Kai Hayes publishes her leadership, personal, and spiritual ‘growth book’

As a young girl, Lilibeth Salonga Avelino already knew what she wanted.

Coming from a family of modest means, she yearned to get a good education so she could achieve bigger things and provide a comfortable life for herself and her family. Her mother was a stay-at-home parent, and her father was in the military scraping a government salary to send his children to school. She was the youngest of four siblings.

At age 25, the responsibility to look after her parents and grandparents fell on her lap. Lilibeth performed the obligation expected of a youngest child in the traditional Filipino family culture.  At 33, her marriage fell apart.   

“I became a single mom only after being married for three years. Blessed with my one and only son Nico, he became my biggest inspiration.”

With a degree in Management and a wealth of experience in Philippine companies, she founded her own telecommunications company, WPTI-EasyLink Services Telecoms, in the U.K. The year was 1998. She met Greg Hayes, an IT professional, at a trade show in New York. She sold her company and moved to the U.S. with her son in 2003. After five years as a stay-at-home housewife, the itch to work returned.  She found a job at Wells Fargo’s Austin, Texas, office managing assets for high-value clients as well as developing businesses. Around this time also, she came to be known as Kai Hayes. Her first name a shortened version of her pet name ‘Kikay’  given by friends when she worked as a TV/print advertising model. ‘Kai in the Japanese language means ‘ocean’ and in Hawaiian connotes ‘warrior.’

“I love my name, it’s me.”  In fact, the title of her inspirational memoir “Lion at Heart” corresponds to the initials behind Lilibeth Avelino Hayes.

New life

“I left my whole entire life in Manila and began a new life here in the U.S.” Texas has been home since 2003.

“Being a stay-at-home mom in the U.S. for 5 years, I got bored, so in 2008 I found myself as a business banker at Wells Fargo bank but was unhappy not getting paid my worth. Modesty aside, my productivity was equivalent to three bankers. But it has always been my choice not to stay in a cubicle scheme. I don’t want to work until I am 65, and not have financial freedom like many others have.  I began searching for a better way to be able to run my own show like I did before.”

She discovered network marketing and “embraced the business model. In 2011, she joined LifeVantage Corp., a publicly traded company on NASDAQ that pioneered a “breakthrough technology called Nrf2 activation.”

“It has been such a glorious 10 years,” she said.

She recalled, “Greg has turned his back away from the corporate world which he served for 37 years. He was afflicted with stage 3 brain cancer in December 2014 and the company he worked for 19 years laid him off while he was still fighting for his life. Greg hit rock bottom. Thank God. We had a miracle. It’s been five years. Greg is now cancer-free. Building a leverage income is a powerful platform anyone can fight for and achieve. Freedom is what we worked for, freedom is what we got.”

She continues to help her family back in the Philippines. Kai and Greg also established a Bridge of Hope Ministry helping the St. Rita Orphanage in Manila and the Priesthood Mission in Tanzania.

“Now Greg and I wake up together. We travel together. And the biggest takeaway for me was writing a book on Leadership, Personal, and Spiritual growth. That’s life changing for me,” she said.

“I am no longer the same person as I was before. It’s a total transformation from the time I made the decision to change the trajectory of my life and I feel good about it. Now I can take my business to the next level. Becoming a role model to serve and inspire sharing my tough and incredible journey in life as well as encourage everyone that it’s possible to achieve your dreams and thrive in life versus just surviving. After all, aren’t we all called to do great things in life?”

Due to the success of the book publication and sales Kai Hayes established the Lion at Heart Freedom Journey, a powerful crusade with its Mission: To be the Voice for the Voiceless in June 11th with its pioneering members:

Beth Busa
Kara Petron
Emmie Cadavez
Kay Castro
Betty Pickard
Sylvia Morales
Anne Cubarrubia

Riza Connel 

Paulette Schnipke

© The FilAm 2020