Nov 6, 2018
INTRODUCTION: Today, we are welcoming back my friend, Sonia Hunt. You maybe remember Sonia from way back in episode 60. Sonia is a digital media entrepreneur who has led a successful career in developing brands for global companies in the food and wine, entertainment, technology, and consumer electronic areas. She runs her own digital agency called, Noie Media. Sonia's been recognized by Fast Company as one of the most influential people in the internet, and tracker.com has named her as one of the most influential people in the healthy living sector. Sonia also spends a lot of her time focusing on helping people with severe food restrictions. You may remember from our earlier conversation that she is a foodie, but she also deals with over 30 allergies herself, and that has become a personal passion for helping people in this area. In fact, her mantra is to stay safe, live healthily, and eat well, and her Ted Talk on this subject has over a million views, so go check that out if you haven't. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Website: soniahunt.com INTERVIEW: Sonia, welcome back to DREAM THINK DO. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm always very grateful. Absolutely. Episode 60, so much has happened since then, holy cow. It's amazing. It’s been great to see your trajectory You've got a book coming out, and I can't wait to talk about that a little bit, but really I want to get into this subject. I know defining success has been really important for you because I know you've wanted to create this life that you want. Has that always been a priority to you? How did this become important, or when did this become important for you? I would say it's always been important. There are probably times where I have lost track or sense of it, and kind of gone down the wrong avenue, I would say. I mean, my life I really feel has been just an evolution to get to the person that you see or hear before you today, which I think is really the best version of Sonia Hunt there's ever been. In the last one to two years has really been the best version, like all the way around, 360. Having two parents who were immigrants that came here, and their first two kids are daughters. My mom was very adamant about telling us daughters that she wanted us to be educated, and get our own jobs, and make our own money because you need to be able to take care of yourself. There's always a high bar, you know I come from Asian parents, who, you know it's all about math and science, and excelling in those areas, because they equate that with monetary freedom. Right? Sure. If you're a scientist, maybe you'll be a doctor, and you'll be super rich, and then you're awesome, you're set. Stuff like that. Ironically, my sister became a doctor, and I became an engineer. How about that? Yeah. It worked out. It kind of worked out. It’s interesting - obviously, our history plays a part in who we become. Our parents, obviously are a huge influence on who we become, but it sounds like that was foundational for you, that expectation that you're going to be successful. Exactly. The foundation was there. The expectation was set, for my sister and I, and then for my younger brother. My sister is even more successful than I am, you know, and in her own field, and so we truly took that to heart. But I would say the part that was always missing, I'll call it the spiritual side of success. I came to Silicon Valley right out of school, this year I can't even believe it, it's 20 years for me here in the Valley. Silicon Valley is definitely a place when at the time when that I came was during the dot com age, and everything was focused on building, and making more money, and making the company more money, and growing in title, and doing that all super rapidly. All of what I call that spiritual side was just lost. Success means you're rich, you're moving up the chain, you're getting to work at the greatest companies,