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Permission to Become
Permission to Become episodes
- Ep. 7: Iris Guo, Permission to Become a Sustainopreneur & Founder of Neutrify - a conversation on creating social change and the power of storytelling
Episode Description:
In this episode, I interviewed Iris Guo, a truly inspirational Asian American Gen Z woman, who is taking huge strides towards making social impact via OpenMeal and Neutrify by alleviating hunger, addressing racial injustice for the Asian American community, and raising awareness to reduce carbon footprint and save our planet!
In this episode, we dived into Iris’ upbringing in China and how she decided to move to Canada when she was 17 because she wanted to live a different life than what was prescribed by her society.
This is a super insightful episode as Iris shared her wisdom on:
- How she broke out of peer pressure and social norms to create her own path
- How she integrated cultural values from China to building relationships and human connection
- How she overcame imposter syndrome and self-doubt through drama and improv
- The power of storytelling and the secret sauce to crafting a powerful story that influences other people to take action, including her own story of turning “rejection into redirection” and landing her dream job at Google X
You can get in touch with Iris via social media channels if you are interested to learn more about Neutrify or her career path.
If you are interested in learning more about Iris' company, Neutrify, check out the website (https://mailchi.mp/c11c1b6d22f8/neutrify-launch) and if you'd like to support her initiative in climate change, check out this survey (https://form.typeform.com/to/I8TNWEgY).
If you have any comments or feedback on what resonated with you on this episode, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at [email protected].
56 min - How she broke out of peer pressure and social norms to create her own path
- Ep. 6: Ammarah Maqsood, Permission to Become a Feminine Philanthropist - a conversation on how women are changing the paradigms of power, privilege and wealth
In this episode, I interviewed Ammarah Maqsood, a human rights and gender justice activist and feminine philanthropist.
In this episode, we dived into Ammarah’s own journey of challenging the traditional paradigms and standing up for her truth as the only daughter in her South Asian family and a minority in a predominantly white neighborhood. As a female warrior goddess with the heart of an Aquarius, Ammarah shares her passion for human rights, social and gender justice and how she defined her own success as a woman of color and is redefining the world of philanthropy, wealth and power dynamics through the lens of femininity.
As we dive in conversations around gender justice, wealth decolonization and privilege, this might be an uncomfortable conversation for some. Part of discovering and living our truth is to step into the discomfort and get vulnerable.
Show details:
- Ammarah talks about her own upbringing in a household of 3 older brothers, defying traditional model minority ideals and the expectations on women in South Asian culture
- How Ammarah found her early passions for social justice and international human rights in high school
- How she decided to quit her law school path and carved her own path in the social impact / nonprofit sector where she did not have a blueprint and nor were there mentors of her skin color
- How she stood up for her authentic self despite strong opposing forces and social pressures that tried to conform her
- How she is redefining and leading social impact in gender and social justice, youth literacy, women empowerment and decolonizing wealth in her nonprofit career
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Book: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
- Book: The Motorcyclist Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Che Guevera
- Book: Winners Take all: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
- Book: Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva
- Article: Why philanthropy is a femininst issue
- Article: What is the feminist approach to philanthropy
- Listen: The 1619 Project
- Watch: What Is Privilege?
You can get in touch with Ammarah via LinkedIn if you are interested to learn more about feminine philanthropy.
If you have any comments or feedback on what resonated with you on this episode, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at [email protected].
56 min - Ep. 5: Cindy Gu, Permission to Become a Feminine Energy Coach - On Becoming Your Own Heroine and Reclaim Your Femininity
Episode Description:
This is a very special interview I conducted with Cindy Gu, feminine energy coach (@the.femininecoach). In this episode, we went into the deep end of Cindy’s heroine journey, of how she transformed her deepest wounds into incredible personal power that ultimately propelled her to find her soul purpose. Now she is on a bold mission to elevate femininity and help women find inner alignment, abundance, and freedom.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Cindy’s first 15 years growing up in Beijing with both traditional and modern Chinese values
- Her early fascinations with Taoist philosophies
- Being born as a daughter in China’s One Child Policy and “the son her father never had”
- How her move to America and how that affected her sense of self
- Her decade of becoming and the dance of femininity and masculine pursuits
- How her journey of being a femtech founder who brought yoga off the mat into everyday life led to her true purpose in life
You can find Cindy here:
Instagram: @the.femininecoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gucindy/
Also, Cindy is generously offering the Permission to Become podcast listener a free 1:1 alignment session with her. Here is the link to complete an assessment prior to booking the session: https://www.thefemininecoach.com/assessment
If you have any comments or feedback on what resonated with you on this episode, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at [email protected].
Instagram: @permissiontobecome
Website: permissiontobecome.com
58 min - Cindy’s first 15 years growing up in Beijing with both traditional and modern Chinese values
- Ep. 4: Christian Ou, Permission to Become a Food Blogger - On Following Your Passion, "One Happy Bite" at a Time
Episode Description:
In this episode, I interviewed Christian Ou, the founder of One Happy Bite, a baking blog that features Asian-inspired ingredients, such as matcha, ube, and taro in traditional western baking.
In this episode, we talked about how Christian became a self-taught baker from her college dorm and later turned her passion into what is now her blog, One Happy Bite, with almost 5,000 followers on Instagram (@onehappybite).
Show notes:
- How food played a role in her Asian American upbringing, where food is the default love language in her family.
- Her early food inspirations, from witnessing her family run a restaurant business firsthand to being enamored with Asian ingredients during her childhood in Taiwan.
- Her decision process on choosing a career as a physician assistant and how she stumbled upon baking, that quickly grew to become her obsession.
- How she started her baking blog, One Happy Bite, in Jan 2020 and the productivity hack she came up with to overcome her biggest barrier, time, while working a full -time job.
- How she defines “success” for her passion.
Resources mentioned:
- How I built this with Janice Bryant Howroyd podcast episode
You can find Christian here:
Blog: https://onehappybite.com/
Instagram: @onehappybite
If you have any comments or feedback on what resonated with you on this episode, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at [email protected].
Follow us on Instagram: @permissiontobecome
50 min - How food played a role in her Asian American upbringing, where food is the default love language in her family.
- Ep. 3: Hillary Jeanne, Permission to Become a Brand Photographer - On Turning a Side Hustle to a Purpose-Driven Personal Branding Photography Business
What is your true value? This one simple question changed the course of Hillary’s life’s path.
Tune into this episode and listen to Hillary share her step-by-step transformation from being burnt out and unhappy working at a 9-5 to becoming a self-taught personal brand photographer and strategist, living her passion and purpose through helping women entrepreneurs elevate their online brand.
Episode highlights:
- How her bicultural upbringing shaped her artistic interests and money mindset
- Her early career path working in Silicon Valley tech start-ups
- How answering one simple question propelled her to discover her passion
- How she found her passion in photography after a life changing trip to Peru
- Her step-by-step transformation process of how she transitioned out of her 9-5 tech job and turned her side hustle into a full-time photography business
- How she combatted her limitations - imposter syndrome, self-doubt, security-based money mindset - in order to give herself the permission to turn her passion into a thriving career
You can find Hillary here:
Website: https://hillaryjeanne.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hillary_jeanne/
If you have any feedback or comments, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at [email protected].
Follow us on Instagram: @permissiontobecome
47 min - How her bicultural upbringing shaped her artistic interests and money mindset
- Ep. 2: Brenda Chen, Permission to Become a Real Estate Investor
Episode Description:
In this episode, we will be diving into Brenda’s journey from being a premed at Cal to becoming a real estate investor, founder of Venus Ventures, life enthusiast and adventure capitalist. She currently works as the Head of Sales at Conventus, personalized financing for real estate investors.
In this episode, we will talk about:
- Brenda’s bicultural upbringing as a Taiwanese American
- Shifting her belief from “you have to work hard and sacrifice in order to succeed” to choosing a life doing what she loves
- How she found the courage to step into the unknown
- Her process of tapping into her desires, experimenting, and creating a powerful vision that propelled her into her dream life
- How she got into real estate and how she turned her passion into a career that makes money
You can find Brenda here:
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://brendatchen.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendachen.re/
Resources:
In this episode, Brenda shared some of her inspirations and powerful tools she’s used:
- Natalie Ellis and Danielle Canty, co-founders of Boss Babe
- Stoicism philosophy in dealing with fear.
- Tony Robbins
- Tim Ferriss Podcast
- Jack Canfield
- Grant Cardone
- 6-Phase Meditation by Vishen Lakhiani, founder of Mindvalley
- Miracle Mornings by Hal Elrod
- Habit Tracking
If you have any comments or feedback on what resonated with you on this episode, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at [email protected].
Follow us on Instagram: @permissiontobecome
43 min - Brenda’s bicultural upbringing as a Taiwanese American
- Ep. 1: Charlene Wang, Permission to Become a Model Breaker
In this episode, we will be diving into Charlene’s journey from being a software engineer and later product manager at Google to becoming a life coach, writer, and author of Model Breakers.
In this episode, we will talk about:
- Charlene’s early inspirations and childhood passion for the spirit of creation
- Balancing the immigrant mentality of “you gotta survive before you can thrive” with carving out a path for her creative explorations early in her career
- Overcoming the “achievement paradox” and stepping into her permission to become her true self after a scary wake-up call
- How she overcame her biggest fear and combatted procrastination?
- How to talk to shame, “the nasty roommate you had to live with”
- How she got clarity on what she truly wanted in her life
- What inspired her to start writing the book “model breakers”
Charlene Wang is a model breaker. She is the founder of LivingOS, an online community dedicated to helping high achievers get more out of life. Charlene has spent years coaching high achievers and her pioneering coaching practice has helped startup founders, angel investors, and seasoned operators find their true values and motivations in life. She wrote this book, “Model Breakers” to break the model minority stereotype and change the Chinese immigrant narrative at scale. Charlene currently works as a product manager at Google and lives in the Bay Area with her fiancé and is a bit obsessed with oolong tea. You can connect with Charlene Wang at [email protected]
Resource links:
- You can pre-order her book Model Breakers here: https://bit.ly/model-breakers-prelaunch
- Sign up for her weekly LivingOS Newsletter: http://livingos.substack.com/
If you have any comments or feedback on what resonated with you on this episode, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at [email protected].
Follow us on Instagram: @permissiontobecome
44 min - Charlene’s early inspirations and childhood passion for the spirit of creation
- Introducing Permission to Become
In this episode, you will learn about my 3 Why's for starting this podcast. I will share with you my inspiration for choosing the name for this podcast. I will also share why I wanted to create this podcast on Asian American women defying permission and why this podcast might be interesting to you. Thank you so much for tuning into this podcast and I hope you will enjoy!
7 min
About Permission to Become
From the publisher's feed
This is a podcast about the untold tales of Asian American women breaking out of who they should be, becoming who they truly are, and living their dream life. This podcast is for any Asian American women who are curiously exploring their boundaries and permissions around self-discovery and personal empowerment. This podcast is also for any curious souls who want to learn more about the journeys of Asian American women's own becoming.
permissiontobecome.com