Charlie Chen on Mindset, Identity, and Reclaiming Your Agency

Welcome to the Authority Formula Podcast, the show that helps you grow your business, attract new opportunities, and leave your competition behind. I'm George Wright III, your host, partnering with Valiant CEO Magazine to bring you the world's top entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and experts. Let's dive into the strategies they use to dominate their markets and become the authority in their field. All right, welcome back to the Daily Mastermind and the Authority Formula Podcast. My name is George Wright III. I am your host, and I'm here with an incredible guest today. I'm really excited to have you on with us, Charlie Chen. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks. How are you, George? Good, good. I'm glad that we're able to coordinate. A lot of times, busy entrepreneurs, it's difficult, but we're going to get into some really good stuff today. It goes along the lines with several conversations I've been having with some of my mentoring clients lately, but I want to give everyone an intro real quick to your background. So for those of you that don't know, Charlie is the founder of Ultra Wellness Gear, and he's a serial entrepreneur. He's really been doing a lot of things over the years. He's currently, though, focused on this wellness tools and mindset coaching that'll help people to really get their lives and agency and business in line. He was recently featured in Valiant CEO, which is where I met him, and we're excited to have him on. He was born in Taiwan, moved to California at five. He actually spent part of his childhood in a Buddhist monastery and was a monk from nine to 14. So we're going to talk a little bit about that as well. But he studied graphic design and art at UC Davis. He worked along all kinds of different industries from life insurance, timeshare, telecommunications, sales support, but made some major breakthroughs in personal development where he really uncovered a framework that we're going to talk to you about today. Charlie, I'm excited to have you, but I would love for you to start us out by giving us a little bit of this background as to why you were living in a monastery for some of your early years. Yeah, thanks for asking that, George. So, interestingly enough, my mom had decided unanimously to become a Buddhist nun after listening to the lecture by a Buddhist master. And so even though my dad had begged her to stay, once she makes up her mind, it's made. And funny thing is she asked her friend to take care of my dad, meaning be his wife. And that's a whole nother story. But that lady did end up becoming my stepmom, but not right away. Yeah, it was crazy, like unheard of. When she decided to become a nun, our master's main headquarter location is up in Northern California in a small city called Ukiah. up there a couple hours north of the Bay area. And so when she moved there, she brought myself, my older brother, her mom, which is my grandma, and also a cousin as well. So it was quite interesting that my mom, my grandma, and my cousin all became Buddhist nuns right there and then when I was five years old. So that's how we got started with that journey. Wow, and it's come full circle because that really gave you this whole foundation of mindset and awareness and things. Tell me how that sort of shaped your career and things as you went into that. Give me a little bit of that background. Yeah. So growing up within the monastery, living among monks and nuns, it was quite different. It was like all about detaching from worldly desires, having just a very simple life. No internet, no shopping, no this, no that. So it's almost like an Amish community. and so coming into the real world as they say it was quite a culture shock for me but at the same time it gave me like you said that mindfulness just being able to not get too caught up into the keeping up with the joneses if you will and even though the other part of it is also a mindset shift too, because growing up, sometimes within certain cultures, we share that money is evil, this, that, and other. And so how does that work, right? We're trying to get ahead and money is evil. So that's like conflicting, right? I have to make some mindset shifts around that to be able to overcome that. Yeah. It's interesting though, that even with that pre-year background, you went right into business. You've had a lot of success. You've been into several different from telecom to sales and support. And so you've had a large amount of success in business. But one of the reasons we featured you in Valiant CEO Magazine is because you had this point where you've pivoted into, and maybe it was major breakthrough. I'd like to know what your perspective is on overall wellness and mindset and physical and mental, because going from business into that arena, which most entrepreneurs and business owners do struggle with. What was the reason that you decided to go down that path? Yeah, so interestingly enough, the whole mindset thing was born out of my first entrepreneur endeavor within the life insurance industry straight out of college. And through that, I was able to just learn about personal development, leadership. And through that, I got introduced to landmark education. I love to give credit where credit is due. And that really didn't teach me something new, but rather put into words that I could fully grasp of a lot of the teachings that I grew up with in the Buddhist monastery. And so it put it in a way where the language made sense for me to unpack some of the things that were running the show if you will And so what everything that happens we human beings were meaning making machines So we make a story out of it And sometimes those stories we don let go of it And we don even realize And that's what's actually in the driver's seat of our life. And so making that discovery and uncovering was a huge breakthrough for me to where, because of that, and how I was able to get complete with whatever past that was holding me back and being able to invent new possibilities. So it allowed for me, if I find something good, this goes back to the Buddhist upbringing of what they call the Bodhisattva Path. And that's essentially an enlightened being that's before the step that you reach Buddhahood or reach Nirvana, which is the end of the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. And so the Bodhisattva Path is always about how do I serve other people? Once I found that for myself, then it was a natural next step for me to want to empower others with that same finding as well. Yeah. And it's interesting because I'm sure that this is a pretty general answer. But who do you think really in business, who do you think benefits from a lot of these principles and teachings? Because I know that there are a lot of timeless principles out there for personal development and mindset. But when it comes to business, who are the people that you primarily serve the most, that benefit the most from really this process and things that you talk about? Yeah, I would say businesses that are focused on having their people become leaders. Because sometimes there are business owners where they're wanting to maintain that top-down command and control. It's very old school, and they just want people to show up and follow orders. They don't want them to re-evaluate things of the way that they're doing it and finding ways of being more efficient and productive. Obviously, that's not who I look to serve. I'm looking to serving business owners that are wanting to develop people and develop leaders, both themselves and the people that work for them and with them. Yeah, I think that's a good distinction as well, because people are working in all kinds of different environments and maybe they're founders and CEOs or or business owners themselves. And so that's a real key. What would you say is one of the differentiating factors in actually getting success? And I think this goes straight to what you do differently, because I know you've in the answer, maybe you've combined the physical wellness products with the mindset and systems. But what is it that you do a little different that you feel like has made a bigger impact for people that's made more significant change in development for them? Yeah, I would say start at the root level. But before you deal at the root level, you want to begin with the end in mind, which is one of the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership by John Maxwell. And so when we talk about what we want our life to look like, it's actually designing it from a place of imagination rather than based on our past memory in terms of thinking what's realistic based on what I've done or haven't been able to do, which is very constricting. And so once you have that vision of where you want to go, then you want to look at the root level. What's actually getting in the way of me actually fulfilling that? And because obviously, if that's what you that's what we want, why is it that we haven't achieved that? And so from that root level, just looking deeper into the different levels of the onion, right, until we get to the core. And at the we all have access to the same information, because it's an information age. Nobody has more information than anybody else. And it's just a matter of what's our mindset. That's the only distinction between somebody like yourself, George, versus somebody who's got all the same talents and skills as you have, but are not applying themselves and actually getting out there and making an impact in the world that they know that they are capable of doing. and would you agree that that yeah no i do i do and i think that i think there's both the motivation to do it and also uncovering like you said these interior internal battles or barriers or obstacles that are keeping you from and it comes straight back to awareness right so when you're working with people you've talked about this three-step transformation process and i know we've hit and talked a little bit about that as we've gone but maybe so that it's a little bit more succinct for our listeners. Can you walk me through the three-step transformation process that you take people through? I think that'll give them a good awareness of what it takes in the processes that you work with. Yeah, absolutely. So I'll share my own story and demonstrate how those three steps played out for me. And so the first step is uncovering your story. And what I mean by that is there's a story that we all believe about ourself, whether we're aware of it or not. and sometimes it's so subtle and in the subconscious it's that blind spot things that we don't know that we don't know right so yeah that's actually what's scary is that's running the show that's who's pulling the strings in terms of how we respond or react to the different circumstances and so what i realized i had a pattern of constantly waiting to the last minute right procrastination uh constant tardiness and i just thought that's just me trying to make the most of the time that i have and just justifying it making excuses for it yeah we rationalize it exactly yeah we rationalize and at the one of the seminars that occurred within the landmark education process is that i got to a point where my seminar leader finally called me out on it And that the other part of leadership is that accountability willing to not be popular and not be liked necessarily but do the right thing for the people that you're leading. And so she called me out on it. We had a discussion, unpacked it. And what I realized was that this was a story that I had hung on to at 12 years old when I was a Buddhist monk. And we were visiting, because when I was in that program, we were at a satellite location down here in Long Beach, California. And so we were visiting the headquarter location up in Ukiah. And there's a group about, at that point, close to 20 of us. And in the evening lecture in the main prayer hall, where there's hundreds of people, one of the monks at the headquarter location asked our group if somebody from our young novice group could go on stage and share something to represent the group and so i wanted to make our group proud i raised my hand and i said i'm gonna come up on stage in front of all these hundreds of people and recite from memory this sanskrit mantra which is essentially ancient indian language i don't know what i'm reciting right but this takes 10-15 minutes to just even say out loud and i volunteered to do that from memory. And so halfway through, I start forgetting a few lines here and there. And I know I got to the last of the five chapters, but I don't remember if I actually finished or not. All I remember is running out the door as far and as fast as I could. I was bawling in that moment. I didn't say anything, but if I could go back in that moment and capture the emotions, basically I told myself I'm a failure and no matter what I do or how hard I try, I'm always going to be a failure. Yeah, so once I was able to uncover that story, George, that was a huge light bulb moment, right? So it allowed me to, which goes into the next step, which is get complete with that pass. Because we may be through with our past, but our past may not be through with us. And so what was happening was that was like, the past was this chair that I kept putting in front of me. And I kept tripping over that same chair. And most people, you've said this before, like most people don't even recognize it themselves. Exactly. They've got to have, that's why mentors and things help a lot. Okay, so you're uncovering your story. Go ahead, keep going. Yeah, so getting complete with the past is just a process that I take people through. And obviously in that instance for myself, my seminar leader took me through of unpacking each one, right? each of the meanings and stories that I attach to myself on whatever negative things that occurred, then just acknowledging that what happened is what happened. That's in the past. Obviously, we can't go back and change the past. But if we continue to operate as if those meanings that got attached, like the story that I talked about, is attached to something, which is the past, that we have no control over, whether it be the past or circumstances or people, those are things that we don't have control over, then we render ourselves powerless. And so getting complete with the past is letting go of those meanings and stories that we attach to that which we have no control. Therefore, we can allow ourselves to have a blank slate to start from and really invent. So the last step is inventing new possibilities. And the reason we use that word is we don't want it to be thinking like, I want to be rich because I'm not rich right now. So there's actually, it's the opposite of the cause and effect law that we learn in Buddhism. In this case, when it comes to inventing our possibilities, we don't want to come from a cause. We want to be the cause. And that's pretty refreshing that we can align ourselves with another law of the universe, which is a law of the order in which things occur, which is be, do, have. Because so often the society and we see in the media that our path to our pursuit of happiness is have, do, be. Meaning we need to have money. We need to have X, Y, Z. We need to have a house. We need to have this car so we could go do the things we enjoy so that we can be happy. but that's going against the law of the natural order in which things occur. Think about this technology that we're on, George, of the way we're talking to each other over the internet. It's not that whoever invented the tech that allowed this to happen, they started from being. They were being inspired, they're being creative, and it didn't stop them if they failed the first however many times. It's just like Thomas Edison. He didn't look at it that I failed a thousand times to create the light bulb. He just said, I figured out a thousand ways of how not to create a light bulb. Yeah. It sounds subtle, but it's not, right? It makes a huge difference on your performance. Absolutely. And it's actually be, do, have. So we can come from that being of what you choose, how you choose you want to show up. Then that dictates your effectiveness and what you do. and then the having, whether it be the financial measures of your success or all the houses, cars, relationships, that's all byproducts. So there's no shortage of money in the world. There's only shortage of ideas. So if you want to elevate your wealth, elevate your thinking, elevate your mindset. Yeah, I think. So I love that So let me get this right So it uncover your story get complete with your past and then invent new possibilities And I like the fact that ties to identity because I think most people do well a lot of people operate from their past right But even in the present, I think it's difficult sometimes to do the things you want to have happen in your life. And so you have to think as if you're already where you need to be. You have to be the 10x 10x leader. You have to be the person that you want to become because I found when I give myself that permission to be that person, I definitely act differently. I do things differently. Whereas you'll hesitate if you don't feel like you're there yet and you're not at that level, you'll hesitate. So now I'm sure that a lot of this with the mindset has to do with consistency too. Do you have particular daily rituals or daily protocols you use in order to stay consistent personally? Yeah, absolutely. So for those that have not read The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, definitely read that. He actually has an app called Miracle Morning. And so that's what I use. And it tracks what he calls the savers. I'm not going to go into the acronym. But I believe if I had to recite off the top of my head, silence, I'm not going to go into it. But just check out The Miracle Morning. and it has the things that's going to set you up for success right from the get-go at the beginning of the day. So that way you start from that place of elevated mindset. Yeah, I think winning the morning is definitely a key to winning the day. I've learned that over time as well. And I also think that if you don't create those consistencies, even when you have breakthrough moments, you could slip back into the traps of complacency, non-productivity. You think being active is productive and it may not be. That's a really real key thing as well. And I do think that's a great example and a great suggestion for the book. I really appreciate you spending some time. I think that you have a lot of different ways that people can tie physical well-being into mental well-being. And I would love for us to have another opportunity in the future. But what's the best way for people to get in touch with you? What's the best way for them to connect with you? First is LinkedIn. I'm pretty active on there. You should be able to find me just by typing in Charlie Chen or LinkedIn slash MR Charisma, as in Mr. Charisma. And that's, yeah, funny story behind that was I was attending Les Brown's live event. This was early on when I was doing my personal development journey. And at the end of the talk, I went to the back where he was selling his programs, his CDs, and I was wearing this tan suit and I went to shake his hand and he goes, how you doing, Mr. Charisma? So I just, it just stuck from there. Yeah. From the master. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I've had, Lessa spoke for me a lot of times and I tell you just, and I think a lot of people do adopt little thoughts from him. I had him tell me so many times and audiences and people we've spoken to that you have greatness inside of you that it's just, it's stuck as well. Yeah. I love it. I love it. You have a lot of things going on. There's a lot of emerging things that are happening. Do you have any last bits of advice or strategies or tips or anything you would give our listeners before we end this episode? Yeah, what I would say is find the inner peace before you try to go out and figure out what you need to do. Because the outside world is a reflection of the inner world. And so if you don't have it figured out internally, because, okay, there's this thing called the SWOT analysis, and I'm sure it's not original to me. SWOT stands for strength, weakness, opportunity, and threats. So you want to identify those first, and then you address those four things with the four languages of leadership, which is vision casting. First, start with that vision, right? vision casting storytelling right so for us story is a two-sided thing first you can uncover the story that's limiting you right now and then you want to invent the story that you want to tell to the world yeah and then the third one is assignments give yourself some assignments on addressing the opportunity like defining the opportunities that you have and then lastly challenge yourself That's the fourth language of leadership is challenging yourself on overcoming and facing the threats head on because what you resist persists. So the more you think, OK, if I just don't deal with it, it's not going to affect me. That's furthest from the truth. You need to deal with things, the threats head on and turn your weakness into your strengths. Yeah. Yeah. I love that advice. I think that's really good. It's good. And most of the people listening to our show are leaders. And so that's the kind of stuff that they need to be doing. So this is great, man. This has been great kind of catching up with you as well. And for our listeners, for those of you listening, I'm going to put in the show notes several places you can connect with Charlie. I encourage you to reach out and connect. One of the things that I like to tell everyone is that no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, it's never too late to start living the life and creating the life that you're meant to live. And sometimes it's just one connection away. Sometimes it's just one strategy. Charlie talked about that comment with Les Brown. You never know. So reach out, connect and do me a favor and share this show. I think it'll mean the world to me. It would do a lot for a lot of people out there as well that are looking for answers. So with that said, we really appreciate you. Hit us up on the podcast and we'll look forward to talking with you soon. Have a great day.