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Episode Summary of The Grow Through It Podcast with Phi Dang, 30: Hi, I'm Back!
It’s 2023 and after a hiatus from May 2021, I am back on the Grow Through It Podcast. This episode is catching you up on what has happened since I last released a podcast episode. The long and short of it? A LOT.
What you'll learn from this episode
- Phi’s journey on a personal level and business level
- What’s been happening in Phi’s life since 2021 including going from side hustle to a full time life coach, a breakup and moving homes
Featured Resources on the episode
Show Transcript
Episode 30 - Hi I'm Back
Hi, beautiful souls.
I’m back!!!
Where have I been?
Hello, hi, oh my goodness I can’t believe it’s almost been 2 years since I did my very own podcast episode on my own podcast. That’s right the last time you heard from me here was May 2021 and goodness a whole whole lot has changed. Honestly life is unrecognisable now going from side hustling as a life coach to now a full time life coach for more than a year! First of all hi you’re listening to the growth through it podcast with Phi Dang (yes it’s me Phi speaking) and I really appreciate that you’re here whether you’ve been here since day 1 when I was inhervitality, when I first released this podcast around November 2020 or you’re new because also since 2021 my following has tripled. What even right?
It's been since May 2021...
So where have I been since May 2021? There’s a lot to cover so this episode is like reintroducing myself and where I am and to be honest there is sooooo much to discuss it’. In actual fact it felt somewhat overwhelming to record this episode because it’s been a while since I’ve done my own podcasting and actually I don’t think I’ve had a moment of true pausing or stop since I last had my podcast going because it’s been a crazy, wild, magical ride to where I am today since May 2021.
Like honestly I still remember having the idea for this podcast and being so unsure of it until my first business coach Tiff was like go for it. I was so unsure of myself, I’m like do people even care and the sweetest thing is since then so many people have messaged me asking about the podcast, wondering if I’ll do it again, being in their spotify wrapped at the end of the year… like when I started the podcast I think I may have just made my first ever $5,000 in business and that was like such a wow moment, I couldn’t believe it.
I remember being bright eyed, so hopeful of potential like my ex was even recording me podcasting in the cupboard in my bedroom for the best sound quality and now here I am podcasting from my open plan living room/kitchen/office space from my apartment in one of Australia’s most iconic beaches. I literally live 110 metres from the beach. Like I step outside and bam there’s the beach anyways I digress. We would both not know the success that would come from these small brave moments towards my dream like it’s funny to think once I got my side hustle going it would take 3-5 years to go full time and it took less than a year.
Why did the podcast stop for a while?
Ok so first of all I want to address why this podcast stopped, the truth was I didn’t actually decide to stop. Being a new coach I was so committed to the podcast and also who I used to be I was very much ruled by rigid structures and self discipline. I literally got a panic attack if I didn’t release an episode every week, I seriously remember feeling the anxiety on a Monday when I hadn’t recorded or even prepared for an episode for every Tuesday. I would overthink everything like oh my gosh can they hear me breathing, I messed up this word, forgot to say that… I’m a different person now like I’m so fully aligned on getting the message out there and being ok if it isn’t perfect.
In saying this, I am going to try my best to record an episode weekly but my key learning is I want to have the best energy going into every episode for you listening and as a manifesting generator with an emotional authority I’ve got to trust my sacral gut pulls and ride my emotional waves… So let’s see how this unfolds, maybe it’ll be a weekly podcast, maybe a fortnightly, a monthly or whenever I feel like it… so please subscribe with whatever platform you listen to podcasts on like Spotify, Apple podcasts so you’re updated with every new episode straight to your ears.
When your website disappears... and so does your Podcast and Email.
So the reason being I remember in June 2021 suddenly my website disappeared and I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe or understand it. All this hard work creating the website, just gone. What ended up happening is in the craziness of life, the pandemic, the side hustle of coaching is that my domain phidang.com somehow lapsed, and where I got my domain from they didn’t renew it. I was seriously devastated, I felt like all my hard work was gone.
For those who don’t know if you don’t renew a domain it goes into a weird limbo place before anyone else can buy it, it could be 3 months or 6 months, its up to the internet gods who I don’t even know if you can contact very much like Instagram. I thought it would honestly crush my whole business as well because I’m like can I get clients without a website? So much anxiety, so much pain. When you’re in this zone it’s very hard to think straight because the mind panics and goes into all these scenarios which never even happen but feel oh so very real in your brain.
Growing through life not just going through it
Anyways I eventually conceded and I’m like until I can get this domain back my hands are clearly tied. If people want to do coaching with me I’ll just have a link directly into my calendar booking system. And hey at least I have my podcast where I can explain what happened… dn dn dn that’s where I was wrong.
The way I set up my podcast and website, it’s directly intertwined so of course when I lost my website, I lost my podcast because I didn’t have a platform to upload the audio to. Alongside this I also lost access to my emails. So pretty much everything except only my Instagram. I was so upset but again this was fully out of my control. So very much in alignment with the mantra of this podcast, don’t just go through life, grow through life. I had to get out of my victimhood and ask myself, why would the universe do this to me?
New coach, new business, new focus
As a new coach, business owner, entrepreneur at the beginning you focus on things that don’t actually matter in the whole scheme of everything so what do I mean about that? I was like oh my gosh I need a beautiful website so people can find me and hire me when really no people just needed a direct line to me so I was like ok the Universe clearly just wants me to focus on Instagram and coaching. Not emails. Not website. Not the podcast. It paid off because my posts were growing and I actually hid my side hustle from pretty much everyone in my personal life until my posts were going viral and people starting finding out. I’ll never forget how my heart sunk and I was so nervous when my boss and colleagues from my corporate job found out.
How your side hustle helps your corporate full time job
The thing is having my side hustle actually made my performance in my corporate job exponentially better because it gave me so much joy and alignment, that it was rippling out into greater success and productivity in my corporate job even my boss had acknowledged that. Work was actually super supportive and I even had the opportunity to run company wide mindset training sessions.
The context and behind the scenes on Phi's personal life
Behind the scenes things were getting busy in my personal life. I decided to invest $30,000 in my own coach and personal development and that was a huge leap from investing $10,000 previously when I first started in my business coach and a course. From my own investing journey, I learnt I could gain the frameworks and tools of how to structure and run a business but my own self kept getting in my way. Fears of being seen. Fears no one would want coaching. Fears about money. It was stopping me from being my own best self, so I got my own personal development coach and that blew everything out the water.
If you’re listening now and feeling that pull as crazy as it is to invest in yourself such as coaching with me, trust me I get it. I used to watch from the sidelines in fear. But I knew inside there was such a full yes body, heart on fire, soul tingling desire to work with my coach that as crazy as it is I had to do it and I believe this is one of the things that truly quantum leaped me from a side hustler to full time life coach.
Investing in yourself and the fears
The investment represented me putting my money where my mouth was. Showing the universe, I believe in myself, I desire personal growth, I’m all in, I’m trusting my internal navigation system. Let’s go! I don’t think I told anyone about it at the time for the fear of people going you spent how much on yourself? That’s how society works, we’ll easily invest in a house, property, car, clothes, all of the things but when it comes to yourself we are like oh gosh no. Am I worthy of this investment and the answer is of course, it’s the safest bet because it’s YOU.
Going through a busy turbulent time
Further to that, I think there may have been doubts swirling and tension building with my ex at the time (yes another major life update since this podcast we broke up but anyways this will playout as I’m trying my best to update you in somewhat of a chronological order which is hilarious because my brain does not work like that, it’s like a pinball going ooooh this, oooh that – very manifesting generator of me again another new element to talk about in this podcast human design).
This is all set upon the backdrop of the pandemic which in Sydney, Australia where I’m based was playing out in all sorts. At first we had the freedom and so lucky of all places to be locked down a beach paradise and then we were free again and then locked back down honestly is anyone else’s memory blurry, did I just block it all out even though the pandemic was the best thing that happened for me in a way because without it I’m not sure if I would be a life coach today. The pandemic gave me time and space to actually start my passion project which led to where I am today – I must have spoken about my story and all in episode 1 of this podcast. At some point I’ll have to catch everyone up on the holistic story.
A game changing Wim Hof Retreat
So now in the timeline it’s June 2021 and I think Sydney got a break from the lockdown, we were free and allowed out. I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw beautiful soul Shira who I was connected to on Instagram with was going and I was like ooooh there’s a space through Tommy a sort of mutual friend. Tommy I had connected through my initial post going viral on men’s mental health.
Now if you recall I already went to the World’s First Women’s Wim Hof Retreat ages ago so in my thinking I wasn’t like oh my gosh I have to go again (because truly when you learn the technique of breathing, cold showers and ice baths you have it for life). I just felt pulled to go because why not and I would potentially meet Shira. Long story short Shira didn’t end up going because she had an injury but this very retreat would change my life. It’s funny how the universe orchestrates life in beautiful, unexpected ways.
Being divinely guided to the retreat and unlocking my intuition
Firstly the girl I would end up giving a lift to the retreat would go onto become one of my best friends Juju who does the Go Deep Podcast! Weirdly enough we realised we had actually crossed paths as we were both in the media advertising industry said hi once and never thought about each other again.
Secondly on the last day of this retreat during a breathing meditation session I had visions. I had been practicing meditation on and off for a long time since my dad passed away so at this point what 7 years or something and never had anything out of the blue extraordinary happen but on this very day it did. I had a vision of myself burning at the stake, blood dripping and oozing out of my throat and my lifeless body going up in flames. I was like wow, that was my past life, I was a witch (as many of us have been – it very much explains the fear in many women of speaking up, using your voice, being authentic because it got us killed).
Not only that I heard a very deep, old, wise soul humming and chanting – I wasn’t sure if it was part of the music and asked the collective group after, did anyone else here this old man’s voice? My instructor Leah gasped because it was her spirit guide. That’s when I started going woah, what has just happened? It was in this very moment my intuition was unlocked and broke free. After the retreat even weirder things started happening, I had very vivid visual dreams about people I had met on the retreat once and hardly spoken to. I saw things that were very personal to them that they would only know about. So with permission I asked these people, shared what I saw and to their surprise they confirmed what I saw was a very real aspect of their life. Yes the world of intuition just gets weirder and weirder. This whole experience I never sought out, it just happened in it’s own way, perfect, divine timing. In the show notes I’ll upload some pictures from the retreat so you can see.
Human Design
From there I would go onto introduce human design into my coaching tool belt. A couple of years ago I saw my blueprint and it made literally no sense to me. I wasn’t interested and that lay dormant until I felt the nudge to get my own reading done and this time after this unlocking of my intuition, the language of human design just made sense on every level of my soul. It validated me in so many ways this would have to be a seperate episode.
The most wild thing is I just started doing a few readings for existing 1:1 clients and people I knew. Of course being a 4 personality profile line which is all about people and community, the people I had done readings for would naturally refer people to me. I never advertised it yet I would end up flooded with readings and booking out months in advance through word of mouth. I currently do have availability for human design readings by the way and the calendar is open so if you’re interested check out the link in my show notes.
A book idea is born and 1:1 coaching continues
Around the same time I was continuing to write and the idea landed for my book around August 2021 I would hire a book mentor to help me with frameworks in order for the idea to reveal itself.
During this whole time I had amazing 1:1 clients too off the top of my head a few stories – one manifested the money for her dream wedding, got her dream job in the fashion industry and I recently found out is pregnant with her first baby! Another client I helped made peace with her divorce, left a toxic relationship and is now moving into her dream home with her two daughters. Another client got married to her soul mate and is now also pregnant! Another client learnt the ways of feminine energetics in business and relationships and has since gotten back with her ex in a much healthier relationship dynamic and found a new flow for her business. A different client left her unfulfilling corporate job, went back to university to study health and nutrition and has met the love of her life! If you’re feeling the pull, the curiosity, yes I also have 1:1 spots open at the moment so get in touch with me, I’d love to work with you.
The leap of faith from side hustle and corporate to full time
Life is always happening and at the time, my corporate job in brand strategy in September 2021 gets so hectic and somehow amongst it all I end up having to take a few days off for mental health leave. At this same time I was very frustrated because I kept pushing to get a promotion to group strategy manager but if I asked in my heart did I really want it? No, I wanted the status, money and I felt it was the next logical step. Despite closing million dollar deals, winning internal awards and praise I didn’t get the promotion.
During this mental health leave I experienced uncontrollable shaking, I couldn’t sleep, I was so tightly wound, anxious, frazzled, not feeling my usual self and then I just knew. This was the moment. Unplanned. No safety net of $10,000 I wanted before I quit my corporate job. This was the cliff, the universe dragged me here and it was time to take the leap of faith. I had thought about it for a while but in my head I wanted to finish 2021 in my corporate job and take the leap for January 2022.
I remember feeling so sick telling my boss over the phone that taking mental health leave gave me the space and clarity I needed to truly realise in my heart and soul that it was time for me to leave, I was quitting. I was so scared. It felt so illogical but in my gut and after riding the emotional wave all year as an emotional authority mani gen, I knew I had to do it.
To give you the long story short, I resigned in September 2021, finished up in November 2021 and since then until now this very day in February 2023, I am a full time life coach in my own business. Despite fears I’ve never had a back up job, run out of money, had to move out of home or anything! The universe has supported me all along as I live in alignment. The timing and backdrop of this all is my Saturn Return which recently finished and wow a lot of things I mourned fell apart and on the other side I can really see how this was all for my greatest good. All along my soul has never been scared, honestly it’s been an unwavering presence of calm and faith deep down but as a human with an open head in human design there have been freak outs, doubts and imposter syndrome alone the way.
A six figure year in 2022 for Phi
It’s wild to me that within a year I made 6 figures too in 2022. I didn’t even know, I was so busy living life, coaching that I finally got around to submitting my details to my accountant months late and I was shook. Again I never decided I had to make 6 figures, it was my big scary audacious dream goal as something to intentionally work towards and it very much happened as a byproduct doing what I loved, which is very much in line with my philosophy of why I do what I do. To help people live their best life and make a difference in this world, that is my life’s work and life purpose. It lights up my soul and in turn I am abundant for it.
Phi is releasing a book in June 2023
A lot of details and depth to this all is going to be released in my BOOK. Yes book that I just finished and will be released in June 2023, four months I can’t believe it. I got the book deal with my publisher shortly after in January/February 2022 after I left my corporate job. Again the universe kept nudging me with this book idea and it lay dormant and side tracked by corporate job and of course when I finished it would pop up again and be ready for the world. My book will be available in bookstores across Australia nationally as well as online via Booktopia and internationally through Book Depository and Amazon I believe.
What is the book about? Well all to be revealed soon but what I can share is it’s a book to spark an awakened revolution. A book of our times for the modern woman. It’s time to flip the narrative and concepts of self-help and personal development, by doing something different.
An aligned and dream 2022
After going full time it was an influx of soul aligned dream opportunities such as brand partnerships such as writing a series of mindset articles for Microsoft and doing human design readings for a Zero Point Yoga retreat in SOMA, Byron Bay where nine perfect strangers was shot. Honestly being paid to do the retreat in such a beautiful, lushm, luxury setting was a pinch me moment and the gratitude of the community for the insights shared in their human design readings honestly touched my heart so deeply.
I was fortunate to go travelling when the world opened up having a stint in Singapore where I bought my first designer bag: a Louis Vuitton that was an edge to experience being in one of the most expensive cities in the world and allowing myself to use that money to buy something I desired. I didn’t need it but I desired it. It represented claiming my wealth identity. It had been on my vision board for so long.
Behind a dream year was grief, heartache and heartbreak
A few months later I would also travel to Europe for a 2 and a half month stint working whilst travelling in England, France, Portugal, Spain, Wales and the time also set on my relationship that I was in July 2022 after being officially together for two and a half years but really I feel like it was three given dating before that. That had been unfolding in the back half of 2022 and behind the scenes I was in so much pain and grief mourning the loss of my ex. This was when I really leaned into my superpower of having an emotional authority in human design and I wrote a lot, as a means to process everything and again that blew up going viral. I think I had two posts the week of the break up go viral to 5 million on writers, poets, moon omens, all over Instagram it was insane to have this contrast and duality going on in life.
Moving out of the home I shared with my ex was really a big turning point for me. It was bittersweet. I had lived in that home for I think 3.5 years, and at the beginning it was just me. I just had the urge and pull to have my own two bedroom apartment by the beach and again illogical crazy to pay so much rent on my own but I did it. In hindsight I now know why. I would meet my partner at the time who would move in with me. In the spare bedroom which used to be my closet, that is where I would start my Instagram account during the lockdown and now in turn my business. You can only really understand the soul nudges later whereas at the time you really do question yourself but from my own life I know to trust and surrender to where life takes you. I never thought I would have my own business or be a life coach but life had this grand plan for me, way better than I ever imagined and I’m so grateful I trusted my gut, my heart and soul to follow the energetic breadcrumbs of signs and gut feelings to be where I am today.
Caught up so far
I think that’s mostly catching up my journey to now and whewwww I feel teary sharing this with you because I’m like wow so much has happened truly your life can change in a moment, give it a year and just mind blowing. I say the same to when I work with clients I’m like take stock of this moment because you will never be the same again. It echoes on when I catch up with old clients and see them living their dream lives, I am so proud of them because they made that decision to step into their power and change their lives for the better. 2023 has been a year of really landing and solidifying who I am now.
I now live in my ultimate dream apartment on the beachfront in one of Australia’s most iconic beaches and the wildest thing is four years ago I looked at an apartment on the street I lived in further back from the beach and I couldn’t afford it and now I live opposite the beach thanks to my business, I retired my mum early as well.
I am so grateful for you listening, the Instagram community, my clients, anyone who has ever supported me by reading my work, liking, sharing, it means the world to me. This has been my update and yeah I am so excited to be getting back into this podcast and if you have anything you want covered please reach out and let me know on Instagram @thephidang or email. If we haven’t talked before I’d love to chat too!
By the way I do have a lot of imposters going on and I just want to say I do not have backup accounts or secondary my only account is @thephidang.
As for the website? Eventually I got it back after a Chinese company bought it specialising in lapsed domains and I had to pay $1,500 USD ouch but hey it all works out in the end. In hindsight, truly the universe has always been helping me. The universe is always helping you too hence don’t just go through life, grow through it.
Thank you so much for listening beautiful soul! If you are interested in working with me through 1:1 coaching or human design please check out the show notes or reach out to me via a DM on Instagram. Love & Positivity, Phi.
