How Authenticity Made Kenny Lee a 7-Figure Entrepreneur | Be Rawsome

What if the very things you've been calling weaknesses were actually your greatest superpowers? Today's guests built a seven figure global movement on that exact belief. Kenny Lee is a life and business strategist, founder of the Rawson movement, and now an author of the brand new book Be Rawsome. His work has touched executives, entrepreneurs and change makers around the world, equipping them to break free of fear, self doubt and the masks that keep them small. Through his unicorn, 100K offers coaching and the Rawsome x inner circle, Kenny has built a thriving community of elite achievers, LGBTQ leaders and women entrepreneurs, helping them create lives and businesses rooted not just in success, but in deep fulfillment. At the heart of it all is a philosophy both simple and life changing. When you face yourself with honesty instead of fighting yourself with judgment, you stop drinking your own poison and you start coming home to who you've always been. This episode isn't just about business. It's about becoming your biggest cheerleader, creating alignment and living with fulfillment. I'm Jason S. Bretshaw and this is Chats with Jason. Join me as we go Raw, real and raw. Some with Kenny Lee. Kenny, welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you, thank you, Jason. Really grateful. So excited to be here. And your intro just now, I'm like, wow, if I'm going to wake up like to that every single day, right. My life is rawsome.

I'll give you the recording. How's that?

I love that. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So excited. Thank you.

So as we record it, we're one day out from the release of your new book. When this episode goes live, of course people will be able to get your new book. But let's straight into the questions. Kenny, you've built your empire on authenticity. What's the most common mask leaders wear and what happens when they finally take it off?

This is such a good question. The common mask that leaders wear and a mask that I wore so many years back was the mask of I'm not enough. Not feeling enough. Yeah. It doesn't sometimes come out in that way, but deep down is that feeling of not enoughness. And it shows up in insecurity. It shows up in sometimes being overly confident or being too positive, sometimes as a must to cover that not enoughness and sometimes to a certain extreme extent, even aggressiveness or being triggered all the time. Yeah. So this is the pattern that I see and amongst leaders and I started like that too. Honesty.

And so what happens when you finally take off that mask?

Really? Yeah. Freedom. The ability to truly be who you are and a pattern that I realized in myself when I was taking up the mask. And I'm still unmasking every single day. Yeah, this journey of unmasking doesn't stop. I realize that I'm more fun. I get to laugh more. I get to treat things not too seriously. Don't sweat the small stuff. And that's something that it's really such an amazing feeling just to be at ease every single day.

So in the book be rawsome, you shared a moment. A coach told you, kenny, you're so good at hurting yourself. Can you take us back to that moment and how it shifted your life?

Yeah. This was my pivotal moment, and that's why it's in the first chapter of the book. I got to know about life coaching 10 years back, more than 10 years back, at a point in time, I went to a Tony robbins event. Changed my life. I was like, walk through fire. Unleash your power from within. Changed my life. And after that, I was like, oh, I want to experience this every single day. So I actually engaged a coach, and we went through for about. About a few months of coaching. And at a point in time, my coach was just in one of our regular monthly sessions. He actually said this to me, Kenny, do you know what you are so good at? At the point in time, I'm like, whoa, okay, you're going to celebrate me right now. You're going to tell me something good about me? He had a long pause, and he said that, kenny, you are so good at hurting yourself. You're so good at taking your thoughts, changing them into a dagger, a sword, right? And every single day, you're using that to stab yourself. You're turning your thoughts into poison. And every single day, you're drinking that consciously and subconsciously. Those words really hit me. I needed to hear those words that very day. Because, honestly, I was doing that to myself every single day. My favorite thing to do at the end of the day is I'll sit down on my sofa, open up a bag of chips, right? And I'll be replaying every single conversation, every single interaction of the day. And I will beat myself up. Like, why do you say this? You shouldn't have said that. Or you should have said this. What's holding you back? And I'm having that internal battle every single day. So I'm so glad my coaches asked me this one quality question reflecting this truth back to me. And it set me free that day. I set me free. My realization was, if I can hurt myself, I can Also love myself. So that day I decided to draw the line in the sand. Enough is enough. No. I'm going to love myself and only I can.

So through your work, you've created a framework, focus, appreciate, challenge, embrace, integrate and test. Why does facing ourselves matter more than fixing ourselves?

It really boils down to this one quote. The truth will set us free. And I think it's a quote from the Bible. I'm not religious, but I'm very spiritual. It is really the truth that will set us free, really. And at the point in time I remember going through a meditation class today, I'm very into understanding my thoughts, sitting with my thoughts, meditating on my thoughts. But years back, after coaching, there was still like an inner buzz that's going on. Like an inner undertone of then not enoughness that was still going on. A pattern. It wasn't that bad. It was even better. But there was still that overthinking kind of thoughts. I was invited to a meditation group class. In that group class, this thing happened. We had to lie down on the floor and we do a close eye process. And the whole process was a guided meditation process. What we did was just go with the flow. And I remember my meditation to J. At a point in time, say that just surrender so you don't have to do anything. Just surrender and listen to my voice and just enjoy the session. That one hour session was the most torturous tsunami of thoughts coming in, right, flowing in. And I couldn't. It was so quiet in terms of the physical environment, but internally it was so noisy. At the end of the session, we were invited to be in a circle and we're doing like a sharing. What was your key takeaway? How was the experience for you? I was towards the end of the circle. So every single one that were there present in the meditation class, they were like, oh, the best meditation class ever. I had aha moments. I envisioned my future. I released certain things. I was like, oh my God, number one. Were we in the same room? It doesn't sound like we were in the same room. It's like, what did we say? Meditation class. And it was getting closer to me. I was so nervous and asked myself, should I just pretend? Should I just say that? Yeah. It was also a very good class as well. I decided not to because I wouldn't be Rossum. I wouldn't be honest. So what I did was I said the truth. I said that I couldn't focus. It was very challenging and I couldn't quiet my thoughts. The whole one Hour I was just overthinking and my meditation teacher asked me this one question. Is it true that you were overthinking? I was like, what a question is that? Of course it's true. I'm overthinking. I am the one hearing my thoughts. Right? Then she paused again, awkward silence, and said, is it overthinking or is it your knowing? If overthinking is that bad, why are you still alive? And that was my aha moment. And that was the first day whereby it was the beginning of face day and my biggest realization was a pattern I was doing all along. I would beat myself up first. My overthinking. I would like, oh, this is bad. I want to resist. I don't want this. And the more I do not want it, the more it persists. So for the very first day in that meditation class, I started to look at my overthinking and say that you are not that bad. If it's not because of you, I wouldn't be able to think about plan A, plan B, plan C. You allow me to come in very prepared. If it's not because of you, I wouldn't be so sensitive to other people's feelings and to be able to care and support them in the way that they don't even know that it's possible. If it's not because of you, my overthinking, I wouldn't be able to show up so present, right? Because I've already thought about all the scenarios that might happen already and I wouldn't be caught by surprise. So that very day, allow me to first of all, rather than being that self critic, I'm going to appreciate every single one of my weakness. I'm going to appreciate it first, then before challenging it, before changing the meaning of it. And that very day I changed the meaning towards overthinking. It's not my overthinking, it's my knowing. It's this inner voice. It's my gut, it's my intuition, my gut feeling. And that day when I changed that relationship with overthinking, my whole world changed. And that day was day one of face day. It wasn't that polished. It went through like different versions of it. I had to practice it, practice on the people I'm supporting as well, refine it. And I'm so grateful. This is my life's work. And that's why I've decided that I'm going to write this into a book and to be able to show others away as well. To be able to change one of your weakness, your overthinking, your not enoughness, your anxiety. Right. It's your superpower. So that happened.

So rawsome started as your lifeline, you could say during a Tony Robbins event. How did it evolve into a seven figure movement and a global community?

Very good question. Never expected. When I was in that stadium of I think 15,000 people. The only thing. Jason, thank you so much. You said lifeline. It is my lifeline. I didn't have an intention turning into a business. In fact, oh, this is not in the book. This is something I'm going to share. This is really awesome. In fact, I was employed in my old life when I was in corporate. Really good career. I'm very lucky. Six figure salary. Everything was very smooth. I have a team supporter. I was actually an expat in Hong Kong as well, traveling around the world. So that was my old life. And I just needed a lifeline for myself to be able to change that relationship with my thoughts and my emotions. And doing a business, starting a business was my last option because my father, my dad did business. He was a serial entrepreneur and he never succeeded. My dad is not around already with us today. He never succeeded. And the belief or the thought that I had to myself years back was I would never go into business. I would never. I don't want to be like my dad. And interestingly, the thing that we do not want, we become. And it's because of after doing, getting myself coached, going to Tony Robbins, understanding my thoughts and my emotions, having other coaches coaching me as well, like Byron, Katie, like Brooke Castillo, going deep into life coaching. And I realized that, wow, I want to expand Rawsomeness. And I was doing it. I brought everything that I've learned into my team. I brought everything that I've learned to support my bosses, the people that was working around me. And that helped me in my career a lot. But there was a certain boundary because you are still bounded by the rules of the company or the regulations of the organization. So it was a scary decision. At a point in time for, for like about five years ago, I told myself that do I want to stay or do I want to bring Rossum even wider to even more people, even more leaders? I made a decision to and actually my company, I was doing retail development. So developing customer experience from a physical brick and mortar store environment. My company actually knew that I'm very interested in personal development. They actually offered me a people development role. So you say that, oh, you know what? Okay, let's give you this role. Because you're interested in that. I could easily say yes to that. But the one question I ask myself is, do you want to be comfortable? Yeah. And would you be able to truly bring Rossum Right. To a larger scale beyond an organization? So I was crazy enough to say no to that offer and I started my coaching business then. Yeah. So it all started because of this. Like, I don't do a business. Yes. And started doing a business. And it was a journey. It's a roller coaster. And it has been challenging and fulfilling at the same time. And I wouldn't change a thing.

So it would be fair to call you today, Amongst many titles, Unicorn 100k offer coach. How do authentic offers differ from hype driven ones?

Ooh. Authentic offer is everything. And this is a quote that I love, love. I'm a big fan of Oprah Winfrey and one of her mentors, Maya Angelou, she actually says this. People do not remember what we do or what we say. People always remember how women can feel. It is always an emotion. The Tony Robinson event, the one thing I wrote down in my journal then it's, I'm going to love myself starting from today. Enough is enough. I'm going to break free from my thoughts, my emotions. I'm going to be my own cheerleader starting from today. I'm going to overwhelm myself with gratitude and allow myself to lead with gratitude, to lead with love. And when I do that, one of the things that I didn't like, didn't like in the past is people will say that, ah, Kenny, I love your energy. Your energy is infectious. I love it. I love spending time with you. And at a point in time, because I was in the midst of building my own business, the old belief was, my energy doesn't sell. My energy means nothing. My energy doesn't convert into any offer. That was my old belief today. No, my authenticity and my energy is everything. And I was looking at a recent interview of Taylor Swift and she said this amazing thing, look at our energy like a luxury item. Not everybody can afford it. And I love that. I love that because. And I was like, oh, my God, me at Taylor Swift, we are the same. Because one of my belief is my energy, my authenticity, my love is expensive. Like, creates so much space and it is expensive as well. Not everybody can afford. Not everybody can afford. And every single day I'm looking at, I'm looking at that, I'm focusing on that because it's always about feeling. Authenticity is a feeling. And when we are able to show up as ourself, authentically, that's where we can actually we are able to give the most presence and our present is a present. So I really believe in that. And since then to now, because of this one principle, this one concept I've been offering, elevating my offer, listen even more, getting more data, connecting with my potential clients, my existing clients as well, building this raving community which I call my family. And yeah, that has been an ongoing process. I'm still doing it every single day. And it's all about being authentic.

So you've talked about the journey and over the over time, the journey has evolved. Changing your offers, building new offers, elevating the investment level that your clients need to make. And through the rawsome x inner circle, you've built a home for elite achievers, LGBTQ leaders and women entrepreneurs. Can you share a story of someone whose business and life transformed through your rawsome x inner circle community?

So many. I will share one and it's a woman entrepreneur. She's actually my first 100k client. And I really believe that all of you out there listening to this right now, if you are an entrepreneur, if you are a coach, if you are making offers, your first 50 to about 100k, your first six figure, as you're building on your zero to six figures journey, your inner circle will be people that already know you, who already trust you, you have no luck and trust. And this one, my first 100k client was actually my ex colleague. Yeah, she was actually a team member in my team. So she came in and I was really her mentor when I was there because I was her direct manager. At a point in time when I went into setting up my own business, she started being curious about personal development as well. She said yes to my very first offer. And my very first offer was a 3,000 USD like offer. And she said yes. I started from 3,000 USD. And what changed in her life is when I started giving myself permission to be awesome, to be authentic. Her relationship with her mom improved tremendously. Her old self. So much fear whenever she's talking about her mom, right? So much old stories, old meanings and fear. And every time she got a chance to interact with mom, there is. I could literally feel fear and hear fear and see and smell fear in everything that she do to a point in time she might be, she would actually break down and couldn't even get up today. And it's so interesting. I'm actually meeting this client in Hong Kong next week. So I'm flying over to Hong Kong next Week we were just texting each other. True story. Yesterday. And she was sharing with me, oh, I've just landed. She's now in the uk, Flew back to Hong Kong. And she was just telling me, oh, I'm having so much fun right now, connecting, reconnecting with all my friends who I haven't seen for many months. And I asked her this question, how is your quality time with mom? And it's so amazing. We went to the movies, we're having like dim sum, and we're having so much quality time together, creating magic moments together. And I actually asked her this question. Do you remember years back, not even too long ago, three years back, how was that relationship with your mom? How much have that changed? Yeah. And she said that. Thank you. Yeah, really? Thank you. And I said, thank you. Thank you for allowing yourself to be raw some. Thank you so much for allowing yourself to once and for all say, enough is enough. Mom didn't hurt you. It's our thoughts about mom that's coming in to create meanings and stories that's like horror stories every single day. Right. Hunting ourselves. And when she let it go, she brought that closeness, that even more love with mom. And she's a business owner today as well. She's a part time coach, but she has her own physical business and she's thriving in the business as well just by being herself. Yeah. So I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful. And I'm so grateful every single day to see how Rossum is like in different flavors, in different renditions, in different ways because they mix it up with their Rossum songs. So I show up as Rosum, but I love to see how Rosum executed or presented in different ways. When you sit with your own uniqueness, your own personality. And this has been fulfilling. And I'm so excited to be in close proximity with her again next week.

Fantastic. So you've written that success without fulfillment isn't really successful. How does someone know when they're truly in alignment and not just grinding harder?

Such an amazing question. And I had to ask myself this question. I'm a super achiever, like always achieving, achieving. And has been instilled with me in me since young. How do we know whether we are fulfilled? Is this feeling that I'm really comfortable with my own thoughts? Can I be even better? Yes. Are there things that I can improve? Of course. But I'm really comfortable. And these three words come into my mind as you are asking this question. And these are the three words that I'm embodying even more every single day. More and more since the end of last year. These three words are ease, grace, and play. Ease, grace, and play. The feeling of ease. I'm good. I'm going to do more, but I'm really good. Can really have this ease. Everything is effortless. More effortless. The feeling of it. Grace. I'm doing it. I'm building my business. I'm offering offers. I'm connecting. I'm building rapport. And there is a sense of just gratitude every single day. I'm so grateful. I'm really so grateful. And Jason, I'm so grateful for you. So grateful we connected online. I'm so grateful that I see you live in, in person, in an event this year in close proximity. I'm so grateful to get to know you. I'm so grateful that you let me into your world. And now being on a podcast. Really grateful. And last of all, right, Just having so much fun. Really having so much fun. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. This doesn't sound. This doesn't feel like work. When I'm in a call, in a coaching session, in a challenge, in a workshop, I'm like, I'm so glad this doesn't feel like world. And you mean you're paying me for this? Thank you. Thank you. Oh, and one more thing. With ease, grace and play. You asking about fulfillment, I can truly receive right now. Yeah. I don't receive with guilt. The past me. Right? I'll be like, deflecting compliments. No, this is not me. Or I like, deflect it. I don't feel comfortable to receive when I'm in ultimate fulfillment or going on a journey of feeling fulfilled is that ability to receive. I really receive. Whenever I receive a compliment today, whenever somebody say, oh, my God, so awesome, right? I would say these two words. I really cherish and I receive. I receive wholeheartedly. I'm gonna receive more and more. And thank you, thank you, thank you. Such an amazing question. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. You say that the book isn't just pages. It's an invitation to come home. What do you hope readers actually do after finishing B rolls?

One simple thing. It's really an invitation to come home. Every single day. I'm inviting myself to come home as well. And my invitation is stop judging that weakness, that insecurity, the thing that you so want to eliminate. Let's start to appreciate. First, look at your overthinking. Look at your anxiety. Look at your anxious attachment style. Look at anything that you see as a weakness. Anything that you so want to distance yourself with or from and really start to appreciate. If it's not because of that, you wouldn't be alive. Everything is 50 50. If it's not because of the dark, if it's not because of the night, I wouldn't be able to appreciate in my morning walks, when I feel the sun rays and I feel the warmth of my skin, I wouldn't be able to appreciate that. If it's not because of the coolness of the night, if it's not because of the serenity of the night, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the vibrantness of the day. So my invitation and my wish, my life mission is I'm on a mission. This is my calling, to go out there one person at a time and to be able to ask you today, the weakness that you are facing right now, what is the one thing you can truly appreciate right now? And I know there's a second thing you can appreciate about it, a third thing you can appreciate about it. And when we are able to appreciate our weakness, ooh, we'll be able to change the meaning to that. And when we change our meaning, our whole life change. Yeah. So this is my mission and I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that God, the universe, right, have chosen me to spread the message of Rawson. And I do not take this for granted. Every day I'm enjoying it with ease, grace and faith.

So if you had to explain rawson to a 10 year old at the lunch table, how would you describe it?

I actually did that. This is such a good question because the 10 year old is my baby niece, Kimmy. And she actually asked me this, uncle, what's the meaning of rosome? I said, rosome is very simple. And she actually asked me, do you spell awesome wrongly? Like I tried to say awesome, but you spell it wrongly. I said, no, my dear, Rosome is actually a combination of two words coming together. How can we be raw and honest with ourselves, with our emotions, with our thoughts? And when we are able to do that, appreciate that, as I mentioned earlier, we are able to for once not resist anymore. Yeah, not resist anymore. And to release the expectation, release that struggle with all of our weakness. And to be able to come into your true self to who you are, to the person that you're most happy every single day, that you can have fun, enjoy, love. So it's when we are honest, the truth sets us free and we will be our true self.

So, Kenny, if someone listening wants to start living more rawsome today, what are the three simple practices they can put into action right now?

The three simple practice, which was my journey when I first started, it's really practicing appreciation gratitude. It seems very easy. It is not. It's not normal for me. It's actually quite uncomfortable. When I first started to be grateful for or to celebrate my life every single day and what I did years back, the first thing I did, first thing I did is to tell myself the truth. It's not that bad. And when I tell myself the truth, I set myself free. The next step is radical gratitude. And I did this thing called gratitude365. I went on a year of practicing gratitude every single day. So what I do and I remember on my iPhone notes every single day, I will write on one thing I'm truly grateful for in that day. And it can be anything in my personal life, I work anything. And I documented that on my iPhone notes every single day. And when I started to do that, I started to see more gratitude. I started to see the goodness in my life. I started to see that things are not that bad. And when I started to build that muscle, the last thing I did was I started to be my biggest cheerleader today. I constantly have friends coming to me, Constantly have people that are new in my life coming to me. Kenny, why do you have so much energy every single day? Or this is the end of the day, really? Why are you still so cheery? Why are you so, like, bright and focused? Because I don't battle with my thoughts that much anymore. Negative thoughts or patterns do come in, but I catch them really fast. So when I'm able to do that, tell myself the truth, number one, to be able to really, really be truly grateful, I'm able to, for the first time, break my patterns and form new patterns. And the new pattern I'm creating for myself is I am my own cheerleader today. Right now, I have my back. I am truly comfortable in my own skin. And when we have these three combined together, Whoa. Anything is possible. And I truly mean that. Anything is possible. Whatever you imagine right, you will definitely be able to bring that into fruition.

That's excellent, Kenny. Thanks for sharing. Now, as we come to wrap up the show, I know that audience members are aching to hear the answer to this question. What's next for Kenny Lee and the Rawson movement?

Thank you. This actually brings me to the last chapter of the book. Somebody asked me, when will you retire? What's next? What's next when you retire? Right. I said, I will never retire. What are you talking about? And whenever I hear people talk about, ah, the coaching industry or life coaching is like very saturated. There are too many coaches. What are you talking about, my dear? Are you serious? You go out there right now in a supermarket or a Costco. A supermarket or your local grocery store, go and interview them. How many of you are being coached right now? How many of you know about life coaching? I can guarantee you not many. Not many. So what's next for me is still to continue to be able to affect another person's life today. Continue to encourage one more person to face it, to be able to look at your weakness. We do not have problems, we only have patterns. Be able to look at your disempowering patterns and appreciate this is going to be my next chapter. I'm not going to stop. And the day I will stop is the day when I'm checking out at the grocery store and cashier A and cashier B, they'll be talking to themselves, right? Oh, do you know what? My life coach is not really that good. Oh, my life coach is really good. He's so awesome. Do you want me to introduce my life coach to you? If this happens in reality, my work is done. There'll be no more next chapter. I'll retire. So until then, my next chapter will still be doing what I do every single day to inspire one more person to appreciate your weakness so that you can unleash that true awesomeness and your superpower from within.

I know myself and the team at chats with Jason will be definitely cheering you on and wishing you every success as you continue to build out your rawsome movement. That's a wrap on today's conversation with Kenny Lee. Proof that when you stop hiding who you are, you don't just grow a business, you come home to yourself. If Kenny's message about being raw some resonated with you, don't let it stop here. Pick one practice from today, whether it's facing your truth, celebrating yourself or leading with authenticity and put it into action today. And if you're ready to go deeper, grab a copy of his brand new book be Rawsome and step into the movement. There'll be links in the description to help you get it. If you found this episode valuable, give the show a follow, leave a review and share it with a friend or a leader who needs to hear Kenny's story. I'm Jason S. Bradshaw, reminding you that when you transform the experience, you transform your business and the world around.