Jonathan Mildenhall is the former Managing Director of TBWA, Senior Vice President of the Coca-Cola Company, first CMO at Airbnb and Independent Board Member at Peloton Interactive, Co-Founder of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand and current Chief Marketing Officer at Rocket Companies.

In other words, someone at the very top of the marketing industry.

Who was once treated as an experiment.

Growing up in Leed, Jonathan faced tremendous physical and racial abuse. It got so bad that he once ran to his mum, telling her that he didn’t want to be black!

But his mum responded by saying, “Unfortunately, there are ignorant people who will always be frightened because you look different. And they're going to say hurtful things and sometimes they will do hurtful things.

You can't change your packaging but they can never ever damage what's inside of your packaging.”

Eventually, Jonathan found his calling - in marketing!

Even though the odds were stacked against him: he was from a polytechnic, grew up in a council estate, was black and had no family name to fall back on.

But as it turns out, he had a spark.

And that spark was what drew people to him.

Allowed him to rise to the top of the London marketing scene and dominate the global scene later as he became a Senior Vice President at the Coca-Cola Company and the first CMO at Airbnb.

If ever there was a story of someone who has triumphed against all odds, it would be Jonathan.

So are you ready to learn how he did it?

Let’s go.

Highlights

• 3:23 The 8-year-old Jonathan
• 8:08 Keeping a childlike wonder
• 12:01 Show a bit of leg!
• 15:51 Protecting his mum’s independence
• 19:12 Advertising is NOT for you?!
• 22:03 The awkward “oh my goodness, you’re a black guy”
• 24:22 The energy of the 80s advertising industry
• 26:17 You’re an experiment
• 30:43 Meeting John Hegarty of BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty)
• 35:35 Cindy Gallup dragged him out of the closet!
• 43:47 Living authentically
• 45:10 I was shit scared
• 50:10 Phil Mooney - Director of Heritage Communications for 40+ years at the Coca-Cola Company

🙊 Want to support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/150 

🍿 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cumagnVOlRQ&t=1s&list=UULFSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ 

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Rodney Wong is the CEO of Munchy's, one of the largest Malaysia-based snack food manufacturer with presence in over 60 countries globally.

Which makes him the Willy Wonka of Malaysia!

And he's had quite the varied career.

From tobacco to Coca-Cola, Petronas and now the world of snacks and sweets, Rodney is testimony to the fact that we all need to take charge of our own career and personal development to get to where we want.

The question is... how?

While everyone's path is different, Rodney's shared his personal journey, highlighting the people who were significant in his journey, why paying forward is so important him, what it's like working with founders on their 'baby' and his vision for the future.

Want to hear what one of Malaysia's top entrepreneurs has to say about building success career?

Stick around and you'll find out!

Highlights

• 2:41 Rooted in family
• 3:18 Being an archaeologist
• 6:21 Structured way of working
• 7:23 Connecting the dots
• 8:45 Take charge of your own development
• 11:41 What success looks like
• 13:43 I have a hard rule
• 15:05 Paying it forward
• 16:28 Major learnings
• 18:35 Gen Z
• 23:31 Being in Shanghai
• 25:11 KOLs
• 27:07 Do you want to expand the market or improve the bottom line?
• 29:03 The challenge of working with founders
• 31:58 We're going to sell...
• 34:50 Progression & growth
• 36:38 Personal growth
• 42:35 Soka Gakkai
• 44:38 How can people help you?
• 48:53 Do you feel like you've found your why?
• 48:54 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
• 50:47 What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful person?

🙊 Want to support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/dx_ePevgoRU&list=UULFSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ

🎙️Show notes/transcript for this episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/149

💌 Subscribe to the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605

Meet Lucas Lu - Head of Zoom Asia.

And also a fellow Sarawakian!

Lucas has had an illustrious career going from GM of Systems Technology Group at IBM Malaysia where they closed large deals within the first 6 months, leading to Lucas winning ASEAN Rookie of the Year - his first big recognition.

He ended up staying at IBM for 10 years and won 2 Global Golden Circle Award before moving on to become:

• General Manager, Astro
• GM (Tech Sales Malaysia), Oracle
• Senior Director (APAC Enterprise Commercial Sales & Industry), Microsoft

Prior to his current role heading the Asian arm of Zoom, covering ASEAN, South Korea, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan.

While at first glance, Lucas appears to have had a very varied career, he has also been very intentional about every career move he’s made. 

And has had no zero regrets with how it has turned out.

So we dive deep into this episode into all things career development:

❓ How has Lucas chosen the roles that he has? 

❓ What is his secret sauce to climbing the corporate ladder? 

❓ How should one find mentors/career sponsors? 

❓ How does he plan his career & life (he has a plan for everything, including for his family members!!)?

Please do listen & leave a rating & review!

Highlights:

• 1:50 My first 15 years
• 2:27 Shell City
• 4:22 No one leaves Shell, but I did…
• 5:26 Getting the call from IBM
• 6:05 Switching to tech
• 6:59 Lucas’ unfair advantage over other people
• 7:50 Lots of planning & reflections
• 11:55 What should you do when you first take on a regional role?
• 14:06 Career sponsors
• 14:41 Secret to landing career sponsors
• 15:22 The first time doors opened for Lucas?
• 16:15 Moving on after 10 years
• 17:14 Bringing a corporate mindset to the startup world?
• 19:09 Measuring returns for media projects
• 19:41 Moving to Oracle
• 21:01 Kilimanjaro
• 22:55 Element of luck
• 24:16 Dealing with failure
• 25:55 No regrets?
• 27:37 Moving to Microsoft
• 29:14 Takeaways from being fully immersed in a country 
• 32:00 Did hiking change how he approaches sales and work?
• 32:25 Why Zoom?
• 33:43 Checklist for Lucas’ next career move (no compromise)
• 34:24 How to determine if someone is the right person to work for?
• 35:33 Most influential person in Lucas’ career
• 37:28 Managing the strawberry generation
• 39:15 What Lucas hopes to achieve at Zoom
• 43:58 The second act in Lucas’ career
• 46:45 What STIMY listeners can help Lucas with

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📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/142 

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Michael Lints is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include LP fundraising and portfolio management for Golden Gate Venture's investments at Series B and beyond. He has helped to raise over USD $60M for Golden Gate Ventures and its portfolio companies, including helping to raise later stage rounds from external investors as well as leading two early strategic acquisitions. 

In this episode, we uncover what Michael was like as a child (he took apart the first computer he received), how he convinced his dean to let him skip a year at university, before selling his house and car to start his first IT managed services startup. 

That startup was acquired by a large data and telecom company six years later. 

In 2007, Michael founded a venture fund focused on Dutch small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them with capital financing, business development, and strategy. During the same period, he was invited to join the Economic Development Board Rotterdam as Vice Chairman. In that role, he launched the Young Economic Development Board where he brought together a highly influential Dutch network to develop a sustainable framework for public-private relationships that increased local business investment while leveraging the public infrastructure.

In this episode, we cover all things startup, investments and also his recent documentary, Broken Chains - mending the missing links in the racial wealth gap.

Highlights:

• 2:53 Taking apart his first computer
• 3:59 Being on the Dutch National Karate Team
• 5:00 Skipping a year at university
• 6:20 Getting into insurance & realising he never wanted to work for another corporation again
• 8:14 Selling his car & house to co-founder his first IT startup
• 9:40 Pivoting from being a comparison site to a data center
• 10:51 Being on the same board as the CEO of ING & Unilever, Prime Minister of New Zealand & Head of the UN
• 15:53 Obsession with focus
• 17:00 Studying at Harvard
• 17:53 Discovering the venture scene in Singapore/Southeast Asia
• 19:38 How can I be helpful?
• 21:29 Raising over USD 60 million
• 22:54 Getting a foot in the door
• 24:46 Experience fundraising in the Middle East & Europe
• 26:20 How the Southeast Asia startup scene has evolved
• 29:39 What Michael looks for in a founder
• 31:54 Importance of local knowledge
• 34:32 Getting deal flow
• 35:46 Investment mistakes made 
• 36:59 Investment thesis
• 37:49 Areas of interest to Michael
• 40:17 How the pandemic has impacted Michael’s portfolio companies
• 41:37 Fundraising in the pandemic/post-pandemic era
• 43:44 Framework for maintaining focus
• 45:36 How to find good mentors for yourself
• 47:06 Broken Chains

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/74        

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Lee Williamson is the Regional Editorial Director of Generation T, Tatler Asia Group and currently oversees three of Tatler’s flagship brands: Gen.T, Front & Female and Asia’s Most Influential. He was previously the Editor at Time Out Beijing and Editor-in-Chief at That’s China and was selected as a WAN-IFRA Young Media Leaders Fellow 2020.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to work as a foreign journalist in China, dealing with state censorship, producing “controversial” editorials and also producing media products like the Generation T list, then this is the episode for you!

Highlights:

• 6:48 Moving to China
• 8:58 Working as a journalist at That’s China 
• 11:33 “You’ll Never Be Chinese”
• 15:19 Censorship in China
• 17:26 Relaunching 
• 18:21 Being Editor at Time Out Beijing
• 21:12 Publishing Ai Wei Wei’s first interview following his detainment in China
• 23:14 Working at Tatler
• 25:05 Why Gen.T?
• 26:21 Defining success, influence and power
• 27:17 What’s the point of another “list”?
• 29:42 Building the Gen.T community
• 34:48 Gaining trust
• 35:52 Getting people to share what they really want even after they say “I don’t really need anything”
• 39:05 Seeing Gen.T’s brand value increase
• 43:11 Deciding who gets on Gen.T
• 45:08 Tribes
• 47:21 Safeguards
• 48:57 Trends among Gen.T honourees 
• 50:22 What’s in it for Gen.T?
• 51:09 The Crazy Smart Asia podcast 
• 56:21 Planning for the future of Gen.T

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/73     

💌  Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Vincent Wei is the Head of Growth (Product & growth) at VEED.IO, one of the fastest growing startups by revenue in the world. 

He was first introduced to the world of startups when he began CodeCreate, one of Australia’s first coding school for kids, while still at university. The school generated 6-figure revenue but his next startup unfortunately didn’t do so well.

Burnt out, Vincent decided to take a break and travel the world before returning as Employee #3 on the growth team at AirTasker - which later became one of Australia’s largest marketplace for services. That was no mean feat, given that the startup was burning $35 million annually and on the verge on collapse then!

They managed to turn the startup around but Vincent left before AirTasker IPOed in 2021 (and we discuss why in this episode!) to join VEED.io - the Canva of video editing - as Head of Growth. VEED recently raised $35M from Sequoia and is currently going through an exciting growth phase, so this is definitely a startup to keep an eye on!

Highlights:

• 3:32 How Harry Potter helped Vincent learn English
• 5:20 Being driven to succeed
• 8:41 Not wanting to be a dropkick
• 13:51 Founding CodeCreate to teach kids how to build Minecraft
• 18:48 How CodeCreate’s cohort went from 3 to 86 kids
• 23:00 Getting a contract role at Suncorp
• 29:29 Founding his 2nd startup
• 32:37 How Lambda School inspired them
• 35:48 Why Cody failed
• 38:16 Travelling the world
• 42:35 The power of LinkedIn outreach & chatting with James Clear
• 47:26 Joining AirTasker when it was burning $30 million annually
• 49:27 How they turned AirTasker around
• 54:51 Why Vincent left AirTasker
• 56:25 How Vincent’s role at VEED has evolved over time
• 59:09 What Vincent looks for when he hires
• 1:01:08 Influencing others virtually

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/72                

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

P/S: "Dropkick" is an Australian slang that refers to someone who isn't very smart & hasn't made it very far in life.

WARNING: This episode may have some trigger points as we talk about things like depression, suicide and death. 

Sabrina Ooi is the co-founder and CEO of Calm Collective Asia - a community that was established during Singapore’s first circuit breaker to talk about all things mental health in Asia.

To understand how Sabrina ended up establishing Calm Collective Asia, it’s necessary to dive into her story. She shares why she felt like an imposter while studying at Raffles Girls’ School (Singapore’s top school), how she started DJing for the likes of Dior & Rolls Royce, getting through debilitating depressive episodes since the age of 11, how she was initially misdiagnosed as being depressive only to discover that she was bipolar, being “arrested” for attempting to end her life and her journey to recovery. 

This is STIMY’s first mental health episode and I felt that Sabrina’s story is so incredibly powerful and important. It is time to destigmatise discussions around mental health and I hope that this episode contributes a little to that ongoing conversation, particularly in Asia.  

Highlights:

• 3:41 Being told by her mum to be “average”
• 5:23 Having her first depressive episode at age 11
• 12:33 How her DJ career began 
• 17:35 Triggers for her depressive episodes
• 21:59 Going for therapy
• 23:55 Not going for private practice
• 25:05 Having suicidal thoughts
• 27:36 Taking antidepressants 
• 29:52 Depression v Bipolar
• 31:49 Survive, Live and Thrive
• 35:11 Journey to recovery
• 36:52 “How I went from Leaving to Living”
• 42:36 Starting Calm Collective Asia
• 47:24 The vision
• 51:13 Symptoms to look out for
• 52:31 How to find the right therapist

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/71                

💌  Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Please leave a review & rating here! - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

London has plenty of incredible food. Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern.. And the bakeries are something to behold too. So it makes sense when you’re in town to try some of its best offerings and Beigel Bake should certainly be at the top of your list!

Which brings me to today’s guest: Daniel Cohen, Managing Director of Beigel Bake Limited - one of London’s most iconic Jewish beigel shops, located along Brick Lane (also an iconic location in the City).

Beigel (or bagel, depending on where you’re from) is a second-generation family Jewish bakery that Daniel’s father began with two uncles back in 1974. Serving 7,000 dense and chewy Jewish beigels daily, 24/7, it has since been rated 3 stars by Time Out London in 2010 (4 stars by its online users) and featured by the photographic pictorial Life in the East End by London-based cabaret duo, EastEnd Cabaret.

In this episode, Daniel shares how Beigel Bake first came to be, what his father was like, how he got involved in the family business, the story behind its “rivalry” with a neighbouring Jewish beigel shop, how it fared during the pandemic and so much more.

If you’re ever in London, I’d recommend a visit to Beigel Bake!

Highlights:

• 4:10 Growing up with Beigel Bake as a prominent part of his life
• 5:01 The Jewish history of beigels (or bagels)
• 7:02 Brick Lane history
• 8:57 How Beigel Bake began & its ongoing “rivalry” with a neighbouring Jewish beigel shop
• 10:34 How Beigel Bake went from being a wholesaler to serving the public
• 12:37 Growing by word of mouth (no advertising!)
• 14:24 Most popular fillings
• 14:43 The story behind the salt beef/pastrami filling served at Beigel Bake
• 16:26 What was Daniel’s dad like?
• 20:28 Did Daniel feel obliged to join the family business?
• 21:55 Why Beigel Bake started serving sandwiches 24/7
• 24:14 Realities of running a family business 
• 25:54 Becoming managing director
• 28:58 Why Daniel released the recipe for their Jewish beigel
• 29:49 Will Beigel Bake ever open a branch?
• 30:53 Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
• 34:34 Launching their own delivery app (and some mishaps!)
• 38:38 Working with charities 
• 40:12 Having the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge come to visit
• 42:23 How the business is currently faring

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/70               

💌  Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

P/S: For recommendations, try Beigel Bake’s hot salt beef with mustard and gherkins, and/or cream cheese and salmon flavours!

Nnenna Nwakanma is the Chief Web Advocate at the World Wide Web Foundation. 

She is also a Nigerian FOSS activist, community organiser, co-founder of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa. In 2018, she was chosen as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in the field of digital government and has over 15 years of experience working with the UN in areas such as the information society, gender and digital equality.

In this episode, we learn about what it was like growing up in Nigeria - and why she wasn’t even given a name for the first 3 months of her life because of her gender! - how she became one of the very first to use the internet in Africa, why she views the internet as a tool for social justice, how she has learned to walk with her adversaries (as Mandela used to say), and what drives her to create an internet that is free and open to all.  

Highlights:

• 2:40 Why Nnenna was born & not given a name for the first 3 months of her life
• 4:43 Being human is enough
• 7:21 “Nnenna from the Internet”
• 8:57 Being one of the first Africans to be exposed to the internet
• 12:08 Use of the internet in African villages
• 16:44 Being a FOSS activist & walking with your adversaries
• 18:31 Attitudes are like ass holes
• 22:39 The mission of the World Wide Web Foundation
• 25:01 Running the global coalition, the Web We Want
• 28:39 Backstory to Brazil’s Internet Bill of Rights (first in the world)
• 32:56 How close are we to an open and free internet for all?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/69              

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Neal Freyman is the Managing Editor at Morning Brew, a new media company that provides informative and digestive business news to over 3 million subscribers. He oversees Morning Brew’s flagship product - a daily newsletter, as well as the weekend light Roast edition and native advertisements. 

The Morning Brew happens to be one of my favourite newsletters so I was excited to dive into the behind-the-scenes with Neal!

Highlights:

• 4:43 Studying at the University of Maryland College Park
• 7:16 Teaching geography and urban studies 
• 8:07 Applying to work at Morning Brew as a writer (and being rejected!)
• 9:00 Sending a nice rejection letter
• 10:05 The newsletter industry in 2017
• 13:05 Working as a young newsletter startup out of a room in NYU
• 14:41 Morning Brew’s ideal customer and how that definition has evolved over time
• 18:12 Having readers get super pi**ed at them
• 18:45 Creating a political newsletter
• 20:18 “Write, grow and sell” as the tactic for Morning Brew’s explosive growth from 2016-2019 
• 22:51 Writing continuously for 5 years 
• 24:24 Milestones that contributed to Morning Brew’s growth
• 26:19 Main reasons for Morning Brew’s subscriber count going from 100k to 1.5 million in the 2018/19 period
• 27:01 The importance of Morning Brew having its own in-house referral system
• 29:40 How Morning Brew manages to get 25% of its signups from its referral program
• 32:29 Capitalising on momentum, as Alex Lieberman discussed
• 34:24 How Morning Brew launched the Emerging Tech newsletter
• 37:18 The importance of having a strong online following like Alex Lieberman & Austin Rief
• 41:44 Checks & balances
• 42:49 Becoming Managing Editor of Morning Brew
• 44:23 Maintaining a close knit working culture
• 45:43 When Neal felt that they had created a great product with the newsletter
• 47:59 Staying relevant
• 49:35 Retaining talent staff
• 51:40 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
• 53:01 The Essentials
• 54:02 Impact of Morning Brew’s reported $75 million acquisition by Business Insider
• 54:35 Creating the podcast arm of Morning Brew: Business Casual & Founder’s Journal
• 56:23 Building in public
• 59:39 Entering the education space with the MBA Accelerator

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/68       

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Daniel Flynn, co-founder of Thankyou, is one of Australia’s most recognisable & successful social entrepreneurs. He is the recipient of EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Southern Region) and Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.

Thankyou was conceived while Daniel was still in college and he learned, to his horror, that there were 900 million people who didn’t have access to clean water. 4500 kids were dying every day from water-borne disease and the women needed to trek 20km by foot to obtain clean water (they even risked being raped along that trecherous journey!).

Determined to make a difference, Daniel, his girlfriend (now wife) Justine and friend, Jared Burns, got together as first-year university students to launch the consumer brand now known as Thankyou.

Since 2008, Thankyou has raised over $17 million and impacted the lives of people across 22 countries. Thankyou’s products can be found in major retailers across Australia & 100% of its profits go towards ending extreme global poverty.

Thankyou has run many viral campaigns. To get 7-Eleven to stock Thankyou Water, they produced a youTube video that asked their followers to visit the 7-Eleven Australia Facebook page to promise to buy Thankyou water if it was stocked. Within two weeks, they had fans singing, dancing and rapping, and it was covered all over the media. 7-Eleven said yes & Thankyou became the third best selling brand (they were also top at certain points in time).

A similar viral campaign happened when they tried to get Coles and Woolworths, which controlled over 70% of Australia’s grocery market share, to stock Thankyou products. This time, they launched a video called the Coles and Woolworths campaign and also had two helicopters flown over Coles and Woolworths’ respective headquarters in Melbourne and Sydney. Unsurprisingly, both said yes!

And again in 2015, Daniel wrote a bestselling book, Chapter One, which generated over $1.4 million in sales & sold over 55,000 copies in its first month using an unorthodox ‘pay-what-you-want’ model.

However, these viral successes came after Daniel and his team experienced a great deal of setbacks. 

We explore all that and more in this episode. 

Highlights:

• 4:00 Selling helicopters, yabbies & gobstoppers as a child
• 5:15 Wanting to enter property development
• 6:14 Learning about how 900 million people don’t have access to clean water (the genesis of Thankyou)
• 10:17 Whether Daniel knew what a “social enterprise” was in the early days
• 11:21 Figuring out how to enter the water industry as 19-year-olds
• 13:39 Getting his business coach to donate $20,000
• 17:57 Experiencing huge setbacks
• 21:39 Deciding to not pivot
• 22:54 The idea behind the viral 7-Eleven campaign to stock Thankyou water
• 24:54 Running the viral Coles & Woolworths campaign
• 27:37 Building a core base of fans
• 29:46 Managing the risks behind each campaign
• 33:22 The “uncomfortable middle”
• 34:46 Being almost crushed by the pressure
• 42:19 Deciding to leave the water industry
• 44:16 How Daniel & the Thankyou team celebrate their wins
• 45:27 Any big idea Daniel has changed his mind on recently

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/67  

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Lauren Hom is a California-born designer, illustrator & hand lettering artist with a 250k strong following on Instagram. She is known for her use of bright colour palettes & playful letterings and has worked for clients such as Starbucks, YouTube, TIME Magazine, Google and AT&T. She has also been recognised by Communications Arts, the Art Directors Club, the One Club, the Type Directors Club and the Webby Awards. 

But how did it all start?

As with all STIMY episodes, we start from the very beginning: with Lauren’s childhood & how she ended up studying at the School of Visual Arts for, of all courses, advertising! While there, she met influential figures who had a deep influence on her decision to become a freelance artist. Turns out, being the junior director of a big ad agency in New York wasn’t the dream job she’d thought it would be!  

Lauren also peels back the layers on some of her most popular passion projects, beginning with Daily Dishonesty - which landed her a book deal upon graduation! That proved pivotal, as it gave her a financial cushion to launch a freelance career. 

Three things stood out with Lauren’s life story:

1. her talent in lettering;
2. her ability to use passion projects to change the trajectory of her freelance career, repeatedly; and
3. her willingness to be open about how she executes her projects, markets them and what she earns! And finally, why she is now going on a sabbatical and entering culinary school.

If you’ve ever been curious about the business side of an artist’s career, then this is the episode for you.

Highlights

• 4:58 Work hard, snack hard
• 5:38 Doing advertising
• 11:40 Becoming a Junior Art Director in a big New York city ad firm
• 13:36 Daily Dishonesty
• 16:52 Seeing Daily Dishonesty go viral
• 18:51 Getting an illustration agent
• 20:14 Knowing when to say no to a client
• 22:59 Planning to go freelance
• 24:17 Earning $100,000 by Year 3 of freelancing
• 25:12 Growing an audience on Instagram
• 28:27 “Will Letter for Lunch” side project
• 31:28 Getting clients like Microsoft & LinkedIn in less than 1 year
• 34:12 Flour Crown & Peen Cuisine
• 39:30 Traveling 1.5 years around the world
• 40:47 Being inspired more by every day life
• 44:35 Taking Back Sunday
• 46:36 Taking a creative sabbatical to go to culinary school
• 54:48 Would Lauren ever do street art?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/66  

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Ansgar Koene is the Global AI Ethics & Regulatory Leader at EY, Senior Research Fellow at Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute at the University of Nottingham, a Trustee at 5Rights and chair of the IEEE Working Group P7003 Standard for Algorithm Bias Considerations.

Today with Ansgar, we’ll be talking about all things artificial intelligence.

AI is an inescapable part of life. Whether it's the songs that Spotify recommends to us or the similar videos that pop up on our YouTube feed after watching one cat video, AI is monitoring & downloading data about us which is used to enhance our experiences on these social platforms. But there are darker elements to this, where it ends up manipulating our behaviour without us even realising it.

So how can and should AI be regulated? What are the issues surrounding algorithm bias? Have recent legislations like the GDPR helped to better define the boundaries surrounding the use of AI? And what does Ansgar think about some of the current developments e.g. Facebook choosing to stop the use of its facial recognition software?

If you want to learn more about the current state of AI, and the ethical and regulatory concerns surrounding its use, then this is the episode for you.

Highlights:

• 8:50 Every model is wrong, but some models are useful
• 16:49 Ethical concerns around use of Twitter
• 18:12 Issue of consent & privacy
• 20:56 Types of recommender systems used by online platforms
• 26:07 Using youth juries in the Unbias Project
• 27:25 A series of “nudges” that manipulate our behaviour 
• 29:59: An oversight committee 
• 31:52 Who should bear editorial responsibility?
• 36:25 Inherent algorithm bias
• 40:30 Opening & streamlining access to platforms also restricts your freedom of expression
• 44:19 How effective current regulation is
• 49:23 Ansgar’s thoughts on Facebook stopping use of its facial recognition technology
• 51:31 How effective is the #deleteFacebook movement?
• 55:22 Why young people feel “disempowered” when using social media
• 1:00:50 YouTube Kids versus Instagram Kids

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/65     

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This episode is a compilation of 6 of the most powerful women featured on the So This Is My Why podcast, discussing the milestones that led them on their journey to success

Ep 124: Jacqueline Novogratz

Jacqueline is the founder & CEO of Acumen - a non-profit global venture capital fund that aims to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty. As the OG of impact investing, she shares her experience in Rwanda and learning that the most important thing is to build something where you leave no footprint behind.

And how there is no such thing as black & white. Everyone has an angel and demon within them that comes out at different times.

📍 Listen to Jacqueline's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/124

Ep 115: Lydia Fenet

Lydia is the former Executive Director of Christie's New York and for 10 years, she thought it was a privilege to be working at Christie's. She never asked for more.

Until she realised that you are just a number in the P&L, and you have to fight for what your worth. In one conversation, she managed to x3 her salary, obtain an international director designation and start a new department on strategic partnerships.

📍 Listen to Lydia's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/115

Ep 125: Tanya Zakowich

Tanya has worked at NASA, Boeing and Hyperloop and shares her journey in making big career pivots which led to the creation of Pink Pencil Math with 2 million TikTok followers, 507k Instagram Followers & 99k YouTube followers.

📍 Listen to Tanya's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/125

Ep 79: Nicole Quinn

Nicole is a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. She's known as the celebrity whisperer who's worked with the likes of Lady Gaga, Tom Brady, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba.

📍 Listen to Nicole's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/79

Ep 77: Lily Wu

Lily is a two-time 7 figure business founder who shares how she got started on her entrepreneurial journey in Australia as a teenager

📍 Listen to Lily's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/77

Ep 56: Lauren Hom

Lauren is a California-born designer, illustrator & hand lettering artist with a 250k strong following on Instagram. She is known for her use of bright colour palettes & playful letterings and has worked for clients such as Starbucks, YouTube, TIME Magazine, Google and AT&T. She has also been recognised by Communications Arts, the Art Directors Club, the One Club, the Type Directors Club and the Webby Awards

She shares how she's built her enviable artistic career including with Daily Dishonesty.

📍 Listen to Lauren's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/56

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Esther Hochman Wojcicki is an author, journalist, educator, vice-chair of the Creative Commons Advisory Council and founder of the highly regarded Palo Alto High School Media Arts program (the largest journalism program in the States). 

She is also known as the “Godmother of Silicon Valley”. And has raised 3 daughters, regarded as some of the most successful women in Silicon Valley. 

There’s Susan Wojcicki, the oldest, who is the CEO of YouTube; Janet Wojcicki, a Fulbright-winning anthropologist & professor of pediatrics at the University of California, and Anne Wojcicki - co-founder of 23andme: a genomics company that lets you test for ancestry and health risks. Anne was most recently listed as number 93 in Forbes List of World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2020!

But what does it take to raise successful people? 

What is Esther Wojcicki’s famed T.R.I.C.K. methodology & how do those principles translate into the classroom? 

What was Steve Jobs like in person?

Is it good to be a tiger mum sometimes?

And what has she been up to during the COVID-19 pandemic and what advice does she have for parents raising children during this strange period in time?

All that and more in this episode.

Highlights:

• 3:54: Growing up as a Russian Jewish immigrant
• 7:02 Why Esther thought education was necessary for her survival
• 10:41 Being disowned for pursuing a university degree
• 13:59 Becoming a mother
• 16:51 Figuring out how to be a parent
• 19:41: The lemon girls
• 20:59: Swimming at 12 months old!
• 23:05: Table manners
• 27:38: Teaching at Palo Alto High School
• 33:09: Steve Jobs & 7 free Macintosh 
• 36:54: “How to Raise Successful People” 
• 38:34: Defining “success”
• 40:09: What the T.R.I.C.K. methodology
• 48:58: How tiger mums can help kids become more independent
• 49:45: Are there instances when you need to be a tiger mum?
• 50:43: Founding the Tract with Ari Memar
• 56:41: The 20% rule

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/64  

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Have you ever thought about taking a sabbatical? Or have taken one yourself?

If so, then this week’s STIMY guest will be of interest to you. 

DJ DiDonna is the founder of the Sabbatical Project, which is the first-of-its kind research into when and why sabbaticals are being taken by professionals, and how they lead to positive outcomes and an opportunity to tap into their inner self. 

DJ shares his personal story of first completing his MBA at Harvard Business School before spending the next 7 years of his life building Entrepreneurial Finance Lab: a microfinance startup he founded because was deeply passionate about pursuing access to finance and credit. It was a highly successful startup and they succeeded in unlocking over $1 billion for entrepreneurs and individuals that would otherwise not have access to such funding. 

However, no one told him that you could burn out from doing the job you loved.

And that’s exactly what happened.

In this episode, we dive deep into DJ’s experiences being burnt out, what he did during his sabbaticals as well as the findings that the Sabbatical Project has produced to date.

Highlights:

• 4:08 Doing an MBA at Harvard Business School
• 6:37 Launching a microfinance startup that would unlock over $1 billion for entrepreneurs & be featured in the New York Times
• 8:58 Burning out from doing a job you love
• 10:01 Burning out versus just needing a vacation
• 12:13 Guilt
• 12:49 Maximising productivity during his sabbatical as a Type A
• 15:10 Completing the 900 mile (1200 km) Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan 
• 16:13 “Ossentai”
• 22:51 Collaborating with Professor Matt Bloom
• 24:00 Founding the Sabbatical Project
• 26:26 Defining what a “sabbatical” is
• 27:33 Is there such a thing as a sabbatical that’s gone on for “too long”?
• 30:06 Travel doesn’t guarantee disconnection 
• 33:11 Getting in touch with your inner self 
• 34:20 Testing your assumptions with others
• 35:52 Has anyone ever regretted taking a sabbatical?
• 37:19 Sabbaticals help to fight FOMO
• 38:03 How to structure a sabbatical
• 40:08 Designing a system to capture your learnings from your sabbatical
• 43:16 Employers who want to implement sabbatical policies in their companies
• 45:24 Forced sabbaticals
• 46:56 When people should think about taking sabbaticals (without waiting for burnouts or something bad to happen in life)
• 48:13 Best way to ask employers for sabbaticals
• 50:42 Functional workaholism 

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/63

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

Hawker Chef Chan Hon Meng is a Malaysian-born, Michelin-starred chef who is best known for serving the world’s least expensive Michelin-starred meal.

He won his first Michelin star back in 2016 for his $2.50 soy sauce chicken noodle dish, and proceeded to do so for the next four consecutive years. Since then, his chicken rice store has exploded from one store in Chinatown to a franchise restaurants in 7 countries & 17 outlets within 2 years. In Singapore alone, there are 6,000 stalls in over 100 hawker stalls.

In this episode, Hawker Chan shares: 

• what it was like growing up in Ipoh, Malaysia;
• how he obtained his apprenticeship under a Hong Kong chef, where he learned and perfected his famed soya sauce chicken recipe; 
• starting his Liao Fan Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle in Chinatown Complex Food Centre in 2019;
• what it was like first obtaining a Michelin star in 2016;
• how his business developed as a franchise; 
• the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on his business; and 
• advice for others seeking to follow in his footsteps.

Note: This interview was conducted entirely in Mandarin!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/62     

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🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy

Austen Allred is the co-founder & CEO of Lambda School: a virtual coding school that is completely free to attend, until its graduates earn at least $50,000/year. Lambda School is betting on its student’s success as its success, and has seen its graduates go on to work as developers in Fortune 100 companies and prominent startups including Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and more.

But even prior to founding Lambda School & being accepted into Y Combinator, Austen has had a wealth of interesting experiences. From working for two years as a Mormon missionary in Eastern Ukraine - where every foreigner was viewed as a spy - to dropping out of college, vagabonding around China, blogging while being homeless in Silicon Valley (which eventually led to him securing his first funding & job in the Valley!) & going through 5 rounds of interviews before being accepted onto Y Combinator.

We explore all that, including his viral & controversially titled article in 2012, “Successful Entrepreneurs Are Usually Liars” in this STIMY episode. 

Highlights:

• 3:17 Growing up in a Mormon family
• 6:12 Learning HTML at age of 11
• 10:06 Going on a mission trip in Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine
• 15:18 Founding Stubtopia
• 25:27 Dropping out of college
• 29:44 Vagabonding around China
• 31:22 Writing the viral 2012 article, “Successful Entrepreneurs Are Usually Liars”
• 33:49 Blogging while homeless in Silicon Valley (which led to his first job in Silicon Valley & investment for his own startup!)
• 38:24 Noticing the discrepancy between Utah & Silicon Valley in terms of opportunities & pay
• 39:31 How the concept of Lambda School came about
• 51:21 The right time to raise VC money
• 54:58 Getting into Y Combinator
• 59:13 Biggest takeaway from working with Geoff Rolston (now President of Y Combinator) & Daniel Gross
• 1:03:54 Issues surrounding the Income Sharing Agreements (ISA)
• 1:06:47 How COVID-19 has impacted Lambda School

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/61 

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

David Grief is the CEO of David Grief International Consultancy Pte & former Senior Clerk at Essex Court Chambers - known as one of the UK's most prominent commercial sets with a multimillion-pound turnover. 

Described in a recent TIMES article as a “giant among clerks”, David has spent over 40 plus years managing barristers’ chambers including at Gray’s Inn Chambers, 17 Old Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn and finally, as Senior Clerk and Head of Administration at Essex Court Chambers. 

But what does a barristers’ clerk actually do?

This might be a bit of a struggle to understand if you’re unfamiliar with how the UK legal system works and indeed even for practicing lawyers. Unless you’ve worked in chambers in London before, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what they do!

But the short of it is this: barristers’ clerks are traditionally referred to as “the Law’s Middleman” and are known to “make or break” a barrister’s career. They manage the diaries of their barristers in chambers, the client relationships, the negotiations and collecting of fees and general running of chambers. They are also a barrister’s therapist, marriage counsellor, discipline master, agent, debt collector and some might even say, ‘pimp’!

Much has been written about the clerking world but less so in the modern day and in this episode, David peels back the layers.

He shares how he first got into the world of clerking, his love of flying, how he manages and grows his relationships with instructing solicitors and barristers, and how he has moulded the careers of his barristers, helping them become silks and even getting onto the bench.

Some of the barristers he used to clerk for include the former Chief Justice of England & Wales and other barristers who have gone on to sit at the UK Supreme Court, International Court of Justice and Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

David also shares his plans in helping to develop the legal industry in Singapore and his plans moving forward with the establishment of his new consultancy - David Grief International Consultancy Pte. 

Highlights:

• 4:46 Being passionate about flying
• 8:30 His interviews to become a junior clerk
• 9:45 Clerking before the age of the Internet
• 11:46 What a barristers’ clerk actually does
• 17:19 Knowing the breaking points of a barrister
• 19:40 Collection of fees
• 22:49 Going through the 1974 UK Miners’ Strike & 3-Day Work Week
• 24:47 Building relationships with instructing solicitors
• 30:02 Being the only clerk with a license to fly
• 35:18 Working with barristers
• 37:06 Direct access
• 38:53 Managing situations when a barrister cops out
• 43:09 Identifying barristers with star quality & when they’re ready to take the silk
• 48:17 People who have most influenced David’s career
• 50:47 Joining Essex Court Chambers
• 57:05 Why David moved to Singapore
• 1:01:32 Challenges in establishing Singapore’s first pure chambers practice 
• 1:04:41 Innovations that David anticipates happening in the legal sector
• 1:06:26 “Don’t ask, don’t get”

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/60  

🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy 

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Ooi Boon Hoe is the current Director and Chief Executive Officer of Jurong Port Pte Ltd, which is one of Singapore’s two main commercial terminal operators.

In this episode, we explore how Boon Hoe went from working in the military, where he obtained a 1st Class Pass from Britannia Royal Naval College, was a recipient of the Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Training Award, and a Singapore Armed Forces Merit Scholarship.

Boon Hoe later worked in corporate finance in DBS Bank before moving into the port and shipping industry first with Portek International in 2002 (where he discovered his faith!), then Jurong Port Pte Ltd in 2014. 

Highlights:

• 3:30 Growing up in Singapore in 1960s
• 4:28 Having a flourishing military career
• 7:27 Working in corporate finance at DBS Bank
• 9:21 Becoming COO of Portek International
• 10:46 Why Boon Hoe transitioned into the port & shipping business
• 12:04 Discovering God
• 14:46 Reading the Gospels
• 18:29 Making Portek’s maiden investment in Algeria
• 26:30 Creating the world’s largest port based facility
• 27:33 Creating an ecosystem centered around LNG
• 31:31 Maintaining safety during the global pandemic

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/59  

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

Nigel Stanislaus is a highly celebrated makeup artist who’s been a part of international television shows like Project Runway, X-Factor, Make Me A Supermodel and also a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model and Asia’s Next Top Model. 

His editorial works span the likes of Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan L’Officiel, Elle, Marie Claire, GQ, and Esquire and he has worked with celebrities like John Legend, Suki Waterhouse, Kelly Osborne, Gigi & Bella Hadid, Scary Spice - Melanie Brown, and most recently, Jenna Dewan and Tina Arena.

But what is it really like being such a celebrated makeup artist who was known for almost a decade as “Mr Maybelline”? What did it take to get to where he is today?

In this episode, we dive into what it was like growing up in Singapore, how he almost became a professional sniper, discovering the world of fashion and makeup as well as the realities of living the jet-setting life, and what he is now up to since leaving his position as Makeup Director at Maybelline, where he had represented Singapore in NYFW.

Highlights:

• 1:59 The story behind the name “Stanislaus”
• 2:44 Being influenced by the feminine energy around him
• 4:59 Discovering his “front of house”
• 7:22 Being different from other guys
• 8:27 Studying apparel design & merchandising at Temasek Polytechnic 
• 11:19 Obtaining an internship in New York & attending his first catwalk (which included meeting Kate Moss!)
• 17:45 Completing national service in Singapore & discovering a talent for being a sniper
• 20:20 Excelling at Monash University 
• 22:41 Doing freelance makeup on the side 
• 23:40 Being told he would never make it as he “didn’t fit the profile”
• 25:39 Getting over his rejections
• 27:20 Getting his first agent
• 28:53 The importance of social media 
• 30:52 Nigel’s wildest briefs
• 32:51 How Nigel constantly upskills
• 34:32 Admiring “stalker-ish” persistence in his assistants
• 37:39 The reality of living a jet-setting life
• 44:14 Appearing on television
• 47:21 How Nigel decided to stop being the Makeup Director of Maybelline aka Mr Maybelline
• 54:33 How Nigel overcomes loneliness

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/58 

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Robert James Ashe is a 4-time Emmy nominated editor and title designer, best known for being the Head of Post Production on Conan for nearly 8 years. He has also worked for Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour, The 2014 MTV Movie Awards, and his show CONAN on TBS. Rob also served as the announcer, title designer, and lead editor for The Pete Holmes Show on TBS.

Here, Robert shares how he went from being an army brat and Disney kid, to life in musical theatre and how he ended up working in post production in Hollywood. As well as what it’s like being a parent to three young children with physical challenges.

Highlights:

• 2:43 Being a Disney kid
• 4:40 The realities of being in musical theatre
• 8:45 How Robert first got into production in Hollywood
• 15:51 Designing the original Conan logo & incorporating his daughter’s silhouette into it
• 17:40 Delivering a 42 minute show in 19 minutes
• 20:06 Knowing what to cut
• 22:59 The most time-consuming parts of travel segments
• 25:27 Why editing is like speed chess
• 27:09 Finding a rhythm to editing
• 29:47 Cutting for the Notebook 2 with Ryan Reynolds & Conan O’Brien
• 38:09 Most memorable parts of working on Conan
• 38:09 How Robert first heard that the Conan show would be ending
• 41:05 Advice for people who want to make it
• 44:31 Figuring out how to ace interviews in Hollywood
• 45:48 Caring for children with physical challenges
• 51:14 Advice for parents looking to adopt children with physical challenges 
• 55:06 Breaking into Hollywood through charities

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/57 

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

Amra Naidoo is the co-founder of Accelerating Asia, an early stage venture capital fund that runs programs for startups and investors, and General Partner at Accelerating Asia Ventures. Prior to that, she was the Head of Corporate Partnerships at UN Women, including Project Inspire (a UN Women global social entrepreneurship program) and a part of muru-D’s, which was one of the top startup accelerators in Asia. 

She is also the APAC Regional Lead for Shaper Impact Capital and Outgoing Curator for the Global Shapers Singapore Hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum and is the host and creator of the Doing Good Podcast. She has been interviewed and featured as a guest author on industry blogs, including The Straits Times, Techcrunch, Reuters and named as one of Harper's Bazaar’s Women Who Inspire Others.

Highlights

1:56 Growing up in Zimbabwee

3:14 Moving to Australia

5:23 Why Amra started dreaming of working at the UN

7:26 Selling SKII & Shiseido

13:53 Deciding on how to change her life

16:18 Getting a UN internship

20:03 Becoming Head of Corporate Partnerships at UN Women

21:00 Running Project Inspire

25:50 How startups can run successful crowdfunding campaigns

27:28 The struggle with marketing 

31:35 Why Amra ended up leaving the UN

34:17 Obtaining a marketing degree from the University of Newcastle

36:30 Meeting Craig, her current co-founder, at muru-D

37:19 How the idea of Accelerating Asia began

39:20 The “missing middle”

41:26 The biggest challenges in setting up an independent accelerator

43:21 Bootstrapping to set up a consultancy program

44:16 Running the 100 days accelerator program

47:22 The regulatory challenges behind running a venture fund

48:24 Fundraising for their venture fund

50:37 Why selling a fund is similar to selling Chanel

56:25 Why Accelerating Asia focuses on pre-Series A companies

58:48 Whether Amra looks for social impact in their startups

1:04:00 Starting the Doing Good podcast

1:05:44 What Amra thinks about the creator economy & how VCs/startup founders should get into the space

1:07:31 How Amra ended up joining the Payment’s Race - MoneyAsia 2020

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/56 

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

Karl Mak is a Singaporean entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of HEPMIL Media Group: a holding company that owns SGAG, MGAG, PGAG, SGEEK and HEPMIL Creators’ Network.

If you’re a fan of memes, then you’re in for a treat because that is precisely what HEPMIL specialises in!

Karl shares how he almost became a professional swimmer, how he built a flourishing real estate career while in school, his experiences (and failure) with his first startup & how he ended up co-founding SGAG with Adrian Ang, whom he had first met back in 2005 in junior college. 

Highlights:

• 3:32 Swimming competitively
• 9:53 Entering the real estate business
• 13:28 The gift of the gab
• 20:26 Learning from Professor Soon Loo
• 22:23 Attending a coding bootcamp to find a co-founder
• 26:26 “Crazy” things Karl did to get enterprise clients
• 28:22 Why Televate, Karl’s first startup, failed
• 33:43 Meeting Adrian & starting SGAG
• 38:27 How they come up with memes
• 40:32 The Ah Lian meme, which was picked up by mainstream media
• 42:36 Milestones to track
• 47:47 The early days of SGAG
• 49:04 Land grabbing tactics used by SGAG
• 51:42 Distinguishing SGAG from other similar pages
• 56:40 Selling vulgar T-shirts
• 59:18 How the business deal with Scoot happened
• 1:00:57 Changing the engine of a plane in mid-air
• 1:06:03 Your failure makes you more valuable
• 1:07:26 Building a creators’ network
• 1:15:58 How COVID-19 impacted Karl & HEPMIL Media Group

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/55 

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

Sponsor: Descript - an AI-enabled software that makes it possible to edit weekly videos efficiently because it transcribes a 1.5 hour interview in 1 minute - and allows all editing to be done via the transcript! To find out more: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=sjT9JA

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It’s not every day that you get to inherit a 100-year-old family business, but that’s exactly what Fong Wai Kheng has done.

Fong is the fourth generation of his family to run Tong Heng - Singapore’s top confectionary shop most known for its trademark 💎 diamond-shaped egg tarts. 

Ask pretty much any Singaporean (I did), and it feels like 99% of them will have heard, eaten and love those egg tarts!

So of course, I got curious. 

And asked Fong if he’d be up for a STIMY interview!

After all, family businesses are tricky.

There is: 

🍿 The legacy you’ve inherited & must now maintain 

🍿 The relationships you need to navigate (you can’t split family/work) 

🍿 The challenge of keeping your brand relevant (a huge issue for Tong Heng at one point until they went through a massive rebranding exercise) 

🍿 All the ups and downs of keeping a business alive.

A business that first came about because of Fong’s great-grandfather who fled China in 1901 (end of Qing Dynasty) to work as a coolie in Singapore.

His great-grandfather eventually earned enough to start his own pushcart coffee business but… the local “gangs” came around for protection money.

The great-grandfather had none, but promised to have the money ready next time. 

Unfortunately, the gangsters won’t hear of it.

And proceeded to beat him up.

Or at least, they tried too.

Because what they didn’t know was that Fong’s great-grandfather had been trained in martial arts by the soldiers in the Qing Court (+ he was also 1.87m tall!). 

So Fong’s great-grandfather beat up those gangsters instead. 🤣

News spread. 

The community gathered and gifted him with a pistol before appointing him as its protector!!

Want to know what happened thereafter? 😏

You’ll just have to listen to this STIMY episode with Fong to find out. 

Highlights:

• 2:54 Childhood 
• 5:00 Expectations in joining the family business?
• 6:32 Have you had enough fun?
• 10:26 100-year-old confectionary shop - the origins of Tong Heng
• 12:22 Tong Heng’s trademark egg tarts
• 14:22 Gangs & protection money
• 14:44 Martial arts
• 16:50 After the war
• 17:55 His two aunts
• 20:24 Pulling a surprise
• 25:06 A new shop
• 27:38 Cracking thousands of eggs?!
• 29:40 Massive rebranding exercise to appeal to the Gen Zs & Gen Alphas
• 33:23 Tension in the family?
• 34:41 Going viral
• 35:00 Branding decisions behind Tong Heng’s trademark yellow packaging
• 36:15 Tong Heng’s faithful customers - the grandmother & her grandson
• 37:30 The future & staying in their own lane
• 39:35 Advice for other family business owners?

🌟 Special thanks to Limpeh Studios for making this recording possible! If you want to do any studio recordings while in Singapore, be sure to check out: https://www.hepmil.com/limpehstudios 

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/141 

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/kSXxRHrWWas 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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Yulia Brodskaya is a Russian artist and illustrator known for painting with paper. 

Pioneering contemporary paper quilling, she uses thick, coloured paper to compose stunningly detailed 3d portraits. And her work is owned by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Hermés, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Paramount Pictures, Country Music Association, The New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, New York Observer, and Issey Miyake. 

She also designed the official poster for the 2015 Wimbledon Championships, designed a Google Chrome theme, created a Forever stamp design for the United States Postal Service in 2016 and Christmas 2017 stamps for New Zealand Post. In 2019, she was named a “Breakthrough Star” by Creative Review and featured among other leading UK-based artists in the BBC programme Making Art Work: First Idea to Final Piece.

Highlights:

• 2:32 Growing up in Moscow in the 1980s
• 8:27 Learning to see the world with an artist’s eye
• 10:12 Picking up a love of typography
• 12:43 Discovering a love of paper art
• 16:59 Creating the Christmas cover for the G2 supplement of the Guardian
• 19:27 What “paper quilling” is
• 21:54 Being protective of her own style
• 23:40 The process of creating her work
• 27:19 When she knows a piece of work is complete
• 30:18 Creating portraits of old folks
• 39:20 Publishing a book
• 41:52 Creating her own mobile app
• 44:16 Creating her first NFT

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/54 

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Rahul Chaudhary is the Managing Director & CEO at CG Corp Global and CG Hospitality Holdings. And the second son of Binod Chaudhary, who is the first & only Forbes-listed multi-billionaire from Nepal! 

In this STIMY episode, Rahul shares what it’s like being the 4th-generation heir of a 140-year family business empire, starting from being a sporting champion at boarding school to striking his first business deal in New York, where everything that could possibly go wrong, did!

And how the CG Hospitality arm has grown and even thrived during the global pandemic.

Highlights:

• 3:12 Rahul’s great-grandfather, whose birth is taken as the genesis of the Chaudhary Group
• 6:48 Core family values
• 10:43 Always focusing on the good
• 18:02 Civil war in Nepal
• 20:30 Striking his first business deal, where everything went wrong
• 28:34 Leaving the US for opportunities in Asia
• 31:54 Forging a partnership with the Taj Group
• 39:44 Creating CG’s own hospitality brand, Zinc
• 42:19 Entering Dubai
• 46:25 Starting Prestellar Ventures, CG’s own VC fund
• 51:17 The CG Foundation & how it’s helped out during the 2015 earthquake in Nepal & the global pandemic
• 54:45 Becoming aware of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic
• 59:36 Changes that have allowed CG’s hotels to thrive during the pandemic

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/53 

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Kendrick Nguyen is the co-founder & CEO of Republic - one of the US’s top equity crowdfunding platforms where over USD$ 100 million has already been raised in just 2021 alone. And boasts a heavily curated list of startups that, according to Kendrick, is harder to get into than Harvard!

Before Republic, Kendrick was a trading and securities lawyer at Wall Street. Knowing that this wasn’t for him, he eventually transitioned into becoming a Stanford teaching fellow and COO of Kanbar Enterprises. He later became the General Counsel of Angellist (also its first non-engineering hire!) and simultaneously spearheaded Angellist’s expansion into Canada and Europe and the launch of various products. 

That is, until the JOBS Act passed, which changed the investment landscape and allowed non-accredited investors (i.e. anyone regardless of net worth) invest in startups. 

With the blessing (and investment!) of Angellist before him, Kendrick decided to launch his own startup, Republic, with the ultimate aim of becoming the Amazon of private investing. Where anyone can invest in the next potential Uber or Airbnb for as little as $10.  

Highlights:

• 3:26 Studying neuroscience & law at Berkeley and Oxford
• 4:38 Becoming a securities & patent litigator 
• 7:20 Becoming a teaching fellow at Stanford University
• 11:48 Joining AngelList as its General Counsel & first non-engineering hire
• 14:22 The JOBS Act
• 16:04 The vision for Republic to become the Amazon of private investing
• 17:51 Telling the AngelList board that he wanted to quit & launch his own startup
• 19:46 Getting 2 investments out of 250 VCs in 8 months
• 25:12 Republic’s curation process
• 28:25 The different lens between Republic and VCs
• 31:38 Allowing a 12-year-old founder to raise funds on Republic?!
• 34:48 Getting deal flow
• 37:43 Why startups would raise on Republic & not from other VCs
• 39:47 Republic’s business model
• 42:12 Hallmarks of successful campaigns on Republic
• 43:53 How Sahil Lavingia (founder of Gumroad) raised USD $5 million in 12 hours from just under 7,000 investors
• 45:51 How founders can activate their community
• 51:06 Distinguishing Republic from other competitors
• 52:54 Republic Notes - launching Republic’s own digital tokens
• 54:29 Partnership with Meet the Drapers television show
• 1:00:21 Use of Republic’s recent $36 million for Series A

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/52 

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Nick Bernstein is the Senior Vice President of Late Night Programming (West Coast) at ViacomCBS & is the executive in charge of the Late Late Show with James Corden. 

In Part 2 of this STIMY episode with Nick, we explore how the Comcast's 51% acquisition of NBC Universal impacted Nick personally, how he ended up being the executive producer of the Pete Holmes show & ultimately (currently!) the executive in charge of the Late Late Show with James Corden. 

Nick talks about all things related to the Late Late show including his initial conversation with Nina Tassler (then President of CBS), how the show has transformed over the past 5 years, the impact the global pandemic has had on them and not forgetting, how Nick ended up in front of the cameras (with his own camera and mic!).

Highlights:

• 16:19 The announcement that James Corden would take over the 12.30 show
• 17:58 Speaking with Nina Tassler (then President of CBS)
• 19:45 The mad dash to get the Late, Late show ready for launch
• 23:25 How Carpool Karaoke came about
• 26:14 Why the Justin Bieber Carpool Karaoke video exploded on YouTube
• 27:38 When Nick felt that the Late, Late show had “made it”
• 31:37 Jumping out of a plane with Tom Cruise
• 33:01 Having a direct relationship with fans of the show
• 36:58 “Kidnap One Direction”?
• 38:30 Impact of the global pandemic on the Late, Late show
• 43:57 How Nick ended up on the show itself!
• 47:47 GAP clothes, Carnival Cruise… updates?
• 52:17 Advice for those wanting to be just like Nick Bernstein

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/51-2 

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Nick Bernstein is the Senior Vice President of Late Night Programming (West Coast) at ViacomCBS & is the executive in charge of the Late Late Show with James Corden. 

In Part 1 of this episode with Nick, we explore what it was like growing up in Maryland and how he would spend 4 hours every Sunday morning charting America’s Top 40 biggest hits on radio, the impact that Camp Taconic had & continues to have in his life, and how he ended up being an NBC page and working with legendary late night television executive, Rick Ludwin.

Highlights:

• 7:04: Why summer camps were & continue to be so important to Nick
• 15:13: Majoring in broadcast journalism at Syracuse University
• 19:28: How Nick became a NBC page 
• 24:39: How Nick ended up working for Rick Ludwin, who’s worked with every The Tonight Show host from Steve Allen to Jimmy Fallon
• 30:28: What makes a good host
• 33:11: Why Rick was a “man of conviction” who stood behind hosts like Conan O’Brien when no one else would
• 39:05: Believing that Conan O’Brien & Jimmy Fallon were the future of late night back in 2002
• 42:41: Replacing late night hosts
• 48:41: The Conan/Jay Leno debacle
• 56:00: Giving as much runway to shows as possible or… not?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/51-1 

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PART 2 of STIMY’s interview with Ning-Geng Ong - Artisan chocolate maker, farmer, and founder of Chocolate Concierge & Culture Cacao.

For Part 1, please refer to the earlier episode. 

Highlights:

• 2:48: How the signature flavours of chocolate are brought out
• 4:34: What Ning means by saying he is “fiercely unbending”
• 12:10: Why Ning runs fermentation anywhere between 6 to 71 days!
• 18:23: The sheltered, sun-drying process
• 21:54: Creating some of Chocolate Concierge’s signature flavours, including Assam laksa and nasi kerabu bon bon
• 34:10: Impact of the global pandemic
• 37:24: Advice for those seeking to be chocolate makers too

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/50-2 

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Part 1 of STIMY's episode with Ning-Geng Ong - a farmer, chocolate marker, flavour fanatic and founder of Chocolate Concierge & Culture Cacao, where he makes incredible single-origin Malaysian chocolate. 

In this episode, Ning shares his journey from majoring in physics and computer science, to founding a business in chocolate making. In particular, what it is like working with the indigenous community (including stories involving tigers, a durian thief and a murder!).

Highlights:

• 2:31: Loving the outdoors (the dangers of being a boy scout!)
• 5:52: Backpacking in Europe
• 6:59: Doing programming work
• 11:53: Diving into the world of fermentation
• 17:37: Why chocolate making stood out
• 21:39: Cocoa seeds taste like.. Unicorn milk?!
• 24:26: Obsessing over creating Malaysian single origin flavour
• 25:08: Chocolate-making process
• 26:33: Creating the universe
• 27:08: Why Ning struggled to find reliable cocoa beans
• 30:13: Starting Culture Cacao
• 32:11: Living with the Semai community
• 38:38: Tigers
• 40:15: Durian thief!
• 44:17: Not having a contractual arrangement with the indigenous community
• 49:08: Struggling to get cocoa beans from the indigenous community
• 50:52: Giving up?

Stay tuned for PART 2 of Ning's episode, coming out this Wednesday!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/50-1 

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Dato’ Thomas Mun Lung Lee is a Senior Partner & founding member of Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill - one of the largest law firms in Malaysia. He was also previously Chairman of AIA Public Takaful Bhd and AIA Malaysia Berhad, had directorships at AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, was a member of the Appeals Committee of Bursa Malaysia Berhad and Chairman and Non-Executive Director Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd & Alliance Merchant Bank Berhad. He also served on the Board of UMW Holdings Berhad, Saujana Resort (M) Berhad and Bank of America Malaysia Berhad.

In addition, Dato’ Thomas was an arbitrator with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland and a member of the Ad Hoc Panel of Arbitrators at the 1988 Commonwealth games at KL, the Commonwealth Games 2006 at Melbourne, the Olympic Games 2000 at Sydney, Olympic Games 2008 at Beijing & Olympic Games 2012 at London.

Last but not least, he is also the son of Tun HS Lee - Malaysia’s first Finance Minister!

In this episode, we cover Dato’ Thomas’ life story, beginning with his earliest memories (of air raid sirens & bombs dropping over Kuala Lumpur!) to then fleeing to India after the Japanese placed a bounty on his father’s head, and how he eventually made his way to the UK with his brother for his studies at the age of 13. 

And his fascinating legal career, which included being in the same pupil batch as Tun Hussein Onn (who eventually became Malaysia’s 3rd Prime Minister) & Chan Sek Keong (who became the 3rd Chief Justice of Singapore).

Highlights:

• 1:57: Earliest memories of air raid sirens & bombs
• 2:40: Fleeing to India
• 7:52: Living under the British imposed emergency rule during the height of the communist insurgency
• 9:42: Travelling to the UK from Malaysia via a 3-week boat through the Suez Canal
• 10:42: Studying at Leys School, Cambridge
• 14:14: Being guided to study law at St John’s, Cambridge University
• 16:29: Working as a tourist guide at Costa Brava, Spain
• 18:36: Completing a pupillage at 2 Crown Office in the 1950/60s
• 27:20: What KL & the Malaysian legal scene was like in the 1960s
• 28:54: Beginning his career in debt collection
• 30:34: Seeing Bannon & Bailey dissolve in 1963 & joining Skrine & Co
• 31:15: Why Dato’ Thomas wanted to be like John Skrine
• 32:19: “Don’t harbour a grudge. Life is too short for that.” - John Skrine
• 34:24: Working in the same pupil batch as Hussein Onn
• 36:12: Impact of 13 May 1969
• 37:57: Royal Selangor Golf Club
• 39:30: What Tunku Abdul Rahman was like in person
• 40:29: What Tun Dr Ismail was like in person
• 41:06: Setting up of Lee Hishammuddin in 1993
• 44:06: Turning down 2 offers to join the judiciary (including the Court of Appeal!)
• 45:03: Whether he ever felt pressured by his father’s legacy

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/49 

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Oz Pearlman is an Emmy award-winning mentalist & magician who recently emerged as the runner up & finalist in America’s Got Talent Season 10 in 2015. 

In this STIMY, Oz shares what he was like as a child, discovering magic on a cruise ship to Bermuda and how that transformed his life as he obsessed over mastering magic. 

Oz got so good, he paid his own way through college and even continued it as a side hustle while working at Merrill Lynch before deciding to take the leap & become a full-time mentalist. 

He hasn’t looked back since. 

Oz Pearlman has performed for an impressive list of A-list celebrities, Fortune 500 companies, politicians and professional athletes, and also appeared on numerous networks including NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The TODAY Show & ABC World News. He is also an avid marathon & ultra-marathon runner, having competed in events like the Badwater 135 Miler, Hawaii Ironman World Championships, Western States 100 and Spartathlon.

Highlights:

• 3:47: Being a child math prodigy (scored a perfect 800 for his SATs at age 12)
• 4:36: Discovering a love of magic
• 6:19: Meeting Ryan Hertz & Bruce Kessler
• 9:41: Getting his first magic gig at age 14
• 12:13: Knowing how to break the ice with strangers
• 16:34: Deciding to stay behind in USA & pay for himself through college
• 19:00: Finding his own magic community
• 20:49: The balance between sharing magic tricks & keeping your secrets to yourself
• 26:54: Simple magic tricks for anyone to learn
• 31:30: The Off Broadway Show, Watch Magic, that attracted Ethan Hawke & the New York Times
• 35:44: “Making it” as a full-time, freelance magician
• 37:46: Why Oz thinks he didn’t make it the first time he applied for America’s Got Talent in 2012
• 38:46: Coming up with new magic tricks on AGT within days
• 39:56: Competing on America’s Got Talent while training for 3 marathons!
• 43:17: Impact of COVID-19 on Oz’s business

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/48 

Lincoln Lee Ming is a Malaysian social entrepreneur, biomedical science graduate from University College London, UK & founder of a social enterprise called Rice Inc., which seeks to combat the 26 million tons of rice wasted during production every year & help smallholder rice farmers break through the convoluted supply chain 

In this STIMY episode, we cover how Lincoln’s entrepreneurial streak first came up in his childhood in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (beginning at the age of 13!) and how he tried to organise a Pokemon Walkathon just before leaving for his university studies.

Having arrived at UCL, Lincoln quickly realised in his second year that he wanted to pivot to business / entrepreneurship. He also learned about the most prestigious startup competition for university students: the $1 million HULT Prize - which is said to be harder to win than the lottery!

The HULT Prize took an entire year & came with lots of ups and down. Lincoln shares the experience of being at the finals (judges included Arianna Huffington!), how they have used the $1 million investment they won from the HULT Prize, the impact of Brexit & COVID-19 on Rice Inc's operations, and what drives him to do what he is now doing.

Highlights:

• 4:43: Losing his parents’ money at age 13 when dabbling in entrepreneurship
• 8:10: Running a past year paper printing startup (by pretending to still be students!)
• 12:17: Organising a Pokemon Walkathon
• 19:04: Learning about the $1 million HULT Prize
• 21:52: Finding a problem to solve
• 33:29: Introducing big changes after UCL & regional HULT Prize rounds
• 34:54: Raising $20,000 in funds to visit Myanmar & run a pilot program
• 45:58: Adventures in Myanmar 
• 51:29: Girls following Kisum
• 53:38: Attending the HULT Prize accelerator at Henry VII’s former residence 
• 55:46: Working & playing (too) hard
• 59:59: Building connections with high-ranking people
• 1:03:16: How a UN security guard helped Sunrice / Rice Inc win the HULT Prize competition in New York
• 1:13:21: Getting stuck inside the UN building at midnight
• 1:17:33: Balancing winning the HULT Prize with getting a 1st class at UCL
• 1:20:33: What to do with an investment of $1 million at age 19
• 1:22:34: Impact of Brexit on Rice Inc’s operation
• 1:24:02: Getting into the top 5 caterer distribution services & meeting with the Board
• 1:28:47: What keeps Lincoln going
• 1:30:07: When Lincoln knew that there was nothing else he would rather be doing than this (Rice Inc)

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/47 

Hey STIMIES! 

Welcome back to Part 2 of the So This Is My Why Podcast with Loh Lik Peng - CEO & Founder of Unlisted Collection.

In Part 1, we covered Lik Peng’s journey from wanting to become a doctor (just like his parents) to becoming a commercial litigator and purchasing his first hotel property: Hotel 1929.

The property that kickstarted his crazy career pivot. 

But the F&B industry is a tough place to be. You need a good dose of hard work, luck and… a talent for spotting F&B talent (which Lik Peng has!).

In this episode, we dive into the intricacies of his international hospitality business, tackling questions like:  

• Why does he give equity to his chefs? 
• How does he identify and convince culinary talents like Rishi Naleendra to come on board?
• How does he work together with the chefs to ensure that they have everything they need to build a thriving business?
• How attaining a Michelin star flipped a switch within the chefs he works with
• What are his thoughts on brand building?
• When is it time to pull the plug? (His most painful failure was with One Leicester Square in London)
• His big passion with museums; and 
• So much more

If you haven’t heard Lik Peng’s origin story, listen to the previous STIMY Ep 140 Part 1 episode first. 

And if you have, then stick around for Part 2!

Are you ready?

Let’s go.

Highlights:

• 2:52 Lik Peng’s hands off approach
• 4:20 Discovering Rishi Naleendra & being a good spotter of F&B talent
• 5:51 Did Lik Peng conduct any due diligence on his potential talents?
• 6:56 Building the infrastructure for an F&B business
• 8:20 “I didn’t understand what P&L was before. If I knew, I would’ve never said yes.”
• 9:06 Keep an eye on the numbers!
• 10:12 Winning a Michelin star flipped a star switch…
• 11:18 When are chefs ready to strike out on their own?
• 12:05 Brand building
• 13:30 Overcoming moments of blind panic
• 14:46 When do you let go?
• 15:33 Biggest failure 
• 17:57 Passion for museums
• 21:30 Do you still identify as a lawyer?
• 21:43 Which pivot was the easiest and why?
• 24:01 Finding your second & third act in your career
• 25:14 What book are you reading now?
• 25:14 Art of finding the right talent
• 27:00 Any non-compete clause?
• 27:38 Three key things that you’d attribute your success to
• 30:14 One COVID casualty
• 31:23 Luck

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/140 

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/w22CAJupO48 

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Azran Osman-Rani is one of Malaysia's most well-known CEOs & entrepreneur and in this STIMY episode, we cover his colourful & highly impressive career that has included being:

• CEO and Co-Founder, Naluri Hidup (now)
• CEO of iflix Malaysia. Dragon-Keeper of the Tao
• CEO, AirAsia X Berhad
• Senior Director, Business Development, Astro All Asia Networks plc
• Senior Vice President, Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange
• Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company
• Associate, Booz Allen & Hamilton 

But how did it all begin?

Childhood

Growing up with two professors for parents, Azran was always encouraged to speak up and speak out. This began when he was just 4 years old, where he would participate in adult conversations with his parents’ visiting guests that other professors.

Stanford University

Azran eventually went to Stanford University to pursue a degree in electrical engineering although he did end up doing the barest minimum amount of engineering classes required. Instead, he ended up taking lessons in history, culture, psychology, economics, ballroom dancing and even sailing! 

After completing his masters, Azran ended up becoming a management consultant first at Booz Allen Hamilton, then McKinsey. He eventually left for Bursa Malaysia, which set him on his incredible path as an entrepreneur.

Highlights:

• 6:37: Studying at Stanford University before the dot com boom
• 8:01: Ultimate frisbee
• 13:45: Working at Booz Allen Hamilton
• 14:25: Bombing his client presentation & being warned he would be kicked out if he repeated his performance
• 14:25: Moving to Korea for work
• 16:18: Earning the trust of his Korean clients
• 20:28: Working to turn the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange from a nonprofit government linked organisation to a for-profit company (Bursa Malaysia)
• 25:14: Phone call 1 that led him to Astro All Asia Networks
• 27:06: His big failure at Astro, where he had to shut down their Indonesian business & letting go of 450 staff
• 28:42: Phone call 2 from Tony Fernandes that led to him becoming CEO of AirAsia X
• 30:16: AirAsia X’s value proposition
• 31:27: Building a sustainable airline business model
• 36:47: Making the pitch of a lifetime to the European export credit agency to save AirAsia X
• 39:34: Securing an upward flow of information
• 47:06: AirAsia X’s $15 million in-flight entertainment mistake
• 50:47: Staying ahead of the competition
• 51:47: Becoming CEO of iFlix
• 54:13: Starting iFlix with a few people & laptops, but no product!
• 56:14: How iFlix gained 1 million subscribers, 6 months after its launch
• 1:00:03: Learning about Omada Health
• 1:01:41: Launching Naluri Hidup
• 1:02:59: Why Azran bet his kids’ education, life savings etc. on Naluri Hidup
• 1:07:00: The importance of localisation
• 1:10:25: Educating the public about digital health
• 1:11:10: Why Azran is a YouTuber & active content creator
• 1:11:58: A life-changing car accident in May 2018
• 1:12:32: How Azran kept going & completed his Ironman 6 months after his brutal car accident!
• 1:15:31: Fundraising before & during COVID-19
• 1:17:05: Azran’s mirrors to deal with his confirmation bias

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/46    

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Lim Pui Wan is a Malaysian miniature artist who discovered her love of miniatures at the age of 14 and has, since 2014 under “Picoworm”, become a full-time professional miniature artist. In 2020, she was even part of Ryan Reynold’s “Ryan Doesn’t Know” Snapchat series!

In this STIMY episode, Pui Wan shares what it takes to forge a path to becoming a professional miniature artist. 

Highlights:

• 4:10: Figuring out how to make miniature art
• 8:02: Making her first miniature art
• 9:08: Joining her first competition by remaking a Studio Ghibli dollhouse!
• 11:25: Behind-the-scenes of najubg nubuatyre art
• 14:17: Why she loves capturing dirt
• 16:52: Why Pui Wan loves Chinatown
• 22:42: Why she ended up studying mechanical engineering
• 24:08: Being tempted to drop out of university early
• 27:31: Turning a hobby into a business
• 28:15: Doing market testing
• 31:23: Pricing her works
• 33:33: Her first commercial sell
• 34:43: Giving up?
• 36:45: Filming with Ryan Reynolds
• 40:06: Advice for those who want to become miniature artists 
• 43:33: Making personal miniature art every week for the year 2021

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/45 

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Best Known as director of the George Town Festival, Joe Sidek has established himself as one of Malaysia’s strong advocates for the arts.

Prior to becoming a festival director, Joe Sidek played major roles in various forms of art expression – from event management, art curator-ship, restaurant ownership and even costume design. He also still runs his family–owned textile chemical factory, Chemdyes Sdn Bhd.

Since 2010 when he began GTF, in 2018, Joe also directed the 3-year-old Rainforest Fringe Festival in Kuching, having founded the festival in 2017. He also helmed the Butterworth Fringe Festival for 3 years (2015–2017) and earlier in 2014, he brought Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival to Southeast Asia and showcased the inaugural Tropfest South East Asia in Penang.

He is 2020-2022 chairman of Federation of Asian Cultural Promotion, an industry expert on the industry panel of Malaysian federal agency for the arts and culture, Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA), and chairman of Penang Arts Council.

In this STIMY episode, Joe shares his fascinating life story: from wanting to do art in Central Saint Martins to returning to Malaysia, recovering from his first “failed’ festival to eventually be one of Malaysia’s biggest, and most well-known advocate for the arts & culture!

Highlights:

• 1:52: Joe has noble blood!
• 3:18: Moving to Penang
• 3:42: Why Joe thinks Penangites are “arrogant, confident, and proud of who they are”
• 4:36: Wanting to do art in London & John Galliano
• 5:45: Not wanting to return home
• 6:50: His relationship with his dad
• 10:37: Taking over the family business
• 11:35: Why Joe’s first festival in 2001 failed
• 14:33: Becoming the festival director of the George Town Festival 
• 17:02: Getting help from the Penang Chief Minister
• 19:15: Why Joe brings in not just local, but also international artists
• 21:48: How Ernest Zacharevic got involved in the George Town Festival (resulting in the subsequent street art boom!)
• 24:01: Gentrification & over-commercialisation
• 24:54: GTF’s student and community tickets project
• 31:49: Finding historical, old & meaningful places to stage GTF
• 32:41: The biggest challenges of a festival director
• 35:50: Artists that have adapted well to COVID/virtual world
• 37:50: How artists can build their personal brand & stand out 
• 42:21: How to become a festival director
• 49:45: Where artists can find their community

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/44  

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Nicky Gumbel is an English Anglican priest, vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, London and pioneer of the Alpha Course - a course that has reached over 25 million people who are looking to discover the meaning to life!

This episode is so special to me not least because I used to attend HTB myself! 

In this STIMY episode, we explore Nicky’s incredible faith journey - how he went from being an argumentative atheist to someone completely on fire for God! - and what HTB and the Alpha course was like back in the 1970s, including the pivotal moments that led to what it is today. As well as his thoughts on online church and online Alpha!

Highlights:

• 3:48: Growing up in London in the 1950s
• 5:13: Having an eventful conversation with his mum at the age of 14
• 11:44: Why Nicky labelled himself a “logical determinist” while at Eton
• 12:50: Why Nicky entered Cambridge University to do economics (before switching to law!)
• 13:56: The Nicky lunches
• 15:02: Coming to faith in February 1974
• 19:46: How Nicky ended up in Kitchen with Phil Lawson Johnston
• 22:13: How Sandy Miller came into Nicky’s life
• 24:01: The change in HTB culture from robed choirs to contemporary worship
• 26:25: Why Nicky went from working as a barrister in a tax chamber to criminal then a mix set
• 27:34: Meeting John Wimber in 1981
• 28:10: “Come, Holy Spirit”
• 29:23: Why Nicky studied theology at Oxford
• 30:46: Learning that he had tied his self-esteem to his job
• 32:12: Being rejected from 9 parishes!
• 32:55: How Nicky went from Agnostics Anonymous to the Alpha course
• 35:36: How the first Alpha training conference in May 1993 came about
• 37:58: The 1994 Toronto blessing that spread to HTB
• 39:35: Alpha Asia Pacific
• 40:42: Doing online church & online Alpha
• 42:34: Where Nicky gets his drive from

Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/43 

Wai Ken Wong is the Country Manager of StashAway (Malaysia). He first worked in investments in Khazanah Nasional Berhad, then became the Vice President of the Equity Capital Markets at Affin Hwang Capital, before entering the startup world. 

Want to learn what it's like working in the fintech startup world, all things investments & the intricacies of how StashAway is set up?

This is the episode for you!

Highlights:

• 2:38: Using ang pow money to invest in unit trusts
• 6:10: Why he moved to Australia at the age of 16
• 7:54: Enjoying business
• 9:24: Whether Wai Ken was ever tempted to drop out of college to launch a startup
• 10:41: What drove Wai Ken to start working while still studying
• 17:56: Working in Khazanah
• 21:33: Working with Dato Hisham
• 22:35: Working at Affin Hwang
• 26:07: Why Wai Ken decided to join StashAway - then a 2-year-old startup that began in Singapore
• 32:13: Whether he had any doubts about joining StashAway
• 33:34: His role as Country Manager from Day 1
• 35:36: How Wai Ken built a 5000 person waiting list before StashAway launched in Malaysia
• 41:42: The role of content creation in StashAway
• 44:27: What does “robo advisory” mean?
• 47:38: Robo Advisory v ETFs
• 49:51: StashAway’s investment framework - known as the Economic Regime Base Asset Allocation (ERAA)
• 52:40: How StashAway came up with its risk index
• 54:56: Guaranteeing a 1% chance of your portfolio dropping?
• 57:17: How StashAway categorises risk
• 1:01:58: Will customers get to determine their own assets with StashAway in the future?
• 1:04:44: StashAway Simple
• 1:06:51: Why StashAway Simple doesn’t have PIDM protection
• 1:09:01: What guarantees StashAway has for its customers
• 1:11:51: How StashAway came up with its projected rate of 2.4% for StashAway Simple
• 1:14:05: How StashAway compares to Wahed & MyTheo
• 1:15:47: Whether StashAway will ever invest in crypto
• 1:17:53: StashAway’s Series B & Series C fundraising rounds
• 1:22: What do the rich know, that the poor should know?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/42

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Richard Lui is a TV news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News and was previously at CNN Worldwide, where he became the first Asian American male to anchor a daily, national cable news show. He also earned the Peabody and Emmy awards for his team reporting at CNN during Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill. Mediaite ranked Richard among the top 100 in news buzz on its "Power Grid Influence Index of TV Anchors and Hosts" & was also listed by Business Insider as one of 21 dynamic careers to watch alongside Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban.

In addition, Richard is also a columnist for USA Today, Politico, The Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press and San Francisco Chronicles.

Prior to journalism, Richard spent 15 years working with Fortune 500 and tech companies, including at Citibank where he co-founded the first bank-centric payment system. 

But how did it all begin?

Highlight:

• 3:12: Why Richard’s real last name is “Wong”, not “Lui”
• 6:05: Learning to be selfless
• 11:10: Learning kungfu from a Shaolin temple master
• 12:23: Working at Mrs Fields Cookies
• 15:41: Being exposed to politics
• 20:25: Going back to college
• 21:32: Working at KALX radio station, reporting on Senor Dianne Feinstein, Magic Johnson and Rodney King
• 24:04: How Mike Breslin influenced Richard at Clean Environment Equipment
• 16:18: Working at Citibank in Singapore
• 29:38: Working at Channelnews Asia
• 31:19: Working at CNN Worldwide
• 35:36: Winning the Peabody & Emmy awards
• 38:19: Reporting on humanitarian issues & offering a helping hand
• 40:00: Being a 7-year-old feminist
• 42:02: What feminism means to Richard
• 43:36: Learning of his father’s Alzheimers
• 46:59: Traveling ⅕ million miles a year
• 47:48: Coming up with a family caregiving plan
• 48:36: Knowing when to let go & whether they are keeping their dad around for too long
• 52:59: Richard’s new book, Enough About Me: The Unexpected Power of Selflessness
• 54:49: Three lunches
• 56:26: Why Richard produced Sky Blossom
• 58:07: The meaning behind “Sky Blossom”
• 1:00:59: Why joy is featured so prominently in Sky Blossom

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/41 

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He Ruiming & Goh Wei Choon are the Singaporean/Malaysia duo behind The Woke Salaryman: an incredible personal finance page that educates people about making better financial and life choices through the use of simple albeit beautiful comics. 

Since 2019, they have rapidly grown to over 204k followers on Instagram & 218k on Facebook - and we spend this STIMY interview uncovering how they first met and began building their Woke Salaryman brand: creating a consistent publishing schedule, dividing the work among themselves, getting their first piece of sponsored content, negotiating with clients, their thoughts on what the secrets are to virality, expanding the team and more.

• 3:27: Wei Choon’s love of animation since young
• 4:39: The impact that the 1997 economic crisis had on Ruiming
• 5:53: How Ruiming was blogging & writing gossipy columns in school
• 7:44: How Wei Choon & Ruiming met at Ngee Ann Polytechnic
• 12:23: Not letting anything sully his art
• 13:57: Wei Choon’s wake up moment when he graduated with a $25k debt
• 21:23: The meaning behind creating “impact” 
• 25:27: The “secret” to creating viral content
• 26:14: Where virality was attached to their sense of self-worth
• 31:52: How Wei Choon got into personal finance
• 33:03: What “being rich” means to Wei Choon
• 34:10: Writing the viral article on saving $100,000 before turning 30
• 37:48: The start of the Woke Salaryman
• 39:31: Figuring out the division of labour
• 42:40: How they stayed consistent in publishing regular content
• 46:56: Discovering that financial planners were stealing the Woke Salaryman content
• 53:38: Planning to go full-time on the Woke Salaryman
• 56:34: The “secret” behind the virality of the Woke Salaryman, which is now over 204k strong on Instagram!
• 57:18: Building a passionate community 
• 59:35: Getting their first sponsored post from CPF 
• 1:01:49: Staying true to their values & turning away opportunities 
• 1:06:02: Negotiating with clients 
• 1:07:25: Expanding the team for the Woke Salaryman
• 1:15:45: Biggest highlights to date 
• 1:17:31: What drives Wei Choon & Ruiming
• 1:21:32: Tangible steps for people to begin their personal finance journey
• 1:25:27: Advice for content creators 
• 1:28:32: What Clubhouse means to them

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/40

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Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva and the creator of Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People podcast. He is an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley) and an adjunct professor of the University of New South Wales. He was the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. He has written Wise Guy, The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and eleven other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University, an MBA from UCLA, and an honorary doctorate from Babson College.   

In this STIMY episode, we explore what it was like growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii and the important people/events that set Guy on the path to becoming one of the world's most well-known brand evangelists!

Highlights:

• 3:09: Growing up in Kalihi Valley
• 4:17: Harold Keebles - one of the toughest teachers Guy ever had
• 5:11: Stanford in the 1970s
• 5:45: Why Guy quit law school after 2 weeks
• 6:59: Working at a jewellery manufacture company
• 7:26: Why Guy describes sales as hand-to-hand combat
• 9:28: Getting into Apple through nepotism
• 10:22: What it was like working at Apple in the 1980s
• 11:24: How Apple was set up then
• 13:29: Why Guy quit Apple for the first time
• 15:00: Why Apple rejoined Apple in the 1990s, when everyone thought the company would die
• 15:41: What a Chief Evangelist does
• 16:11: The Evange-List
• 18:02: How Guy first got involved in Canva
• 19:29: Guy’s role in Canva 
• 21:19: Building brand awareness
• 22:54: Getting into podcasting 
• 24:33: Getting Jane Goodall as his first podcast guest
• 28:08: How Guy first got onto Clubhouse
• 29:32: How Guy decides who to let onto the Clubhouse stage in his AMA rooms 
• 31:02: What Guy thinks Clubhouse needs to achieve to go mainstream
• 32:19: Why Guy keeps giving out his personal email freely

Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/39

John Yohan Kim serves as Managing Partner at Amasia, a cross-border venture capital firm that helps technology companies get global. He is a Kauffman Fellow, a Term Member at the Council of Foreign Relations, a member of the Young Leader's Circle at the Milken Institute and serves on various corporate and non-profit boards including those of Dialpad Communications, Kairos Society Asean and the Choson Exchange.

But before all that, John began his career as a serial entrepreneur, founding a music internet and e-consulting business called The Y Group before joining as a violinist in the Ally, where he toured around the US and collaborated with top artists across the US and Korea, most notably receiving a platinum record for contributing to an album with Grammy Award winner, Brandy. 

All of that ended when John realised that he was still depressed despite pursuing his passion in music and during one performance, he heard God’s voice calling him to come home. Which kickstarted a journey that took him from the USA to Korea and now, Singapore. 

Highlights:

• 3:36: Being a rebel to be accepted by society
• 6:04: Suffering senioritis & nearly losing his place in University of Pennsylvania! 
• 9:04: Hearing God telling him to “Come home”
• 17:56: Joining the rock band, The Ally, as a performing musician
• 19:09: Getting a platinum record for contributing to Grammy award-winning Brandy’s album
• 22:25: Crossing paths with John… Legend!
• 29:35: Pivoting from music to hedge funds
• 31:56: Corporate culture in Asia versus the West
• 33:18: Co-founding his own VC firm, Amasia
• 41:22: God is not a vending machine
• 43:25: Workplace conflict when work clashes with faith 
• 54:57: Amasia’s 4Rs of Behaviour Change
• 58:01: Investing in Dialpad
• 1:05:00: Hearing God tell him to become a vlogger
• 1:06:00: Meeting Nuseir Yassin of Nasdaily
• 1:09:00: What Nas advised John to go from 200 views to 170k views and now, almost 1 million views!
• 1:12:23: Involving his family in his vlogs
• 1:17:14: Thoughts on Clubhouse

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/38 

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Ng Kai Yuan is the co-founder of Our Grandfather Story: a Singapore-based digital publisher dedicated to uncovering timeless and overlooked stories across Southeast Asia.

Founded in 2017 with three other co-founders, Our Grandfather Story started as a school project! More specifically, an assignment for an Advance Photojournalism module at Nanyang Technological University. All four college students were tasked with coming up with a digital startup and the first video they created was on Singapore’s distinctive green & pink ice-cream sandwich bread. 

To their surprise, the video went viral! And after acquiring investors (while still in college) and big corporate clients including Nippon Paint, Temasek Holdings & Singapore’s National Heritage Board, the four friends decided to turn their assignment into a real startup.

And in this STIMY episode, Kai Yuan shares exactly how that happened. 

Highlights:

4:51: Getting an advance photojournalism assignment that sparked the genesis of Our Grandfather Story

6:40: Why they named it ‘Our Grandfather Story”

7:17: Coming up with the concept of Singapore’s Ice-cream bread video, which went viral!

10:50: Turning a college assignment into a full-fledged digital media publishing company, OGS

11:30: Obtaining a seed investment of $50,000

12:09: Reaction from friends & family

14:46: Securing corporate clients without any track record

17:20: Managing budget while growing the team in the early days of OGS

18:18: OGS’ target market

20:16: Focusing on food content

23:11: How OGS uncovered “untold” stories

24:06: The most unique & “kepo” way that OGS has used to obtain a story

26:22: OGS’ biggest success - the Can Ask Meh? Series

28:56: How OGS created the video on “Parents Who Lost a Child” for the Can Ask Meh series

30:35: Remaining sensitive to the questions asked

32:57: Creating O+ - the animation illustration arm of OGS

34:38: Creating the Something Private podcast

37:13: How OGS has gained its dedicated following - in 3 years, OGS has grown to over 300k on Facebook, 250k on YouTube & 70k on Instagram. 

39:07: Sharing Southeast Asian stories during the COVID-19 pandemic

40:01: Who OGS is looking for to join the team

41:34: Maintaining relationships with the people they meet for OGS stories

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/37

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Want to know how a lawyer became a successful hotelier with 40 hotels & 9 Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, London, Ireland, Shanghai & Sydney?!

Look no further than today’s STIMY guest: Loh Lik Peng, the founder of Unlisted Collection.

Lik Peng grew up expecting to be a doctor, like his parents. 

But ended up practising as a commercial litigator for 3 years.

During that time, the world was hit with the Asian Financial Crisis and a rundown property called Hotel 1929 came onto the Singapore property market.

Hotel 1929 was located in Singapore’s red light district and Lik Peng saw potential in it, so he took a year off from law to develop the hotel with the full intention of going back to being a lawyer thereafter. 

But life didn’t turn out that way.

He ended up opening his first restaurant at Hotel 1929, then another hotel and restaurant, and another and…

In fact, he bought so many properties in the area that his friend once remarked that the street should be renamed “Peng Road”! 🤣

Lik Peng has now become one of Singapore’s most established hoteliers (he struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time when people called him a hotelier!) despite starting out by taking projects “by the seat of his pants”. 

And his Michelin-starred restaurants include:

⭐️: Burnt Ends, Marguerite, Nouri

⭐️⭐️: Cloudstreet, Da Terre

⭐️⭐️⭐️: Zen

So do you want to know how he did it?

Let’s go!

P/S: This is Part 1 out of 2 of Lik Peng’s episode (Part 2 is coming out this Weds).

Highlights: 

• 2:32 Dad as the Chief Glutton
• 3:24 Boarding school were the best years of the life
• 4:42 Being a lousy doctor
• 5:32 Learning important lessons from the Asian Financial Crisis
• 7:14 Hotel 1929
• 8:24 The “Peng” Road?!
• 9:15 Worried about being in the red light district?
• 10:41 Family thought he was insane?!
• 11:30 Turning the corner
• 12:43 Being hit with SARS
• 13:55 What crisis management looks like in a hotel
• 14:52 Expanding to London
• 17:54 Romanticism overruled my logic…
• 20:57 The secret to getting things done
• 22:35 Managing risks
• 24:11 When Lik Peng thought he could call himself a “hotelier”
• 25:43 The magic behind what he does (while being pragmatic?!)
• 26:48 What properties interest him now
• 30:24 Any regrets investing in Old Clare, Sydney?
• 34:41 Navigating unsexy regulations & red tape
• 35:46 Surprising things about the Australian hospitality market?
• 36:45 Dr Stanley Quek
• 40:37 Family friend to business partner?

Special thanks to Limpeh Studios (Hepmil Media) for the studio!

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/140 

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/w22CAJupO48 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

Kyne is the stage name of Kyne Santos: a mathematician, YouTube/Tik Tok star with nearly 1 million followers collectively, Drag Queen & contestant in Season 1 of Canada’s Drag Race.

Born in Manila, Philippines, Kyne moved to Kitchener, Ontario at the age of 5 with his family. Since young, mathematics and academics were a priority at home and he developed a love and knack for it.

In Grade, 9, Kyne began experimenting with makeup. What started out as almost invisible men’s makeup turned into full-blown, dramatic horror makeup that he would then post on his YouTube channel as part of his repertoire of makeup tutorials! This consequently led him down the path to becoming a Tik Tok drag queen star & contestant on Canada's Drag Race!

Highlights:

• 2:34: Maths & academics as a priority since childhood
• 3:27: Wanting to be a priest at the age of 12
• 5:07: Coming out
• 6:28: Experimenting with makeup at the age of 14/15
• 10:15: Wearing makeup to school 
• 12:46: How Kyne’s understanding of drag evolved over time
• 15:18: Coming up with his drag aesthetics
• 16:04: Finding maths to be very beautiful and elegant
• 19:45: Maths can be used for evil or for the social good
• 22:01: Joining Tik Tok & posting short educational math videos while in drag
• 26:30: How Kyne’s video showed that the graph for Georgia’s coronavirus cases was misleading, and how it resulted in officials changing the graph and issuing an apology
• 27:13: What constitutes a faulty graph?
• 28:36: Participating in Canada’s Drag Race
• 30:46: Facing backlash after Canada’s Drag Race premiered
• 32:15: Advice for those wanting to get into drag

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/36

💌  Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605​ 

Chye Neo Chong is the former Managing Director of IBM Malaysia with over 30 years in the information technology industry, and current independent director at Hong Leong Financial Group and Bursa Malaysia. 

Chye was appointed to the role of MD in 2015, becoming the first woman to helm the company in its 57-year history in Malaysia and was also awarded the CEO Champion Award by Talentcorp in 2015 and recognised by the Malaysian Business publication as one of Malaysia’s Women of Influence in April 2018.

Highlights:

• 1:36: Growing up with 5 siblings (including an elder twin sister!)
• 3:22: Why Chye studied computer science at University of Science, Malaysia
• 4:47: Working as a software development engineer in Penang
• 10:26: How Chye managed to get so many work opportunities coming her way (without applying for them!)
• 12:06: Why Chye turned down the opportunity to be the MD/CEO of IBM Malaysia in 2007
• 14:36: Does Chye regret her decision to reject the position of CEO?
• 16:08: Taking 2 sabbaticals at the peak of her career
• 19:03: What am I worth without my (work) title?
• 23:33: Staying relevant while being on year-long sabbaticals
• 25:26: Returning to IBM & becoming MD/CEO of IBM Malaysia (the first woman to do so in its 57-year history in Malaysia!)
• 32:49: Leaving a legacy behind
• 38:32: Chye’s succession plan
• 40:20: The best way to ask for a salary increase
• 42:07: How do you find out that you’re being paid what you’re worth?
• 42:59: Networking with people 
• 44:54: What value can you bring as a young person to a CEO?
• 46:33: Reinventing the wheel at IBM
• 49:45: Why Chye took early retirement

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/35

💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605​

Shawn Chong is one of Malaysia’s top mixologist, a three-time Diageo World Class Malaysia champion, once listed as the No. 25 Bartender in the world and co-founder of Kuala Lumpur’s pioneering speakeasy, Omakase + Appreciate. A speakeasy that was listed in the Top 10 of Asia’s 50 Best Bars Award 2016. He is also the founder of Bar Class Academy Asia. 

Today, Shawn shares why he decided to enter the F&B industry, which led to him finding his calling as a bartender!

Highlights:

• 3:03: Having his first sip of alcohol at age… 5!
• 3:53: Moving back to Kuala Lumpur from France
• 5:07: When Shawn decided he wanted to enter the F&B industry
• 8:30: Working in the fine dining restaurant at Hilton Kuala Lumpur
• 11:50: How Shawn entered his first bartending competition
• 18:16: Why Shawn left Hilton KL for an independent restaurant
• 20:31: Opening Omakase + Appreciate - Kuala Lumpur’s very first omakase bar
• 22:57: Being inspired by the 1920s Prohibition Era in America
• 25:13: Coming up with the omakase concept, and mixing their Japanese/Western approaches
• 26:14: Changing the drinks menu every 6-8 weeks
• 28:05: The unique marketing tactics used by Omakase + Appreciate
• 29:02: Inviting big-name guest bartenders
• 30:57: Mise en place
• 33:13: Reaching the global finals for the Diageo World Champion competition for the second time
• 33:13: Winning the 10th spot of Asia’s 50 Best Bars in 2016
• 37:30: Finances
• 40:02: Deciding to close Omakase + Appreciate in December 2019
• 41:43: Starting Bar Class Academy Asia
• 42:23: Why Shawn’s endeavour in PJ failed
• 47:33: Best way to enter the bartending industry 

🌍 Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/34 

👉  Sign up for STIMY Newsletter here: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605