We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sunta Sem a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sunta , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
For as long as I can remember, I had very low self esteem to the point that I can remember having to make resolutions like, “This year I will believe in myself!” while other people were giving up pastries. When I told my best friend this big scary goal, she laughed out loud. Literally. To her it was a silly resolution because from her point of view, she didn’t realize just how much I struggled with my own esteem because I was always taking risks and trying new things.
Looking back on those days (they weren’t so long ago, who am I kidding) I realize just how much I lived inside my internal world. This is where I processed my thoughts, emotions, actions against a standard that no one else could see from the outside. One that I could barely see or even understand how or why the bar was so sky high.
In the “real world” where people could see me, however, they could witness me losing myself in trial and error, following my curiosities, challenging myself with complex puzzles, obsessed with creating things from scratch, always wanting to get to know people from all walks of life and just generally enjoying the journey. Simply put, when I wasn’t in processing mode, I could actually be present.
For me, developing self-esteem and confidence has been a slow and intentional journey of better integrating the feedback from the outside world into my very tangled inner world. It included going to therapy and having deep and rich conversations with others that made me realize just how many stories I was making up about myself that no longer served me. Stories that no longer matched up with how I actually showed up in life and how life, as a result, was unfolding around me.
Now I see that growing my confidence could be as simple as exploring a new skill like when I jumped straight from tech into the kitchen of a restaurant. I show myself what I am capable of instead of only listening to the voice in my head that likes to ask “who do you think you are?”
Before that question would make me want to shrink, shy away and meekly answer, “You’re right, I’m no one. I’m not good enough to be here.” But as the journey continues, that question has become a call out to grow, to try, and to cheekily respond:“I don’t know yet, but it’s fun finding out!”
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My name is Sunta and I am the founder of Little Cambodian Mom Inc. a company I created to house all my food business endeavours. It’s been a long time dream of mine to pursue food and to pay tribute to the person I view as the hardest working and most talented cook I know: my mom (with my dad a close second!)
While I am still new to the food world, I’ve spent two years exploring different manifestations of what it means to make cooking/a passion for food a career or business. I’ve worn the hat of line cook at Momofuku Noodle Bar and soon realized climbing the ranks was not my calling although I learned SO much from that experience. I ran my own ghost kitchen that delivered my cooking to people across Toronto which was thrilling but didn’t fill my love of being around actual humans. I’ve done catering, pop ups and private dinners which have been so well received and brought me a lot of growth and joy. I also launched my signature peanut sauce as a flagship jarred product and hustled my way into 20 stores in 10 months while also selling via festivals, markets and e-commerce. It’s been incredible to have a product that people repeatedly buy and share with their friends and family. WHOA Spicy Peanut Sauce and hopefully a well curated line extension of WHOA Sauces will be the primary focus of Little Cambodian Mom, because for me, it fills a lot more of the joy I get from food – fun, creativity, connection and feedback! So 2024, my goals will be to streamline production, scale up, a large national presence in stores, meet more people across Canada at markets & festivals and make creative content and recipes to keep people excited.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three qualities I think that have helped me in my journey are 1) beginner’s mindset 2) fall in love with solving puzzles 3) actually care about people.
Even though I have 10+ years of growth and marketing experience, I still feel like a beginner and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It keeps me curious. I’m not shy about asking for help or afraid to ask stupid questions. I synthesise experiences and knowledge from the past but can easily weave new realities in without getting stuck in an outdated belief, strategy or tactic. It also keeps a person like me who gets a thrill from novelty interested! If I already know how to do it, it’ll get boring fast. My advice to hone this mindset is to start everything with a question dump. Get great at asking and listening by putting in the reps! Surround yourself with seasoned experts you trust and admire – don’t only go to rooms where you know the most.
As for falling in love with solving puzzles, the trick is to recognize most things that feel difficult or challenging can be reframed as puzzles and suddenly they’re more interesting and feel solvable. When you fall in love with puzzles you use your critical and creative thinking skills simultaneously. Of course in adult world we’ve started to call this “analyzing the data” but I think language is important. If you tell me to analyze data I get overwhelmed and bored at the same time. If you tell me the puzzle is finding a pattern between our best customers, my gears start turning the way they do when I’m doing a crossword or playing a board game. If you’re more wired for play than corporate presentations like me, this is how I’ve been able to achieve things, inspite of myself! The best way to develop a love for puzzles is by doing actual puzzles – I love brain games with coffee in the morning!
And lastly: actually care about people. This one kind of explains itself but I have seen many people become “successful” even without this quality. I’m including it because the question is about impact and not necessarily success. Caring about people can have a profound impact on your decision making, I know it has in my journey. There are certain things I won’t do even if the numbers say they’re “good” tactics. If I feel like a tactic is invasive, annoying or exploitative, I don’t need laws or regulations to stop me from doing it. I just use my intuition. I care that people are enjoying my product or services sincerely, not because of crafty manipulation. I care if they feel taken care of when they support my business. And I care about the bigger picture too. I do not want to succeed at the expense of my community, other businesses, the environment and so on. You can call me woo-woo all you want, but I want to exist in a world where we all have access to food, shelter, water and human connection. And when you care deeply about people, you find so much more motivation to do your best and during your most challenging days, it’s the people who care deeply about you that will keep you going.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
My current challenge is working on a big vision all by myself. I have been burned in the past and I’m trying to shed that distrust and build a team of amazing people who believe in making a brand and products that people can get really excited about supporting. I am hyper aware of what my skill and interest gaps are and instead of stretching myself thin unsustainably, I really want to find the right people to go on this journey and build something special with.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://whoasauces.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/soupandhustle
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suntasem
