's so popularized, they're telling it from that traditional heteronormative narrative. They had a different starting line than so many of the rest of us.
it's easy to shame yourself to be like, wait a minute, why can't I get this when you're not even like anywhere close to where they were when they started to build the wealth that they have now. And I'm not saying they didn't go through challenges and like whatnot, but when a whole entire world is built in your favor or a lot of the systems are designed in your favor, then of course it's just going to be like you're floating downstream as opposed to like going upstream, which it has been a lot of my experience of like, what?
Because I know I'm not less smart than that person and the quality of work that I produce is different, but like, what is the difference? So I love you being so open and honest about it. In your life too, I'm curious, is there anything that has like been super present in your mind that you just want to advocate? Because I mean, I love hearing your voice. You've always been so like...
Judy Tsuei (27:39.656)
and like being a proponent. Like what would I say if I have the money? When I told you about the Kickstarter, you were like, yes, go for it. I'm so glad you're doing this instead of pursuing the traditional route. Yes, yes, yes. my God. Yeah, there are so many things here. I mean, I'll say this. I have not had a formal like coming out on the internet situation. So this is a Kindle Cherry exclusive right here. yeah, I'm still like reckoning with it, but I'll say I recently came out
quote unquote, as bisexual to my very close friends or people I would consider chosen family. My family will probably never listen to this episode, no offense, but sorry, mom. But yeah, it's not something that I feel comfortable sharing with my family. And the thing that I think is so interesting and that I didn't realize I was doing in my writing and that was showing up in especially, you know, a lot of what I write about storytelling and selling.
is really just individual advocacy for people to make their own wealth. It's pretty much what I'm doing. I'm teaching you how to sell or I'm writing your stuff so you sell, so you make more money as an individual. And this concept that kept coming up for me and has come up for me is this idea of lack of visibility. And it's almost this sense of, and it's very popular in LGBTQ culture of...
You know your chosen family and the people that you feel safest around and and so much of the you know The culture that I have created in my wallflower Fridays community on my email list. It's pretty small It's not the biggest newsletter in the world by any means But these people are very tight in there and they're like these people reply to the stuff I'm writing about and and so much of that
like the idea of like, can create a safe space for you. Like I'm gonna still give you the kind of tough love, but I want you to feel empowered by the words that I'm writing. So much of what's actually going on under there is, you have a pretty, mean, I'm 32 years old and I just quote unquote came out of the closet. There is a lot of that loosely baked into my writing where I want, you know, I didn't necessarily grow up in a place where it was safe.
Judy Tsuei (29:47.087)
for me to be gay or safe for me to be a writer or safe for me to make a lot of money. And so so much of my writing is how can I create a safe space for someone where it doesn't matter who you are, what you've come from, how much money you have, whatever. How can I make it to where you believe that you are enough to make the money that you want to make for the life that you want to lead? That's all I'm doing over here. But it comes from
I mean, little Kindle, so afraid of things, my little six-year-old self, being like, man, I'm really good at writing, but I don't really know where it lives. I kind of like girls. What does that look like? And I'm still reckoning with so much of it. But it's that sensation or that feeling that I think allows me to create communities and just pieces of writing. If one person reads something that I write,
and they think, holy shit, I can do this. It's mind bending in whatever ways. That's so much of what I'm about. That's what I'm here to do. But it does come from this, yeah, kind of feeling like you've denied about 50 % of yourself or even 20%. Not all of you gets to save space. I know there's people out there, because I talk to them all the time. At least here, I just picture it as, okay, if you're going to come to my house.
open the front door, like, I'm gonna have a drink for you and I'm gonna have a little spread and we're gonna like, you know, take your shoes off and like just be. And that's so much of what I try to create, but it comes from having different parts of myself denied just from how I grew up, making sure that that takes place not just, you know, professionally or in my writing, but in the ways that you even decide to however you wanna make money. I love that so much. You said that so perfectly. Like, it was just so beautiful.
Thank you so much for sharing. Well, and as we're closing this interview, I want to ask, because I asked this to all guests, if you could say fuck saving face about something, what would you say fuck saving face about? my gosh. What would I say? my god, everything. Fuck saving face about like letting your gifts and the thing that you're really fucking good at be the thing that creates your bag. Like don't try to do what everyone else is doing or like.
Judy Tsuei (32:05.818)
You know, I just always picture these people, especially in like the content. I'm in a lot of like communities right now, people growing email newsletters and they're like, we just need to fix our click through rate. And I'm like, dude, just like write good content and like be yourself. And that's going to make you all the money. Like it doesn't matter. Like it just doesn't. So yeah, I just like let, let yourself, your authenticity be your biggest differentiator to create like life changing amounts of money for you. And then for the people that you know, you interact with.
That would be my fuck saving face probably. Yes. And if you want to follow up with you, where can they follow up with you? Ooh, so I do have a newsletter. It's called Wallflower Fridays. It's very, it's kind of the same same vibe. You're pretty much picking up on how I write and how I talk. But you can just go to wallflowerfridays.com. I write it every Friday. It kind of depends on the week. I've got one this week coming out about a book that I loved when I was in middle school and then it comes all the way full circle.
But it's also here not just to tell stories, but teach you how to sell in whatever capacity. yeah, there are, or I'm also pretty active on LinkedIn as well. You can just search me. I DM, I'm over there off and on throughout the week. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. This was so fun. Step 10 of my book is all about understanding that money isn't everything.
or that there is a different way to view success and you can challenge conventional views. And I hope that you got as much out of Kendall's conversation with me as I did. And if you want to follow more or you're looking to break through your mindset blocks and remove limiting beliefs and negative emotions and what all of my clients have been saying is so much faster.
than traditional therapy. One of my clients recently said, you know, just even a couple hours with you was worth 10 years of therapy. Then please go to my website, judytsui.com. You'll be able to see how we can work together and how you can just amplify your life and live the life that you want with so much more ease and grace and joy and fun. So this season of the podcast is about to come to a close and I am very curious.
Judy Tsuei (34:15.183)
as to whether or not you would like for it to continue going on. I've increasingly gotten busy. I have scaled my business. I've joined entrepreneurs organization, their accelerator program to continue to amplify and elevate my business. So there's so much that I'm doing and my mentor has said that I need to figure out what it is that I really want to do and where I want to dedicate my time and energy. So.
If this is helpful for you and you want it to keep going on, please go to any of your favorite podcast platforms and rate this podcast as well as send me a message. Hello at judytsway.com and I would love to hear from you. Thank you so much for listening and tuning in and I will see you in the next episode.
Judy Tsuei (34:57.064)
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to support me and this show, please go to iTunes and leave your review. It means so much to me and it'll help others find this podcast. I'll catch you in the next episode. And if you'd like to stay in touch between now and then, please visit wildheartedwords.com and sign up for my weekly newsletter. I've had people share with me that it's the best thing to arrive in their inbox all week. Aloha.
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Keywords: mental health, Asian Americans, storytelling, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, creative writing, wealth building, authenticity, breaking taboos, personal growth
