Anything Is Possible: The Journey To Success with Sachiko Tiana

Everyone wants to be successful. We all want to create greatness in our lives. However, a lot of us don’t feel that we can get to where we want to go. We see people who are very successful, from stars to athletes, to actresses, to rappers, and those guys are doing it, and we would like love to do that but a lot of times we feel like we can’t. How do we deal with those things? How we can get over those challenges and obstacles? A lot of people in the industry have success stories and they have these road maps or strategies, but music artist and songwriter Sachiko Tiana takes a different approach. She uses story to help people believe that anything is possible. Learn how Sachiko encourages people and takes them on the journey with her as she’s pursuing her dreams and going for her goals.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

Watch the podcast here:

Anything Is Possible: The Journey To Success with Sachiko Tiana

A lot of you know what my mission is about and what being a game changer all is about. One of the things that I’m really passionate about is that everyone wants to be successful. I don’t know anyone who does not want to be successful. The thing about it is a lot of us don’t feel that we can get where we want to go. There’s a certain level that we feel we can get to and we strive to reach it, but I’m talking about if you could live the life that you wanted to live. A lot of us don’t feel we can get there, and then we see people who are very successful, the stars, the athletes, the actresses, the singers, the rappers, all of those people. The real estate investors, the business gurus, those guys are doing it and we would love to do it. Who wouldn’t want to live that type of life? A lot of times we feel we can’t do that. That’s out of reach for me at this point.

We want to talk about those things and how we can get over those things. How do we deal with those things? What if I could reach that goal that I really want to reach in my life? Maybe I won’t be a star and maybe I won’t be an actress. Maybe I won’t be a business guru, but there is something that I would like to pursue and would like to change my life. I have a guest who is a beautiful and interesting young lady whom I want you to meet. She’s going to talk about that very thing. You see a lot of people, you hear a lot of people in this industry and they have success stories. They’ve made a million bucks. They’ve done all these business deals or they have billions of followers. It’s like, “How do you do that?” There are some of their products on, “This is how you do it. This is my roadmap. These are my strategies.” This young lady takes a different approach. She’s a game changer. She has a game changer mentality. Ms. Sachiko, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me. It’s important what you were saying about we all want to be successful and we all want to create greatness in our lives. Yet sometimes we can hear from all these successful people. I’m working my full-time job, but I want to start a business. Even though I see what you did that worked for you, I need someone to help me understand how to go from exactly where I’m at to the next step. It’s taking my life experience. I’m certainly no expert on success, but I’m an expert on resilience. I’m an expert on how to get from the chaos I experienced in my life in a place where I genuinely believe that anything is possible. Instead of waiting until I’m sitting on my mountain and telling everyone how to get on the mountain with me, I am in the middle of the chaos of pursuing my dream and going for my goals. I’m taking people on that journey with me and encouraging people basically from the side, encouraging people as we go to make one step after the other so we can get there.

It’s a little crazy because I don’t have a crystal ball that says this is exactly where we’ll end up. I know for sure and that’s a safer approach. I was talking to a guy who struggled with suicide and depression and he was actually in the middle of about to commit suicide in his car one night. Something in him snapped and he decided to make a phone call. He didn’t call the person who’s never struggled with suicide or who have been amazingly happy for 100 years and can’t relate to that place anymore. He called his buddy who also struggles with suicidal thoughts and depression. His buddy was able to help talk him out of that moment and get him to help him move to a place where he’s in a much healthier place.

There are the experts and gurus. All those people are important and there’s a place for them. What are missing are the people that will stand by you and walk with you toward your goal or your dawn, as I call it or your dream or your purpose. We need each other. Through my podcast, through my music and through the things that I’m creating, I’m holding that space for people to be real about the struggle and also be excited about what’s possible and build that community together.

I admire that and I commend you for that. Thank you for being that person. It’s different because most people don’t want to be seen when they’re struggling. It’s easy to be in the limelight. It’s easy to be on the front lines when things are going well. You want to live life through your journey. You know what? You’re exposed, you’re vulnerable and you’re allowing people to see this is what it’s all about, the behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to reach your dream. That very thing is the reason why a lot of people won’t pursue their dreams. That’s a bit of a paradigm shift. What would you say to someone who has this dream, but then there’s the fear of failing? There’s the fear of not reaching your dream. There’s the fear of the struggle being too uncomfortable. What do you say to all of that?

I regurgitate what was said to me. What created this shift is for several years I’ve worked in events. I worked at different companies doing events, eventually started my own event company and have gotten to do a lot of fun stuff and events. I was at CEO Space and someone asked me that age-old question, “If you had a billion dollars, what would you wake up and do every day?” In my soul, the immediate answer was music. There was no hesitation. It flared up. I grew up wanting to say it was a huge part of my childhood. It’s the love of my life. I’m sitting at this networking event that was a day one of a five-day intensive networking experience going, “Why am I here? What am I doing with my life?” I’m an event company but I also loved music and I tend to be a little perfectionistic. I want to do this event the right way. If I’m going to network, I’ve got to talk about the right thing. That was day one.

Anything Is Possible: If you had a billion dollars, what would you wake up and do every day?

The next day, I sat at a meal table with Tony Bido and I talk about this everywhere I go because it changed my life. I was explaining to him that freakout, “I want to do music. How do I go from one thing to another?” He said, “You don’t have to take this gigantic leap. You don’t have to quit your event company. You don’t have to change anything. You just have to do 4% every day in the direction of your music and the direction of where you really want to go. Eventually, you’ll get there.” What I love about that is the 4%, first of all, it was very subjective and very relative, but it’s also very manageable. Whatever your relative spectrum is, whatever 100% is and whatever 0% is for you, 4% feels very doable. Instead of undoing everything I had worked hard for and quitting working in events, I still have my event company. We still do events all over the country. That 4% meant having conversations with a coach. It meant doing a little more vocal warm-up each day. It meant sitting down and writing a couple of times a week. It meant singing at church again. These little things every day that eventually grew into releasing music everywhere and producing and recording my own music. It meant performing different shows and House of Blues and it’s slowly grown over the last couple years.

What I genuinely believe is we have to take leaps of faith and take risks. It’s not leaps of what feels like complete impossibility like, “Let me quit my company and do music full-time.” They’re leaps of faith so it’s like, “Here’s what I believe is possible and let me take this little baby 4% leap.” Those add up and exponentially grow to the point where now I probably spend more time working on music and podcasts and this dream and passion of mine. I love events that are my zone of excellence, whereas music and connecting with people is that zone of genius. I spend more time doing what I love now but it took a couple of years to get there because it took time to have the competence and the faith to get to this place.

Two years ago, if someone would have said, “You’re going to be doing a podcast and you’re doing all these different things,” I would have looked at that mountain and probably not started to climb it at all. Just doing vocal warm-ups, that was doable. What it does is it puts you in that energetic alignment that continues to pull you toward where you want to go. There are moments where you feel afraid or you have to be courageous, but you do it in a manageable way. I appreciate Tony, his perspective and his willingness to share those words with me. In a sequential and systematic way, it has turned my ship from facing in one direction of facing in a completely opposite direction. It didn’t happen overnight.

There are two things I got from what you said that I would like to share with you. The first thing is it reminded me of building bridges. Where we are in our life, however we’re making ends meet, whatever we have the capacity to enjoy and discover, that’s the bridge. You are where you are as a result of decisions that you’ve made in the past and things that you’ve been able to create in the past from the capacity that you are currently aware of. That’s your bridge. What you’re saying about your music and podcasting in your dream is that you’re currently still building another bridge. The beauty of this is you don’t have to tear down the old bridge in order to build a new bridge. You can build them side by side.

I picked that clarity up from a mentor of mine when I first got into this industry because the goal is to quit the job and do this full-time. I was ready to dive in, do all of that and go, “I’m all in 100% committed. It’s going to be smooth. This is what I’m going to do. I’m a game changer.” It was like, “No. Stop. Slow down. This is not how we’re going to do this.” It was bringing that clarity into use the bridge that you have right now in order to build the bridge. He used the philosophy of if you’re in California somewhere and you’re able to get across this bridge, why would you tear the bridge down even though you want a bigger and better bridge? Obviously, it’s needed but why would you tear this one down when it’s working it? Leave it up and then build the other bridge beside it.

I mentioned this on one of the episodes of my podcast because I don’t want to come out and inherently disagree with Tony Robbins. He says, “If you want to take the island, you’ve got to burn the boat.” Some people can interpret that to mean you land on the island and immediately the boats are gone. We’re in. What I believe is that you’ve got to get to the island, scope it out a little bit and make sure that this is the actual island you want to take. Once you feel confident that this is your island, then one at a time you burn those boats. It’s not something that you do all in one fell swoop. That’s the message sometimes that’s taken from that is like, “Let’s go. Use the beast mode. Make it happen. Let’s get it.” That is a recipe for disappointment and for disillusionment.

Our emotions, our motivation, our Stephen Covey depositing into our personal bank account, it’s so much healthier when we do it little by little. Don’t get me wrong, I tend to be all or nothing. I tend to be the beast mode, “Let’s get it,” which is why I freaked out the first day of CEO Space because I was like, “I’ve got to stop my company. I’ve got to do music.” Tony took me out of chaos and crazy land and brought me back down to earth and was like, “Chew the elephant one bite at a time.” In my nature, I’ll chop that elephant up, blend it and drink it with a straw. I don’t like slow, but slow is the way of life. It’s okay and it’s healthy.

It makes it doable when you talk about pursuing dreams. What we were explaining with the beast mode, going all in, burning the boats, it can be intimidating for some people. Some people don’t have that level of aggression. That’s why I’ve heard people say, “Not everyone can be successful.” It’s because there’s a certain level of aggression. There’s a certain level of strength, passion, and grit that’s required. People will look at that and say, “I’m a little softer than that. I like to take more of a softer, relaxed approach.” The message here is you too can reach your dream even if you’re not 120 Beast Mode. Even if you’re not saying, “I want to go all in.” Build your bridge beside the current bridge.

Another thing that I got out of what you were saying is the little baby steps because that’s momentum. For a lot of us, including myself on many occasions, it seemed the rock that I was trying to move was so big. I couldn’t get that sucker to budge. We can chip some things away a little bit and get it moving and get that momentum going. Get some baby steps done. What you have is you find yourself in momentum. Once you’re in momentum, as long as you can keep that going, things would keep going and going like the snowball effect.

The message here is it’s possible. That’s what I’m getting from this. There’s a strategy, there’s yet another way of approaching the dream of reaching for the dream. Another thing you said about those little small changes was changing the complete direction of your ship. You’ve probably heard the story where you have this boat that’s heading in one direction in the ocean and the slightest little change drastically changes the direction and the destination of where that boat is up. Whatever we have to do, we have to get into momentum. We have to take baby steps. We don’t have to go all in and we can build the bridge beside the current one. You don’t have to give up what you’re currently doing because that makes it too hard. It’s hard enough as it is. Let’s be real, it’s difficult enough as it is. What are some of the greatest hurdles and obstacles you’ve had to overcome in your journey?

One of the things you mentioned, it’s possible that the reason I feel obsessive about this mission is that I didn’t come from resources. I didn’t come from stability. I was born in San Francisco. My brother was born in Irvine a couple of years later. My sister was born in Queens, New York. My family bounced around a lot when we were younger because my parents were drug addicts and didn’t have money. They bounced around to live with different family members as much as they could. When I was seven, my mom passed away and at that time we moved back to Orange County so my aunt could help. We ended up living on our own and in that process, my dad who’s a drug addict was not capable of helping to do even the basic things for my younger siblings like cooking, cleaning and helping with homework. At seven, eight, nine, that became my role. I did all the cooking in the house. I did all the cleaning for my younger siblings and for the household.

I remember days on end feeling guilty because when my dad was high, he was so much more useful than he was when he wasn’t high. I knew when we didn’t have money because he wasn’t high and he was comatose. There were several years of that and then when I was eleven my dad passed away. There are a lot of encouraging things that have happened. My aunt adopted me, my brother and sister, and we went on to have a lot more stability in that environment. She was a single mom of four then and not capable of helping us work through all of the emotional issues you experience from growing up in that environment. I struggled with eating disorders. I struggled with cutting. I struggled with heavy, chronic depression. In some ways, I still struggle with those things.

The hurdles for me have been looking at this dream of when I say music. I don’t care about labels, superstardom and all that stuff. I just want to find my little audience and make an impact. Whether that’s a 100 people or 100,000 people, who knows, but it’s within my ability to create. As a kid, I was looking at my dream of being a singer and thinking, “There’s no way. I don’t have the resources. I don’t have the support. I don’t have parents. I don’t have people that can help me. There’s no way that’s possible.” I love and appreciate the power of the visualization, the power of our mind to pull us along this path. I believe with every fiber of my being that if it wasn’t for this crazy dream I had at seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven years old, that I would just daydream about constantly and literally imagine myself on stage, imagine myself performing, imagine myself out of that situation.

Anything Is Possible: I don’t care about labels, superstardom, and all that stuff. I just want to find my audience and make an impact.

I was constantly visualizing myself out of the house that was abusive, tumultuous and scary. If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think I’d be here. I don’t think that I could say that I’ve lived for almost 33 years of life without ever touching the drug, without ever struggling with those addiction issues that most people perpetuate. It’s my dream that saved me. For a long time, I had abandoned that dream because I didn’t think it was possible. I had these dreams and then as I got older, in the high school senior year, I did well in school. My teachers said, “What college do you want to go to?” I’m like, “I’m not going to college. I’m going to be a singer.” They’re like, “That’s not a very secure route. You probably shouldn’t do that.” I let myself get talked out of it. I didn’t have the belief on my own and the validation in my family, so I didn’t pursue it.

For years, I abandoned that dream and went for the corporate, safe, secure route. I believe that that dream didn’t ever abandon me. God gave me that dream, these passions, these talents, and these gifts for a specific reason. I believe it’s to use my story to help people believe that dreams are possible. If I can do it, there’s nothing inherently special about me and my story and what I’m doing other than the fact that I believe that I can do anything and that it’s possible. Regardless of what someone else’s facing, and not to say that their situation is any worse or better than mine, it’s just your story is part of this journey and you can do it too. Even today there are still hurdles. It’s not, “I’ve overcome all these hurdles.” Every moment believes that anything is possible and there’s no struggle in it.” I’ve spent this last week freaking out about this podcast I launched. I don’t’ know if you’re doing this with your podcast where you’re checking the numbers and checking the downloads. I can get obsessive about that stuff. I’ve had a lot of friends go, “Sachiko, what you’re doing matters. It’s going to be great. There’s nothing to worry about.” It’s a process, it’s an ongoing journey.

Tell people where they can find you. If they wanted to learn more about you, reach out to you, where can they find you?

You can find me on the Wait For The Dawn website, which is WaitForTheDawn.com. You can also find me at my website, which is SachikoTiana.com and then @WaitForTheDawnPodcast on Instagram and @SachikoTiana on Instagram.

I wanted to talk to you about something relative to some of the struggles that you mentioned about the drugs and things like that. Is that an audience that you are looking to help right now? Either way, whether yes or no, let’s talk. If it’s not, let’s talk about what audience you are reaching out to. If it is, let’s get into that a little bit.

It’s definitely one of the audiences I want to connect to, people that struggle with substance abuse. I reached out to some local substance abuse facilities and I’m still in the process of building what I call my keynote concert where I tell my story and see myself as part of a talk. Once that’s all together, I want to go out to those facilities, communities and groups and share my story and my experience as someone who has seen and experienced a lot of drug and substance abuse related stuff, be able to share with those communities about hopes and dreams. Even the guy that I mentioned who was struggling with suicide that I talked to, he said the biggest thing that helped him out of his alcoholism and depression was pursuing his music and his dream.

Not that I claim to be an expert on how to overcome substance abuse issues because I have no idea what that’s like to struggle with it personally. I want to tell my story in hopes that maybe it helps people in that world. The beauty of podcasts and music is that it’s so accessible from everywhere. Podcasts are typically a more affluent and less minority audience, more highly-educated audience. Everyone can get them on their phone and so I want to also help open up a broader audience of podcast listeners that they can get that message too.

What would you say? There are a lot of drug addicts or substance abuse happening in our society. It’s a big issue and I believe that a lot of those individuals, they want to be game changers. They want to make an impact. However, this is a challenge for them. All you can think about though is getting over the abuse. The dream, it’s a farfetched thing for some, I’m not saying for all. What is your message? I know you’re not an expert, but what is your message to that person who seems to only be able to see that particular obstacle? They don’t see the dream. What would you say to that person?

Thank you for acknowledging that I don’t claim to be an expert. What I find powerful for anyone struggling with anything is validation and that feeling of being seen and heard. When someone struggles with these types of issues, it can create so much chaos in the family. Depending on how far down that road they go, they can be deep in that darkness and whatever hurt they may be masking with these substances. It’s a matter of helping them feel seen and heard and not forgotten. They’re just as important, just as valued, and just as capable as anyone we see on TV, any athlete, anyone that’s living that dream. It’s helping people feel like their story, their situation and their experience are valid and they matter. It can happen for people who struggle with drug abuse or any addiction-related things as it’s this browbeating like, “Stop it. Get over it. Deal with it. What’s wrong with you? Figure it out. You’re so selfish.” The messaging can be really harsh and maybe that works for some people.

What I’ve seen be more powerful is asking those questions and finding out what’s deeper. What’s underneath there? What’s the hurt? What’s the pain? What’s the hole that they’re trying to fill or the need that they’re trying to meet? Validating that, making it understood, helping them know it’s real, it counts. It’s not stupid and they need to get over it, but that it matters, and then from that place reigniting their dreams. I believe that God gave me a gift of being able to tap into people’s passion. It makes sense, given my crazy mission. It would be in conversation figuring out what is the thing through their body language, through their expression, through their tonality, what is the thing that lights them up? What’s the thing that makes them get out of bed in the morning? It’s feeding to them, the same way it was fed to me, that in 4% of these manageable ways it’s possible, luring them out of the darkness and into hope and into the dawn and into the dream.

I don’t think it’s simple, but it’s in connecting with their humanity, believing in them, encouraging them, and walking side by side with them toward where they want to go. The thing I feel the most frustrated about is that one person can’t reasonably do that for everyone, and yet I have this burning desire to help as many people as possible. I’m grateful for technology and for the ways that we get to do, the way you’re getting to help many people through this one channel. There are a lot of people that need this message and the message of hope. Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to talk to them all individually.

As we talk about this, my heart goes out to those that are suffering from substance abuse or addiction. I don’t think you need to be an expert in order to recognize what’s going on and then offer to help create an outlet. We’ve seen all these markets where we say, “Black lives matter,” and black lives truly do matter and there are other lives that matter. More importantly, all lives matter, even those that are suffering from addiction or substance abuse. I’m big on diversity and inclusion. What I find is that there’s a lot of talent in these individuals. Perhaps there were some bad decisions that were made in the past. Perhaps there were some obstacles and challenges that seemed insurmountable. It seemed at that particular time, that was the only outlet that particular person could take to suppress the pain. You want to reignite the passion or reignite the dream because that person may have some type of talent, something unique about them, something about them that if brought to the surface, it could change the world. It could change our lives. As a society, we may look at that and say that person is worthless. They’re delusional or they’re not trustworthy. They don’t matter. It’s all a lot. It’s deceiving.

If we could reach down and help that person, give them a place to be seen. Give them a place to be heard because a lot of times the reason why it continues on is that they can’t get it out. It stays inside and because it’s in, you have to keep suppressing it. Those are the emotions that they’re dealing with because they haven’t had a chance to express it. We’re going deep here, but that’s the type of beings that we are. We are expressive beings. We are made to express, to create, we’re creative beings. When we are not able to do that, we may revert to questionable behavior because we’re not operating the way we were designed to operate.

When you don’t have that outlet, you don’t have that platform to be heard, to be seen and to express yourself, it could lead to all kinds of things. You and I and others who may judge these individuals, it’s by grace in my opinion. We all have challenges. We’ve had challenges. It’s by grace that we haven’t had a challenge that great that put us in that particular situation. Fortunately, that’s something that we should be grateful for and reach down and help individuals come back up. Live their dream to get over that challenge. It’s important that we take that responsibility on, not just you and I, even as individuals. You don’t have to have a podcast. A podcast is great, I love my podcast and I can’t wait for yours. There are other ways that we can get a message across. You never know what your next-door neighbor is going through. You never know what the person in the next cube over is going through. The guy that’s on the block, he may not look too clean or she may not look too clean, but there are things that we can do to help these folks. That’s where being a game changer, having a game changer mentality is all about.

Anything Is Possible: When you don’t have that outlet, you don’t have that platform to be heard and to be seen and to express yourself.

People make fun of me, my life and my family because whenever there’s a bad guy in a movie or the villain, I always feel bad for the bad guy in different situations. Not because I don’t also feel bad for the victim. It’s by grace, but I felt if life had happened to me in the exact same way that it happened to that person. How do I know I wouldn’t make a similar decision that they’re making? I can’t. I’ve not stood in their exact shoes. It’s easy to sit back and judge and say, “You shouldn’t or you should or whatever.” I’m no saint. I judge too. We’re human. It’s part of our experience. At the end of the day, I’m still going to reflect on those parts of myself and make a conscious effort to validate people in their experience.

Validation is powerful. It moves people. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Les Misérables movie with Russell Crowe and some other people. I’m not a big Les Misérables buff but in that movie, I get emotional every time I think about it because his family lets him stay with them and he’s not doing great financially. He stays there one night and then he’s about to peace out and he steals from them essentially. They catch him on his way out and she recognizes that he stole from them. Instead of throwing him in jail or calling the authorities, she takes two candlesticks and gives them to him. It’s like, “Obviously, you need these more than I do.”

I get emotional every time I think about that because it takes such a deep love and a deep ability to connect with other people and their experience to have that response. She would be completely justified in raking him over the coals and giving him what he deserves but instead, she shows him so much grace that then he goes on to change his life. He remembered it’s a big part of his turning point in his life. I believe that if we, as people, could learn how to have that approach to the people and the injustices and all the things that we want badly to fix and stop. We would be much further along in creating the change we want to make versus justice, punishment and that approach which there’s a place for, but it’s not the best way. It’s not the most excellent way to help people and serve people.

It’s taking a step back and starting with how I show grace to myself and how I handle myself when I disappoint myself or when I make decisions that I don’t love. We all make mistakes. I feel it starts there. The more I learn how to love myself, feel comfortable and competent in expressing myself. I may be able to look at the mistakes or the failures and not let that mean anything about me, but just learn from it. The more I’m able to give that to people around me and the more I try really hard to do that for other people while beating myself up, the less it works.

I was listening to Lisa Nichols. I took something from what she was saying. She was talking about this very thing. It revolves around loving yourself so much that you’re full. You’re full and you’re running over. You’re giving away your love, you love someone else from your saucer. You’re not giving them the love from your cup. You’re giving them your overflow. Going back to what you said about the way we approach these issues with people in terms of judging or punishing, instead of love, it’s because there’s not enough love there. That’s the only way that we can see to rectify certain situations because we don’t have enough love to even think about love. It’s not the first thought. It’s the thought when the damage has been done. When you can love yourself enough that you have so much love, even when you’ve been wronged you can still love. Even when there should be justice, but yet you can still show love. It takes a lot of love in order to do that and that’s giving love from your overflow.

I love what you’re doing with this podcast. I love your story and I love your energy. When I listened to the very first episode and it was just you and you still were able to be energetic. I tried to record one podcast episode all by myself, I just did not have the same energy that I had with other people. The fact that you can contain that all by yourself is admirable. I’m excited to be a little part of your journey, but it’s exciting for me to see other people standing for growth, transition, change and improvement. Especially when they’ve been through the things you’ve been through and come out with a fire, grit and tenacity.

Thank you. We’re delighted to have you here and we’re delighted about your show. Let us know how we can support you. Why don’t you again tell the audience where they can reach you if they want to reach out and connect with you?

On Instagram, it’s @SachikoTiana and @WaitForTheDawnPodcast and then it’s SachikoTiana.com and WaitForTheDawn.com. On WaitForTheDawn.com, people who have independent music can submit their music. We share it on the podcast. We do shout-outs and kudos. If you want to shout-out someone doing something awesome or your mom or your brother or your spouse, you can do that there. We interview everyday people. If you want to be featured on a podcast, you have a story to tell, go to WaitForTheDawn.com and share with us.

You’re providing a platform for people to be seen and heard. You are doing some wonderful work in the world. This is a woman who’s not just talking about it, but she’s doing it. Thank you for doing that. One more question I have for you. This is something that everyone deals with. I don’t care what challenge it is, what your color, your background, whatever, is fear. I know that you have some big things coming up. You have your podcast and some other things that you’re working on. What is your greatest fear? Can you share with us where you are right now?

I would say my greatest fear that comes up for me is, this sounds funny, but it’s shining brightly. I learned from Dr. David Gruder. He’s a wizard. I don’t know how he does what he does. In the process of conversation, we went back to this moment in my childhood where my mom and I were in the bathroom together. I don’t know if she was on something or what, but we were looking in the mirror and she goes, “Look at you, Sachiko, you’re so beautiful,” and then smash my face into the mirror. My dad runs in, grabs me and throws me out of the room like, “This is scary. What is happening right now?” My mom gets taken away in handcuffs and in an ambulance. The memories are a little foggy, but basically after that, she’s comatosed. Day after day I would come home and look and see if she was breathing still. I would look and see if she still had a life force. Shortly after that, she passed away.

What I learned at that moment was that being beautiful, being bright and being seen is very scary. I’ve talked about this before, but David Gruder helped me work through that and write a letter to my inner child. Every time I mention that I laugh because that’s something I would never have done before that. I’m a doer. Let me get stuff done. I don’t have time to write a letter to my inner child but I did that, acknowledging her intelligence for doing what needed to be done to keep me safe at that time. It’s letting the six, seven-year-old Sachiko know it’s okay to be seen now. It’s okay to shine brightly.

When I think about putting myself out there and when I think about releasing new music, sharing a video or doing Facebook Live and Instagram Live, when I think about doing those things, that creates the most terror for me, the most fear. It’s putting me all the way out there to be seen, to be heard, to be judged, and to be attacked. Even though I’ve done a lot of processing and grown through a lot of that, I still feel that’s something I battle every day. My dream involves me being in front of a lot of people and being seen and shining very brightly. Yet there’s a part of me that is afraid of that and holds back still.

Anything Is Possible: My dream involves me being in front of a lot of people and being seen and shining very brightly, and yet there’s a part of me that’s afraid of that and holds back still.

That in itself is a process. To share with you, I’ve been there. I haven’t had the same journey as you. I haven’t had that particular experience. I do speak, I get out on stage, and I motivate and inspire people. There hasn’t been that one show, there hasn’t been that one event that before I went on that stage that I was scared to death. Being here, if you would have said, “In 2018, you have your own show, you’ll be doing three books, international bestseller,” it would have scared me. Even though I was striving for that and more, it still would have scared me. As I think about that, there’s something to be said about being fearful of yourself because that’s what you’re talking about. You’re being fearful of what you’re capable of expressing. It’s because we are so big and a lot of times we don’t give ourselves enough credit for who we are, for what we are, and for what we’re capable of doing, of being and expressing.

As individuals, we suppress ourselves. I see myself being this great, well-renowned, popular innovator in terms of books and thought leader. This happens to a lot of people. It’s always that the thought that comes behind that, whatever that is for you when you think of yourself outwardly. The thought behind it is always something seems to bring it down. It’s like the norm on, “Don’t get too big-headed. Don’t put yourself out there too far because you don’t want to set yourself up.” Don’t think too highly of yourself, but you’re made by the most powerful thing on the planet. It’s the thing that made the planet, it’s God, it’s the universe, it’s all-powerful. It’s energy that cannot be created nor destroyed. It is the cause and effect of itself. It is the thing that lives in us. We are a piece of it. We have those same characteristics. I feel like we don’t give ourselves enough credit because of the beings that we are. It should be to no surprise. I know you want to remain humble and there’s a place of being humble and not too cocky. There’s a place for that. At the same time, I feel there’s a place where we can rest in the knowledge of which we are and what we are capable of.

That has been a big lesson because there’s more humility in knowing who you are than out of fear of what everyone thinks recoiling. There’s a pride, there’s an ego, there’s all that stuff in being concerned about making sure people don’t think X, Y or Z about you. In knowing of, “This is who I am,” there are many great examples. Jesus was like, “I am the son of God,” but yet was the humblest man to ever walk the Earth. I do believe that there’s a genuine goodness, humility, and a healthy strength in knowing who you are and what you’re capable of before your personality traits, your physical traits, all that stuff.

You are the greatest creation, the greatest being to ever have graced the planet, the most intelligent, complex, beautiful creation, and that is worth celebrating, not stuffing under the rug in this false humility. I don’t want to seem whatever. Who cares what people think? I am who I am. I have a lot of growing to do in this, but the people that can be in their bodies, know who they are, walk the walk and talk the talk. Lisa Nichols is a great example of that. She knows exactly she is and what she stands for. At the same time, there’s a deep honoring of God in that.

Sachiko Tiana, it has been a pleasure and an honor to be with you. Thank you for this time. We love you. We support you. Let us know anything that we can do to support you in your journey.

Thank you so much for having me, Rodney.

Do you have any last words?

Thank you again for everything you’re doing. I admire the work you’re doing in the world. If there’s anyone in our audience that wants to connect and join me on my journey on my podcast, please do. The thing I love about music, podcasts, and dreams is that there’s more than enough to go around. We can all build this great, big, amazing community together and I’m grateful to be here.

There you have it, another episode of the Game Changer Mentality podcast. Thank you for reading once again and remember to check us out on our Game Changer Mentality community at the Game Changer Transformation on Facebook. We love you. Until next time, stay blessed.

Important Links:

• WaitForTheDawn.com
• SachikoTiana.com
• @WaitForTheDawnPodcast – Instagram
• @SachikoTiana – Instagram
• Game Changer Transformation on Facebook
• Is Life Knocking You Down? Read Rodney’s inspiring story – Get Up! I Can’t. I Will. I Did… Here’s How! https://rodneyflowers.com/get-up-book/
• Recognize Your Positive Potential – Essential Assertions by Rodney Flowers https://rodneyflowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• Get Access to Rodney’s Daily Inspiration in your Inbox Today. https://rodneyflowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734

About Sachiko Tiana

Are you ready to shed your past, rise above your present, and go confidently in the direction of your dreams? The first step? Decide. Choose right here and now to make a move. Set your intention. Then simply ask Rodney for help. https://rodneyflowers.com/mentoring/