Become the version of yourself you keep talking about.
ZenRoots
You’re ready for more — more confidence, more clarity, more alignment, and more
leadership opportunities.
More career mobility. More responsibility. More impact.
And a deeper sense of connection to who you are becoming.
About Me
I’m Nishia Ikezoe Heard, and I help people who want to grow but aren’t always sure what
that growth looks like — or how to get there.Maybe you’re stuck in your own head, unsure about your next steps, questioning your voice,
or feeling disconnected from the version of yourself you know is possible. Maybe life is
asking you to lead in a new way, and you want to rise to the moment with confidence,
purpose, and alignment.I coach with heart, honesty, and backbone.
My work helps you connect with yourself, find your voice, trust your abilities, and step into
leadership — in your career, your relationships, and your life.
Where ZENROOTS comes from
ZenRoots wasn’t just a creative name — it was a reflection of who I am.Zen honors the quiet strength, intentionality, grounding, and cultural discipline of my Japanese lineage.Roots honors the resilience, pride, depth, and generational power of my African-American heritage.Together, they tell the story of a woman who is both steady and bold, grounded and unafraid to rise, shaped by history and committed to shifting the future.ZenRoots is the place where identity and leadership meet — deeply, intentionally, and unapologetically.
ZEN
Quiet strength.
Courage without noise.
A grounding that comes from knowing who you are even when the world tries to tell you otherwise.My Japanese lineage taught me that.I come from people who endured one of this country’s great injustices — Japanese internment. My great-grandparents, my grandfather, my great aunt… uprooted from their homes, stripped of rights, labeled “other,” herded into camps by a nation they called their own. And before that, my great-grandfather Kishinosuke — an eighteen-year-old who left Hiroshima alone, boarded a ship to America, and rewrote the future of an entire bloodline with a single act of bravery.Strength like that is not loud. It does not scream.
It stands. It endures.
It knows what it is made of.That is my Zen.
ROOTS
Power.
Depth.
Resilience carved into bone.My African-American lineage taught me that.Though I am still piecing together our family tree, I do not need a document to know what my people survived. I know the history of enslavement. I know the resistance, the brilliance, the refusal to break. I know the way culture crossed oceans and still lives. I know the pride that pulses through Blackness — a pride my mother carried fiercely.She survived hardship, illness, and a childhood of limited opportunity. Out of twelve siblings, she was one of only two to walk across a high school graduation stage. She fought systems, expectations, and statistics so her children could have choices. She fought for me before I even knew what fighting was.Strength like that does not whisper.
It insists.
It creates futures.Those are my roots.
