Divas That Care Network
The #DivasThatCare movement is a dynamic force of positivity and progress. It's a collective of empowered women united by a shared vision: to pave the way for future generations. These women are not only breaking barriers—they’re also committed to equipping the next generation with the tools, resources, and confidence to lead with purpose.
By discovering and defining your purpose, you unlock the power to uplift those around you and contribute to a better world—every single day.
The Divas That Care Change Makers lead by example. They’ve walked the path, and now they’re using their voices to inspire others—one intentional day at a time.
Divas That Care Network
Smashing Glass Ceilings with Kyra Wong
What does it take to break through invisible barriers that hold us back? Kyra Wong's journey from orphaned young adult to corporate Vice President offers profound insights into transforming personal struggles into professional triumph.
Abandoned without a support system in Vancouver after losing her parents, Kyra initially sought validation through relationships, resulting in two failed marriages by age thirty. Finding herself a single mother feeling like "a disaster," she made a pivotal decision to invest in her own healing rather than seeking external salvation. Through therapy, self-development work, and relentless determination, she confronted the pain points preventing her from reaching her potential.
When Kyra entered the insurance industry—worlds away from her fine arts background—she distinguished herself through bold creativity. Delivering presentations in costume as characters like "Dr. Wong" or Orphan Annie to illustrate insurance concepts, she connected deeply with audiences while exceeding expectations. This willingness to be vulnerable and different propelled her career forward to executive leadership.
The Magical Unicorn Project emerged from Kyra's recognition of three distinct barriers facing women: corporate glass ceilings limiting advancement, social glass ceilings permitting harassment and inequity, and emotional glass ceilings—the limiting beliefs we impose on ourselves. Through interviewing successful women and supportive men, Kyra creates space for difficult conversations while fostering collaboration rather than division.
Her SPARKLE philosophy encapsulates her approach to breaking barriers: Speak with kindness, maintain Positivity, accept Adversity as opportunity, Rise up beyond expectations, give Kudos generously, share Love in all actions, and Express gratitude daily. This framework has guided her remarkable journey from adversity to advocacy.
Ready to break through your own glass ceilings? Visit magicalunicornproject.com to discover how you can transform obstacles into opportunities and create the empowered life you deserve.
For more Divas That Care Network Episodes visit www.divasthatcare.com
hi everybody and welcome to the divas that care show on the welcome to phoenix butterfly. Divas that care on the divas that care network and I'm really excited to bring you the most incredible diva today and introduce her to our world and allow you guys to get to know her a little bit better, and hopefully her story will inspire you some way to move through your journey of life and to really be empowered to do something magnificent for you. I would love to introduce Kyra Wong. She is a Vancouver-based vice president and advocate for advancement of women. Kyra is one of the founding committee members of CARESca with a K, which is a program that supports youth charities and services by providing engaging programs to help youth at risk and let them reach their full potential. She is named a Woman of Influence by the CMP Magazine in both 2015 and 2016. Welcome, kyra. We're so excited to have you here and allow you to take this stage and just introduce yourself and let the divas get to know you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I mean I don't know what to say. I'm honored to be on your show today and hopefully something that comes out of my mouth will help inspire and empower another woman. So that's what I'm here for.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, Kyra. So allow the divas just to get to know you a little bit better. What could you share with them?
Speaker 2:Okay, well, you know I have a bit of an interesting journey. I think how I got to where I got today is a result of a lot of adversity and a lot of never giving up. A lot of adversity and a lot of never giving up. And I know, with women who go through lots of challenges especially, they can really feel, like you know, limited perhaps in what they might be able to accomplish. Sometimes the stories that we tell ourselves in our own minds, based on what's happened to us in the past and our life experiences, can be something that holds us down.
Speaker 2:And I'm somebody who lost my parents at a fairly early age. I moved to Vancouver and I pretty much had to just go out there and make it on my own, and that's a really hard thing to do when you're by yourself and you have nobody and no support system. It really just can be the difference of one or two wrong choices that lead you down a completely different path. But I'm certainly not a perfect human being, but I was very determined to go out there and make something of myself and be a success. I just grew up being the black sheep of the family, not fitting in, feeling different, feeling unlovable, and when I turned 18 and moved to Vancouver, I felt like it was my opportunity to really go out there and be the person I was meant to be, the person that I felt I couldn't be in my childhood, when I was growing up that I felt I couldn't be in my childhood when I was growing up.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's awesome. So could you share with the viewers and listeners a little bit more about what kind of obstacles and adversity have you gone through to get to where you are today?
Speaker 2:So I guess it started with the fact that you know, I suppose what I was trying to do always when I first moved away from home is that because I didn't have my family and I didn't have that support system, I was always out there, I think, throwing myself against the wall, hoping I would stick and trying to find self-worth through relationships. But when you come from a background that's you know hasn't been healthy, you really can't pick the right relationships to be in right. You're not coming from an empowered place. So I sort of started off, you know, dating guys, being with guys who could not be good guys for me in my life and I was always looking for someone to come in and save me. I didn't necessarily have the self-esteem or the self-worth to feel like I could go out there and do it on my own, even though I desperately wanted to do that. So I basically, you know I went to school, I got married. I got divorced. I got married again, still looking for, you know, I went to school, I got married. I got divorced. I got married again, still looking for, you know, the Prince Charming.
Speaker 2:I got divorced again and by the second time I got divorced, I was now a single mom with a child and you know, about 30 years old by now and I'm thinking, oh my God, look at, like I'm a disaster, like what am I doing? Like I, this is not the life I envisioned for myself. And you know, the beautiful thing about having my son is I felt like I really had to sort of figure this out and get my act together and and go out there and do it on my own and not look to somebody else a relationship, a man, whoever to rescue me from myself or my situation. So I started doing a bunch of different sort of you know I guess self-help type stuff. Like I went to the landmark forum, I went to therapy, I read a bunch of books and I really invested in my own personal growth and healing. And then when I did that, I was sort of able to, you know, recognize where I was going wrong, why I was going wrong, and confront those pain points in my life that were preventing me from being my best self. So right around that same time, I had to obviously go back to work because I had left my second husband.
Speaker 2:I'm a single mom and I got this job in the insurance industry, which was a brand new profession for me, and then I just was determined to keep focusing on growing, improving and never looking back and becoming a success. So the thing about me my education is actually in fine arts, so to end up in insurance is quite a different thing, based on who I am as a person and the kind of creative being that I really am. But I found a way to incorporate my creativity into my career by doing things in a really different way. I took a risk. I mean, essentially, I took a pretty big risk because what I started doing is I started doing presentations for my clients and stuff big presentations and I would dress up in costumes that were related to themes, right. So if I was talking about medical underwriting, for example, I would go up there as Dr Wong in my Dr Wong attire. And part of the reason I did that is because I thought well, you know, insurance isn't necessarily the most interesting subject matter for my audience, but I can make it more interesting by bringing something different to the table. So I did that.
Speaker 2:I did Orphan Annie.
Speaker 2:I went up on stage completely dressed up like Orphan Annie and talked about the fact that, you know, annie ended up in the orphanage because her parents died and they didn't have any life insurance. So I just started doing these really indifferent kind of things, but it really engaged the audience. And then I started became this person that people expected me to go out there and do something fun and make it engaging and bring something, you know, unique to the table. And so I was able to sort of build my career that way and I was fortunate enough to have clients that really embrace that. They were, you know, very progressive and had open mindsets and and really encouraged me to be that kind of unique, sparkly person out there doing things in a different way and celebrating that. So I was fortunate, because you don't always necessarily get that in the corporate world, but because I was having lots of success and growing the account, nobody could really tell me to stop.
Speaker 2:So I just kept doing it and then eventually I got promoted to a national sales director role and from there I got promoted to a district vice president role and just kept building upon, you know, the things I was doing. That was working. I like to do more than what's expected of me and I like to bring something different to the table. And I think when you do that and you put yourself out there in a vulnerable way, you can connect with people in a deeper way too. Like, I think people appreciate it when you go out there and you take a risk, because so many people aren't willing to do that, because they're probably afraid of what people are going to think or being judged and all of those things right. But I'm always very connected to my passions and my purpose and so I just do instinctively whatever I feel is right and believe in it and never look back, and that has worked for me really well.
Speaker 1:I love how you pointed out you know you are really clear about your passion and your purpose and how important that is to so many people's lives. You know, if we don't have a passion and purpose, what direction do we go? It's like going on a road trip or going on a vacation without a roadmap. Yeah, really, it truly doesn't give you that same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely so, and I think you know if you can do anything where you're I mean, living is about giving. So even if you don't know what your passion or purpose is right now, today, I think as long as you are doing things to help contribute positively to someone else's life, in whatever way that might look like, that's the first step in on your journey to finding your purpose, Because I certainly had never envisioned creating a women's empowerment initiative at any time in my life. But just things will naturally progress when you do things in a different way.
Speaker 1:Right, and so share a little bit more about that, what you have created.
Speaker 2:Sure. So last year I was really having a very, very tough year and you know, it was one of those years I had just been promoted to my district vice president role and I was like feeling amazing, and this is gonna be wonderful, and now I'm going to do all these great things and I was imagining it being this terrific kind of year and then, oh my goodness, one thing after another, after another after another in my personal life and in my professional life was just blowing up on me and it was unexpected. It was. It just seemed like it was coming out of nowhere. And you know, I mean, I'm not 20 years old anymore, so I have enough life experience to know that when stuff like this starts happening to you in a big way, the universe is really sort of talking to you, trying to wake you up and let you know that there's something out there, bigger, that it wants you to do. So, as hard as it was to go through all these different things, I was staying really open and sort of looking for the signs along the way in terms of what I was meant to do with all of this adversity. And the signs just started popping up in different ways, from different people, different avenues in different ways, from different people, different avenues.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that happened was I saw this article on LinkedIn posted by a man in Asia, and it was talking about how underrepresented women are in senior management positions corporately, and it made me think about my own struggle corporately. I mean, yes, I've achieved, you know, a certain amount of success, but what it's taken to get there and how hard that journey really is. And then when you look and see how many few women are at the top and even less if you're a minority I mean I'm a fake minority, I have a white Wong, so that doesn't even count, right, and I just thought, wow, you know for things to get better for women. I mean, really, in an ideal world where true equality exists, that should in senior management positions, that should really be like a 50-50 sort of scenario. You, we both have our, I think, strengths and beautiful things that we, you know, we bring that complement each other, but they're different and I think you know, just in terms of synergy and and working environments and success, that that looks the best and probably gives us the best results.
Speaker 2:A 50-50 mix is, is is definitely the best way to to proceed. And so how do we get there? How do we get more female leaders in those top positions? So we have a bigger voice at the table and I think when you have a bigger voices at the table as women, there's less opportunity for the second glass ceiling, which I'm addressing it, which is the social glass ceilings, the social injustice, you know, sexual harassment, the sort of things that happen to women, not just in the workplace but just in our everyday life. And when you have, I think, more female leaders, there's less opportunity for that to happen, and I think that's a really important thing.
Speaker 2:So I kind of started from that framework, but then when I thought about glass ceilings and you know what else keeps women down One of the biggest ones that I think and we have control over this and that's the emotional glass ceilings, that's, the limited belief systems we have inside our own minds, often because of our childhood experiences or things that have happened to us in life, because of our childhood experiences or things that have happened to us in life, and then we start creating the story, whether it's I'm not good enough, I'm unlovable, I can't do that. We start telling ourself that's completely not true and it keeps us down and prevents us from living our best life. So those were the three things I felt in terms of helping women get to where they want to be so they can have joyful, successful, happy, empowered lives. Those are the three key challenges I wanted to sort of hone in on and talk about so that we can help women. You know, just have a much better experience than we currently do today.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So you have an incredible name for this and you have neat stuff that you have on the go. I would love if you would share some of that with us.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the project name is called the Magical Unicorn Project and people are are probably thinking what the heck does unicorns have with women's empowerment? Right, but the reality is, unicorns have everything to do with women's empowerment and I chose that. Uh, I chose unicorns very symbolically, because the unicorn is the only animal of all the animals that has one horn, and the uni in unicorn is Latin for one and for oneness. So when I started this project, I thought you know, like there's so many negative connotations to feminism and all this stuff and I don't see my. I mean as much as I say I don't see myself as a feminist. All feminism really is about is wanting equality right. So imagine if we called it being an equalist. But the way I see it is that men have a very important role to play in helping to empower women right and support women to get to where we want to be. I don't see this. I don't see true equality as a man versus woman sort of thing. I see it as no men and women working together to achieve true equality. So I wanted men to very much be a part of this initiative and I wanted to celebrate the great men that are out there. They're doing wonderful things to help support women and right around when I was creating this project, all the Me Too stuff blew up on social media and all the rest of it, and one of the things that really saddened me was that you know there are so many great men out there but none of them were saying boo on social media because, even though they're not one of those perpetrators, I think the very fact that they were a man, all the men felt like, oh my God, I'm a man. That makes me feel like I guess I'm a perpetrator, I don't have a voice here, and I really want to create something where the good men could have a voice and feel safe so that they could, you know, basically put pressure on the other men to help them level up.
Speaker 2:So the unicorn I mean it symbolizes a bunch of things. I mean believing everything is possible, you know, even before you can see it right, like equality. It's possible, it can happen, it's out there Making it's magical right. I mean there's there's something very inspiring about, about unicorns and the magic and the possibility that they bring, but mostly it was about when I'm dressing up as a unicorn. It was deliberate in that, if I'm going to be talking about social injustice and and difficult subject matter with men and women. I kind of wanted to create this very visually approachable and gentle sort of creation, visual so that people it could soften the commentary, if that makes sense, right, because some of these things that we're talking about they're not the easiest thing to talk about, but if you're talking to a unicorn, well guess what. Just feel so much safer, right, and it's worked. It's been kind of like a fun and gentle way to sort of, you know, engage with people and have really honest and genuine deep kind of conversations around some of these tough subject matters and give everybody a voice.
Speaker 1:What an incredible, creative way to do something remarkable. How could anyone find out? You know more about this, kyra. You know, if they are interested in learning a little bit more, you've treaked their interest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've got a website. It's it's a magical unicorn projectcom, and I've just started this initiative this year. What I'm doing is I'm interviewing leading ladies, which are women who have gone out there and achieved big things in their career. And I mean, listen, anybody who's achieved big things has had to overcome a lot of adversity. So these women are really inspiring and I asked them a bunch of questions about how they got there, what they've had to overcome. We talked specifically addressing social and corporate and emotional glass ceilings and corporate and emotional glass ceilings, and so I'm producing these videos with leading ladies and then also supporting men. So it's all brand new. I don't have tons of videos in there yet, but this is just going to grow and evolve every year. I just am launching on Friday Actually, it's in the website right now, but on Friday I'm going to be pushing it out through social media website right now, but on Friday I'm going to be pushing it out through social media An interview with a gentleman from Alberta named Michael Cameron, an amazing human being who two years ago, his girlfriend was murdered by an ex-boyfriend and, instead of letting that just turn him into an angry you know, horrible person, he decided that he was going to take that anger and go out there in the world and do something to help support women and speak out about gender based violence.
Speaker 2:So I had the privilege to interview him at Lake Louise at the end of May, and so that interview has just been posted in our website as of, I think, yesterday. So the timing is great. But it's just so nice to do these interviews and connect with all these amazing people who share their wisdom and can inspire us to be better humans and do more, to go out there and do more than we have to do, because I think there's a saying like rising tides make all the boats go higher. I forget exactly how, how it says, but it's a great quote anyways, and I love that, because the more everybody does to make that a contribution, you know, and make a positive difference, the quicker that we can all get there together.
Speaker 1:Nice, that's awesome, and so quickly. We have to wrap up quickly. But just before we go, you talk a lot about glass ceilings and I find it very fascinating and for all those listening that kind of caught that in a few things that Kyra said. You know, could you explain glass ceilings a little bit before we let you go?
Speaker 2:Sure, I mean glass ceilings are things that keep us down. So when you're going up corporately, it's like boom, boom, boom. It's all of a sudden you feel like, hey, you know what, I'm stuck here. How come I can't like go higher? Why am I being kept down? What is that? It feels like this invisible bubble and we can't see it, but we know it's there and it keeps us down. So so corporate glass ceilings that's why we have so few women. You know, at the top, for example, there's that, that ceiling that we're trying to smash through. And I'm smashing through it with a magical unicorn horn, just so you know, because I think when you do things in a different way, you get a different result. So I'll bring my little piece of crazy in there and say let's do this, we're doing something different here.
Speaker 2:But and then social glass ceilings? I mean this has to do with the fact that you know it's social injustice, right? A social glass ceiling is the all the abusive, horrible things that happen to women and somehow society just turns a blind eye or deems it acceptable. I mean, we know a lot of the stuff that goes on out there is, whether it's sexual harassment or whatever it is. It's wrong, right.
Speaker 2:Why is that there? Why is that okay? Why do we not have more people speaking out on it, right? And now there's this kind of movement that's happening, where I think women and men now too, are starting to speak out on it. But it's a ceiling because it keeps us down when someone sexually harasses you, whether it's your boss or a superior or whoever that affects you, and somewhere that keeps you down. So ceilings have to do with anything that keeps you down, whether it's coming from the outside world or it's coming internally, with an emotional glass ceiling, something that you're actually doing to yourself. But we have the capacity to smash through all the ceilings and live joyful, empowered, successful lives.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Thank you so much, kyra. Well, teva, as you're listening, kyra has been absolutely incredible today to share her journey, what she's overcome, some of the challenges that she's faced, and smashed through as like she would through that and created something magnificent in spite of, and so I hope that you got a few notes or tidbits of information or those key phrases she had a whole bunch of them in there about you know, really serving others and coming from that authentic place to know that you're enough and to know that you're worthy of so much more than sometimes we think of for ourselves. And so you can find her, kyra. Do you want to, kyra? Do you want to give her them your email or the website one more time if they are interested in learning more and listening to all these videos that are coming up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there'll be lots coming out. I've done a whole bunch. I just sort of post them every month or so. Just I've got them sort of spread out. So it's magicalunicornprojectcom and I'll just leave you with something. There is a magical success formula in within the project. If you visit the website, it's there and it's called sparkle, and sparkle is an acronym that I created and it's the way I live my life and, honestly, by living my life that way, it's gotten me to where I've gotten to today. It's not easy and I don't do it perfectly all the time, but it's what I strive to do, what I strive to live up to every single day. And if you guys can incorporate sparkle into your life and believe in yourself, there is no limit to what you can achieve and to the incredible kind of life that you can have. I promise you.
Speaker 1:Awesome and do you want to share Sparkle with us? Before we say goodbye to these amazing listeners, there's time, sure.
Speaker 2:So. The S is for speak Speak with kindness and candor to create an environment of openness, honesty and acceptance. The P is for positivity inspire, uplift and always choose to make a positive contribution in the world. Inspire, uplift and always choose to make a positive contribution in the world. The A and this is the big one, girls the A is for adversity accept adversity and use it as a platform to advance upon even bigger opportunities. The R is for rise up, go above and beyond, do the things that most people will never be willing to do, like be a unicorn in a field of horses. The K is for kudos passionately celebrate the great work those around you are doing, which is essentially what I'm doing with my interviews, just so you know. And then the L is for love give more love to the world and everything you think, act, speak and do. And the E is for express gratitude daily as you go about life and, honestly, if you can incorporate that philosophy into your life, boom, magic happens.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, viewers, divas, I hope that you can sparkle and really take Kyra's advice and apply some of that into your lives so that you can make a difference for yourself and for all of those who would benefit around you. Thank you so much Again. You can find us on divasthatcarecom. Forward slash. Amanda, if you loved this interview and you would like to share it with other people, please do, and you can share the links with whoever you and whomever you feel would benefit from hearing this incredible woman share her story and her mission and goals and future achievements. I'm super excited and I hope that you will come back and visit us one day and we can hear about all the new and exciting things that you have on the go Perfect and thank you, amanda.
Speaker 2:Thank you for doing your part, too, to make a positive contribution in the world. You're an inspiration.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I appreciate that, Kyra. Well, we all just if we all just do a little bit, then it would make the biggest difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, thank you everybody, have an incredible day, have a magical day, have a magical sparkle filled day. Sparkling day, beautiful divas and we will talk soon. Bye for now. Bye.