August 24, 2023 • 43 mins
Join Divya Parekh and Sonny Blaze to discover that leadership is not about telling people what to do but asking "how can we get this done together?"
From sheep shearing to crafting celebrity jewelry, our guest's path from dust to diamonds is nothing short of dazzling. Tune in for a riveting tale of artistry, resilience, and giving back. This episode is a gleaming lesson in turning challenges into opportunities!
Learn more: https://success.divyaparekh.com/unfairadvantage/
Beyond Confidence is broadcast live Tuesdays at 10AM ET.
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Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beyond-confidence--1885197/support.
From sheep shearing to crafting celebrity jewelry, our guest's path from dust to diamonds is nothing short of dazzling. Tune in for a riveting tale of artistry, resilience, and giving back. This episode is a gleaming lesson in turning challenges into opportunities!
Learn more: https://success.divyaparekh.com/unfairadvantage/
Beyond Confidence is broadcast live Tuesdays at 10AM ET.
Beyond Confidence TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Beyond Confidence Radio Show is broadcast on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Beyond Confidence Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beyond-confidence--1885197/support.
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(00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed on thefollowing show are solely those of the hosts
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We make no recommendations or endorsement forradio show programs, services, or
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comments should be directed to those showhosts. Thank you for choosing w FOWN
(00:23):
Radio. This is Beyond Confidence withyour host Dvaparnk, do you want to
live a more fulfilling life? Doyou want to live your legacy and achieve
your personal, professional, and financialgoals? Well? Coming up on Dvaparnks
Beyond Confidence, you will hear realstories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers
who have stepped into discomfort, shannertheir status quo, and are living the
(00:46):
life they want. You will learnhow relationships are the key to achieving your
aspirations and financial goals. Moving yourcareer business forward does not have to happen
at the expense of your personal orfamily life, or vice versa. Learn
more at www dot Giva Parnk dotcom and you can connect with you at
contact at Giva park dot com.This is beyond confidence and now here's your
(01:08):
host, give you a park.Good morning listeners. This is Dvian so
excited to be here with you.I have a wonderful story to share.
So I go walk on a trailand usually there are a lot of runners,
a lot of people riding their bikes, and I would say, just
(01:30):
like a week back, this wonderful, wonderful lady. Oh my goodness,
her energy is just amazing. Shewill go down the road and sing good
morning in her sing song voice toeach and everyone, and there's so much
(01:52):
energy there that you will not believethat I have come to look forward to
seeing her. And that's the typeof energy that you can share. Or
it doesn't have to be exactly likethat, but you can be just yourself
and still bring kindness to people.So I wanted to share that that kindness
(02:12):
comes in many forms. It doesnot have to be one defined form.
It can be just sharing of yourself. So it has started out my day
really really right, on a good, strong note and with a lot of
positive energy. So thank you tothose of you who have got our books,
(02:35):
and I got to share like anotherstory on my book. It was
so beautiful. Recently, I wasworking with my client and then in our
second on our second call, shecomes and tells me, Tivia, if
anybody does not have expert to inferencer, they need to have it. It
(02:58):
should be on the reading list.And I was like, Okay, where
did that come from? What awonderful surprise, because she saw the book
on zoom right behind me when didn'tbought the book, left me a review
and gave me pictures but my bookin her hand, and I was like,
(03:20):
oh my goodness, what a beautifulsurprise. So, folks, again
going back to the kindness thing.Kindness comes in so many different forms and
ways, and I can share thatI've been such a recipient of kindness throughout
and I'm sharing kindness in my ownways. So if you have not bought
(03:40):
our books, please get a bookso that you can be the influencer you
want to be and have those relationshipsin your lives with money and with results
and with time so that you canlive the joys for life. And it's
a full circle. Together, weget to impact entrepreneurs across the Globe through
(04:05):
keywa dot org because we take partialprofits from our book sales and share it
out there. All right, So, so glad that you have joined us,
and let's bring on our guest.Well, good morning, good morning,
Sunny. How are you. I'mdoing fantastic and in a positive mood.
(04:27):
Thank you for that introduction for thepositive energy. Oh that's good to
hear, So Sunny, share withus if you're recall a moment from your
childhood that still stands out for youtoday. Well, you know, the
wonderful thing about about life is thatthere's a lot of great things happening as
long as you look for it.You know, sometimes it's mixed. For
(04:54):
me. When I was in school, you know, there there was I
was always a pretty good student,very very shy, very very quiet,
and and so one of the kidsnicknamed me Smiling because I wouldn't say anything.
I would just smile. But thevery important thing, an impactful thing
about that, is that is that, even though I wasn't necessarily trying,
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my smile was contagious to other people. And so, you know, sometimes
you don't have to say anything.But one of the most memorable moments of
positivity in my childhood was when Iwas just nicknamed Smiling because I would just
smile at It's like, I don'tknow, I don't know what to say
to you, I don't know whatto say. I was always a new
kid in town, so I waslike, I'm just gonna smile, and
that actually ended up being a reallygreat formula for positive energy in my life
(05:46):
going forward. Oh that's so beautiful. And you mentioned that you were always
the new kid. Tell us moreabout that. Well I grew up,
I would say poor. My dadwas a sheep shearer, and for those
that are unfamiliar with sheep sharing,they only get shorn or whatever the word
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is exactly shorn once a year,and so you can't necessarily share the same
sheep throughout the year. So whatwe'd have to do is we have to
actually travel and migrate across the Midwestall the way from South Dakota down to
Texas throughout the year to be wherethe ranchers were. And my dad was
originally from Texas his family, butwas from Texas before it was Texas,
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So we go back. Probably Iwould since I shared as a high schooler,
I would be the fourth generation sheepshearer and that the result of that
growing up in farm country, livingout of the back of a truck at
times, sleeping in parks at times. You know, some people might see
it as a challenging life, butwe saw it as an adventure. But
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the reason why I say we werealways a new kid is that we had
to move from school to school dependingon where the ranchers were in time for
sharing, and so we had afamily and that would end up putting me
in a different school. It wasn'tuntil the eighth grade in high school,
well, junior high that was thefirst time in my life that I actually
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went to the same school from beginningto end of the year. Every year
prior to that, I would goto at least two schools, sometimes as
many as four schools throughout the year. Oh wow, and so many times
a lot of people and they growup with a childhood like that, they
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say, oh, it was hardto make friends, hard to just anywhere.
I could never call a place anyplace at home. So what were
the lessons that you learned during thistime? And also did you do any
sheep sharing? I did do alittle bit of sheep sharing, and I'm
telling you it's a lot of workthose they're they're heavy and they're not always
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happy to do it. So itwas a little bit of a fight.
And my strawnie hundred and thirty poundsfive eight structure of five eight was not
exactly built for sheep sharing. We'llget to my where I am now later,
but you know how to deal withthat. Yes, my older brother
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probably is one of the ones thatis a little more bitter about our history.
Nonetheless, our entire family has foundways to deal with it. And
I'll give you an example. Youknow, a lot of people like to
put their blame point the finger atlike, oh, well, I had
a rough childhood and I hate thisand I hate that because of blah blah
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blah. But you know, it'sall the matter of perspective. And I
want to say that I had avery a very memorable experience, and I
want to say nineteen eighty three eightytoo, somewhere in there in Scott's Bluff,
Nebraska, of all places, myentire family. We stayed in a
kmart parking lot in the back ofthe truck for a few days while my
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parents were trying to find work numberone and also find a place to live.
And then we found ourselves moving overto a park where we slept under
park benches and park picnic tables.And I know, on the surface,
people are like, oh my gosh, how devastating. That's so sad,
you guys are homeless, And forus, oddly enough, was kind of
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like camping and kind of a littlebit of an adventure. What made it
more interesting was that middle of thenight we hear these like lions and other
weird animals. This is Nebraska,and I'm like, what is going on?
As it turns out, we wereactually at a public park that was
directly next to a zoo, andso we actually were hearing animals in the
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zoo overnight, and for us itbecame like a safari almost. And the
bottom line two things. Number One, Yes, it was hard making friends
being new kid in school. Butone of the things that I really relied
on and lean heavily on even todayis my family. My siblings and I
especially my brothers, my sister,My older brother and my sister particularly are
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best of friends. We became veryclose. We've had our Yeah, we've
had our fights, trust me,We've had our disagreements, sibling rivalry,
whatever you want to call it,But at the end of the day,
we became best of friends because werelied on each other because that's what we
had. We had our families,love, we had each other. So
we first we saw the positivity andwho were we were with. But secondly
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we saw the positivity and whatever situationwe were in the park was an adventure.
The exploring the Black Hills, exploringthe rocky mountains, exploring where we
were was an adventure. And yes, we could we could focus on the
negativity of the challenges we're dealt,but we can also focus on the one
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wonderful things that we are exposed tothat we wouldn't normally be exposed to if
we weren't faced with these challenges.Yeah, definitely when you put it that
way, Sun, you think aboutit, how many people would develop the
skill sets that you developed, Like, you know, when you're moving from
town to town you don't have astable job, you're getting that adaptability and
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resilient skill where you learn to bounceback on your feet, you learn to
deal with that uncertainty. You arebecoming a different species in the sense that
you are more adaptable and more courageousand more adventurous. So it's again,
like you know, as you wentback to sharing, that you can look
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at things either with positivity or withnegativity. There's always two sides to a
coin, all right. So asyou grew up and once you move through
your high school, what came next, Well, I took a path less,
(12:03):
a path less traveled. And what'sreally interesting is, again like I
said earlier, is that when youare faced with adversity or even positivity,
you have to learn to kind ofembrace it or really open your eyes to
what's in front of you. Andthis is a really exciting opportunities that we
(12:28):
face in our lives. Two thingshappened to me in high school. Number
one, I went to a concertRio Speedway and a Cheap Trick back in
the early eighties, and oh mygosh, my life was changed. I
love music. I was in lovewith rock and roll, and it opened
my eyes to a whole new Iwant to say, I want to say
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life, but it wasn't really alife. It was just a lifestyle.
I've just listened to music and beingpart of that culture, and that was
the one thing that really was pivotalin my life as a as a young
teen, I started to play guitar, and I wanted to be in a
band, but being in a farmcountry, there's not a lot of options
for you know, I was ina high school of well, let's put
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it this way. I was ina graduating high school class of nine from
Bethune, Colorado, so nine people. The population of my entire hometown is
one hundred and eighty three, Ibelieve in the last twenty twenty census.
So I grew up in a veryvery tiny Now we did move quite a
bit, of course, traveling across, but we kind of call home base
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Bethune, Colorado, because that's wherewe spent most of our time when we'd
always find ourselves between work and eventuallyin when I was in eighth grade,
we settled in and that was ourpermanent home back in Bethune. But what
I discovered through that those high schoolyears I loved music and that led me
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to a very important next chapter ofmy life because I knew being in farm
country, sheep sharing and out therework in those fields was not really for
me. I was like, youknow what, I don't know that that
working in the dirt is necessarily forme. And this is where being surrounded
by dust and mud and dirt,whereas where my journey started. But my
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next chapter, of course, tookme to another place. And what was
pivotal The catalyst was I wanted tobe in a band, and so leaving
Bethune, Colorado at eighteen years old, I moved to Denver, Colorado with
the idea of, well, Idon't know what I want to do,
but the one thing I'm going todo first is get into a band.
And that was challenging, but itended up happening and changed my life.
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So what are you singing? Wereyou playing? What was your role in
the d Was a terrible singer?I was? But I was a base
you know. I was a bassplayer back in high school. Just to
rewind slightly, because there wasn't alot of opportunity to join other bands.
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I learned how to play guitar,I learned how to play bass, and
I learned how to sing a littlebit of drums and so kind of faked
my way through it. Primarily startedwriting songs and getting ideas, but then
I focused it on bass playing andthe opportunity that first popped up when I
moved to Denver. The first yearin Denver was a disaster. We a
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lot of things happened. I endedup happened to go home briefly, and
then nineteen ninety one I was,I was, I just turned nineteen,
and I said, you know what, I'm determined, We're going to make
this happen. I went back toDenver, I joined the band as a
bass player, and and that openedmy eyes to a ton of opportunities and
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it was fantastic we had. Iwas born again in a way, into
a new sunny blaze because I realized, hey, I found a place where
I belonged. I was no longerin those fields. I was no longer
the long Okay, I had longhair by the way back in today long
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hair and yes, a little poofywell know you we all I've done.
So that was where the big transitionhappens, from this farm to the city.
I've been playing music ever since,but I started as a bass player
and a rock and roller. Butthen another opportunity popped up and a lot
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of things changed in the early nineties. So curious, what did your siblings
decide to do. Did they stayin the family business or did they all
some a lot of it? Actually, we all kind of went our own
direction, my oldest brother being abovethe other two. And I don't want
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to say sibling favorites, because Ilove my siblings, but my older brother
and I are definitely best friends,and we both got into music. It's
a great guitar player, but reallyhad a challenging time working as in terms
of a band structure. So hebecame a sound guy and doing sound,
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working in pro audio. He andI worked together a lot through the nineties.
He was always my sound guy forone of my band was playing,
and he actually moved forward and evennow he works for a company called an
EP which what they do is theydo pro audio for major events. Let's
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just say, for example, youhave the Super Bowl. The stadium has
to get their video feed to theTV station. So what my brother does
is he works in the truck that'sparked at the stadium relaying all the video
and audio from the stadium to theTV station. And so he ended up
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finding a really wonderful connection with hismusic love and audio love and worked mostly
in television. He's worked for variouschannels over the year, Fox thirty one,
Channel two in New York City anda number of other stations, but
his primary love has always been audio. My youngest brother. He also shared
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cheap just like me and my brothers, all three of all, my youngest
brother and my oldest brother. Buthe also knew he needed to get out
of the farm country and he endedup working in construction and worked his way
up. Now he's a safety directorat safety safety training director at a major
construction company out of Mesa, Arizonaand Phoenix, Arizona. My sister was
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also a great singer. By theway, my little brother was a great
gummer, but he didn't really pursuethat. He was more athletic than anything
else. My sister, she actuallysang quite a bit with me at church
over the years, still does.But she moved to Arizona with her late
husband several several years ago and shedecided to go into the education. So
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now she's an administration with the Universityof Phoenix, I believe, forgive me,
I don't remember exactly university she's with, but she is actually in the
administration side at a university. Sonone of us are in farm country anymore.
But we do appreciate where we camefrom, and we always remember that
we learned a lot of lessons there. Oh, what a fabulous journey for
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all of your siblings. I'm surey'all are very proud and my parents were.
Yes. So from the band,sounds like you really had a great
time. What did you learn andhow did you take that lean into the
next phase of your life? Well, you know, we learned a lot
and working in music number one,creativity. Creativity is critical for a lot
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in a lot of ways. You'reyou know, in business and in relationships.
You're always looking to see what's goingto work in this situation and most
importantly, working with others. I'ma huge proponent and huge supporter of education
through music. As a matter offact, education to musical Los Angeles is
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a charity that I've been supporting foryears and years because music is such a
critical part of any youths mental howI say, their education and the structure
that they build within working with otherpeople, analytical thinking and being creative.
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So that's one of those are reallyimportant things. And I wanted biggest transition
here because what one thing that accidentallyhappened to me when I moved to Denver
and at eighteen nineteen years old,there's one thing we're always hungry for is
we need a job, right?And so I was working in landscaping in
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the summertime when I first moved toDenver. But one late summer, as
work was running out, as winterwere starting to come in, my drummer
said, hey, do you needa job, And I was like,
you know, actually yes I do. And his mother co owned a jewelry
and watch repair company and I accidentallyencountered that position. And I said,
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you know, what, what doI have to do. I don't know
anything about jewelry and he says,well, no worries. All you have
to do is you have to justdeliver and pick up jewelry repairs from all
of them all stores, whether youwhether it was Zales, Hellsburg, Lord
and Taylor, all these different placeswe were doing repairs for business back in
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the early nineties. And I waslike, okay, I can handle that
well. Lo and behold. Idid not know that I would fall in
love with an industry. M Sotell us about that industry. I'm assuming,
like, you know, let's revealhow you went into the diamond industry.
So I jumped in and at firstI was kind of like, you
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know, I've been I've loved todraw since I was a child, so
I had this desire, I'm goingto become a graphic designer. I'm going
to become an architect. There's theselittle things in the back of my mind.
In the meantime, I was currently, you know, playing in bands.
I was like, I love beingin music. So I put the
artistic career in the back burner andI stayed and learned a lot from that
(23:03):
company in Denver, doing jewelry andwatch repair. I didn't actually work on
the bench, but I was workingwith customers and customer service. I was
in charge of managing incoming services anddealing with a lot of clients and learning
a lot about the jewelry industry.But then next big pivotal moment happened.
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I met this lovely woman, mywonderful wife. And now I actually known
my wife most of my life.She's also from the same farm country,
so I knew we knew each othergrowing up, but there was never any
romantic interests. And that's a wholeanother chapter altogether about our relationship. But
one thing that happened is that shesaid to me, she says, hey,
(23:49):
listen, you've got a lot ofexperience and jewelry. Why don't you
become an expert? And I waslike, well, yeah, but I
mean I have to train for that. So she said, no problem,
Let's go to New York. Ihave a lot of connections in New York.
Let's go to New York and youcan train at the Gemological Institute of
America to become a diamond specialist.And so that's what I did two thousand
(24:12):
and one, actually during nine toeleven. By the way, that was
quite an experience living in New Yorkat the time of nine to eleven,
but talk about a really major growingexperience in terms of living in the city,
singing at church with some incredibly talentedmusicians, and then of course the
(24:36):
meat and potatoes of my journey waslearning diamonds in the Diamond District from GIA.
And that was two thousand and oneto two thousand and two was a
really critical year in my career thatgave me a lot of education and set
me path, set my path intoa really amazing time. And I want
to remind people right here that aswe listen and talk, as I talk
(25:00):
about some of these steps, weall actually have opportunities and wonderful things placed
in front of us. It's upto us to just see them and take
advantage of those and say, hey, listen, I might like that.
Let's just go for it, youknow, And that's what I did.
I said, you know what,Okay, let's try it. So there
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a lot of times, you know, what happens is that people are thinking,
oh, what if I pivot here? What if I make the wrong
decision? And you brought up areally good point that yes, opportunity is
there, but so many times peoplewill not take that leap. So there
is that gap. Sometimes fast gapis like people don't even see the opportunity.
(25:48):
Second, Okay, if they seethe opportunity, they may be hesitened.
So tell us, like, youknow, how can they close the
gap? If they seek the opportunity, how can they go after it?
Well, there's a ton of riskin any situation. And one thing that
I've learned, this is really criticalto understand, is that when we take
(26:12):
a chance on something or we trysomething, we really only have two outcomes.
We're going to succeed at taking thatchance, or number two, we're
going to learn a lesson. AndI know sometimes people will say yeah,
but number two is always it meansfailure. Number two means I'm gonna blow
(26:34):
it. Number two means I'm goingto just lose everything. It's a lesson.
Trust me, I've lost I've lostthings in my life. We jump
in and sometimes it doesn't work.Sometimes it's not for us. Sometimes it
has to try again. We haveto try again. We have to try
again. And you know what,I can't say that every time you try
(26:59):
something is going to be Wow.I found the glory in this. Everything
is beautiful, everything is fantastic.No, you're gonna fall. And the
truth is you're probably going to makea big mistake the very first few times
you do it. We all do. We all do. But they are
lessons and the most important thing wecan do is be resealient and say,
you know what, that was achallenge. That was tough, but now
(27:22):
I know what not to do nexttime. Yes, absolutely, And also
the beauty of taking that risk isyou'll never ever wonder in your life what
if I took that path exactly,because so many times, oh I wish
I had done that. And Imean, there are some of the decisions
that I go through in my life, and it's important especially it's the keys,
(27:48):
like, you know, evaluating theopportunity and if it really like,
if you're intuition and like even lookingat all the things it tells you,
then that's what your dream is,that's what your passion is, that's what
will keep you going in the toughesttough times. It's definitely worth taking that
shot and jumping into it. Soyou talk about living your dream, yes,
(28:14):
and so many times what happens,Sonny is that I don't know if
you went through that on art.You did share that you fell while you
were doing diamonds and learning about diamonds. Tell us more about that experience,
and if you have a story whereyou fell and how did you move through
it and continued on that journey,that would be great. Certainly. I
(28:37):
will say I want to share acouple of things that my biggest I would
say, I hate to call ita failure, but it was a failure.
I got let go fired if youwill, I say laid off.
But I got fired from a jobone time in my life, and it
was the best thing that ever happened. It was the best thing that ever
happened. I was in retail andI was not the best salesperson I was
(29:02):
really fantastic and educated in the client. I was really fantastic and talking about
jewelry. I was really fantastic andconnecting. But I could not close the
deal. I was not good attaking people's money. I was like,
Okay, now give me your money. I just had a hard time with
that part of it, and sothat was a challenge for me, and
it didn't work out. But Iwant to I want to outline something and
(29:23):
kind of a little bit of ahypothetical here, and this is a kind
of really great lesson for people tolearn and maybe remember. Is that is
that we will come to the endof the road in our careers, in
our lives and our relationships, youknow, every now and then, and
it's devastating. It's devastating. I'mnot gonna I'm not gonna say that it's
(29:47):
not painful. I'm gonna say thatit's it's all happy, go lucky.
Think about it this way. Thisis this is the way I've always seen
it. When you get to theend of the road, you have to
look at what the opportunities are.Okay, you're at the end of the
road. Is there a left turnor a right turn to continue? On
another road. Look for those options. Number two is is it a time
(30:15):
for you to make and pave anew road, which is what I did.
I said, you know what,I'm at the end of my journey,
but I'm going to just forge forwardwhere there's no road and make a
road for myself. Now, sometimesI know it's hard to do this one,
but if he comes to the endof the road, sometimes to me,
you got to go back and startover again, try a different career.
(30:38):
You might be kind of because somethingcompletely different. Or finally, for
some people, they get to theend of the road and say, well,
I just I just don't see myfuture now. It said, well,
you know why, because you mightbe where you're supposed to be.
You might have arrived. Are youcontent? Are you? You know,
look at what you have as opposedto looking for the dream, the big
(31:02):
blah blah into the rainbow. Maybeyou're already there. Enjoy your family,
enjoy your life, Enjoy where youare and what you have in front of
you. So you might think it'sa dead end, but you're actually arrived
where you need to be. SoI want to rewind back to when I
was let go and I was forcedto move, and this actually was there's
(31:26):
another critical step that happened after this. But so I wanted to be and
when I was in retail and studyingdiamonds, I thought that, well,
maybe I want to be an appraiser, a diamond specialist, and so I
focused my efforts on that and Idid that. I became. When I
(31:47):
was let go in Colorado, itforced me to make a choice. So
we moved back to New York.I went to work for the Gemological Institute
of America, where I became adiamond specialist. I even joined in a
team of diamond graders where I gotto see the most amazing diamonds in the
world. I got to be withina couple of feet of like the third
largest diamond in the world. Igot to grade fancy colored diamonds that probably
(32:15):
one and maybe a million people getto see in their lifetime. I had
to make these choices of the qualityand caliber of these diamonds, putting me
in a very unique position, probablyone of twenty people in the world that
could make these kinds of decisions.And it was exciting and it was wonderful.
So I that getting let go inColorado forced me to move forward and
(32:40):
become a diamond specialist at GIA through. This was back in two thousand and
four to two thousand seven, andthose years were really critical in my education.
But it didn't get me to whereI am today unnecessarily, it just
kind of prepared me and to somedegree. And we'll get to the next
(33:00):
chapter in a minute. Yeah,every piece of the journey becomes the foundation
of the person you meant to becomeand what you're becoming. Again, I
really like what you shared that,Like, you know, it's important to
be staying where you're at, beingcontent but not being satisfied, and when
(33:22):
you're there, you're enjoying the journey. And we know that you are an
award winning jewelry designer. You've workedwith some high profile people like Lady Gaga,
Machine Gun, Kelly and Moore.So tell us about that piece of
journey. Well, again, Ihave a great love for music, and
(33:44):
I've been in music for a longtime. I've been playing it, actually
playing in church, and I wantto kind of a side note here for
a second. Is that because Iwant to talk about how I ended up
they're working with some high profile individualrules I was playing in bands and I
(34:05):
just I realized way back of midnineteen nineties, I said, you know
what, I became really involved inmy church and I really wanted to give
back musically, also giving back upmy money because you know, growing up
poor and growing up challenge. Wedidn't see it as a struggle, but
(34:25):
I've always saw that, hey,everyone needs a helping hand and we all
need to help each other out.So supporting education to music, supporting various
charities, and supporting my church andother people in need was always an important
thing to me. And one ofthe things with working with education in music
(34:46):
Los Angeles, I got to meetsome some people and and got to be
exposed to some really great ideas interms of jewelry that could help me support
other people. So getting back towhere I transitioned from being a diamond specialist
(35:07):
to working with some of these otherartists and designed in particular, when I
moved to Los Angeles in two thousand. In the two thousand and seven,
right, it literally like the Decemberthirtieth or whatever, two thousand and seven,
I moved to California, and Imoved and we were down in San
(35:27):
Diego area. But my wife isan actress, so she needed to be
in La. So we moved toLA and I got a job with the
company called with a designer named MichaelBoudry Artists to the Stars, and so
I was working in this diamond departmentas a diamond specialist. And then he
later asked me to help him launchhis Beverly Hills store, and that again
(35:50):
opened my eyes to the Beverly Hillsenvironment. We got to see an amazing
array of people, the Hilton family, h Jermaine Jackson, and I mean,
we had celebrities coming in all thetime, and it was really neat
to meet these people. But Iwant to give you a really special moment
(36:13):
in my There was a there wassuch a wonderful, wonderful experience I had
at this one moment. My parents, Remember my parents are from farm country
and not wealthy farmers. I'm talkinglike farm working out in the fields,
sheep sharing and working in the fields. And my parents came to visit and
(36:35):
I said, hey, listen,mom, dad, you guys got to
see where I work. This placeis amazing. It's in the middle of
Beverly Hills, and so you knowit's I was in charge of a twenty
six million dollars inventory, and Iwas like, okay. So I took
my mom and I pulled out thisbracelet out of the showcase. This is
look at this piece. This isisn't this core. She's like, oh
my gosh, it's so beautiful,me whole, that's so wonderful. And
(36:57):
I put it on her wrists andI said, yeah, that's a million
dollars and she's like, oh mygosh, take it off, take it
off, take it off, takeit off. And I was like,
it's okay, Mom. I couldn'tgive it to her, but I had
a momentary flashback of how I rememberedsleeping in the back of a truck or
in the park with my entire familylooking up at the stars in Nebraska or
(37:20):
South Dakota or wherever it was,and then fast forward to showing my mom
a million dollar bracelet and thinking,wow, I can't this is where I
came, this is where I thisis where I came from. I'm here
and so but I did realize duringthat time at Michael Boudry that that you
know, working in the store,that you know what I've I'm an artist,
(37:45):
and it struck me that you knowwhat I am even though I am
a diamond expert, I'm an artistat part and so I needed to make
a change, and that was whenI made the big change into what I'm
doing now. So tell us aboutwhat you're doing now and a little bit
(38:05):
about your wards as Vignea to theend of the show. Yeah, So
getting into the getting into design.I was drawing since I was probably five
six years old. I was akid. I was getting in trouble for
doodling on my notepad instead have takennotes. And so when I stumbled into
jewelry, like I said, backin the early nineties, I found something
(38:28):
that was connecting. But then itwas at that time when I finally merged
all three of my loves. Ihad the jewelry experience I was drawing,
so I decided to start drawing anddesigning jewelry. So I trained for that
(38:50):
and then finally, which I'm mostexcited about, is my ultimately ear Innier
Monitor partnership. These Innian monitors areused by everyone from Lady Gaga, Usher,
Machine Gun, Kelly Taylor, Swift, you name it. People around
the world are using Indian monitors forlive performance, particularly every one on the
(39:12):
top end, top tier monitors.So what I did is I partnered with
Ultimate Years and I said, listen, I have a great idea. You've
got these plastic, inniar monitors.Let's put diamonds on them. And so
I finally had this amazing opportunity towork with some artists Rudy Sarzo from White
Snake and Quiet rye Ozzy Osbourne.He has been one of my favorite people.
(39:34):
Eric Church, top country singer,not a jewelry guy. We made
some amazing pieces for him with thesilver and black diamond accident. He loves
him. We just you know.And then for me to connect my music,
love, my jewelry love and mylove to draw all into one.
And it wasn't because it was handedto me. It was because I opened
(39:57):
my eyes and said, hey,there's something here that I could do that
I would love to do. Andnow here I am doing what I love.
I know that the jewelry on theinner monitors is my biggest passion right
now. But the company that Ialso partner without, our Central City,
we do a lot of engagement ringsin various different styles of jewelry that are
(40:19):
manufactured for people all along Rodeo.So I've not only have. I work
with my own clients with the innermonitors and custom jewelry. I also work
with them where we are very commonon the red carpet, on TV and
various other things. Unfortunately, becausea lot of those Beverly Hills clients have
India's we can't talk about specifically whothey are or what they are. But
(40:45):
trust me, if you've seen abillboard at seven feet seven stories tall in
New York, or if you've seena red carpet or somebody on TV,
it's a good chance that I mayhave had a small part of it and
doing computer modeling or design or maybeeven being part of a small part of
it. So it's just a bitexciting. It's an exciting life. Melan.
(41:06):
Congratulations, Sonny. I love howyou have taken your life and made
such a beautiful journey out of itand keeping the humility and gratitude in your
life. So share with the listenerswhere they can find you and how can
they connect with you. Sure,the main things you remember is sunny Blaze
dot com. That's s O nN y b l a ze dot com
(41:30):
just as you see on your screenor right there, and that has links.
I'm very I'm a lot more activeon Instagram than I am on any
of the social media, but thereare little social media tabs on top to
follow up. My phone number ison the contact page where you can call
me. Feel free to email mewith any questions, any more things you
(41:54):
want to you know, know about, or if you want to learn more
about any your monitors, how theycould help your hearing, and it just
we can you know again? Socialmedia on Instagram, it's a lot of
fun to follow us the latest andgreatest what's happening. There's a lot of
good things going on in the worldand a lot of things that were I'm
really excited about working on Well.Thank you Sonny for joining us and sharing
(42:16):
about your life and the life nuggets, the wisdom nuggets are so important with
us. And thank you listeners forjoining us because without you, the show
would not be possible. You arethe soul of our show. Reach out
to us, let us know whowould you like us to bring, how
can we help you and how canwe be of service to help you lift
(42:38):
a life you want and deserve.And thank you all for making the show
technically possible. So be well andtake care until next time. Thank you
for being part of Beyond Confidence withyour host, Devia Park, we hope
you have learned more about how tostart living the life you want. Each
week on Beyond Confidence, you hearstory of real people who've experienced growth by
(43:01):
overcoming their fears and building meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Diva Park shares
what happened to her when she steppedout of her comfort zone to work directly
with people across the globe. Shenot only coaches people how to form heart
connections, but also transform relationships tomutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to live
the life they want. If youare ready to live the life you want
(43:23):
and leverage your strengths, learn moreat www dot dvapark dot com and you
can connect with Diva at contact atdivyapark dot com. We look forward to
you joining us next week.
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(00:23):
Radio. This is Beyond Confidence withyour host Dvaparnk, do you want to
live a more fulfilling life? Doyou want to live your legacy and achieve
your personal, professional, and financialgoals? Well? Coming up on Dvaparnks
Beyond Confidence, you will hear realstories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers
who have stepped into discomfort, shannertheir status quo, and are living the
(00:46):
life they want. You will learnhow relationships are the key to achieving your
aspirations and financial goals. Moving yourcareer business forward does not have to happen
at the expense of your personal orfamily life, or vice versa. Learn
more at www dot Giva Parnk dotcom and you can connect with you at
contact at Giva park dot com.This is beyond confidence and now here's your
(01:08):
host, give you a park.Good morning listeners. This is Dvian so
excited to be here with you.I have a wonderful story to share.
So I go walk on a trailand usually there are a lot of runners,
a lot of people riding their bikes, and I would say, just
(01:30):
like a week back, this wonderful, wonderful lady. Oh my goodness,
her energy is just amazing. Shewill go down the road and sing good
morning in her sing song voice toeach and everyone, and there's so much
(01:52):
energy there that you will not believethat I have come to look forward to
seeing her. And that's the typeof energy that you can share. Or
it doesn't have to be exactly likethat, but you can be just yourself
and still bring kindness to people.So I wanted to share that that kindness
(02:12):
comes in many forms. It doesnot have to be one defined form.
It can be just sharing of yourself. So it has started out my day
really really right, on a good, strong note and with a lot of
positive energy. So thank you tothose of you who have got our books,
(02:35):
and I got to share like anotherstory on my book. It was
so beautiful. Recently, I wasworking with my client and then in our
second on our second call, shecomes and tells me, Tivia, if
anybody does not have expert to inferencer, they need to have it. It
(02:58):
should be on the reading list.And I was like, Okay, where
did that come from? What awonderful surprise, because she saw the book
on zoom right behind me when didn'tbought the book, left me a review
and gave me pictures but my bookin her hand, and I was like,
(03:20):
oh my goodness, what a beautifulsurprise. So, folks, again
going back to the kindness thing.Kindness comes in so many different forms and
ways, and I can share thatI've been such a recipient of kindness throughout
and I'm sharing kindness in my ownways. So if you have not bought
(03:40):
our books, please get a bookso that you can be the influencer you
want to be and have those relationshipsin your lives with money and with results
and with time so that you canlive the joys for life. And it's
a full circle. Together, weget to impact entrepreneurs across the Globe through
(04:05):
keywa dot org because we take partialprofits from our book sales and share it
out there. All right, So, so glad that you have joined us,
and let's bring on our guest.Well, good morning, good morning,
Sunny. How are you. I'mdoing fantastic and in a positive mood.
(04:27):
Thank you for that introduction for thepositive energy. Oh that's good to
hear, So Sunny, share withus if you're recall a moment from your
childhood that still stands out for youtoday. Well, you know, the
wonderful thing about about life is thatthere's a lot of great things happening as
long as you look for it.You know, sometimes it's mixed. For
(04:54):
me. When I was in school, you know, there there was I
was always a pretty good student,very very shy, very very quiet,
and and so one of the kidsnicknamed me Smiling because I wouldn't say anything.
I would just smile. But thevery important thing, an impactful thing
about that, is that is that, even though I wasn't necessarily trying,
(05:21):
my smile was contagious to other people. And so, you know, sometimes
you don't have to say anything.But one of the most memorable moments of
positivity in my childhood was when Iwas just nicknamed Smiling because I would just
smile at It's like, I don'tknow, I don't know what to say
to you, I don't know whatto say. I was always a new
kid in town, so I waslike, I'm just gonna smile, and
that actually ended up being a reallygreat formula for positive energy in my life
(05:46):
going forward. Oh that's so beautiful. And you mentioned that you were always
the new kid. Tell us moreabout that. Well I grew up,
I would say poor. My dadwas a sheep shearer, and for those
that are unfamiliar with sheep sharing,they only get shorn or whatever the word
(06:10):
is exactly shorn once a year,and so you can't necessarily share the same
sheep throughout the year. So whatwe'd have to do is we have to
actually travel and migrate across the Midwestall the way from South Dakota down to
Texas throughout the year to be wherethe ranchers were. And my dad was
originally from Texas his family, butwas from Texas before it was Texas,
(06:33):
So we go back. Probably Iwould since I shared as a high schooler,
I would be the fourth generation sheepshearer and that the result of that
growing up in farm country, livingout of the back of a truck at
times, sleeping in parks at times. You know, some people might see
it as a challenging life, butwe saw it as an adventure. But
(06:57):
the reason why I say we werealways a new kid is that we had
to move from school to school dependingon where the ranchers were in time for
sharing, and so we had afamily and that would end up putting me
in a different school. It wasn'tuntil the eighth grade in high school,
well, junior high that was thefirst time in my life that I actually
(07:20):
went to the same school from beginningto end of the year. Every year
prior to that, I would goto at least two schools, sometimes as
many as four schools throughout the year. Oh wow, and so many times
a lot of people and they growup with a childhood like that, they
(07:43):
say, oh, it was hardto make friends, hard to just anywhere.
I could never call a place anyplace at home. So what were
the lessons that you learned during thistime? And also did you do any
sheep sharing? I did do alittle bit of sheep sharing, and I'm
telling you it's a lot of workthose they're they're heavy and they're not always
(08:05):
happy to do it. So itwas a little bit of a fight.
And my strawnie hundred and thirty poundsfive eight structure of five eight was not
exactly built for sheep sharing. We'llget to my where I am now later,
but you know how to deal withthat. Yes, my older brother
(08:26):
probably is one of the ones thatis a little more bitter about our history.
Nonetheless, our entire family has foundways to deal with it. And
I'll give you an example. Youknow, a lot of people like to
put their blame point the finger atlike, oh, well, I had
a rough childhood and I hate thisand I hate that because of blah blah
(08:46):
blah. But you know, it'sall the matter of perspective. And I
want to say that I had avery a very memorable experience, and I
want to say nineteen eighty three eightytoo, somewhere in there in Scott's Bluff,
Nebraska, of all places, myentire family. We stayed in a
kmart parking lot in the back ofthe truck for a few days while my
(09:09):
parents were trying to find work numberone and also find a place to live.
And then we found ourselves moving overto a park where we slept under
park benches and park picnic tables.And I know, on the surface,
people are like, oh my gosh, how devastating. That's so sad,
you guys are homeless, And forus, oddly enough, was kind of
(09:30):
like camping and kind of a littlebit of an adventure. What made it
more interesting was that middle of thenight we hear these like lions and other
weird animals. This is Nebraska,and I'm like, what is going on?
As it turns out, we wereactually at a public park that was
directly next to a zoo, andso we actually were hearing animals in the
(09:52):
zoo overnight, and for us itbecame like a safari almost. And the
bottom line two things. Number One, Yes, it was hard making friends
being new kid in school. Butone of the things that I really relied
on and lean heavily on even todayis my family. My siblings and I
especially my brothers, my sister,My older brother and my sister particularly are
(10:16):
best of friends. We became veryclose. We've had our Yeah, we've
had our fights, trust me,We've had our disagreements, sibling rivalry,
whatever you want to call it,But at the end of the day,
we became best of friends because werelied on each other because that's what we
had. We had our families,love, we had each other. So
we first we saw the positivity andwho were we were with. But secondly
(10:39):
we saw the positivity and whatever situationwe were in the park was an adventure.
The exploring the Black Hills, exploringthe rocky mountains, exploring where we
were was an adventure. And yes, we could we could focus on the
negativity of the challenges we're dealt,but we can also focus on the one
(11:00):
wonderful things that we are exposed tothat we wouldn't normally be exposed to if
we weren't faced with these challenges.Yeah, definitely when you put it that
way, Sun, you think aboutit, how many people would develop the
skill sets that you developed, Like, you know, when you're moving from
town to town you don't have astable job, you're getting that adaptability and
(11:20):
resilient skill where you learn to bounceback on your feet, you learn to
deal with that uncertainty. You arebecoming a different species in the sense that
you are more adaptable and more courageousand more adventurous. So it's again,
like you know, as you wentback to sharing, that you can look
(11:41):
at things either with positivity or withnegativity. There's always two sides to a
coin, all right. So asyou grew up and once you move through
your high school, what came next, Well, I took a path less,
(12:03):
a path less traveled. And what'sreally interesting is, again like I
said earlier, is that when youare faced with adversity or even positivity,
you have to learn to kind ofembrace it or really open your eyes to
what's in front of you. Andthis is a really exciting opportunities that we
(12:28):
face in our lives. Two thingshappened to me in high school. Number
one, I went to a concertRio Speedway and a Cheap Trick back in
the early eighties, and oh mygosh, my life was changed. I
love music. I was in lovewith rock and roll, and it opened
my eyes to a whole new Iwant to say, I want to say
(12:52):
life, but it wasn't really alife. It was just a lifestyle.
I've just listened to music and beingpart of that culture, and that was
the one thing that really was pivotalin my life as a as a young
teen, I started to play guitar, and I wanted to be in a
band, but being in a farmcountry, there's not a lot of options
for you know, I was ina high school of well, let's put
(13:16):
it this way. I was ina graduating high school class of nine from
Bethune, Colorado, so nine people. The population of my entire hometown is
one hundred and eighty three, Ibelieve in the last twenty twenty census.
So I grew up in a veryvery tiny Now we did move quite a
bit, of course, traveling across, but we kind of call home base
(13:39):
Bethune, Colorado, because that's wherewe spent most of our time when we'd
always find ourselves between work and eventuallyin when I was in eighth grade,
we settled in and that was ourpermanent home back in Bethune. But what
I discovered through that those high schoolyears I loved music and that led me
(14:03):
to a very important next chapter ofmy life because I knew being in farm
country, sheep sharing and out therework in those fields was not really for
me. I was like, youknow what, I don't know that that
working in the dirt is necessarily forme. And this is where being surrounded
by dust and mud and dirt,whereas where my journey started. But my
(14:28):
next chapter, of course, tookme to another place. And what was
pivotal The catalyst was I wanted tobe in a band, and so leaving
Bethune, Colorado at eighteen years old, I moved to Denver, Colorado with
the idea of, well, Idon't know what I want to do,
but the one thing I'm going todo first is get into a band.
And that was challenging, but itended up happening and changed my life.
(14:54):
So what are you singing? Wereyou playing? What was your role in
the d Was a terrible singer?I was? But I was a base
you know. I was a bassplayer back in high school. Just to
rewind slightly, because there wasn't alot of opportunity to join other bands.
(15:15):
I learned how to play guitar,I learned how to play bass, and
I learned how to sing a littlebit of drums and so kind of faked
my way through it. Primarily startedwriting songs and getting ideas, but then
I focused it on bass playing andthe opportunity that first popped up when I
moved to Denver. The first yearin Denver was a disaster. We a
(15:39):
lot of things happened. I endedup happened to go home briefly, and
then nineteen ninety one I was,I was, I just turned nineteen,
and I said, you know what, I'm determined, We're going to make
this happen. I went back toDenver, I joined the band as a
bass player, and and that openedmy eyes to a ton of opportunities and
(16:02):
it was fantastic we had. Iwas born again in a way, into
a new sunny blaze because I realized, hey, I found a place where
I belonged. I was no longerin those fields. I was no longer
the long Okay, I had longhair by the way back in today long
(16:26):
hair and yes, a little poofywell know you we all I've done.
So that was where the big transitionhappens, from this farm to the city.
I've been playing music ever since,but I started as a bass player
and a rock and roller. Butthen another opportunity popped up and a lot
(16:48):
of things changed in the early nineties. So curious, what did your siblings
decide to do. Did they stayin the family business or did they all
some a lot of it? Actually, we all kind of went our own
direction, my oldest brother being abovethe other two. And I don't want
(17:11):
to say sibling favorites, because Ilove my siblings, but my older brother
and I are definitely best friends,and we both got into music. It's
a great guitar player, but reallyhad a challenging time working as in terms
of a band structure. So hebecame a sound guy and doing sound,
(17:34):
working in pro audio. He andI worked together a lot through the nineties.
He was always my sound guy forone of my band was playing,
and he actually moved forward and evennow he works for a company called an
EP which what they do is theydo pro audio for major events. Let's
(17:57):
just say, for example, youhave the Super Bowl. The stadium has
to get their video feed to theTV station. So what my brother does
is he works in the truck that'sparked at the stadium relaying all the video
and audio from the stadium to theTV station. And so he ended up
(18:22):
finding a really wonderful connection with hismusic love and audio love and worked mostly
in television. He's worked for variouschannels over the year, Fox thirty one,
Channel two in New York City anda number of other stations, but
his primary love has always been audio. My youngest brother. He also shared
(18:45):
cheap just like me and my brothers, all three of all, my youngest
brother and my oldest brother. Buthe also knew he needed to get out
of the farm country and he endedup working in construction and worked his way
up. Now he's a safety directorat safety safety training director at a major
construction company out of Mesa, Arizonaand Phoenix, Arizona. My sister was
(19:10):
also a great singer. By theway, my little brother was a great
gummer, but he didn't really pursuethat. He was more athletic than anything
else. My sister, she actuallysang quite a bit with me at church
over the years, still does.But she moved to Arizona with her late
husband several several years ago and shedecided to go into the education. So
(19:33):
now she's an administration with the Universityof Phoenix, I believe, forgive me,
I don't remember exactly university she's with, but she is actually in the
administration side at a university. Sonone of us are in farm country anymore.
But we do appreciate where we camefrom, and we always remember that
we learned a lot of lessons there. Oh, what a fabulous journey for
(19:55):
all of your siblings. I'm surey'all are very proud and my parents were.
Yes. So from the band,sounds like you really had a great
time. What did you learn andhow did you take that lean into the
next phase of your life? Well, you know, we learned a lot
and working in music number one,creativity. Creativity is critical for a lot
(20:21):
in a lot of ways. You'reyou know, in business and in relationships.
You're always looking to see what's goingto work in this situation and most
importantly, working with others. I'ma huge proponent and huge supporter of education
through music. As a matter offact, education to musical Los Angeles is
(20:42):
a charity that I've been supporting foryears and years because music is such a
critical part of any youths mental howI say, their education and the structure
that they build within working with otherpeople, analytical thinking and being creative.
(21:02):
So that's one of those are reallyimportant things. And I wanted biggest transition
here because what one thing that accidentallyhappened to me when I moved to Denver
and at eighteen nineteen years old,there's one thing we're always hungry for is
we need a job, right?And so I was working in landscaping in
(21:29):
the summertime when I first moved toDenver. But one late summer, as
work was running out, as winterwere starting to come in, my drummer
said, hey, do you needa job, And I was like,
you know, actually yes I do. And his mother co owned a jewelry
and watch repair company and I accidentallyencountered that position. And I said,
(21:53):
you know, what, what doI have to do. I don't know
anything about jewelry and he says,well, no worries. All you have
to do is you have to justdeliver and pick up jewelry repairs from all
of them all stores, whether youwhether it was Zales, Hellsburg, Lord
and Taylor, all these different placeswe were doing repairs for business back in
(22:15):
the early nineties. And I waslike, okay, I can handle that
well. Lo and behold. Idid not know that I would fall in
love with an industry. M Sotell us about that industry. I'm assuming,
like, you know, let's revealhow you went into the diamond industry.
So I jumped in and at firstI was kind of like, you
(22:40):
know, I've been I've loved todraw since I was a child, so
I had this desire, I'm goingto become a graphic designer. I'm going
to become an architect. There's theselittle things in the back of my mind.
In the meantime, I was currently, you know, playing in bands.
I was like, I love beingin music. So I put the
artistic career in the back burner andI stayed and learned a lot from that
(23:03):
company in Denver, doing jewelry andwatch repair. I didn't actually work on
the bench, but I was workingwith customers and customer service. I was
in charge of managing incoming services anddealing with a lot of clients and learning
a lot about the jewelry industry.But then next big pivotal moment happened.
(23:26):
I met this lovely woman, mywonderful wife. And now I actually known
my wife most of my life.She's also from the same farm country,
so I knew we knew each othergrowing up, but there was never any
romantic interests. And that's a wholeanother chapter altogether about our relationship. But
one thing that happened is that shesaid to me, she says, hey,
(23:49):
listen, you've got a lot ofexperience and jewelry. Why don't you
become an expert? And I waslike, well, yeah, but I
mean I have to train for that. So she said, no problem,
Let's go to New York. Ihave a lot of connections in New York.
Let's go to New York and youcan train at the Gemological Institute of
America to become a diamond specialist.And so that's what I did two thousand
(24:12):
and one, actually during nine toeleven. By the way, that was
quite an experience living in New Yorkat the time of nine to eleven,
but talk about a really major growingexperience in terms of living in the city,
singing at church with some incredibly talentedmusicians, and then of course the
(24:36):
meat and potatoes of my journey waslearning diamonds in the Diamond District from GIA.
And that was two thousand and oneto two thousand and two was a
really critical year in my career thatgave me a lot of education and set
me path, set my path intoa really amazing time. And I want
to remind people right here that aswe listen and talk, as I talk
(25:00):
about some of these steps, weall actually have opportunities and wonderful things placed
in front of us. It's upto us to just see them and take
advantage of those and say, hey, listen, I might like that.
Let's just go for it, youknow, And that's what I did.
I said, you know what,Okay, let's try it. So there
(25:25):
a lot of times, you know, what happens is that people are thinking,
oh, what if I pivot here? What if I make the wrong
decision? And you brought up areally good point that yes, opportunity is
there, but so many times peoplewill not take that leap. So there
is that gap. Sometimes fast gapis like people don't even see the opportunity.
(25:48):
Second, Okay, if they seethe opportunity, they may be hesitened.
So tell us, like, youknow, how can they close the
gap? If they seek the opportunity, how can they go after it?
Well, there's a ton of riskin any situation. And one thing that
I've learned, this is really criticalto understand, is that when we take
(26:12):
a chance on something or we trysomething, we really only have two outcomes.
We're going to succeed at taking thatchance, or number two, we're
going to learn a lesson. AndI know sometimes people will say yeah,
but number two is always it meansfailure. Number two means I'm gonna blow
(26:34):
it. Number two means I'm goingto just lose everything. It's a lesson.
Trust me, I've lost I've lostthings in my life. We jump
in and sometimes it doesn't work.Sometimes it's not for us. Sometimes it
has to try again. We haveto try again. We have to try
again. And you know what,I can't say that every time you try
(26:59):
something is going to be Wow.I found the glory in this. Everything
is beautiful, everything is fantastic.No, you're gonna fall. And the
truth is you're probably going to makea big mistake the very first few times
you do it. We all do. We all do. But they are
lessons and the most important thing wecan do is be resealient and say,
you know what, that was achallenge. That was tough, but now
(27:22):
I know what not to do nexttime. Yes, absolutely, And also
the beauty of taking that risk isyou'll never ever wonder in your life what
if I took that path exactly,because so many times, oh I wish
I had done that. And Imean, there are some of the decisions
that I go through in my life, and it's important especially it's the keys,
(27:48):
like, you know, evaluating theopportunity and if it really like,
if you're intuition and like even lookingat all the things it tells you,
then that's what your dream is,that's what your passion is, that's what
will keep you going in the toughesttough times. It's definitely worth taking that
shot and jumping into it. Soyou talk about living your dream, yes,
(28:14):
and so many times what happens,Sonny is that I don't know if
you went through that on art.You did share that you fell while you
were doing diamonds and learning about diamonds. Tell us more about that experience,
and if you have a story whereyou fell and how did you move through
it and continued on that journey,that would be great. Certainly. I
(28:37):
will say I want to share acouple of things that my biggest I would
say, I hate to call ita failure, but it was a failure.
I got let go fired if youwill, I say laid off.
But I got fired from a jobone time in my life, and it
was the best thing that ever happened. It was the best thing that ever
happened. I was in retail andI was not the best salesperson I was
(29:02):
really fantastic and educated in the client. I was really fantastic and talking about
jewelry. I was really fantastic andconnecting. But I could not close the
deal. I was not good attaking people's money. I was like,
Okay, now give me your money. I just had a hard time with
that part of it, and sothat was a challenge for me, and
it didn't work out. But Iwant to I want to outline something and
(29:23):
kind of a little bit of ahypothetical here, and this is a kind
of really great lesson for people tolearn and maybe remember. Is that is
that we will come to the endof the road in our careers, in
our lives and our relationships, youknow, every now and then, and
it's devastating. It's devastating. I'mnot gonna I'm not gonna say that it's
(29:47):
not painful. I'm gonna say thatit's it's all happy, go lucky.
Think about it this way. Thisis this is the way I've always seen
it. When you get to theend of the road, you have to
look at what the opportunities are.Okay, you're at the end of the
road. Is there a left turnor a right turn to continue? On
another road. Look for those options. Number two is is it a time
(30:15):
for you to make and pave anew road, which is what I did.
I said, you know what,I'm at the end of my journey,
but I'm going to just forge forwardwhere there's no road and make a
road for myself. Now, sometimesI know it's hard to do this one,
but if he comes to the endof the road, sometimes to me,
you got to go back and startover again, try a different career.
(30:38):
You might be kind of because somethingcompletely different. Or finally, for
some people, they get to theend of the road and say, well,
I just I just don't see myfuture now. It said, well,
you know why, because you mightbe where you're supposed to be.
You might have arrived. Are youcontent? Are you? You know,
look at what you have as opposedto looking for the dream, the big
(31:02):
blah blah into the rainbow. Maybeyou're already there. Enjoy your family,
enjoy your life, Enjoy where youare and what you have in front of
you. So you might think it'sa dead end, but you're actually arrived
where you need to be. SoI want to rewind back to when I
was let go and I was forcedto move, and this actually was there's
(31:26):
another critical step that happened after this. But so I wanted to be and
when I was in retail and studyingdiamonds, I thought that, well,
maybe I want to be an appraiser, a diamond specialist, and so I
focused my efforts on that and Idid that. I became. When I
(31:47):
was let go in Colorado, itforced me to make a choice. So
we moved back to New York.I went to work for the Gemological Institute
of America, where I became adiamond specialist. I even joined in a
team of diamond graders where I gotto see the most amazing diamonds in the
world. I got to be withina couple of feet of like the third
largest diamond in the world. Igot to grade fancy colored diamonds that probably
(32:15):
one and maybe a million people getto see in their lifetime. I had
to make these choices of the qualityand caliber of these diamonds, putting me
in a very unique position, probablyone of twenty people in the world that
could make these kinds of decisions.And it was exciting and it was wonderful.
So I that getting let go inColorado forced me to move forward and
(32:40):
become a diamond specialist at GIA through. This was back in two thousand and
four to two thousand seven, andthose years were really critical in my education.
But it didn't get me to whereI am today unnecessarily, it just
kind of prepared me and to somedegree. And we'll get to the next
(33:00):
chapter in a minute. Yeah,every piece of the journey becomes the foundation
of the person you meant to becomeand what you're becoming. Again, I
really like what you shared that,Like, you know, it's important to
be staying where you're at, beingcontent but not being satisfied, and when
(33:22):
you're there, you're enjoying the journey. And we know that you are an
award winning jewelry designer. You've workedwith some high profile people like Lady Gaga,
Machine Gun, Kelly and Moore.So tell us about that piece of
journey. Well, again, Ihave a great love for music, and
(33:44):
I've been in music for a longtime. I've been playing it, actually
playing in church, and I wantto kind of a side note here for
a second. Is that because Iwant to talk about how I ended up
they're working with some high profile individualrules I was playing in bands and I
(34:05):
just I realized way back of midnineteen nineties, I said, you know
what, I became really involved inmy church and I really wanted to give
back musically, also giving back upmy money because you know, growing up
poor and growing up challenge. Wedidn't see it as a struggle, but
(34:25):
I've always saw that, hey,everyone needs a helping hand and we all
need to help each other out.So supporting education to music, supporting various
charities, and supporting my church andother people in need was always an important
thing to me. And one ofthe things with working with education in music
(34:46):
Los Angeles, I got to meetsome some people and and got to be
exposed to some really great ideas interms of jewelry that could help me support
other people. So getting back towhere I transitioned from being a diamond specialist
(35:07):
to working with some of these otherartists and designed in particular, when I
moved to Los Angeles in two thousand. In the two thousand and seven,
right, it literally like the Decemberthirtieth or whatever, two thousand and seven,
I moved to California, and Imoved and we were down in San
(35:27):
Diego area. But my wife isan actress, so she needed to be
in La. So we moved toLA and I got a job with the
company called with a designer named MichaelBoudry Artists to the Stars, and so
I was working in this diamond departmentas a diamond specialist. And then he
later asked me to help him launchhis Beverly Hills store, and that again
(35:50):
opened my eyes to the Beverly Hillsenvironment. We got to see an amazing
array of people, the Hilton family, h Jermaine Jackson, and I mean,
we had celebrities coming in all thetime, and it was really neat
to meet these people. But Iwant to give you a really special moment
(36:13):
in my There was a there wassuch a wonderful, wonderful experience I had
at this one moment. My parents, Remember my parents are from farm country
and not wealthy farmers. I'm talkinglike farm working out in the fields,
sheep sharing and working in the fields. And my parents came to visit and
(36:35):
I said, hey, listen,mom, dad, you guys got to
see where I work. This placeis amazing. It's in the middle of
Beverly Hills, and so you knowit's I was in charge of a twenty
six million dollars inventory, and Iwas like, okay. So I took
my mom and I pulled out thisbracelet out of the showcase. This is
look at this piece. This isisn't this core. She's like, oh
my gosh, it's so beautiful,me whole, that's so wonderful. And
(36:57):
I put it on her wrists andI said, yeah, that's a million
dollars and she's like, oh mygosh, take it off, take it
off, take it off, takeit off. And I was like,
it's okay, Mom. I couldn'tgive it to her, but I had
a momentary flashback of how I rememberedsleeping in the back of a truck or
in the park with my entire familylooking up at the stars in Nebraska or
(37:20):
South Dakota or wherever it was,and then fast forward to showing my mom
a million dollar bracelet and thinking,wow, I can't this is where I
came, this is where I thisis where I came from. I'm here
and so but I did realize duringthat time at Michael Boudry that that you
know, working in the store,that you know what I've I'm an artist,
(37:45):
and it struck me that you knowwhat I am even though I am
a diamond expert, I'm an artistat part and so I needed to make
a change, and that was whenI made the big change into what I'm
doing now. So tell us aboutwhat you're doing now and a little bit
(38:05):
about your wards as Vignea to theend of the show. Yeah, So
getting into the getting into design.I was drawing since I was probably five
six years old. I was akid. I was getting in trouble for
doodling on my notepad instead have takennotes. And so when I stumbled into
jewelry, like I said, backin the early nineties, I found something
(38:28):
that was connecting. But then itwas at that time when I finally merged
all three of my loves. Ihad the jewelry experience I was drawing,
so I decided to start drawing anddesigning jewelry. So I trained for that
(38:50):
and then finally, which I'm mostexcited about, is my ultimately ear Innier
Monitor partnership. These Innian monitors areused by everyone from Lady Gaga, Usher,
Machine Gun, Kelly Taylor, Swift, you name it. People around
the world are using Indian monitors forlive performance, particularly every one on the
(39:12):
top end, top tier monitors.So what I did is I partnered with
Ultimate Years and I said, listen, I have a great idea. You've
got these plastic, inniar monitors.Let's put diamonds on them. And so
I finally had this amazing opportunity towork with some artists Rudy Sarzo from White
Snake and Quiet rye Ozzy Osbourne.He has been one of my favorite people.
(39:34):
Eric Church, top country singer,not a jewelry guy. We made
some amazing pieces for him with thesilver and black diamond accident. He loves
him. We just you know.And then for me to connect my music,
love, my jewelry love and mylove to draw all into one.
And it wasn't because it was handedto me. It was because I opened
(39:57):
my eyes and said, hey,there's something here that I could do that
I would love to do. Andnow here I am doing what I love.
I know that the jewelry on theinner monitors is my biggest passion right
now. But the company that Ialso partner without, our Central City,
we do a lot of engagement ringsin various different styles of jewelry that are
(40:19):
manufactured for people all along Rodeo.So I've not only have. I work
with my own clients with the innermonitors and custom jewelry. I also work
with them where we are very commonon the red carpet, on TV and
various other things. Unfortunately, becausea lot of those Beverly Hills clients have
India's we can't talk about specifically whothey are or what they are. But
(40:45):
trust me, if you've seen abillboard at seven feet seven stories tall in
New York, or if you've seena red carpet or somebody on TV,
it's a good chance that I mayhave had a small part of it and
doing computer modeling or design or maybeeven being part of a small part of
it. So it's just a bitexciting. It's an exciting life. Melan.
(41:06):
Congratulations, Sonny. I love howyou have taken your life and made
such a beautiful journey out of itand keeping the humility and gratitude in your
life. So share with the listenerswhere they can find you and how can
they connect with you. Sure,the main things you remember is sunny Blaze
dot com. That's s O nN y b l a ze dot com
(41:30):
just as you see on your screenor right there, and that has links.
I'm very I'm a lot more activeon Instagram than I am on any
of the social media, but thereare little social media tabs on top to
follow up. My phone number ison the contact page where you can call
me. Feel free to email mewith any questions, any more things you
(41:54):
want to you know, know about, or if you want to learn more
about any your monitors, how theycould help your hearing, and it just
we can you know again? Socialmedia on Instagram, it's a lot of
fun to follow us the latest andgreatest what's happening. There's a lot of
good things going on in the worldand a lot of things that were I'm
really excited about working on Well.Thank you Sonny for joining us and sharing
(42:16):
about your life and the life nuggets, the wisdom nuggets are so important with
us. And thank you listeners forjoining us because without you, the show
would not be possible. You arethe soul of our show. Reach out
to us, let us know whowould you like us to bring, how
can we help you and how canwe be of service to help you lift
(42:38):
a life you want and deserve.And thank you all for making the show
technically possible. So be well andtake care until next time. Thank you
for being part of Beyond Confidence withyour host, Devia Park, we hope
you have learned more about how tostart living the life you want. Each
week on Beyond Confidence, you hearstory of real people who've experienced growth by
(43:01):
overcoming their fears and building meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Diva Park shares
what happened to her when she steppedout of her comfort zone to work directly
with people across the globe. Shenot only coaches people how to form heart
connections, but also transform relationships tomutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to live
the life they want. If youare ready to live the life you want
(43:23):
and leverage your strengths, learn moreat www dot dvapark dot com and you
can connect with Diva at contact atdivyapark dot com. We look forward to
you joining us next week.
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