From 17 Years in IT to Finding Purpose

0:00I had followed the recipe for success. Get some zeros in your bank account, get a nice house, get a car, and you know those things are, I don't think anybody would complain about those things, but those things themselves, at least for me, and I think most people don't fundamentally or inherently provide happiness. And um... Zenji Tenshinko is an inspiring coach, consultant, and the founder of Energy Aveo. Drawing from his passion for personal growth and human connection, he helps others embrace positive transformation and bring greater energy, joy, and purpose into their lives. Aveo comes from a foreign language, it means translation and service. The reason I picked that name is working with others definitely inspires and energizes me. I know the work that I'm doing is important and valuable, but at the same time, like, didn't want to scare people off of the high price tag. They people what they think is worth. At the end of the day, you know, if part of my goal or my passion or what I'm here to do is to, you know, help other people, how is me charging a service that they got no value out of helping them, right? It spans the globe.

1:01Like a super high school, Internet Elvis. Ready? Today, Apple is going to reinvent the ball. It's not over until I win. The Living Your Legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. It's extraordinary. It's impossible. Oh, the sensational. Open. She covered with the way you said. Ball is the box is not on the planet. You can live your dream. Hey, welcome back and one to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jason Langen. And we're down here at the Sunny Miami Beach Studios. And yeah, we got the privilege to talk to some of the greatest entrepreneurs around the country, the disruptors, the taste makers. And today we got someone on the Life Changers Show talking about how his life has changed. And yeah, introduce yourself. What's a name? Where are you from? And what's your business? So my name is Zenji Tan Sinko.

2:02I'm from Columbus, Ohio. And my business is Energy of Aoe. And that's all based on working with other people. One out of one, discussions and projects. Okay. Energy of Aoe. So Aoe, where has that come from? Aoe comes from a foreign language. It means translation in service. So the reason I picked that name is working with others. Definitely inspires and energizes me. And so it's the way translated. It's like energy in service and serving others. Yeah. Good word. Aoe. Yeah. And what language? It's called a Sasani. Oh, probably never heard of it. From where? Where do they speak that? Kind of like a lost in time. It's kind of like a Sanskrit derivative. Okay. It's a lost language. A lost language. Yeah. My knowledge is obscure. But yeah. Okay. So Energy of Aoe. And yeah, you work one-on-one with clients. And tell them what you're working with.

3:04What are you trying to coach them on? So really, yeah. That works all about having discussions and it's basically a kind of like life coaching. That's how my LLCs filed with the state of Ohio. And yeah, it's really just having discussions and setting up projects and outlining. And with any given person, kind of like what they're struggling within life, what they'd like to change, what they'd like to improve, and then kind of going from there. Gotcha. So yeah, I mean, you had a very interesting business model, right? So tell us about your rates. Yeah. I thought that was something that was so crazy. Yeah. So getting into it, I started my own business and it was something where I was looking in the city of Columbus for other kind of like what I do kind of want to start, that was like metaphysical or spiritual. And there are a few centers in the area that

4:04provide that type of work or those types of services. And so I had looked at various practitioners and centers and kind of like seeing, OK, let's try to get a baseline for what they charge. And it's like what's reasonable for me to come in. And then I kind of realized, well, hey, what I'm doing is fundamentally different from what they're doing. Why should I base what I'm doing based on their rates? It's completely different. And I also kind of had this idea of I know the work that I'm doing is important and valuable and to kind of not under sell my services and make good money for my time and energy. But at the same time, didn't want to scare people off with a high price tag because it's something where if I can just get a first engagement or start the process with any given client, we find a way to make it work. And they really find more often than not that my services are valuable. So the model I went with is basically we kind of have

5:04an initial onboarding call where we agreed to certain parameters or really just like a finished line because it's got to end at some point. And when the work is done, it's basically a donation based model where they pay me for the services that they pay what they think is worth. And I think that works from my perspective. And it's kind of a win-win because, OK, by the law of averages, it seems to work that well for me. And there are times where I think, from my perspective, I'm a short change, but then there are also times where I'm being paid an amount that I would never ask. Just because I'm so passionate and joy doing the work. And that's something that I had, the model that I started with and I've stuck with since then. And so wow, yeah, that's like the open pricing model. But yeah, I guess when people see 500 dollars per hour or a thousand dollar per hour session,

6:04whatever it may be, even if it's like $250, they're thinking, oh my god, I don't get paid $100 an hour. Right. It's just that initial starting off with friction. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. That's very interesting. Yeah. But you said because the law of averages, it kind of works out in your favor, right? Yeah. And I would say based on kind of like for that hot second, when I was looking at having a set pricing model, that I've made more money using my system. So in other words, I would have underpriced myself. Can you always start that way or did you try off with some prices? That's what I started with. So I'm kind of like, a person I have now is very kind of, not afraid to try new things and have no fear of like, things going wrong. So of course, it was something that hadn't worked out. OK, you adapted, make changes, but that's normal. It shouldn't be afraid to try something new. And it's other business standard entrepreneurs

7:05or business people might not see that as pragmatic or practical, but it's worked for me. So you can't mess with success, too. It's tough. It's tough. But yeah, I just thought that was so interesting. And then honestly, it's almost like eBay, right? Bidding for stuff. You're going to get low. You're going to get high. I guess in the end, it works out, right? It's like, if you have the auctions, and sometimes people set the price, right? So if it doesn't fall above the price, right? But eight times, it's just auction, like whatever it sells for. Exactly. Yeah. So. And it is, you know, also just interesting just to see that the range of numbers that I get, just from an observational standpoint. I'm sure it is interesting. So what is the range, right? That you get. Like, you don't have to give me, like, I mean, but if you're open to talk about that, right? And then another question I have for that model is, you work with these people for many weeks, maybe sometimes many months. Yeah. So would they start to pay you at the end of month?

8:06Because you said, okay, we set out a direction of a point to where you're going to get to, right? Yeah. But that might take many months. So you still have to pay the bills after month one, month two, month one. So do they pay you on that weekly, monthly basis? No, it's all at the end of the project. Wow. Yeah. I kind of, the system that I've come up with and the volume that I do, it's worked out. I mean, I guess you could probably say, I'm lucky to a certain degree. But the load that I keep in terms of a number of act of clients at any one time just always kind of seems to work out for me. So in other words, like, if I have a longer standing project that's going on and I'm waiting for a big payout, it just always so happens, like, I'll get a bunch of shorter ones that are, like, even me some revenue to work with. So you definitely bootstrapping this company. Yeah. You're going to know investors with that model. Yeah. That's correct. Yeah. Go to the VC and be like, well, pricing strategy is my numbers are, I don't know, they're my forecast.

9:08Exactly. Yeah, this is something where, you know, it's worked for me and I'm grateful for that. But yeah, it's definitely not, you know, a traditional method, which is right. Right. Yeah, of course. Right. So that's amazing. And so what is that range? I mean, like, if you had that, that kind of price where you thought that you would charge, right? Like, kind of what's the scale? So highest, highest compensation I've received today would be uppers, upper, quadruple digits. And then, yeah, lowest is zero. And that's happened a few times, not many. It's, yeah, it happens that usually what's donated is more than I would expect to ever ask for. But there are times when, you know, people are just, it just didn't work out or, and, you know, they're just like, well, I didn't get anything out of this. I'm not paying you. And frankly, you know, while that's not an ideal or optimal outcome, that's also something

10:08that it doesn't bother me. Because at the end of the day, you know, if part of my goal or my passion or what I'm here to do is to, you know, help other people, how is me charging a service that they got no value out of helping them, right? So it's just something just, as like a moral thing, yeah. But then with coaching, it's almost like, okay, well, did they really put in the work, right? Right? True, yeah. Because honestly, it takes a lot of work and how serious that work is. Like, you have to kind of try to silence yourself, right? Discover whatever's going on inside, right? And hack things. It's like, how much work do they put in? Yeah, that's a great point. Because I mean, that is certainly a small frustration. Thankfully, I haven't run in that too often. Yeah. But it is something where it's like, okay, if I've given certain advice or feedback and then it's not applied, it's, well, you know, I've done my part, but I can't force, you know, it's free will, I can't force them to do, you know, what they need to do or what I've advised them to do. In your head though, I saw a little bit of, you motherfuck it. Yeah, like, yeah.

11:09This is a, you know, yeah, podcast, but honestly, a little bit, but you know, again, at the end of the day, I always, I'm a big believer in like, kind of like no regrets and everything always happens the way it's supposed to. Yeah. So if it's something where I get burned or maybe there's like a learning lesson there or just a way for me to adapt or change things. So nothing ever really goes wrong. This is definitely learning lessons there. You know, like why, you have to question yourself, why didn't it work? You know, okay, well, what can I do differently at next time? Yep. And so yeah, I mean, you had an incredible journey of yourself, right? One where, you know, you just felt, I guess, lost, right? I mean, a lot of us, they try to find our passions, right? I mean, same in me, you know, like, actually, we both discovered that we're 50% Filipino. So I mean, yep. So I don't know if maybe it was the Filipino part of us, but I was also quite indecisive growing up, you know, had no clue what I wanted to do, right? And maybe that's because my, you know, Filipino mom

12:13was like, Dr. Alloyer, right? Yeah, and I'm like, yeah, no, you know, I'm an artistic creative dude, right? Yeah. And same, when it got to college, I tried every major, right? Couldn't really find what was me, right? I liked the outdoors. I was like, okay, maybe biology. No, you know, like, I liked travel. So maybe Spanish and it was just like, no, right? But then I kind of found myself into journalism and the reason why, not because I was like, super into journalism, right? But I can kind of just say, Hey, with this major, I can be anything I want. Like if I wanted to work for a rock and roll magazine, you know, like I could do that. You know, if I wanted to work for a mountain biking magazine, I can do that. And that way I can please my mom with a major. Sure. But please myself and saying, okay, well, now I can go work for that rock and roll or mountain biking, which is like my real passion, but not going to major in mountain biking. Right.

13:14Yeah. Yeah, going to major in rock and roll or whatever, right? So yeah, it was just kind of how I discovered myself that way, right? But with you, right? You had that uncertainty, that no fire in high school, in college, and then later on in life. So walk us through that a little bit. Yeah, so yeah, funnily enough. I love the connection that we have both being half Filipino. So I had the same for, you know, for my father, where he, yeah, he's retired now, but was a doctor and his father, my paternal grandfather was a doctor as well. And so kind of the comedian, Joe Koi talks about it a little bit, right? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you've seen that, but maybe after I'll show you. Yeah, so that is one of the things where, you know, I believe kind of my understanding of it is, you know, my dad was, was very good at his job. And, you know, he was a pathologist, which is the same specialty as my grandfather was. But he also kind of more or less, you know, took that path under the advice of his father.

14:17And, you know, built a great life, and, you know, grateful for, you know, my father, because, you know, built a great life in family and stable home and was, you know, grew up comfortable, right? Yeah. But I do remember, you know, at some point growing up, there's a conversation about, well, hey, you know, if you've fallen in my footsteps of, you know, your grandfather's, my, my low, low footsteps, right? My grandfather, you'll have a, you know, you can take over my business or his business. And it'll, it'll basically, you know, I'll have to work for it, but I'll kind of like have it made. And it's just like, if you just, just follow this path and even, you know, from an earlier age when it's, I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do or who I was, I knew it wasn't that thing. Like, yeah, it's not for me, so, right? And, you took it to a whole nother level of, yeah, like I said, a lot of people, they don't know what to do. But yours turned into like an emptiness, right? We offered that emptiness when we don't find that connection in life, right? But yours went to, you know, for a long, long time,

15:20and then you went to IT, had a successful career in IT for 17 years, right? Had the money, had the car, had the house, or the nice place, right? And then your emptiness kind of like brought you to a place where it was like low, you know? So, where did that emptiness bring you? Where did that bring me? Well, yeah, it's something where, you know, that was kind of like a decline, or there was a trajectory to that, that, you know, just led me to a super low point in my life, but it was, you know, there was a big inflection point there of just, you know, hitting rock bottom, but then being just kind of like sprung up or lifted up, kind of, you know, trampoline effect. And, yeah, it's just one of those things, I mean, I believe this is true for everybody, but for me, it was just, you know, I had followed the recipe for success, you know, kind of like that we're told to do, it was just like, you know, check these boxes, do these things, and you'll have a good and happy life. Kind of almost like American Dream-ish, except like more of a rigid, like formula for it, right? Or just like, you know, have, get some zeros

16:23in your bank account, get a nice house, get a car, and you know, those things are, I don't think anybody would complain about those things, but those things themselves, at least for me, and I think most people don't fundamentally or inherently provide happiness. And so that's something where, yeah, I had kind of, you know, like a, what other people would call it, like a Neth experience or what it showed me is just what is important in life or in my life, and you know, changes that I could make, and then I kind of like made them without delay. Yeah. And so yeah, you had this kind of beautiful rebirth and discovery, you know, and it's great. So, yeah, hit rock bottom and it was crazy because like you just had this rebirth, and now you're coaching, you know? Yeah. Talk us about your business a little bit more, you know, like how do people find you, and what type of people are you coaching? Mm-hmm. So, you know, thankfully, what's happened with my, like the volume of, is it that I've done that all through,

17:26the work comes to me on its own. So, I've done no advertising, no marketing, no promotions, or I haven't invested any money into those things. Yeah. I get, like, where to mount? Yeah, where to mount and referrals. That's how I get it. So, it's kind of one of those things. If I work with one person and they tell two people, and then those two people tell three people, I mean, you can have like an exponential growth there. Now, I won't say that I've necessarily seen that directly in terms of a number of standpoint, or at least as far as I can track it, but, you know, that relying just on that has worked for me. And I think that's really kind of like a testimonial to, you know, I guess, like, the work that I'm doing, like how effective or powerful it is, is that people tell their friends and family enough about it, that sustains an incoming business for me. Yeah. Amazing. So, what are you most excited about? I ask everyone kind of what's on the horizon? What are you excited about? Well, I'm, so it's one of those things, kind of, with my new person that I am now, I kind of get,

18:29let's say kind of guidance from above or beyond, so to speak, on things that I should be doing or not be doing. And, you know, it had occurred to me a while back. It's, you know, my business is kind of like plateaued, because, you know, it's just me, I have no employees, and it's not necessarily that, oh, I need to take it to the next level in terms of like being successful, but it's clear that if I want to, you know, things have to change. So, in other words, to make it scalable, we'll have to start looking at, you know, other opportunities, you know, meet means of revenue employees, et cetera. But it was one of those things where, you know, I didn't get any insight or guidance or I didn't feel pushed to move in any certain direction. And so for me, when that happens, you know, I kind of always follow that guidance or lack thereof. And then, you know, shortly thereafter, had the, I think it was like an ad or something that came across one of my social media platforms for, you know, inside success and life changes.

19:29And here we are, this is season one, right? So, the way I look at that is that, that was kind of like, you know, I was put, sitting at a red light, so to speak, you know, kind of to be, you know, wait for this opportunity to come along, and then, you know, here I am and we'll kind of see what this leads to, but, you know, definitely kind of it a lot for just the exposure and to get my message and my energy and brand out to the world here. Yeah. So it's interesting that you're saying, okay, you know, you have to figure out what success is to you. You know, and for you, it's not about the money, it's like, okay, like, why do I grow? They grow not for money, but to grow my purpose. My purpose is to help more people, right? And so the only way you're fully booked, right? And so the only way to help more people would be to grow, right? And then you get to help more people, right? And the money comes with that, right? But yeah, you have to look at what the success means to you.

20:29Why do I want to grow? Right? You're always looking for your passions and that seems like really important for you, right? Absolutely. Yeah, and I suspect it's one of those things, you know, I said that I don't have any expectations, but I feel like expectations in life are one of those things that, you know, too large degree can only lead to disappointment, right? So, you know, I just, I came into this, you know, into this filming and this show, this, you know, this opportunity just, you know, excited about it and passionate about it, and we'll see where that leads. But yeah, definitely I would suspect there's a good chance, you know, this will kind of, you know, like, give me some good exposure and kind of blow things up for me. And then as a result of that, then I'll maybe like tweak some things, remodel and start looking at structured pricing and stuff like that. But that's kind of all to come. And yeah, I mean, we're talking with that. You got a lot of opportunity beyond just the episode, right? Cause next week we've got our mastermind, right?

21:34We hold several of them a year, right? But that's another thing that you can hop on and they're gonna, you know, have Rudy, Rudy runs it, right? And some other people on our team, but yeah, they'll talk about marketing, right? You know, how to take your episode and split it into various items that, you know, you can use for social media, right? How to recycle that, how to get the PR out, right? How to use your episode for credibility, right? Rudy's been an amazing success on that. He had a PR company that he grew and built and sold in a marketing agency at the same level, you know, growing up to massive numbers, right? I know. He's just an expert at that. So, yeah, when the next one becomes available, you know, sign up for it early, right? Yeah. I always tell people you got to sign up for that mastermind early because now we got people that are like, oh my God, trying to sign up to the mastermind when they get those emails

22:35and they're like, oh, wait, next week, but it's, they always get sold out. Right. But they just have to hit the next one. Yeah. But, yeah, taking advantage of that, you know, when you get that email, right? Sign up as soon as possible. So, yeah, man, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show and do your episode, man. So, learn a lot about you and I'm glad you found that passion. And yeah, you see him like, the sky's the limit with where you're going, man. Yeah, definitely excited about it. And yeah, I wanna express my gratitude and thanks to you, Jay, and the whole team here at Insights Success TV is a really been a great experience for sure. Awesome. So yeah, yeah, and you guys stay tuned in for more episodes of Life Changers. You know, I had a lot of great people come in and honestly, there's a people that have changed their lives and making an impact on other people's lives and just taking that trajectory and success for them is not just kind of the inner journey

23:35that of transformation that they found themselves on, but they've mixed in entrepreneurship and business with that, you know, and they're able to make money and change lives. So yeah, keep on tuning in to more episodes of Life Changers. But thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time. Cheers, everyone.