Meet Sophia Wang Choe

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sophia Wang Choe. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sophia below.

Sophia, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.
When I was younger, it was my own pride/ego, confidence, and gumption that kept me moving despite what anyone said. I had my defenses up a lot of the time, but I also just really loved what I was doing and no one was going to take that love and passion away from me. Now as a 35 year old wife and mother, it’s my family that keeps me going. Of course, I want to be a successful small business owner for myself, to have something of my own also, I’ve always wanted to be that boss bitch. It’s harder now mentally/physically when you have a little one to take care of, but they’re the reason why I keep pushing as well. There’s always going to be haters, but they say having haters mean you’re doing something right. The only opinions that matter to me are my friend’s and family’s, and they will always support me. I guess over time the words of haters are in one ear and out the other. Aint nobody got time for that now.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’ve spent about 15 years working in the kitchen professionally. I was and am blessed to find my love for food so early on and turn it into a career. I’ve been able to experience different professions all surrounding the kitchen. I love the fast-paced environment, I will always miss working on the line and maybe one day I’ll be able to be in the back of the house again. Right now, my focus is on my new business, my hot sauce brand. I am currently working on expanding the flavors as well as marketing. As a small start-up company, no one knows who you are. I think one of the hardest parts, is getting your brand out there, your brand awareness. There are literally thousands of different hot sauces here in the states, so I am also targeting other countries with less competition. I have a 3-5 year plan to expand globally, hoping all goes well. We are trying to join a new channel every month. Besides our website, we are selling on Walmart online, Coupang in Korea (like the equivalent to Amazon here), Amazon is coming soon, and many more over-seas as well. I started working on the recipe over 3 years ago, so to see it grow slowly, but surely is exciting to me. I just have to stay persistent.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three things that probably helped me the most during my career up until now is my wide range experience in the food industry, finding my passion for food early on and my drive of wanting to succeed. Having a wide range of experience came with a lot of failure, but that’s probably when I learned the most. It was pretty defeating at first, you learn the hard way nothing good comes easy. Every experience helped open another door. All we can really do is try our best. I’m still taking baby steps towards my success. You might not be where you want to be in life, in your journey, but it’s probably where you should be. All in God’s time.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am always looking to collaborate with other food lovers and influencers from all walks of life. If they want to connect with me they can always find us through our IG: @queencali.redsauce.

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