Samantha Mui is a native of the California Bay Area. A former culinary student and current food blogger, she has worked in and out of the food industry for more than a decade. Her cooking style is inspired by her travels abroad where she has experienced culture through cuisine. She has been featured nationally on Food Network and PBS’s Check, Please! Her latest book is Melting Pot: Stories and Recipes from a Chinese American Daydreamer (Google Books). Find her on social media @sammyeats.
Here’s our interview with Samantha Mui; you can listen to her on our podcast page, or on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify below. You can watch Samantha Mui's Imagine Talks Podcast interview on YouTube.
Find Samantha Mui and her work here:
- Samantha Mui on Instagram (@sammyeats)
- Samantha Mui’s quick links (linktr.ee/Samantha_Mui)
- Sammy Eats websites, cooking classes, events, & more (samtillymui.wordpress.com/)
Purchase Samantha Mui’s Melting Pot cookbook at
- Green Apple Books SF: Melting Pot
- Omnivore Books SF: Melting Pot
- Amazon: Melting Pot
- Target: Melting Pot
- Barnes & Noble: Melting Pot
Francis Kong: All right. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Imagine Talks podcast: achieving success, social impact, overcoming obstacles. And, my name is Francis Kong.
Steven Chan: And I'm Steven Chan. Today, we have Samantha Mui.
Steven Chan: Samantha Mui is a native of the California, Bay Area, and she is a former culinary student and current food blogger. She has worked in the restaurant industry for over a decade. Her cooking style is inspired by our travels abroad,
Steven Chan: where she has experienced culture through cuisine. Samantha has been a guest on PBS’s Check, Please. Find her on social media @SammyEats
Steven Chan: And, I'm pleased to say, Samantha has also published her new book, Melting Pot. Available in bookstores and Amazon. “Stories and recipes from a Chinese American daydreamer.” Welcome, Sam!
Samantha Mui: Hello. Thank you. Steven and Francis, for having me. Super excited for our chat today!
Inspiration for a Creative Career
Steven Chan: So, this has been exciting to see your growth. We’ve known each other for years. And, you just published this book. And we were just wondering, how do you get your inspiration?
Samantha Mui: Oh gosh, that’s such a loaded question, right? Um, I think specifically for this book, you know, I can talk about Melting Pot, where I get my inspiration. But for me, I’ve always been really in touch with what I like to call my inner child.
Samantha Mui: Every inspiration that I have as an adult comes from, you know, the stuff that I jumped out when I was a kid. To give you an example, you know, when I was a kid, I was this odd kid. I didn’t watch cartoons that much. I really enjoyed watching cooking shows. And, you know, in some ways for me, watching cooking shows gave me a glimpse into people’s lifestyles and how people we re so different in the world.
Samantha Mui: I really got a lot of inspiration through, you know, just watching TV. And as a kid, I dreamt. You know, I would go to like — so this is the thing about me — I had a mouth on me, like, but
Samantha Mui: You know, as a kid I was also very shy. So nobody really knew this about me. Right? So, I would go to field trips and come home,
Samantha Mui: And start talking like a tour guide and would imitate everything they were saying, so I would do the exact same thing when I watched a cooking show!
Samantha Mui: I would go home, you know, I would go home, you know, talk about food and all these different things, you know, and watch these TV shows and imitate it. So that’s kind of where I got my first, like, “ooh, let me try to actually cook!”
Samantha Mui: And, it was from that, that I got a lot of inspiration of like, how to cook. And a lot largely why I decided to start cooking was actually had to do with the fact that I never fit in with my peers.
Samantha Mui: To me, I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.
Samantha Mui: Which I didn’t realize now looking back on it, I was Asian American, I was given these opportunities that were afforded to me. Not necessarily because I was supposed to have these opportunities, but I just have, somehow, happened to be in certain places.
Samantha Mui: And because of that, I, I felt like I’ve never fit in, you know, whether it’s, you know, my school systems, you know, different friends, all these different things. I was just so different: out of my element.
Merging the Asian and American worlds
Steven Chan: Yeah. You mentioned some of those elements in your book, how you’re merging two different worlds. And what were those two worlds that you were merging and trying to reconcile?
Samantha Mui: Yeah, and so you know what’s funny is like I always dealt with a lot of conflicts growing up. I didn’t realize.
Samantha Mui: I was, you know, obviously, as Asian American.
Samantha Mui: I was Samantha or you know the daughter, you know, and so I always knew, like what to do to be that specific person for everybody. And then, you know, and then I had, you know, family that was so closely connected to their Asian Chinese roots.
Samantha Mui: But then when I went to school.
Samantha Mui: Like it was such a different culture.
Samantha Mui: I didn’t have much social norms. Growing up I was a latchkey kid. Like, my mom let me run wild, when I was a younger kid. So I learned— I was just not like trained like most kids to be, like, a certain way. So I had a lot of freedom. And I think that’s largely
Samantha Mui: now, how I am as a person, you know, I’m very free to do what I want to do. I am, you know, I learned how to thrive off creativity that I wouldn’t have otherwise done if I didn’t have that child upbringing, that I have
Steven Chan: And some of those some of those influences come up in a lot of what you talk about in your books’ food philosophy.
Steven Chan: You talk about how food connects people. You talk about mastering cooking techniques but not recipes. Tell us a bit about some of your food philosophy, that how being a sort of I would say free,
Steven Chan: in a way, as a latchkey kid,
Steven Chan: influences how you cook food.
Samantha Mui: Right, so much my life growing up. I didn’t have structure. I didn’t know what that was about. I learned a lot of different things on TV.
Samantha Mui: And I feel like as a young kid. I had a lot of adult experiences in a young kid’s body. So when I say that,
Samantha Mui: you know, when I talked about mastering, you know, techniques and not memorizing recipes.
Samantha Mui: I never really followed recipes growing up. And this is because I watched a lot of the women in my life and in Melting Pot, you’ll see that there’s a lot of stories dedicated to chapters to women that really have shaped me as a person.
Samantha Mui: A lot of the women I’ve seen cook. They never followed the recipes. They follow this intuition in the kitchen; they, you know, they knew what they were looking for. And they just had this, like, formula in their head.
Samantha Mui: And, they would produce all these amazing foods. So it was funny. And this is kind of we’re talking about, like, you know, my Western life, you know, Western context and the Asian context that I grew up in,
Samantha Mui: that was very interesting to me to see that, you know,
Samantha Mui: Even in the kitchen, we cook differently, right, I mean, I’m sure I don’t know about your mom or, you know, grandma or whatever. I don’t know if they used measuring cups. Right. That’s not a thing. It was just intuition and it was guided by this. Yeah.
Be Resourceful, Even with Limitations
Steven Chan: And one of the food philosophies, I definitely resonated with one of the food philosophies that you had one of them was called “be resourceful,” and if I just could just read out loud, one of the parts of your book, you wrote, “in my childhood kitchen,
Steven Chan: “...Each tool has many functions.”
Steven Chan: “A meat cleaver could be a fish knife, meat cutter, and garlic press, all in one! Watching my grandma,” and this is what I definitely identify with, “watching my grandma save all the packets of barbecue sauce and ketchup at fast food joints taught me that each bit counts.”
Steven Chan: and then you later write, “Having limitations can be a launching pad for creativity.” And I can imagine that there’s a lot of emotion that can get wrapped up in seeing that happen with your family. On one hand, ...
Steven Chan: You could potentially frame it as something that’s sad, or but something that can also be celebrated, meaning that there’s a lot of resourcefulness there too.
Samantha Mui: Yeah, absolutely.
Steven Chan: Do you feel like there are any particular cooking stories? Any things that you’ve had to overcome in your own cooking journey?
Samantha Mui: Oh, that’s really good.
Samantha Mui: It’s crazy, because I feel like....and I think I need to give you a little backstory of like how Melting Pot even came about.
Steven Chan: Yeah. Tell us, tell us!
Samantha Mui: Yeah, because I think it will actually kind of answer, a little bit of that. But, I originally, so when I was a kid. Two things I loved: one was storytelling, two, was food. You know, that was like my two things as a kid growing up. Those were my favorite things.
Samantha Mui: And I remember you know maybe an elementary school when I really felt like I wasn’t fitting in. I was bullied and things like that.
Samantha Mui: I read Chicken Soup for the Soul. The series by Jack Canfield. And there was just something really powerful about those books, where it was like human experiences,
Samantha Mui: stories about people who were really going through tough situations going through pain or struggles, but being able to see the other side of everything that, you know,
Samantha Mui: ...They always knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Samantha Mui: As a young kid, I grabbed on to those truths, and I held it like it was my little like safety blanket.
Samantha Mui: And so when I got older, you know, I always saw myself, you know, I always saw myself, you know, doing something, you know, maybe even a cookbook one day.
Samantha Mui: But I realized like, I really wanted to tell stories, and tell stories from an Asian American perspective. Because when I was a kid,
Samantha Mui: You know, I read a bunch of books about food, all these different things, but I never really read about my experience and I thought that was really important because as an Asian American girl, I had a lot of conflict within myself, that if I was able to kind of share that perspective,
Samantha Mui: ...in that mindset when I how old I was at the time. I do believe that this could help somebody else who’s coming of age and trying to like figure out who they are as a person. And so I knew people aren’t going to really read my story. They’ll go, “Who is this chick?!” You know,
Samantha Mui: So I decided I did. I’m going to incorporate stories and food together. And I know I realized that a young age that food is connected with all memories, whether it’s good and bad. So it, to me, it just made sense. So combining the two is really the inspiration behind it.
Samantha Mui: Oh, you’re on mute! Sorry.
Steven Chan: So, you know, I thank you so much. I muted myself because I was hitting some buttons and I didn’t want the audience to
Steven Chan: ...hear that. But, you know, you’re mentioning stories about and wrapping them up with
Steven Chan: ...your cooking. Throughout your book, you also discuss how things have been like growing up for you.
Steven Chan: How you mentioned Judy Blume — that you might have been a Judy Blume heroine — and also the original Food stars: Lidia Bastianich, Martha Stewart, Nigella Lawson — but you didn’t exactly see people with similar background as you growing up.
Steven Chan: So reading through this has been valuable, because I don’t think too many Asian Americans see themselves when it comes to, like, the usual cooking stars.
Samantha Mui: Yeah, yeah.
How to move 3 couches—with 1 wagon
Steven Chan: So, take, take us through your journey. Growing up, you’ve wanted to be a storyteller — which you are now — and, a storyteller, and a chef, which you are as well! I mean, you have experience in terms of making food. Francis had let me know that you’ve also learned a lot on journeys abroad. You mentioned that briefly in your in your book, too. But tell us about a bit about that, and what kind of things you’ve learned abroad.
Samantha Mui: Yeah. Um, well, it’s crazy because
Samantha Mui: One, so I went to abroad in 2015 to live in China for one year. But before that, I was convinced I would never leave California!
Samantha Mui: I thought that, you know, California is the thing! I always want to be here. I never want to move. I didn't even have an urge to travel one bit. Okay. My first flight was when I was 18!
Samantha Mui: You know, and I think I went to Kansas City, Missouri. So like, just to give you some context. Um, but yes. Right after I got out of...
Samantha Mui: ...college, actually a month before I graduated from college, I had this opportunity to live abroad in China and get my grad degree.
Samantha Mui: And do my research and studies and everything in one year and teach. So to me, I was just like, “Yeah, you know, why not? Get a degree, go have fun, try something different.”
Samantha Mui: And part of me. I couldn’t explain at the time, but I knew there was like a certain pull for me to do that.
Samantha Mui: And that’s the thing, like, you know what, whether I’m using my intuition in the kitchen, I use it a lot in my actual life. And I just knew that there was some reason I needed to be there.
Samantha Mui: So anyways, I just took the leap. I realized, you know, in order to go anywhere in the world, all you need is like two suitcases and you could be anywhere right?
Samantha Mui: That’s one thing it taught me about life is, like,
Samantha Mui: I wasn’t as attached to my things I thought I was — right — when you go with two suitcases. You come back with two suitcases! That’s a, you know, so that was a really cool.
Samantha Mui: Small little side note lesson. But yeah, I went there and I, you know, in my book, you know, you’re talking about being resourceful and all those different things.
Samantha Mui: For me, like, watching it in action, because it’s like my motherland, you know, my mom’s from Guangzhou, China, and my dad’s from Hong Kong. So realizing what I like,...
Samantha Mui: ...seeing it with my eyes every single day. People cooking on the streets people having a little cart and making five different items you know,
Samantha Mui: I remember this is like, very vivid, like it was like this thing that you know just really blew my mind. It was one day I was walking down the street and I see this gentleman with a bike, carrying, like, three couches on this little wagon!
Steven Chan: Oh!
Samantha Mui: One guy on one bike carrying that many things.
Samantha Mui: Like it was like this light bulb in my head that came out like it told me like, "You come from this line of thinking, like where you come out with these crazy ideas because you’re limited,” and you know that
Samantha Mui: ...really gave me this new idea like. Because I always thought, you know, people say, “You need this in order to get this done,” or, “you need this.” And that’s very similar how my cookbook got started too.
Samantha Mui: I just had this idea and I was like, “You know what, how do I make this happen?” You know, I didn’t have a single publishing deal, but I knew a book just consists of images and writing and so
Samantha Mui: You know that same like that, AHA moment, walking on the street, making me realize like how — you know — how I can do anything? It also kind of carries on to, like, how I went on making a cookbook and such, you know,
Steven Chan: That is remarkable. And it shows you how practical that can be in terms of, well, you don’t have to necessarily be perfectionistic about how you carry three sofas, right?!
Steven Chan: Yeah, so, so, so it sounds like that also was helpful in terms of inspiring you to create this cookbook then. So tell us, how long did it take for you to write your book?
Samantha Mui: Oh, gosh. So the backstory is okay. I actually. So this is funny. This has to do with Imagine Talks, right? This is my first talk ever. I’ve never done that and I didn’t realize how hard it was.
Samantha Mui: So I had all these running themes. Right. And it all had to do with food.
Samantha Mui: Food and life. Food in life, and all those different things. So then I was like, “Oh my gosh, like these could be made into stories, like little short stories!”
Samantha Mui: So I started this Google Doc and started writing all these stories down. And I was like, “but what do these have to do with recipes?” So I started doing that together and
Samantha Mui: ...I kid you not, like,
Samantha Mui: ...right when I started doing it like few pages and all that, “oh my gosh, this is going to be a cookbook.”
Samantha Mui: And I knew in my head. That was like, “I’m gonna make a cookbook now.”
Samantha Mui: And I also knew that was like, “Well, one. How many, how am I going to do it. Like, I don’t have any background. I don’t have a single publishing deal!” And I know like if I pitched it to someone they probably wouldn't like
Samantha Mui: ...they probably wouldn’t give it to me, you know. So I was like, “You know, I’m going to find a way how I’m going to do it. And I’m going to tell the story that I want to tell and I'm going to find people that believe in what I'm trying to do.”
Samantha Mui: “...And they’re going to come alongside with me. And we’re going to do this together."
Samantha Mui: And so I started writing it for a year, kind of took a break, went traveling for a little bit, and then I had asked
Samantha Mui: You know, I had known somebody who is actually a designer and was leaving a lot of corporate jobs and as a designer by trade.
Samantha Mui: And at that point, we met. We met. We had this really great synergy going. And so all those beautiful photos that you see? All those beautiful writings, the photos, the design. Yeah, largely, well, that one [photograph] is actually— my uncle did that—because
Samantha Mui: I first started my own cookbook. I needed photos and I have my
Samantha Mui: ...Uncle who’s like he does it fun. So this goes out to show how scrappy I was with all this, like, how we did this from the beginning. The original that I designed was nothing like what you see now, you know,
Samantha Mui: But it just goes to show like you know I just really believe that this could happen and I
Samantha Mui: You know, connected to my inner child and realize this is such a small little task, even though people were saying like, “The book is such a big task!” Like no, it’s just images and text. And if I can get those things right.
Samantha Mui: ...I know that this can be something. So that’s all I, you know, that’s kind of where that all happened.
Steven Chan: And that’s no easy task. The way that you layout the book has been beautiful: stories, photographs, imagery, as well as the recipes.
Landing a speech for Imagine Talks
Steven Chan: Tell us, then you know you also mentioned Imagine Talks earlier. And for those who don't know what you spoke about for Imagine Talks, tell us a bit about how you ended up landing a keynote speech, a speech, at Imagine Talks, and what your talk was about.
Samantha Mui: Yeah, I mean, you know, Francis, who was here earlier, who I adore so much, he’s my mentor. And actually, we had many conversations about food, and all these different things, and...
Samantha Mui: ...he made that connection that food was actually connected to all my growth in life. Like, there was a strong connection there. And once we realized that,...
Samantha Mui: You know, he was like, you should do Imagine Talks. You know, this, this would be perfect to talk about both.
Samantha Mui: And so, originally, my, my title and originally this was the title of my book, was called, “Memories of a Culinary School Drop Out,” because I am a culinary school dropout. I never finished culinary school.
Samantha Mui: But you know that that was kind of, I wanted to give that, like, twist about it.
Samantha Mui: I didn’t want to just, you know, talk about, you know, ways that I was thriving. I really wanted to talk about, and most of my story was talking about, like,
Samantha Mui: ...how food was closely connected to everything in my life, how food was this thing that like helps me get through a lot, you know because it was in the kitchen, where I found how to actually deal with my emotions, and,
Samantha Mui: ...you know, you’re a psychologist and, you know, in one of my chapters, it’s, you know,
Samantha Mui: I talked about how for a long time, I didn’t know how to do my feelings.
Samantha Mui: It was cooking that helped me figure that out because there's a meditative process that goes on when you’re cooking.
Samantha Mui: There’s a start, middle, and end to everything. So no matter what you’re going through, when you’re cooking, you'll always see the start, middle, and end, and you realize that even if you’re going through a really tough time!
Samantha Mui: There’s always a redemptive thing about cooking. Like, even if I made a start, middle, and end, and the food doesn’t look good,...
Samantha Mui: ...I still have the next day to make it better. And that type of perspective as I was like, you know, cooking and you know getting lost in my own thoughts and everything. And that actually helps me a lot. And I credit a lot of it being in the kitchen.
Steven Chan: I can imagine that a lot of folks who are growing up in certainly same conditions, where they’re having to figure out their way in life, figure out whether they should join one world or both worlds...
Steven Chan: You know, we were talking about growing up as an Asian but in an American culture.
Steven Chan: You know, you don’t have to be a perfectionist about it. And you mentioned having a game plan as long as you have some sort of plan, can go along with the journey, go along with the flow and enjoy yourself along the way, too.
Samantha’s charcuterie board
Steven Chan: So with that being said, before I forget, you mentioned speaking at Imagine Talks and I remember seeing you on stage and I remember, I enjoyed your, your food platter.
Steven Chan: It was one of them was delicious, delicious platters. It was so intricate there are just lots of ingredients so well presented, in this beautiful platter.
Steven Chan: Tell us about that. How did you come up with such an amazing, amazing dish?
Samantha Mui: Yes. So first of all, um, when we decided we're gonna do like some kind of food case, it’s like, “okay I could do charcuterie.”
Samantha Mui: But then I was like, ...You know, the thing is, I had been working in and out of the food industry for a long time.
Samantha Mui: And there’s a lot of things that people don’t realize the back end of, like, there’s certain things that you can do to really like take it up a notch with your charcuterie. And I was like, I’m going to showcase that type of stuff that I do on a daily basis.
Samantha Mui: How to really wow. And you know, I really want to bring it back a little bit just to the cookbook, because
Samantha Mui: A lot of the ways I cook in the recipes. I don’t know if you took a look, they’re very simple. I basically shortcut, or I, you know, dumb down everything that I know, and made it easy for everybody to make it. And so, you know, I give you tricks, hacks, tips.
Samantha Mui: Things that I’ve learned like I love the structure and I basically dismantle it, made it easier.
Samantha Mui: And so that’s what I wanted to showcase with was charcuterie. Like, I try to take all these items that I knew that people would just throw on a board, and I just try to make it look really nice.
Samantha Mui: You know, obviously, I feel like it was something that you know stuck on as an impression, but really like I’m on top of just being, you know, cooking, you know, I am an artist. And that’s how I kind of, because it was I remember being...
Samantha Mui: ...like, you know, pretty and you know it was huge. It was a huge platter. And so it will be seeing, you know, I did it live so that people can see how easy it was.
Pivoting to Teach Cooking Online
Samantha Mui: And actually funny fact is, you know, since the pandemic has happened, I transitioned. A lot of my these things like charcuterie, building into courses and, you know, being able to show people how to do it at home.
Samantha Mui: Having that best-in-class at a restaurant is something that I've been very passionate about doing.
Steven Chan: So do you mean, meal courses...or online courses?
Samantha Mui: Oh, sorry. Yes, online courses.
Steven Chan: Yeah. Tell us about that. This is fascinating. You’re always up to something new. So tell us, what are your online courses?
Steven Chan: Or where can people find them?
Samantha Mui: Yeah, absolutely.
Samantha Mui: You know I never expected to, you know, do this in this timing. But originally started with my book launch, you know. I would cold email a lot of these bookstores to sell my book. And this is right at the start of the pandemic...
Samantha Mui: When I was, you know, contacting these people. And I was like, “Hey, how are you going to get connected with your, you know, people — connected with your bookstore — if they can’t come?”
Samantha Mui: So I was like, offering to do these free cooking classes.
Samantha Mui: And so what that did was, you know, obviously you know, you message a lot of these bookstores, and you know, when the pandemic was happening, I didn’t get a lot of responses back. But the one or two that did...
Samantha Mui: ...I would do these courses for them. And so I developed these courses in a short period of time.
Samantha Mui: I just did it with their viewers did it for free, and just be like, you know, just to promote my book.
Samantha Mui: so I started posting about these things and people who worked in different like companies and things like that, they started reaching out and was like,
Samantha Mui: “Hey, we have happy hours. Would you want to do this and that?” So that just like, took me off to another place where I was starting to do all these, like, random events and teaching all these different courses.
Samantha Mui: so originally, it started with, like, one course of charcuterie, and I really expanded it to like, five different classes at this moment. So I have a lot of, and you know, continuously...
Samantha Mui: ...People are just looking through my book now and be like, “Hey, want to do that one? Can you make it happen?”
Samantha Mui: And so yeah, so I’ve been really just pivoting and in, you know, not just doing book sales. Now, I really started doing courses.
Samantha Mui: And I really enjoyed doing that. Because one, I love entertaining and too. I love showing people entertaining; should be fun, easy, and you know it’s just fit your lifestyle.
Steven Chan: That is that is so exciting, you’ve launched and pivoted — we call pivoted, meaning like you’re changing your direction in life. You went you took us through journey from your past, how you grew up.
Do you really need to plan for the future?
Steven Chan: All the things that happened to you know what you’ve witnessed in China, then the book, your Imagine Talks talk, and now you’re teaching others about how to cook. I’m just curious, what else do you have in store for you in the future? Do you have any plans?
Steven Chan: ...Or other ideas on where you want to go?
Steven Chan: What now that you’ve got your book and your courses out?
Samantha Mui: Yeah, I mean, personally, like the thing is— I never and this is where I get so stumped. I don't know about you, Steven. I don't know if you operate on those, like, five-year plans for yourself.
Steven Chan: You know I have. I myself have like, “one day, one week, one month,” and then just as you said, “a few years out” sort-of plans. Five years out. Well, what about yours?
Samantha Mui: Well see, this is the thing, you know. Every time someone asks me about five-year plans, I'm like, oh, I don't have one! And I can't lie because
Samantha Mui: Truthfully, I just lean into the things that I know that's kind of get me closer to what I think I want and I just, that’s what happened, you know, whether it was the book, even getting connected with MAG was, you know, doing the pageant leading up to that.
Steven Chan: Tell us about that. So for those who don't know, in the audience.
Steven Chan: Tell us what MAG is!
Samantha Mui: Yeah, MAG is short for Miss Asian Global. And it is a pageant that takes place in San Francisco every single year. And I was fortunate enough to participate in 2017, and landing Miss Congeniality.
Samantha Mui: But I would say, like, yeah, I just leaned into that because part of me was like, “I want to continuously put myself in situations that makes me uncomfortable, make me feel like...”
Samantha Mui: “...feeling crazy and crappy inside and like all these different feelings and tensions that are running high, but being able to like, keep myself at a really good,” you know,
Samantha Mui: “...like a peace level,” I guess.
Samantha Mui: So I just did that and I leaned in on that and then that got me to Imagine Talks, you know, getting connected with Imagine Talks, and doing all these different things, and Imagine Talks was a launching pad for me to think that...
Samantha Mui: ...Melting Pot was this idea and you know, so I just continuously just lean into that. But what I was trying to say was, I don’t have a five-year plan, you know.
Samantha Mui: I just have these things where I joke. I never know what the next year looks like for me, because every year looks different! But I always feel like I’m getting closer to what I think I want, if that make sense!
Steven Chan: Yeah, and I think it’s an excellent example of the concept of serendipity: taking advantage of opportunities that are presented, and — you mentioned — leaning in when those present opportunities do come up.
How Samantha goes for her dreams
Steven Chan: Well, you know, we’ve covered so much ground, Sam. I wanted to just say how much I'm grateful for you to come on our show. I was wondering if you had any last words of wisdom or things that you'd like our viewers to take away from our conversation.
Samantha Mui: Yes, absolutely. Um, you know, for me, as I’m looking back, because my 30th birthday is actually next week.
Steven Chan: Oh, wonderful.
Samantha Mui: Next year, I’m so sorry!
Steven Chan: The difficulty about birthdays, is that you don’t remember — it changes each year!
Samantha Mui: Every time I turned like let’s just say I turned 29 I still think I'm in that mindset. So anyway, but I am turning 30 in March. And one thing I realized was, like, I was talking to a girlfriend of mine.
Samantha Mui: You know, in my 20s, I legit was so tough on myself. Like, the stuff that I knew I wanted to do, I didn’t see people doing it and I didn't see people that look like me doing it.
Samantha Mui: So I would cry and I wishing that I could be somebody else. I wish I could be an engineer.
Samantha Mui: I wish, I wish I had my heart set, like, “I want to be a doctor and that’s all I ever wanted to do.”
Samantha Mui: I didn’t have that, and the stuff I wanted to do was so not like your typical jobs that, you know, people would say, “go for it.” So it was really frustrating to— and then not only that, but knowing that I wasn’t anywhere close to what I wanted to be.
Samantha Mui: That was another thing. So, so I was like, so like feeling like I was NOT you know, (1) like not at the place I needed to be to do these things,
Samantha Mui: and (2) like trying to figure out, like, are my dreams too big, that was another thing. And so when I look back on it. I’m like, you know, now that I’m about to turn 30 and, you know, got to have all these really cool experiences.
Samantha Mui: I think of these as experiences. And I’m just like, you know, sometimes you just gotta trust yourself, whatever it is, just trust that, you know, there is a process and there is a path.
Samantha Mui: That, you know, if you just stick by it. Because, there are so many times I walked out of the path because “I don’t want to do this anymore because this is too much.”
Samantha Mui: And, you know, “I’m not getting the recognition” or “I’m not getting any of that stuff that I feel like people need to see,”
Samantha Mui: ...in order for me to be in the next place.
Samantha Mui: But I realized that you know what, like if you’ve got something burning in your heart. And that's some fire that's light up in yourself. I’m going to tell you: you're not gonna get any peace at it until you actually do that one thing.
Samantha Mui: And so for me, like, you know, looking back on it, I’m just like, you know, you just really have to follow that fire that’s inside of you, because you will end up in this—okay—sorry, I don’t mean to go on—
Steven Chan: Go, go for it.
Samantha Mui: This is like, sorry, this just popped in my mind. I think this was like five, six years ago I got this quote that was SO life-changing for me.
Samantha Mui: It was this quote that’s said or meme, that said like, “there are people who climb up with this wall and realize once they get to the top, that they were on the wrong wall.” And that was like, “Whoa.”
Samantha Mui: And it really started making me question...
Samantha Mui: ...about why I do the things that I do. And knowing that, like, has given me peace about the things I do, because I don’t always do the things I feel, like, people get it why I’m doing the things I’m doing.
Samantha Mui: In fact, I was talking on another podcast. The other day I was saying like
Samantha Mui: The last 10 years I’ve just been working random jobs, trying to like collect skills that I knew were going to help me to do these specific projects that I wanted to do one day.
Samantha Mui: But nobody understood it but myself. And so, sometimes when you’re trying to chase after something that’s lighting you up,
Samantha Mui: ...people aren’t going to get it. And, you know, find the people that do get it and constant surround yourself with those people.
Samantha Mui: Because I couldn’t be more grateful for those people that have helped me to get here because I did not have, you know— and I always say—
Samantha Mui: Towards the end of my book on my Acknowledgement page— and I said, there were people who dreamed for me when I couldn’t dream for myself.
Samantha Mui: And that was really important for me because, you know, people even one of my early 20s, when I was nothing. You know, and I still don’t think I’m like anything. It’s just like, I’ve been able to do these really cool things but,
Samantha Mui: ...Before I was, you know, doing on any of these things, somebody saw that I could do these things and started talking to me as if I were already doing those things.
Samantha Mui: And so I was like, “Oh my goodness, like someone believes in me,” and that was super important! So, you know, always, you know, find someone who dreams for you when you can't dream for yourself. And that makes a whole difference for, you know, whatever path you're going on.
Steven Chan: What a strong message, and what a wonderful message to convey to people: how you can be successful in your own way,
Steven Chan: And surround yourself with people who are very supportive of you, even when you don't believe in it, even when you're feeling low. They'll pick you up. And that’s what a lot of true friends will do.
Where to find Samantha Mui
Steven Chan: Where can people learn more about you on social media again?
Samantha Mui: Yes, so you can either find me on Instagram @SammyEats. That’s “M Y,” not “M I E”.
Samantha Mui: You can go on my blog.
Samantha Mui: It is SamTillyMui.WordPress.com. Let me just double-check on that.
Steven Chan: Sounds good. Well, I'll see a few things while you're checking. So that's again
Steven Chan: @S A M M Y E A T S, @SammyEats on Instagram and Imagine Talks again is on www.ImagineTalks.org
Steven Chan: The Imagine Talks podcast is achieving success, social impact, and overcoming obstacles. It’s produced by Francis Kong, @EdgeInterns. Find out more about
Steven Chan: Francis Kong at www.EdgeInterns.com. And myself, Steven Chan at Mental Power Hacks, where you can learn more about success, life, and productivity. Tammy Tran, unfortunately, couldn’t be here, but she’s one of our co-hosts. Want to wish her and her family the best during this crazy year.
Steven Chan: and again, were you able to find that website?
Samantha Mui: Oh yes, I’m sorry.
Samantha Mui: Yeah. Yep, it’s exactly what I said! SamTillyMui.WordPress.com
Steven Chan: That sounds exciting. Thanks all for joining us this episode. It was so wonderful to learn about Sam, and Samantha Mui is her full name. Google her and find out more about her food.
Steven Chan: And her books, upcoming books. We hope you all learned something to tune in next time for another episode. Take care for now.
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