Meet Sonia Dong

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sonia Dong a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sonia, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome has appeared most often in my professional life. Taking on a leadership role, being promoted, changing or pivoting careers and becoming a business owner have all resulted in imposter syndrome. Negative self-talk, and allowing fear and anxiety to take over as my default mode made it difficult for me to show my true value and to shine. What worked to overcome imposter syndrome was a multi-pronged approach that focused on mindset shifts and evidence-gathering. I changed how I spoke to myself, encouraging myself rather than criticizing, and I worked on self-compassion. I cheered myself on for showing up and doing my best and forgave myself for not being perfect. I learned from my mistakes rather than beat myself up over them. I also took stock of my accomplishments and kept a journal of my wins each day, however small or big.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and a mom of two on a quest to live a joyful and abundant life.

Born and raised in Canada to immigrant Chinese parents, I was instilled with a desire to make the world a better place by helping both people and the planet. Before the 3Rs became a thing, I learned from my parents how to reduce, reuse and recycle.

As an adult, I am continuing in my journey to contribute positively to the world. Each step in my path has taught me something valuable, including working in different types of organizations, from entry to board level, non-profit to profit, how to work with diverse teams as well as developing programming and products in collaboration with community and customers.

In my present capacity at Henkaa, I get to use clothing as a means to uplift women and help them do more with less, while donating 1% of our sales to the Joanna Duong Chang Memorial Foundation to help girls and women reach their fullest potentials.

However, as much as I love that Henkaa’s convertible dresses empower women and girls to embrace themselves, helping them feel confident to look and feel good on their own terms, it is time for me to move on and for this chapter of Henkaa to end. Henkaa’s Closing Sale is on now at www.henkaa.com.

As my two daughters enter the tween and teen years of their lives, I’m closing Henkaa’s direct-to-consumer business and I’m creating a life where I can spend more time with them while guiding them through this important period of growth and discovery. My contribution to the book Mamas Gotta Grow was just the beginning – I am excited to launch something new in the coming months so stay tuned!

In the meantime, while I am working behind the scenes on my new projects, I am also building my speaking chops by guesting on podcasts. I speak about:
-habits and life lacks to help ease stress within your family unit
-how a gratitude practice improved my relationship with husband and kids
-navigating the use of digital devices and screen time with kids
-overcoming feelings of guilt as a working mom and defining my own success
-learnings and tips from a socially conscious product based business owner

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

The three qualities, skills or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey were:

1. Letting go of perfectionism
2. Growth mindset
3. Gratitude practice

I would tell folks who are early on in their journey to seek out and expand their network. Isolation creates a vacuum that feeds imposter syndrome. Find people who are further along and learn from them so you can see what’s possible for you. Connect with people who are in the same stage so you can problem solve with each other and lift each other up. And give back by passing on your learning and advice to people just starting out to foster collaboration and support rather than competition.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I love reading and applying the knowledge I gain from books. I’d love to recommend three books:

Atomic Habits – James Clear
This book is about building productive habits that last. The concept of habit stacking – or connecting a new desired habit on top of an old habit was really helpful for me.

10x is Easier Than 2x – Dan Sullivan, Benjamin Hardy
This book is about creating big, 10x goals which forces you to focus on fewer things, doing them better and moving the needle more quickly. You do less, and you do it better. I loved the concept of developing your own Unique Ability and the importance of incorporating rest and recovery to 10x your life.

Who Not How – Dan Sullivan, Benjamin Hardy
This book is about finding the who to help you achieve your goals, rather than focusing on the how. When we think of reaching our big goals, or leveling up, we often think that we must figure out the how, and to that we will need to work more hours and have less time. This book helped me ask “who” first – who has the skills, who can do this better than me, who can make this easier?

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Micaela Cali Photography and Hildebrand Studios

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