Own Your Weird: The Branding No One Talks About

Personal branding expert and visual designer Rachel Lee built her brand by doing something most people are terrified to do: she showed the world exactly who she is — messy edges, weird quirks, and all. The response changed her life.

In this episode of Untamed Leader, Rachel shares how she went from a rule-following, approval-seeking "good girl" to co-founding Neogenesis, a visual branding agency built specifically for creatives and misfit entrepreneurs who are ready to own their weird. Her story is about what happens when you stop curating yourself for other people’s comfort — and start letting your brand be a mirror of who you actually are.

We talk about:

• What the 2019 upheaval that changed everything actually cost her — and what it gave her
• The Frankenstein business most entrepreneurs build before they find their real brand
• Why a "curated storefront" brand is the opposite of what makes people trust you
• The moment she decided to take her personality off mute — and what happened next
• The difference between personal branding as strategy vs. personal branding as a mirror
• What a permission slip actually means — and why you need one

If you’ve ever felt the disconnect between how you show up online and how you actually are, this conversation will name that gap and invite you toward something more real.

Takeaways

1. While showing up as you feels risky, it’s actually the most efficient path to the right clients. People who don’t connect with the real you aren’t your clients anyway.
2. Most entrepreneurs build a Frankenstein version of their brand by borrowing pieces from other people’s frameworks. It works just enough to survive — and never quite fits.
3. A "curated storefront" brand creates a disconnect between what people see and who they actually get. That disconnect undermines trust before the relationship begins.
4. Branding isn’t a re-outfit — it’s a mirror. The real work is showing what’s inside, not constructing a strategic exterior.
5. Being seen fully — with all the weird and messy edges — and still being chosen is one of the most profound human experiences. It’s also the experience that turns clients into advocates.
6. The untaming journey often requires a period of radical disruption before it becomes an adventure. Knowing others have survived it matters.
7. Intuition often arrives before the language does. Rachel built her personal brand intuitively before she knew it had a name. That discovery happened after the doing.
8. Permission is the doorway. What most people need isn’t a better strategy — it’s the permission slip to show up as they are.

Soul Sucker Quiz

Take the Soul Sucker Quiz to learn which Soul Sucker screams the loudest in your mind so you can release them from being in charge and set your voice free!

https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/

The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz

Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most!

https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/

Transcript

Introduction — Rachel Lee, Neogenesis, owning your weird

Lauri 0:00

Hello, and welcome back to the Untamed Leader podcast. My guest today is Rachel Lee. Rachel is an artist, designer, and co-founder of Neogenesis, a visual branding agency for creatives and misfit entrepreneurs who are ready to own their weird and finally rock it online. And owning your weird is totally in line with untaming. Welcome, Rachel. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you today. Yeah. I would love to start with

What “Untamed Leader” sparks: the horse running free

Lauri 0:32

when you see the phrase untamed leader, what does that spark in you?

Rachel 0:40

I'm a visual person. So the first thing that comes to my mind, and I don't know why, but it's this visual of a horse. Like it's this animal that historically people have associated with this idea of freedom. Like a horse is a really strong, but also gentle animal. Like it's not like a tiger or a lion where you're fearing for your life. Like horses are actual very kind and gentle souls, but you don't want to mess with them. And if you've ever seen a horse just running, like like free, like no, like no saddle, nothing. Like it's just running down like an open field. There's nothing more majestic than that. So I don't know why, but when you say those words, the first thought that comes to my mind is like horse running across an open field. Like that's all I can see right now.

Lauri 1:31

I love that. And I love that you shared the visual. The horse has come up, I think, a couple times recently in the thought of taming and untaming, because horses can be out in the wild without a saddle, without the bit in their mouth, or they can be tamed where they have all of those things on and they're not actually being allowed to run free. So I love I love that visual. Thank you so much for sharing it. Yeah. My second question is uh where did your uh untaming journey begin?

Where the untaming began: a very conservative, very tamed start

Rachel 2:11

Oh that is a tough question because I went from being super, super tamed. There was no fight in me at all in the earlier years of my development. And I'd say that I went through a very turbulent gauntlet in my journey that basically turned everything over on its head, and I was left scrambling trying to put the pieces back together. Um I'll probably share context of what the before was like, and then I'll share what happened and then the great after. Um yeah, so growing up, I grew up in a very conservative Chinese Christian family. All of those things probably already paints the picture very well for you, where I was a good girl growing up. I was the firstborn of my family, and I feel like there was a lot of expectation that my parents placed on me, um, whether this was something that I took on myself wanting to make my parents happy, or they um unspokenly enforced through the way that they raised me. I was basically the straight A student who went to church every Sunday. I did amazing at everything I set my mind to, but I also didn't have a lot of my own hopes and dreams. Like I basically lived my life being everyone else's version of what they wanted to see from me. I was the good girl, I was the good student, I was the happy churchgoer, I gave back to my community, and I spent most of my life pouring out into other people, not thinking at all about what I really wanted for myself. Um, I remember there was a period of my life where uh after school, people would ask, like, okay, well, what do you want for your career? What do you want for yourself? And that question always gave me a lot of anxiety because I felt like I didn't have an answer to that question. And I felt like there was something wrong with me, the fact that I didn't have any desires other than, oh, well, whatever my parents want for me or whatever my community's asking for. Um, it wasn't until 2019 that was looking back, one of the scariest and most turbo turbulent years of my life, where I had gotten to this point where I lived my whole life according to other people's agendas. And I got to this point where I realized that something wasn't clicking for me. Um, I had I was in a point where I was really involved in my church community, but I realized that there was something

2019: the year everything came apart — church, career, family, friends

Rachel 5:05

off with it. Um, that it was uh there's a lot of hypocrisy that I observed in this space where people were saying things, but their actions weren't really lining up. Um I was kind of coming to terms with the fact that this might not be the vehicle of impact that I might want to be taking for the rest of my life. I had gotten to a point in my career where I had landed what was supposed to be my dream job. And then I realized two weeks in that I really didn't like it and that I didn't plan my life beyond that point. Um, and I so I was kind of at this weird crossroads where I was realizing um in a very apparent manner that everything that I thought was the container for my happiness, it wasn't true anymore. And I knew that something needed to change in order for me to move forward. So all in one year, I ended up making this decision to um walk away from the religion that I had been raised in, um, a huge restructuring of beliefs. Um because family was also very intertwined with religion, I ended up having a period where I just ran away from home because I couldn't, I just didn't know how to communicate with family about this huge change that I was making in my own belief system and in my life in general. Um, I ended up quitting my full-time job and starting freelancing and basically my business journey at that point. And to wrap that all up, I had a huge restructuring even in my social circle, where all of the friends and people I knew that from my previous life that was very associated with the church. And when I ended up walking away from that, I cut off most of the connections that I had previously. So imagine it's 2019, one year before the pandemic, and Rachel went from having a big community, a loving family, lots of friends, what was supposed to be a dream career, and then all of that was gone, all because of my own choices, obviously. But um, it was a very turbulent upheaval. And I was left with this blank slate of, okay, well, that didn't work. What do we want to do now? Um, and so that was kind of my initiation into what I would say is the new chapter of my life. That um, I mean, it's 2026 now, so we're a little ways in, but it's it's honestly still a dirty. I'm still figuring things out, but that kind of marks that's the what you would call this was my untaming point. 2019 was that year for me.

Lauri 7:45

Yeah, wow. Thank you so much for sharing. I feel like, you know, just a few small changes that you went through. Um for those of you that can't see my face, I was being facetious, I think is the right word. Um that's huge. And I have so many thoughts about that. One of them is I feel like some people, when they hear the phrase untaming, untamed leader, they're potentially very intimidated by like, oh my gosh, is that gonna shake up my whole entire life? And sometimes it does not. And I'm very grateful, Rachel, that you're here because you are someone where it's like, well, yeah, the untaming process, uh, which includes listening to your intuition, and when you start noticing something feels off, I hate this job. And what I hear listening to your story is in order to start to know, well, this feels off and icky, what do I want? What's next? You also had to separate from family in order to get the answers of what do I want? What is right for me?

Rachel 9:02

Yeah.

On major disruption: you don’t have to explode, but sometimes you do

Lauri 9:03

And you're here. You made it. So if there is anyone out there listening to this who's like, this is all nice, and Lori's had some other guests on here where the untaming felt like a slower unfolding. And you might have a sense that yours is gonna be potentially more of this like major disruption, and you're trying not to listen to that voice. Notice that Rachel is here. She didn't explode. Not yet, anyway. Not yet, anyway. And um, you know, please continue. Tell tell me, tell us, like, how did you what I hear is it's still unfolding as it is for all of us. Like, life isn't something that we answer one time. There may be major disruption points or major inflection points, and then we're living out our lives, living out our calling, living out our businesses. It feels like you're in that living it out phase. What happened between 2019 and 2026?

From house cat to outdoor cat: the great adventure begins

Rachel 10:16

Oh, it was, I like to say it was the start of the great adventure for me because I spent most of my life prior not really doing a lot of exploration. I had a I lived my life with a lot of constraints. I did most of my networking within a very small circle. The work that I did was also um within a very small specific context. And so I was in this position where it felt like the world's your oyster, Rachel. You could do whatever you want. And it was a little scary at first. I the feeling that I have is like that of a house cat that has only ever known the four walls of being inside a house. And I think about my cat when I think about this, like never experienced the outside and being let outside the door for the first time and not realizing like, oh my gosh, like my world was so small. Like, there's all of this, and then just not knowing what to do with it. That was my experience at first. And I'm honestly grateful that I at least had one self-employed friend at that time who um actually ended up becoming my business partner. Um, we're best friends and we do basically a whole bunch of things together. Um, but I'm thankful that I at least had one friend who was able to um model to me what it looks like to create your own opportunities. And even though we uh were in very different industries, for me, I came in from the creative side of things with uh graphic design being my background and he was in the world of finance, two very different industries. But he modeled to me what it looked like to uh be brave and to not be afraid to be curious and how what it even looks like to create your own opportunities. Um, of course, 2019 was a year of exploration for me. All of this upheaval happened, and I was kind of thrown into the deep end where I started doing networking, learning what it meant to have my own business. Um, and in hindsight, I realized I didn't understand at all. I just knew that I didn't want my old job. So um a lot of Rachel freelancing, uh, her face off, doing a lot of networking and trying to get her bearings. That was all of 2019. Of course, enter 2020, the worlds went through a restructuring with the pandemic. And I honestly think in hindsight that that timing was a blessing in disguise for my business because suddenly everybody had to move online. And the work that I did, specifically with the visual side of helping people package and present their online presence, it became more of a relevant conversation because suddenly everyone was networking online. And the context in which we're meeting each other is through these profiles, these platforms where you have to figure out how you want to be presenting yourself. So unknowingly, um the stage was set for me to do something really exciting for my business. It took a few years for me to figure it out, though, and there was a lot of trial and error involved. Um, at some point along the journey, I finally had enough smarts to hire a business coach and started to actually like invest in my own learning. Um, I'd say that the first few years were really interesting, where I basically did a lot of observing. I kind of like, it's like walking into the room and looking at everyone else uh to kind of get a gauge of where things are

Frankenstein business: borrowing frameworks that don’t actually fit

Rachel 13:54

at before you decide how you want to situate yourself. Uh, that was me in the world of business, where I looked around at the people who looked like they knew what they were doing, and I basically took little bits and pieces, little nuggets from everybody, and I Frankenstein together this version of my business that um it got me by, and it was kind of like a clunky putt-putt car where you turn the key and the ignition and it starts one in three times. It's not a smooth ride, it's kind of chunky, it stinks whenever you drive by somebody. Um it got me by, but it wasn't a good fit for me as a person. And we often find this where we take advice from somebody, we implement it into our business, and then we realize oh, only about a fifth of what this framework is is actually applicable to how I actually operate. So I got to this weird point, and this was 2022, so this was four years ago, where I came to this realization that what I had built, it needed to change. The container wasn't a good fit for how I operated and showed up in the world as a human being. Um, it was, of course, a professional-looking business, but it was lacking a lot of the personality and energy that I actually brought to this space. And it was a very um muted version of the way that I actually am as a person, which, as you know, when it comes to setting expectations in in marketing especially, I was setting all sorts of wrong expectations with people and feeling this weird disconnect where I felt like I was lying to people based on what they saw and then how I actually showed up. So this disconnect was

2022: tearing it all down and showing the world who she actually is

Rachel 15:43

something that I ended up needing to address in 2022, where I ended up deciding to tear everything down, um, everything in terms of how I packaged my business and present to my brand. And I ended up revamping my brand um into the version that you see today. So all of the colors, um, the the vibe, the kitty ears, uh, all of this is kind of post-transition when I decided to really um fully own all of the aspects of myself that I had on mute before because I was afraid that in a professional setting it wouldn't be palatable enough for people, that I would scare away people or it would um uh put my credibility in question as a professional. Like I had all these fears that made it so that I had all of those aspects of myself on mute. Um, but I ended up deciding to, you know what, let's just show the world. And if they don't like it, maybe they're not my types of clients anyway. So yeah, it was a very scary moment. It almost felt like I was coming out where I was showing the world, all right, guys, this is actually me. And uh I didn't know if people would actually like um receive me. I didn't know if I was gonna make any money beyond that point, to be very honest. I was really, really scared. Uh thankfully, uh, I have made it through to the other side, and I actually got such amazing feedback. And I'd say that a lot of people focus on like the marketing and the clients and the sales they get from doing this type of transition. What I want to focus on and what made the most impact for myself personally is I felt like I was being seen for the very first time, like seen on a very deep level where people saw everything. And it wasn't clean by any means. They saw all of the weird and messy edges, um, some of the things that I historically have felt so deeply insecure about. People saw everything, and they still decided that they liked me. And it was like a very um, I had never experienced that in my life before. And so after I went through that transition for myself, I came to this part where I realized I feel like other people struggle with this too. And that ended up becoming the breadcrumb trail that I followed to where I where my business is today, where that is the transition that we support our clients with, with bringing out the things about them that make them different, um, taking their personality off of mute, like all of those exciting things. 2022 was, I'd say like part two of my my gauntlet journey, um where I was like the the unmasking is kind of what happened in 2022.

Lauri 18:38

Yeah,

The unmasking and what it felt like to finally be seen

Lauri 18:39

it feels like with the horse analogy or the cat who had only ever known inside in 2019, you left the house that wasn't your house, the life that wasn't your life, which was like I'm working the job that I thought was gonna bring me happiness, but it didn't. I'm leaving the church, I'm and you walked outside to find yourself out. It's like, oh, you're an outdoor cat. Yeah. And then I love the Frankenstein image. In part, I directed Frankenstein in 2025, and because I can so relate, like I simultaneously have had a lot of rebel in me. Um, my first coach, actually, in my first session or my meeting, like a chemistry session with my first coach ever. Five five to ten minutes in, she said, Oh, you have a little bit of fuck you in you, don't you? And I was like little Miss Goodgirl at that point, going like, I do, you see me. Like I did, because I was like opening up and being authentic. Like, don't say these kinds of rah-rah things to me because they just drive me nuts. Yeah. And it feels like you found yourself out in the wild and were sort of slowly going, I think I'm actually a wild cat, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do out here. So we gravitate as business owners, there's like a healthy version of this, uh, and it sounds like you were a little healthier with it than I was, where it's like, well, what's your recipe? And I like a couple of your ingredients, and what's your recipe? And I like a couple of your ingredients instead of fully giving your power away to the shoulds, you should build your business like this. And yet, even though you sounded healthier in how you were doing it, or different in how you were doing it, then a lot of times the way I did it, I would just completely be like, I'm doing what they're saying and it's not working. Doing it all on your own, you still ended up with this like Frankenstein business where you got sort of close, but it's like you needed other other people in your world, like the business coach, to come along and say, you gotta create something that may not look like anything that anybody else has ever done in your space. Truly step out further into the wild. Yes.

Rachel 21:11

I

Permission to do things differently — how coaches changed the game

Rachel 21:12

I owe so much to the people that I have met on this journey that have supported me in getting to the spot. And honestly, most of the groundwork was just them telling me, hey, Rachel, you actually have permission to do things differently. Like there isn't really a rule book when it comes to building the business. You are the boss, you can have whatever culture, whatever atmosphere, you can work with whatever types of clients you want. And I think at first that possibility really scared me because I grew up with a lot of guidelines and rules and restrictions. Like there was a very black and white way that I was running my life. And so for people to tell me, no, you could do whatever you want, it was really Really scary in the beginning. But after I settled into it, of course it became exciting, but my initial reaction was more of like freeze, fear, like, oh my gosh, like, are you serious? That's really scary.

Lauri 22:14

Yeah. Yeah. And the the other piece of it is like, if I do that, then people will really see me. And you're on the other side of that now, too. It's a human hunger to really be seen and understood and to belong. And I believe we all crave it. And the possibility of really showing up and getting rejected scares us. And because most of the world is telling us you have to fit in. And that like fitting in and doing it like other people is the road to belonging. But it isn't. We're allowed to be unique and to belong at the same time. And you reminded me, my favorite acting instructor at one point I was like going through something similar of like really removing all of the good girl stuff in an acting space, which is like you're actually allowing the world to see you channeled through characters. And he at one point was like, you're keeping your actual impulses and your incredibly sensitive heart hidden until someone tells you it's okay. Like you're walking into auditions and you're waiting for permission to do what you already know you want to express with the role. Because you're afraid if you show people the real you, they're gonna move in the other direction. And I was like, yes. Like flat out. Yes. And he said, What you will find is the opposite. When you show people the real you, the people who you want to spend time with truly want to will move toward you with greater clarity because you're actually showing them you. And I was like, man, I trust you. I really, really did. And there was a like the soul inside of me that was like, I I want to risk and believe that he's right. So I did. And now, you know, fast forward, I don't know how many years it's been now, 25, something like that. This is part of what I do for people in speaking and leadership coaching, and it's part of what you do in the branding world. So it's like one of the cookie-cutter things out there that probably didn't work for you. I know it didn't work for me, is like, yes, I will put myself in the box of public speaking and leadership coach. Um, and it is that and more. And the way to get there is to actually show the world all of me and build the things that I want to build in the way that I want to build them so that we can help people through branding. I'm making air quotes and public speaking and leadership coaching, air quotes, actually do things that do something that feels much more like a sacred art or a part of our spiritual journey on this planet, which is to actually unmask, untame, own our weird, and come all the way home to ourselves through get on stage and make a speech, or let Rachel overhaul overhaul slash release the branding of who you actually are.

Branding as a mirror, not a makeover

Rachel 26:07

I like that choice of words, actually. It's funny because whenever people ask me about the work that I do with my clients, I often tell them that it's less of a re-outfitting and it's more about look like it's more like looking into a mirror where the work that we do, and I always think back to when I did this work for myself. I didn't actively think in my mind, I need to rebrand my business. I actually phrased it in terms of I need to find a way to show up in the world in a way that I am happy with. It was more of Rachel needs to revamp the way that she needs to show up in the world differently, is basically what it was. And because I'm a visual processor, the thing that I ended up constructing, it became my brand, but I was actually using it as an exercise to help me wrap my mind around these ideas that I had. I had these thoughts about, okay, well, I like this vibe, I have this personality, I have this story, but how do I communicate it? And for me, um, oftentimes what I see, it helps solidify ideas in my mind. And so as a designer, I ended up putting something together that only served the purpose of helping me better understand and solidify this identity, not realizing that I was actually building something tangible that actually had a name. I didn't realize until after the fact that I was constructing my personal brand. I learned about this after the fact. In the moment, it was literally just Rachel trying to figure out who she was as a human and what felt good in terms of how she put herself out into the world.

Lauri 28:06

Um, but I love that so much because there's it um I am a huge believer in intuition. Like you intuitively did something that then the world was like, oh, that's branding. You're you discovered your personal brand. And I'm like, but you didn't come at it from that direction. You were like, I'm processing something. I'm, you know, you're getting some clients where they were expecting something different from what they saw in your what you now know as a brand online, and you were like, How do I show up in words and images and stories online so that when people actually come work with me, it all makes sense and lines up and they're getting who they were expecting. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Big lover of the intuitive process. When I was doing a grad student thesis, I was like, I got an intuitive hit, I'm doing a thing. And then eventually someone who had deeply studied clowning was like, Well, what you're doing is clowning. Like, not funny, not only funny, funny with a red-nosed clown, but like in clowning, there's a whole process that starts with showing up emotionally and energetically, almost naked in front of an audience, where there's this exercise where you're supposed to like walk out, drink water, turn around and leave. And you do it in front of your whole class. And if anyone in your class in the audience thinks that you're doing it in a way that includes a lie, they just go, stop, go back and start again. Stop, go back and start again, so that you are purely authentic and connected to the audience. So I'm off creating this thing intuitively for my thesis. Yeah. And then this master clown turns and says, What you're doing is actually clown. And for the performance, the show that I was doing. So then when I needed to write about the thesis, I was able to go, Oh, she told me it was clowning, and now I have to write the companion piece to the show. So I'll go look up what is it that I intuitively just created, and what does that mean that I didn't study it ahead of time? And I was like, I think it means more because it means we I tap deeply into something in humanity from an intuitive place. I wasn't doing it because somebody told me what the box was before I started. Yeah. And I feel the same excitement for your road to Rachel found this by doing it for herself from an intuitive knowing that it needed to be done. And now you know it's branding, and then you took that calling to do that for other people.

Rachel 31:07

Yes, exactly. And I find that it's always funny when you figure something out for yourself first, and then you find out after the fact, oh, there's actually like a term or a container or a solution out there already on the market. Um, but oftentimes what I find is after the discovery of, oh, personal branding is this thing. And I remember going down the rabbit hole and doing research because I wanted to understand, okay, well, I know my version of this, but what does the market say? What do other people do, or what's their definition of this term? And I remember going through the rabbit hole. Um, I hadn't started using AI at that point. So it was just Google, me and trusty Google, and realizing that a lot of the perspective that people had on personal branding, it was very different from my version of it, where a lot of what I was talking about was let's figure out what's happening inside of you and let's just make sure what people see on the outside is the exact mirror, a good reflection of the inside stuff. What a lot of the world says that personal branding is, it's more about having a very um curated storefront that people see on the internet that positions you strategically in a very specific way to land a certain impression. And that was what a lot of what I saw online was. And I was like, this isn't, I mean, it's not inaccurate. And I think there's a time and place for that. Um, but that's very different from what I'm doing. And so I ended up finding this interesting niche within the world of personal branding where whenever I say this word, people, I know people have certain ideas that go through their head. But then when I tell them my story and I share my perspective on it, they're like, that feels right. That feels better because I'm not saying don't show up without any strategy at all. No, like don't show up in a way that takes away from your business. I'm just saying show up in a way that is honest and aligns with how you are as a person in general. And let's do it with a little bit more intention. So it's more, it's the same flavor, but from a very different perspective. So I don't know if you ended up having that experience for yourself, but it was very jarring for me to learn about the term after the fact, learn what the market thinks about it, and then realize that the take that I have on it is very different from what the world actually understands.

Lauri 33:50

Yeah, I

Why Lauri resisted branding for 12 years — and what she was actually afraid of

Lauri 33:51

have to say, thank you for saying that. So in case there's anyone out there who's where I was, I didn't brand with Rachel because I I met, oh, I haven't. I mean, maybe someday I'll do a rebrand, but um, I resisted branding for a decade, over a decade. And that's how I was making the Frankenstein version of my own brand. And I just kept saying to people, I feel like they're gonna put me in a box that's not me. I feel like they're gonna put me in a box that's not me. And when you said very curated storefront, I was like, that's it. That's why for 12 years or whatever it was, I was like, no, I haven't done any branding because they're gonna put me in a box that's not me. I am my brand that's in alignment of like what's going on on the inside, matching the outside. Curated storefront, not, I mean, I'm I might have strategy, like you said. I'm not a curated storefront kind of person. And I was, even when I was resisting it, still putting myself in a Frankenstein version of a curated storefront. I'm more like one of my values is raw authentic, because authentic got taken. Um raw, creative, um, letting people in on the process. And I came across someone in 2020, right after the whole world shut down, who is branding more like you, where somebody who worked with her around the same time said, it's like you're translating my soul into words and images. So I was like, I know who I am when I show up and I talk, or when I show up in person. But when I was trying to translate me into words and images, I am I can't do it myself. So I got help, and I feel like it's still six years later, and I've rewritten pages and redone offers and things like that. But the basic brand language that I got from her is still there, and she was much more like the branding that you are. Also, if anyone is listening, she doesn't do it anymore. She's moved on to other things. I felt the same thing that you feel when I was like, I am a public speaking coach. Yeah, but I didn't want to say that for a long time because I was like, now I would say there's a whole industrial speaking and leadership world that is just like, you know, some people are gonna give you the brand that is a curated storefront. Some people are trying to give you this the curated storefront of the version of you that talks to a green camera light or on a podcast or gets on a stage or holds a workshop or facilitates a program, whatever version of speaking, air quotes or leading you're doing, where they're telling you that you can only let certain parts of yourself go on that stage. So if you're uh a bubbly effervescent person, they'll say things to you like, you need to smile more when you talk. And I'm like, but what if the part of her story that she's sharing is dark? You're trying to flatten it out and make it really bland by telling her she needs to smile through her whole fucking talk. So I have had that in the work that I do, in the way that you have, and I've also watched clients feel like the liberated cat or the liberated horse, like you have helped them have. If there are people out there listening who don't want curated storefront, they want more like what you are offering. What do you really want them to know?

Rachel 38:18

I

The permission slip: people want to experience you as-is

Rachel 38:19

feel like I'm gonna pass on the thing that my first coach gave to me, which is just the permission slip, to know that people actually want to see you the way that you are. And at least my perspective of it is we do others a disservice when you show up in any other way. Um, if you're curating the way that you show up for other people's palate and comfort, you end up in a bad position where you're wasting precious energy that is spent on manufacturing this version of your persona, your identity, when you can just spend that energy actually helping people, enjoying the conversations, not having to keep track of which mask am I putting on for which client at a time. Um, people actually want to experience you as is. And if they don't like it, they are not a good fit for you. There's so many other people out there. So it's just that permission slip. People actually want to experience you as is without any editing.

Lauri 39:31

Beautiful. Thank you. And if they're leaning in, but they're driving a car, so they can't just click on the show notes and they want to reach out to you and possibly work with you or have a deeper conversation with you, how can they find you?

Rachel 39:49

I am mostly on LinkedIn and Instagram, but I always say I live by default in my inbox. And so if any of you just want to send me a good old-fashioned email, I actually get back to my emails faster than text messages at this point. And so send me a good old-fashioned email if you want to say hi. But also if you want to be social friends, feel free to add me on LinkedIn and Instagram as well.

Lauri 40:12

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Pivot Pivot: rapid-fire questions

Lauri 40:14

And now let's dive into our pivot pivot. Rachel, what is your favorite word?

Rachel 40:25

I love the word real because I think, like we said, authenticity has a whole other layer on top of it. So I would say the word real. Awesome.

Lauri 40:38

What is your least favorite word?

Rachel 40:44

This is a weird word to say, but I would say moist. It's got a weird, it just feels weird in my mouth when I say it. And so you see my face scrunched when I even say that word.

Lauri 40:57

Yeah. What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally?

Rachel 41:04

Sunshine. I live in a part of the world where we don't see the sun very often. So whenever I see the sun break through the clouds, it's like my brain turns on. So there's nothing like sunshine that triggers all of the happy juices inside of me.

Lauri 41:24

What turns you off?

Rachel 41:27

Dishonesty. Oftentimes it's uh when people show up in a way that I know isn't honest, but I can feel it from them. That's a big hard no for me.

Lauri 41:41

What's your favorite cuss word?

Rachel 41:46

I I use the word fuck quite a bit. And I I I try to use it sparingly, so then it's only with uh in places where the emphasis is supportive, but sometimes in podcast interviews it it just comes out.

Lauri 42:02

Uh what sound or noise do you love?

Rachel 42:06

Ooh. I love a really high-pitched ding sounds. Like when you um ring a bell, but it's got a very clear sound to it. I'm very drawn to these sounds because I'm actually a flute player. And so I love it when I hear a very clear sound, kind of like the sound that the wind makes when it kind of um when it blows through the branches, that whistling sound. I really like that. Awesome. What sound or noise do you hate? I don't think I have a sound that I really dislike. I've never been asked this question before, but if I come across it, I will definitely let you know.

Lauri 42:53

Okay, I'd love that. Um, what profession other than yours would be fun to try?

Rachel 43:01

Oh, my dream job actually originally was to be a tattoo artist. I ended up studying design because that was the responsible Asian kid thing to do, knowing that my parents were funding for my post-secondary education. But my initial inclination was I would love to tattoo people for a living.

Lauri 43:21

Awesome. There could be a whole like brand shootoff where you give people tattoo brand brand tattoos, something like that.

Rachel 43:30

Branding your body. There's a whole rabbit hole we could go down with that.

Lauri 43:35

Let's not do that right now. Um, what profession would you not like to do?

Rachel 43:43

Anything that is monotonous. I would be a terrible accountant. Don't get me to do anything with numbers or spreadsheets, or ask me to do the same thing twice. So I would not be a good accountant.

Lauri 43:58

And What do you hope people say about you on your 100th birthday?

Rachel 44:05

Oh I really want people to say that I made them smile. I think that's a really big thing that we need more of on this planet. Like we need more happy people. So if I make it see 100, I sure hope that would be a milestone I get to celebrate.

Lauri 44:29

Well, you have absolutely made me smile today, and I'm sure you've made a lot of guests smile, and possibly a few tear up and cry as well. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Rachel 44:41

Thank you for having me. This was a fantastic conversation.

Lauri 44:44

Yeah. And if you're listening, and if Rachel did make you smile or make you tear up or inspire you, or you feel like you want a permission slip directly from her, please reach out and also like, follow, subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with friends, especially if you have a friend who you feel like needs to hear this episode. And I will see you back here next time.