Victoria Wieck | Steadfast Persistence, Generous Success, Million Dollar Hobbies, & the Importance of Real Authenticity to Realize Your Dreams

EPISODE OVERVIEW: 

Have you heard to one about the young South Korean girl whose family came to America with only $30? You know, the one whose mom and dad decided to take them from a comfortable life in their home country, to a very hard life in East Los Angeles? 

Well if you haven't, watch or listen now to learn how this weeks guest not only survived the move, but thrived. With the support of her family, hard work, and steadfast persistence, learn how she turned her creative passion into a million dollar hobby, was seen in over 180-million homes, did over $500-million in sales, is active in gem mining globally, and does business in 35-40 countries annually, and you can too. Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to the Victoria Wieck story!

GUEST BIO: 

Victoria Wieck is the epitome of the rags to riches American dream story. She immigrated from South Korea to America with her parents with only thirty dollars, and has built a multi-million dollar business with over $500 million in retail sales. After a series of corporate jobs, Victoria started her own company in 1989 on a shoestring budget to spend more time with her family. She has founded several other successful businesses since then. She’s worked with a wide variety of retailers world-wide ranging from major department stores to duty free stores, as well as internet and TV retailers. For the past 23 years (19 years on HSN, and 4 years on Shop HQ), Victoria has been sharing her jewelry...

FEATURED QUOTE(S): 

• "If you have to to complain, you have time to consider your life.” - Victoria Wieck's Dad

SHOW NOTES:  SPECIAL OFFERS, LINKS, GUEST CONTACT INFO, & OTHER RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.victoriawieck.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victoriawieck
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriawieckjewelry
• Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/million-dollar-passion/id1544827540 

Special Offer:

• Visit Victoria's website at https://www.victoriawieck.com and sign up for free webinars!

Links Mentioned:

• Alan Watts video, "What if Money Didn't Matter?" 

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THE NOT-SO-FINE-PRINT DISCLAIMER: 

While we are very thankful for all of our guests, please understand that we do not necessarily hold, or endorse the same beliefs, views, and positions that they may have. We respectfully agree to disagree in some areas and thank God for the blessing and privilege of free will.

Transcript

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Victoria Wieck | Steadfast Persistence, Generous Success, Million Dollar Hobbies, & the Importance of Real Authenticity to Realize Your Dreams | E74

Hello friends, I'm David Pasqualone, and welcome to this week's remarkable episode of the Remarkable People Podcast, the Victoria Wieck story!

Victoria's story is awesome! I loved meeting her, interviewing her and bringing this episode to you. It's going to teach you how to overcome obstacles, not quit, how to take your hobby and make it into a million dollar.

Business. It's fantastic. Victoria, her family came to America with $30 in their park pocket from [00:01:00] South Korea. You're going to see how she took that same entrepreneurial spirit and took her hobby and made a million dollar business. And she shares the tip. And ways that you can, to also this isn't someone who started a small business, she took her business from nothing to, I believe it was over $500 million.

She was on the home shopping network syndicated across, not just the nation, but the world. This woman has been there, done that. And it's still going. And here today to share how with you, so get your pen and paper out, be ready to be inspired. And then like our slogan says, don't just listen to this great information with Victoria, but do it, repeat it so you can have a great life in this world and an attorney to come.

I'm David Pascoe alone, and let's listen to Victoria's great story. [00:02:00] Remarkable story now.

RPP E74 Victoria Wieck-1: Hello friends. I'm David . And this week's episode is with Victoria wick. Victoria, how are you today? I'm doing fantastic. How are you, man? I'm doing great. And I want to let all the listeners know around the world, how wonderful you are for your busy schedule and my crazy schedule and all of these things that happen.

I think we've rescheduled this four times. That's a new record and not a good one, but thank you for your patience and your kindness and just how awesome you are to be here today. So all the listeners, I just want you to know right off the bat, what a great woman, how patient Victoria is, and you're going to see how much content and value she has to bring your lives.

So at this time, Victoria, I just told our listeners all about you in the intro, and now we're here. They're here for you, not me. So do you mind sharing your story with us? [00:03:00] Well, first of all, thank you so much for this time together. And as far as us rescheduling four or five times, I just want to start right off the bat.

That is a little bit of a, I guess, show. We showed people that we had persistence and well, right. So we don't give up on anything. With that said, I just want to say you know, with my background, I'm going to make it very brief. I'm not normally somebody who likes to talk about myself, so it's going to be interesting going back way back since I was a little child and it matters a little bit because it shapes it shaped a lot of things that I have done throughout my whole life, my background and my upbringing.

And so I grew up in a small little town in South Korea. We had a tiny little strip of beach. It was just kind of idealic for a kid to grow up. Cause you know, when you're a kid, you don't really know a lot of world affairs, especially when you're in a little isolated island like that. [00:04:00] So I thought my life was pretty happy.

We had everything we needed but my father wanted to leave that setting and come to America because he had four girls, he had four girls and one boy, the boy was just born and Because at that time in South Korea AF. Country was a little bit poor, much poorer than it is now. And th there was a current of you know, or acceptance of treating women or girls less valuable, I guess, than boys.

So a lot of the girls, you know, when moms didn't have money or they really, really had a tough time just existing, they would give up their girls, but not the boys. So my father fell in also on top of all that, you know when you were, when I remember when I was in grade school they would tell us that if you're a girl, you don't go to college.

And if you go to college you would major in things, things like home economics, you know, knowing how to [00:05:00] cook and things like that. So my father had dreamt of his four girls, pretty much achieving whatever, you know, whoever they wanted to be. And he said, if my children, my girls wanted to be somebody housewife or, you know, whatever she wanted to be, that that that'd be her choice and not the society's choice.

So we came to America in search of the American dream. And lo and behold, once he landed here, he realized that all the money was kind of frozen. We didn't have billions of dollars or anything like that, but whatever he had was his time savings was all frozen in both countries. So we ended up with 30 bucks in our pocket and, you know as you can imagine, life was pretty tough.

30 bucks didn't go very far back then. It doesn't go very far today. If you don't me asking what happened, that the funds were frozen. Like, why did the government do so? You were not well when you leave South Korea at that, when you left South Korea at that time, you had to kind of give up your citizenship and foreigners couldn't [00:06:00] own any, you know, Assets over there.

So basically also he was in the south Korean military, very high ranking at that time. And the country was run by a military home at that time. So if you weren't with them, then you are against them. So they could, they did a lot of things to people who, you know, didn't open, they support them. My father was not one that was opening up, posing anybody, but, you know, they fear that so whatever money was left, there was frozen.

And then the money that was sent here ahead of time the people that actually took the money for safekeeping actually just took it. So there was nothing here. And so it was really rough, but I think what's important is that so going, you know, my, I, you know, growing up there just so that, you know, in South Korea it's one of the, it's very interesting because even today it's about 50% Christians and 50% voters, very unusual.

Most [00:07:00] Asian countries, you know, it's predominantly Buddhist, like Taiwan has about a 10% Christians, you know, 90% Buddhist or some other religion. So, you know, we kind of existed pretty happily there. We, you know, we didn't really think about religion or anything like that, but once you got here I went to school in east Los Angeles where things were very rough.

I mean, I went to school where kids were, it was very common to see knife fights after school in east LA. Come on. You don't know? I mean, it's yeah, it was a lot rougher. It's interesting because somebody, I was having lunch with someone recently and she this couple, they were. Oh, so like you, you mean was east LA as the wife said, was it still, I wasn't probably at that bad at that time.

Right. And the is, it was always bad. It was really bad. So yeah, I was being totally sarcastic. We have listeners from all over the world and some people don't know, [00:08:00] but east LA is rough. It's very dangerous. It's not the ideal place to grow up. No, not at all. So what happened was my father then decided that the best place for him to you know, because he had to work, basically my parents, both of my parents started working.

My mom had never worked up to that point. We had you know, somebody who cooked for us. And somebody who drove us around, you know, it was very common in South Korea for people, even the upper middle class to have a driver and you know, household help. So I kind of grew up with that and then came here.

My mom worked in a sewing factory during the day. And then she would bring work home. They had a sewing machine at home and then she would work until like midnight, cause she was getting paid like by pieces, you know, how many pieces of garments she was sewing. So basically he realized it was pretty dangerous.

And so after school he would drop us off or make sure that we were at some, you know, a church environment [00:09:00] because he felt like that was a safe place. He he'd had he had no introduction to Christianity at that time. So anyway And I was told by everybody around me, you know, great, amazing school teachers.

You know, there were a lot of people who empathize with our family that the fastest way to freedom, emotional freedom and financial freedom was to get hyper educated and to really study hard go to school, do all your things and then go to college and get your dream job and climbed the corporate ladder.

So I did all that. So backing up just a little bit on that, you know, when you're in that situation, you, you pluck yourself out of there. And now you're in east LA and we had no money. So like my dad would come home with like one single orange instead of like a bag of it. And he would cut them in eight sections.

There was seven of us, five kids plus the parents. And it, you know, from that beginning, You know, I was [00:10:00] thinking to myself, cause I was the oldest. I thought, you know, this is definitely not the American dream that we were sold. I mean, he kept telling us it was like the paradise where all the dreams come true.

But I thought about like the, you know, obviously complaining to anybody doesn't help because first of all, I didn't have any friends. You'd always speak English. You don't have a lot of friends. And so I thought, you know, what is what, what is the one thing that I could actually do there's anything I could do.

And that thing was to learn to speak English because you know, that gave you a little bit of freedom. So I, you know, studied basically I might father would take addiction, American English, English dictionary, and it was circled words. And I would have to like, you know, look up the dictionary and and I guess within a year or so, I was pretty good at kind of communicating with people.

So I did all that stuff. And then I realized at some point that. After I got pretty decent, you know, I went to UCLA, which was my dream school. And then I went to USC and got my master's and I got my dream jobs. [00:11:00] I wouldn't say it was a dream job, but I got a job with the great pay. And once I got promoted, like the second time I realized that I was going to be doing the same thing to my kids, that my parents did too, to me, which was my parents basically left us to kind of grow up by ourselves at that point, you know, they had to do it because they didn't have a choice.

They had to put food on the table and pay rent. But I had a choice. So I thought, you know, what's really more important to me really was to make sure that my kids had that, that nurturing, that I got until I was at 13 years old when I got here. So I was willing to live on less money and I set a goal of making a $3,000 a month, but I wanted to work no more than 20 hours a week because I wanted to spend that time with my.

So I took a leap of faith, started this company and in my career just to shorten this whole conversation I've done over $500 [00:12:00] million in sales. And you know, I've obviously achieved financial freedom. I live with pretty much no that, and I spend I would say pretty close to unlimited amount of time with my family, but, you know, that includes my mom, you know and my own children and all the relatives.

So that's my story. That's a great story. And let's, let's back up a little bit and dig in before we move on. Yeah. It says a lot about your family, that they moved from South Korea to America, and they were obviously the reason why they moved. Was it to pursue the American dream or was there other motivations.

Mostly too well, so, okay. Let's be diff let's define the American dream. The American dream for our family really wasn't money that much. It was more, it wasn't economic, it was more freedom. You know, my [00:13:00] father saw Korea, there was a Korean, there was a civil war between north and south, as you know, it's the only country that's divided in half.

And you know, they had an election and a civilian government was put in and then the military government took over. And I think he rolled the military window world for like 20 years. And my father felt that. You know, that kind of future for one where, you know, every time you were under a dictatorship, you don't really have freedom anyway.

And then secondly society as a whole, they didn't value women and he wanted us to live freely. So that was his dream. You know, I didn't even think about my own American dream, but that was his dream to make sure that the kids, I mean, especially two of us were artists. So, you know, they were all, we were always told that artists make no money.

When they, when they, while they are living, they all make money after they die, if they make any money and, you know, on and [00:14:00] on. So he basically, he thought that coming to America, the girls would be free to pursue their dreams. So that was his dream. And that was pretty much what he wanted to accomplish.

And I'm happy to tell you that his dream actually was realized before he passed away that all the girls pretty much to, you know, what they want to do. And they were pretty successful at it. Yeah, that's amazing that that is not only nobility, but just huge character because he was looking at what's best for you girls and the whole family, not just himself.

So that leads to the next question. Like obviously your dad and your mom, or kind of directing the family, but you get to east LA it's rough. It's hard. You went from a comfortable life in South Korea to a more difficult life in the U S what made them stay because, you know, not, everybody's guaranteed to realize a dream, not everybody's guaranteed to find that success.

What mentality and thought process did your [00:15:00] dad teach your family that kept you guys in the game and not moving back? You know, I remember my parents were like truly a soulmate. They were married for 42 years. And they're actually, I mean, I don't remember them arguing about anything until. About three or four weeks after we got here, my mother desperately wanted to go back.

You know, she said that actually my there, she basically, you know, we tried to look for an apartment and in 1971, the fair housing laws didn't actually come into play. So that when you tried to look for a place just outside of east LA, a lot of the apartment owners or the managers would say to us, you know, Your girls are so pretty.

And, you know, we, I like to rent to you, but we can't rent Orientals for example. And it's funny, my father didn't speak English and he's like, well, what's an Oriental because [00:16:00] when you're in South Korea, you don't know, you know, all their bases, because at that time, 99% of the people who live in South Korea or south Koreans, you know, you didn't know.

So but my mom just said, you know the, the gender inequality is still is pretty prominent, you know, in America it was mid 1971. And then you had this whole racial issue, which they never thought about. So she really wanted to go back and she begged them back to go back. And sh I remember her going to sleep crying, literally like just, she would just whimpered, like she wasn't like, you know, outward crying or anything, but I remember this.

And my father actually, you know, said we had no money to go. We have nothing to go back to and we have to stick it out. And then, you know, many times people that he met, like at his workplace and everything, they see us, like, you know, this family, that's like a pretty wholesome kind of naive and innocent.

And they told him [00:17:00] like, you need to go to the government office. I get social security office because we came here with the green card you know, all of us. So they said that you have rights and you could get some assistance. And he said, you know, well, that's a, w w why would anybody want to help us?

Because, you know, we came here voluntarily. We, it was our choice. I chose to have these five kids and basically he didn't think that it was, should be anybody else's burden. So he just kept on working, working, working and sometimes they worked a minimum of two jobs each, and sometimes they would have, you know, more jobs if they had any time off.

So I think what I would say is. I learned some extreme work ethic at that time. You know, you never say pretty much, if you gave your a word you're going to be somewhere, I don't care how tired you, I, he showed up and whatever you do in your life, you have to be the honorable person. You [00:18:00] always have.

You know, you cannot be even when he was teaching me how to drive a car w you know, as we got older, I mean, we did pretty much we're economically sound on our own within a few months of that. I mean, not, not like we were rich or anything, but we didn't have to worry about paying the 130 bucks a month rent.

But even when I was learning to drive, he would, he tricked me and he said, you know, you're going to get a cops gonna pull you over if you inconvenience somebody. So like, when you, when your signal to the right or left. And he said, if you, you know, like jump into another lane and that person had to hit the brakes or something, then you're inconveniencing that person.

And that's actually a Bible. That's what he told me. So I would leave like so much room before all this stuff. But so, you know, I learned that, you know, he didn't leave me really money or anything, but, but everything else that's really much more valuable, billions of dollars worth of wisdom and knowledge.

I was able to [00:19:00] take that and build my own business, using those very same principles, you know, I've, I treat my employees really well treat my customers as well. And I never judge anybody, you know, by, by the cover and I respect every single human being. So, you know, that's, I think that's a great story.

Oh yeah, absolutely. And now let me ask you a question. You said back in South Korea at that time, it was about a 50, 50 religious breakdown, but it sounded like you guys didn't, you weren't associated with either side, is that correct? Right. And then you came to America and there was still, no, let's say religious association, but he started sends you to Christian, our churches for protection, really like after-school programs.

So had the Christianity influenced your life, did it help you, like what happened with your family when you were introduced to American Christianity? Did it have no effect that have great effect bringing you [00:20:00] to today? It's interesting. That's a fascinating question because, so there are seven of us or my father has passed on, but there are still six of us still alive.

I would say that a couple of my siblings have become pretty devout Christians and You know, they've then married you know, Christian spouses and so forth. And I have one sister that's really, really close to me actually is a pretty devout Buddhist because she and my mother is still, and it's very different coming from the religion.

Religion is different over there versus here, you know, there it's more of a lifestyle of how you, you know, it's a belief system. So for example, you will see Korean Christians who are very full. I mean, queen Christians are fanatically. They're very, very devoted. Okay. They they're, they they're very active.

They help out everybody. There it's a, it's a really amazing environment, [00:21:00] but because they were kind of raised you know, a lot of our cultural norms were formed. Don't with the Confucius, Buddhist, you know, kind of a way of life for 10,000 years, those roots kind of still stay with you. And I don't really see a real, like.

Contradiction of many contradictions. I mean, it's, if you look at the two religions, you know, one, and I tell you, because I have like family members, you know, at Christmas time we, we celebrate both Christmas and voting religions just because I've got to respect my sisters and everything. I would say that it's really respecting other people respecting even like anything that's alive, just, you know, they have rights and also anybody who's hurting, you actually have a duty to help them.

And and, and more than anything, just be a great listener and be curious about how you could help them. It's it's pretty much I guess that's what runs through, but you know, in my family, that's very prominent, [00:22:00] so yeah. And then what did you see? Because first off, like you said, there's no religion, it's all about a relationship with God.

I mean, that's what really matters, but society, we have religion. If you're not watching, I'm doing the air quotes, right? Yeah. But what are some of the differences between. That you remember Korean Christianity versus American Christianity? Yeah, I think the, and I don't want anyone to like lash out at me, but this is my observation at my always going to be very honest with you.

Yeah, no, we're not going to last you over here to learn and grow from not you, but from listeners. Cause I want you to, I want to put this in context. My, as a kid, my so, you know, when I was living in Korea, we had a lot, so on the little strip of beach that we were like living on a lot of the Korean Christians, like fully grown up Christians would come there.

So the weather was very much like Hawaii. It's a, it's a Southern most part of South Korea. And we would have [00:23:00] we, I watched. 2030 people get baptized, like fully submerged, like on the beach almost every weekend. And I would ask like, my mama, why are they going in the water? Like, you know, fully closed, like w what are they doing?

And my mother would say they would, there were the follower followers of Jesus. Right? So I was kind of, I was aware of all that. So when I came to America, what I realized, what my first observation of American Christians is that they live their lives very kind of disconnected from God or from church until Sunday.

Then they go to school, then they go to church on Sunday, and then they go do their normal thing Monday through Friday. Whereas in Korea that, you know, you are kind of like in church the whole time, 24 7. Does that make sense? Oh, it's I agree with everything you're saying it's exactly what I've seen and it's sad.

That's not how God [00:24:00] in the Bible from what I've read, there's not one instance where someone called themselves a Christian. It says in acts, they were first called Christians at Antioch. So other people would say that's like Christ, that person's Christ. So it's almost presumptuous and pride to say, we're Christian, I'm a Christian I'm Christ-like.

But yeah, I agree with you. How many people they act like, you know, wholly on Sundays and then they act like the devil, the other six and a half days. So I'm tracking with you and I don't think it's just America. I think it's all over the world. But I think, like you said, in South Korea, in many countries, because they were denied the ability to worship, it's such a more real relationship and it's pure.

Yeah. And I think, you know, they have a great support system. And like I said, I, I don't know why that is, but you know, I'm not saying every Christian is this way, but I also find that in the [00:25:00] American, you know, and, and I include some of my relatives in this, you know, cause I have a Caucasian side or the family that, you know, I disagree with them a lot on the philosophy of what all of our relationships with God is, for example, because you know, my big thing is a lot of people are so judgmental here that for example, they're very such purist when it comes to, you know, follow God.

Here's what the Bible says, all this stuff. For somebody else's kids or for somebody else's life. But when it comes to their own lives, they are their don't follow any of it. So, you know and they're very judgemental on small things, big things and everything. And I'm like, you know what, let them be who they are because they have a relationship with God themselves.

And you know, you can't be the judge of it. They can be the judge of it. God can be judged over it. Right. But you shouldn't be judging other people. You know, for [00:26:00] example, I have A distant relative. You know, sometimes he comes to you know, my family likes to have a big gathering. They literally will invite anybody over at Christmas time.

And there was this one guy who constantly talks about, oh, you know, so-and-so, you know, just, he got engaged or whatever. And he's living with this girl, like, you know, they still have three months ago before their wedding. And you know, he's this, you know, she's that, and they're breaking all the God's laws and everything else.

Well, his own, son's been living with some girl for two years. So, you know, I don't even care if somebody is living with, you know, it's none of my business, but it's just like, when you know, you're going to be that pure about somebody else's life, then you also then know to yourself, they live that life as well.

Right. So I just feel like a lot of times that, that this could, and I think this is why my one sister who who's told me means a Buddhist, like. She sees that she's like, you know, these people go to church on Sunday and they think [00:27:00] like, everything they do is just complete cleanse because, you know, they were in there for 45 minutes on Sunday and then they come out and they basically are, you know, signing, you know, checks and pretty much a lie to their customers or their employees they're lie to everybody else.

And even if it's a small lie, she said like, I don't like that. So I would, I'm just gonna say that that's, that's my context. And I, I would say that on the other hand, some of the nicest people, the most selfless people giving and you know, just, just the good of human race. I've met them at church also, but they're not the norm, you know, they stand out.

So, yeah, and I, if for everybody listening, we have listeners, like we said, from over 80 countries, Victoria, and not everybody who's listening to us as a Christian worldview. They're listening to. To hear like how you achieve your success and the steps to do it so they can grow. [00:28:00] And for myself and you, you know, we have our experiences and our world view, but I definitely agree with everything you've said so far.

And it's, it's heartbreaking to me because no matter where we are, we're supposed to have good judgment, but we're not supposed to be judgmental. And everything in the Bible is balanced. It says a false balance as a bomber nation to the Lord and to let everything go and to be what's the, what's the word it means to be accepting of everything.

I can't remember the word that people always use, but that's ridiculous because you open your brain. So why do you, I mean, you open your mind, so while your brain. But then to be so closed minded and judgmental, like you said, pointing the finger at everybody. That's wrong too. We need that balance. But there's almost like the freedom that God's given us, especially in America.

People have just taken that to this lazy liberal un-biblical level. And it's, I, [00:29:00] I've never heard this said, but I, I refer to in my mind as religious cannibalism, it's like, nothing they do is wrong, but man, as soon as somebody does something outside the norm, they eat them. They like destroy them within the walls of the church.

And that's not how it should be, man. We should be encouraging each other and loving each other. And if somebody fails, you call them on it, but you still love them and, and work them back. And that's certainly not what happens. And I don't know if you've seen this, but in your circles, what I see in my circles down here and it's all over.

But I've noticed that if you're fake and plastic and you say the right things and you publicly act the right way, people accept you. And everything's wonderful. And what a good again, quote unquote Christian person that is, but then they're living like the devil outside of church and behind closed doors and the people who are real and showing their strengths and weaknesses, [00:30:00] their good points and their flaws, those people are like crucified.

Is that what you're seeing on your side of the world? Yeah, for sure. And I think going back to, yeah, absolutely. For sure. I live in California. Trust me. I see, I see a lot of you know, If you're vulnerable. And you're actually really honest. You're getting attacked on both sides actually. But you know, I've traveled.

I can't even remember how many countries I've been to. I mean, I've traveled all over the middle east all over. I mean, so I've dealt, I have friends, you know, some of my best friends. I mean, they live in places like Dubai Abu Dhabi, Charlotte, you know, all these places. Cause I I've learned to accept the human being that they are and you know, th the goodness that they offer, I mean, we, we differ on some things, but not a lot of things that we believe in common are just very strong, just like our values.

You know, how we value our time with our children, how we honor our parents, how we honor our God. [00:31:00] It's very, very similar, but like in here in America, I think that who was it that Years ago. I was I left the church because I moved, but I still have a very strong connection to this churches of, or Presbytarian.

And, you know, they would have some of the, because where they work. Cause it was right in Hollywood. Well, we'd have some of the most interesting speakers, you know, sometimes testimonials and this guy once said, I, he was a, I wouldn't say super famous actor, but he was pretty well known. You know, he was in many movies and he said, you know, I did.

Cocaine math. I lied. I, you know, hung around with prostitute and everybody thought I was cool. Then one day he said I hit bottom and I was in my bathtub and hallucinating the whole time. And when the paramedics got there, because somebody called him, you know, he was supposed to be doing on some acting thing and he didn't show up.

So they, somebody called, you know, like broken into his place and found him in his bathtub. [00:32:00] And he said, oh my God, I see Jesus. And then everybody thought he was crazy. So he said, you said you were what I was doing all the drugs. Everybody thought I was. Okay. So, I mean, first of all, in many places, the norm is you know, there are different sets of norms and that also goes with cushions too.

So in some cushion circles, it's okay to kind of like The Bible and say, you know, I'm going to take this and this and this from the Bible to kind of fit my narrative or fit, justify by actions. And then in other places, you know, you're held out a bit more accountable and somebody might call a call out, call you out on that, you know, like I don't get, but why, why you're doing this or that.

And when you, when you actually, you know, I've actually been asked many times, like, you know, not to be too vocal and I'm not very vocal. Normally I would, I would always point some things out with, [00:33:00] you know, with grace, I would say, you know, have you, are you sure? Like, that's what you really meant or something like that, you know, they would like, wow, like, you know, so I agree with you that we don't have the freedom to, I guess it's kind of sad that there's not a universal language within the Christian community, that in certain Christian communities, you could say one thing and other places you can't, you can't say the same.

Does that make sense? Oh, a hundred percent. And that's just the fall of man, our sin. And that's what I try to tell them. I remind myself of this. So I'm not, I'm not just speaking to our listeners. I'm speaking to myself. I have to remind myself off and God loves me. God's God's perfect. God's without sin.

God's holy. And he didn't design things this way. He's allowing it for right now. And we'll have that, that flawless, holy universal you know, society and in eternity. But right now I just got to remember whether it's a [00:34:00] congregation member or a deacon or a pastor. If they're being. You know, I might need to move to a different church if it was from like the pastoral level.

Yeah. Yeah. But that doesn't mean I'm giving up on God. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on the faith, you know, the Bible. But it's sometimes like, and I think it's biblical. I I'm gonna say this and people, I don't want to miss misrepresent it, but for you, you might be the same. You can disagree with me, but the people that I, if somebody doesn't believe in God, I'm totally fine with that.

If someone has a strong Christian, I'm totally fine with that, but it's the hypocrites I physically want to shake or slap in the face. And when you read the Bible, that's how Jesus was. Anybody who attacked him. He was. But when they act tax God, he lost it. And when there was a snakes, the hypocrites described the Pharisees.

He called them snakes and Vipers. So we had tolerance. That's the word I was listening. I was looking for, we have this religious tolerance, that's [00:35:00] complete BS. Like we're supposed to respect each other and love each other. But if somebody is just flat out wrong, you know, somebody molest a child screw you.

That's not okay. You deserve to be being in like opinion and probably taken off the planet. It's not murder, it's killing. It's, you know, you reap what you yourself. So that's where I'm at. And we're kind of getting deep into this, but I thank you for, you know, your perspective. You have south Korean perspective, you have, like you said, the west coast perspective and, and there's, there's great welfare for the world.

And you know, the, the church. If I say church, you're going to get an impression, your mind. I have an impression in my mind, all the listeners across the word world, that word is so powerful. It could be positive or negative. Right. But we got to do what you said is go back to, I mean, you use these exact words, but what's real.

What did God really design and how should we be? And we're [00:36:00] not supposed to be Sunday Christians. We're supposed to be Christians. Well, David, even, even more than that, I mean, you know, what you really said is that the Sunday Christians are praised. If we're going to church every Sunday, because in, you know, in my, in my church you know, I volunteer I do, I get kind of drafted a lot for like art committee, stain glass committee, all these things, you know, where we have to then raise the money and design them and put them up.

But you know, at our church our attendance every every week is like maybe a thousand people. So, you know two services, about 500 people. And then Christmas and Easter, they go to like 4,000 people. So you have Christians who are Christmas, Christmas, and Easter only Christians. So, and yet they're like, you know, really the loud and judgmental kind on top of that too.

So I would say that I'm with you on that. Like, you know, I know great people, I mean, great people because you're my [00:37:00] business, you know, I have, I source merchandise from, you know, I do gemstone mining and all that. So, you know 23 African countries, we've got, you know, all of south America or central America, you know, all of China, you know, India, I know people who are in China, for example, you're not allowed to have a religion.

So if you're a Christian, you don't, they're telling anybody that. But a lot of them don't don't know. I mean, I met amazing Chinese Muslims who have never been to like a mosque or they don't even know why they are. I mean, it's a fascinating story. Like I went, I actually went to a. To do business with a very, very big Joby store chain.

And it turns out it was about 60% owned by the Chinese communist party or something. Anyway, I don't get into politics. I was, you know the, the lady Mrs. Wong tried to get me out to dinner. So I, I accepted the invitation and she picked out, she said to me, this is the most [00:38:00] famous Muslim restaurant in China.

So I assumed she was Muslim. Right. Why would she pick out a Muslim restaurant in the middle of China? So, you know, I asked her so like, are you a Muslim? And she said, oh no, you know and I said, well, how do you know about Muslim food? She goes, I don't even know if someone's going to feel it or not.

And most Muslims here in China don't know why they're Muslims or anything. It's just that during that whole silk road time, when You know Persian rugs and spices were being transported. It was, it was right through this particular town and they married local people. So, you know what I'm S component I'm saying is that these are wonderful people.

And you know, they don't know God, they don't know Christianity. They don't believe in, you know, any, any religion and they're good people, you know, they don't judge you, they don't do anything. But when we have Christians in this country that go to church on Sundays, only their own volunteer to do anything, and yet they're sitting there judging everybody else and everybody else's kids and every [00:39:00] other person, they never even never even even met.

They saw somebody on the news and they'll, you know, go on a rant for about an hour. That's not acceptable. You know, I feel like that you can use that time to do something more productive. If, if you, you know, that's my whole thing. Like my thing is. You know that when things got so tough. And when I was at a young teenager and I have three jobs, I was back on the bus, taking the bus.

And I would tell my dad, like, you know, this whole idea of the American dream that you had is really, that's what that is. It's a dream it's never going to come true. And, you know, my father would say and I don't know at that time, because my father would kind of was teetering around Christianity versus he was very fascinated about the two different religions.

And he said if you have time to bitch about something, if you have time to complain, if you have time to sit there and argue with me about anything, that's wrong with your life, you have to, you have [00:40:00] time to figure out what your purpose in life is on this earth. And it's time for you to it's. It's the amount of time.

Every single minute you waste, you know, bitching at me about your life is the time you're wasting, improving yourself. And I mean, that was pretty harsh, but I think. So I would say to everyone listening, honestly, like I said, some of my greatest conversations I've ever had, or in places like Dubai with a Jewish woman and a Muslim woman and a Christian woman talking about the common bonds that we had.

It's just really amazing. You know, when you have great people trying to solve immediate problems with a kind heart with love for not only for yourself, but also for others. You know, I'm going to tell you an example of something that is so hypocritical that, and the person was said, it didn't even have to be all Isaiah.

And I didn't point it out to him because it was just a foregone. But I have a friend, my [00:41:00] daughter's best friend, her name is Julia. She came over for my daughter's bridal party when she was getting married several years ago. And there was all these other people there. And there's one, couple young couple that actually held a Bible study.

It was supposedly everyone's day. And it was around Easter time and everyone asked everyone else that, you know, what are your plans for Easter? And, you know, everyone went around the room and said, oh, you know, we're having so-and-so over or whatever. But this one guy who held a Bible study, she he asked her, you know, what are your plans for Easter?

And now Julia is not a Christian. She basically is an atheist. It's put up this way. But she said something like, you know, I think I'm gonna I booked myself to go and help out at the homeless shelter in Los Angeles. And so I'm going to be serving meals at the LA mission. And this guy said why he was really confused, why she was out there helping out.

And she was like really shocked. And she was like, oh, she goes well, because it's [00:42:00] a really kind thing to do. You know? I don't know it was a conversation. I was like, whoa. But yeah, I would say, and especially if an in what places, where I was. You know, I'm on TV every month. And in my previous network I was hooked up to like 180 million homes around the world.

And so you know, we went through a times where we weren't allowed to sell any religious articles, including crosses. So it's really interesting, but whenever I do, whenever I would design across I would tell a beautiful story about that particular cross. And you know, like how I was why that cross look that particular way, for example.

So I did I don't have a sample of it here, but I wish I thought about it, but it's, it's a big, it's all princess cuts, all square princess cut stones. And at the very bottom of it, there's like a pear shaped stone. And I said that something [00:43:00] like when my father passed away you know, I w I'm around my father's anniversary of his death.

I'm always reminded of the things that he said to me. You know, when things got really rough in east LA that life isn't about how long you live, it's really about the moments of joy that you create for other people, tears of joy. So I created this cross and it was titled tears of joy. And, you know, I sold like a million dollars worth of it, like in an hour, that thing just went like that because it came from the heart and it had an amazing story.

It was beautiful. And And then I will go through three, four years of not designing any cross, you know, cause I want it to be very worthy of it. And I would tell people, I would tell my audience that you know I'm a business woman and I understand the need, you know, to make things. But I have not done a star of David because it is a religious article and that it, [00:44:00] you know, whoever believes in, in the village.

Needs to deserves to get it from somebody who had the heart in it, you know, who understood the man who understands them who had, you know, some inspiring moment to do that. And I don't think I was qualified to do that, but when it comes to crosses, I wouldn't bring something unless I actually had something to, you know, show or if, sometimes I'll listen to a sermon from, you know, there's a certain, certain ceremonies that I kind of hit you.

Like, you feel like they're talking to you and your life. And I would sketch it right there, like and it would come to life and I would bring, you know, actual drawings with me and they've sold pretty well. So like I said, I try not to make, like, just make, make it about making money really, but more about telling that story.

So, you know, and I think that, that thing my father said about creating, you know, not experiencing tears of joy, but [00:45:00] actually creating them for other people. You know, he died shortly after that. He died at age 66. So in his case, that was actually quite relevant, I would say. And that's so beautiful and sweet, and to think about, to spend your purpose, you can do it in any way, create, enjoy, you know, you don't have to be a public figure or you don't have to be a preacher.

You don't have to be a politician. You can just be you, you can be a janitor, you can be a salesperson. You can be a corporate executive, you can be a teacher, but every day we can create joy for others. And you know, when we feel. From when God fills us and then it overflows to the world and that's, that's the intended model, you know, that's what the holy spirit does if we allow it, if we keep our lives here and allow [00:46:00] it to happen.

So, yeah, I, I absolutely agree with you on that. And the other thing too, is that you know, for all of your listening, especially in countries where you don't, you don't get to actually own a Bible or worship anything. It's interesting. When I flew into China the first time, you know, many, many years ago.

So I went from, you know, I have a global business it's I've got a business. I think 30 some countries now at 35 or 40 countries. And so you're traveling all over the place. So I, when I went to I guess Bahrain, once at the airport, they actually check your bags and do all this stuff. And they look for videos.

They're looking for like, you know, things like porn and stuff like that. They don't want that in there. So they look for drugs and videos. And so I had a little bag that looked like it could, if it could be like a video camera and you, so they confiscated it, you know, and they returned it a few days later.

But then when I went to China, They [00:47:00] actually will go through your whole bag not for drugs or videos, but they go through your back looking for books. They'll go. If you, you know, I'm an avid reader. I love to be. And if you bring in two or three Bibles that will confiscate. Okay. So basically there are a lot of countries where Christianity is something that you don't know, but you want to get to know, but you have no way of getting to know it.

But what I want to say is I I have been to, so not only just countries that I've actually had meaningful, philosophical conversations with when you know, women, especially you know, like I remember one time I was sitting in well on this trip and by rain because a couple of women actually helped me out, you know one, one was completely covered up and one was not.

And I asked, I can know what is their actual, I mean, I understand theoretically you know, covering up and all that, but like, how practical is it and what does it actually mean here? [00:48:00] Like in this country, you know, when you're here. And it's really interesting how when you get, when you have the curiosity and you may have to try to learn, you know, a little bit, the amount of respect you actually get from that, because.

Their idea of a cushion woman was completely com kind of demystified because, you know, when they look at me, I'm Asian and they assume that I'm, and I wouldn't be a question. And then not only that, I never talked about this. So remember a lot of these people I do business with for years until I meet them.

And then when we were out there, like off business hours, talking about, you know, our families, our lives and all that, our religions come in, come in, just because some of them go to church on Saturday and some of us go on Sunday, some don't go at all. So I, I would say that, you know, just respect everybody.

And when you have things that are, that are really unbearable, cause a lot of women in many of these countries, you might be working, making like 50 bucks a month or something, and you don't have a lot of means and something bad [00:49:00] happens to you. And a lot of bad stuff. Like I said, we had a kind of a freedom, all that stuff taken away.

I would say, think, sit back a little bit, instead of bitching about things and about what's wrong with what the world and what's wrong with your life. Think about like, where is a gift in this? Because everything that happened to me that if my father were alive today and you asked him, what is the one thing other than having your daughters, you know, and you and your wife, what is the one thing that you are more grateful for than anything else?

And he would say to you, having everything taken away, stripped away, except the 30 bucks was a greatest gift because that, you know, you start from nothing all over again. And it's just such a sweet journey because by the time he died, I mean, how he became a doctor here, he got his commercial pilot's license, he got all this stuff and his, his daughter is all became.

You know, really, really well balanced human beings, you [00:50:00] know? So he would say that that, that wouldn't have been possible if he was at content sitting in South Korea, you know, ordering people around. Cause that's, you know, he had a pretty quick life. So you have to think like, where's the gift, because if you look hard enough with every disaster, with every horrible thing that you think is so devastating, it comes wrapped with some gift.

And sometimes that is much more precious than what you lost. Oftentimes it is.

Yeah.

That's very well said and so much needed in our society for the listeners. You you've, they've heard how your parents hustle, you've hustled, you know, you've worked hard and you, and we're going to talk. Where you've, you know, from where you are bend to where you are. But before we dig into that, the last question is [00:51:00] not last question, but the question right now, no matter where somebody is right now, or no matter what they're doing, what tips or steps have you taken to preserve, being real, to preserve, just being who you are, being honest and true, because there's a lot of people.

And again, quote unquote, Christians included who believe a complete lie, that if you're going to be successful, you have to lie steal cheat. When I've seen the opposite, the most honest, moral people are the people who are the most successful. I mean, you always have these idiots and I'm not going to bring up names, but our Congress is full of them right now.

But most people who are successful that I know are great humans. So what, what. From someone working in a fast food restaurant to someone working in a clerical environment, to someone working as a C-suite executive and everything in between [00:52:00] construction worker, teacher, anything, what, what, what do you have for them in the sense that helps you stay the course each day and be real?

You know I heard someone speak about th this, the title of the speech was something like everyone, everyone lies. Okay. Employers lie to the employees, employees later, the employers recruiters lie to both of them. You like the customers. I mean, there could be little lies, right. But I would say that if you are a small business owner or your dream of being one, or you are working at a company and you feel like all the liars and chillers are always getting ahead on, you're not just think about this one.

You know, human beings we're not ever supposed to be born perfect life. Isn't perfect. I think the beauty and I'm sure most of you listening will agree that beauty of [00:53:00] life itself is a journey of discovery and you don't have the discovery when everything is just so hunky-dory and everything just seems so perfect.

So I would, I would argue the most perfect family, the people who said I got the perfect family, the most perfect whatever is the most dysfunctional, because you've never actually worked through anything. So the thing that, you know, if you are starting a small business, cause that's what I actually empower people to do.

And I, I will go into why I believe that everyone should own a business. Is, is this, if you're already in, in the small business, you know, you're not going to ever. Be competing with the Coca-Cola's or the IBM's or, you know or the, you know, the Kroger supermarket chain or Kentucky fried chicken or whatever your advantage in life is going to be your authenticity and your vulnerability.

Okay. Nobody wants to watch perfect people all the [00:54:00] time. I mean, look at it this way. When you open, you know, any papers or Instagram or whatever, you, you know, you get your news from you often see these people that supposedly they look perfect. They're gorgeous. They've got great hair, great skin, great party, great boyfriend, great husband, great kids.

And yet they're miserable. You know, their whole lives about, you know, the fourth marriage at Uganda array or whatever is all out there all the time. So, you know, not only in America, in every other country, we root for people who have flaws, who have problems, who work through them. And you know, with dignity and grace and along the way you discover something and help people, this is the joy of life.

So I would also argue with you that the term success is really distorted here in America. In Asian cultures, many Asian cultures. I know this is true in my family and the small little village where I came from [00:55:00] success is defined not by money or wealth or fame, but it's defined by five other things, five things that I've got combined, it's the balance of them all.

So the first in that whole order is your relationships, the quality of your relationships. So you, if you don't have a relationship with your kids or your parents, you know, that's a problem. So relationships is one wisdom, not necessarily intelligence, but just wisdom to know what's right or what's wrong.

And then you have health is another big thing. And then you have wealth, of course, that does buy somethings. So when you have all these other things and longevity, longevity, so a lot of people actually, you know, die pretty early. So if you have a, you know, a perfect balance of, and I say why that balance is really important, is that how often do you see people who, you know, become a millionaire or DECA millionaires, 10 million or more?

And, but they've had to go through two divorces, [00:56:00] their kids, don't, you know, kids hate their guts and you know, or you haven't seen them or you don't talk to your siblings anymore. Or you have tried doing all those things and you get sick for example, or, you know, you're, there's just. You know, human beings, weren't supposed to have one huge thing.

And at the expense of all the other stuff, so having this balance is really important. So why I say this now to you is if you're, you know, waiting tables, if you are a photographer, struggling, if you're doing whatever you think I'm not successful and I'm not going to ever be successful, trust me, you already have so much more success than you ever think was possible.

So if the only thing left there and the whole whole spectrum of things that I just mentioned, if the only thing that's left there is. That is the easiest thing. And that's how I special. I actually will teach you how to make money once you have all the other stuff. But I refused to take people who, who basically think the money is the only thing.[00:57:00] 

So, you know what I mean? Did that make any sense? 100%. I couldn't agree more. And I think, again, that lines up the Bible in the whole Bible, the word success is only mentioned once in Jeremiah and it gives us whole beautiful passage. It says, then now she'll have good success, right? But in America, most people, Christians are not, they hear success and they equate that with wealth and success equals wealth in America.

And that is not true. There's so many successful people around the world, but they're not enjoying it because they're like, I'm not wealthy, so I'm not successful. Well, that's not true. You can have a great marriage and a great family. And like you said, all these other things and the wealth is the least of it.

Right? And then the wealth is actually the easiest to get like, I'm like you, when you, when I consult people to help them grow their business, so many are focused on, [00:58:00] oh, I need investors or money or this or that. And I'm like, that's the easiest part. I'm like, when we get your foundation laid and everything else in place, you're probably not even going to need an investor.

But if you do, they're going to be flocking to you. We just need to get your structured. Right. But the money is the easiest part and that's what people are lied to. And they believe the myth. Exactly. That you said that that's the hard part and it's not, it's not, but you know, P you know why, because relationships, you have to actually work at it continuously.

You know, relationship that human beings have emotions and, you know, life happens, things change. So relationships is difficult because you have to constantly work at it and constantly, you know, take out the weeds and, you know, in your relationship. And it's something that takes effort all the time. Having your health, same thing, you have to kind of take care of your body, you know, inside and out my mind and body.

But I will say one more thing if you have all these other things. So there was something called the temporary wealth. Okay. So will you, you know, you might [00:59:00] become a millionaire or what, how many times have we seen companies go bankrupt? I mean, look at companies like blockbuster Montgomery wards, I mean even bigger companies.

They used to be the biggest thing in the world. And there are nothing today. Like nobody even remembers them anymore. Right. It's something with people. Like a lot of times you, you get this flash of money and when you don't have relationships, when you don't have all these other things, it's harder to sustain.

It. It's much harder to sustain. The wealth or the momentum or whatever you've got going. It's so much easier. Life is much more enjoyable and fulfilling when you work on all these other dimensions of your life. So I would argue that having this relationship, you know, I have a wonderful, wonderful husband, you know, I've been married to him since 1989.

So I dunno, 30 some years. And I've got great kids. My parents, like they sustain me that when times are tough and you will have tough times, you know, they would always [01:00:00] say, if anyone can do it, you can do it. And they would be my, the few times when you're self doubting and all that, they would say, you know what, God, didn't put you on earth so you can starve or suffer you.

You're going to find your purpose and you're going to get this done. And you know, sometimes that's all you need, but when you have people hating your guts, because you know, you cheated them, all that stuff on your way to make them the million dollars. I mean, there's waiting for you to fail and that's a, that's a horrible way to live.

You know what I mean? Even if you had all the money, it's a horrible way to live. So, and I am living proof. I went from $30 to $500 million. Without outside investors ever. And with less than $10,000 worth of advertising, I haven't spent money on advertising. Went away tonight that I'm not saying I'm a super woman.

I'm just saying that these things are possible when you work on everything else. Nope. And let's get into that. Let's get into, I know you don't like talking about yourself, but that's why [01:01:00] we're here. They want to hear about Victoria wick. So take us from when you were, you know, you go to college, you said you had your great paying job.

Take us from there into where you are today. How did that journey go? Your career, your success, like you said, now you have, you know, you've been over 180 million homes, 500 million plus in sales, gem mining, you're in 35 to 40 countries. So bring us from where you started to where you are today. So I think this is, you know, I, I don't like to talk about me so much because, because David I have lived my whole life on, you know, when I went to graduate school.

And in business schools today and business schools, you know, from the time the business school who were invented. The MBA classes always tell you that the the most effective words in marketing are free and new and improved. I'm sure [01:02:00] everybody has heard that before. This is why we always got you get free this free, that all the time.

And I say that the most important word in marketing is the word you Y O U. So I always really thought about this from the very beginning of my, my career. So when I first started my company and I went to work for someone and he, so the jewelry industry is so archaic and so stubborn even to this day.

When you buy anything, when you buy chaga by you know your mother or your sister or your daughter or anybody necklace, for example, they come in, in this very predictable, next 18, 20, 24 and 30 inches. Okay. They don't, they don't make anything other than that, they basically have this industry standard.

And I said, well, why, you know, I, when I look at all the women around me that the most usable size were like size 17 inches or 16, not 18 20, 20, 4 30. And what happens if somebody wants, like, [01:03:00] you know, a 15 and a half inch necklace, what do they do? And they told me, well, you know, this is the it's a lot easier to keep track of our inventory.

And, you know, we can't stock like all the different sizes. So these are the standard sizes that we get things from. Right? Same thing with, with if you wanted to buy a ring in America there was a time and still 80% of the companies do. All the rings that are stored in all of American, you know, everything from Dale's case, you know?

Cause I sold to all of them at one point. They stuck them in size seven. So if you want, if you, your daughter, for example, one at a size five ring, you would have to get a sized. They would tell you they would charge you a special charge fee for sizing it down to her size. Cause you know, she had, she created a crime of wearing a size five.

So. I asked my boss, like, why don't you offer like, embrace let's, which was a huge category for him instead of offering only one size and size seven, because I don't know anybody who can wear a seven, you know, my Asian side of the family, they're all like six, six and a half at the [01:04:00] most. And then my Caucasian side of the family of seven and a half to eight.

So no one in my family could actually wear a seven including myself. So, yeah. So I kept asking and asking, asking if he would offer them. Cause it would just simplify it okay. For their customers. So what happened was he did it the, the, just by offering his exercises, he actually pretty much own the market at the time.

He pretty much increased his sales in that category by twenty-five percent, no new designs or anything, just, just adding these other sizes. So, you know, time after time, I would ask him to make little tweaks, to make our customer. You know, let's just make it very convenient for them. They should be able to go in and buy what they want and leave.

They shouldn't have to come back six times to get a sized right. And pay more money. So you know, and then I asked him to do some other things and he said, we've pretty much same thing. You know, he didn't really want to deal with the inventory. Didn't want to deal with, you know, whatever. So I went out and started my own company.

And when I started my own company [01:05:00] this was really, I didn't have money, David. I didn't even have money to make a simple sample samples to cost a lot of money. So if you, I know you're in business, if you wanted to make a sample of, you know a center glory, for example you know, briefcases or something like that basically the manufacturers will tell you, you know, we want to know we want to die stamp or this, that should cost you a thousands of dollars just to, before you actually envision what you, what you are envisioning.

So I didn't have any money, but I wasn't going to give up. So I actually sketched out. My designs. In fact, I'm pretty good at sketching. Let me show you so like, this is a 3d picture of a design and for those of you listening right now, I'll put a link in the show notes, Victoria, you can send me a still shot and then that way they can see them too.

So I sketch them out and we actually hold that back up for the camera. I was too low. Okay. [01:06:00] Can you see it? Yeah. Beautiful. So I sketch them out. And I would basically, there's a whole bunch of lights sketch them out and then I would oh, you're gonna love this one. This is my, one of my favorites. This is like basically rocks and a starfish.

I crawling around the room. Let me see that. Yeah, that's gorgeous. So I would sketch these out. And then I went to, I created like block books. Then I went to department stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks fifth avenue. Bloomingdale's we had Saks and Neiman's in LA Bloomingdale's wasn't there yet, but at, at that time it was, Bullock's basically, that's probably when those became and I went to department stores and I'd asked the assistant manager, if you had something like that, could you sell it?

And how much, you know, could you sell it for them? So and I would tell him, like, you know, I'm just doing some research. I really dream of owning again, a, some kind of a design studio, but I don't have any money. And I was, [01:07:00] you know, just trying to see if I can actually, you know, get some feedback from potentially, you know, I, I don't know if this is gonna work or not.

And you know, you can not believe how many of those people that I approached saw this innocent girl. And I mean, remember I was 30 years. Innocent girl vulnerable. Completely honest. I have no money. Okay. But I was eager to please people. Do you know that the Neiman Marcus and Saks fifth avenue on Wilshire and Rodale, cause they're right across from one another, they were like, oh my God, they're beautiful.

And yes, we can sell a ton of it and we can sell it for a lot of money. And I said, well, how would I go about doing that? How would I go about finding them? And they're like, no, they're our best customers. If you leave those designs here, we will call them and ask them to, you know, cause they don't want to buy what I was in the case.

They want to know what else is coming up new. So my first few pieces, these people actually sold it for me. Just being, you know, but had I gone there and said, oh, I'm [01:08:00] the award winning designer from, you know, whatever, whatever land and you know, these are gorgeous. Beautiful. Which do you want it? I, I don't know if I would've gotten the same, you know, same kind of response, but you know, a lot of people.

And, but I knew. Even at that time that the Neiman Marcus and Saks fifth avenue in Beverly Hills wasn't, you know, like all of America. So I meant too much farther out, you know, places like you know, in the San Fernando valley orange county, more in inland. And I went to all the stores that I can and ask them, same question, you know, you know, could you give me some feedback?

You know, I understand that you, you have some great contact with your customers. And so that's how I started my company by really respecting the customer's need. And also just working with, you know, asking people for help and being authentic and vulnerable, just letting people know, Hey, I, I have no money and, you know, I would love to start something, but you know, this is the only way I can [01:09:00] start.

And so that's, you know, that's, I think that to me, when I look back, that's still the most astonishing thing, because I was able to start a business with literally no, And how did that come about? I remember you telling me that privately, you told me a cool story. Can you share that with the audience or was that private, private story?

I don't remember what that was. You were saying how your first real big break you were in an office and just the right person at the right time came by. Yeah. Okay. So that was the beginning and that, you know, I've had many, many moments where I have had. Just really amazing moments that just kind of happened just out of nowhere.

So I started my company that way, and then I was still there. So I did get my big bro. You know, I was able to get into Neiman's and Sachs and all the different companies and I kept getting this phone call from this woman named Mary Lou. I don't know if Mary Lou is still like in the [01:10:00] within the company or not, but Mary Lou was the buyer, civilian buyer working in El Toro Marine Corps base.

And she said, oh my gosh, like I see your designs all over these magazines. I see them all over the, like, you know, the airline because I was in all the airline inflight magazines as well. And I would love to have it in my PX is, but you know, so, and I, and I noticed that you're based in LA, so LA to El Toro was only about an hour drive.

So she had asked me if I could show her, you know, my designs and. You know, saying, well, I don't know anything about like a military basis. I haven't been in one and I'm one of those people. If I don't, if I really don't think I can help somebody or be a good fit for them, I would just tell them right off the bat, like, you know, I'm just not, I'm just not very good at this.

I'll just tell him that. So, but I wouldn't, I didn't know enough about it, but one day I was going home to my husband's. So my in-laws my husband, his mom to San Diego and El Toro happens to be right [01:11:00] in the middle of the two cities. So I told her I'm sorry, it's Thanksgiving weekend, but on Wednesday I'll be driving towards San Diego.

And I, you know, would you mind if I stopped by and kind of checked out your store? And she said, oh, no, not at all. So I went there Thanksgiving, Wednesday. And you know, what, what about noon? You know, she looked at me, her eyes were just like sparkling, everywhere. She really wanted to buy all this stuff she had, oh, I love this.

I love this. She picked it all out. And then at the end of the whole thing, she said, you know, the only problem is I forgot to mention is that we, I can't buy anything. I can't give you your actual PO I can only sell things on consignment or guaranteed sale, which means that, you know, I've had to kind of finance the whole thing.

And so, you know, I said to her, you know, I really wish you had told me that like from the beginning, because I'm such a small company and I'm not in any position to take any risks like this right now. And then she told me, you know, you're dealing with the us government. So you are not taking a risk. I mean, we will pay you for sure.

But I [01:12:00] still said, you know, if you choose certain things and it doesn't sell, I'm still gonna have to take those back. So that's still a risk for me. And I'm not able to take any risks at this time. I'm such a very small company. I can't handle this, you know, so, you know, I wasn't mean about it or anything like that, but we chose to speak again at some point.

And I started to pack up my merchandise and everyone all of a sudden around the room, like they just got up and stood at BRAC and they saluted this, this man that walked in and he was a Colonel something from, you know, pretty high ranking. He was there to meet some general. And so of course, I don't know anything about any of this stuff and every diluted except me, because I didn't know the protocol.

Right. And I didn't know how to properly salute anybody. I'm standing there kind of frozen. I stood up and. You know, obviously this man was not in jewelry at all. She seeing all this jewelry, you know, over there, he's like, what is all this? And so Mary Lou said, you know I was hoping to be able to get this in the PX stores, but I'm [01:13:00] not able to, because, you know, she explains all this.

And he actually came in looking for some, someone, and he was lost because this guy was not, he didn't work in this space. He was a visitor. So he basically said, you know how much would it cost to you know stock this or test us. And I said to him, you know, I could do this for maybe $25,000.

If that's all the money, you know, we, we had or if normally I would like to have like $75,000 because, you know, we can then test all the different categories and so forth. And he just basically said, So you're definitely not a Marine or you don't know how the Marines work. And I said, no, sir, I don't, you know, of course I have to be very honest.

And he said, you know, we're the Marines. And we do, if we do win something, like we did something like we do it right. Or we don't do it at all. And so he basically said, you know he's going [01:14:00] to get to go to with this other guy that he was supposed to meet, and they're going to just go ahead and give me a $75,000 blank PO to test this because he, he loved it now.

So awesome. So the question is and dismantle, you know, was that the high, high ranking officer and he normally would never come to this particular base, but he had to meet a bunch of different people and he was lost right at the moment that I was packing up the stuff. Right. And so like, what are the chances of all of those things happening at that very two, three.

Time period. And of all the times Mary Lou had called me for two or three years that I would have chosen that Wednesday, right. Where this guy was visiting. So I would say, you know, and then by the way I did get into the El Toro Marine Corps base. She then introduced me to, you know, we, we developed an amazing relationship.

She didn't introduce me to the basis down in San [01:15:00] Diego at Miramar Naval air station pro Harbor. And then those people sent me over to Henderson in, in Maryland and Norfolk, Virginia. So I was in all these stores. I mean, there were millions and millions of dollars worth of merchandise that went through and you know, people love them.

So I guess, I mean, there were so many instances like that in my life where just when I needed that extra something, it just appeared. So I would say that I would argue that, you know, I've always lived my life. So going back some more, I want to talk, I don't want this whole show to be about my dad, but my father used to say, when we were really poor in east LA, and then we were just out of east LA, we kept on moving further and further away from there.

But sometimes he would see people, homeless person, you know, like with a couple of kids begging for money. And he would just kind of empty out his pockets. And my mother would say like, are you crazy? We have no money. And you know, [01:16:00] sometimes be 20 bucks, sometimes 50 bucks, but he would just empty out his pocket.

And he said something like, if you give them a dollar or $2, it doesn't change his life. It doesn't change your life. It's just like a feel good money. You're trying to like wash your consciousness off. Like by saying, you're doing something good, but you haven't really made any sacrifices for that. But if you give them everything, you have you, it now costs you money.

That's true. So I would say, you know, I've always, if anybody ever asks me for help, I've always helped them. So, and he always said, you know, if when you help somebody who's homeless, when you have somebody, you know, who is a drug addict or whatever, that person may never even remember your face, but when you need help, it will come to you.

And, and it was so, yeah, that's very powerful to me, that was really a powerful, and I think that there has been many times in my career. And I think getting into those PX is where a whole, they [01:17:00] added a whole other dimension because they were pure cash flow. And I grew like my company grew exponentially that two, three years because I was in all the Marine Corps bases, army air force and You know, they, they paid like clock, clock work.

And I would, that was a pivotal moment that didn't cost me a penny or money or anything. So I would say I've had many of those sort of divine, divinely aligned moments in my career. Yeah. And God has definitely given you wisdom and favor, but you did the work to when he gave that open door, you went through it and then he delivered.

And it sounds like your dad was a super wise man and somebody great to learn from. And yeah. That's, that's it. When you were speaking about your dad and his, his philosophy on giving air reminds me of the difference between, you know, every can have knowledge and we can learn. Yeah. But then there's. And it's knowing how that [01:18:00] works, but then understanding is actually applying it.

Right. And it's just, that's just beautiful. How your dad didn't just give you the knowledge or the way somebody gave you the understanding. So God gave it to you through your father. So that's so awesome. So let's, let me ask you this Victoria, from your career to today, is there anything significant we miss or anything you want to cover or anything you really want to share in part with our audience before we move on to where's Victoria today?

And where are you going? Yeah, I think the the thing I want to leave and conclude with for that section of our interview is that remember, you know, love is an action word, right? You know, in fact, I think that everything you do, everything you believe believe in. If it's not followed by actions, then it's meaningless.

So remember when you preach to anybody about [01:19:00] Christianity, about charity, about anything, follow that up with meaningful action, not just any action, just like this whole thing with the homeless person, you know, he used to also make us like pick out our favorite things that we wanted to have for Christmas to up to a certain budget.

And because we didn't have, you know, there were many years we didn't have any money. And then when Christmas came, we didn't get to keep it. He, he made us go pick out a kid and give it to. So he's, you know, that, that sucked, but that was like that was charity. Like, what he's saying is that when you are a multi-billionaire and you've got a check for 50,000 bucks, it, you know, that he doesn't recognize that it's like, it means nothing.

But if you, if you make $500 or, you know, whatever a week and you choose to give away the 50 bucks, that's actually quite meaningful because that, that means you can't buy something because you gave it to someone. So I would say that everything you do, you know, believe in yourself. [01:20:00] And I said to myself over and over every single time, my business came to a fork where you either move forward, you had a chance to just like really catapult your way up higher or go bankrupt.

And I had to take certain risks then, you know, sometimes they look, it looks like I was gonna go bankrupt. You know, I reminded myself, God didn't put me on earth so I could sit here and start. He didn't put me on earth so I could come this far, doing all the right things in my life. I mean, just giving my heart and soul to everything that I believe in.

And I, you know, I'm not saying I'm perfect. I mean, I, I'm still flawed. I'm I create, we all screw ups in my life every day to now. But still I've, you know, he's not going to abandon you, you have to keep charging. And if you believe that you sometimes just be hard to believe it when you, when you see no.

I would say something like a false evidence. A lot of times [01:21:00] it looks like you're failing and you're not, you're just doing the right things. So I would, you know, if you are having a hard time in your life, in your marriage, in your, you know, journey of health or your business journey, the first thing is belief.

And then the second thing is the action that, that you, you know, what are you willing to do to kind of validate them? Yeah. When you said false evidence, the first person I always think of is Abraham Lincoln. That guy thought he was a failure when he died. And yet here's one of the greatest presidents and leaders of all time.

And then you have yeah, so much wisdom. And what you're saying, it sounds like your dad, you know, again, just lines up with the Bible, whether he believed in Christ or not, at that time in his life, he taught you give your best. It sounds like you don't give the scraps. Like how many times do we say, oh, I'm going to give a little and you know, it's like nothing, or we're going to give something we want to get rid of.

So we have an excuse to go buy more crap. Right. It's like, you know, but [01:22:00] they, but you know, what's worse is like I know people who make upwards of $50 million and they'll give away a thousand bucks and they'll go talk about it to everybody when I, where they are. That's not good. Yeah. That's why. Yeah.

No, the biblical model is perfect. It's God, first off. It's like, you know, a lot of people call it tithing, but that's a percentage of your income. And that's just to show an appreciation to God and he doesn't need our money, but it's just to say, wow, God, thank you for the other 90%. But whether you make a dollar or whether you make a hundred million dollars, it's a percentage.

So it still has value. You know, it's not like you said, if somebody makes $50 million, a thousand dollars check is nothing. They'll spend that on dinner. Yeah. Oh yeah. If that, I mean maybe lunch. Yeah. They'll buy a bow. I've been with people that buy a bottle of wine. And I mean, I remember the first time I saw great wealth.

I was with an organization. It [01:23:00] was fantastic. And we had a bunch of sales reps and our meal was $27,000. And I don't think that included the tip. And I was like, I felt like sick. I was like, are you kidding me? And I was the FNG. I was the new guy. So the like, give him the bill. I'm like, I'm going to get fired.

I just started. I'm like, dude, heck no. I'm like, I'm not putting this on my first expense report. But yeah. I, I just, I still have a hard time. I mean, if you have great wealth like that, you can enjoy it. But like you said, somebody given a thousand dollars when they're that wealthy has really not a token.

And then to have the pride to say, look how great I am and tell people that's you're shameful. That's not. Yeah, no. Let me tell you what I, how, how I feel about wine when people, you know, I have been to those dinners [01:24:00] where the dinner bell came out to, you know, 25, $30,000. But fortunately I didn't pay for it.

I was like a guest, but when it comes to wine, they'll ask me, oh, you know, pick out a wine. I just help people, you know, If it's not a screw top or whatever. I mean, I'm okay. Don't waste great wine on me. Cause I'm going to like, not even appreciate or enjoy it cause I don't understand it. And it's, there's no, there's nothing there that actually would be worth that kind of money to me.

But if you are fearful you know, about anything good, whether you want to deve an abusive relationship, you know what I mean? Like sometimes families can be pretty, pretty bad. Your boss or whoever a job, if you're fearful about anything, remember what the word fear actually means. It's false evidence, appearing bail.

So a lot of times you look around and you think, oh, if I leave this relationship, this, this will happen to me because I [01:25:00] saw other people who did what I'm thinking of doing. And they all failed. Well, that's false evidence appearing. They didn't fail because of that. They fell for other reasons. So just remember that and yeah, you know, I just want to really empower everybody that, you know, everything is possible, but you got to do the work and you gotta do the hard work, the emotional part of that.

Yeah. A hundred percent. You do your best at that time, except your best. And God will help you. He'll help you keep growing, but you can't sit there and explain. To just happen. It takes not entitled. You're not entitled it. Doesn't get it. Yup. Yep. All right. So where is Victoria today? Tell us about your life today, where you're going and how we can help you get there.

You've given us so much value. You've given us so much great content. How can we help you now move to the next level? So I truly believe that [01:26:00] I've been a good person. I've tried to live a good life. I have never been like, you know, claimed that I'm perfect or anything like that. But I, I that's my, my that's what I strive to be.

And I still have a lot of work to do on that and I'm going to, but right now I'm not really. So I left HSN after 20 years, basically. It's when my contract was over. I chose not to renew that. And for those who don't know home shopping network, that's a massive entity. That's like a three and a half billion dollar company.

And I was on it monthly for 20 years now. And so left there with the intention of retiring completely from the TV world. And I wanted to, because I believe my journey was but you know, I never thought I was, I never looked for money when I left my company, my company to start my own little company, I just wanted to make $3,000 a month.

So I could work 20 hours a week and spend time with my family. So all the money that came after that was just kind of an aftermath. So I felt [01:27:00] like I said earlier in a previous segment there were so many divine divinely aligned moments, divinely aligned events that happened to me that I felt like, you know, I did a lot of the right things.

I struggled and I, you know, literally there were just times when I was tested, left and right. But at the end I felt like I was darn lucky to luck was hugely involved in there. I want to now spend my life, the rest of my life, building a legacy. And I'm not saying I'm Oprah or, you know anybody like that, I'm just want to, in my own world impact how I can help other people to realize their dreams.

Maybe, you know, maybe a lot of people won't do the million dollars. Maybe a lot of people won't have a 35 year marriage or whatever, but you're going to be better off having, I hope to be impactful in everyone's lives that I, that I touch from this point forward. And also I want to [01:28:00] create, you know, a lot of, and the reason why I said earlier, why I believe everyone should start a business is this I looked back about what would have happened if I didn't start a business, I might have.

Gotten pretty, you know, I, I'm pretty sure I would've gotten higher up in the corporate world or doing whatever, but by having started my own business, there are over 10 million women who have their dream jewelry at affordable prices. Cause that was my thing. Affordable prices, premium quality jewelry. So you can actually impact your world faster in a positive way, because you are giving all of you, not what your boss says.

This part of you is what we want from you. So you know, start something small. And even if it's a side hustle, because you can impact your world, your circle of people and then bigger circle, a bigger circle. So what I'm doing now, I started coaching a lot of entrepreneurial women [01:29:00] who have the right set of values, who, you know, who understand who have a desire to be an entrepreneur.

And if they just need a little bit. I help them. They can, you know, I do a monthly seminar on how to get visible. Cause there are a lot of small businesses. The first, the first reason they go out of business is underfunding. And the second biggest reason is not being visible. So, you know, if you are a small bakery and everybody loves Dave's bakery and everybody says, my God, you know, you got to try out Dave's croissant.

It's like the first best thing ever. But if nobody knows that David actually has a personalized shop, you know, on a certain corner, they're not going to find you. Right. So getting visible is a huge thing. And I actually teach free seminars every once a month. And I, I tried one couple of weeks ago and I had so many signups that I, I felt like I couldn't answer all the questions that they asked.

Like there were 350 people signed up on their first day. So I am limiting those seminars now to like 40 [01:30:00] people. Once a month, so I can actually listen to, and, you know, answer a question, a perfect, you know, to, to the full extent. So it covers how they, if they get a free PR what they do on social media, the right kind of messages how to you know, like get other PR such as like podcasting and so forth, and then how to author your own book, because you know about they're two different books now.

So and the free PR thing is really important because you can get that very easily. Like something that's not going to cost you a fortune. I don't have a package to sell you on that or anything like that. You, you should be able to get free PR, but if you actually have a real expertise, and if you have real stories that people want to, people actually want to connect to three PR has put very assessable now, So they can come in and connect with me if you've listened to the, the last hour and a half with Dave and me just come and sign up for anything.

And [01:31:00] then, you know, I also do a 15 minute free call if I just did a couple of them yesterday, really interesting people. And if it's a quick fix type thing, I, I'm pretty good at assessing, you know, your entrepreneurship, like you know, you're finding your biggest idea that the w what's the biggest opportunity and how you get there.

And I'm pretty good at giving you that pretty quickly. So, and if you need a follow up call or something like that, I also do that too for I'll put links in the show notes, but what's the website or best way for people to reach you. And is there a promo code you want them to use? Yeah. So it's www dot Victoria wick, w I E C k.com.

So that's where everything is. And then I also host a million dollar hobbies podcast. And you can listen to that. And there, I have amazing journeys, a lot like mine, where people have started like a unlikely, very unlikely hobby, and they've all done, you know, [01:32:00] over a million dollars with their little hobby and with no money, the same, very similar stories.

And I kind of focused on that cause you know, you take you know, I, I have a photographer who was kind of called a rebel a lost cause and she was making no money as a photographer. And she ended up working at like a, a magazine company where she was dealing with photographers by make a long story short.

She ended up. Creating a small company of our own out of necessity cause nobody would hire her. And she ended up selling her company to none other than bill gates himself. So, you know, for some megabucks, there's all these stories. I've got 20, 30 episodes and most of them are stories kind of like that where people are just literally, you know, and I love that.

I love that transformation story. So I do that. And then, so they can, people can come to million-dollar hobbies.com on apple podcasts and all the other stuff and come to Victoria, vic.com. You can sign up for my book. Now I'm going to tell you a little bit about [01:33:00] my book. The million dollar hobbies book actually is it's my life's work.

And I'm going to tell you right now, if I was just after money, it'd be so much easier for me to do one or two extra hours on TV. Cause I make a really good money doing that. Selling a book for like under $10 would just be a really stupid. No idea because, you know, took me back more than a year or two to actually write the book and all that.

But I want to impact as many people as I can, and I have to charge something because of publishers and everybody wants to make money, but it, it is going to be a real eye-opening thing for you that you should be able to literally start a business with no money and scale it up to however you want it to be.

And in any business. And I got case studies on all that stuff. So so my journey now is to educate and impact people. And ultimately I'm going to create 1 million millionaires. And I say that millionaires, you know, [01:34:00] not necessarily money, but in their total you know, life, meaning all the five different factors that I talked about in terms of their relationships, quality of time with your family, you know, doing what you love, all those things.

So well-put notes. I mean, we'll put links in the show notes to your website. The coaching program, the podcast, the million dollar hobby podcasts and the million dollar hobby books, or whether you're watching or listening, check out the show notes, whether it's on YouTube or apple podcasts or Spotify or whatever podcast player you listen to and check those links out.

Victoria, it's been fantastic having you here today. Is there anything else we missed or didn't cover that you want to touch on or leave as a parting thought for our community? Well, the parting thought is every one of you, every one of you have a gift. [01:35:00] Life is a gift. Every one of you is, and it's never too late to start on the right path.

So I, you know, I have been told that my story is very, very inspiring that I am an inspiring speaker. People have told me that, but I don't want to hear it. What I want to hear is that I want to be an action oriented person. I want to leave you with the, the real belief that everything, every journey, that thousand mile journey starts with our very first step.

And today is a fine day for you to start that first step. And that first step is, you know, maybe you just like, maybe if nothing else, you had to be defined your dream, that, you know, your dream life, actually, you could have more than just money. Money, like I said, is the easiest thing. So start your action today could be just writing down your mission.

And I think about this to write down your mission, like, what were you [01:36:00] born to do? If money was absolutely no worry to you. If you didn't have to worry about paying bills, you didn't have to do anything at all. And money was a non-issue. What would you do with your time? Because I think that's where you start.

You got to pretty much figure it out. While you were born on this earth and not, you know, because of bills and all this stuff, you're going to be able to pay it. Trust me on this. You will be able to pay it. You were born on discharged for a reason and go find that reason and live that purpose for life.

Amen to that. And what I'll do is do you ever hear, do you ever watch that video? I think it was by Alan Watts and it's what if money wasn't important? Money isn't important. No, no, no. But did you ever see his hair? Oh, I'll send it to you. It's a beautiful reminder for us all. And it's such good truth, everybody, you know, in school we should be playing this for our kids and, and make, I have played it for my kids, but I mean, it [01:37:00] should just be part of the curriculum, but thank you for all the wisdom and knowledge and understanding you share with us today, Victoria.

You truly are a remarkable woman and I hope our audience can reach out and connect with you. And if there's anything we can do for you, please stay in touch and let us know how we can help you as well. We will. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak about my journey. Cause hopefully it'll impact a few people.

I hope, you know, as many as I can and yeah, we should definitely have a dialogue afterwards because I believe every connection too is is, is a divine alignment. So, you know, I accept everybody who comes to my life. And UI, certainly an amazing gift. Oh, well, thank you very much. And I feel the same way.

And hopefully soon we'll to get together and break bread, not a $30,000 meal, but a nice meal. All right. So I'm David . You just had the privilege of listening to Victoria [01:38:00] wick. We love you. And all the things Victoria said, all the things your dad taught her, all the things. God taught us all, nothing counts.

If you don't apply it, like Victoria said, be action oriented. So our slogan is listen, do repeat for life so you can have a great life in this world and an attorney to come. So connect with Victoria. Let me know if I can help you. And until next week, I'm David Pascoe alone. This is a remarkable PO podcast.

And Victoria, thank you again. You truly are a remarkable person. Thank you. Bye have a great day. Everyone. We'll see you next week. Ciao.

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