From Dust to Diamonds

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Radio. This is Beyond Confidence with
your host Dvaparnk, do you want to

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live a more fulfilling life? Do
you want to live your legacy and achieve

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your personal, professional, and financial
goals? Well? Coming up on Dvaparnks

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Beyond Confidence, you will hear real
stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers

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who have stepped into discomfort, shanner
their status quo, and are living the

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life they want. You will learn
how relationships are the key to achieving your

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aspirations and financial goals. Moving your
career business forward does not have to happen

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at the expense of your personal or
family life, or vice versa. Learn

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more at www dot Giva Parnk dot
com and you can connect with you at

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contact at Giva park dot com.
This is beyond confidence and now here's your

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host, give you a park.
Good morning listeners. This is Dvian so

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excited to be here with you.
I have a wonderful story to share.

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So I go walk on a trail
and usually there are a lot of runners,

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a lot of people riding their bikes, and I would say, just

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like a week back, this wonderful, wonderful lady. Oh my goodness,

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her energy is just amazing. She
will go down the road and sing good

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morning in her sing song voice to
each and everyone, and there's so much

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energy there that you will not believe
that I have come to look forward to

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seeing her. And that's the type
of energy that you can share. Or

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it doesn't have to be exactly like
that, but you can be just yourself

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and still bring kindness to people.
So I wanted to share that that kindness

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comes in many forms. It does
not have to be one defined form.

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It can be just sharing of yourself. So it has started out my day

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really really right, on a good, strong note and with a lot of

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positive energy. So thank you to
those of you who have got our books,

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and I got to share like another
story on my book. It was

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so beautiful. Recently, I was
working with my client and then in our

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second on our second call, she
comes and tells me, Tivia, if

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anybody does not have expert to inferencer, they need to have it. It

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should be on the reading list.
And I was like, Okay, where

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did that come from? What a
wonderful surprise, because she saw the book

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on zoom right behind me when didn't
bought the book, left me a review

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and gave me pictures but my book
in her hand, and I was like,

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oh my goodness, what a beautiful
surprise. So, folks, again

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going back to the kindness thing.
Kindness comes in so many different forms and

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ways, and I can share that
I've been such a recipient of kindness throughout

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and I'm sharing kindness in my own
ways. So if you have not bought

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our books, please get a book
so that you can be the influencer you

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want to be and have those relationships
in your lives with money and with results

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and with time so that you can
live the joys for life. And it's

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a full circle. Together, we
get to impact entrepreneurs across the Globe through

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keywa dot org because we take partial
profits from our book sales and share it

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out there. All right, So, so glad that you have joined us,

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and let's bring on our guest.
Well, good morning, good morning,

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Sunny. How are you. I'm
doing fantastic and in a positive mood.

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Thank you for that introduction for the
positive energy. Oh that's good to

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hear, So Sunny, share with
us if you're recall a moment from your

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childhood that still stands out for you
today. Well, you know, the

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wonderful thing about about life is that
there's a lot of great things happening as

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long as you look for it.
You know, sometimes it's mixed. For

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me. When I was in school, you know, there there was I

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was always a pretty good student,
very very shy, very very quiet,

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and and so one of the kids
nicknamed me Smiling because I wouldn't say anything.

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I would just smile. But the
very important thing, an impactful thing

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about that, is that is that, even though I wasn't necessarily trying,

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my smile was contagious to other people. And so, you know, sometimes

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you don't have to say anything.
But one of the most memorable moments of

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positivity in my childhood was when I
was just nicknamed Smiling because I would just

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smile at It's like, I don't
know, I don't know what to say

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to you, I don't know what
to say. I was always a new

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kid in town, so I was
like, I'm just gonna smile, and

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that actually ended up being a really
great formula for positive energy in my life

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going forward. Oh that's so beautiful. And you mentioned that you were always

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the new kid. Tell us more
about that. Well I grew up,

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I would say poor. My dad
was a sheep shearer, and for those

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that are unfamiliar with sheep sharing,
they only get shorn or whatever the word

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is exactly shorn once a year,
and so you can't necessarily share the same

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sheep throughout the year. So what
we'd have to do is we have to

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actually travel and migrate across the Midwest
all the way from South Dakota down to

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Texas throughout the year to be where
the ranchers were. And my dad was

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originally from Texas his family, but
was from Texas before it was Texas,

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So we go back. Probably I
would since I shared as a high schooler,

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I would be the fourth generation sheep
shearer and that the result of that

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growing up in farm country, living
out of the back of a truck at

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times, sleeping in parks at times. You know, some people might see

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it as a challenging life, but
we saw it as an adventure. But

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the reason why I say we were
always a new kid is that we had

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to move from school to school depending
on where the ranchers were in time for

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sharing, and so we had a
family and that would end up putting me

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in a different school. It wasn't
until the eighth grade in high school,

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well, junior high that was the
first time in my life that I actually

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went to the same school from beginning
to end of the year. Every year

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prior to that, I would go
to at least two schools, sometimes as

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many as four schools throughout the year. Oh wow, and so many times

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a lot of people and they grow
up with a childhood like that, they

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say, oh, it was hard
to make friends, hard to just anywhere.

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I could never call a place any
place at home. So what were

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the lessons that you learned during this
time? And also did you do any

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sheep sharing? I did do a
little bit of sheep sharing, and I'm

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telling you it's a lot of work
those they're they're heavy and they're not always

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happy to do it. So it
was a little bit of a fight.

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And my strawnie hundred and thirty pounds
five eight structure of five eight was not

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exactly built for sheep sharing. We'll
get to my where I am now later,

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but you know how to deal with
that. Yes, my older brother

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probably is one of the ones that
is a little more bitter about our history.

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Nonetheless, our entire family has found
ways to deal with it. And

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I'll give you an example. You
know, a lot of people like to

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put their blame point the finger at
like, oh, well, I had

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a rough childhood and I hate this
and I hate that because of blah blah

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blah. But you know, it's
all the matter of perspective. And I

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want to say that I had a
very a very memorable experience, and I

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want to say nineteen eighty three eighty
too, somewhere in there in Scott's Bluff,

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Nebraska, of all places, my
entire family. We stayed in a

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kmart parking lot in the back of
the truck for a few days while my

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parents were trying to find work number
one and also find a place to live.

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And then we found ourselves moving over
to a park where we slept under

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park benches and park picnic tables.
And I know, on the surface,

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people are like, oh my gosh, how devastating. That's so sad,

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you guys are homeless, And for
us, oddly enough, was kind of

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like camping and kind of a little
bit of an adventure. What made it

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more interesting was that middle of the
night we hear these like lions and other

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weird animals. This is Nebraska,
and I'm like, what is going on?

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As it turns out, we were
actually at a public park that was

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directly next to a zoo, and
so we actually were hearing animals in the

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zoo overnight, and for us it
became like a safari almost. And the

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bottom line two things. Number One, Yes, it was hard making friends

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being new kid in school. But
one of the things that I really relied

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on and lean heavily on even today
is my family. My siblings and I

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especially my brothers, my sister,
My older brother and my sister particularly are

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best of friends. We became very
close. We've had our Yeah, we've

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had our fights, trust me,
We've had our disagreements, sibling rivalry,

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whatever you want to call it,
But at the end of the day,

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we became best of friends because we
relied on each other because that's what we

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had. We had our families,
love, we had each other. So

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we first we saw the positivity and
who were we were with. But secondly

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we saw the positivity and whatever situation
we were in the park was an adventure.

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The exploring the Black Hills, exploring
the rocky mountains, exploring where we

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were was an adventure. And yes, we could we could focus on the

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negativity of the challenges we're dealt,
but we can also focus on the one

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wonderful things that we are exposed to
that we wouldn't normally be exposed to if

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we weren't faced with these challenges.
Yeah, definitely when you put it that

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way, Sun, you think about
it, how many people would develop the

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skill sets that you developed, Like, you know, when you're moving from

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town to town you don't have a
stable job, you're getting that adaptability and

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resilient skill where you learn to bounce
back on your feet, you learn to

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deal with that uncertainty. You are
becoming a different species in the sense that

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you are more adaptable and more courageous
and more adventurous. So it's again,

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like you know, as you went
back to sharing, that you can look

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at things either with positivity or with
negativity. There's always two sides to a

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coin, all right. So as
you grew up and once you move through

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your high school, what came next, Well, I took a path less,

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a path less traveled. And what's
really interesting is, again like I

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said earlier, is that when you
are faced with adversity or even positivity,

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you have to learn to kind of
embrace it or really open your eyes to

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what's in front of you. And
this is a really exciting opportunities that we

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face in our lives. Two things
happened to me in high school. Number

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one, I went to a concert
Rio Speedway and a Cheap Trick back in

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the early eighties, and oh my
gosh, my life was changed. I

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love music. I was in love
with rock and roll, and it opened

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my eyes to a whole new I
want to say, I want to say

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life, but it wasn't really a
life. It was just a lifestyle.

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I've just listened to music and being
part of that culture, and that was

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the one thing that really was pivotal
in my life as a as a young

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teen, I started to play guitar, and I wanted to be in a

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band, but being in a farm
country, there's not a lot of options

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for you know, I was in
a high school of well, let's put

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it this way. I was in
a graduating high school class of nine from

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Bethune, Colorado, so nine people. The population of my entire hometown is

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one hundred and eighty three, I
believe in the last twenty twenty census.

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So I grew up in a very
very tiny Now we did move quite a

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bit, of course, traveling across, but we kind of call home base

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Bethune, Colorado, because that's where
we spent most of our time when we'd

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always find ourselves between work and eventually
in when I was in eighth grade,

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we settled in and that was our
permanent home back in Bethune. But what

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I discovered through that those high school
years I loved music and that led me

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to a very important next chapter of
my life because I knew being in farm

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country, sheep sharing and out there
work in those fields was not really for

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me. I was like, you
know what, I don't know that that

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working in the dirt is necessarily for
me. And this is where being surrounded

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by dust and mud and dirt,
whereas where my journey started. But my

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next chapter, of course, took
me to another place. And what was

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pivotal The catalyst was I wanted to
be in a band, and so leaving

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Bethune, Colorado at eighteen years old, I moved to Denver, Colorado with

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the idea of, well, I
don't know what I want to do,

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but the one thing I'm going to
do first is get into a band.

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And that was challenging, but it
ended up happening and changed my life.

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So what are you singing? Were
you playing? What was your role in

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the d Was a terrible singer?
I was? But I was a base

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you know. I was a bass
player back in high school. Just to

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rewind slightly, because there wasn't a
lot of opportunity to join other bands.

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I learned how to play guitar,
I learned how to play bass, and

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I learned how to sing a little
bit of drums and so kind of faked

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my way through it. Primarily started
writing songs and getting ideas, but then

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I focused it on bass playing and
the opportunity that first popped up when I

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moved to Denver. The first year
in Denver was a disaster. We a

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lot of things happened. I ended
up happened to go home briefly, and

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then nineteen ninety one I was,
I was, I just turned nineteen,

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and I said, you know what, I'm determined, We're going to make

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this happen. I went back to
Denver, I joined the band as a

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bass player, and and that opened
my eyes to a ton of opportunities and

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it was fantastic we had. I
was born again in a way, into

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a new sunny blaze because I realized, hey, I found a place where

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I belonged. I was no longer
in those fields. I was no longer

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the long Okay, I had long
hair by the way back in today long

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hair and yes, a little poofy
well know you we all I've done.

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So that was where the big transition
happens, from this farm to the city.

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I've been playing music ever since,
but I started as a bass player

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and a rock and roller. But
then another opportunity popped up and a lot

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of things changed in the early nineties. So curious, what did your siblings

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decide to do. Did they stay
in the family business or did they all

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some a lot of it? Actually, we all kind of went our own

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direction, my oldest brother being above
the other two. And I don't want

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to say sibling favorites, because I
love my siblings, but my older brother

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and I are definitely best friends,
and we both got into music. It's

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a great guitar player, but really
had a challenging time working as in terms

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of a band structure. So he
became a sound guy and doing sound,

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working in pro audio. He and
I worked together a lot through the nineties.

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He was always my sound guy for
one of my band was playing,

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and he actually moved forward and even
now he works for a company called an

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EP which what they do is they
do pro audio for major events. Let's

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just say, for example, you
have the Super Bowl. The stadium has

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to get their video feed to the
TV station. So what my brother does

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is he works in the truck that's
parked at the stadium relaying all the video

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and audio from the stadium to the
TV station. And so he ended up

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finding a really wonderful connection with his
music love and audio love and worked mostly

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in television. He's worked for various
channels over the year, Fox thirty one,

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Channel two in New York City and
a number of other stations, but

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his primary love has always been audio. My youngest brother. He also shared

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cheap just like me and my brothers, all three of all, my youngest

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brother and my oldest brother. But
he also knew he needed to get out

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of the farm country and he ended
up working in construction and worked his way

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up. Now he's a safety director
at safety safety training director at a major

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construction company out of Mesa, Arizona
and Phoenix, Arizona. My sister was

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also a great singer. By the
way, my little brother was a great

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gummer, but he didn't really pursue
that. He was more athletic than anything

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else. My sister, she actually
sang quite a bit with me at church

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over the years, still does.
But she moved to Arizona with her late

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husband several several years ago and she
decided to go into the education. So

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now she's an administration with the University
of Phoenix, I believe, forgive me,

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I don't remember exactly university she's with, but she is actually in the

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administration side at a university. So
none of us are in farm country anymore.

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But we do appreciate where we came
from, and we always remember that

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we learned a lot of lessons there. Oh, what a fabulous journey for

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all of your siblings. I'm sure
y'all are very proud and my parents were.

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Yes. So from the band,
sounds like you really had a great

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time. What did you learn and
how did you take that lean into the

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next phase of your life? Well, you know, we learned a lot

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and working in music number one,
creativity. Creativity is critical for a lot

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in a lot of ways. You're
you know, in business and in relationships.

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You're always looking to see what's going
to work in this situation and most

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importantly, working with others. I'm
a huge proponent and huge supporter of education

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through music. As a matter of
fact, education to musical Los Angeles is

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a charity that I've been supporting for
years and years because music is such a

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critical part of any youths mental how
I say, their education and the structure

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that they build within working with other
people, analytical thinking and being creative.

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So that's one of those are really
important things. And I wanted biggest transition

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here because what one thing that accidentally
happened to me when I moved to Denver

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and at eighteen nineteen years old,
there's one thing we're always hungry for is

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we need a job, right?
And so I was working in landscaping in

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the summertime when I first moved to
Denver. But one late summer, as

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work was running out, as winter
were starting to come in, my drummer

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said, hey, do you need
a job, And I was like,

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you know, actually yes I do. And his mother co owned a jewelry

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and watch repair company and I accidentally
encountered that position. And I said,

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you know, what, what do
I have to do. I don't know

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anything about jewelry and he says,
well, no worries. All you have

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to do is you have to just
deliver and pick up jewelry repairs from all

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of them all stores, whether you
whether it was Zales, Hellsburg, Lord

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and Taylor, all these different places
we were doing repairs for business back in

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the early nineties. And I was
like, okay, I can handle that

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well. Lo and behold. I
did not know that I would fall in

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love with an industry. M So
tell us about that industry. I'm assuming,

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like, you know, let's reveal
how you went into the diamond industry.

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So I jumped in and at first
I was kind of like, you

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know, I've been I've loved to
draw since I was a child, so

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I had this desire, I'm going
to become a graphic designer. I'm going

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to become an architect. There's these
little things in the back of my mind.

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In the meantime, I was currently, you know, playing in bands.

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I was like, I love being
in music. So I put the

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artistic career in the back burner and
I stayed and learned a lot from that

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company in Denver, doing jewelry and
watch repair. I didn't actually work on

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the bench, but I was working
with customers and customer service. I was

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in charge of managing incoming services and
dealing with a lot of clients and learning

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a lot about the jewelry industry.
But then next big pivotal moment happened.

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I met this lovely woman, my
wonderful wife. And now I actually known

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my wife most of my life.
She's also from the same farm country,

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so I knew we knew each other
growing up, but there was never any

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romantic interests. And that's a whole
another chapter altogether about our relationship. But

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one thing that happened is that she
said to me, she says, hey,

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listen, you've got a lot of
experience and jewelry. Why don't you

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become an expert? And I was
like, well, yeah, but I

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mean I have to train for that. So she said, no problem,

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Let's go to New York. I
have a lot of connections in New York.

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Let's go to New York and you
can train at the Gemological Institute of

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America to become a diamond specialist.
And so that's what I did two thousand

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and one, actually during nine to
eleven. By the way, that was

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quite an experience living in New York
at the time of nine to eleven,

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but talk about a really major growing
experience in terms of living in the city,

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singing at church with some incredibly talented
musicians, and then of course the

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meat and potatoes of my journey was
learning diamonds in the Diamond District from GIA.

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And that was two thousand and one
to two thousand and two was a

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really critical year in my career that
gave me a lot of education and set

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me path, set my path into
a really amazing time. And I want

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to remind people right here that as
we listen and talk, as I talk

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about some of these steps, we
all actually have opportunities and wonderful things placed

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in front of us. It's up
to us to just see them and take

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advantage of those and say, hey, listen, I might like that.

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Let's just go for it, you
know, And that's what I did.

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I said, you know what,
Okay, let's try it. So there

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a lot of times, you know, what happens is that people are thinking,

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oh, what if I pivot here? What if I make the wrong

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decision? And you brought up a
really good point that yes, opportunity is

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there, but so many times people
will not take that leap. So there

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is that gap. Sometimes fast gap
is like people don't even see the opportunity.

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Second, Okay, if they see
the opportunity, they may be hesitened.

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So tell us, like, you
know, how can they close the

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gap? If they seek the opportunity, how can they go after it?

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Well, there's a ton of risk
in any situation. And one thing that

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I've learned, this is really critical
to understand, is that when we take

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a chance on something or we try
something, we really only have two outcomes.

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We're going to succeed at taking that
chance, or number two, we're

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going to learn a lesson. And
I know sometimes people will say yeah,

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but number two is always it means
failure. Number two means I'm gonna blow

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it. Number two means I'm going
to just lose everything. It's a lesson.

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Trust me, I've lost I've lost
things in my life. We jump

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in and sometimes it doesn't work.
Sometimes it's not for us. Sometimes it

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has to try again. We have
to try again. We have to try

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again. And you know what,
I can't say that every time you try

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something is going to be Wow.
I found the glory in this. Everything

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is beautiful, everything is fantastic.
No, you're gonna fall. And the

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truth is you're probably going to make
a big mistake the very first few times

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you do it. We all do. We all do. But they are

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lessons and the most important thing we
can do is be resealient and say,

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you know what, that was a
challenge. That was tough, but now

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I know what not to do next
time. Yes, absolutely, And also

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the beauty of taking that risk is
you'll never ever wonder in your life what

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if I took that path exactly,
because so many times, oh I wish

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I had done that. And I
mean, there are some of the decisions

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00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:48.480
that I go through in my life, and it's important especially it's the keys,

336
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like, you know, evaluating the
opportunity and if it really like,

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00:27:53.119 --> 00:27:56.640
if you're intuition and like even looking
at all the things it tells you,

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00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:03.359
then that's what your dream is,
that's what your passion is, that's what

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00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:08.200
will keep you going in the toughest
tough times. It's definitely worth taking that

340
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shot and jumping into it. So
you talk about living your dream, yes,

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and so many times what happens,
Sonny is that I don't know if

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you went through that on art.
You did share that you fell while you

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were doing diamonds and learning about diamonds. Tell us more about that experience,

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and if you have a story where
you fell and how did you move through

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it and continued on that journey,
that would be great. Certainly. I

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00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.000
will say I want to share a
couple of things that my biggest I would

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say, I hate to call it
a failure, but it was a failure.

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I got let go fired if you
will, I say laid off.

349
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But I got fired from a job
one time in my life, and it

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was the best thing that ever happened. It was the best thing that ever

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happened. I was in retail and
I was not the best salesperson I was

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00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:06.839
really fantastic and educated in the client. I was really fantastic and talking about

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jewelry. I was really fantastic and
connecting. But I could not close the

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deal. I was not good at
taking people's money. I was like,

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Okay, now give me your money. I just had a hard time with

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that part of it, and so
that was a challenge for me, and

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it didn't work out. But I
want to I want to outline something and

358
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kind of a little bit of a
hypothetical here, and this is a kind

359
00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:33.119
of really great lesson for people to
learn and maybe remember. Is that is

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that we will come to the end
of the road in our careers, in

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our lives and our relationships, you
know, every now and then, and

362
00:29:42.440 --> 00:29:47.440
it's devastating. It's devastating. I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna say that it's

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not painful. I'm gonna say that
it's it's all happy, go lucky.

364
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Think about it this way. This
is this is the way I've always seen

365
00:29:53.559 --> 00:29:56.920
it. When you get to the
end of the road, you have to

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look at what the opportunities are.
Okay, you're at the end of the

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00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:04.799
road. Is there a left turn
or a right turn to continue? On

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another road. Look for those options. Number two is is it a time

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for you to make and pave a
new road, which is what I did.

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I said, you know what,
I'm at the end of my journey,

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but I'm going to just forge forward
where there's no road and make a

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road for myself. Now, sometimes
I know it's hard to do this one,

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but if he comes to the end
of the road, sometimes to me,

374
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you got to go back and start
over again, try a different career.

375
00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:45.000
You might be kind of because something
completely different. Or finally, for

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some people, they get to the
end of the road and say, well,

377
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I just I just don't see my
future now. It said, well,

378
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:53.119
you know why, because you might
be where you're supposed to be.

379
00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:57.039
You might have arrived. Are you
content? Are you? You know,

380
00:30:57.079 --> 00:31:00.720
look at what you have as opposed
to looking for the dream, the big

381
00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:07.400
blah blah into the rainbow. Maybe
you're already there. Enjoy your family,

382
00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:11.039
enjoy your life, Enjoy where you
are and what you have in front of

383
00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:15.200
you. So you might think it's
a dead end, but you're actually arrived

384
00:31:15.640 --> 00:31:18.559
where you need to be. So
I want to rewind back to when I

385
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:26.200
was let go and I was forced
to move, and this actually was there's

386
00:31:26.279 --> 00:31:33.119
another critical step that happened after this. But so I wanted to be and

387
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:37.720
when I was in retail and studying
diamonds, I thought that, well,

388
00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:42.000
maybe I want to be an appraiser, a diamond specialist, and so I

389
00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:47.680
focused my efforts on that and I
did that. I became. When I

390
00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:52.920
was let go in Colorado, it
forced me to make a choice. So

391
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.640
we moved back to New York.
I went to work for the Gemological Institute

392
00:31:56.680 --> 00:31:59.799
of America, where I became a
diamond specialist. I even joined in a

393
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:04.599
team of diamond graders where I got
to see the most amazing diamonds in the

394
00:32:04.599 --> 00:32:07.640
world. I got to be within
a couple of feet of like the third

395
00:32:07.799 --> 00:32:15.000
largest diamond in the world. I
got to grade fancy colored diamonds that probably

396
00:32:15.319 --> 00:32:21.759
one and maybe a million people get
to see in their lifetime. I had

397
00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:25.240
to make these choices of the quality
and caliber of these diamonds, putting me

398
00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:29.559
in a very unique position, probably
one of twenty people in the world that

399
00:32:29.559 --> 00:32:34.680
could make these kinds of decisions.
And it was exciting and it was wonderful.

400
00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:40.279
So I that getting let go in
Colorado forced me to move forward and

401
00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:45.279
become a diamond specialist at GIA through. This was back in two thousand and

402
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:52.960
four to two thousand seven, and
those years were really critical in my education.

403
00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:57.359
But it didn't get me to where
I am today unnecessarily, it just

404
00:32:57.440 --> 00:33:00.559
kind of prepared me and to some
degree. And we'll get to the next

405
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:06.000
chapter in a minute. Yeah,
every piece of the journey becomes the foundation

406
00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:12.880
of the person you meant to become
and what you're becoming. Again, I

407
00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:15.799
really like what you shared that,
Like, you know, it's important to

408
00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:22.160
be staying where you're at, being
content but not being satisfied, and when

409
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:27.200
you're there, you're enjoying the journey. And we know that you are an

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00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:34.599
award winning jewelry designer. You've worked
with some high profile people like Lady Gaga,

411
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:37.920
Machine Gun, Kelly and Moore.
So tell us about that piece of

412
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:44.279
journey. Well, again, I
have a great love for music, and

413
00:33:44.279 --> 00:33:45.759
I've been in music for a long
time. I've been playing it, actually

414
00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:50.960
playing in church, and I want
to kind of a side note here for

415
00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:55.960
a second. Is that because I
want to talk about how I ended up

416
00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:04.880
they're working with some high profile individual
rules I was playing in bands and I

417
00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:09.679
just I realized way back of mid
nineteen nineties, I said, you know

418
00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:15.440
what, I became really involved in
my church and I really wanted to give

419
00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:21.679
back musically, also giving back up
my money because you know, growing up

420
00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:25.280
poor and growing up challenge. We
didn't see it as a struggle, but

421
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:30.840
I've always saw that, hey,
everyone needs a helping hand and we all

422
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:37.400
need to help each other out.
So supporting education to music, supporting various

423
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:42.639
charities, and supporting my church and
other people in need was always an important

424
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:46.280
thing to me. And one of
the things with working with education in music

425
00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:52.519
Los Angeles, I got to meet
some some people and and got to be

426
00:34:52.559 --> 00:34:57.320
exposed to some really great ideas in
terms of jewelry that could help me support

427
00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:06.960
other people. So getting back to
where I transitioned from being a diamond specialist

428
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:15.039
to working with some of these other
artists and designed in particular, when I

429
00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:17.719
moved to Los Angeles in two thousand. In the two thousand and seven,

430
00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:22.239
right, it literally like the December
thirtieth or whatever, two thousand and seven,

431
00:35:22.280 --> 00:35:27.360
I moved to California, and I
moved and we were down in San

432
00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:30.960
Diego area. But my wife is
an actress, so she needed to be

433
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:32.760
in La. So we moved to
LA and I got a job with the

434
00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:38.800
company called with a designer named Michael
Boudry Artists to the Stars, and so

435
00:35:39.480 --> 00:35:44.519
I was working in this diamond department
as a diamond specialist. And then he

436
00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:49.880
later asked me to help him launch
his Beverly Hills store, and that again

437
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:55.639
opened my eyes to the Beverly Hills
environment. We got to see an amazing

438
00:35:55.840 --> 00:36:04.800
array of people, the Hilton family, h Jermaine Jackson, and I mean,

439
00:36:04.880 --> 00:36:07.639
we had celebrities coming in all the
time, and it was really neat

440
00:36:07.719 --> 00:36:13.360
to meet these people. But I
want to give you a really special moment

441
00:36:13.599 --> 00:36:19.559
in my There was a there was
such a wonderful, wonderful experience I had

442
00:36:20.119 --> 00:36:27.039
at this one moment. My parents, Remember my parents are from farm country

443
00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:30.679
and not wealthy farmers. I'm talking
like farm working out in the fields,

444
00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:35.880
sheep sharing and working in the fields. And my parents came to visit and

445
00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:37.039
I said, hey, listen,
mom, dad, you guys got to

446
00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:39.440
see where I work. This place
is amazing. It's in the middle of

447
00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:44.320
Beverly Hills, and so you know
it's I was in charge of a twenty

448
00:36:44.440 --> 00:36:47.920
six million dollars inventory, and I
was like, okay. So I took

449
00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:51.960
my mom and I pulled out this
bracelet out of the showcase. This is

450
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:53.000
look at this piece. This is
isn't this core. She's like, oh

451
00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:57.559
my gosh, it's so beautiful,
me whole, that's so wonderful. And

452
00:36:57.559 --> 00:36:59.599
I put it on her wrists and
I said, yeah, that's a million

453
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:00.800
dollars and she's like, oh my
gosh, take it off, take it

454
00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:04.840
off, take it off, take
it off. And I was like,

455
00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:07.119
it's okay, Mom. I couldn't
give it to her, but I had

456
00:37:07.159 --> 00:37:15.440
a momentary flashback of how I remembered
sleeping in the back of a truck or

457
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:20.480
in the park with my entire family
looking up at the stars in Nebraska or

458
00:37:20.519 --> 00:37:24.719
South Dakota or wherever it was,
and then fast forward to showing my mom

459
00:37:25.119 --> 00:37:30.960
a million dollar bracelet and thinking,
wow, I can't this is where I

460
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:32.440
came, this is where I this
is where I came from. I'm here

461
00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:39.440
and so but I did realize during
that time at Michael Boudry that that you

462
00:37:39.480 --> 00:37:45.320
know, working in the store,
that you know what I've I'm an artist,

463
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:51.280
and it struck me that you know
what I am even though I am

464
00:37:51.320 --> 00:37:54.719
a diamond expert, I'm an artist
at part and so I needed to make

465
00:37:54.760 --> 00:37:59.639
a change, and that was when
I made the big change into what I'm

466
00:37:59.679 --> 00:38:05.119
doing now. So tell us about
what you're doing now and a little bit

467
00:38:05.159 --> 00:38:07.960
about your wards as Vignea to the
end of the show. Yeah, So

468
00:38:08.519 --> 00:38:15.480
getting into the getting into design.
I was drawing since I was probably five

469
00:38:15.559 --> 00:38:16.800
six years old. I was a
kid. I was getting in trouble for

470
00:38:16.840 --> 00:38:23.519
doodling on my notepad instead have taken
notes. And so when I stumbled into

471
00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:28.239
jewelry, like I said, back
in the early nineties, I found something

472
00:38:28.280 --> 00:38:34.320
that was connecting. But then it
was at that time when I finally merged

473
00:38:34.760 --> 00:38:45.000
all three of my loves. I
had the jewelry experience I was drawing,

474
00:38:45.239 --> 00:38:49.760
so I decided to start drawing and
designing jewelry. So I trained for that

475
00:38:50.159 --> 00:38:53.559
and then finally, which I'm most
excited about, is my ultimately ear Innier

476
00:38:53.639 --> 00:39:00.800
Monitor partnership. These Innian monitors are
used by everyone from Lady Gaga, Usher,

477
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:07.519
Machine Gun, Kelly Taylor, Swift, you name it. People around

478
00:39:07.519 --> 00:39:12.480
the world are using Indian monitors for
live performance, particularly every one on the

479
00:39:12.519 --> 00:39:15.920
top end, top tier monitors.
So what I did is I partnered with

480
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:17.840
Ultimate Years and I said, listen, I have a great idea. You've

481
00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:22.159
got these plastic, inniar monitors.
Let's put diamonds on them. And so

482
00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:30.400
I finally had this amazing opportunity to
work with some artists Rudy Sarzo from White

483
00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:34.639
Snake and Quiet rye Ozzy Osbourne.
He has been one of my favorite people.

484
00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:38.199
Eric Church, top country singer,
not a jewelry guy. We made

485
00:39:38.199 --> 00:39:43.639
some amazing pieces for him with the
silver and black diamond accident. He loves

486
00:39:43.679 --> 00:39:46.480
him. We just you know.
And then for me to connect my music,

487
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:52.079
love, my jewelry love and my
love to draw all into one.

488
00:39:52.679 --> 00:39:57.280
And it wasn't because it was handed
to me. It was because I opened

489
00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:00.280
my eyes and said, hey,
there's something here that I could do that

490
00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:04.719
I would love to do. And
now here I am doing what I love.

491
00:40:05.199 --> 00:40:08.559
I know that the jewelry on the
inner monitors is my biggest passion right

492
00:40:08.599 --> 00:40:13.199
now. But the company that I
also partner without, our Central City,

493
00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:19.360
we do a lot of engagement rings
in various different styles of jewelry that are

494
00:40:19.599 --> 00:40:23.639
manufactured for people all along Rodeo.
So I've not only have. I work

495
00:40:23.719 --> 00:40:29.079
with my own clients with the inner
monitors and custom jewelry. I also work

496
00:40:29.119 --> 00:40:34.719
with them where we are very common
on the red carpet, on TV and

497
00:40:34.920 --> 00:40:39.440
various other things. Unfortunately, because
a lot of those Beverly Hills clients have

498
00:40:39.559 --> 00:40:44.760
India's we can't talk about specifically who
they are or what they are. But

499
00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:50.280
trust me, if you've seen a
billboard at seven feet seven stories tall in

500
00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:52.039
New York, or if you've seen
a red carpet or somebody on TV,

501
00:40:52.719 --> 00:40:57.800
it's a good chance that I may
have had a small part of it and

502
00:40:57.960 --> 00:41:01.519
doing computer modeling or design or maybe
even being part of a small part of

503
00:41:01.599 --> 00:41:06.599
it. So it's just a bit
exciting. It's an exciting life. Melan.

504
00:41:06.679 --> 00:41:10.639
Congratulations, Sonny. I love how
you have taken your life and made

505
00:41:10.679 --> 00:41:16.159
such a beautiful journey out of it
and keeping the humility and gratitude in your

506
00:41:16.199 --> 00:41:22.079
life. So share with the listeners
where they can find you and how can

507
00:41:22.119 --> 00:41:25.639
they connect with you. Sure,
the main things you remember is sunny Blaze

508
00:41:25.679 --> 00:41:30.360
dot com. That's s O n
N y b l a ze dot com

509
00:41:30.519 --> 00:41:38.199
just as you see on your screen
or right there, and that has links.

510
00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:43.039
I'm very I'm a lot more active
on Instagram than I am on any

511
00:41:43.079 --> 00:41:45.599
of the social media, but there
are little social media tabs on top to

512
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:50.119
follow up. My phone number is
on the contact page where you can call

513
00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:54.000
me. Feel free to email me
with any questions, any more things you

514
00:41:54.079 --> 00:41:58.559
want to you know, know about, or if you want to learn more

515
00:41:58.559 --> 00:42:04.039
about any your monitors, how they
could help your hearing, and it just

516
00:42:04.199 --> 00:42:06.880
we can you know again? Social
media on Instagram, it's a lot of

517
00:42:06.920 --> 00:42:08.639
fun to follow us the latest and
greatest what's happening. There's a lot of

518
00:42:08.719 --> 00:42:12.159
good things going on in the world
and a lot of things that were I'm

519
00:42:12.159 --> 00:42:16.480
really excited about working on Well.
Thank you Sonny for joining us and sharing

520
00:42:16.519 --> 00:42:22.000
about your life and the life nuggets, the wisdom nuggets are so important with

521
00:42:22.239 --> 00:42:28.239
us. And thank you listeners for
joining us because without you, the show

522
00:42:28.239 --> 00:42:31.039
would not be possible. You are
the soul of our show. Reach out

523
00:42:31.079 --> 00:42:36.000
to us, let us know who
would you like us to bring, how

524
00:42:36.079 --> 00:42:38.719
can we help you and how can
we be of service to help you lift

525
00:42:38.719 --> 00:42:45.800
a life you want and deserve.
And thank you all for making the show

526
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:50.719
technically possible. So be well and
take care until next time. Thank you

527
00:42:50.840 --> 00:42:53.480
for being part of Beyond Confidence with
your host, Devia Park, we hope

528
00:42:53.480 --> 00:42:57.840
you have learned more about how to
start living the life you want. Each

529
00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:01.239
week on Beyond Confidence, you hear
story of real people who've experienced growth by

530
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:07.000
overcoming their fears and building meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Diva Park shares

531
00:43:07.079 --> 00:43:10.559
what happened to her when she stepped
out of her comfort zone to work directly

532
00:43:10.639 --> 00:43:15.519
with people across the globe. She
not only coaches people how to form heart

533
00:43:15.559 --> 00:43:21.199
connections, but also transform relationships to
mutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to live

534
00:43:21.280 --> 00:43:23.480
the life they want. If you
are ready to live the life you want

535
00:43:23.639 --> 00:43:30.159
and leverage your strengths, learn more
at www dot dvapark dot com and you

536
00:43:30.239 --> 00:43:35.239
can connect with Diva at contact at
divyapark dot com. We look forward to

537
00:43:35.320 --> 00:43:36.480
you joining us next week.