You know, when it comes to personal development what’s interesting is that it’s not necessarily always easy, right. It makes you kind of put a mirror up and sometimes it hurts and then you have to cry about it and come through it. But my goodness, it feels good.

Shi:

And it really does, and we were raised on personal growth and development too. Our obsession actually comes from our mama. Where did you get it? We got it from our mama. She was reading us books like “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” back when we were just little kids and so we always had this affinity for looking for that expansion, for trying to find the way that you could develop yourself. What can you control and how can you step into more and be more and become more, have more, and do more? So, that really, for us got planted as seeds with our mom. But both of us at 19 had these books come into our lives that changed trajectories. And for me at 19, it was a book called “The Magic of Thinking Big.” A very simple book but very practical and I think really helped put me on that path of having my own obsession as an adult.

Kay:

Well, it was nice to have that foundational reflection, right. The mirror up of always saying, how can I grow? How can I do better? How can I be better? And mama, you raised a couple of achievers out of that mindset which is awesome. We’re glad to be a part of that. Yes, 19 years old is definitely kind of this magical age and we’ve laughed because we hear a lot of people say…

Shi:

A similar age.

Kay:

At 19 this happened to me. My book was “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader” by a gentleman, many of you know, John Maxwell, who is a leadership guru. Our mom ended up joining his certification program as a result of my reading that book because my transformation was so stark. We had really gotten to learn some amazing leadership things out of that, which led to some big transformations on the business side, which led to some more transformations on the business side which then led to where we are today. So, interesting how that 19-year-old obsession would turn into a career.

Shi:

Well, something we found along that path when we got certified with the John Maxwell Team was our shared love of conferences. Man, we love traveling…

Kay:

They’re so fun.

Shi:

…and going to a conference. The hotel room, the lighting, the run of show.

Kay:

The speakers, the inspiration, the crowd clapping, the awkward human moments. Conferences are so fun.

Shi:

The PowerPoints, the food. Oh gosh.

Kay:

Oh, the food.

Shi:

We obsess over the food.

Kay:

Oh, man when a conference has a buffet.

Shi:

Yeah. Whatever view you have out your window, we love everything about it and it’s definitely one of our shared obsessions. We love to get to travel and do conferences, which is why it’s so great that part of our new business is getting to plan and throw more conferences and do more of that.

Kay:

Yeah, and whether it be going to Tony Robbins Date with Destiny, attending an international Maxwell certification for the John Maxwell team, doing local women’s retreats, whatever it is, we really truly love the growth environment via the conference realm. But man, that just makes us sound so boring. I promise we like things other than growth and conferences. You’ve heard us talk about our shared obsession with Disney and you’re actually going to get to join us this year on the Kay & Shi Show on a Disney trip that we take in the fall.

Shi:

That’s going to be a lot of fun and you’ll get to see a little bit more of our goofy side there. But we do have other goofy obsessions. We both…

Kay:

And not the yuck.

Shi:

Not Disney TM. 

Kay:

I had to do it.

Shi:

So glad you did. We both love the author, Brandon Sanderson. He writes in the fantasy genre, really elaborate whole universes with magic powers and protagonists and twists and turns, and we love his writing. So, I think we’ve read every series, and Kay you’ve read every scrap of writing he’s ever written right.

Kay:

I sure have. Yeah, even the young adult fiction books I have consumed of Brandon Sanderson’s. But in addition to loving some more of those nerdy fantasy-esque things, yes, we love “Lord of the Rings.” Yes, you will find our families watching “Star Wars” together. We also really love musicals and we mentioned Hamilton in our first episode, which is an obvious front runner for a lot of different reasons.

Shi:

That’s another level.

Kay:

But we love musicals, period. I grew up on “Phantom of the Opera.” Shila grew up on “Mouline Rouge.” We both did.

Shi:

And “Grease” and “Chicago” and, oh my gosh.

Kay:

So good. So, we absolutely love musicals, and you will often find us breaking out into song here on the Kay and Shi Show. But on a more serious note, one thing that Shila and I really do love is advocation for all kinds of sociological issues and it’s one of the things that you’ll see us and hear us talk about here in the Kay & Shi Show. You’ve heard Shila mention her extensive education in the field of Sociology, and now her teaching her students. And being a student of yours Shi over these last years has been an incredible way of getting this shared obsession to be fired up by really understanding how institutions and society at large affect us on an individual level.

Shi:

When we have that awareness and understanding, I think it helps all of us want to be more motivated to help others. Lots of us have that want and not just to help others learn and grow and expand. Those are all the fun things about personal growth and development but help others in this institutional sense and in their life chances sense and in some simple ways. Talking about access to clean water and some of those more basic social issues and racial justice issues. We like to advocate for those, and we get a lot of passion from that. So, those are some of our obsessions. We have lots of other ones, big ones and small ones, specific movies, specific lines. We’re really into woo-woo things and spiritual stuff. Shila here, I love running. I know, Kay, you and I got to do the Disney Princess Half Marathon together, and we look forward to doing more of those together as well. But whatever your obsessions are, hopefully, you can vibe with at least a couple here on our list here on the introduction week of the Kay & Shi Show.