The Real Signs You Need a Coach (And Why It's Not About Money)
What does a Korean grandmother in the 1920s have to do with the burnout I hit years into my corporate career? Everything, actually. I recently joined Marlene McConnell on the Surviving Trauma, Stories of Hope podcast to talk about the three generations of women behind my story, the years I spent managing my life instead of designing it, and the mental fitness practices that finally changed that.
In This Episode
The three-generation story behind my work. I trace my family line from my grandmother in northern Korea, through my mother's experience of war and displacement, to my own arrival in America at age four, and why unprocessed generational trauma quietly shapes adult behavior long after the original story is over.
Twelve years, one dream job, one burnout. I talk about climbing the ladder at a Swedish multinational, working myself into burnout while trying to prove my worth, and the identity crisis that followed: "What's wrong with me?"
The real signal that it's time for a coach. I push back on the "big bank account" stigma around coaching. The real sign is doing the same things, feeling the same feelings, and getting the same results while wanting something different.
Where self-sabotage actually comes from. I connect adult patterns like people-pleasing, perfectionism, and conflict avoidance back to the childhood strategies that once protected us, and why the inner critic often gets louder the more successful you become.
Mindfulness that fits into a real day. No meditation retreat required. I share the micro-practices I actually use: a 90-second breath reset before a meeting, drinking tea with full attention, a walking meditation.
"Right or in love?" A question that reshaped how I show up in my closest relationships, including my own tendency to need to be right.
Inside the Ignite Program. My 10-week, app-guided mental fitness experience (available in group or 1:1 format), built to help women move out of self-sabotage patterns and into what I call their "Sage" self, connected to their natural strengths.
My book, Asian Women Who Boss Up. A celebration of Asian women's stories, and part of my larger mission to break the taboo around mental health in Asian culture.
"I was making choices out of survival and fear. I was not designing my life. I was managing my circumstances."
Resources Mentioned
My coaching practice: Joyful Optimist
My podcast: Spilling Our Tea
My book: Asian Women Who Boss Up
The Ignite Program (10-week mental fitness coaching, group or 1:1)
A Little About Me
I'm a Leadership Coach who helps high-performing leaders wake up from autopilot and move out of their heads and back into their lives, working from the belief that how we lead is inseparable from how we live, our inner clarity, our relationships, our sense of joy and purpose all showing up in how we lead. With over 30 years of experience in executive and entrepreneurial roles in global settings, including my current role as Head of Community at Positive Intelligence, I blend Eastern and Western philosophy with mental fitness science to help leaders move from reactive, self-critical patterns into clearer, more grounded decision-making. As the founder of Joyful Optimist Coaching, I partner with conscious leaders and changemakers to reclaim clarity, presence, and joy, so that leadership stops being something they perform and becomes something they embody, at work and everywhere else.
Comments