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STYLE & STRATEGY WITH SONYA

STYLE & STRATEGY WITH SONYA

By: Sonya Choi La Rosa
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 Style & Strategy: The Leadership Presence Podcast for senior women in corporate who are respected for what they deliver and ready to be remembered for who they are. I'm Sonya Choi La Rosa. After 25 years leading in corporate financial services across Technology, Operations, and Transformation, I know what it takes to be experienced at the level you've earned. I've never believed presence is something you either have or you don't. It's built. From the inside out. Through my 3D Impact Method™, I integrate what most approaches fragment: leadership identity, strategic positioning, and style strategy. Because these don't live in separate boxes. They intersect. This is strategic presence for women stepping into bigger rooms.© 2026 2026 Art Career Success Economics Personal Development Personal Success
Episodes
  • 96: She Stopped Being the Busiest Person in the Room. Here's What Happened

    96: She Stopped Being the Busiest Person in the Room. Here's What Happened
    Mar 11 2026

    Every senior woman I work with says some version of the same thing: "I know I need to work on this, but I'm so busy." The busyness is real. The workload is real. But what most women don't realise is that busyness isn't a neutral holding pattern. Every week you show up without strategic intent, the perception people have of you is hardening. The "safe pair of hands" label, the "reliable executor" reputation, those calcify into how people read you.

    In this episode, I name the busyness pattern for what it is, share the research on why perception doesn't wait, and give you a five-minute starting point that breaks the cycle. This episode is for the senior woman who rates her capability at eight or nine and her presence at three or four, and keeps telling herself she'll get to it when things calm down.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    1. The gap between capability and presence widens while you wait. Perception isn't static. First impressions and early labels shape how people interpret everything that follows (Asch, 1946; Sullivan, 2019).

    2. Delivering is safe. Positioning is vulnerable. For women who've built careers on output, claiming space through presence instead of performance feels like a risk. Busyness becomes the acceptable reason to avoid it.

    3. Unintentional signals are still signals. Research on the Red Sneakers Effect (Bellezza, Gino & Keinan, 2014) shows that deliberate nonconformity signals status and competence, but only when it's perceived as intentional. Showing up without strategic thought sends the opposite signal.

    4. The "safe pair of hands" perception calcifies over time. The primacy effect means early impressions carry disproportionate weight. The longer the "reliable executor" label sits, the harder it is to shift.

    5. Working on your presence doesn't require a sabbatical. The first step is diagnostic: naming where the gap between capability and how you're experienced is actually showing up. That takes five minutes.
    6. Clarity comes before the wardrobe. The first thing that changes isn't what you wear or how you speak. It's your ability to articulate who you are as a leader and how you want to be experienced.

    TIMESTAMPS

    • 0:00 - Opening: Strategic Presence
    • 0:28 - Welcome & Introduction
    • 1:24 - The Capability vs. Presence Gap
    • 2:20 - When Busyness Becomes the Problem
    • 4:04 - Three Women, One Pattern
    • 5:53 - The Primacy Effect
    • 7:56 - Deliberate vs. Unintentional Presence
    • 9:04 - Breaking the Cycle
    • 10:21 - Identifying Your Gap
    • 12:11 - Take the Leadership Presence Profile
    • 12:19 - Final Thoughts

    RESEARCH REFERENCED

    • Asch, S.E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41(3), 258-290.
    • Sullivan, J. (2019). The primacy effect in impression formation: Some replications and extensions. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10(4), 432-439.
    • Bellezza, S., Gino, F. & Keinan, A. (2014). The red sneakers effect: Inferring status and competence from signals of nonconformity. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(1), 35-54.

    LINKS AND RESOURCES

    ➡ Find out what is creating the gap between your capability and how your experience is in under 5 mins. Complete the Leadership Presence Gap Assessment here: Assessment

    ➡ Download the Wardrobe Guide for women in leadership – Get a curated list of must-have wardrobe staples that blend versatility, style, and impact: Guide

    ➡ Book Your Strategy Call

    ➡ Find out more about programs and services

    CONNECT WITH SONYA

    ➡ Connect with me on social media

    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • Facebook
    • Substack
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    13 mins
  • 95: The Advice to Not Stand Out Is Keeping You Invisible

    95: The Advice to Not Stand Out Is Keeping You Invisible
    Mar 5 2026
    A charisma expert recently advised women not to dress in ways that make them stand out for the wrong reasons. The advice isn't wrong. It's just not finished. It tells you what to avoid but gives you nothing to do instead. In this episode, I unpack why the "stay safe" strategy that helped you belong early in your career is the same strategy that's making you invisible at senior levels. I walk through the research on how visual signals shape perception in under 100 milliseconds, why what you wear changes how you think and perform (not just how others see you), and the three questions I use with every client to move from default dressing to strategic presence. If you've been fitting in so successfully that you're not being read at all, this episode is for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS The advice to "not stand out for the wrong reasons" is protective, but it leaves a gap. It tells you what to avoid without giving you a framework for what works instead. For senior women, the real risk isn't standing out wrong. It's not being read at all.Willis and Todorov's research at Princeton found that competence judgments form within 100 milliseconds. If your visual signal is neutral, you're not getting a negative read. You're not getting a read at all. At Director level and above, that's a problem.Enclothed cognition research by Adam and Galinsky showed that what you wear changes how you think and perform, not just how others see you. Defaulting to safe reinforces a neutral signal internally, costing you cognitive energy even when you can't name it.The Dartmouth scar study (Kleck and Strenta, 1980) demonstrated expectation bias: participants who believed they had a visible scar reported being judged by strangers, even after the scar had been secretly removed. When you feel like you don't look the part, you read the room through that filter.Three questions to move from default to strategic: What does this room need from me? Does what I'm wearing reflect the level I'm operating at or the level I came from? Am I making a choice, or am I avoiding one?Visual friction doesn't just affect how others see you. It affects how you see the room seeing you. The longer it sits, the more it reinforces how people already read you. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Opening: Visual Friction & First Impressions0:37 - Welcome & Podcast Introduction1:24 - The "Don't Stand Out" Advice Problem2:39 - When Safe Strategies Stop Working4:45 - What is Visual Friction?5:56 - The 100 Millisecond Judgment Research7:04 - Client Example: Marketing Executive8:09 - How Self-Doubt Shifts with Seniority9:17 - Strategic Presence Framework11:14 - Three Key Questions for Any Outfit14:36 - The Dartmouth Scar Study15:35 - How Visual Friction Compounds16:37 - Leadership Presence Impact Profile17:42 - Closing: Creating the Right Attention RESEARCH REFERENCED Willis, J. & Todorov, A. (2006). First Impressions: Making Up Your Mind After a 100-Ms Exposure to a Face. Psychological Science, 17(7), 592-598.Adam, H. & Galinsky, A.D. (2012). Enclothed Cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(4), 918-925.Kleck, R.E. & Strenta, A. (1980). Perceptions of the impact of negatively valued physical characteristics on social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 861-873. LINKS AND RESOURCES ➡ Find out what is creating the gap between your capability and how your experience is in under 5 mins. Complete the Leadership Presence Gap Assessment here: Assessment ➡ Download the Wardrobe Guide for women in leadership – Get a curated list of must-have wardrobe staples that blend versatility, style, and impact: Guide ➡ Book Your Strategy Call ➡ Find out more about programs and services CONNECT WITH SONYA ➡ Connect with me on social media InstagramLinkedInYouTubeFacebookSubstack
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    19 mins
  • 94: Beyond Executive Presence: What Women in Leadership Actually Need (Part 2)

    94: Beyond Executive Presence: What Women in Leadership Actually Need (Part 2)
    Feb 25 2026
    Last week I broke down what's broken about the traditional executive presence model. This week, I'm walking you through what replaces it. Leadership presence is a dynamic interplay of three components: Presence, Positioning, and Perception. I call it the Visibility Equation. When the three are working together, people experience you at the level you lead. When one is off, something feels wrong, even if you can't name it. In this episode, I unpack each component, the research behind it, and what it actually looks like in practice. If you listened to Part 1, this is where it gets practical. KEY TAKEAWAYS Presence is internal clarity: understanding who you actually are, not who you think you should be. Princeton research shows we form first impressions in one tenth of a second. If there's a disconnect between who you are internally and how you're projecting, people sense it.What you wear changes how you think, not just how others see you. The enclothed cognition study (Adam & Galinsky, 2012) found that participants wearing a lab coat they believed was a doctor's made fewer errors on attention tasks than those told it was a painter's coat. Your external expression shapes your own cognitive performance.Positioning is what you're known for, the rooms you're in, and the conversations you're part of. Strategic visibility means being remembered for what matters, not being visible everywhere. It requires reading the room and choosing which aspects of your leadership to amplify depending on the context.You have multiple facets to your leadership: strategic thinking, warmth, analytical precision, collaboration. Not every context requires all of them at full volume. Choosing which to amplify based on what the moment requires is sophisticated leadership presence.Perception is how others experience you. Appearance is only 5% of Hewlett's executive presence framework, but it's the first 5%. If your visual expression doesn't match who you actually are, people may never experience your gravitas or your communication.Visual friction happens when your internal identity and external expression are off. You're wearing something that looks right but feels wrong, and that drains cognitive energy when you need it most. Embodied cognition research shows that physical discomfort from misaligned clothing directly impacts cognitive function.Leadership presence requires all three components working together: internal clarity (Presence), strategic visibility (Positioning), and external alignment (Perception). When one is off, something feels wrong. That gap is the work. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Welcome & Introduction0:25 - Leadership Presence Formula0:40 - Internal Clarity1:42 - Leadership Philosophy2:10 - First Impressions4:00 - Research Study5:28 - Positioning8:54 - Perception11:04 - Visual Friction13:50 - Free Assessment14:40 - Communication by Design16:23 - Closing RESEARCH REFERENCED Willis, J., & Todorov, A. (2006). First Impressions: Making Up Your Mind After a 100-ms Exposure to a Face. Psychological Science, 17(7), 592–598. Princeton University. Adam, H., & Galinsky, A. D. (2012). Enclothed Cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(4), 918–925. Hewlett, S. A. (2014). Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success. HarperBusiness. Embodied Cognition:Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645. CONNECT WITH SONYA: ➡ Find out what is creating the gap between your capability and how your experience is in under 5 mins. Complete the Leadership Presence Gap Assessment here: Assessment ➡ Download the Wardrobe Guide for women in leadership – Get a curated list of must-have wardrobe staples that blend versatility, style, and impact: Guide ➡ Book Your Strategy Call ➡ Find out more about programs and services ➡ Connect with me on social media InstagramLinkedInYouTubeFacebook Substack RELATED EPISODES If you enjoyed this episode, start with Part 1 (Episode 93), where I break down what's broken about the traditional executive presence model and why the shift to leadership presence is happening now.
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    17 mins
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