We recently connected with Benoit Kim and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Benoit thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I pivoted early into the non-profit and policy sector from the private sector upon graduation after working for six months due to early recognition of the endless corporate rat race without any purposeful direction in sight. I then committed to Teach for America (AmeriCorps program) teaching in inner-city Philadelphia before taking a military leave from this commitment and graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania due to 2017 near-deployment. In this near-deployment to the North-South Korean border, I experienced my first major depression and had to acknowledge that perseverance does not always prevail, which catalyzed my venture into mental health. I then worked in the policy sector for a few years before pivoting into the clinical field as an aspirational psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist. Lastly, I started the podcast about five years ago, in 2019, as a passion project which has turned into a business with a small team. The show has been recently ranked #1 in all independent science podcasts, top 20 in all science podcasts, and consistently appears on the Apple Podcasts top 50 leadership charts.

I share my background to contextualize the risk factors of departing from one of the most prestigious private sector jobs of management consulting, given its high pay and vertical partnership opportunities, the stigma and lack of understanding from my Asian parents given my career choice after obtaining the “dream job,” my decision to completely pivot from my dual degrees of economics and international relations into policymaking at University of Pennsylvania while acknowledging of the great unknown. In the past 12 years of my professional tenure, I experienced three career pivots, which came at the acute emotional, and financial toll and uncertainties, frequent reflections and emotional processing, and upholding intentionality as the north compass to establish a lifelong career that I feel purposeful in while creating a positive footprint in this broken world. I believe that the quality of the questions we seek produces the quality of answers we receive, in careers, interpersonal relationships, or any facets of our lived experiences. Similarly, the quality of our lives is predicated on the quality of decision-making and the risks we are willing to take. Above all, after 12 years of career pivot decisions, I can finally say that I found my purposeful calling, with great financial capability, and ongoing potential with unlimited growth opportunities given the complexity of human psychology and mental health needs.

Benoit , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Benoit Kim, a Penn-educated former policymaker turned psychotherapist, US Army veteran, and host of the Discover More Podcast. I was born in Paris, France, and lived in South Korea and China before migrating to the United States at age 15. A third culture kid (TCK), a student of life, and a multilingual psychotherapist working in all three languages clinically.

I started the podcast in 2019 as a passion project which has turned into a business with a small team, and the show has been recently ranked #1 in all independent science podcasts, #16 overall in all science podcasts, Apple Podcasts top 50 currently, and is a top 1% globally ranked podcast in all categories.

As a podcaster and CEO of Discover More, LLC, I facilitate insightful conversations with world-class experts in human psychology, addiction, mental health, social sciences, society, and culture, Some notable guests include Dr. James Doty (Stanford neurosurgeon and neuroscientist), Fr. Vincent Lampert (one of the few Vatican-approved exorcists), Trudy Goodman (pioneer of the mindfulness movement in the US and wife of Jack Kornfield), Andrew Bustamante (former CIA spy turned thought leader and entrepreneur), Zoe Chance (Yale professor and best-selling author), I view my podcast platform as an extension of value-driven education because I believe that education is liberation.

As a psychotherapist, I provide my clients and patients with mental health education, clinical interventions to help with depression, anxiety, addiction, and other psychiatric illnesses, and mindfulness practices to find peace in today’s increasingly distracting and noisy world. On the side, I also provide limited opportunities for psychedelic-assisted support given my research into psychedelic science and practitioner experiences.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

During my early career pivot from policymaking, as the youngest policymaker in my NGO’s 100-year history, into psychotherapy and clinical practice, I experienced jadedness and learned hopelessness with the convoluted nature of policymaking, “soul trading” for the sake of utilitarian impact, corruption behind grant approval process, and witnessed ongoing lack of effectiveness changes in the municipal level that I worked at no matter how much effort, time, and commitment I dedicated with the government, agencies, and clients that I worked with.

After getting educated at the University of Pennsylvania to obtain a degree in policymaking, since prestige and rigorous training are prerequisites to surviving in the policy sector, I had to reconcile with the heartbroken truth that a utilitarian approach to impact-making is endless, with a hidden cost to giving up my soul for the sake of “quantifiable good,” more financial debts from higher education, and the economic opportunity cost of leaving the private sector before this career pivot. In all this, I stuck with my innate feeling of being on the right path, despite the end sight not being on the horizon, and took out a loan, again, after spending all my savings to pursue my higher calling in mental health and psychotherapy, as a psychotherapist, because I realized that most societal issues are byproducts of unaddressed mental health, intergenerational trauma, poverty, family brokenness, and systemic dysfunctions.

After 13 years of three career pivots, pursuing two master’s degrees, and “losing” my financial upsides, I can finally say that all my intentional decision-making has come into a culmination of fulfillment, purpose-driven work, and unforeseen financial capacity as a concurrent psychotherapist and business owner of my podcast.

We derive the exact output of what input we are willing to take on in life. My fulfilling journey attests to this truth.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a Korean American who grew up in a single-mother household, I did not believe in mental health and thought that perseverance would always prevail. Grit will conquer all life problems. Unfortunately, through my major depression and sexual trauma healing experiences, I learned firsthand that often in life perseverance and grittiness alone will not solve our obstacles in this great complexity of life. I had to unlearn my conditioning of this limited belief and fallacy, instilled by my well-intentioned mother who had to fight for herself independently without family support, to seek help, reconnect with my lost self, my purpose, and north star as now a mental health advocate, psychotherapist, and top 20 podcaster in the category of mental health and social sciences (e.g., psychology).

Life is comprised of learning and unlearning, conditioning and deconditioning, to untether ourselves from unhelpful and false blueprints. This is the ultimate lesson that I continue to carry with me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.discovermorepodcast.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discovermorepodcast/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benoit-kim-87587a84/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiscoverMorePodcast