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OhHello - Sora Lee
39 Plays1 year ago
OhHello!
It's episode 83 and our next "Hello" (a mentor/expert) is beyond stoked to be part of our OhHello.io 🌞☕️ tribe. This bad ass mama (and Netflix Korean-American reality star via "Love After Divorce") praises the importance of combining personal grit with mentorship in and out of the workplace.
"I love how OhHello.io bridges the gap between helping people navigate their careers, moving up the corporate ladder, and providing access to other execs that would otherwise seem unreachable." -Sora Lee
Sora, the head of global product marketing for creative solutions, at TikTok, came solo to America as a 16 yr old from Korea. From starting her career at TubeMogul, Inc. and going to Netflix, Meta, and TikTok for Business, she acknowledges that asking for #help and #mentorship have played crucial roles in shaping her #career (professionally) and as a single mom.
Some of the mentors that have helped get Sora to where she is:
Jane Kim Hong (via good friend Erica Hong)
Just as Sora's been fortunate to receive guidance, she's passionate about paying it forward. Women's economic empowerment (and emotional well-being) are causes close to her heart, reflecting her family's legacy of small business ownership and the belief in uplifting others.
As a mentor/expert on the platform, she's excited to build-up other Asian American professionals, single parents, and everyone else that wants to ascend within their career! Starting this week, you can book 1:1s w/ Sora via https://ohhello.io/
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What does OhHello.io do? We push people forward while giving back.
Each of our mentors/experts donate a portion of their fees to charities near and dear to them while helping you connect, ascend, and pulling you up!
Come join the OhHello.io 🌞☕️ tribe! And remember to give Sora's pod a 5-star review :)
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Transcript
Reconnecting and Life Reflections
00:00:01
Speaker
Here we go, Sora. Oh, hello, Sora. How are you? I am doing great. How are you doing?
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm great. I'm great. It's wonderful catching up with you. It had been such a long time since you and I had caught up on life, on parenthood, on career evolution. I have the pleasure of knowing you. We worked with each other many, many, many moons ago. Yeah. How the audience.
00:00:34
Speaker
Oh, hello community and your fans. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with? Who are you?
Career Evolution to Global Head at Tech Talk
00:00:40
Speaker
Thanks for having me and it's so nice to see you again. My name is Sora Li. I'm currently the Global Head of Product Marketing at Tech Talk for Creative Solutions.
00:00:50
Speaker
Previously, I was at Meta for six years where I was the product marketing lead for entertainment products with a creative focus. So Reels, live, podcast, et cetera. And I was also head of paid social for Facebook consumer marketing, where I oversaw a team of ad buyers and strategist buying ads for the good of Facebook consumer marketing products and brand initiatives. But I actually joined Facebook to work on
00:01:17
Speaker
omni-channel media planning for whatsapp as well as facebook watch and then before that right after tube mogul which is where i met jeremy um i was at netflix for about three years working on the programmatic digital marketing side to launch originals globally or doing market launches yeah and before that i was at tube mogul i was an account manager on the platform side um covering the
00:01:43
Speaker
Is it what is the mid central market for a for a little bit on this is where I overall coastal east and west. Chicago, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Minneapolis. So, so much goodness, so much heart so much just wholesomeness all state and now you're I do I do or first million dollar IO or something.
00:02:07
Speaker
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, and now you're you're a Netflix star, you're an influencer within the ecosystem. And more, I would say that more importantly, most importantly, you're a mom.
The Role of Mentorship
00:02:20
Speaker
And that's what matters. Yeah, I am a mom. What excites you about the Oh, hello community? What excites you about just mentorship and being able to give back?
00:02:32
Speaker
So for me, my parents are in Korea. They never had a corporate job. So in my mind, I don't think I would be where I am had it not been for the mentors I found and fosters throughout my career, starting from how to have a one-on-one with your manager. How do you ask for a promotion and how do you follow up all these things that schools don't teach you? Because they also don't know how to.
00:02:58
Speaker
Without that, that's what really separates people who continue to move up and those who kind of stay. And that's, in a way, it's unfair. If you compare it with people who have, I don't know, dads and uncles and moms and aunts who have been in this corporate setting can give you that kind of feedback that's more raw and more authentic. Without that,
00:03:21
Speaker
you know, people coming from more like lower income communities will stay there because a lot of that has to do, like a lot of your corporate success has to do with all these unspoken things. And I love what this platform is trying to do and kind of bridging that gap and helping people navigate their career and how do they move up the corporate ladder or even finding if that's what you want to do.
00:03:45
Speaker
Thank you, Sara. Love that you said it like that. I think what's very unique about your ascension and your nonlinear path, like we talked about earlier, is the fact that you came from Korea. You came from South Korea as a high schooler. You were what, 15 years old, 14 years old when you came to America?
00:04:04
Speaker
And yes, you're sixteen years old, not knowing very many people and being able to go to a fantastic college or get into the tech ecosystem, move and navigate your way. It says something about the people that you surround yourself with, but also the confidence that comes with that.
00:04:26
Speaker
Who are there any professional mentors that have helped you build your brand and your confidence and have helped you get to where you are thus far that you want to give a shout out to?
Lessons from Mentors
00:04:38
Speaker
I actually want to call it Jane Hong. So she is if you remember Erica Hong, she worked at two mobile, we also were together at Netflix. And then it's actually her sister who was at Google. And it's like I've I just reached out to her and we had
00:04:55
Speaker
She had me over at her place and we had coffee or snacks because we had that Korean connection. She was a sales leader at Google at the time. She gave me such good advice. She also was really raw.
00:05:10
Speaker
She was still figuring it out and no one has it. I think knowing that we're all work in progress at every stage of the career. I might seem very confident. I might seem like I know exactly what I'm doing and what I want. I don't and that's kind of the beauty of it. But she gave me a lot of tools and frameworks to think through as I move in my career. And then more recently, I had a couple really great managers at Meta.
00:05:36
Speaker
Asim and Kay, so shoutouts. Yeah, those two managers were really great for me because they believed in me and one thing I noticed was they give me praises like on DM like whenever we whenever I present something something went well like they would take the time to tell me hey like great job like really tough audience but you did great those like really specific positive feedback really helped me keep going and that's the kind of leader I want to be.
00:06:03
Speaker
It's amazing. So looking back at the guidance, shout out to Erica and her sister, Jane, the guidance that Jane gave you and just the positive feedback, having people just say, keep on going, you're doing great. Here's how you're succeeding. Here's how you're excelling. And then also understanding like where some of your weaknesses are so you can develop and get better through just having that kind of just those positive affirmations that come through
00:06:32
Speaker
mentorship and just finding and having friend tours in the ecosystem. I love that word friend tours. What defines you? Write that down. Friend tours, okay. Friend tours matter, Sora. What defines you and the characteristics that you're going to be sharing with the Oh Hello community in general, just throughout your career, throughout your years thus far?
Success Traits as an Asian American Woman
00:06:58
Speaker
grit, resilience, but really understanding that we're all work in progress. So finding your voice and especially as an Asian American woman, how do you create a personal brand internally so you can have the
00:07:15
Speaker
What's the word like respect or name for yourself like when you say something like that carries weight because you have a track record of. You know making the right bets and how do you make sure that people know that about you and knowing how to use your voice to find you know the confidence also.
00:07:34
Speaker
How do you know what your strengths are? And that might change. And I really believe that strength is something that gives you energy. So kind of being really in tune with yourself and what things about your current job is giving you energy to keep going. How can you do more of that?
00:07:51
Speaker
I love that something that we're talking about before we hit record a little while ago during our coffee chat was grit and just being gritty and just figuring being able to figure shit out knowing that careers are not linear, knowing that jobs are not linear. Talk through just, you know, a little bit of just grit for you, just how you showcase grit. Love to be able to have the audience here.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, so we are doing things that no one has done before.
Embracing Failure in Innovative Spaces
00:08:25
Speaker
If you're at Netflix, there's no streaming platform that went live globally in one day. At Meta, we're building products that no one has ever built before. So of course, you're going to have to figure it out as you go. No one's perfect. We're all learning.
00:08:42
Speaker
And yeah, you're going to fail sometimes, like just get back up and just understanding that we are all figuring it out. No one has it down really helps you understand. Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:57
Speaker
That's a great call, Sora. What are some charitable causes that are near and dear to
Supporting Women's Economic Empowerment
00:09:02
Speaker
you? Because as you know, as a hello, as a mentor on our platform, you're going to be able to donate a portion of the proceeds to causes that are important. What's something important to you?
00:09:13
Speaker
Um, it would be about women's economic empowerment. So I come from a family of strong women. My mom's always been a small medium business owner and so is my sister and my grandma also worked so much to support the family. So, and there's a little bit of, you know, like women's empowerment that's really closely linked with economic status. I see so many women in,
00:09:41
Speaker
not so great situations in terms of marriage, but they cannot leave because they don't have, you know, the financial means. So that's the cause that I'm really interested in supporting. That's powerful. What other parting words of wisdom do you have for the Oh, hello audience?
Enjoying Work and Productivity
00:09:58
Speaker
Importance of fun. Like, we just had fun. But like, I I'm like,
00:10:04
Speaker
I would get energized by doing things that are fun for me and because that's something I know about myself. I'm a very transparent person. If I don't think this is fun, it will lose me and it'll be very obvious on my face. And if there's an idea that I think is done, it's very obvious on my face. Something I've learned about myself. So because it's so important for me to do the job that I like doing,
00:10:28
Speaker
So that's something about myself. It may not be the case for everybody. How do you make sure that you continue to do things that are fun for you, especially if that's important to you in being productive? Because some people are so good at being productive, doing things they hate doing, I can't. Like good for them, I'll hire you, but like I can't. So yeah, knowing yourself is super important. So you can continue to navigate your career and make your own story.
00:10:55
Speaker
Well said, Sora. Just, in essence, having fun. Productivity is not just about working your ass off. It's having fun while you're making a difference.
Closing Remarks and Gratitude
00:11:04
Speaker
With that, we just want to say thank you. Thank you, Sora. Thank you for being a part of the Oh Hello Tribe. Thanks everyone for listening and for watching. Please book time with Sora. Thank you, my friend. So good to have you. Thank you.