Episode 160 with Terry Kim - Awakening of the spiritual entrepreneur

On this episode we talk with Terry Kim, a visionary leader, tech entrepreneur, and spiritual seeker, combining his entrepreneurial drive with his deep-rooted spirituality to make a profound impact on humanity. With a remarkable background as a YCombinator and AngelPad alumni Founder, TK has successfully raised over $18 million in venture capital from Silicon Valley for NGT Academy. As a seasoned veteran with more than 22 years of experience in the IT industry, TK’s passion lies in inspiring, creating, and empowering the next generation of cyber warriors. 

We explore the movement towards purpose-driven companies and entrepreneurship, contributing to others and the planet, spending time to connect, life being an ever-evolving process, vibrational matches, the Ikigai method, making sustainable changes, unlearning old patterns, consciously using our breath, creating our lives.

Terry talks about hir journey, being an entrepreneur in the tech start-up space, going through an awakening, expanding his consciousness, what ignites your soul, living on purpose, the way of Kaizen, breaking old patterns to open to the new, being a student of life, the idea of the OM sleep mask, being introduced to Breathwork, opening the heart.

For more about Terry find him on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/projectkim/ & https://www.instagram.com/awakenwithom/), https://www.thewayofkaizen.com/, https://www.awakenwithom.com/ and https://omsleep.co/. 

Transcript

Brian Berneman: 0:04

Have you ever wondered where the problems in the world today would exist if we have deeper connection to ourselves, others, and the environment, and

Terry Kim: 0:11

acted from that place? Welcome to the conscious action podcast

Brian Berneman: 0:15

with your hosts, Brian Berneman,

Terry Kim: 0:17

who believe that connection is

Brian Berneman: 0:19

the key to taking conscious

Terry Kim: 0:20

action as individuals

Brian Berneman: 0:22

and creating a better world. We are here to raise awareness and inspire meaningful action by sharing stories, knowledge, and conversations With thought leaders and change

Terry Kim: 0:31

makers, from sustainability to wellbeing, and everything related to conscious living, our mission is to empower you to be the change that

Brian Berneman: 0:39

you wanna see in the world. Welcome everyone to a new episode of the Conscious Action Podcast. I am Brian Berneman, your host, and I have the pleasure to be showing all the way from Phoenix, a, Arizona, and the US by Terry. Kim. Thank you so much, Terry, for being here, for sharing this. And for everybody that is watching and listening to us, Terry, what can you share about you? Who is

Terry Kim: 1:06

Terry? Yeah, thanks, Brian, for having me on the show, first of all, and I'm glad to be here. Yeah, a little bit about me is I am a serial tech entrepreneur and it didn't start. Always that way. My career was actually in network engineering and cybersecurity. So I had a career as an engineer and then I turned a tech CEO entrepreneur. And so I've been in the tech startup game you know, raising 18 million out of Silicon Valley. Combinator alum and I started my second tech startup in. Well, my first tech startup in 2012, when I left the corporate world that crashed and burned, but a lot of lessons learned there and then got back into the corporate world, pay out, paid off some debt. Like, it took maybe a year, year and a half, and then I jumped right back in, in 2016 quit my high paying engineer job. For the second time and started NGT Academy, which I've been running with my co founder for seven years, where we train students to become engineers and the whole concept, you know, I actually wrote a book about it. You can get it on Amazon. If you want to break into it, how to go from zero to engineer the story of the American dream without going to college. So it. Training is practical, hands on. And so we could train people in four months versus four years of university. And so that's my primary business. And now I have my, I guess, one, two, three, this is my fourth tech startup in the wellness space and it's called OMSleep. So we're launching the world's most advanced sleeping mask. And it's actually live on Kickstarter. So you can go to omsleep. co. And grab one of these and that kind of leads me to the last chapter will last five years of my life in where I had a huge spiritual awakening and it made me create this company from that.

Brian Berneman: 3:05

Wow. You know, I always find it fascinating people's stories and how the journeys go and they change and. One of the things that I'm always really interested in is how, you know, we can start to merge all of these different, seemingly separate worlds. Because they are not separate worlds, but mostly we have separated them. So, I would love to know, Terry, for, for you, as, as you started that shift for yourself, what was that shift? Like, how did that come about? What, what happened that you had that, you know, awakening?

Terry Kim: 3:44

Yeah, I, I, I basically, you know, me and my co founder went on like a spiritual vision quest in, in, in the big basin, in the Redwood forest in Santa Cruz. And I had an awakening. That so was so profound, it expanded my consciousness. So, you know, what people don't realize is most people are on autopilot, right? They're programmed by society or kind of their upbringing, and they're just reacting or doing their to do's to get by and really. What we need more is work life balance and to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs or founders that can create a product or service that is not created from a self centered ego, a perspective of me, me, me, but no. What is the product or service that I can put out in the world that will change the world for the better and it's a service to humanity. So I truly believe is the next generation of founders should build mission driven companies that founders were their heart led versus. Equal or mine lead and two is to build all chosen into their companies. You know, for example, home sleep for every product you purchase, we will be planting one tree. And it's our way to give back to the planet and, and. It doesn't even start it. That's just a starting point. We want to do more philanthropic efforts with bigger projects once we scale the company out. But like, what is that intention? What is the company's mission and values? And how are you going to You know big altruism into this company right from the start and i got always inspired by like tom shoes you know where you buy one shoe and he donates another one to a third world country for kids to you know where where have some shoes to run around in you know and so if we can have more founders like with that type of mindset i think that would be the game changer and we're in it right now i think there's a big. Spiritual awakening, you can call it the great awakening. That's what I feel like is happening right now in the world. And so once you awaken and expand your consciousness, I think it just changes. It changes not only who you are, but it changes the way you think about what product or service do you want to put out in the world.

Brian Berneman: 6:08

Definitely. And, you know, I, I often talk about how, what you mentioned that we are, you know, on autopilot, we are sleepwalking and we're just doing the things that we've been programmed and conditioned to do. And, you know, like, this is not about judging. I was part of that. And until we have that awakening, we realize that there's not much that we can do, but. One of the things that, that comes with that is that once we realize there's other ways of being, there's other ways of doing things, then we, we cannot, as I always say to people, like, once we go through an awakening or we have a certain type of experience, we cannot unsee what we experienced And that starts to inform how we live our lives. And as you're saying, you know, like suddenly it's not just about perhaps making money or creating a product that is going to, to have, like, it's going to be able to make a lot of sales unless it's actually, providing something, contributing doing something for society, for our, our earth. Like, however, it's, it's focus is as you're doing now with this, like you're focusing on wellness through like the unmask. It's how can we contribute and how can we also, you know, us, we are living within the system that we still need to make money. We still need to Keep on like doing these things. Okay. How can we bring all of this together to something positive to something that is going to have an impact on our well being as well as other people's well being and the products that we, that we create or the services that we provide and how is that actually having a positive impact. And I think that that comes as you're saying as more and more people are waking up. It's also, so I was just I was recently like in the last couple of days talking with one of my clients a new client and it was talking about, you know, like not, not knowing what to do, you know, like for, for money for this. And I was like, well, what do you want to do? No, like, then you figure out how to make money. But a lot of times I think that our society is backwards in terms of that. It's like, how can I make money? And then it's that, okay, what? What's the thing that I want to do? How do I want to be? And, you know, I, I always talk about life work balance instead of work life balance, because I want to make an emphasis on life. And I think that is, you know, like when we're able to do that, whenever that is for each of us in our own journey, that's, that's a beautiful thing. Yeah, absolutely. And Terry, I want to ask you, you have that awakening, you went to the redwood forest, you did that. What happens next? Did you by yourself started to do things? Did you find different methodologies, techniques that resonated with that you started to explore?

Terry Kim: 9:15

Yeah, I mean, I dove really deep within myself. And so it was really a combination of I would say deep inner healing you know, going on vision quest and, and also working with plant medicines. And that's what really expanded my consciousness. And, Once that awakening happened, like there was no going back, as you know, and so when we awaken, it's about self realization and some people will think that they're actually awakened. But there's still a little bit of unconsciousness, as we always have this unconscious parts of ourselves that we awaken. So, I truly, you know, in my experience, believe that awakening is a constant progress. Once it starts, but there is a pivotal moment. I would say in some cases, some people are spiritual their whole life. You know, mine, I was, I was, I was, I consider myself a Christian, right? Because I went to a Christian school when I was in elementary up to middle school. And then after I became an adult in my 20s, slowly, slowly, slowly, I basically completely turned my, you know, back from church. And it was because it didn't resonate with me anymore. And then I found spirituality. You know, or God had a different purpose for me, because at age 40, he awakened me, and it was undeniable and it was very profound. So from that, in the last five years, I've been introduced to, you know, meditation, to plant medicines, to breath work and all these different modalities of ancient Teachings or wisdom is what I'm drawn to. So I love studying metaphysics and I love studying esoteric knowledge and ancient teachings and things that we've lost along the way. And I would say, if you want to deepen your spiritual practice is, is to really spend more time alone, spend more time in nature and connect with our creator. And in order to do that, you have to do these things like. Meditation, spending more time in nature and disconnecting from, you know, what I consider the matrix of a three dimensional plane where everything's about money, power and materialistic you know, gathering as much materialistic objects, whether it's a house or a car, you know, but you can only have so many cars. You can only have so many houses. And what we don't realize is that that's not true happiness. And, and so that's been very powerful awakening for me, at least.

Brian Berneman: 11:59

Yeah. You know, I, I, I run a lot of times this course that it's called from this connect to reconnect and it's It's about that, it's about disconnecting from the devices, disconnecting well from the matrix and, and reconnecting with, with our being and with all of the amazing potential that we have that, you know, I, I, I'm fortunate that as I often shared, like I, based on my parents' journey, I was introduced to meditation to all of these different practices as a teenager. Mm-Hmm. So now it's like, it's been. 20 years of living my life in that way, instead of the way that I knew up until that moment. And, and I know that it's, as you say, it's an ever evolving journey. Every time there's a new layer, there's something new, there's, and it's Yes, it's about, for me, as you mentioned, those ancient wisdom teachings that are so, so simple, so simple, and we overcomplicate them, but they are simple, and we just need to explore them, as one of my teachers used to say, you know, if we are there. Open, curious, and we explore within ourselves by creating, as you're saying, those moments of solitude, those moments of stillness, those moments to actually reconnect with ourselves and trying to understand, like, you know, what are the type of thoughts that I have? What's the type of feelings that I'm experiencing? Why am I behaving in such a way? You know, like understanding the tendencies, the patterns of behaviors. Then it's so much easier to, to actually explore how then we want to connect with others. What we're going to do for work, how we're going to contribute. And I think that's such a, a wonderful journey for all of us, but it's one that we actually need to go through.

Terry Kim: 14:07

Absolutely. The journey is yours and, and everyone's journey is unique and different. And we're all at different stages. So it's a beautiful thing. Yeah.

Brian Berneman: 14:18

I'm interested in Terry. So you have that how have you been able to, to incorporate in All of your, like, ventures, both like from a business perspective and relationships, how did you start to introduce how you started to shift with your awakening, like, did you notice that you behave differently with your relationships that you approach work differently?

Terry Kim: 14:46

Absolutely. It's changed everything. So in terms of what I want to provide is ultimately freedom of choice, freedom to pursue whatever your heart desires for myself and for my family. So that's, that's number one. So my connection and my spirituality, my relationship with God, our creator, like that's utmost the most important. Secondly is my family. And so, and then third is my business and my ventures and my projects. What, what fundamentally changed is how I go about creating products or services and how I set intentionality and values. So, what I realized is that once this awakening happened people in my environment or circle in my network would start kind of falling off, right, because they're no longer a vibrational match, there's no resonance and then new people started coming into my field because they resonate with what I'm saying and how I feel and it's a vibrational match and I truly believe the universe matches you when you step into a new group. Timeline or frequency or a vibrational state, you're going to start seeing that you're losing people. And you might think that, oh, man, this is a bad thing. Like, my co founder doesn't want to work with me anymore. That's okay. That's a blessing because you're moving into a different dimension timeline where you're now going to get introduced to new people, events, places that all just magically happen because now you're in a new vibration. Mm,

Brian Berneman: 16:20

definitely, definitely. You know, I know for me at a lot of times I, I tell people like, I, like, it's nothing against all of my childhood friends or nothing against all of the people that I've been, you know, like. But those were no longer, as I said, my vibrational match, like those people weren't anymore. The people that I wanted to hang out with both vibrationally and from, you know, like what, what they were talking about and the things. And again, nothing about them or judging them. It's about what was serving me at each of those moments and knowing like, yes, they are wonderful people. I just don't feel like. And that's the space that I want to hang out anymore.

Terry Kim: 17:05

That's correct. Yep. And look, if you're, if you've had some type of awakening and you're, you want to be either more spiritual, or you're already a spiritual being, it's not that. You still can't take advantage of capitalism and and launch a venture or project. It's just that your your mindset will be different, but you still need to learn the entrepreneur skills. You still need to learn how to sell and and market your product or service because just because you build it doesn't mean people are going to show up. Right? Like, so that's important. I think to know you know, for those that are listening, it's like, you know, you can't just be spiritual and this thing start manifesting. You have to. You know, have a plan and you have to take action and, and, and do the work.

Brian Berneman: 17:48

Yeah. Well, that is why, you know, conscious action, because we actually need to take action. It's the, you know, it's the, the thing with the law of attraction and all of that is like, well, like it won't happen if you're just sitting there on your couch or on your meditation cushion, it doesn't matter if you're not taking action. That is a conscious action that comes from that place of awareness and what you're wanting to do with your intention, then nothing is going to happen. Terry, one of the things that this year, especially around a few, a few workshops around this topic is the topic of Ikigai. Amen. And I love that topic because it, it merges sort of these things that we're talking about how, how, how do you use it? Yeah,

Terry Kim: 18:36

so I love the concept of the guy because it's about finding your purpose and there's multiple ways to find purpose is to try a lot of different things. Right. And to see what excites you, it might be that like, you love mountain biking, for example, right? If you love mountain biking, why, why not create reels around mountain biking, teaching people how to run, ride different trails tips and strategies of different bikes and how to become a professional and, and on and on. And maybe you can even launch a, a bike You know, company, right? So the point is, like, you can get passionate about anything whether it's making art or writing you know, mountain pike or, or maybe meditating in the forest. Like, it doesn't matter because every niche and super niches actually are even better that you could become a subject matter expert in that field because there's only one version of you. And Every person on the planet is you got a unique DNA signature and you if you can tap into that authentic self of you and that could take time and years. But once you find that you get your passion, you find the service that the world needs to make the world a better place to serve humanity to serve others and to find. Something that you can get paid for and if your passion, your purpose and, and, and your service and, and, and the money all clicks, then that's your ikigai and that becomes your North star and you can just hone in on that and become the best version in that market. You know, I love the documentary Jiro loves sushi on Netflix where he's like the best nigiri. Chef, right? Like in Japan, and he's just got like a hole in the wall restaurant, but like he can charge 800 or 1, 200 per person for one dinner sitting. You're only eating like 11 pieces of nigiri, but he created that much demand. Why? Because he perfected rolling nigiris for like 40 years or whatnot, and he's become the best in class. So that's the beauty of Ikigai. Instead of chasing money without the passion. Right? Or the service that the world needs, because sometimes people could be great salesman selling ice to an Eskimo. Like, does the world really, does, does Eskimos really need ice? So, Ikigai is a beautiful concept because you're merging into what the world needs and aligning it to a passion that you are just obsessed about. And if you're not obsessed about, you know, a particular thing, I would drop it. I would, I would drop it and keep looking for something that just ignites your soul.

Brian Berneman: 21:12

Yeah. You know, it's one of the things that, that I, that I love about understanding, like a lot of times when I share with people something around work, I usually tell them, you know, I think that when I talk about work, it's a very different meaning than what most people think. And for me, work, it's how I'm contributing to the world. Like what I'm doing that I'm contributing and yes, I'm making a living out of that because that's again the system that we have. So therefore I get paid for that like I, I, I always tell to everyone if I didn't have to make any more money for whatever reason, either because like no longer live in a system that needs money. I would still do 99 percent of what I'm doing every single day. And I think that that is one of the things that, you know, like with using it guy or using any method that resonates with people supports so much in, in the knowing of how we want to live our lives. And yes, then how can we make that contribution to the world? And then, yes, we need to make a living. So how can we make money out of that? And, you know, for, for everybody that is listening. If you don't know the IKIGAI model, just go online and find it. It's very easy. There's so many resources. It's basically what Terry was saying, you know, like, what are you passionate about? What can, like, how can you contribute or what does the world need? And how can you get paid? What's, you know, like the talent that you have that you can get paid for. And when you find in that center what it is. Then everything comes together and you're able to live in that purpose. You're you're Ricky guy. And it's a wonderful one when we're able to do that and it doesn't need to be fixed as well. That's one of the things that I keep on telling people, you know, like perhaps in two years it changes and you're like, your passion is different and therefore. You completely change what you're doing and that is where a lot of times, I think that for a lot of people, this gets where they get stuck is that this is working and there's so much fear of the, again, that letting go, it's just like, as you were saying with people. They don't want to

Terry Kim: 23:25

start over. Yes. That's, that's the thing. A lot of people don't understand and I learned this the hard way. When you switch careers, like I went from like. DJ the K pop star to go joining the military. So like drastic reality shifts. And what people don't realize that there's this thing called the hero's journey, right? And in part of the hero's journey, when we change professions or passions, you have to start all over again, right? So it's a whole learning process, just like riding a bicycle. Like you're gonna have to re. Learn that new, you know passion project of yours, maybe, maybe it's knitting, but you have to start all, you have to start do the whole process again and suffer and go through the pain of learning something new. And that's what people are afraid to, they're so comfort in their comfort zone and, you know, all their bills are paid and, and they're wondering why they hate their life is because they're not, they don't, they're not living. On purpose with purpose. And so yeah, you guys a great book by Hector Garcia. You can go check it out. And that could really get you going. Once you find your guy, another beautiful Japanese concept that I live in and die by is the way of or the way of comments. Actually, my newsletter, you can download the free PDF guide. So I have like a. Like, I don't know, like a 22 page guide, but basically it's all about just changing for good and improving, you know, one's processes, if it's a business, but you can apply the Kaizen concept to your personal habits as well. But what I love about Kaizen is that if you just improve 1 percent every day, that's a 37 X improvement in one whole year. So it doesn't have to be like, I'm going to shift and change my identity overnight. No, that, that happens over time. But what is the habits and rituals that you want to do to be the person that you want to embody today? Not tomorrow, but today, meaning if you're a spiritual person, are you devoting time for prayer? Meditation, right? Like, are you spending that time? If you like mountain biking, are you spending that time to become a professional mountain biker and training for that? So that's where, you know, we don't have to try to change things overnight. We can do it. One day at a time using the power of compounding, and I promise you, this is a faster way to success because there is no shortcuts to success, but compounding is, is so powerful and it's reliable and it's consistent and it just works. Yeah,

Brian Berneman: 26:01

you know, one of the things that that I love about this, one of the things that I usually tell my clients, how can we make sustainable changes that actually. Allows us to actually change because a lot of times people make those fast changes and then they, they stop, they revert back. It's like, okay, I'm going to start going to, you know, like to the gym or I'm going to start eating this type of diet. And then a week later, it's like, nah, that's it. And it's like, okay, like those small, sustainable. Compounding actions that we can take to change one is not such a shock to the system for those that, you know, shock averse, and then it's actually going to, as you said, it's going to, like, potentiate so much that it's going to create, once we look back, such a different way of being and such a different

Terry Kim: 26:54

person. Yeah, one of my favorite quotes is when old patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. And I love this quote. I actually had on the subscribed on or scribed in the back of my iPad. And it's true. When you break your old patterns with new patterns, your world's going to shift drastically. I promise you that. And that's the power of being able to be in control of your own destiny.

Brian Berneman: 27:21

Beautiful. I love that quote. Terry, when, when you experience as a, you know, as a startup guy, I said, you know, like entrepreneur, how has that actually supported this? No fear of change as well, because in the startup world that is as well, you know, like that fast, you know, fail fast, that actually. From that personal space that also really supports the no fear of change or failure.

Terry Kim: 27:53

Yeah. So the way you can just reframe that from a mindset perspective is that fail fast, succeed faster. Right. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb after a thousand failures. So it wasn't about failing is a thousand lessons. He learned to create, you know, his invention. So the reframe on that for those listening is when you look at failure instead of looking as failure, like, oh, man, I failed, like, you know, like, I'm a bad person or man, I'm horrible at this. Like, it's this negative self talk could come from that failure, but it's a reframe. All you have to do is say. Wow, I learned a lot of lessons from that. So every failure, it's a reframe to lessons that you're learning to make you become the person that you're meant to become. And that's the beauty of life. That life is a series of lessons along a journey. And I think it's the most beautiful thing that you can self realize once that clicks, then you can look at life from an optimistic lens. I've always been an optimist, but I, you know, I could talk to so many people and, and just really quick. I can realize like, wow, you're, you're real pessimist. Does every word that's coming out of your mouth is just, you know, negativity or thinking when we have infinite possibilities in this present moment. Yeah. Infinite things can happen and you're crossing out those possibilities of good things because you're just so focused on the negative things, whether it's past trauma, or, you know, maybe you're a let down. And I think a lot of people hold on to this, their past experiences and they try to predict the future. And it's really just self sabotage.

Brian Berneman: 29:39

Yeah, you know, I remember I started. Driving when I was 16 back in Argentina I had a lot of road rage at that time. And one time I went to see my teacher and I told her like, you know, like, I got there and I was so stressed out and because like this person cut me off and none of this. And she said like, so where were they going? And I was like, I don't know, like, you know, like, but they, they did this to me. And she was like, perhaps they weren't going to the hospital. You know, like, and I remember that was such a big shift for me. And what you're saying, I was just seeing something negative. I was just saying, oh, this person is an asshole or whatever. They cut me off instead of thinking like they might be in an emergency. They might be going somewhere and they need to get there really fast. And yes, they cut me off or they did a maneuver that was a little bit dangerous. But why did my mind go to that negative place instead of to the possibility of something? And it's what you're saying, like, yeah, understanding those, those patterns, understanding how to unlearn that, as you're saying, breaking all of those patterns and, and learning so that we can open to the myriad of possibilities that are out there at each and every single moment that we don't even know, like, there's no way that I can even fathom. What's possible?

Terry Kim: 31:07

Yeah, absolutely. We're, we're only conscious of what were, you know, that is brought into our awareness and everyone's at different levels of consciousness. So it's always good to just, you know, have an open mind and to be. Always learning and to have humility and humble being humble, I think is a great way to grow because that's, that's you know, you know, if I was to kind of label myself, I would, I would say I'm a student of life right now at this phase. I'm, I'm an entrepreneur and all these other things, but at the end of the day, I'm a student of life because. That's what we're here to, you know, and that's what I truly believe is that, you know, we're on this spiritual journey to self realize who we truly are.

Brian Berneman: 31:50

Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful. I always think, you know, like the love of learning and the love of life, like they just go together so well. And it's something that like I keep on doing. I know like, you know, that saying like, no, that you don't know anything. And it's like, I go to things with that. It's like, I know that on some things I have experienced a lot and I can share, but more things, I don't know anything. And I go with that open mind. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm interested with the slip masks. Where did that idea come from?

Terry Kim: 32:31

Yeah, so so I had a, I had another awakening happen last July and I came back from a retreat and I was just kind of in this high vibrational frequency of just like, you know, like all love and, and compassion for the world and whatnot. And I had a lucid dream and when I woke up from this dream, like, it just like hit me like a ton of bricks. My, I was taking my earplugs out of my ear because I like noise reduction. I'm used to just sleeping in quiet places. And so the control that I have is earplugs and a sleeping mask that gives me complete shut eye. Because not everywhere I go, if I'm traveling, I can't, you know, carry blackout curtains with me everywhere. So, I have a sleep mask and then I have My calm YouTube, sometimes it's even streaming on YouTube, some rain and thunder. I like listening to some sulfatio frequencies with some nature soundscapes. And so the long story short is like, I woke up like four in the morning with my ears hurting. My, my, my face mask was like half on my face. It wasn't a good fit. There was no secured attachment. And then like this YouTube ad was going off. And it was like a trifecta. I was like, all right, there's got to be a better way. And so, you know, I went meditated that morning in my backyard and on top of the mountain. And I just realized like that experience I had in the middle of the morning was a revelation. It was a, you know, a blessing that, wow, like, I wonder how many people have tried to innovate in the sleep mask space. And, and I, and I just discovered that no one has. a sleep mask that can provide beautiful sulfasio or binaural beats, science fact, you know, soundscapes that can give you a hundred percent true blackout, but also have a good fit around the ears for side sleepers. And then third was a noise reduction and whatnot. So I kind of wrote down all the features and problems that I've seen in the marketplace with these cheap masks. And that's how it started. And I was like, We're going to create the world's most advanced sleep mask and, and, and 15, 16 months later, we just launched our final prototype on Kickstarter.

Brian Berneman: 35:04

Wow. That's amazing. You know, that's how we can use our own experience and be like curious and And see, and well, you, you know, you have some skills as well to be able to, to make it happen. And it's amazing. And now you're saying that, like, my, the meditation mask that I use for blackout, like, I cannot sleep on that one. Like It doesn't allow me to really turn sideways. So like I completely can resonate with that issue of like, this isn't how, you know, like something that, that can be useful. So like being able to, to have in the market a mask, like what you have created, that's, that's amazing.

Terry Kim: 35:52

Yeah, I mean, it's the first one with zero pressure on the ears because all the mask they would just wrap around your ear and in my ear, when you do that, it kind of hurts. Right. So I want zero pressure. And that's why I decided like, huh, what if I could take like a bows, like, you know, soft cushy headphone and attach it to a mask. And basically this became my first invention. I mean, it's patent pending. And it's the first, you know, zero pressure ear. Yeah. Adjustable ear design. So we've got these Bose like headphones that adjust. And they just wrap around your ear and I'm a side sleeper too. So if you're wondering, like, can you sleep on the side with these earmuffs? Absolutely, because it's zero pressure and it just goes right on like this and it's got Bluetooth. So you can listen to beautiful soundscapes. If you back this project now, you'll actually get lifetime access to our Waken app, and you can use that for soundscapes, meditation and breathwork.

Brian Berneman: 36:54

Beautiful, beautiful, nice, nice, nice. So check it out. It's on sleep. Beautiful. That's awesome. Terry tell me a little bit more, Terry, on as you're just saying about breath work, about, you know, like all of this different frequencies as well. Like, what has been your experience with, with that and how, how those help you in your own journey

Terry Kim: 37:20

as well? Yeah. The beautiful thing is that once I became conscious of my breath, everything changed, right? Like inhale, exhale, and the pause is between that inhale and exhale. Once you become so conscious of that, you realize, wow. Like, it's just beautiful just to be able to breathe and what I discovered is that in doing breath work, I first got introduced in 2019 when I took my whole team out to a Wim Hof event and that was really to experience an ice bath. However, what I didn't know is the preparation and doing the breath work allow you go go into a state where you have the courage to go into the ice bath and be able to control because the mind is going to be like, get out, get out, get out. Whereas if you can overcome that through the breath, you can stay in long and reap the benefits of, of an ice bath, which I highly recommend and because like 2 minutes of ice bath, I think is something like equivalent to like 5 X dopamine hit or they, they. You know, as an analogy, I think someone even said like, it's a bigger dopamine hit than doing like cocaine which we highly do not recommend, but it gives you an idea of how epic the euphoric feeling you'll get when you go in for at least 60 to 90 seconds after that. You will surrender. Your body will surrender. And then it just becomes so beautiful. And when I first got introduced to holotropic breathwork, so deep inhalations like that, that's the single breath. And there's a two part breath that I introduced. And if we do this in a prolonged period, this was invented by two psychiatrists, Stanley Groff, back in the 70s with his wife, and they were researching LSD and the profound effects of LSD and how So You know, people would get into these altered states of consciousness is just super bliss and, and love, and they wanted to study and to see how can we get people to that state without the psychedelics. And that's when they discovered this deep breathing. But what people don't understand or may not understand is that this type of breathing has been around for tens of thousands of years, right? Like, the yogis understand this because, you know, they have pranayama and they have different kind of breathwork modalities, techniques to help all types of things, whether it's pain relief, trauma release you know, focus you name it, right? Like, there is a style of breathwork, so but, you You know, we want to still contribute them because they invented this three hour kind of breathwork thing for the mainstream here in the United States. And I've taken a form of that, created a, a shorter version for downregulation. It's about two hour journey. And when I first got introduced to it via a, like a spiritual mastermind I was in, It just blew my mind because 45 minutes into it, I got to these states of consciousness that was similar to like a DMT release. And for those that don't know what DMT is, it's a molecule that's been known for ancient centuries, you know, among ancient religions and shamanism, where basically you will have a spiritual awakening or a mystical experience. Now DMT is associated with, you know, like, after death this molecule gets released from the pineal gland. So there's a great Netflix, I think documentary is called the God's Molecule. And they talk about this DMT molecule. And what I'm saying is that, yes, you can have a DMT release if you do LSD or maybe ayahuasca like other plant medicines that allow this release to happen. So you can go on this kind of spiritual journey. However, with holotropic, you can get to that same state. Without any of the psychedelics or any of the plant medicine, and I feel like that is such a powerful tool and modality that I want to bring this to the world because I truly believe having done lots of plant medicines that that is not for everyone and that it should not be the first step when it comes to wanting to deepen your spirituality. So breath work. Meditation and the breath work, I think, is the first go to tools that I recommend for anyone that wants to deepen their spiritual practice.

Brian Berneman: 42:00

Yeah, yeah, you know, one of the things that I usually share with people is that I haven't yet done any of the psychiatric plant medicines. And I hear so many of the experiences. And all of the time, I think I have already had this, you know, like using, as you're saying, like my meditation practice, my breathwork practices sounds like, I'm like, I cannot corroborate it until I actually test it, but a lot of the things that I hear and, and it's like, well, like there's so much power that we have to actually. Create this experience for ourselves without any external components to add. And it's like, well, yes, we need to understand how do we activate that. And we activated, we're all different, but we can activate it using the power. Yeah. We're using our own power. And, you know, like in one of the main traditions that I have practiced for the last 20 years, it has been Tibetan Buddhism and in Tibetan Buddhism, there's a lot of different breath practices, including the Tummo practices, which is where the Wim Hof practices came from. They are like, at least for me, they are so life changing. It's something that we're doing all of the time. Everybody's breathing. I

Terry Kim: 43:27

mean, if you wake up and you just do 30 deep breath through the mouth, it would just completely oxygenate you and you'll feel so great and amazing. And so we have the power within us to manifest any, any reality we want. And people are always looking for outside stimulants, whether it's planned medicine or shaman or guru, that's going to save them. And I like to say. That you can only save yourself. And once you realize that, that you can only save yourself and you have all the power within you to do that, you just need to access that, you need to awaken that part of you, it's a beautiful thing. And again, in my Breathwork Sound Journeys, the last one I had was in Costa Rica, people activated their pineal and saw through their spiritual eye for the very first time, light coming into the third eye. Having a mystical experience, and I'm not guaranteeing that everyone will have this if you come to my breathwork events, but there's a very high chance because even if you don't see things through your third eye, you're going to have a you're going to have some type of release. It could be a childhood trauma. It could be just, you know, self esteem, like self worth worthiness. Like it could be all types of things that you don't even know that your body's holding onto. And so I hold a sacred container, a safe space for you to be able to release that using these modalities, using these tools. And if you think about something like ayahuasca, it is you know, yeah. It should be taken very super seriously, but it's kind of the same process, meaning if you come to my breathwork journey, that's what we're doing, right? We're activating the pineal, we're clearing out, we're realigning the chakras, and when you go to an ayahuasca ceremony, they're going to sage you, they're going to have you do hape, purge cleanse, eat a healthy diet for up to two weeks, and that medicine is, Activating your pineal for a full dmt release and I mean there's no control in that and but the scary part is you're sharing that portal in a space where a lot of good or bad things could happen as well and I don't think everyone's ready for that type of environment but if you're in your own body. In a safe place where you can do breath work to release that trauma to release anything negative because we carry this negative energies that we may not even know about that's making us more anxious or or nervous or more angry even or more frustrated and it's affecting our relationship, our business. Well, the breathwork and allow that to be released once it's released we work on. Aligning yourself, being able to see a different timeline, a different you, and being able to connect that emotionally, opening up the heart chakra that's what I like to focus on. Once you open up this heart, then it's game over, meaning in a good way, like, you know, you'll have more joy, love, peace once the heart is open. Yeah,

Brian Berneman: 46:29

beautiful. So beautiful. Terry as we're getting towards the end of this conversation, I would love to know whatever comes up now, what's one thing that you wish everybody that is listening to us to know?

Terry Kim: 46:49

I would like everyone that's listening to know is that the kingdom of heaven is within you. And you've probably heard this from a, you know, biblical verse in the Bible, but Yeshua, also known as Jesus in the main world, but his real name is Yeshua. And I think he taught us the most important lesson, that you have all the power within you. And so when you take that scripture, And really try to self realize and truly understand that as more of a metaphor or parable that goes super deep and wide is that that is the power you have. And you can save yourself. You can change your life in an instant. And how you go about that is going within. And from within, I create my outer world. And so it's not outside in, it's inside out.

Brian Berneman: 47:37

Beautiful. Beautiful. Terry. For everybody that is resonating with your message, that is wanting to, to explore and learn more of what you're doing, where can they find you?

Terry Kim: 47:51

So they can visit me on Project Kim on IG or awaken with omm dot com if you're interested in the breath work or awaken with OMM is the IG handle as well. So either of those handles, you can find me awaken with Om is me as a breath coach, facilitator, and master guide. And then Project Kim is my personal, handle where, you know, I share all my projects and, and I use it mainly as a vlog.

Brian Berneman: 48:20

Yeah. And for those that are interested in getting the mask, where do they go? They

Terry Kim: 48:24

go to own mat or own sleep. co that's C. O. So O. M. sleep, all one word dot co

Brian Berneman: 48:33

beautiful. I'll put all of those links on the show now so that everybody has quick access to that. Thank you so much, Terry, for, for taking the time for sharing what you have been in your own journey, what you're contributing to this world. So thank you for, for taking the time to to be here with us.

Terry Kim: 48:53

Thank you, Brian. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

Brian Berneman: 48:56

Thank you. And for everybody listening, I would love to know, as always, what resonated with you? What did you learn? Do you already, you know, practice some of these things? Have you done Ikigai? What, you know, what did you take from this conversation? Let us know anywhere that you're finding this conversation, keep the conversation going and for listening and we'll see you all in the next episode. Bye

Terry Kim: 49:21

What did you like the most about this episode? Take a moment to think about what change you can make in your life today

Brian Berneman: 49:27

Share your conscious action on social media using hashtag conscious action and tagging at conscious action and said so we can celebrate Your impact on the world and create a ripple effect

Terry Kim: 49:37

One easy action we would love for you to take right now is to share, like, and subscribe to this podcast. This will help us get these messages out into the world and inspire more people to take conscious action in their own lives, contributing to the better world we hope for.