When I was young, I wanted to be a lot of things: artist, writer, reporter, actress. I started blogging and building websites in ninth grade and really have not stopped since.

But I didn’t know any artists, writers, or actresses who looked like me, ate the foods I did, or had to go to Chinese school on the weekends. The closest thing I had to an Asian role model was Michelle Kwan at the ’98 Olympics, and there was no way I could ever be an Olympic figure skater. (Trust me. No amount of manifesting would make THAT a reality.) As for web design and blogging?

I didn’t even know those were career options.

I ended up studying science, then science education. From my first day of classroom teaching, I had doubts that this career was going to work for me. But I had just spent all this time getting my master’s degree.

What would I do, if I didn’t teach?

Cue three years of chronic, compulsive job-searching. I wound up working in real estate administration while trying to build a photography business on the side. After boomeranging back to teaching, getting married, and having a kid, I finally found myself getting paid to do what I’d always loved: writing and making shit on computers. I started looking for ways to diversify and scale my business.

Ya girl leveled up!

As I explored the freelance and online entrepreneurial space, though, I slowly realized something. None of the big names in this world looked like me. As usual. I wanted to support other Asian Americans, but all of the business resources I found were made by white people.

So I decided to make my own.

(This is a chronic life pattern of mine.)

I started writing about my own identity as an Asian American. Then I started thinking and talking about problems unique to Asian American entrepreneurs, from perpetual foreigner/imposter syndrome to the limiting beliefs we inherited from our immigrant parents.

I created a blog and podcast about the work lives of Asian Americans beyond the conventional doctor, lawyer, and engineer. I taught courses and workshops to guide other unconventional Asian Americans toward fulfilling work lives.

And then…

People started hiring me to make online courses for them. They want to unyoke their income potential from their time, so I use my curriculum planning and worksheet making abilities to create high-value interactive workbooks. (I still can’t make bulletin boards worth shit, though, which is why I don’t do any of the sales and marketing for these courses, heh.)