Joseph Kim—or “Joe” as he prefers; (“just don’t call me Brian”)—is the epitome of a survivor. Being synonymous with the infamy that he avoided seven—YES, SEVEN—near-death experiences, the Business Storyteller is now helping others share their stories to the right audience.
I caught up with Joe a mere five days after he arm-wrestled legendary former-WCW wrestler “Buff” Bagwell inside of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, which almost ended in both “Buff the Stuff” – and Kim being issued a citation for disturbing the peace.
“He (Bagwell) was actually in tears after I was done speaking to him,” he says about the former five-time World Tag Team Champion. “He said ‘I never had anybody speak to me like that and not judge me for what I did in the past.’ To which I replied that we all deserve a second chance.”
Kim’s account of his chance encounter with “Buff,” real name Marcus Alexander Bagwell, is just the beginning of him taking me on his journey back to 1990, and how my choice of attire for this interview brought back disturbing childhood memories. “It’s glaringly scary what you have on – it’s so ironic.”
This is the story of Joseph Kim; survivor, thriving in a world that dealt him repeated cruel hands.
Sarshar: Your background is Korean, right?
Joseph: Yes by blood, but I have no trace of the accent being born in the United States. Just in the blood. (Pause) I don’t know if my parents were scared {after being shot} because the neighbourhood we lived in didn’t view us as an accepted ethnicity. It was a predominantly white neighbourhood, and they wondered how an Asian family – like ours, found a home in this affluent neighbourhood.
Sarshar: So that’s why you didn’t take legal action against the man who shot you, then?
Joseph: That, being too young, and I was actually trespassing on private property (certain states permit shooting home intruders in the United States). My parents are about respecting laws. It didn’t help that I got whooped by them too!
Kim was shot at, and “got nicked” in the ear after he – and five friends trespassed an elderly man’s property when Kim was only six years old. This was the first of seven instances where Kim narrowly avoided death – permanent death anyways, as we’ll go on to find out; he was pronounced clinically dead one day to the year this interview took place.
Joseph: He (the man who shot Kim) wore the exact same flannel you’re wearing. Keep it on, keep it on (laughs).
Kim would “drown” two times following the shooting; first, in 1992 at age 8, and again a year later.
Joseph: The first time I was swimming in Clarks Hill Lake in Augusta, Georgia – where I’m originally from. My feet caught on a snag that was attached to the boundaries of the lake to prevent speeding within the zones. I swam past it both times and my ankle wrapped around this rope. I had to be resuscitated twice in two years.
(Cont.d) Then there were two car accidents – in Freshman year, and Sophomore year of college. One where I fell asleep at the wheel and a pole from the temporary fences went through the car, but just missed me by inches. The other I ended-up being flung out of the car at about 40 miles an hour.
The sixth accident occured when I was hiking Superstition Mountain, which is 20 minutes east of Phoenix, back in 2012. I was wrapping up work as a mechanic, and bouldering the mountain – my theory was that my hands were tougher than the terrain, and that the rocks were softer than my hands. I fell 20 to 50 feet, and hit a jagged edge on the way down – face-planting and being rendered unconscious for three hours.
Kim suffered a broken shoulder, broken ribs, broken nose, and major concussion. He lost his memory for a period of time and took time to walk and talk again. His seventh accident involved a prop he uses to signify his desire to live an optimal life, and one that is heavily featured on his Instagram account.
Joseph: I ran away to discover my own masculinity in 2017; a pivotal moment in my life. After one night of having my best friend telling me our friendship was done, because of my affliction to being a superhero to too many people, I went on a self-discovery quest across 44 states where I discovered I wasn’t allowing people not to fail, I wasn’t allowing people to be themselves. I wasn’t allowing them to be who they needed to be. If I walked 10 steps ahead of my clients, and guided them to their path, it would still serve them well, but it enabled people and enabling is never a good thing. I had to find a way to reset.
One night, in the homeless district in Seattle, Washington I had a man follow me and repeatedly bump into me. He eventually picked me up and told me to take charge of my life – in no uncertain terms. He told me if I didn’t eliminate self-defeating thoughts then I’d end-up just like him. That was one of the pivotal incidents.
Sarshar: How does this translate over to your work with your clients?
Joseph: I realized that adversity does connect with people in general – my journey has been nothing short of a miracle. Now, I walk my clients through their journey to show them how easy it can be for them. I help them find their solution.
Kim was working as a General Contractor in the Engineering field between 2009-2019. At the height of COVID-19, Kim ran a research company, assisting in the formation of a COVID vaccine in collaboration with IMPACT Health. From May 2021 – until October, he returned to general contracting, for projects such as tiny homes, and custom-build outs for various events. It was his 7th near-death experience in February, 2021 that propelled him to starting JK International as a platform that provides businesses the necessary tools to share their stories, thus moulding their personal brand.
Joseph: I wanted to branch out as a consultant, because I realized that the clients I serve fail to tell compelling stories to capture their audience. So I help change the platform they speak on in order to tell that message. As you see, I’ve always enjoyed telling stories.
In February 2021, while in Charleston, South Carolina, Kim crashed his one-wheeler skateboard outside a church parking lot. He suffered a severely cracked skull, as well as broken nose, broken fingers, and cracked eye socket. What’s more astounding is that Kim was actually pronounced dead for three minutes.
Joseph: I got rushed to East Cooper Medical Hospital in Mount Pleasant. Somehow I’m still a little spooked by this but I discharged myself from the hospital, after passing the battery tests. I was in the hospital for about three and a half hours. The first two hours, doctors worked to resuscitate me – and, despite this I felt healthy enough to order myself an Uber. It wasn’t until the Uber driver told me how messed up I was, that I returned to the hospital to seek further evaluation.
(Cont.d) What’s funny is the Uber driver said I gave him good advice. Apparently, we had a great conversation. It was odd because I was still blacked out.
These days, Kim is living life on the edge of his comfort zone; soaring high while guiding others to flourish in their lives. On the edge seems like a comfortable place for Kim; after all, he still has two lives left.
Joseph Kim is the founder of JK International; a self-help business model that provides its clients the tools necessary to curate their own powerful, personal brand – while unmuting themselves so they can share their story in the best way possible.
You can find him at the following cyberspaces; IG: @thejkeffect / jkthebrand.com.
Media Contact:
Sarshar Hosseinnia, Editor-in-Chief
