We are very excited to have Grace Chiang, founder of Cherish Parenting, on Charlene's Talk Show. Grace Chiang is building Cherish, a learning community for parents, after her stint at McKinsey and GSB. In this talk show, Grace walked us through how her personal narratives shaped her career and helped her embrace what she truly values in life. 

Grace has worked with thousands of teenagers in the past decade. 

She has taught and coached high schoolers and witnessed a pattern that was quite familiar to her younger self. While she looked perfect on paper, she struggled with mental health and thought, “Because you are a teenager, that’s what you are supposed to feel.”

“Mental health isn’t a real issue to an immigrant family.”

As a recovering perfectionist, Grace told me she used to feel that she was not enough. She inherited her parents’ trauma, yet she didn’t know what she was going through was called “depression”.

It was not until her friend committed suicide in college that she was required to see a therapist. She kept the visits from her family and quietly began her healing journey. She started journaling and meditation. Through her practice, she stumbled upon an aha moment when she identified a trigger that led to a family crisis. That was the moment when she uncovered the true power of therapy. 

Interested in how Grace brought up therapy with her family? Check out the interview…

Watch Part 1

Grace erased the old story that stood between McKinsey and her dream. 

Grace was always interested in education, but she didn’t know what jobs to apply for. Grace worried that she might need a few years of training to start her own company. She worried that people would not trust her with running a business. She worried that she might miss the bills. Many of these fears are rooted in memories of her upbringing. 

Growing up in an immigrant family, Grace struggled with financial security and desperately wanted to get more money. It took her decades to rewrite the old narratives and let go of her overachiever mindset. When she finally stepped back to redefine success, she was able to gain the confidence to tell herself, “I can do this.” 

Here’s what Grace would say to her younger self… 

While she followed the norm to start her career in consulting, she recommended people to start designing your life. Through this exercise, we could identify our core values, key moments, and write the story we would like to tell our future selves. 

Interested in Grace’s other old stories? Check out the second part of the interview…

Watch Part 2

“I want to change parenting and change how people think about parenting.”

Through coaching parents and teens, Grace learned that both adults and teenagers can learn from each other, and it is possible for the parents to grow, too. 😉 

Want to get your parents to change their behavior?

Start from trusting them throughout this unlearning and relearning process. ❤️