Meet Siobhan Lacey-Chow

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

Siobhan, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?

My Approach to Self-Care: A Journey of Resilience, Impact, and Healing

I’ve come to understand self-care not as a luxury, but as a lifeline—a sacred commitment born from the trials and triumphs of and as a result of my lived experiences thus far. After a life-altering brain injury and a recent brush with cancer, I had no choice but to radically reimagine what it means to conquer, to heal, and ultimately, to thrive. These challenges have shaped not just my path, but my purpose. My approach to self-care is deeply personal—woven into every fiber of who I am as a heart-and-soul-led leader, advocate, and community builder.

Core Self-Care Practices:

1) Self-Awareness and Self-Acceptance

At the heart of my journey is a deep commitment to self-awareness and radical self-acceptance. These aren’t just practices—they are daily acts of courage. Learning to understand and embrace every part of myself, even the parts marked by pain or imperfection, has been foundational on my healing journey thus far. It’s through this lens of compassionate self-honesty that I continue to meet adversity with authenticity, strength, and grace.

2) Self-Advocacy

I’ve had to speak up to be seen, to be heard, and to receive the care I deserve—especially within systems that often overlook or dismiss complex health journeys. Active self-advocacy became my anchor. It gave me the power to reclaim my narrative, my voice, and my future. Today, it fuels my mission to help others do the same. Every time I speak up for my needs, I’m not just protecting my well-being and my inner peace—I’m reinforcing my right to live fully and purposefully.

3) Community Engagement

Healing does not happen in isolation. That truth led me to create IMpower, a platform and community designed to uplift those navigating life’s hardest storms. IMpower is more than a network—it’s a lifeline of shared wisdom, connection, and hope. Through this collective space, I’ve witnessed the extraordinary power of community to heal, elevate, and transform lives—including my own.

4) Holistic Health Practices

To stay aligned in mind, body, heart, and soul, I lean into a range of holistic practices. Mindfulness and meditation offer me peace and clarity in the chaos. Healing healthful whole foods and intentional movement and exercise help me reconnect with my physical strength. Spiritual rituals ground me, while emotional healing and genuine, soulful relationships keep my heart open and prosperous. These practices don’t just sustain me—they allow me to live in harmony with myself and the world around me.

Impact on My Effectiveness:

1) Leadership and Advocacy

Leading from a place of self-awareness and self-compassion has made me a more powerful advocate for mental health, inclusion, and authenticity. I lead not despite my pain, but because of it—with empathy, honesty, and a deep understanding of what it means to rise again and again.

2) Community Building

IMpower isn’t just a community I built—it’s a mirror of my own healing. Through it, I’ve cultivated spaces where people have the opportunity to be and feel held, to be and feel seen, to be and feel supported, and to be and feel empowered. It’s a living testament to what’s possible when we come together to unite in vulnerability and in strength.

3) Resilience and Empowerment

My commitment to self-care has not only helped me endure—it has helped me transform. Every setback has been a lesson or as I like to call gifts of “golden nuggets”. Every wound, a doorway to deeper wisdom. I’ve turned pain into purpose, and in doing so, I’ve created space for others to find their own power in the face of adversity.

A Living Testament

My self-care practices are more than routines—they’re rituals of resilience, declarations of faith, and strategies for impact. They’ve helped me rise from some of life’s most unimaginable challenges, and in doing so, they’ve sharpened my ability to lead, inspire, and connect on a deep, soulful level. I am living proof that when we nurture the mind, body, heart, soul, and community, we don’t just survive—we get to conquer and thrive in unison. And we light the way for others to do the same.

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?

I Am Not What Happened to Me—
I Am What I Choose to Become

I am a force of grit, resilience, and transformation—not because life was easy, but because I was forged in adversity.

I once thrived as a corporate executive—one of the first women to earn a seat at my company’s executive leadership table. A trailblazer in retail, I led high-performing teams and helped launch iconic wellness brands like Odwalla, Smartwater, and the Simply juice line within the Coca-Cola Family. I lived at the height of performance and purpose.

Then everything changed.

A traumatic brain injury shattered my world. I lost my health, identity, and nearly my home—facing near homelessness multiple times. I was told I might never recover, that I should accept a life of limits.

But I chose otherwise.

As I rebuilt, postpartum challenges emerged. Then came a brush with cancer—one test after another. Yet through it all, I refused to accept ceilings. I rose with fierce determination and rewrote the story handed to me.

Rebuilding from the Inside Out

I rejected being defined by diagnosis. Instead, I created a soul-centered roadmap for recovery—honoring my mind, body, heart, and soul. Through daily mindset work, deep self-care, and holistic strategies, I reclaimed my health, my voice, my power, and my purpose.

The Birth of IMpower

IMpower emerged from this journey—a community and movement for those navigating life’s hardest moments. It’s where healing meets action, and resilience becomes leadership. Through curated events, global speaking, community collaboration, and advocacy, IMpower reminds us: you already hold the power to shape your story. We simply help you remember.

IMpower is about rising—not despite adversity, but because of it. It’s about leading with compassion and authenticity, and transforming pain into purpose. It unites women, youth, and changemakers in Oneness, offering the space and courage to lead with heart in unison.

My Mantra: “When There’s a Will, There’s Truly Always a Way”

This is how I’ve thrived. I’ve faced challenges that break many and stood firm. My superpower is grit—unshakable determination to rise. Recovery isn’t passive; it’s a conscious act of courage, rooted in faith, confidence, and intentional choice.

A Unique Framework for Healing

My approach integrates every dimension of healing—body, mind, heart, and soul. Traditional models often overlook emotional and spiritual impact. I bridge that gap. In my work with Brain Canada, Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF), and Ontario Brain Injury Assocation (OBIA), to name a few, I advocate for compassionate, holistic recovery that centers around empathy and humanity.

The Wide-Angle Lens

Through international speaking, writing, and global partnerships, I champion a wide-angle perspective—one that sees beyond pain, to the silent battles we all carry. This lens transforms adversity into sacred ground for growth, connection, and purpose.

Turning Pain into Power

I advocate for brain injury awareness and mental health. But more than that, I live my truth—taking the darkest moments and turning them into light. I walk through fire, and in doing so, illuminate the way for others to discover their own inner strength.

Curating Life on My Own Terms

I am a heart-led warrior—raw, real, and unapologetically human. As a international speaker, author, advocate, and founder of IMpower, I’ve built a new life from the ground up—aligned with healing, truth, and soul-deep purpose.

What I’ve created didn’t emerge from ease, but from necessity. I rose—moment by moment—to reclaim my story. Today, I curate life on my own terms, and my mission is to inspire others to do the same.

Whether I’m speaking on grit and soul-led leadership, sharing strategies to overcome adversity, or advocating for healing through Shopping with Siobhan—everything I do centers on one truth:

We each hold the power to shape our lives with courage, compassion, and intention.

What Makes My Work Unique

Transformation moves me. Through IMpower, I help others rise and reclaim their worth. After the car accident that changed everything, I didn’t rebuild my old life—I curated a new one. That decision became the heartbeat of IMpower.

Art as Advocacy

Art has been a healing tool. My piece Perfectly IMperfect, featured by the Brain Injury Society of Toronto, symbolizes the journey post-injury—walking forward with empowerment. As a writer and speaker, I share this message: no matter how broken life feels, there is a way forward. Always.

Recent Highlights

Podcast Appearances: Featured on Empower from Within and Behind the Suit: A Plaintiff’s Journey, sharing insights on healing and navigating post-injury life.

Community Engagement: Collaborating with organizations like Canadian Women in Food, to uplift voices and build empowered communities.

Shopping with Siobhan & What’s Next

Shopping with Siobhan is a curated lifestyle platform aligned with the IMpower ethos—promoting wellness, self-care, and intentional living. It’s about more than products—it’s purpose-driven storytelling through experience, alignment, and transformation.

Behind the scenes, new projects are brewing—expanding on the frameworks and tools that have guided my journey and can now support others in theirs.

My Message

We are stronger than we know. Our pain is not the end—it may be the start of transformation. With grit and intention, even our hardest moments can reveal golden nuggets of growth and healing.

We aren’t here just to survive. We’re here to thrive—to live and lead with purpose.

A Final Word from the Heart…

At the core of everything I do is this truth:

We are all the curators of our own lives.

We get to choose what we carry, what we release, and what we build.

I didn’t choose the traumatic brain injury. I didn’t choose my post-partum challenges. I didn’t choose the brush with cancer. I didn’t choose the many moments that nearly broke me.

But I did choose what came next.

And I continue to intentionally choose—each and every day—to live mindfully, boldly, and unapologetically, in full alignment, with my soul’s wholehearted, raw, authentic truth.

I am here to remind you that you have that power too.

No matter what you’ve faced, you can still choose to rise. You can still choose to rebuild.

You can still choose to curate a life that reflects who you truly are—resilient, powerful, and whole, just as you are, in this moment, right here, right now. It’s up to you to choose.

To learn more about my journey and to connect, visit www.siobhanlaceychow.com or follow along at @shoppingwithsiobhan on Instagram.

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?

Looking Back: My Journey from Breakdown to Breakthrough

When I reflect on my journey—from a high-performing corporate professional to a conqueror, advocate, and curator of the IMpower movement—I see a woman who refused to stay down. I didn’t set out to become an empowerment leader or an advocate for healing. Life chose that path for me—when the foundation I once stood on crumbled, I discovered the power to rebuild from within. Through it all, three powerful truths helped me rise: resilience, self-awareness, and empathy.

1. Resilience

Why It Mattered:

After the car accident that changed everything, I was left with a traumatic brain injury and a body that no longer functioned the way it used to. I had to relearn how to walk, how to speak, how to live. And more than the physical hurdles, I had to confront the grief of losing who I once was. What got me through wasn’t superhuman strength—it was the quiet, relentless choice to keep showing up. Every. Single. Day.

What I Learned:

Resilience doesn’t happen in a single moment—it’s built slowly, in the quiet, gritty decisions, the intentional baby steps taken to keep going. I started small: five-minute meditations, journaling my pain, setting micro-goals like counting sidewalk squares. I surrounded myself with people who believed in me, when I didn’t believe in myself —when I struggled to see the light. I advocated heavily for talk therapy, daily support and modalities for rehab, and gave myself permission to fall apart—because that’s where the real rebuilding began.

2. Self-Awareness & Reflection

Why It Mattered:

When I lost everything I knew, I also had the chance to ask: Who am I without the titles, the accolades, the achievements? That question led me into the deepest parts of myself—into the grief, the anger, the fear, the anxiety and eventually… the purpose. Self-awareness helped me understand that I wasn’t here just to recover—I was here to reimagine. That’s when I chose to step into the gift of service, filled with incredible depths of heart, meaning and impact: a life led by my values, my healing, and my soul’s chosen work.

What I Learned:

You must be willing to sit face-to-face with yourself—unfiltered, raw, and real. Whether through journaling, meditation, therapy, or art, find a way to explore your inner landscape without judgment. Ask the hard questions: Who am I? What do I really want? What needs to heal? The more you know yourself, the more powerfully you can navigate the world—and serve it from your raw, authentic heart and soul.

3. Empathy & Community Building

Why It Mattered:

My healing didn’t just belong to me. Once I found my footing, I knew I had to create space for others to be able to join in, as I continued to navigate. That’s why I created IMpower—not to tell my story, but to amplify ours. I’ve spoken on stages, hosted conversations, and built both digital and physical spaces for collective healing. Because empathy doesn’t just heal—it transforms. It connects. It calls us into a higher version of humanity—a Oneness.

What I Learned:

True empathy begins with compassionate listening—deeply, without the need to fix or compare. Engage with stories different from your own. Volunteer. Collaborate. Be wholeheartedly present in uncomfortable conversations. When we create room for shared stories, we foster resilience not just in ourselves, but in each other. And that’s where the real juicy transformation unfolds for us all.

Wisdom & Insights:

We don’t have to have it all figured out to begin. Healing doesn’t happen in a straight line—it’s messy, it’s sacred, and it’s deeply Human, all while we get to embrace our raw, inner true, perfectly IMperfect Humanness.

Start where you are.

Be honest about what hurts.

Be gentle with the parts that are still learning.

And remember: the world doesn’t need perfection—it needs raw, unapologetic, authentic truth.

Your scars don’t make you broken. They make you whole in a new way.

Whatever your path—whether you’re rebuilding after trauma, starting a business, stepping into advocacy, or rediscovering your voice—know this: resilience, self-awareness, and empathy are some of your most powerful tools.

If my story proves anything, it’s that even when life shatters you, you can rebuild something stronger, more beautiful, and more intentionally you than ever before.

I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes, the Man in the Arena, by: Theordore Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Who I Love to Collaborate With

At the core of everything I do—whether it’s through IMpower, Shopping with Siobhan, global keynote speaking, or behind-the-scenes projects—is with a deep-hearted commitment to authenticity, intentionality, and meaningful impact. I collaborate with purpose—with people, brands, and organizations who are doing the work because they care. Because they lead with heart and they lead with soul.

I’m excited to connect with those who are aligned in mission and grounded in service. Here’s who I’m especially eager to co-create with:

Purpose-Driven Brands that champion wellness, sustainability, accessibility, and intentional, conscious consumerism.

Fellow Like-minded Advocates, Educators, Changemakers and Speakers in the areas of mental health, trauma healing, disability (or as I prefer to say, vulnerability) inclusion, and youth, female, and personal empowerment.

Creative Professionals, Authors, Book Publishers and Storytellers who use their work to amplify lived experience, resilience, and identity—especially those uplifting underrepresented voices.

Corporations, Community Leaders, and Global Organizations that are building brave, transformative spaces for connection, growth, and healing.

Event Curators, Media Producers, Podcast / YouTube Hosts and Content Platforms looking to share honest, raw, human-centered stories that move people from inspiration into action.

Ultimately, I look to collaborate with people who care deeply about integrity, equity, and service—people who are willing to show up for the real work, not just optics.

Interested in Collaborating?

If something in my journey resonates with yours, or if you feel our values are aligned, I’d truly love to hear from you. Let’s explore what we can build—united in the Oneness, together.

Email: [email protected]

Website: siobhanlaceychow.com (use the contact form)

Instagram DM: @ShoppingWithSiobhan

I leave you with this…

I like to believe, we are all held, supported, cared for and unconditionally loved by pillars in our lives, what I call some of life’s cherished gifts. Here’s a dose of what that looks like in my world:

Who Helped Shape Me? The Roots and Wings of My Journey Thus Far

My transformation didn’t happen in isolation. While my grit and inner fire have carried me through the darkest chapters of my life, there are two people whose presence has deeply shaped my path: early in life—my Grandfather and presently in life—my Daughter.

My Grandfather: The Root of My Resilience

My grandfather was one of my earliest role models. He didn’t speak much, but his actions were louder than any words. Through his unwavering work ethic, soulful integrity, quiet leadership, and steady presence, he taught me what true grit looks like. He showed me how to move through life with dignity, integrity, humility, and strength—even when no one’s watching.

When I found myself navigating brain injury recovery—learning to walk, talk, and think again—it was his values, wisdom and teachings that anchored me. His example helped me, held me and led me to rise, when I felt like falling apart. His lived-example showed me how to stand firm, grounded and confident in storms. He gave me my foundation and guided me in spirit, to curate it all over again with a whole new level of soulful, heartfelt intention.

My Daughter: The Reason I Keep Rising

My daughter is my why. She is my daily reminder of the kind of world I want to help shape—a world where truth is honored, healing is celebrated, and women can rise from their hardest battles, with their heads held high, IMpowered to stand unapologetically in their raw, authentic truth and humanness.

Becoming a mother changed everything. It deepened my capacity to love, to lead, and to live with intention. It taught me to be soft and strong at the same time. She holds me accountable to the life I’m building and the legacy I’m creating. She is the future I advocate for. She is my little Buddha—teaching me, guiding me and upleveling me, at every turn, as it all unfolds for me by breath, by moment, by day.

Full Circle: The Compass That Guides Me

My grandfather gave me roots. My daughter gives me wings.

Together, they are the compass that guides everything I do—past, present and future.

Their love, their presence, and their impact live in every message I share, every story I tell, and every space I create.

“My grandfather showed me how to stand firm. My daughter reminds me why it’s worth standing at all.”

They are my teachers. My grounding. My inspiration.

And every part of this journey—every word I speak, every life I am humbled to touch—is a reflection of them—their warm hearts, their warrior souls and their incredibly bright inner lights.

To Ponder… who in your world has held you, cared for you, supported you and unconditionally loved you in your life thus far, especially during those times of soul upleveling? What small action can you take right here, right now to let them know or bring some of that light into the world? I’d love to hear from you on what it looks like.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.siobhanlaceychow.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shoppingwithsiobhan/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siobhan-l-779a7b19?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app