In the first season of her widely celebrated podcast, "The Color of Success," Stephanie J. Wong, Ph.D., sat down with former American Idol contestant and singing sensation William Hung. You may remember Hung as the Hong Kong immigrant whose wonderfully joyful and off-key version of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" took the world by storm. One of the rare Asian faces on American TV—and one whose viral trajectory may still be unmatched—Hung was a trailblazer of epically uneven proportions.

For Wong, the sit down, held during the early days of the pandemic, was an opportunity to showcase her genuine gift of setting her interviewees at ease to discuss the challenges and triumphs on the way to success and its aftermath. In its sixth season, "The Color of Success," chronicles the stories of Asian/Asian Americans like Hung and other ethnic minorities as they build brands, businesses and careers. The conversations, which at times can be as entertaining as they are explicitly heartwarming, take a deep dive into the mental health strategies that deal with self-doubt, anxiety and barriers.

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In the case of stories like Hung's, whose fame brought as much pleasure as it did challenges, Wong is able to dissect the ins and outs of the sometimes chaotic journeys so many entrepreneurs encounter on the way to success. "The Color of Success" enables the licensed clinical psychologist to blend her knowledge of mental health, culture and business into the interview process. "It was really nice to kind of peel back these layers of who Hung is and what he did. He wasn't expecting to be a superstar or anything; it was more like getting out of his comfort zone and just doing something that he always wanted to do." 

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The honesty that Hung and her other guests—which have included the likes of comedians/actors Margaret Cho and Andrew Phung, and author Abigail Hing Wen—display is what makes Wong's talent such a gift. In her day job, Wong works with tech professionals in her private practice, and with military veterans at a hospital. She is also the author of "Cancel the Filter: Realities of a Psychologist, Podcaster, and Working Mother of Color."

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Wong's foray into the podcast world came via a free class she took from Melvin Varghese, Ph.D., the former university counseling center training director and founder of the "Selling the Couch" podcast. Varghese's podcast channel features a wealth of lessons and wisdom from therapists who’ve built successful private practices. Some of Wong's guest list is derived from the client roster of Munn Avenue Press. The book publishing/marketing expert team is led by founder Charles Levin. 

It was 2020 when Wong first decided she wanted to help de-stigmatize mental health among the Asian-American, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander community. She admits it initially was just a move out of curiosity. "Yes, and here we are six seasons later, and I have had a host of guests that includes every variety of professionals, including entertainers, writers, authors, doctors. It has been really nice building connections."

One of the more fascinating aspects of her life as a therapist and podcaster is the parallel it provides because you're just basically being curious about people's stories.

"My very first supervisor in grad school told me that when you go into the therapy room for the first time, don't try to help that person. I was like, 'Huh?' I went into this profession to help people. But he said the key is to just be curious and understand their story."

Wong says she internalized the advice for years. Then, as her practice life moved forward, she started to realize that many people essentially want to be understood and heard, in addition to collaborating on their treatment plan to improve their mental health. "That's part of what the podcast is about. We try to communicate these lived experiences so that they are just part of understanding that different people go through various things."

The "ah ha" moment hit when Wong realized that many people became more vulnerable in a brief amount of time on her podcast. In a session, when things are not being published to the world, Wong is able to take her patients on more of a deep dive. But, on the podcasts, when she is talking more as a friend than therapist, she admits to seeing more snapshots of a person's struggle. While Wong is quick to give credit to librarian James Corry for the snapshot in time description of her podcast workings, she is honored to be able to meet people where they are in their struggles to understand their journeys.

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