From Fired to Financial Freedom | Grow With Kepo Ep. 27

What if getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to you?

In this soulful and radically honest conversation, Grow With Kepo welcomes Huong Vu, a spiritual business coach who transformed job loss into deep alignment and financial freedom. From navigating toxic work environments to healing generational trauma and reclaiming her voice, Huong shares the truth behind building a life and business that serves the soul.

This is a must-listen for high achievers stuck in cycles of burnout, people-pleasing, or misalignment. Huong’s journey will inspire you to own your story, trust your timing, and take bold action toward the life you’re meant to live.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Getting fired can be the invitation your soul has been waiting for
• Leaving a job doesn’t require a plan, just courage and clarity
• Spiritual awakenings often begin in moments of collapse
• Money and purpose can co-exist without sacrifice
• People-pleasing disconnects us from our inner truth
• Real alignment begins with deep nervous system healing
• Childhood trauma often shapes adult overachievement
• Burnout is not a badge of honor
• You can thrive by doing business your way
• Rest is productive and necessary for creative power

BEST MOMENTS:

00:01:25. “I got fired from my job, and it was the biggest relief I’ve ever felt.”
00:04:42. “I was forcing myself to fit into a box that was never meant for me.”
00:09:18. “I realized I’d been performing success my whole life.”
00:13:56. “That firing wasn’t punishment, it was protection.”
00:18:44. “For the first time, I asked myself what I actually wanted.”
00:23:17. “I didn’t need another job. I needed to come home to myself.”
00:28:59. “I didn’t want to build a business just to feel trapped again.”
00:34:12. “Healing is what allowed me to receive abundance.”
00:40:47. “I stopped asking for permission and started trusting myself.”
00:46:03. “Now I help other women rewrite their stories, too.”

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Transcript

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For those of you that have that dream of getting out of your 9 to 5, there's a reason why that dream was planted in your heart for a reason. And that dream is just a preview of what is supposed to happen for you in the future, and that it's all possible for you as long as you make a decision and take immediate, massive action and it can all happen for you, here is something you need to hear. You're not lazy, you're just misaligned. I'm careful. I help high performers get unstuck by taking bold, aligned action. And this is grow with Keppel, where we speak with influential trailblazers who've made their mark and found the clarity that changed their lives. This is where we get clear, realign, and move toward a life that actually feels like yours. Welcome to the show. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Grow with Us show. I am so excited about today's episode, but I tend to say that all the time because every episode is exciting. I have a super guest on this show and I have Hoang Vu. She is a licensed wool strategist with, Wolf Financial Group, and when I met her and she told me her story of how she was at a 9 to 5 before and what she does now and how she helps individuals and families create generational wealth by setting up their nest egg. So they are set up for financial success and freedom. I was like, okay, you all need to hear directly from the source how she transitioned into what she does now and how she helps other people. Wong, welcome to the show. Hi couple, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Is such an honor to be here with you. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today. First of all, I love the passion that you used to talk about what you do. So just tell us how you even got to where you are today. What kind of native were you doing? How did you become a licensed wealth strategist? Dustin's pretty important. Yes. Thank you. So it all started with the no college background. I grew up in a household where my parents were like, go to school, get good grades, so hopefully you can get a good job and hopefully that job will take care of you. But school was just not my thing. And you know, what I found out is that it's not that I didn't like school. I just didn't like the topics that was being taught in school. And I think that a lot of people out there tend to go to school and think, that, man, when are they going to teach me about money? I was one of those kids that was one of those people. And found out that school doesn't teach you how to make money. They teach you how to work a 9 to 5. Right? And so no college background. I ended up working in the food industry at a small company. You probably heard of it. It's called Burger King, and I worked there for about 12 years and worked my way up into upper management, ran a couple of stores and then one day they called me into the office and they said, hey, we need to talk to you. I said, oh, this never happened before. And they started putting stuff on the table and said, hey, this is your two weeks vacation. This is your health insurance premiums that you ended up overpaying on. We need your keys because we're actually downsizing the company and we don't need you anymore. And so that was the first time I got my first taste of corporate America. And I felt like, wow, I never want to feel like this again. And I never want to have somebody in control of my future and my income ever again. And so I quickly realized that I needed to find something else, another alternative. But I knew two things. I didn't want to ever go back to the food industry again. And number two, I don't want to get into sales because I hated sales, or at least I thought I hated sales. And so after discussing a couple of things or, you know, a couple of opportunities, that's where I said to myself, well, let's do real estate, because everybody seems to say, I want to make a whole bunch of money. And then they get their real estate license and then it kind of never happens because, you know, some of the numbers of there, right. Like now they say that 95% of realtors don't make it after their first year. And they quit the industry, which I didn't know before I got in. So I ended up getting my real estate license. Of course, in real estate school, they never teach you what you're supposed to do after you get your license. I read this book called Real Estate for dummies and it said you need to hang your license with a real estate brokerage. I started interview with century 21, Keller Williams, and then something dawned upon me and I said, wait a minute. My best friend's on. I met her more than 15 years ago. At the time she was doing real estate. She's got to be a real estate broker at this point and called up my friend and I said, hey, I need to talk to your aunt, can you set up a meeting? And she said, yeah, sure. And she comes back and she said, hey, my aunt said, come into our office. She also does financial advising on the side. She might talk to you about that opportunity to first thing I did was Google how much the financial advisors make. And I saw it and I said, oh, that's better than zero, because right now I'm making nothing. So I came into the office and she showed me actually the financial business, and I was just so astounded because it made me realize that we learned nothing about money. We learned to work hard for money. We learned to make the money, but we don't know what to do with our money. Hold on. Pause right there because you are dropping so many bonds and I want people to actually, like, understand it. The first thing you said that hit me was you were one of those kids that you were like, when are they going to teach us how to make money? So you already had your mind set on, I need to know how to make money. And a lot of times we are thinking, oh, I want this financial freedom and I want to be my own boss, but we're not really asking ourselves the right questions. Your question was just primarily, when are we going to learn how to do this? The second thing was, you said that you never want to give somebody the power to determine your financial future again. And I think that is so powerful. And for a lot of people listening, they might not have a strong way until now because they're like, oh my gosh, okay, I get it. It's nice to be your own boss, to have time, location, financial freedom. But when you frame it that way, the way you framed it, I think is so powerful. This like, no, I am no longer outsourcing my power to determine the trajectory of my life to somebody else. And I just think that is so, so key. So real quick, before you go into what the conversation that you had with this lady, how long did you spend in real estate, if at all, did you only study it or did you actually do any work in it? I was still interviewing, so I didn't really actually practice it until probably two months later. And then that's when I got connected with my best friends on. Oh, okay. So you got connected with your best friends aunt, and then you were like, wow, this is outstanding. How do people not know this? Tell us more about that. What caught my attention is not just what the financial industry can do for families, but I came out and I was so excited about the opportunity in the financial industry. And I asked my best friend's aunt, I said, well, actually, she said to me, do you still want to talk about real estate? I said, no, I want to, I want to know how to do the financial business. Like, how do I get started with this? And she goes, I'm so glad you said that, because I'm actually going to close down my real estate brokerage in the next couple months to go into this industry, financial services full time as a why would you do that? I'm super confused. And she said, because real estate is a one time transaction. It is active income. So you trade your time or your service for money. If you don't work, you don't make money. But in the financial industry, if I direct my time, effort and energy there, I get to make what we call massive passive income. I said, what is this massive passive income she calls income that hits your bank account without you working? I said, how does that work? So long story short, the rest is history and went and got my real estate license and haven't looked back. Wow. What are the trends that you are seeing right now, especially with people that are listening to these people in 9 to 5 jobs and their trajectory when it comes to wealth, you know, what are people doing? You know, because anyone that you talk to, anyone that I come across, even if they're saying, oh, I want to do something that's along the lines of my calling. I want to get paid for what I love to do. At the end of the day, when you drill down, deep down, what they want is financial freedom in addition to other types of freedom like like time and location. What would you say are the trends I have seen happening now that 9 to 5 hours are doing or not doing or doing well or not do well? Great question. A lot of people are starting to shift to start their own business. If you want to get out of your 9 to 5, you're going to have to do it in one of two ways. Either become an investor or you become a big business owner, not a self-employed. Self-employed. As a small business, you step away from the business. You don't work, you don't open up your doors for business. You don't make money. A big business owner has a system in place and hires and trains people on that system, and then the system will run the business for them, generating business income so they can step away and still make money in a system. What I found out is it's actually an acronym most people don't know about. And this is the difference between big business owners mindset and thinking versus a self-employed mindset or thinking system is an acronym for Save Yourself stress, time, energy, and money. Right? So say it again. Save yourself stress, time, energy and money. So if you have no system in place, you don't have a real business. Wow. Huong, I love your quiet strength and the way you just drop bombs like, hey, I'm just going to drop this right here. Your lap. Oh my goodness. So what are you seeing? Are you seeing that a lot of native fibers tend to say, okay, I want to start a business. And they become self-employed as opposed to having big business. So what would you say for somebody who is thinking about making the leap and just say, starting out, if you use yourself as an example, do you just go from 9 to 5, to big business, or is there some kind of bridge that happens between that, even for you? If you use yourself as an example, when you became a wall strategist, when you first quote unquote self-employed, and then you now put in systems like how did that work for you? The easiest way to get a system in your business is to find a business that already comes with a system, instead of trying to create your own system. If you try to create your own system, there's a lot of trial and error that goes into it. And then ironically, it's the same thing. What the acronym of system is. You do a lot of trial and error trying to figure out the perfect system for your business. You will start wasting time, energy, you'll have stress, and you'll also lose money. I totally agree with that. But here's the thing though. What about people have different talents and skills, right? Not everybody's skill is going to fall in that category where they can just join an existing business or business that already has a system. So let's say that we leave those ones out and we're talking about, okay, if you could join, is this a business that already has a system? What would you say other skills that you have to do or that you've developed, that somebody who is trying to join this kind of business or is trying to start this kind of thing needs to have you need to start working on number one, your belief and what you're doing and what you're offering to families or to people. And it's not just about the belief in your business or your products or your services. The major belief you must work on is in yourself. If you don't have belief in yourself, nothing else works. The second thing is your mindset. If you don't work on your mindset and in your personal development, nothing is going to work. One of my favorite books is called how Rich People Think by Steve Siebold. Easily on my top three list, and that's very hard to be in my top three. I'm curious what I owe that three. Oh, that's rich, rich dad. Poor dad has got to be right, because it is the number one bestselling personal finance book of all time. And the second one is secrets of the Millionaire Mine by Harv Tucker. Okay. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, I don't see America. Wow. Okay. Interesting. So you said the way a millionaire thinks is the. How is that the name of the book? How rich people think. How rich people think. Look at how I just. Oh, yeah. Good. How rich people think. What are some specific because you mentioned, you know, mindset, personal development. And I know that people listening go back. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We've heard this before man is a personal development. Rah rah motivational things. What if we got more specific. What are some mindset shift that you feel that have really sustained you in this business and have really helped you to enjoy what you're doing and to continue to bring in income? First one is auditing your circle, adding the people that are higher than you or elevating at a higher level or vibrating at a higher frequency than you, and adding those people to your network. Right. Because they say that your network is your net worth. Yes. And in fact, that's how we met, right? We met at my labs, house and I know that when we caught up afterwards just comparing notes like, why did you even join this division? Like, who in the world would pay 20,000 USD for a one day event as somebody's house? I make it makes sense. Travel is not included while. And I remember you said that you came because you wanted to meet the other crazy people who would do something like that, right? And proximity is power, and that is how we met. And you all that is that is the power of proximity. You cannot put a price on it. The people that we surround us, we become like them right? We get we have the average income, the average mindset, the average lifestyle. So I'm glad. I'm glad you said that because case in point, that is how we met. What else? Albert Einstein said you can't solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it. I like to say that a financial problem can't be solved with the same job that created it. But yet we keep getting rid of that job, and then we go to another job. Go get another job. We got rid of that job, we go get another job, and then we get rid of that job. We go get another job. So if we want our financial problems to be solved, it can't be solved with a job, which is the even more imperative that you must build a big business. Oh, okay. Okay. Bo Huang, this one is even hard even for me, right? Because over time, I've had a job, right? And when someone is hearing this, they're like, oh, crap. Like we see you're telling me I'm doomed. So. But I don't think that I just what you're saying. So tell us if somebody with a job came to you and you're like, this is how much I earn, takes somebody that earns maybe 150 cost a year before tax, and they're single. And maybe one day maybe, I don't know, five, seven years from now, they plan to get married. Maybe not. I don't know is in the books for them. Walk us through how you would actually help them get set up, and especially since they have a do we, number one is discovering what their strengths or gifts are. Because I love this quote that I came across one time, it said the meaning of life is to find your gifts. The purpose of life is to give all your gifts away. So if you're going to start a business, start a business that allows you to give your gifts away, okay, so they come to you, okay. They figure out, okay, this is actually the kind of work I need to be doing. How do they actually get set up in a way that, you know, they are poised for financial freedom if they do get married, their generation is set financially. How does that work? The easiest way, I would say, is to find a coach or a mentor that's already done what you're doing, which is what you did right with that. Your friends, yeah. Okay. I'm trying to get to specifics of how you help other people. Right. How would you help them get set up. What are the things that he needs to be mindful of. Especially since they have a job. And you're saying it's not the way to achieve financial freedom, right. Because I really like that code is like you can't solve it with the same job. Yeah. That has to be something systematically in place for them to come in and learn that system stuff. But basically a system is just a step by step. Hey, if you follow steps let's say one, two, four then you're going to be able to get a client and then you're going to be able to solve their problem, and then you're going to be able to make some great money doing it while helping people. And I guess that that is what you do right now, right. And it has to be, like I said, systematically meaning it has to be duplicate able. So anybody from any type of background with any type of knowledge or no knowledge can come in and learn that system and be able to make money and be successful. Okay, because we're talking about scaling too, right? It's not just the self-employed business. You want to be able to scale to multiple different locations, just like a for example, McDonald's. McDonald's does not make the best burgers. They're not the cheapest anymore, and they're not the healthiest. But why have they been able to build such a massive empire across the entire nation, including the world? Is because the scalability, the duplication, because they have a system in place, anyone could come in, learn the McDonald's system. They even have something called hamburger you hamburger University. They go there, they learn the system, and then they go back to their restaurant locations and then implement what they've learned at hamburger. You okay? What if someone says, right now I have a lot of obligations. I don't have time. I can't really do this. I just have a job, and I'm just trying to figure out how best to use my money that I'm saving, instead of just leaving a checking account. What is your advice to that kind of person? Like how do you even at least while you're maybe waiting to start school next year? Or which I don't, I don't preach that. I always say start before you ready, but for whatever reason where their head is, that is just okay. I'm making some money now and I want the money to work for me. How would you help somebody with that? So first thing I was I would do is ask them, what's their goals? What are they looking to do? Are they looking to save more on taxes? Are they looking to protect their nest egg from market risk because that's the one thing that I found out through the financial education and literacy is that so many people only know about fixed and variable accounts fixed. You get a fixed interest rate, so 1 to 2%, lots of bank products rates, high yield savings CDs and then variable accounts. We're talking about fluctuating up and down with the stock market. But people don't know about index strategy or index accounts. Not to be confused with index funds. Index funds you can still lose money index accounts. Market goes up. It's linked to the stock market. So let's say for example, the S&P 500 it links to the S&P 500. You get the gains when the market goes up. When the market tanks you have a guarantee index floor. That index floor guarantees that when the market dips you don't lose a penny of your principal. Yeah. Because the number one rule in investing is do not lose money. Right. Who said that? Warm day. That's right, that's right. You want to know the second rule to. Yeah. His investment. Rule number one don't ever lose money. Rule number two, don't ever forget rule number one, right. Yeah. Any idea what's so kind of second lesson. All right. So first of all, okay, let's say I'm just trying to get to something that the listeners here can take home with them. Right. Most are listening. They are maybe in their 30s, 40s. They've been working for some time. They are thinking of studying this side business. Maybe they already have their side business. So usually for people in this category, they either have a family or they plan on having their family. Right. So they want to make sure that their money is making money for them, that they are spending out of their dividends. As opposed to what they should be investing. So let's say the person is like, hey, when I'm in my mid 40s, I don't want to be trading my time for money anymore. I want to be able to live off of my what I get out of my investments. Right? Apart from you said index strategies as always. How else would you help them based on that kind of go. You're going to get to us a good lump sum of money quickly. One of the things that I'll share with you, that completely blew my mind when I met one of my other mentors in the financial industry, and it completely changed my life when I heard it, because I never thought about like that, he said. If you have $1 million and you put it into account, that yields you a 10% return, you can live off of the $100,000 yearly and you never have to touch the principal. I'm like, who the heck thinks like this? But that's how rich people think. Yeah, we have to think about it differently. Okay, Hong, unfortunately, I'm just thinking of all of the people think in thinking about as a listing. Are they okay? But I don't have $1 million. Where do I start? Right. What is the lump sum? How do I start? Right? Is it that there's a bare minimum or is it that. Okay, just start with what you have. You could start well with what you have, but there's only two other ways that you make more money. Right. Is by being an investor. But unfortunately you need a big lump sum of money to be an investor. So the only other way is that you have to be a big business owner. You have to increase your earning power. So many people have cut costs, right? Exactly. You're so limited. Or you hit a ceiling of how much you can make as an employee. So many people get a static about making$50 an hour, $60 an hour, even with a college degree. Right? And nothing against that. But we have to start learning or finding other alternatives. How we can increase our earning power to $300 an hour, 500 an hour, a thousand an hour. When those shifts happen in my life, my identity changed. When my identity changed, my income changed with it. You can never outearn your identity, which is why you got to always be increasing your identity so that your income goes with it. What I found out is the old you can't make new money, which is why you got to become somebody else. Oh my gosh. Okay, I wasn't prepared for all these bombs because, you know, whole you know what is funny? Okay. If you if you are listening you will not see this. But the expression on Wong's face is just as if she's telling me, like I went to Walmart and I went to I'll 17 and I got the popsicles. They they. But the things you say are so profound. Like the old you can't make new money. I haven't heard that. You have a lot of isms that I feel that people can just say, just take one out of this recording and just put it on your mirror somewhere. So just remember and just be reminded that, okay, I need to start thinking like somebody who doesn't think business. I need to work on my systems. I need to, you know, increase my identity because I cannot. How do I kind of earn my identity? Right? Oh, wow. If somebody wanted to work with you, how do they find you? Where do they go? Instagram would probably be the best spot. Or you can reach me on my direct line. What's your Instagram handle? The real and first and last name Hong Vu. Okay. All right. Oh, and GV, you and you can direct message me there or my direct line is (857) 891-0405. Honestly, you are the first person that has actually given a direct line. This is somebody who actually wants to work with humans. I love it, I might have to adopt that. So. But I guess my own thing is on Instagram. But you will if you are ready to make a shift in your financial well-being, I actually starts. You want to start thinking like a rich person rare, and start working with someone who has actually gotten that result for herself. So who was it in 9 to 5 before? For 12 years, right? Like you, you work your way up and you words compensated for that. And look at what she's done for herself. I really love that. And I'm so, so proud of you and I just wish you would have. I was so proud of what you've done. And I think it's it's really, really cool. So if you're on the sidelines and you know that your financial portfolio is and you might want to reach out to Huang, I'm going to put all the links to your Instagram and your phone number as well in the show notes and description. So you guys can just click on that and check out. I think this was so, so good. Thank you for all the balls you drove. Say, we don't need a lot of words. You all just a few words like Huang and then you get it. I think you count out, earn your identity. And that one is going to sit with me for a long time. This was really, really good. Any final parting words for someone that you feel like you have shared? For someone who is the format you write still working at their own version of Burger King, and it's the 11th year, and they don't know that a 12 year Covid, when they're just going to be treated like another number. Any any parting words for the for those of you that have that dream of getting out of your 9 to 5, there's a reason why that dream was planted in your heart for a reason. And that dream is just a preview of what is supposed to happen for you and your future, and that it's all possible for you as long as you make a decision and take immediate, massive action and it can all happen for you. Beautiful, I love it. And if I'm to just put a cap on it sometimes you all that massive action is reaching out to somebody like Huang, because she will set you up, because you've been sitting on the sidelines and you know that your financial portfolio is messy, or you know that is an opportunity for you to join a bigger business that has systems in place, you might want to reach out to her. I love this so much. Thank you so much for coming to the show and everybody. If this helped you share with three people that you know and also give the show rating in the Apple Store, Spotify, wherever you listen, because this is what really helps the show. And it was signal to other people that this is something that you really need to listen to. I really believe that we rise by lifting others, and if this really helped you, then you will pass on the message. Alrighty. Thanks everybody and see you on the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to Grow with Keppel. This episode sparked something for you. Subscribe. Share it with a friend. I keep growing.