An Asian Immigrant’s Journey: Sandy Kusano Joyfully Reclaims Her Story, Trading Her Dream Job For Her Dream Life

In this conversation, Sandy Kusano (she/her) shares her journey as an Asian immigrant and third-culture kid. Sandy discusses the challenges of assimilation and navigating conflicting East/West cultural expectations. She shares how her efforts to fit and feel safe in various contexts - whether at home, work, or in social settings - lead her to unconsciously downplay her Japanese/Korean identity. As an outsider, she is taught to keep her head down and work extra hard in order to prove her worth. She reflects on how this constant striving and balancing of two identities ultimately leads to exhaustion and an internal sense of living a lie. Sandy transforms her burnout into inspiration, using it as fuel to rewrite her story, trust the wisdom in her heart, reclaim her authenticity and joy - and inspire others to do the same. 

Sandy Kusano is a human potential coach dedicated to cultivating joy as a superpower - empowering individuals to become conscious leaders who inspire positive change. She co-hosts the Spilling Our Tea podcast, where she explores the diversity of Asian female experiences, amplifying stories that challenge traditional career narratives.

Shanti Joy Gold is a professional coach, 30-year corporate warrior and member of the LGBTQIA+ community. She understands the unique challenges faced by those who feel like outsiders and, as an executive coach, guides underrepresented people to confidently thrive in their careers by being fully themselves.

ACCESS SHANTI’S FREE THRIVING ASSESSMENT TO GET BIG-PICTURE CLARITY ON FOCUS AREAS FOR INCREASED FULFILLMENT, JOY AND IMPACT - https://shantijoygold.com/take-the-thriving-assessment/

Sandy and I also discuss:

• Letting go of the feeling that we need to be different people in different spaces - or code switching - as a path to showing up fully and thriving.
• Understanding that challenging moments are an opportunity to learn and experience our most profound growth.
• Emphasizing the importance of celebrating every moment - whether big or small - and how we can activate joy in our lives. 
• Exploring the narrative that finding our purpose will lead to joy - and concluding that it’s actually the other way around: in finding joy, we discover our purpose.

Thank you for listening! Tune in to all episodes to receive insights about how to navigate your career as an outsider - and learn more about the impact of allyship. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast and find me below to share your key takeaways!

Learn more about Stories We Haven’t shared at https://storieswehaventshared.com 

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