EPISODE 72: BREAK FREE FROM TIGER PARENTING — AND THE BULLY IN YOUR MIND WITH ZION KIM
MEET: ZION KIM
Zion is the founder of 1MT and KaBoom Coaching, seven-figure coaching companies. He has advised hundreds of entrepreneurs and thought leaders as an early-stage investor/advisor in online mentorship companies.
Zion launched his first company at 19, making custom clothing for students and while that endeavor earned him the prestigious Rutgers University Entrepreneur Award, it also taught him exactly how not to build a business.
That early success dovetailed into launching five seven-figure businesses before hitting 28 years of age. After transforming marketing departments for industry-leading service companies and multinationals including mortgage, lawn care, specialty insurance, and tech giants like Dell, Zion created the playbook on what it takes to avoid burnout and succeed as an entrepreneur.
Now, he is on a mission to support 1000 online mentorship companies that are focused on changing their relationship to their work so that they can do more of what they love
Zion regularly speaks to young entrepreneurs and has been featured on multiple podcasts and articles including Forbes and Entrepreneur magazine among others and has an awesome collection of crystals.
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Takeaways
How do you go from getting kicked out of business school and getting arrested to becoming a life coach and business owner? It seems almost impossible to bounce back from challenges like that (imagine if you knew someone in that position), yet Zion Kim is a stellar example of how you can completely transform your life for the better.
I'm thrilled for you to tune into this episode today because Zion is a well of wisdom. While most guests on our podcast so far have shared incredibly useful nuggets of wisdom that fall within their zone of genius, Zion (in true life coach fashion) zooms out to look at the big picture to ask the broader, philosophical questions about life.
I highly recommend you get comfortable and turn off your notifications before pressing play on this episode. We talk about some paradigm-shifting topics — life purposes (what that means and how in the world you find one), money, and sovereignty to name a few — that I think you'll find a lot of inspiration from.
We also explore:
Transcript
Judy Tsuei 00:00
Welcome back to the show. It has been quite a flurry of activity over the last month, let's say, we've done incredible work with my content marketing agency and the team that I brought on is absolutely phenomenal. What I'm really excited about is that you will get to meet them towards the end of this month. And to close out the year, I've interviewed my different team members. And you'll be able to hear from each of them as they share why they've chosen a non traditional path and what lights them up right now. In addition to that, I hope that you had a wonderful gratitude day.
Judy Tsuei 00:34
And that's what I'm going to call Thanksgiving holiday, I've been working with a new client who asked me to create a social post that was about how for some people, that's a national day of mourning, which I really appreciate, I've started watching the show Yellowstone. For those of you who don't know, I loved the show Longmeyer. I also really enjoyed the show justified, who doesn't love Timothy Oliphant, and just, you know, kind of seeing the juxtaposition of wealth with Native American reservations. And that lifestyle and feeling like rights were taken away, I think, because I grew up, you know, with parents who fled the Communist army and left China and went to Taiwan, and then just my own feeling of living back in Asia, and then hearing more of what it is that my family had to go through to survive.
Judy Tsuei 00:34
It may feel good in the moment, or it may rile things up even more. So what's a way that we can see the experience for what it is and make a pivot? You know, can we go into a slightly different direction? Can we see the opportunity that lies there when things don't always go our way. And I had actually been thinking about that when I pick my daughter up for a playdate. On the weeks that she's with her dad, I pick her up in the middle of the week, and we have an afternoon playdate. And because he moved much farther away than he, where he was living before I now have to drive to a different part of San Diego.
Judy Tsuei 00:34
And you know, I could get frustrated about traffic or any of those things. But I use those as opportunities to connect with my daughter to listen to stories with her to explore new parts of the city. And when we were down there, in this different neighborhood in San Diego, I had been thinking to myself, Well what a wonderful opportunity I get to explore and I'm a sensory seeker and an experience seeker.
Judy Tsuei 00:34
So I love discovering these new things. And my daughter's very much built like me in that way. And so we've gone on all these new adventures and the idea of pivoting, you know, came up for me so then just an hour or so later, my daughter brought it up and she said, You know that I'm learning how to pivot and her grandmother was in the car and asked what do you mean by that and she's responding and saying that she can see things with a different view, a different lens, a different perspective, and that it helps her to see that you know, maybe it's Something that she actually wanted after all. And so, along those lines, today's interview is with Diane Kim, and he is the founder of one empty and kaboom coaching, where they're both seven figure coaching companies. He's advised hundreds of entrepreneurs and online mentors thought leaders, he launched his first company at 19.
Judy Tsuei 00:34
And he'll tell you about that. He'll also tell you about how he got arrested. And how these things if you weren't able to make a pivot could really have dramatically impacted the course of your life. Today, he and his team help others get into alignment, help open up opportunities for precedent setting deals, and different business opportunities to truly scale and help these thought leaders create the kind of impact that they're looking for. He's on a mission to support 1000, online mentorship companies who are focused on changing the relationship to work, so that they can do more of what they love.
Judy Tsuei 00:34
And that's something if you've been following us on social media, either at Wild hearted words or at f*ck saving face, then you would have seen that we've been talking about that about getting out of that hustle culture. He's also had articles in Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. And he likes to say that he has an awesome collection of crystals. So I hope that you enjoy today's interview, it was definitely very enlightening and eye opening for me, we do dive into the Asian identity. And what I loved about this conversation is that before we jumped on to the recording, and I was asking him some questions as we were getting to know one another, it was apparent to me that he was, I suppose you could say, just looking forward to exploring more of his Asian identity, which was maybe not something at the forefront of his work, his personal or professional work. And so it was a great opportunity to kind of engage in that conversation that
Judy Tsuei 01:26
And then when they emigrated over to America, and there's just so much I don't even know, I mean, because we don't even talk about those things. It's not like having an open and honest discourse is something that my traditional Chinese family did. So, you know, I think there's a whole wealth of stories. And if you've done consciousness work, if you've been in any sort of healing modalities, you may have heard that anytime that you do healing work, it can reverberate up to three generations past. And I think that there's so much that we carry in our DNA in our lives that we may not realize, are because of the imprints of those before us.
Judy Tsuei 02:03
And whether it was trauma or success, even whatever those frameworks were, that set the previous generation up. And then the one before that, there's a trickle down effect. So I liked understanding that we are the kind of end of the line for our familial lineage in a way. And so we have the ability to really transform everything to shift the path to make a pivot. I loved that a while back, I told my daughter, we've been working on her getting frustrated somewhat quickly about certain things. She's usually very even keeled, very aware for her age, she's not yet seven. But there are some times that she really has a very, not volatile, but a very strong response. And so we've been working on that helping to balance that out and understand why.
Judy Tsuei 02:49
And so one of the things that had been challenging for her is that since she was very young, we set her up so that we would always tell her, you know, like, here's where we're going to go, this is what we're going to do, set her up so that she had some sort of predictable, you know, day ahead, I guess. And so it's become I've noticed this pattern where she wants to know exactly how things are going to turn out. So I've been working with her that you know, the one constant we can count on in life is change, that there going to be things that are going to be unexpected that will pop up. And really how we respond defines who we are and how we show up in the world. And so I taught her this idea of pivoting. And it's something that I actually also talked to, with my partner with his kids, in terms of, you know, not everything's going to be going the way that you want and to have such an intense response.
Judy Tsuei 03:38
maybe isn't something that he normally talks about. Without further ado, I hope that you enjoyed today's interview
Judy Tsuei 06:58
WELCOME TO THE F*CK saving face podcast. I'm your host, Judy Tsuei. And together we'll explore mental and emotional health for Asian Americans and beyond all by breaking through taboo topics, like may not always be pretty, but it is indeed beautiful. Let's make your story beautiful today. Welcome back to The fuck saving faith Podcast. Today I have Zion Kim, which I'm going to ask you about your name as well when we turn it over. Because I think that the names ion is like so powerful. I mean, the first time that I heard about it, to be honest, was when Lauryn Hill had her son. So I was like, Oh, she named her like into Miata will song about it.
Judy Tsuei 07:37
But you're the founder of one Mt. And I'll ask you to explain that as well and kaboom coaching, and you work with a lot of seven figure entrepreneurs, you're in the coaching space. And one of the things that I'm really excited about is that part of our conversation will move into the spirituality, which is very evident on your website, and all the work and the personal development that you do. So today, we're going to cover all sorts of different topics, from discipline to spirituality, to being an Asian man, and to just really redefining trauma, because we've all experienced it or whatever cultural ethnicity that you come from.
Judy Tsuei 08:13
Everyone's there's a quote from an I'll have to find the writer who says this, but that no one goes through life unscathed. So I think that we would like to believe that we will come out, and you know, a different kind of way. But it's all of these growing opportunities where we really define who we are. But I'm going to turn it over to Zion for you to just share a bit about your story, personally and professionally, and then we'll just launch into our conversation.
08:37
Yeah, beautiful. So yeah, for those of you that can't see me and are listening to this, I am Korean, I think that the only time I would identify that I'm actually Korean is when people ask, right. So I don't think that I think that I very much created and curated a certain type of life with a certain group of friends, in my sphere, that most of the time, the identity and of being Asian isn't something that's always in the forefront. And the times, I'm reminded is in response to and in reaction to other people obviously, seeing that I'm an Asian man.
09:19
Right. And those are the times where I think it comes back to the forefront and you know, we were just sharing right before this started there, just how activated this is for me, because, you know, I do have cultural conversations at times, and it doesn't always happen, right. So, so I grew up in a very, very typical air quotes, you know, Asian family, right Tiger Mom, Father was actually a pastor. Mom worked in nail salons, so right so and they actually started nail salon together. Super hard working. They immigrated here from Korea with nothing. Right? And, you know, and just and you know, I grew up in New Jersey and kind of went through, you know, went through and you know, the the expectation.
10:01
And this is very cultural was that as a firstborn son in the Korean family was to take care of the family when I grew up, right. And when I got older, rather, and that conversation started for me when I was quite young, I remember the first one, probably when I was four, five, maybe. Right? So the concept topic of money came up very early on, for me, the topic of work and career and religion, honestly, were probably the only conversations I've had with either of my parents, up until maybe well, after I turned 21. So and I'm 30.
10:37
Now, just just to give some context, so yeah, I don't recall many other conversations I've had with them, unless it was really in one of those pillars, so to speak. And, yeah, my mom wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant. And, you know, and it was very, there's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of pressure, because I didn't have my own sovereignty, when I was growing up, and I wasn't really allowed to make my own decisions. And when I did, and when I stood up for myself, it often, you know, culminated and kind of became an even more challenging conversation than I think it needed to be, because it was basically my desire for life. Versus hers. Right, and often was more so my relationship with my mother that I think, changed a lot at the time, obviously, that was the most activating, I should say, was the most activating. And then once I got into college, I got arrested.
11:34
And then once I got arrested, you know, that was a whole nother situation then. And that's for selling cannabis. Right. So intend to distribute, cuz I got caught with less than, fortunately, less than the federal amounts, which I missed by like they could very tiny margin. And, and that's what really started my journey as an entrepreneur. Right. And the first I know, seven years of that journey, my mom was just my mom kept telling me, it's like, why are you keep doing this? Why don't you just go get a job, this is not. And then finally, she started to see that I had a bit of success, and whatever that means to anybody listening here.
12:13
And in her world, it was financial, the financial success component, you know, and now I'd say that I've I've worked on my relationship with them quite a bit and look them still looking at things from a cultural lens. Looking at, you know, what parts of me? What parts of me were inherited from cultural perspectives, what parts of me were inherited through generational perspectives. And you know, so I think that's the highest level, quickest overview that I can give of my life.
Judy Tsuei 12:42
That's beautiful. I wanted to ask for clarification, you said you got arrested, and it spurred your journey into entrepreneurship. How exactly did that happen? Like, what was the first business that you built after
12:50
that? Yeah, well, I was sitting in the waiting room about to go into my actual jail cell. And the person that was their, you know, he's a black man. And he just said, you know, I just got arrested for smoking a dime bag the first time and got arrested for smoking joint the second time. And, you know, he's like, I don't I don't understand how they expect us to integrate back into society, because now you have someone that has a record, right, like, now you have someone that will not pass the background check, because he got caught smoking a joint. And, and that's when it's sunk in for me, right? It's like, this is a new reality of what I'm about to step into in my life. And that's very much what catalyzed me starting my first business, which was actually custom clothing for fraternities and sororities, that I started on the local campus at Rutgers University.
Judy Tsuei 13:47
Hmm, that's amazing. And so, you know, I think that one of the things that you've talked about that I started realizing a lot after I got divorced, and just, you know, having to deal with, I was just at the courts today, because I had to go get some documents. And as I'm walking through the halls, everyone's so quiet, like sitting there, you know, on benches outside of offices, and just being in that space and realizing some people are going through some very heavy things. I mean, even as I was sitting there trying to print documentation for my divorce, it was over two years ago, just in the span of like seven to 10 minutes that I'm sitting there at the computer.
Judy Tsuei 14:23
I'm hearing like person after person walk in and say like, I need to file for divorce, I need to do this. And it's just everyone going through these huge monumental life stages. You went through a monumental life stage, and then you took that and it became a catalyst for you to create your business and the type of work that you do now, which I think very much because you're working with coaches, and you're working with influencers, that it involves a lot of personal development. And I would love for you to talk about that, like the type of work that you do now and some of the key core components of you know, things that you would love for people to reflect upon or consider as they're starting to kind of peel back the layers. dive deeper into their own mental and emotional development.
15:03
Yeah, I would say that my journey was really a result of being on the pursuit of happiness. And it started with the pursuit of success. Right? It started with this idea of, of success, right? Being young and being a young entrepreneur and being in the grind and being in the startup scene, and like really, achieving, you know, you know, this, this kind of like financial outcome of an exit or success or whatever it might be, right. So, and when I did my research in successful people, what I realized was wow, like, it seems that all these people are really happy. And optimistic. And I, you know, they were mindset didn't exist in my vocabulary at the time. But that's, that's just the line of questioning that arrived that and then when I took a step back, I asked myself, well, am I happy?
16:01
I guess happiness was not a conversation that I've ever had growing up, right. I mean, even even me, I just, I even recall a conversation around when I said, I was stressed growing up, and you know, my mom was like, you know, you're young, like, what could you possibly be stressed about? Right. So then, you know, from a mental health perspective, you know, I had fought off depression, right, and really gone down that route, and then gone back in the other direction, multiple times, quite frankly, and not really understood my emotional capacity and my emotional relationship with myself, and really understanding, you know, what this feeling actually feels like, you know, and so many moments where I actually felt completely numb, right to life and to, to any and my more intimate relationships and unable to explore a deeper level of intimacy in certain relationships as well.
16:57
And not even knowing what that means. Right. So I think that for me, you know, my appreciation for this work really came after I went into a workshop with, you know, one of my current business partners, Preston Smiles, right. And I told him this, I told him this yesterday like that, these workshops have fundamentally shifted in change attracted my life, because I was able to access a space in my body. That wasn't just my head, right. And for anyone listening, you know, it's fascinating, because my survival strategy for how I operated in life was based on logic and intellect. And that is the smallest part of my entire body.
17:42
Right? So the moment that I actually dropped in, I was like, Whoa, like, what's this feeling in, you know, in my heart, and what's what was it like, and actually, you're feeling quite activated in that space, and just really being able to pay attention to feeling certain emotions as they come up, it's, it becomes a very new journey in that, and I literally saw one person walk into a room and another person walked out of it, and just shining a little bit brighter, just with a load that was just a lot lighter, and just stepping into a high degree of personal freedom.
18:18
And, you know, and this is where I think you're my journey for the pursuit of happiness and desiring that happiness for other people. And which is really why I you know, which really became the vision for my, my path of entrepreneurship, I think, really just, that took me into where I am today of, yeah, wow, I kind of want everyone's have this. Right. And that's why I'm such a, you know, I'm so invested in my own personal coaching, I'm so invested in coaching others, I'm so invested in working with other coaches, so that they can help others. And it's very much become a core life mission, right? Because I just want people to feel deeply fulfilled, deeply fulfilled by the work that they're doing in the world, because I do believe that when you're not aligned to your work, your work is one of the your greatest forms of self expression, and especially growing up Korean. That work wasn't mine to choose.
19:24
And now, you know, now one of the questions I get to ask myself, well, what is my work to do because I am my own sovereign being and I get to decide, right? And I've always been able to decide even if, you know, but it just came with a lot of pushback. Right? So So I'd say so now, you know, all the work that I do with all the companies I support is really helping people you know, manifest their dreams because your work and your service and your creations and especially from business.
19:56
You know, my my philosophy is that your business Business is a system that delivers value and creates value for other people in the world is so facilitates massive levels of change and transformation in the world. And I believe that business is an entrepreneur, his greatest gift of love manifest in the world. And, honestly, it's such an honor, you know, to be, you know, where I am, because seemingly against a lots, right having grown, you know, I feel like, I feel quite fortunate, right to have found the people that I found, and you know, and on the other side of that coin, I truly believe that, you know, they were sent and delivered to me, you know, for in service to me so that I can also just be in greater service to others. That's
Judy Tsuei 20:45
amazing. I love I want to go back and underscore that you were on the pursuit of happiness. But initially, you define it as success, that, you know, I think we all have these markers of what we think happiness will be. And it's usually external validators, you know, you'll hit this number, this income level, or, you know, this buying the house or whatever it is. So I love that you shared that I want to, you know, because you're in the coaching field.
Judy Tsuei 21:09
And because of my experience with different coaches, I wanted to ask you a few kind of clarifying potentially challenging or controversial questions in regards to the coaching space as a whole. So I think that, you know, there have been a lot of people who've worked with coaches who may not have been aligned to the their own personal journeys, and then have misguided other people, or, you know, just because of the influx of different people in the coaching space. If someone wanted to work with some, what are some of the cautions that you would recommend? Because I think that it's so you know, vague?
21:42
Well, let's, let's, let's take a quick step back, because what you shared was misguided, that there's coaches that misguided other people. Now, fundamentally, that is a huge, I mean, that's, that's a huge, that's in conflict with the big core foundation of what coaching is supposed to be. Right? Coaches, yes, serve as guides. But ultimately, the best coach is someone that can help you understand your own knowing and your own mastery and your own knowing. So when I hear the word misguided, it also says that a person made a mistake.
22:25
And that a person went the wrong way. And went the wrong path. And I think that's so important, especially for, because this was a massive lesson I had to learn was, there's no such thing as mistakes, only different lessons. So when we look at, you know, caution, right, you want to look at well, is the code, does the coach have the capacity and the competency, and the philosophy to really help you become more of you? Or are they trying to guide you on a path based on their own frameworks and methodologies, or whatever it is, right? Because coaching frameworks and methodologies are meant to help you feel more fully expressed as a human.
23:11
In every single situation, it's to help you become more resourceful, it's to help you become more masterful, is to help you get in touch with a significant degree of emotional intelligence. So that in any moment, you truly understand and see and feel the emotional response that you're feeling. Right, the emotional response that you're feeling in any moment, so you can, you know, you can tune in, you can check in so okay, you know, Judy just said something, what am I feeling? Where am I feeling my body? What does it actually feel like? Is it popping as a contracting? Is it swirling? Is it, you know, is expansive, and then to actually feel it, and to someone that can really facilitate that process so that, you know, you're able to really walk the line of vulnerability and intimacy with yourself? Yeah, so when I hear that, from the coaching space, you know, I think a lot of people that call themselves coaches don't understand that philosophy. And I think that is an issue.
24:13
Because essentially, what you're doing is you're treating people as victims that need to be saved, rather than holding people in their own sovereignty. And this is the distinct difference.
Right? This is a distinct difference between someone who I believe is a well, let's not even use the word coach because I believe coaching is more of a tool set, like coaching more of a tool sets, because you know, you have basketball coaches, and all this other stuff. It's like, it's not like that. And to a certain degree, that's also what they do. Right?
24:42
They help you become a better player by helping you become more resourceful because they can't play the game for you. And that's essentially what a great coach is. So, you know, and I think that it is a problem in the industry is that there are a lot of people that are kind of Entering into the space that don't know what that is, however, they have the highest intention to be of service to others. And I take that, and I take that intention, and I try to nurture that intention and align them to really the capacity and competencies so that they can actually be of service to individuals and, and really do what it takes to facilitate real transformation and change.
Judy Tsuei 25:22
That's awesome. I think that you know, you've said this idea of sovereignty and personal choice. I think one of the key things that you'd highlighted in your upbringing was that you didn't really have that. I mean, we always have choice but growing up with Tiger parenting, you don't think that you do like that you have an option beyond what's told to you as the option in this path towards sovereignty, I think it also comes with a lot of responsibility, you know, before you and I jumped on, I'd said that I believe that hurt people hurt people. So like, let's take ownership of ourselves and our healing so that we can stop perpetuating that in the world along this idea of sovereignty and perhaps spirituality, and how to manifest your dreams.
Judy Tsuei 26:01
I've kind of like a two pronged question. So one, what's like one key aspect that you can offer to somebody as they're trying to find more of that sovereignty? How do they embrace that and live that a lot more. And then secondly, I think it was Elizabeth Gilbert, who had said in a TED talk, or she had said in a follow up talk that, you know, her initial talk was, you should go live your purpose and go find your dreams and stuff. And then finally, someone came up to her after one of her speaking engagements. She's like, I really love you.
Judy Tsuei 26:28
I love everything that you've written and whatever. But what if you don't know what that is that your purpose is, or you know, like what you were put here to do? And then you keep espousing this belief, and it makes me feel shittier to not know what that is, and how to get there. And so she kind of reframe her whole talk of being like, oh, you know, you're totally right. There's like, so many other ways to kind of live that sense of fulfillment or manifest different things. So I guess the two pronged question is one, how do you embrace that sovereignty more, and two, I just, I know of so many people, even in my own personal circle, who just feel so frustrated that they hear all of this messaging, manifest what you want and manifest your dreams, and then there's not enough clarity around that or not enough, you know, just the gap between where they are and what that idea is, is really difficult.
27:16
Yeah. So one of the questions I'm hearing here is, how do people find purpose when they don't know where to go? And then the other question, what was the other question, again, its
Judy Tsuei 27:29
sovereignty and sovereign, how do you step into that personal power? Okay.
27:34
So those are very two different routes. So which, which one do you think makes more more sense
Judy Tsuei 27:40
data sovereignty route? Because you've mentioned that a few times, so I'd love to know. Yeah.
27:45
Yeah. Well, I think let's start with why people don't believe they have sovereignty. And I think that's what what is sovereignty, right. Sovereignty is, you are 100% responsible for your own life, and your own actions, your own emotions, your own feelings, your own reactions, and so on. Right? 100% responsibility, not 80%, not 120%, but just 100%, meaning you don't take responsibility for other people's actions. And you don't blame other people, for why you did something that you did. And that's true sovereignty. Right. And the path of getting there is awareness.
28:28
It's incredibly challenging to look at, you know, what are the what's that saying, to look at the label of from the inside out of, if you're in a bottle to look at the guide, right? Because you don't know what you don't know. Right? You don't actually know just how rampant your psychological programming is from, you know, because most most people psychological programming is from when between like, six and 13, right, are really like six, nine, right? And most of those patterns of how you grew up as a child are actually how you're navigating the world. So the easiest way to is actually to hire a coach that can actually show you the different blind spots that you have, because that's what it took for me.
29:11
And you know, and there was some arrogance in it of, you know, for me, I'm just like, Oh, what, how bad could it actually be? And, you know, and I think the, you know, there's this famous scene right in the matrix, right? Where Morpheus is in front of Neo and he says, you know, Neo, you want to take the red pill or the blue pill, right? The red pill is inconvenient truth and the blue pill is blissful ignorance. And for a lot of people, the red pill is really confronting to see. And, you know, there's there's a quote by Leland and then Bondo, all right, which is the degree to which a person can grow is directly proportional to the truth can accept about himself without running away. And when I first saw some of these things, man was confronting.
30:06
And then until it wasn't right, until I started to just receive a level of peace of just really celebrating and being in the awareness of wow, like, this is how I'm showing up. This is my relationships, and, and why I'm showing up in my relationships. This is why, you know, you said you're divorced, I was in an engagement of why I entered that engagement, and then you know, how I operate inside that relationship? And you know, now being out of it. Right. And, and just coming to awareness of why do you make the decisions that you do? Right.
30:38
And I think one of the questions that I asked a lot of people is, was there a time in the last week? Where you know, that you wanted to share something with somebody, but you didn't? You know, that you want to ask for something that you wanted? But you didn't? You know, that you wanted something? But you settled for less? Because blank? And, you know, so the first step is truly can you get to a level of awareness of understanding, yes, every single thing that you do in your life, there is a reason for it, right?
31:18
There is a conscious or unconscious pattern that is currently running a program, right, just think about a tape recorder of a certain program, the moment that you hear something moments or something gets activated, the moment you get frustrated, or angry about something, or emotional or nervous or anxious or depressed, every single one of those are opportunities and portals to look at something that is not resolved for you. So when we look at sovereignty, it's, you know, how could you possibly be a sovereign being?
31:53
When, unfortunately, you have had, unfortunately, because this is this is the game of life, right? You have literally had your program and your operating system built into you by way of being raised by your parents. And if you don't know what that operating system is, how can you actually ever be free. And I believe that's why this work is so powerful. And I get very emotional when I talk about this because it's like you don't you experience varying degrees of freedom in your life. And the more awareness that you experience, the more that you realize how you're actually truly showing up in the world and who you are, and especially who you are not.
32:46
You start to really just the depth of joy that's available to you in the world just gets a little bit sweeter every single time. And, you know, and that's my highest desire for people. Right? So, so true. sovereignty has to start with awareness of, you know, who are you? And how are you showing up? And then after that, it's really understanding Well, you know, who are you not only becoming, but it's also just a remembering of who you always were. And when you start to factor all that in, you know, especially for anyone listening, it's, it sounds like a lot, but that's what's available to you because you're born right.
33:32
Like I remember my coach telling me this Zion, it is your birthright. It is your birthright just because you're born to experience the deepest levels of joy that are available to you. You know, and that conversation immensely, just changed the entire trajectory of my life. And it's the reason why I have this conversation today. It's the reason why I can support people in the capacity that can today and you know, and it's a true honor to be able to help people stand, you know, in their power, right, and just take more responsibility for their life. Because, you know, once you do you start to realize, wow, right, and this goes back to your other question around. Yeah, once you do, you can't manifest and create the world that you want, when you don't know how your current world is being created.
Judy Tsuei 34:25
That's huge. Everything that you're talking about. There's this feeling of what life is like on the other side. And I think that if there's anybody who's going through a challenging time, and especially in this self development, self healing journey, you have to reflect upon a lot of different things that maybe you don't want to look at, as you mentioned, but I think that you keep emphasizing that on the other side of that there's so much that you can access that maybe you didn't even realize was possible and available to you. So I love you saying that it's your birthright to experience joy, and that if someone doesn't have have clarity right now on what it is that they're meant to do whatever they're meant to manifest, that the clearer that they become about the operating system that they've been working on, and then the one that they'd like to move towards, then the more that they can evolve into potential clarity around that.
35:17
Yeah. And I think there's even a step before that, right, which is number one, hopefully, now that you listen to this, you know, that there's more. And even if you don't, I think that what's, you know, the, what I like to call the Great pause, or the pandemic, you know, probably had you thinking that there's more to life. Like, I would imagine that there's a feeling somewhere inside of you, that is telling you that there is more to life than what currently is that even though if you can't label it, the importance is not to label it.
36:59
Right, the way that you're experiencing your life is not your fault. And quite frankly, most of it's not yours. However, it is your responsibility to take your life into your own hands.
37:30
And to demand change. Because you must take a stand for yourself. And I got, you know, and it or find someone that will write, I got very lucky that someone took a stand for me and says, I like this is not, it's for you in life.
Judy Tsuei 37:53
I think distinguishing between fault versus responsibility is huge. And knowing that, yeah. There you always have, as you said, sovereignty to change the course of your life. I have two final questions to ask you. One. Can you tell me about one Mt?
38:13
Yeah. So what M T now stands for a million transformations. And, you know, the goal of the organization is to essentially empower and elevate the consciousness of the billion people on the planet, right. And that's the outcome, I would say, the way we do that is by helping people feel more fulfilled in their work. So they can move more into, you know, just do what they really love in the world, and really doing what, like helps people feel alive. Right? And I would say that's, you know, this whole idea of purpose, I think it's, I think it's done more damage in our society than good.
Judy Tsuei 40:50
I love that. I close every interview asking along this idea of facts, saving face and really removing taboos. What is something that you would like to help people reframe, or change their minds around or really just say fuck saving face about?
41:05
The first thing that comes to mind is, don't apologize for your existence. And around saving face, it's like, don't apologize for you doing what you want to do in your life. For what you want to say, for what you want to wear for how you want to show up for, you know, the pursuit of the things that you deeply care about, if they're not in alignment with the people around you. Like it's your life. And your What if you shared the thing? What if you shared your bowl truth more often? Right? What if you, and this isn't permission for you to be an asshole? So I want to just start there, right? This isn't permission to be an asshole, but can you hold kindness and love in your heart and be the fullest expression of yourself.
41:56
And just be more of who you already know that you are, and trust that you will be accepted and loved by the people around you. And if not, go find new friends. And I believe that once you start to just be a little bit more of yourself, and you'll give yourself permission to say the things you want to say and to just explore more the depths of who you actually are. And so just really have deeper conversation with the people around you. I think you'll start to realize just how alone so many people feel, and how much the people around you desire, a deeper level of closeness, but don't know how to facilitate it. And, yes, I'd say Yo, stop apologizing for your existence and just do the fucking thing you want to do.
Judy Tsuei 42:46
I love that. I feel like that's exactly what flex saving face is all about. And yes, there will be scratchy bits as you navigate that and find your purpose with the people in your life for existing who may not evolve in the same pace and the same parallel paths, including your family. But that you know, nothing sets,
43:04
especially your family. Yeah,
Judy Tsuei 43:06
yeah, nothing set in stone. And you would be surprised at you know, what can happen once you change yourself, which inevitably changes the dynamic of every relationship around you. Is there anything else you'd like to share? Before we wrap up?
43:19
Let's see. Yeah, I would say that, I would say that the biggest thing is, at least give yourself permission to try. And to actually try. And for anyone listening to this, that might be going through a hard time right now or might have had their ass handed to them in the last week. It's just a reminder that, you know, every like, you would not have received it if you weren't ready for it. So can you really, you know, ask and be in the increase of, you know, how is this hear for me? What wants to be shown here for me? What's the lesson that gets to be learned here. And you know, this too shall pass. And it will get better. And life does get just so much more amazing. And my highest desire for everyone listening is that you just get everything you want and more and and, and that you will receive more than what you can even possibly fathom. Because that's always what's available to you.
Judy Tsuei 44:30
I love having that and holding that faith and that even if you don't see all of the clarity around how that will happen. That that is the truth that will unfold.
44:41
Thank you. So let's go to the how
Judy Tsuei 44:43
exactly like very Asian. My tactically someone just told me recently, they're like, I know I can rely upon you like you probably already gotten this done. When I asked you about it this morning and I'm literally about to send a text message being like, Yep, I'm getting it done right now. So very tactical, thank you so much for your time today, I really appreciate all the insights that you've shared with everyone. And I hope that it gives people an opportunity to, you know, reflect upon themselves. If they want to connect with you, where can they find you?
45:13
Right now, I would say the easiest place is probably Instagram, which is Zion, k 20 ZION. K to zero is probably the easiest way to connect with me. And yeah, feel free to drop me a note.
Judy Tsuei 45:31
That's wonderful. Oh, and I wanted to circle back to the question that I brought up at the very beginning, which is, what does your name mean?
45:37
Yes, it means heaven. Right. And I asked a rocket science, like I asked a Nobel Prize winning scientists who also happened to be a rabbi. And he said, he knows I, and you know what your name means. And I said, Well, I believe I know what I was named after. But he said that Zion means the bringer of light. Hmm. So I quite resonate with that one. And I'll, I'll stick to that one.
Judy Tsuei 46:06
I love it. Thank you. I hope that you got a lot out of this episode, as I used to always say, when I was teaching yoga, take what you need, leave the rest. And that I'm very excited to see what the close of 2021 brings into 2022. If you've been also following us along at both Wildheart Edwards and flexing face, you would see that I've added new members to my team, that our strategic content marketing agency is taking off that we're up to some really exciting things with some phenomenal clients. So I can't wait to share more about that. And be sure that you're signed up to stay tuned with us.
Judy Tsuei 46:43
So whether that's part of our Facebook group, you're on our Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn as well. Or if you want to sign up for our newsletters, we've been putting out some really amazing content. So please do reach out hello@f*ck saving face.com If there's anything that you want to hear more of, or you want to see shift around. I'm always open to hearing suggestions. And you know, as we're moving into 2022, I'm going to take a little bit of time to get inspired by what season three is going to be all about. So we're going to finish Season Two at the end of this year.
Judy Tsuei 47:15
And we would love your support. So one of the best ways that you can support as I close every episode is to share it with your family and friends. Anybody who you think would resonate with the interviews and the storytelling that we've been talking about thus far, you can also make a donation go to f*ck saving face.com That always helps me my team so much. So have a wonderful rest of your week. And I will see you back here soon. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
Judy Tsuei 47:43
You can follow me on Instagram at F*ck saving face or have an honest conversation with me in my private Facebook group f*ck saving face. That's f*ck without the if U enjoy this work, please help support and sustain it. The best ways to do that are to share it with your friends and networks. Subscribe rate and review on your listening platforms. And of course through your thoughtful financial donations. You can buy me a coffee or treatment or lunch or share it even bigger lab at F*ck saving face.com Again, that's fuck without the U.
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