Well, hello there and welcome to the very first segment of the Kay & Shi Show.

Shi:

It’s pretty exciting for us. We’ve had a podcast for oh five years now, but it’s been in all kinds of different forms. So, whether you’re from the old school Life Slices day or the Millennial Mentorship days, or even most recently, the Mentorship Quest, we’re so glad you’re here with us today whether it’s your first listen or you’re 20,000th.

Kay:

Now we just decided to finally call the podcast what is it, which is the Kay & Shi Show and we’re so glad to be here. We are sisters Kay and Shi and here on this show, what you can expect is four short episodes that come at you Monday through Thursday with a combined longer episode released on Fridays to give you more of a variety show feel.

Shi:

If you’ve been a long-time listener, you know that the first iterations of the podcast were in the longer form, but the fun part about the Mentorship Quest, the podcast we just had 500 episodes of was that it was five minutes, five minutes every day and so many of our listeners said, that’s what they loved about it. But we also had people who said I missed the long format. So, we hope to give you both here with short bite-size, Monday through Thursday episodes, like Kay mentioned, and you can also go for the variety show-esque combo platter on Friday if you’d rather hear them all at once.

Kay:

Now, each week, we will take a topic or a question and we’ll tackle it from a few different angles in those bite-size chunks and then have that Friday wrap up for all of you with those four episodes into that one longer bit and we’re so excited. So, here we are on the very first episode and here in this first week, we’re just going to focus a little bit on who we are and what the heck even is this whole Kay & Shi Show.

Shi:

Yep. It’s introduction week here on the Kay & Shi Show and we’re excited to just share with you a little bit about who we are, you already heard our first factoid, which is that we are in fact, real-life sisters.

Kay:

We’re seven years apart and this is Kay here. I’m the younger one.

Shi:

Yep. And we might be seven years apart, but we like to say we’re twins and spirit, we’re best friends and we are definitely sisters to the core. So, that’s the first thing to know about us.

Kay:

Well, my name may come first in the Kay & Shi lineup. Shila is definitely in charge as the big sis.

Shi:

Well, whether you are joining us as a big sis or a little sis or mister or non-binary, we want to welcome you to the siblinghood. We’re so glad that you’re here and we can’t wait to be your sisters too.

Kay:

Welcome to the family. You’re with us now.

Shi:

No takesies backsies.

Kay:

Well, we are both so very happily married to people who accept our deep sister bond and who now also accept the sibling bond with you, because welcome. Between the two of us. We have five kids. So, Shila is married to Mr. Chad Morris, and I’m married to Danny.

Shi:

Chad and I have been married for at this time 15 and a half years. We have three beautiful children, Wesley and Emerie, who are twins, and Annadelle, who is in second grade, and we are proud of those three. And I am a proud auntie to Kay’s children.

Kay:

We have little Violet and then Thomas, who is currently on the way. But don’t worry. You’ll get to hear the unveiling of all of that as this podcast goes on and we both happily reside in Reno, Nevada. Now our entrepreneurial roots do run deep. When I was 10 and Shi was 17 our parents purchased a failing restaurant and we would spend the next 18 years aka we’ve just got out of it growing in and growing up this family business.

Shi:

We’re still co-owners of that business. It’s called the Squeeze In and we’re co-chairs of the board. If you are a fan of Squeeze In thank you for supporting our breakfast and lunch business, it is so fun, and we love it just as much as you do. And our 18 years in the restaurant industry have definitely given us a heart for hospitality and hospitality and service will always be part of our DNA.

Kay:

We now have a myriad of other businesses and partnerships that we’re involved in, but most of them center around personal growth and development. All of them focus on education delivery and curriculum development, which is one of the reasons that we love doing podcasting.

Shi:

And we love being partners with Joseph McClendon III in the Neuroencoding Institute, our biggest project to date and one that we’re very proud to be part of. Now, another thing to know about us is that we are alcohol-free and vegetarian too and we are on the path to more whole food plant-based living, more holistic, spiritual, deep connected living, and we love to embrace that always questing for more health and wealth.

Kay:

Now don’t let alcohol-free and vegetarian make you think that we’re not any fun because we are definitely still. We love to play. We love to get nerdy. We love Disney, sci-fi puzzles, reading. We love getting woo-woo telling jokes, attending conferences, traveling, hiking, musicals and we’re really obsessed with “Hamilton.”

Shi:

We’re obsessed with “Hamilton.”

Kay:

“Hamilton.” No problem.

Shi:

Kay’s literally wearing a Hamilton scarf right now.

Kay:

That is the truth. That is a fact. That is happening right now. Well, we love to have fun with each other, and we can’t wait to have fun with you too. Welcome to the siblinghood.

Shi:

Yeah, that’s enough about us. We’re so glad that you’re here and we can’t wait to join you again really soon.

/****/

Shi:

Alright next installment here at the Kay & Shi Show and during welcome week and introduction week, we just want to share a little bit about our family history while we welcome you to the family at the same time.

Kay:

Well, we grew up here in Reno, Nevada, which is a close-knit community of individuals, and had a great time getting to grow up here on the west coast of the United States of America. But here’s a little fun fact that you might not know about us. Shila and I didn’t actually always really love each other super lots.

Shi:

Well, we always loved each other super lots but we definitely did not like each other through our whole childhood. There were a lot of differences in the way that our family was positioned, especially economically as we were growing up that made our experiences a lot different and that served to be a barrier for our relationship for a long time.

Kay:

It sure did. When Shila was born, our parents were actually on food stamps and welfare and when I was born, our mom was just about to graduate from college and our parents leveraged everything to get her through that college degree. But we came up in different environments in the home, which definitely led to some different perspectives.

Shi:

Plus, seven years apart is just a hard age, you know. To be 17 and 10 there’s not always a lot you can bond on, but as you can tell, the older we’ve gotten the closer we’ve gotten, and we have lots to bond over now. But that is a good fun fact for everyone, and you heard a little bit about our family history there. Our parents moved to Reno from Southern California before I was born. So, we are born and raised here in Reno, Nevada, and we’re proud Nevadans.

Kay:

Proud Nevada girls, for sure. Even just recently we’re telling somebody about the magical summer mornings where you can practically smell the lake water. It feels like it’s a part of who we are and we’re proud to be here in Northern Nevada. We’re going to talk just a little bit about who we are individually. But I’ve got to brag because Shi, you are like next-level Northern Nevadan. Not only were you born and raised here, but you then also went to the University of Nevada Reno then you also went back to the University of Nevada, Reno to get your master’s degree and now you teach at the University of Nevada, Reno. So, you’re like a next-level local.

Shi:

That means I must bleed blue and run with the Wolf Pack. Well, thank you. Yes, I love UNR and the house that I was raised in, or at least went to elementary school in and all my early memories are right around the university. And you heard Kay share that mom went to the university. She was graduating the same year that Kay was born and so there’s a lot of family history with the university and I feel so fulfilled getting to teach one of my favorite subjects there, which is Sociology. I just love what you can gain from a discipline like Sociology, where you’re able to see another angle, another view, and the influence that social structures have on us. But besides being a proud part of the Wolf Pack long-running I mentioned in the last installment that I’ve got three kids.

So, Wesley and Emerie are actually twins and as of right now when we’re recording this, they are in sixth grade. So, middle school this year, which has been a lot of fun to get to watch them integrate. Then Annadelle who’s in second grade is just flourishing and doing so well. She’s my gymnastics queen, currently is obsessed with gymnastics and absolutely loves it and in fact, her catchphrase is, “Want to see my best handstand.” And we hear it at least 100 times a day. I’ve been married to Chad, the father to my children for 15 and a half at this point, and we are still in love. We have a goal to get to 100 years of marriage, and we’re feeling pretty confident that we’ll make it there. But we are proud to live here in Nevada. We’re proud to have been business owners at the Squeeze In, and now we’re proud to get to pursue our careers in other ways.

Kay:

It is so fun to get to grow alongside you, Shi, and have watched you become a mom and learn so much through the process. You know, Danny, my partner now of 12 years we’ve been together, been married for eight of those years. We were both there on the day that your twins were born and overnight, the boy I had been dating for six months became Uncle Danny and has been that way ever since. And yes, I have been married to Danny for that long and in 2021, Danny came out to me as a non-binary human, and we’ve been so proud to see them really flourish in this light and the way that they get to express themselves.

So, I come from a rainbow family, which is where one member identifies in the partnership as LGBTQIA and we are proud to fly our rainbow flags in honor of my beautiful partner. We share a daughter, Violet. She is four years old, the love of our little lives. She’s such a light and such a beauty, and we’re so grateful to have her. Then yes, as you heard us mention in the last installment, Tommy is on the way, and that you will be going through and share that all together here on the Kay & Shi Show. We are proud to be business owners that service people globally now, even outside our community, and able to expand our kin, our tribe, our family, to expand you all here into our community and a part of what we do, because we truly are better together.

Shi:

Well, I’ve just got to take a second to brag on my little sister, because Kay, you are such an incredible individual and I’m so glad that I also get to be alongside you in this journey. She was being extremely modest. She has helped grow some massive businesses. She’s been taught by Facebook, not on Facebook, but by Facebook and she was named Mrs. Reno and competed in the Mrs. Nevada competition, won Miss Congeniality. Can’t wait to see you compete again after you have Tommy and work towards that goal Kay. But you’ve accomplished a lot and I wanted to make sure we celebrated all of your achievements.

Kay:

Well, thank you. Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, when you spend the 18 years of your growing up life, you get to learn a lot along the way and that’s one of the things that Shila and I are so proud to bring to the table is practical knowledge, institutional knowledge like Shila gets to bring with her Sociology. And you guys are going to get to experience that all alongside us here on the Kay & Shi Show.

Shi:

See you on the next one.

/****/

Shi:

Hey, if you’re enjoying getting to know us this week, we’d love to have you over at kayandshi.com, where we’ve got an amazing gift for you.

Kay:

Now, one of the things that we’ve gotten the privilege to do in our life is work together to interview a ton of really cool celebrities.

Shi:

People like John Maxwell and Bruce Lipton, Dr. Deborah Tillman, the America Supernanny, and so much more.

Kay:

Of course, we’ve got Joseph McClendon III in there for you and many more, but we want you to head over to kayandshi.com, get signed up for our celebrity interview series and we want to bring you into the family and behind the curtain on some of those really cool things that we’ve had access to.

Shi:

Speaking of the curtain, let’s get back to the show.

Kay:

Okay, let’s get down to business, or shall we say, let’s get down to business…

Kay & Shi:

…to defeat the Huns.

Kay:

Oh yeah.

Shi:

We told you there’d be Disney. A little “Mulan” reference there for you. I feel like you can’t see the phrase let’s get down to business and not hear that song, at least certainly if you are a Disney fan like we are. But today we want to talk a little bit about our business journey and growth and just share some of what we’ve learned in the last 18 years of business ownership and entrepreneurship. That if you are at all interested in growing a business or helping develop a dream or a message in any way we hope and think this will help you.

Kay:

So, as you’ve heard us say, you know, 18 years ago, mom and dad bought this failing restaurant in the California mountain ski town, blah, blah, right. But the story. But the reality of what they did was mom and dad cashed in all of their savings in retirement and put absolutely every single chip our family had in their corner, into this failing restaurant up in that California mountain ski town which means that we had to learn a lot of our business savvy, really the hard way and boots on the ground.

Shi:

In the trenches and it’s easy to say, you know, they bet it all, and then 18 years later here it is, “it’s a success” however you want to define that. But 18 years is a long time and can you imagine making that kind of bet. Mom and dad, we know you’re going to listen to this, and we are just so glad that you did.

Kay:

Thank you.

Shi:

Thank you so much for seeing the vision, believing in yourselves, and betting on us as a family to be able to do this, because it’s been an incredible journey and we really have learned so much from those trenches of a family business. But like come on you all, it was trenches sometimes.

Kay:

Right. Well, let’s talk about what the reality of that looked like. Circa 2005 Shila and Chad are waiting tables. I’m bussing tables alongside dad. No, I would run the line. Dad would buss the tables. Mom would run the food and you and Chad would serve. That’s what it looked like. 10 and 17 isn’t a joke. We were a restaurant family coming home to bake the biscuits and do the laundry and watch as mom and dad balanced the books and figured out what it took to create something of success.

Shi:

We also watched them learn that journey of what it took to create success. and we watched our mom engage in mastermind groups and invest in marketing and to be smart and strategic with her business plans and to watch our dad work really hard to make each guest experience and matter and to place importance and value on the cleanliness. Chad brought forward this focus on people and helped develop our early inroads for culture and being able to do that. We did that on the daily and we got to learn altogether. But truly, mom and dad were able to show us so many of those lessons and give us that early love of personal growth and development, which is now our business. So, so very, super cool.

Kay:

Well, it really took that entrepreneurial spirit and I think when we start to examine the entrepreneurial spirit, obviously, there’s that risk-taking that happens when somebody pushes all of their chips in. But the entrepreneurial spirit, I think Shi, you just encompass it very well. It’s having that focus on people. It’s being able to focus on the outcome like dad was so focused on that guest experience. It’s being able to be savvy and strategic in how you move about things. So, we learned it at a young age, and we caught fire for it and it’s really amazing to see how many people out there are catching fire for that entrepreneurial spirit as well.

Shi:

Now, it’s fun to reminisce about the really old days in the business, but the more current reality of what the Squeeze In restaurant chain has been. The last nine of the 18 years, I was the President of the company. Kay came in as Vice President, about five years into that, oh, I’m sorry, four years into that and we led together and that’s 180 employees. It’s 10, 11 locations. It’s growing, it’s across four states. It’s liquor licenses, it’s lawyer meetings, it’s all hands, it’s menu analysis. We were definitely in the onslaught of operating and truly being business operators of a very large chain and it was a lot of responsibility. We learned a heck of a lot.

Kay:

Yep.

Shi:

And we’re proud to be on the other side of it helping encourage and coach others to do the same.

Kay:

You know what’s one of the things that we learned the most was just how much we didn’t know, right. Going from the single unit family-owned business to even four, to then a franchise having 10 locations like Shila said, 11 across four states. There was a big gap there and a big leap that had to get taken. And so, we learned how it was to be a micro business and then we learned how it was to be kind of a larger, small business, still technically a small business. In these last seven months, we have been on the hunt and have finally found a professional chief Executive Officer to come in and take over the restaurants so that we can focus our new career paths in the personal growth and development space, which really actually started taking off for us in about 2019.

Shi:

Yes, and that’s when we got to launch the Neuroencoding Institute, but what we learned in the restaurant industry will always give us that heart for hospitality and, as we’ve mentioned, we are still co-owners and co-chairs of the board over at Squeeze In, but it’s been so fun to get to explore a new industry and learn a new business in something that we are incredibly passionate about and we’ve learned so much. It’s funny how many kinds of overarching business themes there are, whether it is you’re running a small brick and mortar restaurant or a large online institute with personal growth and development celebrity that a lot of the mechanics still look the same.

Kay:

They do look the same even though the loads don’t look the same and we’ve certainly have learned a lot on our way and excited to talk more about that in the next segment.

/****/

Kay:

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.