Building an Authentic Personal Brand Worth Millions with Misa Chien

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Ops Authority. Today, we'll be breaking down building an authentic personal brand worth millions. To drop these vibe bombs, I have brought Misa Chen into EO Fire Studios. Misa is an authentic leader who is known for inspiring others and helps people feel less alone and more connected through authenticity and transparency. She now helps Asian American female leaders feel less alone and more connected by building a paid community of over 250 Asian American women uplifting and inspiring each other.

0:42In today's foundation, we'll talk about a crazy rollercoaster story from food network success to utter failure and embarrassment. We'll also talk about raising money in Silicon Valley, losing authenticity, finding oneself again, and icky guy, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Misa and our sponsors. DTC Pod, hosted by Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolas, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals. DTC Pod is a podcast about all things direct to consumer. Ramon and Blaine cover everything from starting, growing, and optimizing e-commerce stores and DTC brands.

1:20If you're interested in the stories behind your favorite consumer brands, this podcast is for you. One recent episode on how the best brands are built is a must listen. Listen to DTC Pod wherever you get your podcasts. Misa, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hi, my name is Misa Chen. I'm the founder of The Authentic Asian. I really like to help people feel less alone and more connected through authenticity. I would say that after being an entrepreneur for two decades now, I've been in the trenches. I think that success is basically built on the building blocks of failure.

2:07Failure is something people don't like to talk about. A lot of the media likes to just talk about overnight success. The most recent company I've built has been seen by a lot of people and claimed to be an overnight success, but it really wasn't. It was a success with failures two decades in the making. You have to look at it like throwing darts at a dartboard. And you're never going to, it's extremely rare, 99.99 % of the time you aren't going to hit that target. And that's okay. And that's how life works. And that's what makes it interesting. And Fire Nation, we're going to be focusing today on building an authentic personal brand worth millions.

2:49And Misa just mentioned that she's been at this for two decades now. Well, our first chat with her was actually one decade in. So at the 10-year mark back in 2014, we had a great conversation. So definitely go back and tune into that one. But today, 10 years later, we're talking about a lot of cool things. And one of the things I want to start off with, Misa, is the fact that you went from this ugly, dyslexia duckling, failing in school, like life was really not going your way. But then you were discovered as a model. You started running a food truck. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a second.

3:26So tell us more about this part of your story. Basically, growing up, I knew I was different. I knew I thought differently. I was struggling with school a lot. Luckily, I had a fabulous mom who caught it very early on. And for a lot of the entrepreneurs who are listening, for entrepreneurs, we are disproportionately either ADD or dyslexic or neurodivergent just because it's an easier career path for us to choose. Society, we don't always, we're like a square peg that fits in the round hole of society, you know, so a lot of people listening out there also are probably dyslexic or ADD. I have both, more mild ADD, more severe dyslexia.

4:10And so growing up, school was not enjoyable for me. I liked math, but every time I had English or reading, it was such a struggle. And so when I was in sixth grade, I switched to a new school and then there was this upperclassman. I really, really looked up to her. She just was showing me around the school and she said, that's the cafeteria. That's where we're going to eat. Here's the locker rooms. That's where you go to PE. And I asked her, oh, what's that brick building in the corner? She says, oh, that's where the stupid kids go. It's called the learning center. You don't have to worry about going there.

4:46And unfortunately, the next day, my mom says, oh, every single day after school, you're going to go into that learning center. And that's how I started off middle school. And it was really hard. I mean, just having that mentality going in every day, you know, I did successfully get straight B's, some A's with a lot of tutoring, a lot of help. But just knowing that that's how I was labeled was a really big challenge. And on top of that, I was really one of the only women of color at my school. So it was a very non-diverse environment. So that was a challenge, too. You know, I felt like a black sheep for a huge portion of my life.

5:35And the confidence was a big issue for me up until finally I went to college and things started to get turned around for the better. And luckily, I had a great family at home to come home to, and I was very close to my sister. So I had that safe environment to come back to despite being bullied at school. Now, Fire Nation, I really hope you realize that it's just a roller coaster that we're on here. the roller coaster of life. There's going to be the ups, there's going to be the downs. There's actually a fantastic book that I love by Nassim Taleb called Anti-Fragile, where it shows that actually the individuals that face significant challenges when they're younger have a much better time when they face challenges when they're older.

6:15And we're all going to face challenges when we're older. So do you want to be a fragile person or an anti-fragile person? Do you want your kids to be fragile or anti-fragile. So if something is challenging right now to your kids, I know it's hard to see in the moment, but realize they're becoming anti-fragile in that moment. And entrepreneurship is that roller coaster as well. I mean, there's success, there's failure. And Misa, you've had your dose of that in spades, so to speak. I mean, you're on the food networks, the great food truck race. I mean, that must have been so exciting on a lot of levels.

6:49but then you just completely embarrass yourself in front of 60 million viewers. That's almost a hard number to imagine. So I mean, it's just a crazy story. There was a mental health crisis that led to burnout, that led to failure. What happened there? Tell us that story. I really blossomed in college and things really took a turn for the better. And I started dabbling more into entrepreneurship. I had a couple of businesses that did decent. Nothing went hugely off the ground. And so after college, while modeling, I made some good money. I put all my modeling savings into a food truck with another friend that I started.

7:28It was called Nom Nom Truck. We drove the truck across the United States. I got Inc. 30, Entrepreneur Under 30, Forbes Women to Watch. Every possible accolade you could get in just a year of being business. We built a seven-figure business. What type of food was it? Banh mi Vietnamese sandwiches is fabulous food. It was a great business model in some ways because banh mi Vietnamese sandwiches were not readily available. We hit the food truck craze right at the right time. But in terms of a business model, oh my goodness, it is so unprofitable to run a food truck unless you prioritize catering.

8:04And so I sunk all my savings into it. After four years of being in business, I got so burned out, just mental health. I didn't seek support. Me and my business partner were so burned out. We had a big falling out. And all the liabilities ended up being on me stupidly. I had it be that way because I had more money and I put in all my savings. So I was six figures in debt when it closed. We had a lawsuit I had to settle. and I had lost my identity as an entrepreneur overnight. It was brutal. What was specifically that embarrassment that happened in front of 60 million people? Oh, the embarrassment.

8:46Well, actually, so I didn't look so bad compared to the other contestants. They lied and said that I was a UCLA business school graduate, which was not true. So there were some really positive stereotypes that worked in my favor. But in Tennessee, the fourth episode but the producers are upset that we look so good on camera. So they're like, what the heck can we throw Nom Nom Truck or Misa's way? Well, let's have her. We know that she doesn't know how to start a fire with pioneer cooking tools. Let's have her cook a three-course pioneer, a three-course meal with pioneer cooking tools. And I just totally blew it.

9:24I mean, you can't be crushing it all the time. You can't be good at everything. So I almost blew up the set. I put so much gasoline on the fire and it was so embarrassing. I mean, if I am to be embarrassed in one part of the challenge, I don't mind that it's that because it's like, that's not part of business really. I mean, on the business side of things, I did look decent most of the time. I'm going to have to go back and watch some of those episodes. Yeah, it's good. It's the ups, it's the downs. And in fact, look it, Misa's laughing about it now. So I mean, in the moments, things seem really bad, but I love this phrase, this too shall pass.

10:00At your lowest of lows, this too shall pass. And by the way, at your highest of highs, this too shall pass. You must understand that. And so enjoy those great moments because they are fleeting. And don't just sink to the depths of despair in those bad moments because they will pass as well. And Fire Nation, we're going to be talking more about this and authenticity and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Marketers have never been spread so thin. Trust me, I feel it too. Between creating content, launching campaigns, generating leads, nurturing your prospects, and more, you barely have a second to breathe, let alone do your best marketing.

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11:20Stop spreading yourself thin and start making major moves with HubSpot. Visit hubspot.com slash marketers to learn more. Lisa, we've heard a lot of talk about raising capital in Silicon Valley with venture firms and Benchmark and Y Combinator, all this jazz. You actually believed that doing that, raising money in Silicon Valley, caused you to lose yourself as well as your authenticity. So tell us more about that. Once I closed NOMTRAC, I thought, okay, I'm going to raise money in Silicon Valley for a startup. that's a lot more a safer bet and that's going to be a less rocky road than food trucks.

12:00I had no idea what I was thinking. I mean, it got crazier in some ways. It's just a different type of crazy. I mean, you aren't driving a food truck on the road. But I, you know, we, me and my husband decided to do a startup. It still exists today. It's a survey and the call center space. I really cared deeply about customer service and was passionate about that. So I wanted to build something in that space after having Nom Nom Truck and having, caring so much about customers there. And so we decided to start it, but I didn't realize how challenging it would be to raise money in Silicon Valley.

12:41You know, since I had a food truck background, that's not exactly looked upon as the same caliber of a business. Also, So if you aren't an Ivy League school grad or Stanford grad, it's extremely challenging to raise money for women, women of color. I think it's less than 3 % of VC-backed companies have a female CEO. So, I mean, the stats, I knew the stats and I knew how hard it was going to be. But it really, I still, nothing could have prepared me for it. Um, and it was really challenging because people wanted to be a, me to be a certain type of Asian girl. Like I, I recruited a mentor in the space and he said, oh, you're going to pitch us the tiger Asian, right?

13:29Not the cute Asian. Um, and so as a result, you know, I started changing the way I dressed. I tried to change my voice tone. I tried to change so many things about me. And at the time I was still modeling, you know, cause it paid so well, but I would hide that too. I just, I wanted to kind of play into this tiger Asian stereotype that people were trying to force on me because I just felt like, oh, that's what's going to raise me money. Well, what you don't realize is that people see right through that facade. I mean, you aren't being yourself. You aren't being your true self and who you really are.

14:05And so I really lost myself in raising money in Silicon Valley. And I did successfully do it. I successfully raised a seed round, but at a lot of cost to myself, to my mental health, to who I really was. And I think that happens for a lot of people. They chase, you get caught up in the dream. And before you know, it's not even your original vision or who you really were. And it's really, really easy in that world to get caught up in that. And I felt like I was failing all the time, even though the business was a decent business. We were doing, you know, mid six figures. I successfully raised a seed round, but you're always looking at others and, oh, that person raised a couple hundred million dollars.

14:47Oh, you know, we had friends who got acquired for$300 million. I mean, you feel like you're failing when you're next to those types of people when you both started out in the same place. I mean, that is one thing that I really try to impress upon Fire Nation is that It's compare and despair. Comparison is truly the thief of joy. There is one person you should be comparing yourself to, and that's you yesterday. And if you're winning that comparison, that means you're just getting a little bit better in something. Maybe it's health. Maybe it's wellness. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's business.

15:23Whatever it might be. Then you're winning. And by the way, not even every day. Just how about four days of the week? maybe five days out of the week, if you're winning yourself, comparing yourself to yesterday, that's positive progress that is going in the right direction. Now, you were able to follow the breadcrumbs towards your authentic self again. How did that work? You know, it really didn't help it. I had to move out of Silicon Valley to do that for sure. It's just this bubble of, it's easy to get caught up in that raising money game and feel like you're feeling. So when my daughter was born, it totally changed me.

16:01It completely changed me as a person in a good way. I mean, it was a challenge, but in a good way in the end of the day, when I look back on it, I really wanted to be a good mom to her, be more authentically myself. And I knew that moving back to Southern California, being closer to family, getting out of that Silicon Valley bubble was really the right move. And I still look back on it. It was such a great move. I feel like me and my co-founder and my husband, we could breathe again. And there wasn't this pressure, like it's almost like a pressure cooker up there. And so we kind of refound our values.

16:39And I refound myself. And I began to, ironically, I thought that I would slow down with my career ambition after becoming a mom. But less than a year after giving birth, I decided to pursue earning my alumni status at Harvard Business School. So I took their personal leadership development course. And that was a game changer. Oh my goodness. I got to get outside of my environment, be on campus for 10 days, and just it forces you to look at yourself in the mirror as a person and ask yourself, who am I really? Who am I as a leader? And be comfortable and embrace your weaknesses, love your strengths, find out what type of leader you are.

17:23And that's when I really began to discover that. Something that we haven't talked about in a little while on Entrepreneurs on Fire is this phrase, icky guy. And I know I'm pronouncing that correctly as far as I know. Good. Thank you. And I want to talk about exactly what is Ikigai and what success has it led to for you? You know, I had this survey company about two years ago, still the same one from Silicon Valley. It was doing well, but I knew that it wasn't, you know, my true passion. And I have a friend who specializes in helping entrepreneurs find their Ikigai. I really recommend him. Brandon Lee, Zone of Genius.

18:06You should get him to come on the show. He's amazing. Oh, cool. And so he has studied finding your Ikigai for five years now, and he has these perfect tests you can take to just pinpoint all of your strengths. So it's basically Ikigai is what you're extremely passionate about, playing to your strengths, but it can't just be a hobby. It has to be, you can viably make money from it. So the Japanese have that term to describe that. It's like this perfect trifecta. And when you find that, it's like you're going to strike gold. And so Brandon had me take his test. And he said, you're going, your ikigai is that you love to help others, but not just one other person, like a one-on-one coach.

18:51You want to uplift as many people as humanly possible. And so at the time we discussed it and we thought it was public speaking. And I absolutely love public speaking. But what I didn't realize as I just went down that path and followed those breadcrumbs more and more to finding my authentic self, my authentic career, is that it was a community I've been meaning to build. And so that's when just a couple months later after taking that test, I discovered, I decided I'm going to build a community for Asian American female leaders so that they feel less alone and more connected. And it was, it's an overnight success.

19:34I mean, that, I say that there's no such thing as an overnight success, but if you look at the numbers, it's an overnight success. We did, we were set to do six figures annually the first month in business. We broke 10K the first month. We got 100 women within 100 days of launching. It's all through authentic content that I put out on LinkedIn and now Instagram about my story as an entrepreneur, as an Asian American woman. And I just write authentic stories all day long and sharing those and being so vulnerable and transparent is what's brought us to probably we're going to be doing seven figures as of next year.

20:14And Fire Nation, as we've talked about in the past, I mean, an overnight success can be a decade in the making. And in Misa's case, it's even two decades in the making because it's everything that she's done over the past 20 years that's allowed her to be this voice, to have the confidence to create something like this, to actually run this community in a meaningful, authentic way. So Misa, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more from you, what is your call to action for our listeners today? If you're a big Instagram user, you can follow me, Misa underscore Chen, or if you're LinkedIn, you can just find me, Misa Chen, M-I-S-A-C-H-I-E-N.

20:55If you are an Asian American female leader, whether entrepreneur or executive or VP, we'd love to explore potentially having you join the community. We're at 250 women now. We're capping it at 500. So we're set to be full next year. Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, You've been hanging out with MC and JLD today, so keep up the heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type MISA in the search bar, M-I-S-A. And the show notes page will pop right up, not to mention that interview that we did a decade ago. Check that one out for sure.

21:32And MISA, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you, and we will catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and MISA for sponsoring today's episode. and Fire Nation, over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk.

22:04The Common Path to Uncommon Success, it's the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flippity flip side.

22:43and listen to DTC Pod wherever you get your podcasts.