There is one topic I don't go into depth with someone I just met.
It's nothing serious, I just don't talk about how to pronounce my last name in the Korean way.

Well, let me be more precise with this. If I'm in a timed conversation where the primary topic isn't learning Korean, I don't go into depth about how to properly pronounce what is written in the English alphabet as Seol. Why? Because I don't expect people to be super interested in the Korean phonetic inventory, and they can learn it once and sort of forget it anyway. So I think it just saves time to let people do their best and actually talk about the thing we're there to talk about.

So I made a video that actually teaches you how to say it.

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I thought this was the only topic that I'd just skip over in timed conversations, but today I realized I need to add another one to the inventory of "for your interest" category: the term "Buddhist Life Coach".

Some context behind this. I've been doing a series of podcast interviews and most of them were 30 minutes of me being asked questions I had prepared / presented to the host beforehand (it's mostly been about the action formula). So when I dive into the topics I prepared, it's great and I'm able to have a good time.

Now, this isn't the podcast host's fault. All the hosts I've met are super lovely people. But the story of how I arrived at Buddhism, starting from my father's hypnosis practice all the way to my 1000 day practice, is sort of the backbone of how and why I do everything I do.

I can't really talk about my business coaching in a vacuum without discussing Buddhism because well, to me business is like the prime testing ground for a suffering-proof life. I can't really talk about my personal life coaching without discussing Buddhism because to me life coaching without an interest in Buddhism is pointless (this is very much my personal opinion, and intended to show MY personal direction in life coaching!). I can't talk about AI, software engineering career without talking about Buddhism.

But I can't expect to spend like 30-40 minutes going into depth about every single inflection point in my life that led me to Buddhism. And today I felt a very familiar feeling of frustration after a podcast interview, and finally I was able to identify and pin it down: I feel like I fumbled on explaining how I came to be.

To talk a bit more about today in particular, first I did a lunch & learn with a technology company. I've been posting life coaching stuff on LinkedIn and it caught the attention of my former colleague, who DM'ed me to ask if I'd be interested in doing a life coaching lunch & learn for their company. As I was very interested in getting my feet into public speaking, this was a perfect chance and today was the day of the talk.

So I had an entire hour to myself, and I was able to take my time to tell my story, what I believe, how I came to practice life coaching this way, and what I think about overthinking, perfectionism, and impostor syndrome. Regardless of how other people received it (thankfully many have expressed their gratitude and appreciation), I was satisfied because I felt like I gave a very self-contained teaching that gives them something to feel.

After that I had an hour of French conversation practice with my French friend, then went into a podcast interview. And in this interview we talked about a lot of different things, in terms of careers and leaving them, starting a business, importance of personal faith and such. But I kept finding myself needing to explain and contextualize my ideas over and over because I wanted to provide the full context behind my life and talk on and on about myself.

A podcast is a conversation and I realized I kept hogging the mic to make it more and more about me. This contrast I felt today, going from an hour of me just talking to a podcast conversation, made it very clear where my frustration lied. I had been a bad conversation partner!

So I'm going to use the next few emails as an opportunity to tell you my entire life story about why I became a Buddhist life coach. Parts of them you may recognize and remember if you're an old-time reader (always appreciate you), parts of them may be new to you. But going forward, in an interview or a short conversation I'm going to say the same thing about my last name:

"What you think Buddhist life coach means is fine with me".

— Billy