Meet Michelle Kuei | International Speaker, Author, Visibility Coach, Content Marketing Strategist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Kuei and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?
I’d like to start by answering this question with one of my life mottos is “Be Brave. When life throws you a lemon, ask for vodka.”

This motto reminded me of a story that I have heard years ago about a king who decided to challenge the villagers in his kingdom with an obstacle and see how the villagers respond to the challenge in front. The king ordered to have a big rock be placed at the entryway of an intersection while he waits behind the bushes to observe the responses from each villager who wants to get through the pass.

As the king awaits, several villagers, came one by one, they each encountered the obstacles and turned around heading back without any attempt to remove the rock.

While the king felt disappointed about how his villagers had responded to the obstacle in front of them came a farmer. The farmer stood in front of the giant rock, she stopped and appeared worried. While staring at the rock as she ponder, she said “Who placed this big rock at the most important entryway to the village?” The farmer took out the tool that she had carried with her and began to move this rock.

Every day, the farmer chip away pieces and it wasn’t long till the Farmer finally got to the last piece of the rock. And long to her surprise, she saw the treasure that had been hidden underneath the rock. The King came out from behind the bushes, and greet the farmer with warm hands. “It’s yours! You earned this!”

The moral of this story to me is about the tenacity we have to face each obstacle in life and keep going.

How do you know whether to keep going or to give up? I believe the knowing comes from the beliefs we have towards the THING that we want to reach – whether it is happiness, success, freedom, fulfillment, Fame, or Money….no matter what is that THING, our beliefs and our why drive the motives for that decision process of whether to keep going or to give up?

There are a number of things that the farmer may want from sticking to the entryway and wanting to get through. Perhaps it is the only way to get to where he wants to go. Perhaps it’s out of his compassionate heart, and he’s doing this for everyone. And for those who gave up, maybe getting through this entryway is just not that important.

How we do what we do is driven by the motivation of why we want to do it in the first place.

In 2016, after spending years of feeling sorry for myself as someone living with a disability after a tragic automobile accident, I was asking a lot of Why. Soon after these why became my motivation to hike Machu Picchu.

On the first day of my Machu Picchu hike, after a long day of pushing on my two crutches, I finally made it to the camp. After dinner, my tour leader sat me down to have a one-on-one talk and I knew this was coming.

I was the slowest one, slower than the Donkeys.
I was afraid.
I was afraid that I would be sent home because there was no way I could walk any faster.

That moment came…he asked if I would like to go back given the fact that there is a high chance that I won’t make it through the second day. Which is going to be a lot harder, a lot longer, and a lot more endurance to hike to the peak of 14,000 feet.

Life always gives us choices: To keep going or to give up. You can always choose to give up or you can always choose to stick with it and hope for the best.

There I was in a tent somewhere in the mountain making a life-changing decision. I can be afraid or I can stay the same and I didn’t want to stay the same. Why? Because I would never be able to experience the opportunity that life can offer to me. I will make a choice- and the choice is never to stay the same. Being the same is miserable and giving up now is saying “Ok! Life! You win. I’m fine to just be the same old me and not knowing what is on the other side of the mountain for me.”

How do you choose? Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut feeling and just choose to keep going. You might fall off the cliff and get hurt. You might not be getting what you were hoping for, but you will always get an opportunity to see the possibilities of what life can do for you.

Giving up is not an option. If it’s not even an option, then you will ALWAYS keep going.

So, circling back to where I started for this question.

There are 10 million reasons for you to give up right now, but there’s only one reason for you to keep going. And I know this is what many of us are feeling and seeing nowadays. There had been so much tragic news and story we see and hear every day, we can certainly empathize and grieve with all the losses over the past few years. But if you are willing to just stick around a bit more, and have the tenacity to keep moving forward even if it just means a little tiny step, I promise you you’ll see life from a different perspective.

There’s hope, there’s joy. There’s a possibility hidden underneath that big giant rock.
All you gotta do is to keep going and keep digging deep inside of your heart.

You will find it, I promise you.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

I am in a “storyselling” business.

I am a visibility coach for women coaches who wants to grow their coaching business by using the power of storytelling as their secret awesomesauce to attract an endless stream of clients so they can turn their passion for coaching into a profitable business.

Years ago when I first started my coaching business, I was struggling to get the word out to get seen, get heard, and get hired. I have a Doctor’s degree in pharmacy and I’m really good with what I do as a pharmacist and filling prescriptions, but when it comes to starting a business, I was clueless. I had zero social media following, and I had several heartbreaking moments with no audience at my events.

What I’ve realized was that my audience wasn’t connecting with me because they couldn’t SEE me for who I am. They weren’t able to connect with me on a personal level to relate to any of the beautiful, life-changing outcomes that I was experiencing after coaching.

Was it easy? No way!
“Nothing worth doing is easy!”

Since I published my book in 2019 titled “Perfectly Normal: An Immigrant’s Story Of Making It In America” ever since then I began to incorporate storytelling in the way that I connect with my audience.

Storytelling was easy for me. I used to tell a lot of stories about myself to myself and mostly negative ones. And storytelling is deeply hardwired in humans.

Just think about how your grandmother used to tell you these stories of princesses and princes, the kingdom and the dragons, witches and the wizards. People relate to stories more so than dry boring facts and data.

Brands and companies that infuse personalities behind their stories tend to do a lot better than those who aren’t clear about their brand story.

I love what I do because I’m so good at storytelling. How to craft your message so it is speaking the values, expressing your personality, and sharing your beliefs. What had made me successful and unique are three things that I hold dear to my heart and the way I serve people – Authenticity, Bravery, and Connection.

In a world where people are constantly being sold to, I believe there’s a new way to the world of marketing. How do we treat others as to how we want to be treated. Empathy is a superpower in authentic marketing. And I also believe what makes me stand out is my ability to bring people together.

The business world is not a dog-eat-dog world. If you want your business to be one that is sustainable and one that thrives, building relationships with other business owners, forming mutual collaboration, and facilitating global conversation are essential.

What I want the world to know is that my brand stands for Bravery. There are so many challenges that we’ll have to face, but I know we can do better. Success to me means did you do better than what you did yesterday? If the answer is ‘YES’, then we can do it again and again. Be Brave!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
One place in Arizona that I would recommend to all my friends in Sedona. A few years ago before I became a coach, we had a family vacation in Sedona. We drive to Sedona and decided to take a more scenic route through the mountains and woods.

The views on the scenic route were just absolutely stunning! It was a bit scary having to drive at night though since there were no lights on the road and all these twists and turns.

When you finally get into the City of Sedona, the magnificent red rocks and the energy that fills this sacred land is just amazing! We stayed at one of the resorts in the city- Amara Resort. Being able to wake up and see the mountain few of the red rocks as you enjoy your cup of coffee in the morning is definitely the best memory I ever had.

While in Sedona, I would definitely make a trip to see the chapel of the Holy Cross. It makes you really wonder how one builds such a beautiful church on top of the red rock.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would give my shoutout to Warwick Fairfax, the founder, and author of Crucible Leadership. I met Warwick during the pandemic and invited him to my podcast interview. He is one of the most genuine, authentic, kind-hearted leaders I’ve known. His story is inspiring and encouraging and I believe also extremely timely to many business owners today. Since the podcast, Warwick had published his book and had been invited to speak at many events and continues to support me in ways that I just can’t thank him enough.

Website: http://elevatelifecoaching.org

Instagram: http://instagram.com/elevatelifecoach

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michellekuei

Twitter: https://twitter.com/michelle_kuei

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lifecoachingbyelevate

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/michellekueispeak

Image Credits
Photo by Kimmy Flower IG:kimmy.fowler // FB:kimmyfowler.me