Soft Power Project

Sherry Fang
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

Soft Power Project is a podcast about the part of reinvention we don't always talk about—the uncertainty, fear, failures, identity shifts, and moments when you have no idea what's next. Sherry Fang has honest conversations with women who are figuring it out as they go. No polished success stories. No pretending to have it all figured out. Just real conversations about becoming. ✨Communicate From Within✨ Do you want to communicate with more confidence without becoming someone you're not? My 1:1 coaching helps leaders build confidence, clarity, and self-trust in the real situations that shape their leadership. If you want to have a chat to see if you are ready to become a leader who communicates with confidence and clarity, fill out this form -> https://forms.gle/Ck9YCxzUzamNGJ4v7 👉 For any questions, please find me at softpower.you@gmail.com

  1. 4d ago

    Real boundary setting and the misconception

    A year and a half ago, I set a boundary with my ex: no more direct communication, go to my lawyer. A month later he messaged me to say he'd talked to my lawyer, didn't like what she said, and had blocked her.I didn't hold that boundary. I held an empty fake peace for a year and a half. Last week I told him one last time: all communication goes to my lawyer. Has he listened? Obviously not. But that's okay. That's not my job.Communication only does 10% of the job. The rest is your action. I'm a communication trainer, and I know the irony. I kept hoping that if I could persuade him, everything would be okay. I was wrong.Today on the Soft Power Project I'm talking about setting a boundary when you know the other side won't change. Boundary setting is like strength training. With heavier weights, you're still going to feel uncomfortable.This is your invitation to set yours in one line, with no explanation. Need help confirming a boundary? Email me at softpower.you@gmail.com. If you need my coaching service: https://forms.gle/w4hA9zB1MNCWTfjL8 0:00 - Boundaries When They Won't Change2:50 - Setting a Boundary With My Ex5:27 - The Empty Fake Peace I Held8:33 - Why Written Beats Direct Communication11:11 - Holding the Line Is 90% of the Job14:07 - Heavier Weights and Asking for HelpWant to understand your own boundary? Let's talk! Fill out this form and see you soon.Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.fm/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/commentsYoutubeInstagramDo you want to become a more confident, clear, and self-trusting communicator?Let's talk! Fill out this form and see you soon. Would you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form.

  2. Sep 25

    Sometimes the scariest choice is the best one | Stephanie Whitley

    Stephanie Whitley was still in the middle of domestic violence, a new mom to a three-year-old and an almost one-year-old, when a moment in her garden knocked her to her knees. It was late spring or early summer of 2022. She was watering her plants with music in her headphones when grief arrived out of nowhere, and with it a realization: the situation she was in, the choices that had led her there, and the life she could give her children instead. She describes it as a veil being lifted. She knew it would be incredibly difficult. She also knew what she had to do. Sherry and Stephanie talk about what happens after you choose to leave. Getting out was not one decision. She compares it to separating industrial strength Velcro, slowly and methodically, and she names why the time after leaving can be a dangerous one. There were moments when getting back together looked easier. From shadow work, to a therapist who pushed her back into dating, to the custody weeks alone that gave her time with herself. She is fierce about protecting her peace now. She still struggles with guilt about the life with mom and dad both at home. Her definition of soft power is a kind of alchemy: turning darkness into lightness, gently, without forcing it. Her advice for anyone going through it right now: sometimes the scariest choice is the best one. 0:00 - Intro1:29 - Lost, then a moment in the garden6:26 - Why leaving is like separating Velcro15:11 - Rebuilding a relationship with herself18:53 - Dating after trauma28:39 - Dating as a single mom34:47 - Protecting her peace43:41 - Did it make her a better mom?46:40 - Soft power as alchemy MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Roddy by Djo, the song Stephanie says resonates with her moment in the garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCfCzzCyMU4 ABOUT STEPHANIE WHITLEY:Stephanie Whitley is a single mom to two young boys. She left an abusive second marriage, and she says she has since worked through most of the trauma it left her with. She is on the parent teacher organization board at her kids' school, was recently appointed to a city committee where she lives, and is going back to school. #SoftPowerProject #SingleMom #Healing #BoundariesLeave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.fm/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/comments YoutubeInstagramDo you want to become a more confident, clear, and self-trusting communicator?Let's talk! Fill out this form and see you soon. Would you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form.

    Sometimes the scariest choice is the best one | Stephanie Whitley

  3. Sep 17

    Validation is delicious, but it doesn't nourish us

    Last year I started the Soft Power Project. I was on my way to reinventing myself, and I really thought I had nailed it. This year I realized I was judging myself for judging myself. Ever since I was little, I've had a camera in my head to judge myself and make sure I show up in a way that's acceptable. When I got divorced at 35 and my world got bigger, that conditioning got worse. This June and July, when I felt my reels weren't getting the likes I wanted, I got really depressed, and I didn't understand why. I had thought healing was black and white. Instead of completely detaching from that conditioning, I just kind of switched audiences. What I'm experiencing is kind of a messy middle, like being handed Lego pieces with no diagram. I'm still not sure who I am or where this is going. Validation is delicious, but it doesn't nourish us. So I ask myself, am I here? If you're in your own messy middle, this is your invitation to sit with a cup of coffee, taste it, and keep that moment to yourself. 0:00 - The Camera in My Head3:02 - Judging Myself for Judging Myself6:01 - The Messy Middle and Validation8:43 - Glow-Ups and the Imaginary Audience #SoftPowerProject #SoftPower #SelfDiscovery #ReinventionLeave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.fm/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/comments YoutubeInstagramWould you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form. See you there~

  4. Sep 11

    Does the healing come before the LOVE? | Mia Vivon

    Mia Vivone's measure of a relationship is not the bouquet. It is the man who drove through a parking lot in the pouring rain to help a stranded couple. It was around Valentine's Day, the couple was stalled in the middle of a five lane road, and he happened to be carrying a charging box. She filmed it, posted it, and said: this is the man that I chose. Sherry and Mia talk about what happens when the beliefs we absorbed as children start choosing our partners for us. Mia is back on the Soft Power Project after their first conversation about trauma and the nervous system, this time to say what emotional availability actually means. Not the absence of conflict. She defines it through conflict. From dating apps to princess treatment to the fifty three years it took her to go no contact with her own mother. When a couple tells her they never fight, what she hears is how much has frozen. How long ago the talking went quiet and the flirting stopped. And the women waiting to meet someone already healed are waiting for something she has not found in herself. The more she grows, the more comes for her to grow. Mia says soft power is a sacred commitment to keep the promises she makes to herself. No matter what, she will honor who she is. If nobody has ever shown you what repair sounds like, this is a good place to begin. 0:00 - Intro1:10 - Same song, different partner2:38 - What the dating apps make harder11:19 - Can you do the work alone?16:10 - Emotional availability and conflict28:26 - Princess treatment and what it costs33:22 - The beliefs we inherit45:25 - Stability, not rich52:44 - Soft power in a relationship MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Mia's first appearance, Episode 102: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVCRNJxuqvM The UNTRIGGERED Woman Trauma Transformation System: https://miavivone.com/the-untriggered-woman-trauma-transformation-system Dr. Aaron Beck on cognitive schema: https://beckinstitute.org/about/dr-aaron-t-beck/ ABOUT MIA VIVONE: Mia Vivone is a relationship and success coach for trauma survivors and the creator of The UNTRIGGERED Woman Trauma Transformation System. She raised two children mostly alone after coming out of an abusive relationship, working two and three jobs across eleven years of college. She hosts The Untriggered Woman Podcast.https://miavivone.com/https://www.instagram.com/mia_vivone/ #SoftPowerProject #Relationships #EmotionalAvailability #WomenPodcast Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/comments YoutubeInstagramWould you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form. See you there~

    Does the healing come before the LOVE? | Mia Vivon

  5. Sep 3

    Start with the why

    Putting your healing journey on social media means living in a constant contradiction between authenticity and performance. I don't think anyone ever told me that part. Late June and early July arrived all at once. The Soft Power Summit in New York had just happened, I hit the 20k mark on Instagram, and my family life was coming apart. I'm working on resetting my relationship with my parents. When you set boundaries, people who don't know this new version of you push back. I let the ugliness come out. Then I spent about a week and a half in bed. Then came the question of why I do this. I had started asking whether to work the hook better, reorder my own story so it lands harder. I'm not here to be an influencer. I'm here to take away the shame. I'm still figuring out the balance. It still bothers me when something doesn't perform. On the Soft Power Project I want more unpolished conversations, the ones that aren't success stories. Soft power here looks like telling the story instead of performing it. I'm here to find my people. If you're struggling with this, start with the why. TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Intro0:17 - What Happened in June and July0:51 - Resetting Things With My Parents1:33 - A Week and a Half in Bed2:13 - Authenticity Versus Performance3:33 - I'm Not Here to Be an Influencer5:04 - A Better Place With Social Media6:42 - Why I Started, and What I Want Now9:08 - What Do You Want to Know? #SoftPowerProject #SoftPower #MentalHealth #SelfDiscoveryLeave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/comments YoutubeInstagramWould you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form. See you there~

  6. Aug 29

    The wound is where the light exits | Niamh Devine

    Niamh Devine squatted on a strawberry farm for hours. When she stood, her left foot was dead, and no doctor could tell her why her body had done it.Their best guess was nerve damage. Their best timeline was probably a year or two. She didn't like the word probably.Her body had been speaking long before that. Years of sore throats while she swallowed what she actually wanted to say. An infection that arrived mid-broadcast, at the peak of a week she describes as nothing but pressure. She had no language for any of it yet.Sherry and Niamh talk about what happens when you stop trying to fix your body and start listening to it. Fifteen years in Irish television, a career she reached the top of and felt nothing about, a Buddhist meditation hall she walked into knowing nothing, and a single word that dropped into her head on the fifth day and pointed the way out.Her answer to what soft power means is one word long. Where she ends up is nowhere she set out for.TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro1:36 - Fifteen years in Irish television9:16 - What the sore throats were saying11:20 - The foot that stopped working19:41 - Conditioning and the eight week test28:51 - Know that you're choosing it34:09 - Compassion, not spiritual superiority53:30 - Soft power is intuition1:00:42 - Finally landing homeMENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Niamh Devine, Devine Mind Body: https://niamhdevine.com/Listen to your body, Niamh Devine, TEDxTraleeWomen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNFKpMMMyk4The Language of the Body: https://niamhdevine.com/language-of-the-bodyDr. John E. Sarno: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_E._SarnoThe Beth Israel Deaconess mind-body back pain research Niamh cites: https://bidmc.org/news-stories/all-news-stories/news/2021/09/researchers-mind-body-program-outperforms-other-chronic-back-pain-treatment ABOUT NIAMH DEVINE:Niamh Devine is a TEDx speaker, meditation teacher, and somatic and energy practitioner. She spent more than fifteen years in Irish television and media before a health crisis no doctor could explain turned her towards the mind-body connection. She now works in emotional healing through Devine Mind Body, where her course The Language of the Body helps people read what chronic symptoms may be asking of them. https://niamhdevine.com/ | https://www.instagram.com/devinemindbody/ #SoftPowerProject #MindBodyConnection #Healing #SelfDiscoveryLeave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/comments YoutubeInstagramWould you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form. See you there~

    The wound is where the light exits | Niamh Devine

  7. Aug 21

    Great leaders go deep before they rise high with Sarah Tse

    The week Sarah Tse left her corporate job, Australia went into a national lockdown. A long relationship had ended not long before. Home, alone, unemployed, all at once. She calls it the turning point.Her heartbeat had surged to 130 on the train into the city, past the Harbour Bridge. She was exhausted at work and lost, and she thought something was wrong with her physically. So when the last round of restructure came, she decided she needed a change.Sherry and Sarah talk about what happens when the title goes and you have to find out who is underneath it. She is a registered organisational psychologist who knows the power of positive self-talk, and she says that when it happened it was still tough. In the six months that followed she picked up a brush she had not touched since high school, and watched the paintings move from dark navy to something brighter without ever deciding to change the colours. The model she coaches now is be still, explore, act. And the distinction she keeps returning to, between leaders who splash around in the shallow and leaders who go deep before they rise high. Asked what soft power means, she says it is never soft. Handle people with care, she says, and know the difference between gentle and fragile. If you are between who you were and who you are next, this conversation will not rush you. 0:00 - Intro2:47 - Her name in the grey box4:50 - She left, then lockdown hit7:52 - What actually helped her cope11:30 - Painting and aromatherapy16:55 - Be still, explore, act21:39 - Shallow vs deep-dive leaders36:10 - Why leaders get so lonely43:34 - Soft power is never soft MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Sarah's TEDx talk, "When I'm fine isn't fine": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcVLJ4CudFIShema Coaching: https://linktr.ee/shemacoachingSarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahtse1104/ABOUT SARAH TSE: Sarah Tse is a registered organisational psychologist, leadership coach and keynote speaker based in Sydney, and the founder of Shema Coaching. She spent about a decade in product innovation and service design across financial services and government before moving into coaching and speaking full time. She coaches in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. https://www.instagram.com/shema.coaching/ | https://linktr.ee/shemacoaching#SoftPowerProject #SoftPower #Leadership #CareerTransitionLeave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/comments YoutubeInstagramWould you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form. See you there~

    Great leaders go deep before they rise high with Sarah Tse

  8. Aug 19

    Anything healthy can become unhealthy

    Anything healthy can become unhealthy if it's driven by fear, control, or self-policing. I'm learning that this year, in my own body. I grew up in a family obsessed with wellness and longevity: my dad and his heavy medicine books, my mom making kombucha in a hot Taiwan kitchen thirty years ago, before it was popular, Tai Chi lessons at fourteen with fifty and sixty year olds. I loved ballet, and by ten I was watching my arms and stomach in the mirror. For decades after that I often skipped dinner, because it was the easiest way to control my weight.Making the Soft Power Project finally got me into a gym for the first time in my life. I told my trainer I just wanted to feel strong. What my body asked for instead was dinner.I'm still adjusting. I've gained weight, my stomach isn't flat, and my old self still comments on it. But soft power here looks like letting my body find its rhythm instead of policing it.If you've done all the healthy things and still felt like something wasn't right, this one is for you. What are you giving yourself permission to eat?TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Sherry's Health Journey Begins5:25 - The Impact of Family on Wellness9:57 - Self-Policing and Body Image12:53 - Finding Balance and True Wellness #SoftPowerProject #SoftPower #WellnessJourney #SelfDiscoveryLeave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm5etbvm00a1i01sl6k6h99de/commentsYoutubeInstagram Would you like to share your life stories?Please fill out this form. See you there~

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5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Soft Power Project is a podcast about the part of reinvention we don't always talk about—the uncertainty, fear, failures, identity shifts, and moments when you have no idea what's next. Sherry Fang has honest conversations with women who are figuring it out as they go. No polished success stories. No pretending to have it all figured out. Just real conversations about becoming. ✨Communicate From Within✨ Do you want to communicate with more confidence without becoming someone you're not? My 1:1 coaching helps leaders build confidence, clarity, and self-trust in the real situations that shape their leadership. If you want to have a chat to see if you are ready to become a leader who communicates with confidence and clarity, fill out this form -> https://forms.gle/Ck9YCxzUzamNGJ4v7 👉 For any questions, please find me at softpower.you@gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    Sherry Fang
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    114
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sherry Fang
  • Show Website
    Soft Power Project

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