Week 3: Meet Angela Kim
Angela has been a student of mine for a while now and I have been so impressed with her courage to reach out to me and connect on some really vulnerable topics. She has been a huge supporter of mine and I am so excited to be able to share even just a fraction of her journey into her “why” with all of you.
You can follow her podcast to listen to other people’s inspiring stories of “why” here:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3rYpfAwIYEnto8TnxaMLrp?si=Q4BOv4JRQa-EuWfvOVVBJw
I have also attached a link on the August Challenge page to listen to the episode that Angela and I chat.
Angela joined my workshop about “finding your why” in February of this year and has since made incredible strides in following her dreams. I asked Angela to reflect on her journey to finding and continuing to walk in her why and this is what she wanted to share with you:
I had to take some time to look at my journal again, dated February 1, 2020 **(where we did a workshop on finding your why).
We first had an opportunity to reflect on 2019. I accomplished a lot in 2019. I joined the Mental Health Employee Resource Group at work, learned how to tackle/cope with anxiety, meet more like-minded people, advance in my career and learned my boundaries.
Your workshop has taught us to draw branches of how one significant event led to another significant event and honestly, that was one of the most eye opening experiences and it's taught me to be present in my daily life. Just trusting that life will unfold and happen the way it is supposed to be.
My podcast "The Why Moments" was inspired by the Living Room Series and from your workshop. I kept hearing this word "why". When I drew the branches, meeting the people I met through the Living Room Series has taught me that every single person in this world has a story.
You also had us draw an Ikigai and in that I wrote, left side (Good at having deep conversations), top (smiles, laugh, warm and love), right side (World is special one of a kind. People who want to show up), bottom (Getting paid for stability and sustainability). I'm not sure if the bottom one makes sense now that I look at it haha. Because I knew I was good at having deep, vulnerable conversations with different kinds of people and I was getting inspired by others, I wanted to create a platform to share people's whys and hope that it helps another person in this world.
I launched my podcast on April 20, 2020, my birthday. It was a gift to myself and something I've been wanting to do for a while but was too afraid to pull the plug on. Your workshop was an added push to make this decision and to want to live by my purpose.
My "why" in the beginning was to push through my fear, share different people's stories and their "whys", connect with more people and to build a healthier relationship with social media.
At the present moment, my "why" is similar in the sense that I still want to connect with more like-minded people and share people's stories and also to try to remove the stigma on vulnerability being seen as a weakness. We should be able to share our journey without feeling like we're too much or we're weak. It should be part of a normal conversation.
My "why" is to help people realize that it is okay to feel a certain way but to learn the tools to not dwell on the sadness. It is all about taking action, small actions every day to better yourself and how mental health and physical health go hand in hand. It is okay to have fear but learning how to push through them even though you may be scared of others' judgment.
My "why" is also to remind myself to stay true to who I am and why I'm doing this without getting caught up on comparison or lack of feeling "enough". At the end of the day, I'm so grateful I started the podcast and I have 0 regrets. I learned a lot about myself throughout this journey and I'll continue to grow with this platform.
Honestly, I started the podcast wanting to help one or two people and now I've met some of the most amazing people and still talk to them on a daily basis.
Angela also shared with me that she was terrified to ask me to share my story because she was intimidated and thought “who am I to do this or ask her to be on my podcast?”
I couldn’t be happier that she dropped that fear and asked.
I am SO dang honoured and blessed that she offered me a platform on her podcast to share my story and potentially help someone else feel less alone.
This woman is a badass goddess and is doing incredible things to connect people through vulnerability. You can also connect with her on instagram under that name “thewhymoments”