We had the good fortune of connecting with Donna Hoang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Donna, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I used to hardly ever take risks. I was always taught to stay with the safe route, take the guarantee, and minimize your risks so that you don’t lose or fail. I think playing it safe all your life can become one of the biggest losses you’ll endure. Sometimes the unexpected, the things we can’t foresee, the spontaneity of life are the biggest and best surprises! I think society has conditioned themselves to think of “risk” has a bad occurrence, when we hear “risk” we usually hear a negative connotation with it. A risk is only a “risk” if it has the potential to be rewarding. You wouldn’t take an idea that is guaranteed to fail, there is no risk there, only failure. You can take the safe route and you’ll know and expect the outcomes, nothing more nothing less. Or you can take the risk, you know half of what will happen but the other half could go either way… but if it goes right then it can really be great, if it goes wrong well at least we had it considered as an expectation. When I think of it that way – “risk” doesn’t sound that terrifying. You already know you’re at risk for a failure so try to have a backup plan just incase. If you don’t try for that risk, you’ll never experience the greatness that could’ve come out of it. When you look back on your past experiences and can only say you “wish”, you “could’ve”, you “should’ve”… is that really how you want to describe the moments in your life? For me, risk has never truly been a failure. Even if something doesn’t work out the way I had hoped, that slight chance still brought something new to my life whether I made a new connection, visited a place I hadn’t before, or can say I tried something or experienced it already. I can move on from that venture with confidence. I don’t look back on it and wonder what could’ve or should’ve been. I’ve tried it and am using the results to move forward and try something else.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a registered nurse who used to specialize in traumatic brain injury patients who recently made the switch over to aesthetics. It took me almost a year to find a med spa that was willing to hire me and invest in me. During that year I stumbled across another job opening: becoming a social media coordinator for Diningout Magazine here in Colorado. And before I started either of these professions, I became Lagree certified in April 2020 and began teaching! My pathway was not easy and required many personal investments that often made me think I was regretting this decision or change. Nursing is one of the highest sought after medical degrees in the field today – the competition is real. On top of that, finding a job in the midst of a pandemic was truly a mess. And sadly the pandemic and its effects are the same reason why I left the hospital setting and switched over to aesthetics in such a short amount of time. Both sectors of nursing require a lot of training and on-the-go knowledge while implementing. You feel like you shouldn’t have so much power, but you do. You have to hop right in and get started, patients don’t know who else to trust but you, their nurse and their doctors, you constantly feel like a bit of an imposter starting out. Confidence was a big factor in helping me push through my fears. And even when you truly didn’t know what you were doing, being confident that you were going to be by that patient’s side, you will figure out the situation, you will determine what to do, that confidence is what helped me get the drive to finish that shift, the same confidence helped my patients/colleagues put their trust in me too. In aesthetics its the same just different setting of course. In this world its all about your years of experience, how many faces have you worked on, how many lips have you injected, how many wrinkles have you made disappeared. Without the years, your credibility is easily shot. And I get it, people are paying a lot of money to go and see a provider that knows what they’re doing and to not “botch” their faces. Being a completely new and novice nurse injector in the field, confidence once again is a big factor that helps me stand my ground when meeting people skeptical of my knowledge and skill. Confidence in the practice I’ve done, the mentorship sessions I’ve paid for, the knowledge I’ve been soaking up during the past several months of shadowing, the technique I’ve acquired from professional trainings – the confidence speaks for itself when meeting a new client who wants to discredit you and your work.
As for social media, I’ve always enjoyed it – it was my escape after a long day at work. I love being connected to so many people in a touch of a button. I love seeing the trends, seeing the memories, seeing the newest and the latest. I quickly realized the power of social media and what it can do for me personally if I were to ever start my own business in the future. Every and any major company nowadays has an entire digital marketing team in order to “keep up with the times”. I knew I had a bit of a knack for social media so I really wanted to give it a try professionally. There came in Diningout Magazine, coming back after a quiet year suppressed by the pandemic, the restaurant industry took quite a hit, the work was just not as lively as it once was. It was truly almost the perfect time for me to acquire this job. While I had no prior experience doing social media professionally – it was confidence in being able to provide the company the numbers and quotas they had asked for. It was confidence in myself, I know the trends, I know what works, I know what “looks good” to most people, I know how to work Canva, I know how to work Adobe, and etc. It’s been a learning curve for me and the company as they try to bounce back and its given me an opportunity to learn and share my successes and struggles with the team. I have also invested into digital marketing/social media courses online to help further my skills and knowledge of the digital world. Confidence only goes so far, eventually I knew I needed some real knowledge and technical skill to help carry me forward.

In all of my ventures, making personal investments is huge. If you are not willing to personally invest into a course, into mentorship sessions, into spending hours on YouTube watching whatever videos.. taking the time to develop yourself and add to your own palette is what I think helped me gain this momentum and tiny brink of success so far in my early twenties. If you are going around asking companies and other people to invest in you but you won’t do it yourself on your own time then theres something lacking there.

Growing up with parents that are not from here, I did my own work by myself at a young age. My parents didn’t know English, they really couldn’t help me with much besides math. They’ve never been in an American school system, I really navigated my own field trips, my own experiences, my own science or art fair projects and decided what was good or a bad use of my time. Knowing my parents grew up without nearly a fraction of resources that I am granted with today really puts the pressure on me to make this life they’ve given me worth it. I am constantly thinking about how do I create financial freedom for myself, for my parents, my family, how do I show my parents that their sacrifice to leaving their country and coming to the states was worth it. Growing up this way taught me the value of independence while being selfless. The American dream is often glorified because its whatever YOU want in your life, who cares about what anyone else says. Well not me, my dream is my parents dream, but after 25 years, I’ve finally figured out how to make their dream a dream of mine too. I’ve found career paths that can honor both parties.
I know there are tons of people out there that are reading this and can nod in agreement, they grew up just like me. While their friends are saying they want to be astronauts and princesses, we are wanting to be doctors and nurses or engineers. The influence of our parents don’t have to be a negative part of our life, I know some people think we are not “living out our dream” by pleasing someone else’s but its not always the case when our families matter more to us than our jobs. For me, I can see my parents now realize that while they’ve always wanted a daughter in the medical field, and that I did, they are seeing my other skills, maybe my true self come out as I am finding these other jobs/stream of income that I enjoy being a part of and they can see how it comes to me with such ease but they saw how much I struggled in nursing school. Now they’re happy to support my social media job, my fitness journey, my business ideas and entrepreneurial personality. Its taken years to build a secure and happy household and it has taken a lot of sacrifice but its paid off for me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love showing people around Denver! I love that our city is really up and coming and making a name for itself on the list of stand apart major cities. I would show them the different “vibes” of our state. One day go to the mountains or take a weekend trip and rent out a cool airbnb and go on a hike, ski in fake snow, take a train ride, go to the hot springs, experience Beau Jo’s in its true form. Then visit Boulder for a day, take a stroll through the flatirons and reward ourselves with healthy and overpriced smoothies and dishes after that on Pearl street. Then explore Denver and its night life, walking around RiNo, scootering over to LoHi. I’d spend time in the small neighborhoods like wash park and south pearl, head down to south broadway for a different vibe then over to sloan’s lake area. We could head down way south and pass through suburbia land like littleton, highlands ranch and lone tree, zip down to Colorado Springs and see a different side. Try the manitou incline, eat at a local restaurant, see the royal gorge, drive past the American history rooted down there. Make it back to cherry creek for a nice dinner evening paired with some higher end shopping.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am heavily inspired by my own friends and family – my parents being immigrants from Vietnam took huge risks when they first got married here in the states. They gathered all their existing income and invested into a business – they knew little English, had no connections in the industry, still had to learn and adapt to new and foreign business policies and regulations here… from a far they had a lot more to lose than to gain but it was a risk they were willing to take. Without that risk, I would not be here and where I am today. They have set me up for success, they’ve provided me with all the pathways I could possibly want to take in one life, they’ve given me access to resources they never had when they were growing up.

Many of my friends now, I had met back when I had a retail job at Lululemon. This store connected me with a variety of likeminded humans and introduced me to connections that I still hold onto today. We all shared a love for health and wellness and I met many individuals that influenced me to take care of myself, be present with my own health (mind+body), and learn to incorporate mindfulness in my day to day life. Lululemon was really where I rooted the belief that I need to take care of myself first before I go and try to take care of others. When I am healthy + well, then I am in an appropriate position to lend a hand to others.

I’ve also met individuals like Larissa Johnson (former Shoutout interviewee) who quit their stable jobs to pursue a risky career. I love meeting people like her, people that are true testaments that you are never truly in the wrong place if you made a decision with your heart/mind/gut/intuition. If it is something you genuinely want to try then what are you waiting for! JUST TRY IT.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_donnahoang_/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnahoang001/

Other: I have multiple instagram pages but my main page showcases and has links to all my pages!

Image Credits
Larissa Johnson, Kirsten Anne, Katrina Prutch

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.