Heart – stories about God and I

ROOTED.

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FOUNDATIONS

Our word for 2022 was “Rooted.” Rooted in our purpose, calling, and location. There was always a light-hearted debate on whether we’d stay in the Bay or go back to SoCal for the longest time. Both places would be a blessing but would come with sacrifices between our facilities, careers, and community. 

After some prayer and a short trip down to SoCal during the holiday break, we felt we were still called to stay in the Bay Area. Noelle envisioned her career in epidemiology intersecting with the tech industry someday, Vive Oakland church was beginning to see an incredible 10x breakthrough, and we wanted to help fill some gaps for our community of new parents. 

Throughout 2021 as we were throwing around the idea of getting rooted, God had put it on our hearts to begin giving above and beyond the tithe and to pour into our local campus and the permanent building that our church believed for. We decided to sell our first investment property home in Cleveland, much to the confusion of advisors, friends, and even family, and increased our tithing significantly. This was undoubtedly a massive stretch of faith for us, but we ultimately walked away with a priceless truth that would translate directly into our home search. 

Everything belongs to our Father — Our time, talents, and our treasures. 

Everything is for His plan, His Kingdom, and for His glory.

We get to be His stewards and simply return back what is already His. 

Our Father is good. He loves us more than we could ever imagine, and He knows exactly what we need in every season. 

1 Peter 4:8 summarizes our thoughts well:

“Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!”

With our foundations solidly put in place, we decided to start exploring and dip our feet into the sizzling, red hot real estate water. From a human perspective, the timing could not have been worse. There was a historically low inventory due to a confluence of factors, and the stories we were hearing were just nuts. 100k over asking, 15 offers to compete against, the headlines go on. 

THE SEARCH

So we started the search thinking that this would take over six months. We had a pretty strict criteria for what we wanted in a more permanent home, and we told ourselves and Tamika, our fantastic realtor (aka God’s Agent), that we were in no rush.  

Super bowl weekend Saturday – we decided to check out a few places since we were already making a drive down to Noelle’s parent’s house. Figured, hey, why not? It could be fun. The first house that we stopped at was like a dream. The listing had popped up the night before, and we saw that there was an open house we could visit the following afternoon. We showed up really late (I blame the poopy diapers) and thought we had missed it, but the realtor was friendly enough to let us in. Again, a dream home that we figured we had no business dealing with but hey! An excellent start to our day. Fast forward through the day, we ended up visiting 4 more houses that were all nice, but we didn’t feel particularly led to make an offer on any of them.

Monday – Synced with Tamika. Told her about how house number 1 was a dream. The other 4 were meh. We chatted some more and concluded that, hey, what’s the worst that can happen if we just throw our hat in and make an offer? It, of course, felt strange to make an offer on the first house during the first weekend of the first month that we started searching, but we figured why not? If we get this home, it’ll add to God’s glory. If we don’t, all good! We had 0 expectations of getting it in the first place and knew God had something better in store. 

So we said, let’s do it! Let’s put an offer in! We submitted the offer and a personal letter that Albert had put together the night before. He had a template he was going to use from past offers on other investment properties, but for some reason, he felt called to pray and really ask the Holy Spirit to help him re-write the letter with greater intentionality and purpose. We told our story, the foundations that led to this point, and what and who this home was for. We also had a cute picture of Hazel and Hapa on the top of the page. 

Wednesday 12pm – Offer is officially submitted by the 12pm deadline. We wait in hopeful anticipation. A few hours later, Tamika calls and tells us some shocking news… our offer ended up being the ONLY one submitted from that past week. The seller was willing to accept it if we accepted his counter. We had till 5pm. 

…hm…

Um, God? This is either a crazy miracle that makes NO sense to us, Tamika, or even the agent on the other end, or we TOTALLY missed something that all these other potential buyers didn’t. Which one is it? What is going on here?! 

We looked through the disclosures again, the inspection report, all the documents but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. 

Still strange, still not normal, and still fighting our rational, “EXPLAIN THIS MIRACLE” part of our brains. Make this make sense to us! 

Wednesday 3pm – we get news that other offers are coming in now post-deadline. We gotta make a decision! 

Wednesday 4:45pm – We go on a somewhat frantic stroll praying, talking, and ultimately believing IN FAITH that this was the home for us. We were scared but came back to our foundations on why we were doing this and who this was for. 

We accepted the counter, and minutes later, we got the official congrats from Tamika that the house was ours! 

3ish weeks later, during closing – Albert is at the new home, and he randomly bumps into the seller. They have an unforgettable conversation about his story, the vision he had for the house when he was flipping it and how he was moved to tears when he read our letter. “I knew immediately that I had to go with you guys. This was the family I wanted to build this house for.” 

There was so much more from than 20-minute conversation that can be saved for another story but wow, what a miraculous confirmation from God that everything would be okay and that He was in control from beginning to end. 

A CONSISTENT THREAD

It would be easier to label all those events from Saturday to Wednesday as mere coincidence. Just a bunch of random events that we were lucky to have experienced. Right time, right place. 

However, it gets harder to keep that rational hat on when you zoom out beyond that week but to the years before, seeing how God has connected all these things together to accomplish His will in and through us. There’s been a consistent thread of His grace, goodness, and unfailing love weaving itself through every season. 

As we celebrate this moment, we’re choosing to believe that God is real, that He is our good Father, and that something beautiful happens when we surrender everything to him.

Thanks for reading! If you’re around, COME THROUGH.

The Liao’s.

Vessel Talent 2021 Recap

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Year 2 of Vessel Talent is in the books! When 2020 ended, I remember asking myself what an impossible prayer would look like for this business for 2021. With our first kiddo on the way, I knew 2021 would look very different from every year in the past. I was going to have less time, less sleep, and less emotional, mental, and physical energy. Yet, it’s called impossible for a reason, so I said to myself, “Hey wouldn’t it be crazy if I could somehow double my revenue again for 2021?” 

Fast forward to June 2021 — baby Hazel is born. She’s healthy, full of smiles, and is a handful of work. Around that time, we found out that Hazel had a strawberry birthmark on her lip, which in short meant we had to be up every four hours to feed her and give her medicine. It also meant we wouldn’t sleep through the night until she turned 1. The delta variant was also getting crazy, and as a family, we decided it was safest for us to isolate till things cooled down.

With my paternity leave ending, I remember staring at my vision statement, scratching my head, and wondering how the heck this business was going to grow. I could barely stay awake in the afternoons, had a foggy dad brain, and felt incredibly alone and depressed. But it’s called impossible for a reason, right?

As the rest of 2021 progressed, I did my part in showing up to work as best I could each day. As a family, we continued to tithe and give above and beyond what we ever thought was possible and served His house in the ways we could. As we took those steps of obedience and faith, we got to watch God do the impossible and provide miracles after miracles. 

To start, I was able to not just 2x the revenue but very close to 3x! (Are you kidding! Crazy! I’ve had a chance to deepen my relationships with the Y Combinator startup community and other top-tiered VCs in the Bay. I’ve also had an incredible opportunity to hire my first employee who lives on the other side of the world in Olongapo, Philippines, and sees him thrive in his role as a source. More importantly, I’ve been able to build a genuine relationship with him, week in and week out, and update each other on the struggles and celebrations of life. It has also been a year of refinement. He’s helped me become more patient, wiser in how I listen, communicate and respond to life’s unpredictable interruptions and the power of living a generous life. 

Eph 2:8 describes God’s grace as unmerited, or as I like to say undeserved favor. There was nothing I did to deserve the blessings that came this year. I had so little to give with my time and energy, but that’s the beauty of grace. He loves us because that’s just who He is! He’s our Father, Our Savior, and our anchor of hope when everything else seems to be crumbling away. I don’t know why He decided to bless my business, family, and community in the way He did, but I’m thankful He did. We can’t always control life’s outcomes, but we can control HOW we respond and WHO we respond as. When it comes to work, we approach it not as a job but as a calling, an opportunity to serve the work, knowing that when we bring excellence to our work, it glorifies Him. 

Pastor Abby, our amazing pastor from our VIVE Oakland campus recently shared a quote that I think summarized this season perfectly. She said, “God doesn’t give us a formula to manage your storm; He gives us with an anchor to outlast your storm. As this year closes, I’m thankful for this anchor of hope that’s found in Jesus. I have no idea what 2022 will bring, but I know it will involve some impossible prayers again that draws from a deep conviction of who I am, who God is, and how He wants me to influence and impact this world. 

Let’s do this! 

God And Recruiting: What I Learned When These Two Worlds Came Together

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I always had a tough time understanding how my relationship with God affected my relationship with my work/career and, to a greater extent, the pursuit of success in it. I gave God the other stuff – sports, academics, relationships but my career? Nah, that was for me to control. 

7ish years later, in the real working world, I’ve come to understand that there was and is an undeniable linkage between what I had once thought (and wanted to believe) were two worlds. It didn’t make sense before because I had on blinders. I had some past wounds and hurts from my upbringing and unmet expectations from myself and others that led me to separate the two worlds. If it was my wound, then being successful in my career was the band-aid for it. If it was my wound, then it was up to me to control the outcome and create my own little kingdom built to serve and give me glory. There’s a lot there to break down, but that’s another post for another day. 

For now, I’m here to reflect and celebrate how God has worked as a recruiter in and through this career. What was once confusion is now rock-solid truth in seeing how God is in everything I do, how I do it, why I do it, and who I do it for. 

Here are three areas that I’ve experienced God moving powerfully from my early days in recruiting to the present-day running a consultancy.

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The Pains (and Joys) of Becoming A Dad

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Imagine living a life where you can do anything, anywhere at anytime. Where do you want to eat? Where do you want to travel to? When do you want meet up to workout? What do you want? 

That was, let’s call it my old life. 

As I’m rounding month 2 of being a new parent, I’ve had a ton of time to just reflect on the challenges of this new life and dig deeper to understand WHY it’s been challenging.

When we were getting ready for Hazel to be born, a lot of the questions I had for new parents was really about more surface level stuff. What is it like not being able to sleep? What kind of baby gear did you get? How did you transition back to work? Etc etc. What I didn’t expect was how mentally and emotionally draining it would be transitioning out of this old life…this “me” life .. this life where I was in control. I was the boss of my decisions and if I had to be a bit more straightforward — a life where I served myself, my desires and my needs. 

But where does this ‘me’ attitude stem from?

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A Whole New Perspective

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With little Hazel nappin’ away, I figured I’d sneak in a quick entry here. One of the things I was looking forward to in becoming a Daddy was gaining a new perspective of what it means to be a Christian. Really up until now, my perspective as a Christian came from that of a Son ^ Father relationship — understanding that I am loved, I am saved, that I am cared for, that I have a solid rock and foundation to stand on, etc. I get to follow in Jesus’s ways and just be a vessel for what the Father wants to do in me, through me, and for me. And don’t get me wrong, there is a LOT of depth to just that perspective to dig through and see the beauty behind. 

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Adding To

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As the days wind down till the arrival of Baby Liao, I’ve been thinking more and more about my upbringing, the models that my parents created, and the said and unsaid expectations that come with it all. 

One of the phrases that have emerged in recent conversations has been along the lines of, “Wow, if only I can be as good of a parent as my parents have been to me.” 

If only. 

To be clear, the ‘if only’ statement comes from a positive place. My parents, like so many other immigrants who came with almost nothing, showed what sacrifice meant day in, day out. They found a way to get an education, excel in their corporate job, raise a family in a safe area, and modeled what it meant to be generous, kind, and loving followers of Christ in their community… along with so much more. 

In other words, they set a pretty darn high bar for me to follow. 

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29

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Hello, 29. 

Here we are (finally). Another year, another morning, another spontaneous, free-flowing post to write in one sitting. Please excuse the typos as I’m without internet connectivity here in Joaquin Redwood Regional Park. Let’s see where this goes! 

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