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Embracing All of Me

Embracing All of Me

By: Ross Victory
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For people who live between labels and refuse to disappear there. Embracing All of Me (EAoM) tells intimate stories of identity, desire, and becoming, rooted in bi+ and bisexual experience and shaped by global communities of color. Each conversation traces what unfolds when people exist “in between”: the resistance to erasure, the bashing of binaries, the widening of who gets to belong. Through embodied nuanced voices and honest dialogue, host Ross Victory builds a landmark for our communities and an invitation to anyone navigating complexity. A two-time 2026 Communicator Award winner. Hosted by Ross Victory, an award-winning artist, author, poet, and musician based in Los Angeles, CA.Ross Victory Social Sciences
Episodes
  • S3.E42: Rules of the Game: Kelly Zúñiga on Building Wealth of Wallet, Mind, and Community

    S3.E42: Rules of the Game: Kelly Zúñiga on Building Wealth of Wallet, Mind, and Community
    Jun 30 2026

    Who gets taught the rules of the game when it comes to money, and who gets left to figure them out alone?


    In this episode of Embracing All of Me, Ross sits down with Latina financial coach Kelly Zúñiga to unpack the inherited money stories shaping how we move through the world. For first-generation professionals, Latinas, creatives, and communities of color, money is rarely about numbers alone. It's about survival, sacrifice, family responsibility, identity, shame, and the belief that if we just work hard enough, everything works out.

    But what if wealth isn't simply about "grinding harder?" What if real empowerment means learning the rules of the game, questioning the scripts we inherited, and building a life rooted in self-trust, joy, and community care?

    Kelly grew her investment portfolio from zero to over $135,000 while helping clients move from money avoidance to money confidence. Together they explore the realities of wealth-building for BIPOC communities, and why access to financial knowledge is itself a form of equity.


    We get into:


    • The "rules of the game" nobody taught us: why wealth-building knowledge circulates through privilege and proximity, and what happens when BIPOC communities claim access.


    • Inherited money scripts and survival strategies: from "work harder" and "save for emergencies" to becoming your family's retirement plan, and how to decide which still serve you.


    • Moving from scarcity to self-trust: why financial confidence starts with honesty and small acts of courage rather than perfection.


    • Wallet activism and micro-actions that build the future we want: how everyday choices about where we spend and invest can strengthen communities of color.


    • Why wealth is bigger than your bank account: wealth of wallet, mind, and community through freedom, rest, belonging, and the room to imagine different possibilities.


    • The hidden emotional costs of silence: what money shares with conversations about race, sexuality, grief, and identity, and why breaking those taboos matters.


    • Permission to redefine success: letting go of inherited expectations around marriage, homeownership, status, and productivity to build a life that fits who you are.


    About Kelly Zúñiga:

    Kelly Zúñiga is a Latina financial coach who helps first-generation women, Latinas, creatives, and people of color move from money avoidant to money confident. Through practical financial education and mindset work, she supports clients in paying down debt, investing, building wealth, and creating lives aligned with their values.


    Connect with Kelly Zúñiga:

    Website: kellyzuniga.com
    Instagram: @thekellyzuniga
    Email: coach@kellyzuniga.com


    Learn More:

    Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of BIPOC, Bi+/Queer people , our kin, and friends.

    Website: https://embracingallofme.org
    Email: stories@embracingallofme.org
    Instagram: @embracingallofmee


    Take Action:

    • Open the banking app you've been avoiding.
    • Identify one inherited money story you're ready to rewrite.
    • Practice what Kelly calls wallet activism by supporting businesses and initiatives aligned with your values.
    • Start one honest conversation about money with someone you trust.
    • Contribute your story to Embracing All of Me!


    Topics: Kelly Zúñiga, rules of the game, wallet activism, BIPOC wealth building, Latinas and money, first-generation wealth, inherited money stories, financial literacy for communities of color, money mindset, scarcity and self-trust, financial empowerment, investing for beginners, wealth of wallet mind and community, collective care, community wealth, financial justice, identity and money, Ross Victory, Embracing All of Me podcast.
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    41 mins
  • S3.E41: Dr. Zori Paul on Bi+ People of Color, Mental Health, Media Representation, and Microaffirmations

    S3.E41: Dr. Zori Paul on Bi+ People of Color, Mental Health, Media Representation, and Microaffirmations
    Jun 23 2026
    This week, host Ross speaks with Dr. Zori Paul, a licensed professional counselor, counselor educator, researcher, and board member of the Bisexual Resource Center. As a Black bi+ woman, Dr. Zori brings personal insight and professional rigor to a conversation about the mental wellbeing of Bi+, queer, pansexual, fluid, and questioning people of color, and the conditions that allow communities to move beyond inclusion toward recognition and care.We get into:From Brandy’s Cinderella to counseling: Dr. Zori reflects on wanting to be a fairy godmother as a child and how that desire to help others eventually became a career in mental healthcare, teaching, and research.Why Bisexual women of color need research that sees them: After encountering studies that claimed to represent women while barely including women of color, Dr. Zori followed her own questions into scholarship centered on bisexual women of color.Mental health, stigma, and shrinking support systems: Ross and Dr. Zori discuss how anxiety, depression, intimate partner violence, and internalized bi-negativity can affect relationships, boundaries, disclosure, and willingness to seek support.Bi-negativity versus biphobia: Dr. Zori explains why bi-negativity can help name the systemic discrimination people experience, rather than framing the problem as something located within their identities.Microaffirmations and conditional acceptance: Small gestures of recognition can help counter the accumulation of erasure and rejection, especially when they come from LGBTQ+ peers. But affirmation loses its power when followed by conditions such as, “You’re valid, but don’t date a man.”Blackness, queerness, and the harm of false choices: The conversation challenges the demand that Black queer and Bi+ people choose whether they are “Black first” or “queer first,” while examining how colonization, white supremacy, and religious stigma have shaped attitudes toward sexuality in communities of color.Representation, advocacy, and building what is missing: From Glee, Heartstopper, and Insecure to the Bisexual Resource Center and LA Bi+ Task Force, they consider the impact of seeing bisexual people represented with cultural context, complexity, and humanity.Dr. Zori also shares her interest in future research on bisexuality and neurodiversity, including autism and ADHD, and encourages listeners to follow their curiosity, create community, and understand that meaningful advocacy does not require a PhD.This episode is an invitation to imagine Bi+ belonging beyond visibility in a world welcomed without qualification.About Dr. Zori Paul:Dr. Zori Paul is a licensed professional counselor, counselor educator, researcher, and board member of the Bisexual Resource Center. Her work centers the mental wellbeing and affirmation of Bi+ people of color, including research on microaffirmations and emerging work at the intersection of bisexuality and neurodiversity.Connect with Dr. Zori Paul:Instagram: @amberinsightshttps://www.zoriapaul.com/Learn More:Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ people of color, our kin and friends.Website: https://embracingallofme.orgEmail: stories@embracingallofme.orgInstagram: @embracingallofmeeTopics: Dr. Zori Paul, Ross Victory, BIPOC, Bi+ people of color, bisexual women of color, Black bisexual women, bisexual mental health, microaffirmations, bi-negativity, biphobia, Bisexual Resource Center, embracing queer identity, Black LGBTQ stories, bisexual representation, neurodiversity and bisexuality, Bi+ advocacy, intersectionality, cultural belonging.
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    45 mins
  • S3.E40: Sam Kim on Why He Doesn't Date Transphobic People, the Asian Diaspora, and Music as a Lifeline

    S3.E40: Sam Kim on Why He Doesn't Date Transphobic People, the Asian Diaspora, and Music as a Lifeline
    Jun 16 2026
    Korean-American Artist Sam Kim "Babo," now "Samathan" on Diaspora, Hip-Hop, Bisexual Identity & Creative SurvivalWhat does it mean to be seen, fully, when you exist in fragments, when every room you enter asks you to choose which part of yourself to bring?In this episode of Embracing All of Me, Ross sits down with Sam Kim known as Babo and Samathan, Korean-American artist and creator, for a layered conversation on identity, the Asian diaspora, and creative expression as survival. From growing up between cultures in New Jersey and Queens to navigating hip-hop as a non-Black Asian artist, Sam reflects on the influences that shaped his sound, and the responsibility that comes with borrowing from Black art forms while holding space for his own Korean-American experience.We get into:What it means to grow up between cultures, Korean, American, neither, both, and how diaspora fragments identity before you even have language for itNavigating hip-hop as a non-Black artist, the influences, the debts and the tensionsAsian diaspora tensions, model minority myths and the shared work of decentering whitenessSam's track "i wannabeprolific" — unpacking its visual symbolism (fragmented mirrors, subtle identity cues) and the deeper frustration behind the music: the pull between creative purpose and survivalRelationships, boundaries, and one of Sam's dating non-negotiables. "I don't date transphobes." and how "Are you transphobic?," a simple question that reveals everythingWhy embracing the "cringe" is part of the work, and learning to see yourself as enough before the world tells you otherwiseThis episode is about more than music. It's about self-worth, creative survival, and what it takes to hold all of yourself when the world keeps asking you to fragment.About Sam Kim (Samathan):Sam Kim (Samathan) is a Korean-American artist and creator whose work explores identity, diaspora, and the intersection of hip-hop, visual art, and cultural responsibility. Connect with Sam Kim:Sam's WebsiteWatch "I Wannabeprolific"Samathan on InstagramSamathan on SpotifyLearn More:Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ people of color, our kin and friends.Website: https://embracingallofme.orgEmail: stories@embracingallofme.orgInstagram: @embracingallofmeeTake Action:Contribute a written piece to Embracing All of MeBook a Creative Consult with Ross VictoryTopics: Sam Kim, Babo, Samathan, Korean-American artist, Asian diaspora, hip-hop and race, non-Black artist in hip-hop, bisexual identity, queer Asian artist, bisexual asians, Korean-American identity, cultural appropriation vs appreciation, anti-Blackness in Asian communities, model minority myth, creative survival, i wannabeprolific, trans allyship, dating and boundaries, self-worth and identity, diaspora and belonging, BIPOC creatives
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    37 mins
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