Meet Catherine Tang

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Catherine Tang. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Catherine, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?

The wellness and fitness space is predominately catered to a white audience, and being a woman of colour it took quite a while for me to attach my face to my business. I currently run a women’s athleisurewear line called Saya the Label – however, most of our audience recognize us as more than an apparel brand. We’ve focused a lot of our time and values in creating community and sharing space, especially for women of colour.

To be successful in entrepreneurship, but especially in wellness, I had to be genuine, empathetic, and authentic. A lot of people recognize fitness as ‘hard’ and ‘intense’, but I’ve focused on making wellness more inclusive and accessible to everyone. Our mantra has always been to make athleisurewear affordable for everyone. By truly getting to know my audience, focusing on my purpose (which is to make women feel their best and to bring people together!), we’ve become quite successful in growing our community which is the most incredible feeling!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I started Saya the Label four years ago, and over the course of this time, we have become more than an apparel brand. Our community knows us as a business that brings people together through intentional events and conversations. We also are huge advocates of other small businesses, especially women-owned studios. We are available to support their needs, whether it be through merchandise or community events.

There are so many small wins and exciting moments that I will always remember – for example we just did our first pop up in Shopify’s flagship location in New York last March in honour of Women’s History Month which was an insane milestone for me professionally. As equally exciting – we also launched a series of videos to celebrate Lunar New Year in February; we featured four incredible local female entrepreneurs and shared their stories to honour the Year of the Wood Dragon. I truly believe my purpose is to uplift and amplify voices of women and their journeys, to give them confidence through our pieces, and to bring people together.

We’re wrapping up a series of events to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month this May (collaborating with our favourite inclusive spaces in Toronto) and soon launching some exciting new pieces late summer. We create slowly and thoughtfully, so I am quite nervous to put our new products out to our community!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

3 traits I believe helped shape me to become the person I am right now:
1. Authenticity – people, especially my audience, can small BS from a mile away. I know that if I am truly myself and honest with my community, they will continue to support the brand I have built!
2. A close friend of mine told me to carry myself with the confidence of a middle-aged white man – that’s led to a lot of outlandish requests, but more often than not, it’s worked out in my favour!
3. Not taking myself too seriously – things don’t always go as planned, and I have to be okay with that!

Advice for people who are early in the entrepreneurial journey – learn to love the process of being a beginner. You don’t have to excel at everything you learn right away! And don’t be afraid to ask for help or look for mentors willing to support you and your goals.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

It’s very difficult for me to avoid making comparisons of myself and my business to others on social media. It is something I have been trying to get better at (mainly through therapy!) but it is hard not to compare myself to successful people and their achievements in the digital world.

I constantly question my ability, my business strategies, and wonder what I am doing wrong to not be as successful as my peers.

Social media is truly a highlight reel (I rarely announce any of my failures) but at the end of the day, I go back to my ‘why’ and my purpose – to celebrate women and my surrounding community – which does get me excited and reminds me why I love doing what I do!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sayathelabel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sayathelabel/

Image Credits

Ashley Harris