Episode 84
Starting from Zero: Lush Home CEO, Jenny Jing Zhu's Guide to Growing Beyond Your Circumstances
From a tiny Chinese village without electricity to launching a $100 million home décor empire, Jenny Jing Zhu's story is a masterclass in turning limited resources into limitless possibilities.
As the founder and chairwoman of Lush Decor Home, Jenny transformed herself from a hotel maid in Beijing to a powerhouse entrepreneur in America, while learning english alongside the toddler she was caring for as a nanny.
Jenny's path came with plenty of dramatic setbacks. After launching Lush Decor, she was betrayed by a business partner who tried to force her out of her company. But rather than letting this experience destroy her courage, Jenny used it to create an exceptionally diverse and empathetic company culture. Today, Lush Decor operates like a "United Nations," with team members speaking 11 different languages and representing multiple generations of immigrants.
Now, Jenny's story has inspired both a memoir, Dream Weaver, and a short film that recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival. In this powerful conversation on The Uplifters Podcast, you’ll learn the mindset strategies she uses to overcome challenges and grow in the face of obstacles.
When I first arrived in the United States, I was overwhelmed. I was a young woman from a small village in China, suddenly thrust into a world that felt completely foreign. I didn’t speak the language, I didn’t understand the culture, and I felt utterly alone. But even in those moments of doubt, I held tightly onto my dreams.
My dreams became my guiding light, the driving force that pushed me to face every challenge head-on. There were countless moments when I questioned if I had what it took to build a life here. I took on jobs I had no experience in, navigated a new country with nothing but a dream, and faced uncertainty with no guarantee of success. But I refused to let go of the vision I had for my future.
With every step, I reminded myself that each obstacle was a lesson, an opportunity to learn and grow stronger. I began to see every challenge as a thread I could weave into the tapestry of my life—threads of passion, grit, and determination. Together, they created a safety net that caught me every time I stumbled.
What I want you to know is this: Hold onto your dreams. Let them be your anchor and your motivation. Use them to propel you forward, even when the path seems unclear or daunting. If you can keep your dreams in sight, they will give you the strength to face any challenge and the courage to turn obstacles into opportunities.
If I can make it through those difficult times—feeling lost in a new city, struggling to find my footing, and building my dream from the ground up—so can you. Your dreams are the fuel that will keep you moving forward.
Every challenge you face is an opportunity to discover your strength and turn your dreams into reality. You have the power within you to shape your future, no matter how insurmountable the obstacles might seem. Believe in your dreams, believe in your ability to overcome, and know that you’re not alone on this journey.
If I could find my way and make my dreams a reality, I know you can too. Keep dreaming, keep striving, and never lose sight of the beautiful life you are capable of creating.
5 Key Uplifting Lessons:
1. Don't wait for perfect conditions – sometimes you just have to leap and trust you'll figure things out along the way
2. When self-doubt creeps in, respond with action rather than overthinking
3. Forgiveness, especially of yourself, is not weakness – it's the key to moving forward
4. You can't pour from an empty cup – self-care isn't selfish, it's essential for sustained leadership
5. True success isn't about money or power, but about creating relationships that help everyone become better versions of themselves
What do you think?
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The Uplifters’ Web
This week’s opening is by the wonderful Kyia Downing.
Let’s keep rising higher together.
💓 Aransas
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Transcript
And so I think hearing these stories where. People use very limited [00:01:00] resources to create maximum potential gives us all really vital proof points. that wherever we are is enough and that we can begin with the resources and experience that we have [00:01:15] and from those create limitless possibilities. So today you're going to hear the story of Jenny Zhang Zhuo.
have electricity or the most [:[00:01:45] And that little girl. Somehow crafted for herself a life where she is the founder and chairwoman of the mega brand Lush Decor Home, which she has scaled to over a hundred million dollars in [00:02:00] profitable revenue. She's now written this extraordinary memoir, Dreamweaver, which now has inspired a short film that recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
ted herself to helping other [:Jenny: Thank you, Aransas. First of all, thank you for having me here.
iful space for women to feel [:Voiceover: Welcome to our community. Welcome to our crew. You are now officially an Uplifter Ambassador and a neighbor, and a neighbor now. [00:03:00] So take us back to little Denny and where this all began.
's been like a rollercoaster [:But I knew, you know, even in that village, I knew I wanted something bigger. But I remember reading a story about in the last [00:03:45] year of my high school, and this girl was same as me from a small village, and ventured out from the village went to the big city in the south of China, and in the 80s, which China started to open the [00:04:00] economy, she worked in a factory, then started her own business.
is just like, you know, the [:You know, when I heard that story, I [00:04:30] felt like, wow, I wanted to be heard. I wanted to be heard to earn money and to support my family. Is it just like, is it just started? I think the dream from there is a really laid a fire [00:04:45] inside of me. I thought if she can do it, maybe I can too. So after high school, so I negotiated with my parents because my mom always wanted me to be a teacher, which is the biggest dream she could have dreamed [00:05:00] for me and have a stable job.
the college in at night, but [:How can I be her? So one thing lead to another. The second job was at station. Went to a dry cleaning business, then started a few small business as a business owner. That time [00:05:45] is really, I felt is from the village to Beijing is a building. Something is like some groundwork for me when I went to, um, immigrated to the United States in my mid twenties with a speak much English, you know, the first job I [00:06:00] stepped in any, uh, always a joking is because.
se baby Olivia doesn't speak [:It's like, I have to start to learn. Everything about is a word all over again because when you don't speak language is the confidence level just knows down to the ground is just, you know, you don't know how to [00:07:00] communicate. I think that's a really difficult to go through it. But, you know, I always felt there's a fire, you know, with that dream inside of me wanted to be that intrapreneur.
I knew I just cannot [:So that's why I applied to Fashion Institute of Technology. And they asking for application with, uh, Portfolio with my limited English, I don't even know what [00:07:45] portfolio means, but it's, you know, I think a lot of time when have that situation, you know, you make you wonder, am I really cut out for this? You know, it's like, maybe I'm not meant to be, but instead of [00:08:00] things that I just went to, The pro store, I don't know if you remember on the canal street, they don't have any more.
went there, bought all these [:So that, I think, the [00:08:45] resilience, the belief that I could figure things out is what really helped me to building Lush Decor. In 2008, during the financial crisis, my son was one year old, you know, I was joking, I have [00:09:00] two babies, you know, one year apart, one daughter's lush decor when my son is like, you know, one year older, most people may say like, you know, Oh, that's not a good time.
w, it's, it's too much risk, [:Voiceover: I mean, there's so much already that I'm taking from this about the how, right?
story is individually, it's [:So look for those proof points. And then the second thing I hear already is when we ask ourselves, am I cut out to do this? Am I prepared? Those are just questions. But the response is action. To [00:10:30] get out of our heads, to not let those thoughts slow us down, but to just go do something. Just try it. Put yourself out there and see what happens.
erfect time. And so all this [:You're the girl who moved to the big city
e, that imposter syndrome is [:Whatever that barrier or the door you think is closed, if you don't push it, you never know it's going to open or not. If you're just [00:11:45] standing there thinking what's going to be under that door, it's never going to happen.
Voiceover: Right. If we're thinking too many steps ahead and all the ways this could go wrong.
gy to take any action. And I [:Jenny: Yeah. It's the same. It's, you know, when I [00:12:15] started ElastiCore, it's so many setbacks.
You know, fire my own company and have to go to court to get his company back is like, Yeah, we got to pause on this because I feel like we need this story. What
Voiceover: happened
there? So when I started the [:If somebody promised me, say, Oh, I'm going to help you sell. I'm going to help you setting up the company. I thought, Oh, [00:12:45] that would be helped me to started the faster. Let's just do it. So I gave them, you know, some equity and then like over a year and he wanted more. And I said, no. And. One day, you know, he just read me a [00:13:00] termination letter, said I was fired.
so terrifying. It's not as, [:So literally I have [00:13:30] to go to the court to get the company back after six months. And on that six months, I don't remember I eat or I slept. It's like, all I remember is at night with my son next to [00:13:45] me, I'm staring at the ceiling. I cry my eyeball out. Sometimes people say, Oh my God, you are so strong and you are so confident.
ind the doors. I'm like, my, [:Voiceover: Same girlfriend.
k it's the confidence is not [:You're going to go through or not, you have so much doubt, you're going to go through or not, even you are [00:14:30] so scared, you're going to go through or not, you're still going to pick up yourself and keep going. That is the confidence. Confidence is the build from the each failure. Each [00:14:45] obstacle, each challenges, that's how the confidence starting building up because after one another, when I overcome that one, I think I can do this one too.
It's just, it's a practice.
Voiceover: [:Do you think you're okay? And I said, I'm probably going to be okay, I just need a second. And so I took that second to sort [00:15:45] of figure out, is this broken or is it just weird? Is it just uncomfortable and inconvenient? And can I keep going? And so I slowly lifted myself up and felt what it was like to [00:16:00] stand again and then got comfortable with the fact that yeah.
and it doesn't hurt. So do I [:This is here. What does step one look like to [00:16:30] sort of test my readiness to take the next step?
, you have that language and [:The empathy is like. Towards other people, because when I struggle to communicate, to feel misunderstood, [00:17:00] it's like teaching me to be more compassionate, you know, towards like others, like in our company, we have, I was joking, we're like a United Nations, we, because our customers were more women. So naturally our team member [00:17:15] majority is women, but we're from like so many different countries as a first generation, second generation immigrant.
w that's so important to, to [:I think the company is the same thing. It's like a village, like how you can make people, your team feel safe. Feel like belonging. So that's kind of a one thing I [00:18:00] felt is so strongly. I feel this company is not just a building as a business is really, there's a safe harbor for the people. They can feel safe, feel the same, be heard, and they can thrive in here.
They just make me feel [:So I'm living a dream.
Voiceover: Yes, [:I have to do this alone to this place where [00:19:15] I look at your Venice Film Festival pictures and you are stepping out of gondolas looking unbelievably elegant and sharing photos of your entire team together and saying, This home goods company is [00:19:30] built by a community of diverse, passionate, empathic people that have collectively created this story.
nd the nerve to trust again? [:Jenny: I never imagined at that time, so how, how, how one person can do to another person, you know, it's just like, I think in that sense, I blamed myself too, how you can be so stupid to trust someone. I went through [00:20:00] so many that struggles, the trust issue is really, I think I'm so appreciate now that experience because it's a really a huge learning.
arning. Experience for me is [:Not just forgive other part is the most important [00:20:45] thing is to forgive myself and let go as like, I feel like if I'm holding on that, it's really nothing I'm holding on is not a strength. Actually, in that sense, let it go, forgive, [00:21:00] It's a really a strength, a growth from that, because I knew that is no matter what is intention from other side, I learned that's out of my control.
[:Sometimes there's a trigger coming up. It's not say, Oh my God, I learned it. [00:21:45] Everything's good now. Yay, I'm cured. I mean, certain things still trigger you, right? When you're triggered, you'll be able to ground yourself and get yourself out of it. And that's kind of the thing is, you just have to have that gross [00:22:00] mind and just, you know, sit down, calm yourself, really understand where this is coming from, then move forward.
ho are able to keep growing. [:I'm going to learn something from it and it's, it's not going to stop me. It's going to expand me. It's going to grow what I'm able to do because I've taken the learning.
there's so many times in my [:Yes.
right, is the self judgment. [:Jenny: gosh.
Voiceover: Yes. Right? It's like, Oh, this, I did something bad. I'm bad. I don't have this. Right. And that, that is the barrier for learning. It's like the door you talk about.
ture is like, our parents is [:You know, it's, we, we grew up always like, you get a nine to eight. It's, Oh, where's that two points? Where's a hundred? So you'd never feel good enough. Yeah. It took me so many [00:23:30] years to unlearn that too. Over the years, it's like one of the thing is I just feel I never felt good enough. No matter what is milestone I achieve, milestone I achieve, sometimes you still feel you're not good enough.
You don't deserve [:So at one point, I just got so Too much. So I have to go through the therapy. I have to go through the [00:24:15] whole, you know, the self care, the process. And also I felt like, you know, when the company grew in a different stage for a lot of entrepreneurs too, it's like. I'm really good as funding business [00:24:30] skill to a hundred million.
need a different skill. And [:I never thought I have anything in my [00:25:00] memory saying like, Oh, what do I remember? I remember three things, you know, but just starting taking back. So I want to talk to my son. I felt like, God, I should have a book. Because I just want to write something to let him to understand [00:25:15] or future generation understand where we came from, where the roots is from this little village.
s asking to write my eulogy. [:[00:25:45] I never stopped thinking about it. What, why, why am I doing all of this from the beginning? I did this because I wanted to support my family. It's almost like in a surviving mood, make sure the company is good. Everybody getting [00:26:00] paid. And we feel like, you know, it's, it's just. Constantly surviving, then you just felt that emptiness is what is why, why we're doing all of this.
So that's kind [:That's really starting my purposes getting clear is like I wanted to, you know, to tell you my story and to spread that message [00:27:00] of hope and the resilience to the people like my younger self who face the challenges, who have like that obstacle, who think that give up might be is the only option for them.
st a little something I hope [:Voiceover: Yeah. And it's really about empowering others. And if that [00:27:30] isn't the theme of this entire story, this really is a story of, of, um, You being empowered by others, indirectly in many cases, and empowering those you touch.
ways in which you've done it [:Jenny: Yes. It's a choice.
Music: Mm hmm.
Jenny: It's depending whether we have the courage to choose it.
I often give myself filters [:Or will it disempower my team? And my team at home is my family, my [00:28:15] team at work is my colleagues, but the guidance remains true either way. If I'm empowering my family, I'm doing a, I'm being a leader in my life. And that means doing less in many cases, it means taking on less [00:28:30] responsibility. But seeing others gifts and letting them shine, challenging them to develop new gifts, and demonstrating that they can have a sense of psychological safety through my genuine [00:28:45] trust, because they've put their trust in me as a leader.
lationship, is really how to [:Music: Mm-hmm .
y learned is if I don't feel [:By end of the day, when we're [00:29:30] all going to another world is what is really matters. It's not how much money we make, how much much power we are, how much thing we have is a really how the relationship with the people around us. Yes. [00:29:45] That's a fundamentally means everything. Yes. The rest is doesn't matter.
our. Every day, you know, we [:I can be the best leader, I can be the successful entrepreneur, I can be the mom, I can be the partner, I can just do it all. Then once you really like burn out, it's like, You cannot pour [00:30:30] from empty cup, right? If we cannot love ourself, you cannot really truly love the people around you. I think we should be selfish because the only one we feel we're so loving.
Then we can love others [:And it's a journey. It's a process.
Music: Yeah,
ceover: and that is the most [:to step back and before we try to give any more to anyone else to say, all right, I gotta go take care of me. [00:31:45] Yeah, exactly. Jenny, you are just so incredibly inspiring and certainly what you've built is crazy inspiring. But it's [00:32:00] the way you've done it. And I hope from this, we all take a reminder to step back a little bit, maybe write a eulogy, ask ourselves if we are allowing others around us to lead so that we don't have to freaking carry it all [00:32:15] because that's exhausting and unsustainable and actually a recipe for The opposite of growth.
Exactly.
Jenny: It's like we just take a little step back. Sometimes it's a good thing. Yeah.
Voiceover: [:Jenny: Thank
from these episodes, please [:And then. Join us in conversation over at theuplifterspodcast. com, head over to Spotify, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast and like, follow and [00:33:00] rate our show. It'll really help us connect with more uplifters and it'll ensure you never miss one of these beautiful stories. Mmm. Ah,
love painted water, sunshine [:And I'm dwelling. Not perplexing though. You find it ing. Toss a star in for Be around best love for relish in a new prime plant a tree in [00:33:30] springtime dance. With that all hindsight, bring the sun to twilight. Lift you up. Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh Lift you up. Whoa oh oh oh [00:33:45] oh oh oh Lift you up. Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh Lift you up.
oh oh oh oh oh Lift you up. [:very much.
