Watch Out World: Cathy Feliciano Chon, Captivating Communications Influencer
/
Cathy Feliciano Chon - Founder and Managing Director of CatchOn and Company Limited (Photo courtesy of Cathy Feliciano Chon
To the unfamiliar, a marketing consultant is like having a fitness trainer in the corporate world. A consultant like Cathy is someone who gives corporate clients advice and solutions to issues or problems. The advice becomes strategic when the message reaches the right target audience spot on. Even better for a client when the demographic takes notice of what the brand can do and acts on it. The action translates to sales, and hopefully the product or client’s success follows.
Cathy’s path to establishing her company started when she moved to Hong Kong in 1997 to join her husband, Michael. She originally planned to stay only a few years and return to Los Angeles, California. But her career brought her to different directions. She started consulting from home when her children, Isabella, Sofia, and Ethan were very young, and she needed the flexibility. Many of Cathy’s USA contacts did not mind that she was based in Asia. Her business started to grow. So did the demands of motherhood.
“Eventually, doing conference calls with audible screaming kids in the next room seemed untenable, so I got an office. Twenty years later, the company has grown organically to include two offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai and a team of over 30 people.”
Cathy Feliciano Chon during a recent KAIN NA event in Hong Kong with Secretary of Tourism Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, Filipina Chef Margarita Fores and Joseph Louli, manager of the House of Madison. (Photo courtesy of Cathy Feliciano Chon)
Cathy and her company, CatchOn, have earned the distinction of offering the best marketing results for their clients. The proof is on the CatchOnco.com website where a roster of global clients reads like a who’s who in the hospitality, food and beverage, and architecture and design industries. Cathy attributes her agency’s appeal to being a hybrid consultancy that addresses different avenues, not just specializing in one aspect of marketing and communications.
“For a boutique-sized agency, we have the capability to do high-level strategic work as well as tactical execution. The scope of our services is unusual for an agency our size. We deliver award-winning campaigns that are based on a deep understanding of what makes brands succeed.”
Cathy and CatchOn’s marketing efforts have extended to the global Philippine culinary community as well. “Several years ago, our agency handled the international media outreach for the first Madrid Fusion Manila and we’ve since done a lot of work with Filipino chefs.”
Cathy’s resilience for living abroad and strength for whatever comes her way stem from having a large family that is accustomed to adaptability in any country. Cathy’s parents moved to the Philippines from New York in the mid-‘60s, when her mother was pregnant with her. Cathy spent the first 12 years of her life in Manila. Afterwards, her parents moved back to the States, this time in Los Angeles. Cathy went to school at Bishop Amat, in L.A., a private Catholic school. She did her undergraduate degree in communications at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona.
As one of six children, Cathy said, “I had a very happy and rambunctious childhood full of wonderful memories growing up in the Philippines then later in the States.”
Cathy Feliciano Chon with actress Kristin Davis. (Photo courtesy of Cathy Feliciano Chon)
Nowadays, Cathy’s typical day is chaotic, as she describes it. She is up at 6 o’clock in the morning and goes for a walk. It is her time to reflect on the day ahead. Then she has a quick breakfast with her kids before school. She rushes to the office after that. Her day is packed with phone calls, client meetings, brainstorming sessions, press events, and all the tasks a marketing communications top honcho needs to do. On occasion, she attends evening engagements, which she tries to limit. She is in bed by 11 p.m. where a pile of books awaits on her nightstand.
“I’m a voracious reader, “said Cathy when I asked where she finds her daily inspiration.
In addition, there are things in her line of work that Cathy cannot do without: “Teamwork, passion, and curiosity top my list.”
Looking back at her life, Cathy would have advised her 16-year-old self, back then as a college freshman, these nuggets of wisdom:
“Choose your friends and the people in your life wisely. If you can hold friendships to a higher standard at a young age, you’ll be smarter when it comes to choosing life partners, social networks, and opportunities.”
“Don’t squander educational and learning opportunities. Everything you do will contribute to a bigger picture you often aren’t aware of in your teens.”
“Don’t overpluck your eyebrows. Trends come and go, but hair does not. Teens tend to bend to trends. Learn to develop a core that is entirely ‘you’. You don’t always have to go with the pack.”
Today, Cathy’s advice rings true even for those who’ve been in the work force for a while. “Once you join a company, apply yourself with gusto even with tasks that seem tedious and boring.”
As an employer, Cathy reveals that she hires people with the right attitude and growth mindset because she sees in them a potentially dynamic person.
More importantly, Cathy urges young people to commit in the workplace. These days, Cathy observes that millennials tend to get easily distracted and disinterested when a task is not as exciting as they’d like, resulting in a quick shift in jobs.
Many would agree that our kababayans tend to shine when he or she is in a foreign land. Cathy noted, “They are not tethered to class systems, preconceived notions, cultural expectations. Foreign places often offer a more level playing field.”
While others would view Cathy as a success in her industry, she prefers to redefine it: “To me, success is not something you ‘achieve’ but more of a continuous quest to make a difference in other people’s lives.”
Admirably, Cathy seems to have it all, and what most women want to achieve: a loving husband; a beautiful family; a thriving business; friends and all.
Cathy Feliciano Chon with husband, Michael, children, Isabella, Sofia and Ethan (Photo courtesy of Cathy Feliciano Chon)
When asked if women today can have it all, she said, “No. We shouldn’t even try. This is a longstanding notion and it is doing women a great injustice. We should change it to doing ‘what matters at the moment.’”
Cathy lives by who she is. She is results-driven, yet family-focused. And deep in her heart she is a tireless Filipina working wife and mother who gives her all to what matters most at that precise moment, because she wants to make a difference. Her own branding is who she is, genuine and true.
Her strategic branding advice to Filipinos who venture to live and work overseas: “Live by a set of values that define who you are.”
Elizabeth Ann Quirino, based in New Jersey is a journalist and author of the “How to Cook Philippine Desserts: Cakes and Snacks” Cookbook. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and blogs about Filipino home cooking on her site AsianInAmericaMag.com.
More articles from Elizabeth Ann Quirino