We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Veronique Benhayoun. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Veronique below.
Hi Veronique, you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?
My generosity comes from knowing what it is like to have nothing so when I can give back generously, I do. Everyone needs help sometimes, and that’s okay!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
As I have disclosed in previous interviews, professionally, I work in the world of recovery as an Office Manager by day. During my off time I use my social media platform to create content relating to real life for more than 10,000 followers on TikTok.
More recently, I decided to make one of my long term goals a reality. As a plus size woman I have found myself struggling to find affordable, trendy and fun clothing. Approximately 2 years ago, I began toying with the idea of creating a T-Shirt Brand that caters to plus size individuals. I let fear stop me. This year, I said, NOT ANYMORE! So on 5/31/24 I launched Chunkee Munkee Clothing Companee on Amazon & the TikTok Shop within a week of each other. A line of witty T-Shirts, Tank Tops and Sweatshirts featuring funny things that I say all the time.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, some of the qualities or skills that helped me in my journey were learning to believe in myself, facing fears and family.
Learning to believe in myself was such a difficult process. As I have mentioned in previous interviews I was in a severely abusive relationship for years, which took a harsh toll on how I felt about myself. I often found that I was talking to myself like my abuser spoke to me. I found it hard to believe in myself or trust my own judgement at times and through the years I have had to really work on that. Through my journey of self discovery I learned to trust myself and my judgement and became highly self aware so when I see myself trending towards certain behaviors I can correct it before it gets out of hand. Throughoit that process, I also learned that you can have a whole tribe of people who believe in you, but unless you believe in yourself, you’ll never make it. Trust yourself and be confident in your abilities and decision making!
I have an overwhelming fear of failing. I have perfectionist tendencies to a flaw at times and I am VERY hard on myself. I promised myself that in 2024, I was facing my fears head on, and that included my fear of failure. I let my fears convince me that no one would like me if I showed my real self on Social Media – I was wrong! I let my fear convince me that I wouldn’t survive without my abusive partner 10 years ago – I was wrong! I let fear convince me no one would buy cakes from me when I started my baking company back in 2013 – I was wrong. I let fear convince me I couldn’t go back to school when I had a baby that was just 10 days old -I was also wrong. So the whole point is, do not let fear stop you, if you fail, you just fail and you can try again. Each time you try again is always one step closer to a success.
As the black sheep of my biological family I have never fit in. I was always looked at as the pitiful single mom who had all those kids when she was very young. However, instead of taking me under their wing, my family shunned me and my children away leaving me to fend for myself. For reasons I will not disclose here, I made the choice to go no contact permanently with my biological family well over a year ago after a series of disappointing and toxic events. That was not easy for me as I always just wanted to be accepted for who I was instead of them trying to shove me into their closed minded box. I always wanted family that rallied around and uplifted me during my accomplishments or even during my failures but that never happened so I had to cut ties. It wasn’t until I met my current boyfriend, who’s amazing by the way, that I saw what family should really behave like. His family accepted me with open arms and has been my backbone for nearly 5 years. From his parents & identical twin brother to his aunts, uncles & cousins they took me in and cheered me on like I’ve never had before and thats all I ever really wanted from my biological family, but never got. I am especially grateful for my Mother In Law. Not to put her on blast, but, that woman has shown up for me over and over and over and I’m appreciative and grateful for it. As a person who essentially grew up parentless and raised by the system, this is the first time in my life that I’ve been “mothered” which was an adjustment of course, but I feel like I’ve settled in nicely. Honestly, I do not know where or how I would survive without these people now. I said all of this to say that having supportive family plays a monumental role in a persons successes, so whether it is chosen family or biological family make sure you build a support system to take along on your journey because even if you feel like you don’t need family, YOU DO!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am would love to collaborate however, there is no ideal person that I have in mind.
I would evaluate potential collaborations on a case by case basis at this point. If anyone is interested I can be reached via my socials or via email at chunkeemunkee123@gmail.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/veroniqueben
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