That’s what Shi Han Pang did at 25.

Since then, she’s best known for being the co-founder of Human Edition, a storytelling platform that has captured the hearts of over 138k followers by documenting the hidden, un-Googleable stories of Malaysia and beyond.

Shi Han takes us through her journey - from growing up in the quiet "tuition culture" of Alor Setar to working as an architectural designer in Shanghai, KL & Singapore. 

Disillusioned by the industry, she decided to f*ck it and quit her job at 25 to pursue her masters as a way of buying more time to ‘figure life out.’

That eventually led to a permanent move to Langkawi island to document extraordinary local stories that can’t be found in any tour guide book or Google search with her partner, Jie Xin.

To learn more about how Shi Han followed her passion and made it work:

• 04:12: Growing up in Alor Setar
• 09:45: The Architecture Trap
• 14:20: Feeling "successful" but unhappy
• 19:10: The "F*ck It" leap & m to an island.
• 25:35: The Bon Ton Residency: How six weeks in Langkawi changed everything
• 31:05: "Un-Googleable" Malaysia: Why Human Edition focuses on the stories you can't find online
• 36:50" The ‘magic’ of the island
• 42:15: RM1500/month.
• 48:40: The Transformation: From corporate attire to finding a "glow" through boho freedom.

🎙️Show notes/transcript for this episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/157

🎥 Subscribe to YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ?sub_confirmation=1

🙊 Support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day! - https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/

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

But finding her path wasn’t easy.

She quit law school after 2 months because it wasn’t for her.

Worked 10 different odd jobs - including as a body lotion rep & real estate agent - to figure out her interests.

Her realisation: She enjoyed designing property posters over selling the houses themselves.

That led to her joining a hackathon organised by Hong Leong Bank as a designer.

They ranked 10 top.

That led to a role as a Senior Product Designer Fave.

While working full-time, she launched her UX/UI YouTube channel and started building different income streams.

By 2022, she was generating $106,241/year from her freelance work itself, which gave her the confidence to take the leap.

Quit.

And become a solopreneur.

But career journeys are never linear.

To learn more about how Rachel built her 8 income streams, her advice for building a YouTube channel & what keeps her going, tune in! 

Highlights: 

• 1:24 The $106,241 year
• 3:15 Growing up wanting to be "somebody" 
• 8:02 The RM50,000 Law School 
• 10:45 Quitting Law after 2 months:
• 13:10 Working 10 odd jobs
• 15:45 The turning point
• 19:12 Entering the Hong Leong Bank hackathon 
• 22:30 Self-teaching UX/UI: YouTube vs. Reality 
• 26:40 Landing the role at Fave 
• 29:15 Launching her YouTube channel: 10k subs in 3 months 
• 32:50 Burnout & health struggles 
• 35:20 Being the sole provider for her family 
• 38:44 Why her revenue dropped to $70k in 2023
• 47:12 Don't follow passion, follow curiosity 
• 50:05 Advice for aspiring solopreneurs

🎙️Show notes/transcript for this episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/156

🎥 Subscribe to YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ?sub_confirmation=1

🙊 Support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day! - https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/

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

He once sold woks at the morning market with his dad, scored 1A in SPM exam and earned $0.20/day from his 1st blog

But he’d always dreamt of being a “business entrepreneur”.

And today, his dream comes true.

That little blog he started in 2016 has turned into a 46M+ follower digital media empire. And just in 2024 alone, it hit:

• 20+ lifestyle brands, including Penang Foodie, KL Foodie, Halal Foodie, Malaysia Homie, Car Buddie and Techie
• 2.8B views
• 70 people
• RM24 million in revenue

But… who IS Pinn Yang?

What drove him to do what he does?

How did he end up with an investor like Bryan Loo of Loob Holdings?

And… what does success mean for him?

Listen to find out.

Thanks Foodie for sponsoring this episode!

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

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/lhIUOf7jSKs

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/155

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

A kid who grew up on Hong Kong kung fu flicks, Senh was obsessed with Jackie Chan. 

So when Jackie tried to break into Hollywood again, Senh went looking for honest reviews... 

But couldn’t find any. 

Every critic said the movies were great (even when they weren’t).

So Senh decided to build a site that told the truth.

What began as a side project coded through sleepless nights turned into a cultural phenomenon - one that raised $1 million (2 months before the dot com bubble burst!!), sold for $10 million, and changed how audiences everywhere judge movies.

In this episode, Senh opens up about:

🔸 Fleeing Vietnam and growing up in a refugee camp in Hong Kong

🔸 How Jackie Chan inspired the birth of Rotten Tomatoes

🔸 Almost quitting Rotten Tomatoes due to burnout 

🔸 Being treated as “second-class citizens” by film publicists at screenings (and when that changed!)

🔸 Raising $1M, surviving the dot-com crash & selling too early?!

🔸 Why he says he’s proud to be a “one-hit wonder”

This is the story of how a movie-obsessed refugee created one of the most iconic brands in film history - all because he wanted Jackie Chan to get the credit he deserved.

Highlights:

• 2:08 The Fall of Saigon
• 4:48 Arriving in the US
• 6:01 Falling in love with Hong Kong movies & TV series
• 8:55 The mafia controls the film industry?! 
• 10:14 Studying computer science at Berkeley
• 13:14 Dreaming of becoming a PIXAR animator? 
• 14:00 Founding a startup design studio with friends, Patrick Lee & Stephen Wang
• 15:52 Landing Disney as a 7-figure client due to pizza party?!
• 20:52 Launching Rotten Tomatoes as a side project
• 23:58 What kept you going?
• 26:22 Leaving Design Reactor & feeling lost
• 28:52 Rotten Tomatoes’ traffic explodes
• 31:34 Turning a side project → company (+ raising $1 million)
• 35:30 Building a relationship with film critics
• 36:52 Tomatometer
• 38:42 Investors saying, ‘Are you crazy?!’
• 43:46 Internet bubble bursts, layoffs & living in the office
• 47:02 What kept everyone going?
• 48:49 Major turning point
• 53:18 Selling for $10 million
• 54:47 What’s next?
• 56:03 IGN buys Rotten Tomatoes for $650 million (1 year later?!)

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

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/pWO2IVYZvlI&list=UULFSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/154 

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

Her mum was forced to be the sole provider for the family after her dad landed them in bad debt. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hui Jing understood the importance of money & joined the work force young - at the below-legal age of 15 - for a mediocre RM4/hour.

It wasn’t easy.

But it kickstarted a series of jobs that saw her go from working as at McDonald’s to The Body Shop to becoming a finalist for the Red Bull Female Driver Search in 2009 (they were offering a cash prize) to becoming an insurance agent (where she learned the joys of passive income) to joining a radio station as a road runner and finally…

Co-founding one of Malaysia’s fastest growing local convenience store chains, Bila-Bila Mart.

Which is on track to hit a whooping RM150+ million in revenue & 100 stores by the end of 2025, with an IPO on the horizon!

Not bad for a Brickfields girl who was once kidnapped & held ransom due to bad family debts. 

If there’s one thing that clearly stands out about Hui Jing’s story, it’s this: Taking risk

During the interview, she spoke of how:

“Throwing everything outta the window (i.e. leaving corporate) sounded like an adventure. I wanted that adventure.

 Because I was just thinking, okay, now I have no commitments. I don't have a family… If I don't do it, if I don't risk it, I don't really see how is the world outside, when am I gonna do it?”

That said, life hasn’t been without its challenges.

Once at a bar, she was told, “Jing, you talk too much as a female. Can you shut up?”

And also advised to stop working and to “ask your husband to feed you.”

Needless to say, that lit a fire in Hui Jing that led to the founding of Bila-Bila Mart, where she also spoke about:

✨ How Dettol saved Bila-Bila Mart (they opened their first physical store during MCO)

✨ Their first breakthrough (pivoting from the idea of selling hot food → kedai runcit model)

✨ The process for local SMEs getting their items into Bila-Bila Mart

✨ Dealing with chauvinistic men who question Jing’s very young team

✨ Why you are the decision maker of your own fate

Don't forget to subscribe for future STIMY episodes!

Special thanks to Bila-Bila Mart for sponsoring this episode.

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

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

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

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

In Part 1 of Ken's STIMY interview (do check it out if you haven't already done so), we covered his journey including how he first launched his art forgery 'career' (hint: it involves a broken bathroom that crashed through the ceiling to the restaurant below!).

In Part 2, Ken discusses his motivations, the thrill of creating and selling fake art, and how he managed to avoid capture by both the mafia and the FBI.

Highlights include a $750,000 art piece he painted, adopting his daughter due to a CNN documentary by Christiane Amanpour, and the psychological tactics he employed to fool art experts.

Despite the rather questionable nature of his work, Ken views his career with a mix of pride and reflection, acknowledging missed opportunities and his philosophical outlook on life.

He also recounts his controversial friendships with high-profile figures like Roy Cohn (the notorious lawyer/fixer who helped Donald Trump gain a footing in New York) and his thoughts on the challenges for contemporary artists breaking into the industry.

Highlights:

• 01:44 Ken's Artistic Journey and Motivations
• 05:46 The Art of Deception: Techniques and Challenges
• 10:53 Close Calls with the Mafia and FBI
• 16:04 The Investigation and Its Aftermath
• 33:32 Reflections on Life Choices and Missed Opportunities
• 38:23 Rescuing a Daughter from Sex Slavery
• 39:47 A Life Transformed by Art
• 40:04 The Rescue Mission in Ghana
• 43:52 Adopting Bridget and Her Journey
• 46:02 Reflections on Life Choices
• 01:04:28 The Art World and Its Challenges
• 01:15:22 Final Thoughts and Legacy

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

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/MoZ5YOdHyJ4

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/152

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

That’s what happened with Ken Perenyi - one of the most “successful” art forgers in the world.

His works have been sold all over the world, including in Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with one painting going for as high as $717,000!

He was also close friends with Roy Cohn - the notorious lawyer who helped Trump enter the New York market. The Independent called him the evil master architect who mentored Donald Trump (to Ken, he was just a great friend and protector).

Was hunted for decades by the Mafia and the FBI.

And got away with it all without even a slap on the wrist.

When the statute of limitation passed for his “crimes”, Ken then published a book telling everyone exactly how he did it. 😂

(Talk about giving everyone the finger!!)

And lest you wonder whether that’s all there is to Ken’s story, believe me.

It is not.

Ken’s childhood was spent hanging out with Tony, an influential Mafia member, who introduced him to the world of fine art. 

He was so enamoured with art that he taught himself to paint. To crack the paintings and mimic the black spots that flies would leave on very, very old paintings. 

He was also neighbours with Andy Warhol. 

One memorable incident: He was sharing a flat with Tony who found an abandoned bathtub in the streets. 

They didn’t have a bathtub so they decided to steal one (in a stolen car) and install it themselves in their flat.

The installation wasn’t done well. 

Water leaked. 

The flooring cracked. 

And one evening, everything - the ceiling, bathtub and all - crashed from the first floor down to the ground floor, on top of a bustling Jewish restaurant.

Needless to say, Ken and Tony were kicked out of said flat. 

And he spent a miserable 2 weeks wandering around New York before eventually finding a new place that would lead him to Roy Cohen’s doors.

*

This is just the tiniest glimpse of Ken’s life and it’s so epic - we ended up having a 3 hour conversation! - that I had to split his story into 2 parts.

Are you ready to get started?

Highlights: 

• 3:36 An Unlikely Artist growing up in the summer of love
• 5:51 Life changed forever when…
• 6:36 Hanging out with the real New Yorkers
• 8:12 Being introduced to fine art world
• 9:23 Being friends with a Mafia associate
• 12:06 Trying out art forgery
• 16:53 Imposter syndrome when calling himself an ‘artist’
• 19:10 Self-validation?
• 21:53 Andy Warhol - his neighbour
• 23:53 The bathtub
• 26:59 His biggest regret with Andy Warhol
• 31:15 Making fake art to survive
• 32:46 Finding his niche in life
• 35:24 Being evicted - another great turning point in life
• 37:35 The notorious Mafia fixer & lawyer, Roy Cohn
• 41:49 Donald Trump’s mentor
• 51:20 The greatest validation of his work
• 56:15 “I had a fantastic career…”
• 59:43 Entering the elite art world
• 1:03:04 How much art isn’t genuine in art galleries?
• 1:08:05 Is it harder to sell fake art today?

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

🧠 Build Your Why course: https://ling-yah-wong.mykajabi.com/joinus 

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/152

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/QmsqswrOCN4

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

Being thrown out of the house and sleeping in an abandoned cupboard.

Being bullied in school and almost failing SPM.

But knowing deep down inside that you love storytelling.

You just… don’t know what that means.

And how to make that dream a reality.

That was Jared Lee - one of Malaysia’s most famous YouTubers and the founder of the award-winning production house, Grim Film.

Jared started his journey in an event company, while also freelancing as a storyboard artist and production assistant.

Being passionate about storytelling, he decided to create a short film called The Long Distance Relationship. A film that, for him, he had to make happen, no matter what.

And it blew up.

✨ Within a day, it hit 10k views. 

✨ Within a week, it hit 70k views

✨ Within a month, it hit 1 million views

This short film opened doors and led to the creation of his production house, The Grim Film.

Which has since bagged multiple awards, including Best Drama at America’s Soul 4 Reel International Film Festival 2013 for The Long Distance Relationship and Best Pilot and Best Special Effects at the 2018 Vancouver WebFest in Canada for The Last 7.

His most recent piece of work, Horologist, even won Best Animation at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) Film Festival 2023 and USA Film Festival! It was also a finalist for Poland's Animator Film Festival (Best Animation & Audience Choice Award) and nominated for the 2024 Eisner Award in the Best Single Issue/One-Shot category.

Proving how Jared’s wild gamble has paid off.

Although… life wasn’t easy. 

In 2018, Jared was diagnosed with stage 1 testicular cancer. And he later found out that he could not have children.

But in spite of these challenges, Jared is someone who has always believed in pursuing his dreams and hustling against the odds. 

Which is why I’m so thrilled to share his story as the latest guest on STIMY!

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to triumph against all odds and pursue your passion, what it takes to go from being a YouTuber to a legitimate film producer, and the personal struggles with cancer and childlessness, then this episode is for you.

So are you ready?

Let’s go.

Highlights:

• 2:02: Growing up in a single mum household
• 3:45 Finding escape in storytelling
• 5:18 Liking things that other boys don’t like
• 7:40 Worst year of my life
• 8:52 Getting kicked out 
• 9:40 Finding his calling
• 11:13 A Kingdom of Paos
• 11:55 The Long Distance
• 13:42 YouTube
• 14:37 Going viral
• 17:19 There was no money!
• 20:16 Burning bridges
• 21:10 What it’s like to run a production company
• 24:54 Second-guessing himself
• 27:02 There is no joy in production?!
• 29:34 Making the switch & losing fans
• 32:58 The most successful work Jared’s done
• 34:30 Diagnosed with cancer
• 41:34 Do awards matter?
• 44:34 Any regrets?
• 45:07 Is your work acknowledged more overseas?
• 47:20 What kind of work has influenced your style?
• 50:39 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
• 51:07 What are the most important qualities of a successful person?
• 51:28 Sharing your private life in public

🧠 Join the Build Your Why course: https://ling-yah-wong.mykajabi.com/joinus 

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

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/151 

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/jsbc2xuaj0I

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

And we are back this week with Part 2 of our interview with Jonathan.

Last week, we dove deep into his childhood growing up & how everything was stacked against him: he was the only black person in his family and community, was working class and grew up in a housing estate, attended a polytechnic, experienced blatant racism and physical abuse and also had zero connections in advertising

The very industry that he rose to the very top in.

In Part 2, we delve deep into his career. 

What it means to join Coca-Cola when it was creatively bankrupt, the stories behind some of his biggest and most successful advertising campaigns including have two ads being featured at the same Superbowl, why he gave it all up for a then unknown startup called Airbnb, what it takes to ‘make it’ in his team and so much more.

And in case you didn’t know, this interview is also available on Youtube. Check it out via the links below.

Now are you ready?

Let’s go!

Highlights:

• 2:17 Coca-Cola was creatively bankrupt?!
• 7:31 Being Coca-Cola's poster child for diversity - 2014 Super Bowl [America the Beautiful]
• 15:35 The only CMO to have 2 Super Bowl ads play at the same time
• 16:14 How Brian Chesky convinced Jonathan to commit career suicide
• 22:10 Building an Olympic marketing team
• 26:08 Why 25% of people don't make it in Jonathan's team
• 27:17 Who is Jonathan Mildenhall the leader?
• 29:25 Launching his own company
• 37:12 A Colourful View from the Top
• 41:52 Advice to any aspiring CMO before they take the seat?
• 44:20 Brand marketing or customer marketing?

🙊 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 

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

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

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 

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

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

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

In Part 1 of this So This Is My Why feature, we delved into his tribal origins, how becoming top of his class was a matter of life and death, and his journey to becoming the Managing Director in Shell Sri Lanka - still his toughest gig to date. Listen here: https://youtu.be/KekuCGZJYlk

In Part 2, we go even deeper, exploring things like:

🔸 If Dato' Sri Idris would act the same way if he had a chance to redo everything?

🔸 How Shell moved Idris out of Sri Lanka because he was taking huge risks and they thought, “We should take you out before you kill yourself!”

🔸 What he learned from Michael Black

🔸 How he put Eddy Leong as the first CEO of Firefly because “he’s a bit crazy but he has the tenacity to push it”

🔸 Why he gave up the job he really wanted - to be the Chairman of Shell - to become the CEO of Malaysia Airlines

🔸 The advice he has for his sons

Want to learn more?

You’ll just have to tune in.

Highlights:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:30 If you had a chance, would you redo anything?
• 6:01 Shell was a fantastic school of management
• 6:43 Why Michael Black left such an impact on him
• 10:52 If you really want to do the real impossible stuff, you must put everything on the line
• 12:06 The line between the impossible goal v being foolhardy
• 14:54 The best way to tell you what you don't want to hear?
• 15:39 Why did you reject your dream job?!
• 16:46 Huge leap of faith - MNC to GLC
• 18:46 Launching a budget airline, Firefly
• 23:36 Common values of incredible people
• 24:43 Making it sustainable
• 29:07 Common issues
• 35:27 Lessons from PEMANDU operating in other countries
• 37:23 Check into Hotel California
• 39:14 Having a soulmate
• 44:16 SOW Club - Scared of Wife Club
• 48:58 Advice to sons
• 53:46 Legacy you want to leave behind?
• 54:03 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/lhIUOf7jSKs 

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/148

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

The Sri Lanka unit had already experienced 27 years of continuous losses when he took over. And on Day 1, what Idris had to handle was: bombs strapped to his depot, the kidnapping of his transport manager, a major labour strike and…

Threatening letters sent by a professional sniper who knew where he lived, where he worked, when he left each place and the exact route he took each other. 

Tough doesn’t even begin to cover it.

But Idris turned it around. 

And in the latest STIMY episode, he shares how, why he took on such a tough gig and what continues to drive him.

There were so many gems in his 2-hour interview that it’s only right to have split it into two parts.

This is Part 1.

Which opens up with his childhood in the Borneo Highlands - where his dad would throw him into the pigsty when he misbehaved.

And also insisted that they sleep on the floor of the stinky fish market - because they were travelling with neighbouring tribes who couldn’t afford a tribe and “they shouldn’t act different from others”. 

Education, for him back then, was a matter of life and death. 

His North Star then was to be the top of his class. 

So he asked his dad, a teacher, for advice.

He was told, “Very simple, son. Find out who’s currently No. 1, be his or her best friend, and do exactly what he does but put it to the power of 10.”

And so Idris just did. 😂

Others highlights:

🔸 Surviving ghostly encounters & treacherous rapids in the Borneo Highlands

🔸 His spiritual awakening as part of the Bario Revival

🔸 The concept of “ketuit” (which is kelabit for ‘kiasu’ or being very competitive)

🔸 Why his cocky job application letters were successful - he began his letters with the words, “Dear Sir, I’m the man you’re looking for”!

🔸 Why ‘the graveyard is full of indispensable people’

🔸 The impossible game

Highlights:

• 3:15 Storytelling culture
• 4:33 Thrown into the pigsty!
• 7:06 Ketuit
• 7:40 What does winning mean?
• 8:26 My true north then & the trick to achieving it
• 10:05 Becoming a lawyer
• 15:48 Walking through the cemetery 
• 17:19 The Bario spiritual revival
• 21:50 Not quite from God? The Gestapo inquiry
• 25:03 Post-Revival
• 29:08 Not able to go to New Zealand
• 31:55 The ‘magic’ in his cocky letters
• 34:01 Wanting a free flight home
• 42:28 Sense of curiosity
• 47:02 Becoming Managing Director of Shell Sri Lanka & the game of the impossible
• 51:49 He makes every big decision with his wife
• 54:03 Never make the position become you
• 55:22 Fear & holding the country at ransom?

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🎙️Show notes/transcript: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/148 

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His dad even told him, "I’m sorry, you had your shot but you missed it" and in Arthur's own words, "I was lost and I was discouraged and I was in a great deal of pain and despair."

Arthur ended up selling slimming products on the streets because it was the only job he could find before applying to Mediocorp to become a stage technician.

Things took a turn when he was asked to take a voice test and he ended up with a celebrity radio DJ because he could pronounce "Thursday the Thirteenth”! 

Overnight, Arthur found himself rubbing shoulders with the who's who and celebrities of the world and you would’ve thought that this was where Arthur’s career was on a rapid trajectory upwards save that he gave it all up to work to become a greeter at Prego. 

People were astonished. 

Why would he take on such a 'demeaning' job?!

But Arthur was adamant.

And Prego signalled the first step that Arthur took into the world of hospitality, where you'll find that he's had more than his share of incredible luck, ingenuity and adventures.

Including:

• Being 'saved' by a war and lauded as a genius
• Landing his dream job (at Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong) because his dog, Silky, fell sick!
• Launching a successful marketing campaign straight after 9/11 (despite being in the thick of a fight between the head office & owner!)

To find out more, you’ll just have to listen to this STIMY Ep 147 with Arthur Kiong. 😏

Highlights:

• 2:49 Adrian Tan
• 3:52 You have to be on the right escalator
• 6:18 Being in despair
• 6:53 Selling Japanese slimming starch
• 7:04 Becoming a celebrity radio DJ because he could pronounce ‘Thursday the Thirteenth’
• 9:01 Giving it all up
• 10:36 No future?
• 12:17 Becoming a waiter at Prego
• 12:55 Oh Lord, what have I done?!
• 15:00 Sales wasn’t easy!
• 15:26 First big breakthrough in hospitality
• 16:33 Interesting initiatives
• 19:39 Being saved by a war
• 22:35 I found nothing!
• 23:58 That scares me… I like being in control!
• 25:21 The difference between knowing and knowing
• 26:35 Landing the dream job at The Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong because of my sick dog!
• 28:09 It was a spooky experience
• 30:42 Returning to Singapore
• 31:18 The significant career break that allowed him to get into the Ritz
• 33:42 Superman in New York
• 36:21 When the cucumber turns green, it means the time is ripe
• 37:43 If things go south, will the corporate body defend me? 
• 39:37 I wanted to architect my resume
• 41:10 Why Singapore?
• 42:11 Building a Singaporean Hotel Brand
• 45:18 Living by Christian Values
• 49:05 Challenges of a CEO (that most don’t see)
• 50:23 Do you believe in God?
• 51:32 The Second Act in your career?
• 53:00 Biggest career advice
• 54:23 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?
• 55:18 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
• 55:37 What are the most important qualities of a successful person?

Special thanks to Limpeh Studios for making this in-person interview possible!

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

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/147

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/lJkY_8igcxQ 

📚 Download 5 Stones & a Sling: https://www.fareasthospitality.com/-/media/StayFarEast/Five-Stones-and-a-Sling

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Official Biography

Arthur Kiong is the Chief Executive Officer of Far East Hospitality, which is part of Far East Orchard Limited, a listed company under Far East Organization. 

Since Arthur joined the organisation in July 2012, he has been instrumental in growing the company’s hospitality management business through joint-ventures and acquisitions. Over the last nine years, Far East Hospitality's portfolio grew from 18 properties in Singapore to 105 hotels and serviced residences in nine countries – Austria, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore, with more in its development pipeline.

In more than 35 years of his career in the hospitality industry, Arthur has worked at prominent international hospitality brands including Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton (Singapore and New York), Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (Hong Kong), Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Westin Hotels & Resort. 

Arthur also plays an active role in championing change in the hospitality industry, and currently serves as First Vice President of the Singapore Hotel Association. In 2020, he was appointed as the hospitality representative in the National Jobs Council – a task force set up to establish jobs and upskilling opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In Nov 2022, Arthur received the Executive of the Year – Hospitality & Leisure award from the Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards for initiating transformative changes to FEH’s operations and steered the group’s expansion in recent years despite the pandemic. 

Arthur was a recipient of the Special Recognition Award from Singapore Tourism Board in 2016 for having played a key role in rallying support for driving productivity and manpower development initiatives in the hotel industry.

Woon Tai Ho is most known for being the founder of Channel News Asia & author of prolific books like the trilogy by George Yeo (Singapore’s former foreign minister). 

But has the success been worth it?

What are some of his biggest regrets in life?

In Part 1 (which you should listen to if you haven’t), we explored all of his big career achievements and the challenges that came with it, including being summoned by China to answer for their coverage of Falun Gong.

But today, we cover something very different.

Deeper.

More personal.

Starting with Tai Ho’s major pivot from broadcasting to author.

Because nowadays, it’s common to make career pivots. It’s hard enough when it’s just jumping from one company to the next in the same industry, but Tai Ho has made that huge jump so…

❓ How did he do it? 

❓ How does he think about the ‘Second Act’ of his career? 

❓ How should people plan for their own Second, Third or even Fourth Act, especially when it comes to retirement?

And is there such a thing as living for too long and just ‘waiting to die’?

We also talk about some of his deepest regrets, his relationship with success and thoughts on relationships.

His advice to people: Go marry, have kids, then go back to your career.

We don’t have to be that woke. 😅

Do you agree?

Time to hear from Tai Ho again in the latest episode from STIMY!

Highlights:

• 3:14 Becoming a biographer by accident
• 5:29 What makes George Yeo (Singapore’s ex-foreign minister) so special?
• 6:56 Transparency & Lee Kuan Yew
• 7:53 Is living to age 102 a blessing or a curse?
• 9:35 “If I don’t have my second act, I don’t know what to do with my time”
• 12:36 Is all of Tai Ho’s success worth it?
• 15:40 Tai Ho’s biggest regret
• 19:31 His biggest advice for people
• 23:02 Why does Tai Ho collect bunnies?
• 25:57 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?
• 26:51 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind
• 27:05 What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful person?

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

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/146

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/U0_pVl_RsGM 

💌 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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Until he invited his friends over and was asked questions like:

❓ Where’s your phone?

❓ Where’s your sofa?

None of which he had.

Which made him realise that actually, he was pretty poor. 😅 

But he was never ashamed of it.

When his sister invited him to stay at the house she was working at as a domestic helper, that changed his world.

“I couldn’t believe it, the way they stayed… these people had a dimension of luxury that I didn’t know about. So I told myself, I need to work very hard.”

And work very hard he did. 

We know Channel News Asia as one of the preeminent TV news channels in Asia, but that wasn’t always the case. As Tai Ho shares, the earliest days of CNA was very much a ‘wait and see’ game.

It was hardly easy too. 

“Television is a very, very hungry animal. A news channel is a very, very hungry animal. Every hour, every minute, every second needs content. Otherwise it's black.”

❓So how did Tai Ho build CNA from the ground up?

❓Position CNA amidst other giants like CNN & the BBC?

❓ Gain support from the likes of former Singapore foreign minister, George Yeo?

❓Handle challenges like when he was summoned to China for their coverage of Falun Gong?

You’ll have to listen to Part 1 of this STIMY episode to find out. 😉

Part 2 will come out next Sunday!

Highlights:

• 3:00 Would you consider yourself successful?
• 6:34 Family
• 8:27 Becoming a chef?
• 11:00 Singapore is a pretty good place!
• 13:29 “I never thought about being the best”
• 14:20 “When I was a kid, I didn’t know I was poor”
• 15:50 Mediacorp
• 16:53 Founding Channel News Asia
• 20:48 The reality of founding a news channel (that most people don’t know)
• 23:09 How do you define “quality content”?
• 24:28 Establishing the boundaries for quality
• 26:01 Looking at competitors to figure out CNA’s value proposition
• 28:33 No government support?!
• 31:14 Pushing the Singapore government’s perspective?
• 34:32 Getting into trouble with the Chinese government
• 37:56 Knowing which stories and perspective to put forward
• 40:51 Time to move on? 

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📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/146

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

“Do you love books that much?”

If you want to be a bookseller, than those are the questions you need to ask yourself - according to Kenny Chan, the former Senior Director at Kinokuniya Book Stores (Asia Pacific) - he spent ~20 years of his career there prior to his retirement!

But prior to bookseller, Kenny was a foreign diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore, where he was posted to London as their Trade and Culture Attache.

He then switched to bookselling, first at Popular Holdings Limited, then MPH Bookstores Sdn Bhd, and back again at Popular when they launched their IPO!

And finally interviewed for a position at Kinokuniya.

The President & Chairman of Kinokuniya flew from Japan to Singapore to conduct the interview and asked Kenny just one question:

“Do you love books?”

As it turns out, Kenny gave me the exact answer he was looking for!

And even after retirement, Kenny remains deep in the bookselling world.

If you haven’t already guessed it, Kenny is the latest guest on STIMY!

And we dive deep into all things books & the art of evangelising.

❓Why does Kenny not judge people by their educational level?

❓Why did he initially become a foreign diplomat?

❓What was it like opening bookstores throughout Asia Pacific, Dubai and New York?

❓What was it like working at his dream company?

❓What is the secret to buying books & why is bookselling a spiritual experience?

❓How can aspiring authors can get Kenny’s attention?

Are you intrigued yet?

The YouTube version is out now too. 😎

Highlights:

• 1:01 The Punisher
• 1:50 Don’t judge people by their level of education
• 2:59 Do your best in everything that you touch
• 3:58 My education was a roller-coaster
• 5:31 Didn't want to be a bookseller!
• 7:56 Getting into foreign affairs
• 9:51 Hunted down a book for Lee Kuan Yew & the power of connections
• 11:35 Lee Kuan Yew was a hard task master
• 14:54 Life isn't fair
• 18:32 How to get rid of inventory/books for bookstores
• 20:21 Leaving Popular for MPH
• 21:00 Introducing comics & Sanrio (Hello Popular) to Singapore
• 22:12 How Kenny knew it was time to bring Hello Kitty in
• 24:07 Memorable stories
• 26:43 What was it like working in his dream company?
• 27:46 Becoming store manager of the MPH Stamford Bookstore
• 28:22 You need to be a dictator
• 32:22 A great success
• 36:23 The IPO
• 37:11 The secret behind buying books & working at Popular
• 41:29 Moving to Kinokuniya
• 43:03 Meeting 
• 43:30 The 1 question asked by the President & Chairman of Kinokuniya from Japan
• 44:44 Working with someone who doesn’t understand English
• 46:09 The spiritual aspect of book selling
• 47:01 Opening a store in Dubai
• 48:16 Love of books
• 49:13 The Kinovirus & training to become a great bookseller
• 50:45 The Speech
• 52:05 Biggest achievements while at Kinokuniya
• 54:44 Kinokuniya isn’t a bookstore. It’s a lifestyle choice
• 56:15 The importance of building a brand
• 58:51 The Twin Lemons Act
• 59:50 Getting Kenny’s attention
• 1:00:25 Ask a bookseller, what questions should you ask yourself?

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🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/1uCeI8LOI5Y 

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/145

💌 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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He's an Italian chef & owner of Kucina - Singapore's first authentic halal food restaurant.

But he's also a bona fide Italian culinary superstar with over 500k followers on social media - 256k on Instagram & 252.6k on TikTok!

He took the world by storm with his recent series of viral reels on choosing the best pasta/cheeses in grocery stores, and that had a real trickle down effect on his business.

So we dig into all the juicy stuff, including:

❓ What does it mean to actually go ‘viral’?

❓ What kind of measurable impact has social media had on his business?

❓ What is his advice for leveraging social media for businesses?

❓ What have his toughest moments been?

❓ And who exactly is Gero?!

The goal: To understand the role of social media today, what it really means to go viral & how one can leverage on that social media reach to build your own business.

Highlights:

• 1:55 Italian childhood
• 4:11 What do Italians eat every day?
• 5:38 People in Asia aren’t taught to think?!
• 10:58 Entering the food industry
• 12:13 Work hard to earn your money
• 13:33 Your first job sets the bar
• 14:49 That English breakfast shift 
• 16:52 Knowing that the F&B world was for him 
• 17:33 How to cook the perfect pasta
• 20:04 Moving from London to Singapore
• 21:58 First job at Pasta Fresca
• 23:19 What’s an authentic halal Italian restaurant?
• 25:59 Chefs can only be chefs, they can’t run a business
• 29:43 Going into marketing & the lost $3000
• 31:22 The turning point
• 32:39 Content strategy
• 35:14 Going truly viral
• 36:18 Acting debut
• 37:58 Why accept collaborations?
• 40:00 Separating his personal brand from his Kucina restaurant
• 41:24 The content creation team
• 42:48 Advice for entrepreneurs
• 44:06 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?
• 45:25 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
• 46:15 What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful person?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/144 

💌 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

Most wouldn’t but for 58-year-old Swee Chiow, Singapore’s first professional adventurer, it’s a question he must face every day.

And it all began when he caught a glimpse of Mount Everest from a plane.

He was working in IT (Singapore Airlines) then, but he decided from that one glimpse that he wanted to climb Mount Everest - a dream that took him a mere 10 years to achieve!

The journey was hard.

He knew nothing. So he read many books & even went on a 10-day mountaineering course at Mt Cook that he flunked because he wasn’t fit enough!

In 1998, he joined Singapore’s first Mount Everest expedition. It was a disaster at first because:

❌ Their tent collapsed during a freak storm

❌ Their first attempt at the South Pole failed as they didn’t have enough rope - the Singapore media hounded them & issued headlines declaring that the expedition had failed

But they didn’t give up.

Their second attempt was a success!

But an exhausting one. 

In the midst of the media glory, Swee Chiow knew he had to take advantage of it so he immediately launched Singapore's first Antarctic expedition.

Since then, he has:

• Climbed Everest x3 and K2
• 8,000km cycle from SG → Beijing (China) = 2003
• Swam 40 km across Malacca Straits
• Kayaked 3,000km across Philippines
• Broke his first Guinness World Records for the longest scuba submergence (220 hours)
• Rollerbladed 6,000km from Hanoi SG in 94 days (and broke the Guinness World Records in 2008)

Highlights:

• 3:34 Why Why Why?!
• 4:12 Fear of heights
• 5:00 Computer science in Kansas
• 6:11 Saw Mount Everest from a plane
• 6:51 Not giving up after 10 years
• 7:24 The mountain is magical & spiritual?!
• 9:06 Lessons learned
• 10:27 Altitude sickness / AMS
• 12:04 Pulling Singapore’s first Everest expedition together
• 13:25 You can’t fail!
• 14:19 What should people know about Everest?
• 16:45 Quitting his day job
• 17:45 Antarctica
• 19:38 Commercialising his adventure business
• 20:32 Swee Chiow’s value proposition?
• 22:02 How he builds trust with his clients
• 24:11 Risks & death
• 25:11 Any trick to staying calm?
• 25:24 Drifting to Taiwan & near certain death
• 27:37 Never let your ego take over
• 29:28 Dealing with the media
• 30:55 Never doing K2 again
• 32:19 The ghosts at Tibet’s Xishapengma
• 36:12 Adventurers hogging the limelight
• 37:04 Collaborating with AirAsia X
• 40:16 How Swee Chiow decides on his adventures
• 41:43 Advice for those in their 30s
• 45:28 What’s next?
• 46:26 The second act of his career?
• 47:36 Leadership principles to be an effective guide for his team
• 49:15 What drives you to push yourself to the extreme each time?
• 50:23 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?
• 51:06 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
• 51:27 What are the most important qualities of a successful person?

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

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/143  

💌 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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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

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

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

💌 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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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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🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/ncLfbdQ7XQA 

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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

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

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 

💌 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

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

The launch of STIMY’s special Singapore subseries.

Where you’ll be hearing from a range of fascinating Singaporeans/Singapore-based tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and daredevil adventurers on how they’ve built their careers, their journey in finding their why and the legacy that they want to leave behind (if any!).

We ran the whole gamut: the media broadcasting space, F&B (what it takes to build an empire of nine 1 - 3 Michelin Starred restaurants + inheriting a 100+ year confectionary brand), hospitality, tech and so much more.

To whet your appetite, you’re getting snippets from some of the guests that you’ll be meeting over the next few weeks.

Are you excited?

I know I am! 😉

*

Also a special shoutout to Karl Mak (STIMY Ep 55) & his team at Hepmil. 

They’re the ones who made this subseries possible and generously allowed me to record all my interviews over a span of 4 days while in Singapore.

I definitely couldn’t do it without them - thank you Hepmil!

P/S: Let me know if you’re interested in doing a studio recording in Singapore! There’s plenty of space to do so at Hepmil’s Limpeh studios. 😉

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/139

💌 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

Just another “day in the life” of his career as a x2 Emmy-nominated and multiple award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker who’s led programming for the likes of CNN, Al Jazeera, VICE, CTV (Canadian Television), CBC, ABC News, Tencent & Channel 4.

Steve has also spent decades covering conflicts, including America’s longest war in Afghanistan, and produced programs and feature docs like HBO’s Traffickers, Netflix’s Midnight Asia, and Discovery Channels’ World’s Biggest Druglord.

In STIMY Ep 138 - which was recorded in front of a live audience at KL Podfest last weekend! - we uncovered his journey as a war correspondent. Some things we talked about: 

✅ Going undercover to report on the Honduran drug cartel, human trafficking rings, selling of Nepali ancient artefacts & a Chinese spy

✅ Being nearly crushed in Egypt during the Arab Spring

✅ Uncovering the UNCHR “mafia” & notorious wildlife traffickers in Malaysia (his feet was stuck in a fire ant hill for 5 minutes!!)

✅ The sacrifices he’s made & friends he’s lost

✅ Why Steve doesn’t believe in Prince & Princess journalists

✅ Why journalism is dying & the impact of cancel culture

✅ How he wants to raise the next generation of journalists and the vision behind his new production house, Signal Flare

It’s an exciting episode so get ready for a wild 1 hour ride with Steve Chao!

Highlight:

• 2:10 Surrounded by Taliban fights in an Afghan opium field during harvesting season
• 4:19 Suicide Alley
• 8:49 Just a kid from Toronto
• 10:33 His first big break uncovering a drug cartel from Honduras
• 12:40 Gaining a global perspective
• 14:56 Going undercover as a refugee trafficked by the Snakeheads in Vancouver
• 15:55 You have to learn on the job
• 18:03 The unsung heroes or ‘fixers’ like JoJo
• 21:25 Broken trust
• 23:24 PTSD
• 25:13 How does Steve ensure he isn’t crippled by what he’s seen?
• 26:44 Mentors like Ted Huang
• 29:42 Has Steve ever regretted any sacrifices made to cover a story?
• 32:29 Do these stories have an actual impact? The Chinese spy
• 35:08 Malaysian reporting on the UNHCR Mafia & Anson Wong - the notorious wildlife poacher from Penang
• 39:56 Identifying the stories he wants to work on
• 42:11 The next step to crafting the story
• 43:34 The keyword in reporter is ‘porter’
• 44:26 The state of journalism today
• 47:27 Cancel culture & its impact on Steve’s work
• 50:11 What makes a great investigative journalist?
• 51:48 Have you done enough?
• 54:26 What does Steve need help with?
• 55:35 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?
• 56:15 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
• 57:11 What are the most important qualities of a successful person?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/138 

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/KnoMe-pTbJc 

💌 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

Which is weird when you look at his CV: He graduated from LSE before going to work at Lehman Brothers (until it fell into administration) then a hedge fund as a junior trader.

Along the way, he attended a 2-day coaching seminar that transformed the way he saw coaching and kickstarted his journey into becoming a bestselling author, international keynote speaker and business strategist. 

His work has seen him invited onto Sky News and BBC to be interviewed, while he has been featured in the likes of Forbes and Harvard Business Review. He has also spoken at some of the planet's most successful organisations such as Barclays, Salesforces, Adobe, EY and Microsoft. And his debut book Energize, published by Penguin in 2022 became an instant bestseller, receiving endorsements from the likes of New York Times bestselling authors Simon Sinek, Marie Forleo and Marshall Goldsmith. In 2023, Energize was also awarded Book of the Year within the Wellness & Wellbeing category at The Business Book Awards! 

But… how did it all begin?

❓ Why does Simon believe that the best leaders are great coaches?

❓ How did he get big names like Simon Sinek and Marie Forleo to endorse his debut book?

❓ How has he built his coaching business?

❓ What gave him the confidence to take The Leap? 

❓ What’s been the real game changer for his business?

❓ And why does he advise people to not wait because life has already begun?

To find out, you’ll just have to listen to Simon’s episode on the So This Is My Why podcast. 😎

And to all those celebrating - Happy Chinese New Year!

Highlights:

• 4:47 Not fitting in
• 6:40 What am I going to do with my life?!
• 8:18 Impact of mum passing away
• 9:46 The toxic environment at Lehman Brothers
• 11:36 Not stick to the same path?
• 12:38 The exploration journey
• 16:47 2 days to 2 years?!
• 18:07 Landing clients
• 19:41 Where Simon found the courage & confidence to take the leap
• 25:09 The game changer
• 26:46 How to decide on the right mastermind to join
• 28:34 The importance of building a personal brand
• 29:52 Defining good content
• 31:36 Saying yes to every interview?!
• 33:35 It was stupid to introduce myself as a coach!
• 38:28 Storytelling frameworks
• 43:04 Being open but not to open - how do you find the line?!
• 44:38 Google says that the best leaders are great coaches?!
• 48:40 The first session
• 51:11 How to decide on the right coach
• 52:17 Energy is everything
• 53:39 Multiplying energy
• 55:32 What is something that Simon wishes made it into the final edition of his book but didn’t?!
• 57:14 The last time Simon faced coach 
• 58:46 The measured way to handle chaos
• 1:00:26 The strategy behind launching his bestselling book, Energize
• 1:03:03 How he convinced Simon Sinek & Marie Forleo to give him raving endorsements
• 1:04:36 Has a Penguin published book opened doors for Simon?
• 1:04:55 Do epic stuff that will make your Netflix documentary compulsive viewing

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/137 

💌 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

Thanks to a viral IG platform she launched called MalaysianPAYGAP, where she has Malaysians anonymously submit [payslip verified] details about their job, including:

• Their salary + benefits (if any)
• How they landed that job
• The realities of doing their job
• Advice for those wanting to do the same

So you can see why people are obsessed with MPG. 😉

But what about the person behind MPG?

Well, Prestine grew up in a drug-infested home with her grandmother, who was her best friend.

She was told that her father was a dangerous man and that it was good that he wasn’t in her life.

When she moved to the US for studies, she found herself homeless for a period.

She ended up doing all kinds of insane jobs to make ends meet, including grilling 100 chicken wings in the Chicago South Side where she was at risk of being shot at at any moment!

She also spent her last $900 on a camera out of desperation - she only had 2.5 weeks to make rent!

But as it turns out, it was the start of good things in her life.

Clients came knocking & she was doing well but... something wasn’t quite right.

In 2020, she had her first taste of going viral when she published an article sharing why she was unfollowing famous influencers on Instagram - many of her clients then were famous influencers and they were, as you can imagine, not happy.

Prestine shares her life journey with remarkable candidness. Not just the highs but also the lows like how she bombed her Bvlgari campaign because she was “a cocky photographer”.

And how MPG came to be.

Want to learn more?

Highlights:

• 3:13 Grandmother as her best friend
• 8:42 Life is a work of art - Wilde
• 12:24 I can only learn by asking questions
• 14:36 Being homeless
• 19:44 Spending $900 to buy a camera off Amazon
• 21:57 9 hours of sense
• 22:38 Photography came out of desperation
• 24:15 Going back
• 25:49 Quitting without a plan
• 26:40 Landing international clients - including in Shanghai!
• 27:19 Going viral in 2020 through an article, “Why I Unfollow Famous Influencers on Instagram”
• 29:24 The Bvlgari campaign
• 32:48 The genesis behind MPG
• 35:10 The launch
• 37:16 Surprising submissions
• 41:31 Information is power
• 42:25 Becoming jobless
• 46:11 Community building lessons
• 49:21 Helpful advice
• 52:45 MPG Summit 2024
• 54:28 Disappearing Jobs
• 56:54 The controversy with the Side Hustlers IG page
• 59:56 Hustling to meet the CEO of AirAsia
• 1:01:33 Advice to others wanting to start side hustles

P/S: Don’t forget to subscribe to the STIMY newsletter! 

I share the behind-the-scenes of running STIMY, personal branding, storytelling marketing and news on a personal branding course that I’m building so that others can also their own brands on their own terms.

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/136 

💌 Subscribe to STIMY Newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

So I'm doing a solo episode where I answer questions that you've sent in.

I hope you enjoy this episode and find it helpful.

Also, if you've been following STIMY and would like to support what's happening here, please do leave a rating and review.

It truly makes a difference in spreading the word about this podcast!

💌 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

Today, you have the pleasure of hanging out with me. 😉

What we'll cover today:

• What I've been up to in October (8 STIMY in-person interviews in Singapore), November (first conference panel & personal branding client wins) and December (6 STIMY interviews)

I'm also in the midst of prepping for a new course!

Tentatively titled "Build Your Why".

It's based off my learnings from working with my existing 1:1 personal branding clients, where I noticed that people often struggle with:

• People often think they're boring (when they're not)
• They're too shy to share their story
• They can't remember the interesting things that have happened to them (and don't know how to ask themselves the right questions to extract those stories from memory)
• They don't know how to angle those interesting stories once they have them, so that they align with their goals - e.g. gain new clients, new job opportunities or offers to sit on non-profit boards.

The course aims to help professionals build their unofficial collection of stories aka autobiography, so that you can pick and choose the stories to tell in whatever situation you're in.

Apart from the course, I also highlight some of my favourite moments in recent STIMY episodes!

• STIMY Ep 122: Peter Yong aka Mr Money - on launching a YouTube personal finance business, hiring and potentially publishing his revenue numbers on YouTube?!
• STIMY Ep 129: Fabien Riggall, founder of Secret Cinema - on how he went from running a £5 underground skate park event to epic Disney collaborations to bring Star Wars to life
• STIMY Ep 131: Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere - on what it takes to run a prank collective & the principle of asking for forgiveness rather than permission
• STIMY 132: Terence Lee, Editor-in-Chief of Tech in Asia (just sold for $30 million) - on his takeaways from going through 2 layoffs
• STIMY 133: Adlin Yusman (Managing Director, Endeavor Malaysia) - on rapid scaling & raising USD 500k in 2 days, the walk of shame and being open about sharing his failures, and why his investors don't regret a day of giving him money to work on his startup.

To subscribe to the STIMY Newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

P/S: I'll be doing a mini beta launch of the Build Your Why Course and the special offer will be available only to newsletter subscribers. So keep your eyes peeled!

A huge contrast to when he began his entrepreneurial journey with the mentality of, “I pay you a salary, you work for me and you do as I say.”

Which, as you can imagine, created quite a lot of issues.

That said, Adlin has had an eventful life. One that’s sprinkled with a generous serving of failures and spooky occurrences (e.g. receiving a 3am call from a female ghost?!).

He’s founded several startups that failed, but managed to stay friends with his former employees and investors, who don’t regret a single day of giving money to him.

And has held past positions as:

• Director (Travel) of Groupon
• Principal at Digi Telecommunications
• SAVP at Astro
• COO at MaxMoney.com 
• CEO at Payfo.

So how did Adlin go from featuring a Maybach in the first edition of his luxury automobile publication to:

➡️ Making major hiring mistakes (e.g. hiring a wimp) 

➡️ Hunting for 100 cockroaches

➡️ Raising USD 500k in 2 days 

➡️ Working at Endeavor Malaysia, where he helps the likes of Bryan Loo of Loob Holdings in the startup ecosystem?!

You’ll have to listen to the latest STIMY episode to find out!

Highlights:

• 2:04 A 3am call from a female ghost?!
• 4:59 What “real success” has Adlin even gotten to be featured in the media?! 🤣
• 6:41 Studying economics
• 8:14 A fork in the road
• 11:48 Launching his first luxury automobile publication
• 14:45 How Adlin sold himself
• 21:01 Being a good leader means learning to follow
• 22:51 The saddest moment of his life
• 25:21 Terrible hiring decision - by hiring a wimp
• 27:09 Why his startup collapsed
• 27:49 Working at Groupon & 8am meetings
• 31:07 Launching another startup
• 33:46 If it’s easy, it must be a scam?!
• 40:05 Hitting RM15k revenue & 1,800 requests in 2 weeks
• 40:45 Finding 100 cockroaches
• 44:45 Big mistake
• 48:03 Deciding when to quit
• 49:20 Failure isn’t a big thing, but…
• 52:53 Do you still struggle with sharing your failures?
• 53:43 Why Adlin’s investors don’t regret a single day of giving money to him
• 56:53 The best way to handle mass resignations and retrenchments
• 57:55 Endeavor’s Local Selection Panels (LSPs)
• 1:00:18 What founders always fail at
• 1:02:09 You need a Big Vision
• 1:06:39 Helping Bryan Loo of Loob Holding (Tealive etc.)
• 1:09:05 You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take
• 1:10:35 Advice for building your community
• 1:14:02 Who would Adlin work for?
• 1:15:42 Questions to ask to determine if someone has a shitty attitude!

Fun Fact: Adlin has said that this interview contains quite a few stories that he’s never shared elsewhere before! 😏

P/S: Does anyone know where I can find Adlin’s blog?! Please send help. 😫

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/133

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/MX3BTIhi1Xg 

💌 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

Well.

The journalists, of course!

And today, we have Terence Lee - Editor-in-Chief at Tech in Asia - to share the inside scoop on their organisation (TIA just sold for a reported $30 Million to Singapore Press Holdings!).

Fun Fact: Terence Lee really didn't want his position. He's an introvert & does not consider himself a natural leader.

❓So what changed?

❓How has he adapted to his leadership role & navigated through 2 brutal layoffs at Tech in Asia?

❓How does journalism work for them, e.g. determining the stories to cover, the verification process required and also balancing objective reporting with friendships with the people in the space?

So are you ready?

Let's go!

Highlights:

• 2:38 Writing as a career?!
• 5:14 Working at many different media publications
• 6:58 Joining Tech in Asia in 2013 as its Managing Director
• 8:26 Being pushed out of his comfort zone
• 11:11 Relationship between Editor/Journalist v Startup Founders
• 12:14 What people tend to not understand about what they're doing
• 15:03 Perceived biases?
• 16:11 The due diligence process
• 18:05 Defamation law
• 21:26 Monetisation tactics
• 21:42 Going through TIA's first layoff
• 25:19 Internal transparency in (almost) everything?!
• 29:18 2nd round of layoffs & the best way to conduct retrenchment
• 33:05 How did TIA rebuild the shattered morale of its staff & pivot to its subscription model?
• 35:45 Big events in Indonesia
• 37:25 The future
• 39:02 Journalists are mini media empires?
• 40:36 Peter Cowan - If you were to launch your own non-media startup, what would it be?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/132

🌟 Special discount for STIMY listeners to TIA: techin.asia/sothisismywhy 

💌 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

Rather than pranks that embarrass people, Improv Everywhere organises large-scale pranks that create chaos & lots of joy in public.

The kind of thing that’d make you go, “You’ll never believe what just happened!”

E.g.

 ✨ A bunch of strangers ride the subway - without pants! 

 ✨ 200 people freezing in place for 5 minutes in NYC’s Grand Central Terminal - with 37 million views on YouTube!

 ✨ A man going to work in his socially distanced office - located in the middle of the East River in NYC!

 ✨ Thousands of people putting on headphones and following the narrator’s every word: Walking backwards, freezing, slow dancing, wrapping themselves in toilet paper etc. 

 ✨ Turning the NYC subway into a spa, complete with complimentary water, sauna station, hot stone massage & a steam room misting station...

You get the picture 🤣

The key to these “pranks” is that there is no official ending to the performance. Once done, the performers just disappear.

And leave everyone else behind, baffled!

To date, these pranks have hit a collective view of 487+ million times on YouTube.

So the obvious questions are:

❓ How did Charlie turn pranks into a career?

❓ How does he pull these crazy stunts off?

❓ What does it take to go viral?

❓ What's next?

Highlights:

• 3:20 Family of pranksters
• 5:26 Interest in theatre
• 7:09 Building a new life in New York City
• 8:59 Pretending to be a celebrity!
• 19:20 Straddling the legal/illegal grey area for their pranks
• 21:48 Pretending to be U2 the band & the police dropping by!
• 29:03 Organising the MP3 Experiment for thousands of people
• 34:03 Measuring impact
• 37:54 The person behind the social media algorithms?!
• 40:43 Identity crisis
• 45:39 Tours + Monetising Pranks
• 48:18 When Charlie realised he was ready to quit to go full-time in on Improv Everywhere
• 51:11 Disney+'s Pixar in Real Life - being its executive producer & director
• 55:50 Socially distanced office on the river
• 57:27 The future?
• 59:19 Going viral over a fake meme?!

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/131

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/hv7v_qIio78 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

You might've heard some of his work:

🔸 Disney's Encanto - it won the Grammy!

🔸 "Loyal, Brave & True" - sung by Christina Aguilera in Mulan

🔸 Top Gun: Maverick - with Hans Zimmer

🔸 Kung Fu Panda 3

🔸 Kingsman Series

🔸 "Arena Cahaya" - sung by Zee Avi

🔸 Video games like Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts 2.5, Resident Evil XII, PUBG Mobile x Arcane Collaboration & Kena: Bridge of Spirits

As you might have guessed it, all these achievements didn't come overnight.

It took a lot of effort, grit and good luck to get to where Alvin now is.

And we're diving deep into all of them.

Including:

❓ What kept him going as he studied music & waited for hours at the RTM studio for gigs to come?

❓ Was Berklee instrumental to his career?

❓ How did he "break" into Hollywood & get to collaborate with the likes of Han Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams, Pharrell, Jay Chou & Yuna?

❓ What was it like performing (+ winning Best Original Song!) at the 53rd Annual Golden Horse Film Awards 2016?

❓ His advice for other Asians who want to "make it" in Hollywood?

Highlights:

• 3:03 Wanting to be called Donald Duck?!
• 6:19 Learning 7 instruments in high school
• 11:41 The vision
• 18:37 Was Berkeley instrumental to Alvin's career?
• 20:53 IMDB
• 22:06 Networking the right way
• 27:10 Being nice in a cutthroat industry?!
• 29:42 Harry Gregson-Williams wrote a letter supporting his US visa application!
• 33:26 Landing his first gig - Final Fantasy 13
• 35:43 Finding the next projects
• 37:27 Working with Harry Gregson-Williams & Hans Zimmer
• 43:19 What's the Hans Zimmer Camp?
• 45:28 Disney's Encanto
• 47:10 Do awards actually impact your career?
• 48:22 Not being pigeon-holed
• 49:56 It's a marathon, not a sprint
• 51:06 Hollywood Writers' Strike
• 53:05 Jared Lee: Is Hollywood really that glamorous?!

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/130

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

You need only ask Fabien Riggall - founder of Future Shots and Secret Cinema.

Fabien has always loved films and began his career working as a runner before becoming an assistant producer of short films.

In 2003, he set up Future Shorts: A series of mini pop-up film festivals that took off in 2003.

That eventually evolved into the creation of a skate park under London Bridge, where around 400 strangers showed up to become part of the skating community & be part of the murder mystery story!

Secret Cinema is premised on the idea that films can be turned into large-scale real life, cultural experiences in abandoned spaces.

The location and details of each World are never reveled and the film title is often kept secret (the reason for this was that it was entirely by accident!).

Secret Cinema grew into such a phenomenon that it eventually sold to TodayTix in 2022 for £89 million!

And some of its most famous works include: The Great Gatsby, Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, Blade Runner and Moulin Rouge.

If you're curious in learning what it takes to build a whole movement & transform the way people see and use abandoned spaces while bring film to life on an epic scale, then this is certainly the episode for you!

Highlights:

• 4:31 Morocco
• 6:41 Becoming a farmer and an actor?!
• 7:43 I don't want permission!
• 11:23 Running festivals
• 12:13 Soul-destroying work
• 15:45 Leveraging the internet
• 16:57 Selling out a murder mystery event at a secret skate park under London Bridge
• 19:47 Finding the right people
• 23:45 Pushing the boundaries
• 30:14 Building trust via newsletters?!
• 32:59 A limit to provocation
• 36:54 Maintaining your voice
• 39:28 Biggest battles waged & won
• 43:32 Stepping away from Secret Cinema?!
• 47:01 Achieving everything that Fabien wanted?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/129 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

Then deciding to uproot your entire life from the UK to move to Bali to work in a new field of architecture - bamboo!

Because that's exactly what Ewe Jin Low.

When he made the big move to Bali, he worked as Lead architect at IBUKU covering buildings like the Green School and in 2018, began his own bamboo journey by founding his own bamboo architecture firm TENTEN and Better Bamboo Buildings in 2020 - a platform that shares information and insights on bamboo design.

Ewe Jin’s bamboo journey to date has included designing and  building more than 80 bamboo buildings in many different regions. 

In 2022 he published a bamboo architecture book titled ‘Bamboo Ark 1’. He continues the journey to give talks, run courses and  workshops and to create more buildings and installations in bamboo. 

So if you're like to learn more about this relatively new form of architecture, this is the episode for you!

Highlights:

• 2:23 Bamboo groves
• 4:24 Architectural practice
• 7:15 The only Asian guy in the room
• 8:41 Battles fought
• 10:32 Prejudice against colour of skin
• 12:01 Moving to Bali
• 15:02 How bamboo has transformed his life & attitude
• 16:31 Letting go of everything
• 18:45 Assimilating into the real Bali culture
• 22:20 Learning about bamboo as a material
• 33:48 Common questions
• 36:30 Maintenance
• 43:36 Bamboo pioneers
• 46:09 Green School Bali
• 52:05 The SWAT Team of Bamboo Workers
• 56:50 Is it actually green architecture?
• 1:00:49 Is bamboo cheaper?
• 1:05:00 Construction bamboo forests?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/128

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

It's been hectic here at STIMY - securing new guests in Singapore while prepping for 2 exciting guests that we'll be recording in person this week.

So rather than a new episode, I'm experimenting with this new, short solo episode where you'll get updates from me on what it's like running STIMY the podcast & STIMY the personal branding company, as well as takeaways from some conversations that take place off air.

In today's mini episode, I provide 4 main learnings from my recent Singapore trip (+ 40 appointments altogether!). They include:

1. Hard work
2. Luck
3. Importance of Reinvention
4. Always stay Curious
5. Don't view your relationships as replaceable.

Two upcoming STIMY guests that we'll be recording with:

• Prestine Davekhaw: Founder of MalaysianPAYGAP & Disappearing Jobs
• Dominic Puthucheary: Founding member of Singapore's PAP turned lawyer who grew up as a family friend of Lee Kuan Yew's family before later being detained, shuffled between multiple prisons in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and ultimately banished from Singapore by... Lee Kuan Yew himself.

If you'd like to submit your question for either Prestine or Dominic, or just want to drop a note to let me know what you think of this episode & whether you'd like me to continue doing them (+ topics to cover), just email me at sothisismywhy (at) gmail (dot) com.

Have a great week!

P/S: Dominic was the subject of my first viral LinkedIn post, which you can read here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lingyah_reflection-activity-6972349532596576256-pD-N

Prior to NFT Now, he held leadership positions at startups and enterprises in AI, aerospace, and media, including Verizon, where I led Strategy and Acquisitions, and Elite Daily, which I helped lead to a $50MM acquisition.

This is a story where Alejandro transparently shares some of his lowest moments, e.g.:

• being suicidal at age 16;
• being kicked out of Harvard; and
• scoring a $4.5 million deal only to lose $125k two days later due to a huge mistake!

Highlights:

• 2:26 A rupture in his life
• 8:49 Being suicidal
• 14:41 Turning point
• 21:13 From getting kicked out of Harvard to becoming the Director of Innovation and Culture at Elite Daily
• 29:02 Losing potentially $250,000
• 36:09 Worthy of receiving love
• 39:17 Building company culture
• 41:43 Best hire & hiring process
• 43:48 Identifying rug pulls

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/127 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

😳 Reject a $200k/year paycheck?

😳 Blow your life up in a systematic way?

😳 And build a pathless path for yourself?

Paul Millerd - former McKinsey consultant (aka the Lean Guy) turned solopreneur, author and podcaster - would know, because he did just that. 

And along the way, wrote a book called the Pathless Path, which has since sold over 20k!

At the time of our recording, I was just about to embark on my own Great Leap from the world of corporate law so as you can imagine, I slipped in a couple of personal questions of my own on what to expect!

So if you are interested in learning what alternative career paths and lives exist, then this is the episode for you. 😉

Highlights:

• 2:43 The American Dream
• 4:55 Paul Says It Well
• 9:15 You Just Don’t Have Ambition!
• 11:22 The success ethic
• 14:59 Being McKinsey’s Lean Guy
• 16:06 Quitting McKinsey
• 18:46 Constantly searching
• 20:00 How do you quit & walk away from $54k?
• 23:21 Ready to be your own boss?
• 24:54 Reconnecting with himself
• 26:41 An exercise to remove regret
• 28:18 How to evaluate opportunities
• 36:31 The Pathless Path
• 41:27 Why 2022 was the best year
• 43:55 Curiosity Conversations
• 45:53 Blowing up your life in a systematic way
• 46:50 Saying YES to a full-time role?
• 47:25 Knowing when to say YES / NO 
• 48:17 Someone who’s redesigned their life in a great way

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/126

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/FHcKezbyv78 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

But what if it was NASA? BOEING? Or Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One?!

Because that’s exactly what Tanya Zakowich did.

Tanya grew up with a fascination for space & like most kids, she wanted to be an astronaut.

But unlike many, that fascination held even when she grew up, which is why she ended up studying mechanical engineering at Columbia.

An internship in India helped her land a job at NASA, but she soon left for BOEING! Only to realise that at BOEING, she was just a cog in the wheel. She wasn’t being challenged.

Hence her third role at Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One, where she lived the ultimate startup life.

That is, until she realised that what she truly loved & cared about was her family and home in Singapore.

So she gave it all up to return home.

Now if you listen to this STIMY interview, you’ll soon realise that Tanya is quite the go-getter!

During the pandemic, she strategically launched a new TikTok channel where she teaches maths in a fun and interesting way. Within 6 months, she hit 1 million followers! 

Then quit for 2 months because of the toll it took on her mental health.

She now stands at 1.9 million followers. 🤯

That said, Tanya doesn’t have everything figured out. 

She’s constantly experimenting, learning to give up on things that don’t work to try something else again. And if there’s one takeaway I hope you’ll receive from this episode, it’s this: Failures make us stronger. Don’t let it hold you back.

Now are you ready to listen to Tanya’s episode?

Let’s go. 😉

Highlights:

• 2:13 Interest in space
• 5:37 Engineering at Columbia University
• 7:22 How an internship in India helped Tanya get into NASA
• 9:42 NASA’s interview process
• 12:57 Quitting NASA
• 14:32 Quitting is easy?!
• 15:41 Deal breakers
• 18;11 Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One
• 21:54 Singapore’s startup scene
• 22:35 US v Singapore startups
• 26:50 Dating app
• 29:10 Getting into TikTok
• 29:52 Personal branding
• 34:03 TikTok trends
• 36:21 Secret to going viral
• 36:42 Hooks
• 38:21 Drafting scripts
• 40:30 Tanya’s unique selling point
• 46:54 Not moving to the US for content creation?
• 49:27 Goal of 1 million followers
• 54:04 Going on a break
• 56:29 Change in frequency
• 57:11 Putting her name out in public

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/125 

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

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

She was also born for crisis.

As the OG of impact investing, her impressive list of accolades include:

• One of the World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds 2017 by Forbes
• Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship, 2016
• The Resolution Project Champions Circle Award, 2016
• Bloomberg Markets 50 Most Influential in Global Finance, 2014
• Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008

She also sits on the board of: 

• Aspen Institute board of trustees
• Pakistan Business Council Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (CERB)]
• Advisory Councils of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, the Oxford Saïd Global Leadership Council and UNICEF.

When she graduated from the University of Virginia, she described herself as someone who was "excited, idealistic & had dreams in your head of changing the world and didn’t have a clue how to start”.

That start ended up being at Chase Manhattan Bank - despite telling the interviewer that she had no interest in banking & was only there because her parents told her to!

She did so well, the then COO, Tony Triciano, wanted to fast track her career and have her be his right hand person.

She said NO. She wanted to change the world.

And left for Africa. 

There, she suffered failure after failure after failure.

She learned that while she had gone to try & save the African continent, Africa neither wanted nor needed saving.

But those lessons were invaluable and led her down the path of founding Acumen.

Even when building Acumen felt like - in the words of Acumen’s first COO, Dan Toole - “Standing at the 5th floor of a brick building & we’re trying to build a terrace brick by brick with no safety net underneath!”

So:

❓ What is it like to live a life of such purpose?

❓ Who are the people (+ life partner!) that you need to surround yourself with to keep the mission alive?

❓ Why did her mentor, John Gardner, use to say that “the key to life is to be interested. Not interesting”?

Well.

You’ll just have to listen to STIMY Ep 124 to find out! 😏

Highlights:

• 2:57 The Novogratz clan (like the Kennedys?!)
• 4:22 Orphanage
• 8:36 A Little Boy
• 9:46 Saying NO to Tony Triciano, the then COO of Chase Manhattan Bank?!
• 11:24 Leaving the job of a lifetime
• 12:33 Africa doesn't need saving!
• 13:40 Being Born for Crisis
• 15:16 The secret sauce to establishing Duterimbere - Rwanda's first Microfinance bank
• 16:21 Being maniacal
• 18:30 Agnes & the Rwandan genocide
• 20:48 Building on the 4th floor with no safety net underneath with Dan Toole?!
• 22:34 When the tides started to change
• 24:59 Mike, the Forrest Gump of Bitcoin
• 26:56 Acumen in Southeast Asia
• 32:11 Won't social entrepreneurs succeed without Acumen?
• 34:55 Jacqueline's personal KPIs
• 37:29 Listening with her whole body
• 42:19 Marriage
• 45:20 Advice for finding the right partner!

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/124 

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/Fzi9iVKCo_4 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

She has more than a decade of experience in digital design and the XR industry and also serves as a mentor at MIT during their Hacking Arts 2016-2018, and as a Senior Professor at SENAC University Centre, a renowned public federal University in Brazil.

For Giovanna, she believes that life is a short experience.

She wants to have a portfolio of experiences that really enriches her soul and mind and would rather regret what she's tried, then over what she's given up on.

It's ok to fail. Just don't give up.

Bearing in mind this principle, this episode digs into Gigi has led her life and the career choices she's made to date.

Maybe it'll inspire you to take the unconventional step too? 😉

Highlights:

• 2:02 Being an actress?
• 3:47 Japanese culture in Latin America
• 4:31 Bossing her dad at age 4
• 6:06 Doing a PhD in architecture and urbanism
• 7:23 Survivor option
• 10:38 Residencies & digital nomad life
• 17:26 A portfolio of experiences
• 25:00 Randi Zuckerberg
• 25:30 Web3
• 28:33 Working in a VR studio in Finland
• 32:35 Working at Decentraland Foundation
• 35:56 Effective work flow
• 37:53 Voting power favours the rich?
• 44:43 Hosting fashion week in the metaverse
• 48:17 Convincing major brands to come on board e.g. Dolce & Gabbana and Estee Lauder
• 55:25 What success looks like

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/123

 🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

I never had the privilege of meeting him, but a year ago, I sent a cheeky email to Adrian Tan asking if he’d share his life story on the So This Is My Why podcast.

In a true spirit of generosity, he said yes.

And we spoke for over 2 hours! 🤯

Podcast hosts shouldn’t have favourites but… Adrian was one of my favourites. It is true.

Today, Adrian’s episode has been rereleased as a tribute to him. It is the almost 💯 unedited version (minus the umm & ahhs), so you’ll hear some of the parts that didn’t make the cut the first time around in 1 full episode.

I hope this interview did justice in showcasing the kind of person that he was.

If you don’t know Adrian’s backstory, here are some highlights (found in the episode too):

🔥 Adrian grew up in a HDB flat that had zero concept of privacy. His neighbours crowded outside his flat every day to watch their TV & would get mad if it wasn’t available! 🤣

🔥 He was the subject of maternal gaslighting 🤣 which helped him become very, very good at English

🔥 His English was so good, he was refused a scholarship to do law and told to do English instead! 

🔥Adrian ended up writing multiple bestsellers - The Teenage Textbook & The Teenage Workbook (they’ve been turned into a play, TV series & movie!)

🔥 Ironically, Adrian was very embarrassed by the success of his novels. Because he was a tough, hardened litigator but his clients just wanted to talk about his silly teenage romance novels?! 😫

🔥Despite being a lawyer, he found it impossible to stand up for himself in real life.

🔥 But he realised that he needed to start speaking up. On LinkedIn. 

Because it was time to strip away the “mystic” around the legal profession & that begins with lawyers becoming legal influencers.

🔥 Finally, his vow as the President of the Singapore Law Society to “fight cancer, fight my cases in court & fight for lawyers as their President, until the clock runs out”.

I hope you enjoy this re-released, unedited episode with the King of Singapore.

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/101

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

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

In this episode, we feature questions that came from you! Which include Peter's own co-founders & staff.

If you haven't done so already, do check out Episode 122 Parts 1 & 2 to learn more about Peter's journey from being a replacement child to abandoning his lucrative career (+ selling his BMW!) to go in to his YouTube business and all things entrepreneurship.

Highlights:

• 1:21 What should my net worth be if I want to retire ASAP?
• 2:47 What was it like giving up everything to start your own business?
• 3:51 Advice for young entrepreneurs in a similar position
• 5:10 Ever received any extreme threats?
• 6:18 Peter's many tattoos
• 9:10 How do you see yourself in 5 years?
• 10:13 Will MrMoney become an MNC?
• 10:24 Coughing?!

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/122 

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

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

Peter Yong aka Mr Money TV spills the tea on STIMY Episode 122 Part 2.

That includes telling us:

• Why he tells all his staff, "I am not your father!"
• Why he hires 5, works 10 & pays 8;
• How he creates a moat around himself;
• How he's built his personal brand;
• Why his staff actively tell him to NOT hire more staff!
• Why his entire team knows the financials behind Mr Money TV;
• Working for free & getting equity?!
• His dream of building a Hershey town.

And that's just some of juicier takes. 😎

Highlights:

• 3:05 Being taken advantage of
• 5:22 Having partners work for free until 2 - 4am?!
• 10:33 Prototyping the life you want
• 12:37 Matt the Ultimate Gen Z
• 15:59 Hire 5, work 10, pay 8
• 17:52 I am not your father!
• 18:32 Hiring process
• 21:57 Becoming a business
• 22:56 Getting the staff involved in the hiring process
• 23:56 How does Mr Money make money?!
• 26:32 Evaluating priorities
• 31:55 Creating a moat
• 40:22 The Personal
• 41:01 Mr Money TV almost shut down?!
• 42:28 Becoming more cynical
• 44:56 Can a boss ever be friends with his employees?
• 47:43 You're going to shut down. Do you tell your employees?
• 51:05 Hershey's World (P/S: Thanks, CK!!)
• 53:48 The legacy for Peter's 2 sons

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/122 

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

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

It’s time to meet the Replacement Son who refuses to drive a Porsche: Peter Yong aka Mr Money TV.

One of Malaysia’s most beloved personal finance YouTubers with 153k subscribers!

It’s one thing to start another YouTube channel; quite another to turn it into a thriving 7-figure business in Southeast Asia, but Peter has done just that. And today, we dive deep & personal, touching on things like how:

🔥 Peter was born to be a replacement son, which severely affected his confidence & self-esteem

🔥 His father was a gangster!! Who taught Peter to clean his gun when he was just 5 years old?!

🔥 He thought money was evil. Until he realised it wasn’t

🔥 He was thriving in his RM 250,000/year insurance job then gave it all up & sold his BMW, to go all-in with his YouTube channel. 

Just when his son was born.

Peter has so many gems to share that I had to cut this interview into 2 parts!

This is Part 1.

I hope you enjoy it!

Highlights:

• 3:43 Running away from death
• 5:48 Money isn’t important
• 6:25 The replacement son
• 10:15 Cleaning a gun at age 5?!
• 12:27 Surviving bullies?!
• 16:44 What do I do with my life?
• 18:21 Money isn’t evil?
• 24:59 Planning to x6 his income in 6 years
• 27:57 Being in control of money
• 30:45 Admitted to the hospital
• 31:39 Sales is the most humiliating job in the world
• 33:02 Making RM 250,000/year
• 36:09 The secret to convincing
• 37:11 Starting his own agency
• 42:18 What can make money?
• 46:16 Odd jobs
• 47:31 Drowning
• 52:03 The vision
• 55:42 Going full-time
• 57:36 The Porsche life?!
• 1:00:33 The girl & the train

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/122

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

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

❓What was the relationship really like between Malaysia’s then Prime Minister & Deputy Prime Minister, Mahathir & Anuar?

❓How does one pick a constituency and why even politics in the first place when you can make good money as a BCG consultant?

If you haven’t already guessed it, today’s STIMY guest is Dr Ong Kian Ming aka imokman.

He went from being a BCG consultant to a lecturer and policy analyst at UCSI University and director of the Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (MERAP). He then entered politics and eventually became the Deputy Minister, Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia in July 2018!

If you don’t know anything about Malaysian politics, here’s a heads up: Kian Ming (legitimately) thought he would always be in the opposition. The then incumbent government had been in power since Independence Day for the past 60+ years!

So as you can imagine, today’s conversation focuses on politics. A lot. 

Touching on things like why Kian Ming chose to enter politics, what it was like becoming a Deputy Minister, what went so wrong (e.g. the Sheraton Move!), why he’s setting up a PPE course and so much more.

Highlights:

• 2:07 imokman
• 3:32 Wanting to be rich
• 4:22 Being an ASEAN scholar
• 6:44 Seeking a “higher purpose” in BCG?!
• 9:14 Make your boss look good (not your client!)
• 10:29 Public policy
• 15:06 How his PhD in political science helped his career
• 19:24 Meeting Tony Pua & blogging
• 20:50 Sacrifices we don’t know?
• 22:32 “The Talk” with the wife
• 24:18 Only 2 terms?!
• 26:21 Preparing for his first election
• 29:51 Deciding who to help
• 32:40 Managing expectations from his constituents
• 33:32 Giving safe financial support
• 34:49 I’ll be in opposition forever?!
• 37:06 The manifesto
• 38:29 Managing the euphoria
• 40:34 Building trust
• 41:47 The legacy he inherited at MITI from Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz
• 44:56 Industry 4.0
• 47:23 That $70 billion investment from China
• 49:24 The realities of running trade investment missions
• 50:50 How does China see Malaysia?
• 53:36 The Sheraton Move - what really happened?
• 55:49 What could’ve been done differently?
• 57:05 The relationship between Mahathir & Anuar
• 58:56 No reelection
• 1:00:17 How do we know if constituents are actually doing the work?
• 1:01:11 Wishing he’d worked better with his minister
• 1:03:31 Who’s a lifelong politician?
• 1:04:43 When is it time to leave?
• 1:05:26 Building Malaysia’s first PPE Course (and future Malaysian Prime Ministers?!)

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/121

😮 Interested in building your personal brand on LinkedIn? Just shoot me an email at sothisismywhy@gmail.com & we’ll get started!

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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He was the state champion swimmer at age 13 & national speed skating champion at age 14, but it was short track speed skating that really caught his eye.

Because to him, they were like Superman!

After 6 months of training, Apolo won the 1997 US Championships. He was a shoo-in for the 1998 Winter Olympics but then... 

Apolo grew complacent. 

He self-sabotaged & threw away his training, finishing last in the Olympics trials.

His father was so upset, he sent Apolo to an isolated cabin at Copalis Beach and said: "You'll stay here for as long as it takes for you to figure out what you want to do with your life!"

That was traumatic.

Apolo decided he would give this sport a real shot & that's when everything changed. 

But there was a price to pay for such "psychotic obsession".

He was ruthless to everyone, including himself.

In this STIMY Episode, we talked about how he finds FLOW, sports psychology, self-sabotage, the importance of recovery, and being obsessive without being "mindlessly handcuffed to it".

So if you want to live your life to the fullest the way an Olympic champion does, then this is the episode for you!

Highlights:

• 3:27 Survival
• 7:23 Why did this happen?
• 10:35 Blowing up toilets?!
• 12:25 Joining the Superman sports
• 15:33 Sleeping with his skates
• 16:48 Sacrifice
• 22:01 Not being handcuffed to failure
• 24:39 Self-sabotage
• 30:57 The darker side to obsession
• 39:31 Finding the FLOW state
• 42:50 The power of introspection
• 45:25 The controversial Salt Lake City Olympics win
• 49:20 Turin Olympics
• 50:46 Why Apolo turned away from Hollywood
• 52:30 A lion is most dangerous when it knows it's near its end
• 56:11 Psychotic obsession outside of sports
• 57:31 Not returning to sports + Michael Phelps
• 58:51 The Great Divorce
• 1:02:37 What do you say yes to?
• 1:05:07 Building his personal board of directors
• 1:08:31 Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/120

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

Something that Justin Byam Shaw, Chairman of ESI Media, would know.

He co-owns (alongside Evgeny Lebedev) the Evening Standard & the Independent, and also co-founded the Felix Project - one of the biggest food redistribution charities in the UK!

If you've ever been in London, you'll notice the Evening Standard lying around Tube stations. It's a 100% free quality newspaper and I'd always wondered - what does it take to run it? How do you manage to keep a newspaper free on such a scale?

Well today, Justin shares it all.

He takes us through his decision to:

🔥 Study classics at Oxford University - even when everyone told him it was good for nothing!

🔥 Pivot from advertising - when he realised he was terrible at it

🔥 Drop out of British Telecom within 1 week of finding a market gap to launch his own startup - at a time when it wasn't the "cool thing" to be a founder

🔥 Buy both the Evening Standard & the Independent (alongside the Lebedevs)

And also his thoughts on:

🤔 How George Osborne faired as Editor of the Evening Standard

🤔 How to turn around failing media companies

🤔 Launching the The i newspaper (within 7 months of acquiring the Independent!)

🤔 The rise of superstar journalists turned media personalities

🤔 The media publication he'd be most interested in taking over & what he'd do differently!

Highlights:

• 4.44 Studying "good for nothing" Classics at Oxford?!
• 7:18 Being bad at advertising
• 9:27 Moving to British Telecom when it'd just privatised
• 11:34 The talent show that kickstarted Justin's entrepreneurial journey
• 12:38 Remortgaging his apartment?!
• 15:32 Expanding to 12+ countries
• 19:39 The tipping point
• 20:54 Life after acquisition
• 22:34 Arrogance
• 26:59 Being ruthless
• 29:00 Buying the Evening Standard
• 33:41 Launching The i in 7 months?!
• 36:38 Not going digital with the Evening Standard
• 38:58 Internal resistance
• 40:27 Appointing George Osborne as editor
• 45:14 What do media owners expect from their editors?
• 49:23 Journalists become media superstar personalities
• 51:59 Buzzfeed
• 53:05 If Justin could buy any newspaper publication, it'd be...
• 55:14 The Felix Project

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/119

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

The charismatic, big picture, visionary leader that everyone gravitates towards.

We also have (and need) those who execute.

Who double down on the nitty gritty and ensure that things actually get done. And well

Which brings me to today's STIMY guest: Chen Chow Yeoh.

Speak to anyone in the Southeast Asian startup scene and they'll likely have heard of Chen Chow and have a tremendous amount of respect for him.

He's an OG in the space:

• Co-Founder of Fave - one of the fastest growing fintech platform in Southeast Asia
• Co-Founder of KFit.com - which revolutionised how people approached fitness in Asia Pacific
• Regional Operations Director in APAC & COO (Malaysia) for Groupon

But he never had a plan. 😅

Chen Chow:

❌ Was one of the top 8 people who scored the worst in his English exams at Cornell University;

❌ Didn't get a promotion at Accenture (and cried about it ☹️)

❌ Landed his role at Jobstreet by chance

❌ Was rendered obsolete in Groupon when he joined - he was hired for a sales role but by the time he finished serving notice at his previous company, that role was obsolete!

But:

🔥 At Accenture, he did eventually get that promotion. By buckling down & putting in the work.

🔥 He did odd jobs at Groupon & within 3 weeks of joining, was promoted to COO!

🔥 He worked with Joel Neoh to turn Groupon Taiwan from a $1 million loss making monster to $8k in profits in 8 months!

🔥 He has never formally applied for any jobs - people always go to him

But he is not like his charismatic, visionary counterpart.

He just does the work.

Great work, in fact.

And this, is his story.

So are you ready?

Let's go 😎

Highlights:

• 2:04 Catching the 5am bus
• 2:56 Going to Cornell University
• 6:59 Failing to get a job promotion
• 8:13 A coincidental offer from Jobstreet
• 12:16 Joel Neoh
• 13:47 Why take the leap to Groupon
• 15:38 Never formally applied for a job!
• 17:36 From random jobs to COO?!
• 21:57 Inferiority or imposter syndrome?
• 24:54 Don't ask for more?!
• 27:29 How to turn a $1 million loss making business into $8k profit in 8 months in Taiwan
• 35:29 Co-Founding KFit
• 39:35 Raising $1 million from friends & family?!
• 41:11 Landing Pieter Kemps from Sequoia as an investor!
• 50:47 Turning KFit into Fave
• 54:05 Laying off 50% of staff but still being good friends with them
• 59:30 How to bring 2 company cultures together during an acquisition
• 1:01:36 China
• 1:11:55 What are Chen Chow's strongest features?
• 1:12:33 Will Chen Chow stay even though Joel has left?
• 1:14:04 A competitor Chen Chow really admires

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/118

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 

Little surprise, given that this acerbic politician was:

🔥 Member of the US House of Representatives (1981 - 2013)

🔥 Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (2007 - 2011); and

🔥 Lead co-sponsor of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act - which introduced the greatest Wall Street reform in history.

He hit the headlines again given the Silicon Valley Bank meltdown & ironically, his role as director at the now defunct Signature Bank.

❓ But how did Barney end up in the top echelons of politics?

❓ Why did the Pope have to intervene with his appointment to the US House of Representatives?

❓ How did staying silent about being gay impact him, and why did he decide to out himself in a Boston Globe article?

❓ How does he get along with his peers?

Specifically, in his own words, "You learn how to ingratiate yourself with them and how you can help them and make them value your friendship. And that becomes particularly important when you move up."

❓And what does he think of Trump (p/s Trumplestilskin) & the upcoming US Presidential Elections?

This episode is full of gems that we can apply to our own lives (even outside of politics).

So do give it a listen, and let us know what you think!

Highlights:

• 7:39 Obsession with politics
• 14:27 Anne Frank
• 15:50 Politics in the blood?
• 19:58 Campaigning in a Republican state
• 23:07 Enjoying the things he's very good at
• 24:20 1980 campaign was the toughest race
• 26:31 Intervention from the Pope?!
• 29:24 Congress is like "high school as a freshman"
• 30:53 Do the job well, but not TOO well
• 31:51 How do you become/stay popular?
• 35:34 How do you know what's happening on the ground?
• 38:20 The Boston Globe article
• 40:43 Being willing to sacrifice his political career
• 41:52 Why did Barney keep winning by wide margins?
• 44:34 Having empathy due to being closeted for so long
• 45:33 The average American isn't homophobic?!
• 47:44 Dodd-Frank Act
• 53:28 Could the Dodd-Frank Act have done more to prevent the SVB meltdown?
• 56:01 Challenges in raising the insurance limit on bank deposits
• 58:01 Disagreeing with Senator Elizabeth Warren that the Dodd-Frank Act is to blame
• 59:46 Crypto
• 1:00:57 Where's the banking crisis headed?
• 1:02:36 The 2024 US Presidential Elections, Trumplestilkin as the most self-destructive politician he's seen in awhile
• 1:05:13 How governments can encourage crypto innovation
• 1:06:19 A mistake to be the director of Signature Bank?
• 1:10:56 Was it a mistake to partially repeal the Dodd-Frank Act?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/117

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

This former Rain oppa lookalike (time to check out his photos! 😏) knew the importance of giving back. Wanted to give back. 

But never did. 

And it wasn’t as though he hadn’t dabbled many things in his life prior to graduation: 

He’d worked retail with Polo Ralph Lauren, did video production, was a fitness instructor & a Marshall at Camp 5 (rock climbing) and even modeled (yes, you really want to see his photo now, don’t you? 😉). 

Yet despite all that, John-Son wanted to become a jet ski operator. A bona-fide “beach bum”, as his mother declared!

Until a toilet came along.

Because you see, he’d been told that while it was great to want to give back, he couldn’t stay idealistic for too long. 

“The moment you go into the real world, it’s a dog eat dog world.”

And that troubled John-Son: 

“It’s not that I couldn’t be a dog. To eat other dogs. But I said, is that really what life is about?”

*

The opportunity to explore this ideal came when he visited an orang asli community & discovered their need for a functionable toilet. 

He set up a Facebook group, and 64 strangers came.

Not his friends or the ones who said they were into charities, but complete & utter strangers.

And that sent John-Son down a rabbit hole.

He realised that we all need a purpose beyond ourselves. 

It wasn’t as though he, and many others, didn’t care about giving back - but that we all felt alone. And honestly, “What impact can one person have?”

As it turns out?

An EPIC amount.

*

But this won’t be a STIMY interview if we didn’t talk about the “darker sides”.

The difficulties in running EPIC as a social enterprise, figuring out their business model, convincing companies that they weren’t a “con job”, the pandemic and also, how John-Son would even question his own purpose. 

This, despite the numerous international awards and recognition showered upon him, e.g. being accepted into the Ashoka Fellowship; Forbes 30 under 30 2016; The Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Dedication 2017; SME Malaysian Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2017; Tatler Malaysia—Force for Good Award; The Edge Inspiring Young Leaders Award; the Iclif Leadership Energy Award 2015; and Microsoft’s Global YouthSpark Star award. He was also Malaysia’s official flag bearer for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee and 2012 Commonwealth Day.

So if you want to know the realities of giving back to the community, why it’s important to have a purpose beyond ourselves and how you can do so too?

Then this is the episode for you.

Highlights:

• 3:03 Having a gentle giant for a father
• 3:52 Does God exist?
• 10:58 I had two As & failed everything else 😳
• 15:58 Aspiring to be a beach bum
• 20:30 Giving back to the community
• 22:47 Becoming Rain the KPop Superstar
• 23:46 Building a toilet
• 25:17 From toilet to a house for Pak Cihong?!
• 32:42 The realities of running a social enterprise
• 37:33 This is a con job!
• 43:33 Why is this team building?
• 46:40 Why 2012 was a really difficult year
• 51:38 The personal significance behind winning the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Dedication 2017
• 53:21 Is there something more?

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/116

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

She has sold over $1 billion dollars for nonprofits globally alongside Elton John, Jason Bourne (aka Matt Bourne), Bruce Springsteen & every other big-name superstar you can think of.

In 2018, she became Christie's Global Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships and has also:

• Been named one of New York’s most influential women by Gotham magazine;
• Appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Town & Country;
• Published 2 books (her first book was optioned by Netflix in Feb 2022!); and
• Runs the Claim Your Confidence podcast featuring Glenn Close, Candace Nelson, Stephanie Horton, and Courtney Dauwalter.

All while leading multiple benefit auctions for the biggest names in the industry. Including Elton John's 2023 AIDS Foundation Oscar Party!

Lydia is now living the life she has always wanted.

But it wasn't.

When young, she wanted to be a lawyer just like her father. Unlike she came across a Vanity Fair article & discovered the exclusive world of Christie's.

She convinced the Matriarch of Christie's to let her join Christie's internship program.

But for the first 10 years, was told (and believed!) to not talk about money. And that "she was lucky to work there".

If you want to learn how Lydia later managed to triple her salary + gain a global title + lead a new department at Christie's, you'll have to listen to the episode!

Highlights:

• 2:47 Why Lydia is a "life in motion"
• 3:32 Network or die
• 5:30 Learning about Christie's
• 7:13 Not Sotheby's?
• 8:01 Convincing the Matriarch of Christie's, Mary Libby, to let her join the internship program
• 12:51 How Lauren Short influenced her
• 14:33 How Lydia became Christie's benefit auctioneer
• 16:27 Why Lydia did 500 mediocre auctions but never wanted to quit
• 18:20 The breakthrough
• 22:31 Leading the auction at Elton John's 2023 AIDS Foundation Oscar Party
• 25:58 Where Lydia gets her energy from
• 30:01 When Lehman Brothers collapsed but Lydia managed to save her colleague
• 34:49 Ask for what you're worth, because you're just a number on a P&L
• 41:44 How being a published author has opened doors

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/115 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

And as for Alvin:

• Age 7: Alvin's mother abandoned the family
• Age 9: Started sniffing glue & joined the secret society to avoid being bullied
• Age 14: Left school to follow his leader
• Age 18: Became hooked on heroin & couldn't hold down a job.

Things came to a head in Thailand, where Alvin realised he needed to change his life around.

But opium addiction, while a choice, is not so easy to kick.

And it took many, many halfway houses & attempts before Alvin came clean, turned his life around (after prison!!) and became the person he is today: giving back to society, helping his former brothers find their feet & holding down jobs as a chef as tour guide at Triad Trails.

Alvin's story, like Notle Chew's story in STIMY Episode 102, is an unusual STIMY story, but one that I really want to have shared.

Because there is a lesson to be learned from everyone's life journey.

And the biggest takeaway is this: It's all about mindset & attitude.

If we insist on blaming the world & everyone else in it for our troubles, no matter how 'justified', then you will continue to be held back.

Now Alvin tells his story best, so are you ready?

Let's go!

Highlights:

• 2:53 Dysfunctional family
• 4:54 Joining the secret society
• 10:34 Fighting
• 12:57 Thailand
• 14:56 The "price" for leaving the secret society gang
• 19:04 Being friends with brothers
• 20:35 Being in prison
• 23:51 Safeguards to avoid temptation
• 26:17 Going back to prison to help
• 30:24 God
• 31:56 Common misconceptions about drug addicts
• 32:49 The secret to change
• 35:13 Knowing when a convict is telling you the truth
• 38:55 Are Singaporean laws too harsh?
• 41:41 Common struggles for members of the secret society
• 43:02 Spiritual journey & finding God
• 46:43 What Alvin is grateful for this year

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/114 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

#casual

Best of all?

It started as a “screw you” moment. 😅

In all seriousness, Bryan is the founder of Asian Hustle Network (“AHN”), AHNF & AHN Ventures. 

And has had quite the unconventional journey:

😮Bryan’s parents fled the Vietnam War & taught him that investments and business were taboo

😮He worked as a software engineer & realised that companies didn’t have his back; you’d be fired even if you’d been working there for 20 years!

😮He tried an Amazon selling side hustle - and lost $22k

Although:

🔥His roommate got him into property investment - and he made $200k+ from his first sale!

🔥He built a real estate investment community of 2,000 in 2 years in the Bay Area.

But for 4 years, Bryan had been thinking about his why. And found himself wanting to build something for the Asian community.

A trip to the Meiji Shrine gave his idea the spark, a rejection gave it the light (you’ll have to listen to find out what! 😏), and within 3 days of AHN being born, the Asian Hustle Network had 1,000 members.

👀 In 11 months: 60k members

👀In 1.5 years: 100k+ members

👀In 2 years: 120k+ members

Talk about fulfilling a need! 😱

But things weren’t easy: 

☹️Bryan was receiving hate messages (and wanted to quit after 8 months) 

☹️ AHN wasn’t profitable for years.

Things have since turned around

🔥AHN is incorporated in the USA, Singapore & Australia;

🔥Has its own venture fund;

🔥Also runs a non-profit fund; and

🔥Has expanded into Southeast Asia!

To learn the details of this transformation, how AHN grew from a Facebook group to a massive global super connector platform & Bryan’s lesson from launching the Hate Is A Movement, just listen to the latest episode 113 on the So This Is My Why podcast!

And do let us know what you think. 😊

Highlights:

• 2:17 Growing up with $25
• 4:02 Investments & business were taboo at home!
• 5:31 Why computer science?
• 6:45 Companies aren’t loyal 😕
• 9:43 Starting his side hustle & losing $22,000 😫
• 12:01 Getting into real estate investment
• 18:04 When you’re less reliant on your job, you start seeing what’s wrong with it
• 20:17 I don’t need to be an employee!
• 22:47 Depressed over finding the meaning of life
• 27:03 The Asian community is divided
• 31:04 Asian Hustle Network’s mission
• 32:35 Being inspired by the Meiji Shrine
• 34:33 Going viral (thanks, Subtle Asian Traits!)
• 39:14 How do you make everyone feel like they belong?
• 41:11 Wanting to quit after 8 months
• 41:43 Hate Is A Virus movement
• 45:44 Running successful events
• 48:51 The trick to networking
• 50:09 Constantly innovating
• 51:18 Becoming profitable
• 53:04 Sponsorships
• 55:00 Moving to Southeast Asia
• 57:57 Difference to EST Media
• 58:46 The Vietnamese Way
• 1:03:11 Bing Chen of Gold House

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/113 

 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

🥳STIMY episodes are now open to sponsorship! Just email sothisismywhy@gmail.com to find out more.

In Part 1, we learned about his journey from working at his father's prawn noodle hawker stall to becoming the Managing Director at UBS Investment Bank.

In Part 2, Eric explains why he left it all behind, the importance of building a portfolio career, why LinkedIn & his secret to building a 2.9 million following on LinkedIn!

In today's special episode, we asked Eric questions that came from YOU, the STIMY listeners!

YOUR Questions to Eric:

• 1:10 Framework to evaluate opportunities [Lily Wu]
• 4:10 What is Eric Sim's life purpose? [Sam Huen]
• 5:12 What does the creator economy look like in 3 years & what's 1 action that people can take to best position themselves for it? [Lester Chng]
• 8:36 Lessons learned after writing his book, Small Actions Leading Your Career to Big Success [Craig Davis]

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/112-questions 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

He had gone from selling prawn noodles at his father's hawker stall in Singapore to becoming the Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank.

So why did he throw it all away? 😱

What comes after all that?

For Eric, a lot more.

He was constantly learning skills & combining them in unique ways. From learning to sail to video editing and becoming LinkedIn's top influencer in both Singapore and China thanks to his 2.9 MILLION followers.

In this Part 2, we dive into Eric's life after banking.

How we can & should all be building a portfolio career. Why LinkedIn. His book writing journey & the crazy way he sells his books in China.

If you feel stuck in your career, or don't know how to stand out from your peers, then this is the roadmap to adopt. 😉

Highlights:

• 2:39 Why stop being the Managing Director?
• 3:53 Pursuing a portfolio career
• 5:57 The start of Eric’s LinkedIn journey in Hong Kong
• 7:45 Content pillars
• 9:13 How do you gain 2.9 million LinkedIn followers?!
• 10:01 Why LinkedIn?
• 13:59 Where’s the line?
• 16:13 Building community
• 22:16 Small Actions
• 25:20 Should I write a book?
• 26:44 Self-publication & Kinokuniya’s Kenny Chan
• 28:42 Marketing
• 30:29 What’s the China market like?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/112-2

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

Just ask Eric Sim.

The truth is:

❌ Eric didn't just fail his maths.

He also failed his English Literature & History papers and had to work at his father's prawn noodle shop before going to school.

❌ He bombed his first job in FX Sales role at DBS Bank.

❌ He failed all his job interviews in London (which he attended wearing a chicken suit!).

But Eric's story doesn't end there.

He:

✅ Figured out how to leverage on his unique background, i.e. as the son of a hawker & bartender, to build a unique personal brand & score his first job;

✅ Found an amazing boss, Prasanna Thombre, who believed in him & gave him all the international opportunities he needed; and

✅ Built relationships that meant that his future jobs were all referred to him.

Eric learned very quickly that you need to do more than just your job to thrive.

And we talked about the cultural nuances of working in different Asian cities (including Ulaanbaatar!), what it meant to be the Managing Director, why he would go to the same restaurant x4 a week!! & how he networks to build the relationships he needs.

Highlights:

• 2.52: Forced to drink oat milk & selling prawn noodles
• 5:27 Carving potatoes was a lie!
• 6:43 Developing an inferiority complex (+ learning everything!)
• 9:16 Sending an unsolicited application to DBS Bank
• 12:35 Restarting his career at Lancaster University
• 14:36 Wearing a chicken suit for interviews at London's financial banks
• 16:15 The Asian Financial Crisis & Prasanna Thombre
• 20:53 Moving to Citi
• 23:41 Working in Shanghai & witnessing the liberalisation of China's financial sector
• 24:52 Chinese business culture
• 25:55 Cigarettes
• 28:09 The importance of being friends with all the chefs
• 30:31 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
• 31:38 Why Eric keeps getting referrals for jobs
• 32:33 Why Citi was Eric's dream job
• 35:09 Did the wealthy look down at Eric?
• 37:11 Why being a hawker's son helped Eric as a banker
• 40:14 Meeting Hawker Chan
• 42:53 Becoming Managing Director at UBS (investment banking)
• 44:30 Was Eric a successful MD?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/112 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

P/S: Part 2 of Eric's episode comes out this WEDNESDAY! And we talked about why Eric left his high-flying role as Managing Director, how he built a 2.9 million LinkedIn follower count, the importance of personal branding & building a second career, and his journey as a published author in Asia and specifically, China.

She’s only 20 years old but:

• Backscoop has already crossed 10,000 subscribers;
• Has attracted funding from Buko Ventures;
• Been featured on CNN; and
• Has moderated a Wild Digital firechat with Jaeson Ma of 88Rising & OP3N.

All this - with no college degree.

Who said COVID-19 pandemic projects can’t go far? 😉

But if you listen to this STIMY episode, you’ll soon realise that Backscoop is so much more than a mere side project. 

Amanda envisions it to be a regional media company for the people in Southeast Asian tech.

So if you’re interested in what drives Amanda, what it takes to run a newsletter that publishes x5/week (it now has a podcast!) & also what’s happening in the Southeast Asian startup space, then this is the episode for you.

Highlights:

• 7:00 Deciding to not go to university
• 10:11 Maximising her gap year
• 15:53 Cold outreach tactics
• 17:38 Launching her own startup, Backscoop
• 20:36 Why Southeast Asia (and not APAC)?
• 26:59 Researching other newsletters
• 29:58 The different iterations of Backscoop
• 31:24 Dropping Soft Serve
• 32:44 Most effective growth strategy
• 34:34 Getting over stagnant growth
• 35:56 Building a regional media company
• 37:26 Trends in the Southeast Asian tech scene
• 39:36 Accepting investment from Buko Ventures
• 43:39 Launching a new product, One More Scoop
• 44:55 What’s the value proposition?
• 47:02 Serendipity
• 49:37 Personal branding
• 53:42 Competitor that Amanda admires & why

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/111

🍦Subscribe to Backscoop: https://sparklp.co/p/9c1a338c2c 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you can find success & build a portfolio career on your own terms: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

In Part 2, we talked all about how we should measure our lives. How Ian Lee pivoted from art to design then investment banking and consulting. How cancer changed his life. Why we shouldn’t make 10 year long-term plans and instead, pursue the things that interest us most in 12-18 month increments & so much more!

This episode, deals with all things web3.

From going into banking to being tasked with finding out about bitcoin, how he ended up being the Head of Crypto & Blockchain, all things decentralised social networks and what he's now trying to achieve at Syndicate.

Highlights:

• 2:26 Being ridiculed by bankers
• 4:56 Learning about Bitcoin
• 11:37 Attending Bitcoin conferences as a "suspicious" person
• 13:38 Forking the Bitcoin network with Citi coin
• 17:43 Leaving Citi
• 18:45 Being crushed by... Ethereum?!
• 24:40 Joining IDEO
• 27:15 Meeting his co-founder, Will
• 32:33 Creating the YouTube of web3 investment
• 40:15 Collectives
• 42:32 Working towards Balaji's vision of a network stake?
• 44:08 Singapore rice dishes
• 47:44 Does everyone have just 1 calling?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/110

💌  Weekly Newsletter that deconstructs how you can find success & purpose on your own terms: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

P/S: Did you know that STIMY is on YouTube?! Please do subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/SoThisIsMyWhy

But before all that, he was an artist. 

Then a designer. Before pivoting into marketing & advertising, investment banking and finally, consulting.

Where he ended up being diagnosed with cancer. 

His world shrunk into 3 month timeframes, because he just didn’t know if he would live beyond each three month period. 

Ian’s worldview changed. He was and remains afraid to try new things. 

In Part 1 of Episode 110, our discussion centres around the fundamental question of: How do we measure our life?

Opening with a viral Tweet that Ian wrote, inspired by a Harvard Professor called Clayton Christensen where he learned that: 

The best strategy in life is an emergent one.

Don’t plan life in 5-10 year spans. Instead go all-in on what you have the most conviction, passion & excitement for in 12-18 month increments.

You’ll learn more, grow faster & outperform others not as into it as you.

You’ll learn how and why in this episode, and so very much more in this episode with Ian Lee.

Highlights:

• 2:41 Don’t plan your life in 5 to 10 year spans
• 3:49 Going to art school instead of science?!
• 6:07 Being diagnosed with cancer
• 7:43 Living in 2 to 3 month increments
• 9:26 Exploring rabbit holes
• 19:10 Life isn’t a linear progression
• 20:36 Letting go of his need for obsessive planning
• 22:15 Is there a place for long term vision and planning?
• 24:38 Would Ian really do anything differently?
• 27:59 Knowing when to quit
• 30:44 How to plan for a pivot
• 35:39 Juggling art and business in his CV
• 42:45 Mentors
• 48:53 Fostering relationships with mentors

P/S: Part 1 of the interview with Ian Lee comes out this Wednesday! Where we talk all about Ian’s deep dive into the world of investment banking & web3.

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/110

💌 Weekly Newsletter that deconstructs how you can find success & purpose on your own terms: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

❓Helped purchase Lehman Brothers (US) for £1.75 billion;

❓Built out the equity practice in Europe for Barclays Capital;

❓Worked for Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the UK; and

❓Now works as the General Counsel in a web3 company that builds core blockchain infrastructure?

Then STIMY’s latest episode with Chrissy Hill, General Counsel at Parity Technologies, is not one you want to miss! 

Chrissy shares her journey from South Carolina into the web3 space, and some of the milestones in her career, including:

• 2:33 Being the baby of the family
• 5:23 A legacy of lawyers
• 7:26 Working at Linklaters’ London office
• 8:49 Becoming the Director of Compliance at Barclays Capital
• 13:38 Purchasing Lehman Brothers (US) for £1.75 billion
• 15:24 Working for Tony Blair at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
• 18:22 Working at a mission-driven organisation
• 21:21 Entering the web3 space
• 23:16 The concept of privacy
• 27:02 Working at Parity Technologies
• 31:34 What does a web3 lawyer do?
• 34:59 Regulations coming in

So if you want to know what it’s like to be a top notch lawyer in the web3 space, this episode is for you!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/109

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 

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

But how do you go pro?

What’s your life like?

And how much do you earn?!

To answer this over the Chinese New Year (hope everyone is feasting well!), we’ve got Gerald Sebastian - co-founder of Kok Bisa, which with 4.4 million subscribers makes them one of the biggest YouTubers in Asia!

In this episode, we learn how Gerald ended up being a full-time YouTuber, how they’ve built Kok Bisa, the kind of content that goes viral, their monetisation strategy & so much more. 

So if you wanna be a YouTuber, or just want to understand what it takes to produce the videos we binge on (don’t lie, I know you use YouTube 😝), then this is the STIMY episode for you!

Highlights:

• 2:30 Being a superhero
• 5:00 Asking questions nonstop
• 7:54 Finding his YouTube co-founder, Ketut Yoga Yudistira
• 9:54 Creating a different kind of content
• 11:19 What it takes to produce YouTube content
• 12:25 Going from 14 to 25,000 subscribers with 1 video!
• 13:35 Making videos to answer questions from the Kok Bisa audience
• 18:18 The reiteration process
• 19:21 The secret to going viral on YouTube
• 21:00 Humour
• 21:42 Indonesian meatballs
• 24:24 The importance of YouTube Shorts
• 25:25 How do you grab attention?
• 29:20 Becoming a full-time YouTuber
• 31:48 Deciding on the equity split
• 32:42 Questions to ask a potential co-founder
• 33:51 Navigating burnout & mental health issues
• 34:55 The different monetary streams they’ve created
• 36:23 How do you get sponsorship?
• 43:20 What’s next?
• 48:16 When do you use the “talking head”?

Descript: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=sjT9JA

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/108 

💌  Weekly Newsletter that deconstructs how you can find success & purpose on your own terms: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

• She's ambitious.
• Has a strong sense of self.
• And will do whatever it takes to succeed - including cold pitching South China Morning Post & landing an internship in her teens!

Her initial dream was to be in fashion (she's worked at/for Elite Model Management, Hearst Magazines & HuffPost too).

Then she pivoted and ended up becoming:

😮 the Hong Kong Editor of Fortune; and

😮 writer & reporter at CNN Business

Where she has: 

🔥 hunted down super yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs

🔥 covered some of the world's biggest IPOs - e.g. Grab, DiDi, Coupang & Kuaishou Technology

🔥 conducted interviews with:

• Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel
• Netflix COO Greg Peters
• Grab Co-Founder Hooi Ling Tan 
• A16Z partner Connie Chan
• Impossible Foods President Dennis Woodside

And did I mention that Michelle is a Malaysian too?!

So:

• How did Michelle go from studying with royalty (she saw her classmate being fetched by helicopter to attend state events!) to working with the top journalists in the world?
• What is it like, really, to work at CNN?
• How does CNN handle "fake news"?
• How does she gain trust?
• And how important is personal branding (+ LinkedIn) for a journalist like Michelle?

You'll have to listen to Episode 107 of the So This Is My Why Podcast to find out. 😉

Highlights:

• 2:36 Having a strong sense of self
• 4:52 Where Michelle’s drive came from
• 7:04 Sense of inferiority
• 7:56 Working at South China Morning Post, Elite Model & a law firm
• 9:23 Cold emailing for internships!
• 9:54 The secret to cold emails
• 10:50 “I hope this finds you well”
• 12:38 Going from Harper’s Bazaar to boring old news?!
• 17:24 Going from Fortune to CNN
• 19:09 The Morning Show
• 20:32 The behind-the-scenes of working at CNN
• 23:49 Asian discrimination
• 27:11 Deciding on which stories get shared
• 28:40 Fake news! How did you spot them?
• 32:23 Hunting down a superyacht worth USD 500 million!
• 36:21 Public image
• 38:24 Building a personal brand
• 41:30 Why LinkedIn
• 42:30 How do you craft a story?
• 44:21 Mentors
• 46:20 Do you need a journalism degree?
• 38:23 Hallmarks of star journalists
• 50:42 How Michelle gains trust
• 52:07 How listeners can help Michelle

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/107 

💌 Weekly Newsletter that deconstructs how you can find success & purpose on your own terms: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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

Official Bio

Michelle Toh is an award-winning writer and reporter for CNN Business, based at the network's Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. She covers business and tech across APAC, writing breaking news, features and analysis about companies, startups and banks in the region.

Toh has covered some of the top stories in global business, including the disruption and inequality caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the corporate response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the crackdown in China on private enterprise, the Evergrande crisis, the US-China trade war, the fallout from the Hong Kong protests, and Huawei's battle in the United States. She has also covered the recent historic market turbulence and some of the world's biggest public offerings, including those of Grab, Didi, Kuaishou, and Coupang.

Toh has interviewed leaders of some of the world's top companies, including Tiffany CEO Alessandro Bogliolo, Galaxy Entertainment's billionaire Chairman Lui Che Woo, Netflix COO Greg Peters, Grab Co-Founder Tan Hooi Ling, Tinder CEO Elie Seidman, Yum China CEO Joey Wat, ex-Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, and Impossible Foods President Dennis Woodside. Her reporting frequently appears across CNN's digital and television platforms, and she often contributes to the network's "Meanwhile in China" newsletter.

In 2021, she led a team across six CNN bureaus on an interactive project about workplace discrimination of Asians around the world, which won an Award of Excellence from the Society of News Design.

Prior to joining CNN, Toh was the Hong Kong editor of Fortune Magazine, where she led a breaking news team, reported on business trends, and researched fundraising deals for its "Term Sheet" newsletter. Her work has also featured in publications including TIME, USA Today, the South China Morning Post and HuffPost. She has moderated and covered panels at major international conferences, such as CES in Las Vegas and Shanghai, Most Powerful Women in Laguna Niguel, California, and RISE in Hong Kong.

Back in Episode 85, Dr Robin Dunbar (Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford) shares how the way boys & girls handle relationships are completely different.

The relationships that boys have is a lot more casual and club-based. If we belong to the same club, then we're friends.

Whereas for girls? Well, girls need to be interacting with each other. Sharing secrets. And if they don't, then the relationship weakens.

What do you think? 🤔

Listen to the full episode here:

🎙️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000566279914

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VuxAs76IE0wJgItPzoZHe?si=m1NsNAl6QgCk4n4sY3TTow 

🎙️Watch episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ 

Other Links:

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/85   

💌 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 

And in this episode, we talk about all:

• Tiger Mums (or for the French, “Jewish Mums”);
• Xav’s “WTF” moment when he realised that management consultancy wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life;
• His journey in the startup world and why he decided to leave Paris;
• Whether your life ends when you have kids;
• How words can change your brain;
• How Xav’s initial months at Microsoft were “absolute hell” and how that changed; 
• The cultural differences working in the startup world in France, Australia and Southeast Asia; and 
• So much more.

Want the details?

You’ll have to listen to Xav Desmet’s episode. 😉

Highlights:

• 2:50 We are all grown up children
• 5:35 Having a “Jewish Mum”
• 7:07 The French education system is violent & elitist
• 12:08 How entrepreneurs are viewed in France
• 13:47 Why leave management consultancy to run a startup?
• 15:38 Breakthrough moments
• 18:34 Finding like minded partners
• 21:56 The average lifespan of a startup is…?
• 28:57 Going on a 11 month sabbatical
• 34:51 How you can find the values in your life
• 37:25 The first 6 months at Microsoft were “absolute hell”
• 40:18 Four reasons Microsoft became great
• 43:26 Shutting down his startup
• 43:36 You’re a failure
• 49:33 Moving to a startup called Zoom
• 52:31 Delivering happiness
• 54:12 The difference in startup culture in France, Australia & Southeast Asia
• 58:16 Startups that Xav wants to help with
• 59:48 Mentors

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/106 

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you can find success on your own terms: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

Sponsored by Descript: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=sjT9JA

Official Bio

After graduating as a Computer Science Engineer in France and completing a Postgraduate Master of Technology Management at UNSW, Xav quickly realised that his passion wasn’t in coding in C but in people, technology and entrepreneurship.

He started his career as Management Consultant in the UK but in 2005, his entrepreneurial nature led him to co-found and develop, Mome Sweet Mome, the master Franchise of Les Petits Bilingues, the first and leading network of immersive English learning centres for children from a very young age. He sold his shares in 2011 and today, Les Petits Bilingues are still the leader in France with more than 10,000 children enrolled each year. 

The same year he decided it was time to discover new horizons and moved with his wife and two new born children from Paris to Sydney, becoming also Australian in the process.

Down under, he joined Microsoft in Enterprise Strategic roles while also experimenting with ventures on the side (Perenne Investments and Solana) and becoming a sport addict through triathlons and long distance trail running.

He relocated to Singapore with his family in December 2020 during the pandemic and recently joined Zoom where he now leads the Digital Natives sales activities for Asia.

In his free time, you will find Xav influencing his family and friends to adopt a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle such as adopting a plant based diet."

For the 105th episode, we're doing a little sneak peek into some of the upcoming episodes and as always, they're varied, but interesting.

With tons of insights to apply into our own lives.

We've got:

• Xav Desmet: Head of Digital Natives, Startups & Unicorn for Asia at Zoom
• Fabien Riggall: Founder & Chief Creative Officer of Secret Cinema (he took movies like Star Wars & Moulin Rouge, brought them to live & allowed the public to experience it like they were one of the characters!)
• Gerald Sebastian: One of the biggest Indonesian YouTubers with over 4.23 million subscribers
• Michelle Toh: Writer/Report at CNN
• Ian Lee: co-founder of Syndicate & the former Head of Crypto at Citibank
• Alvin Chiong: Former secret society member & heroin addict
• Enara Nazarova: VP of Metaverse at Hype
• Dr Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro: Head of Metaverse Fashion Week at Decentraland

And so much more.

I hope this gets you excited for what we have in store for 2023!

And if you've been enjoying So This Is My Why, please do leave a review. It really helps the podcast reach more people. 😍

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/105

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 

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

At least to 2022.

This will be the last episode of 2022 because it's time for a break :)

That said, I didn't want to sign off without sharing a little something about what STIMY has achieved, and also highlight some special moments from STIMY episodes this year.

Featured STIMY guests include:

• Ep 103: Nicole Levinson - Former VP of Marketing North America, LVMH
• Ep 102: Notle - the ex-convict who once ran Singapore's first and largest social escort businesses
• Ep 101: Adrian Tan - the King of Singapore
• Ep 99: Davy Liu - the first Chinese Disney animator, who worked on classics like the Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, Star Wars & the Atlantis
• Ep 95: Marja Konttinen - Marketing Director at Decentraland
• Ep 96: Aaron Tang - Country Manager of Luno
• Ep 93: Geoffrey See - founder of Poko & Choson Exchange, the largest social enterprise in North Korea
• Ep 92: General Tan Sri Borhan - retired 4 star General & former Chief of Defence Forces
• Ep 87: Phil Libin - co-founder of Evernote & mmhmm

Highlights:

• 0:00 Goodbye?!
• 3:18 Biggest advice to all young working professionals: Don't be a substitute
• 4:30 Biggest lesson from prison
• 6:29 Prison culture is a death sentence
• 8:18 Dumber than Forrest Gump
• 10:14 The biggest lesson Disney taught Davy wasn't how to draw cartoons, but to...
• 11:21 The secret sauce behind LVMH's success
• 13:23 What must all founders do all the time?!
• 14:37 Build your career like an adventure
• 16:08 The House of YES
• 17:32 Hustling for your first writing gig
• 18:30 How do you become a Huffington Post writer?
• 19:27 The challenges of building a social enterprise in North Korea
• 21:16 Feeling left behind (despite the public accolades)
• 23:13 Building Evernote felt like cheating?!
• 24:39 Anyone can love durians
• 25:40 Be cruel in order to be kind
• 26:41 The leadership style of a 4 star General

See you back on 1 January 2023!

Where I'll be sharing a sneak peek into upcoming episodes on STIMY. We’ve got YouTubers, Olympians, celebrity founders, a CNN correspondent, the CEO of one of the biggest confectioneries in town, a giant in the real estate development world, prominent politicians and so much more. 😎

It's gonna be great!

P/S: If you'd like to support what STIMY is doing, would you consider being a Patreon supporter? You can find the link here: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/104

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

And unafraid of forging her own path, which includes being: 

🔥 Chief Marketing Officer, audo

🔥 Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing and Partnerships for Playboy Club, New York

🔥 Vice President of Marketing, North America for LVMH

But who is Nicole Levinson?

Nicole is the child of Holocaust grandparent survivors.

She began her career in Christie's, then Sotheby's, before pivoting into the world of PR with Elizabeth Harrison of H&S, who told her, “Take your panty hose off!” 🤣

They were hustlers. 

And Elizabeth was the House of Yes.

Because as Nicole learned: Most people in the room don’t know either. So you’ve just gotta figure it out!

But Nicole’s journey didn’t end there. 

She later became the VP of Marketing North America, LVMH, where she oversaw marketing & merchandising for MAKE UP FOREVER. 

And also the Senior VP Brand Marketing & Partnerships, Playboy Club New York during the #metoo movement. Which definitely raised some eyebrows.

Along the way, she’s also worked in the hospitality, fashion, spirits, arts and automotive industries.

And that variety is something Nicole considers to be her strength.

So.

🤔 What drives Nicole?

🤔 What is LVMH’s secret sauce?

🤔 How can founders remain “authentic”?

🤔 And what impact did Playboy’s collaboration with Jeremy Scott & his MET Gala appearance have on the brand?

We deal with all that and more in STIMY’s episode 103.

Highlights:

• 2:48 The child of Holocaust grandparent survivors & the link to Steven Spielberg
• 7:49 Betty Boop to Christie’s
• 11:43 Death, divorce or debt
• 13:40 Why is Christie’s better than Sotheby’s? 😏
• 15:52 The profile of the top 1% clientele
• 19:28 Feeling lost & changing industries
• 20:31 Meeting Elizabeth Harrison & “take your panty hose off!”
• 23:47 Celebrity wrangling
• 26:09 Moving to LVMH
• 29:00 LVMH’s secret sauce
• 31:41 How do you ensure the founder story is front & centre?
• 33:06 What does “authenticity” look like?
• 35:28 The secret to staying humble
• 36:30 What drives Nicole
• 41:05 How Nicole ended up at Playboy New York during the #metoo movement
• 49:18 Finding editors to champion the brand
• 51:01 Fashion Week with Jeremy Scott of Moschino
• 52:02 The impact of the MET Gala on Playboy
• 57:05 What is audo?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/103

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

✨ Sponsored by Descript: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=sjT9JA

Who later ended up joining the Secret Society & running one of Singapore’s first social escort businesses (and a successful one at that!) for almost 7 years before he ended up in prison.

Which, as you can tell, is not a story you’d normally find on STIMY. But also a story I’ve really wanted to have told.

Because I believe that we can learn so much from people from all different parts of society.

And Notle’s life story is a cautionary tale, while also giving us a glimpse into a part of society that isn’t often heard of. 

There is a price to be paid for our actions and in Notle’s case, a hefty one.

Some things we talked about:

• What it means be a member of the secret society; 
• The concept of trust and brotherhood, the initiation process is like and how he ended up leaving the secret society;
• The 8 o’clock rule;
• Why he started a social escort business, and grew it to be one of the top businesses around;
• How he ended up being caught;
• What it was like being in prison;
• How he shook off his depression and suicidal thoughts; and
• Why he believes 80% of ex-convicts can't be helped.

As we cover a lot of heavy topics, please consider this a trigger warning.

Highlights:

• 3:19 The name “Notle”
• 4:01 Life of a Crazy Rich Asian
• 6:49 Recruited to join the secret society in school
• 11:56 The 8 o’clock sharp rule
• 19:15 Paying the price to leave the secret society
• 22:08 Initiation process for secret society members
• 24:56 The secret society mindset
• 26:10 How trust operates in a secret society
• 27:01 What does “justice” mean?
• 27:30 Brotherhood
• 30:50 Starting a social escort business
• 33:44 Advertising for female workers
• 39:25 Staying competitive
• 41:08 The business model
• 44:40 Business expansion
• 46:48 Being caught by the police
• 47:47 Life in prison
• 49:18 Finding God
• 49:18 Not regretting prison
• 54:36 Healing broken relationships
• 59:57 Triad Trails & the girl
• 1:04:54 Best way for society to support ex-convicts
• 1:05:47 80% of ex-convicts will never change
• 1:07:40 Identifying the 20% that can be helped

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/102 

💌  Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you the most interesting person in the room: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

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

Adrian Tan is STIMY's latest Ep 101 guest, i.e.

• the King of Singapore
• President of Singapore's Law Society
• Partner at TSMP Law Corporation
• Prolific LinkedIn writer

And several weeks ago, I asked on LinkedIn & Instagram whether any of you had questions for Adrian.

Turns out, 5 of you did!

And here, Adrian answers them all.

Highlights:

• 1:01 Aaron Lim - Cancer treatment & mortality
• 2:04 Jeff Ong - How cancer affected Adrian's work performance
• 3:43 Adrian's many, many, many hats!
• 4:00 Jeff Ong - The tipping point that changed Adrian's perspective on serving others
• 5:46 Kris Ang - Advice for son who wants to become a lawyer! 🤩
• 7:29 Jade Tan - What keeps Adrian motivated even after being diagnosed with cancer
• 8:57 Dave Nathar - Singapore's death penalty on drug trafficking
• 11:19 Dave Nathar - What's behind Singapore/Malaysia's cultural divide? (because obviously won the food debate, obviously 😝)

Special Thanks

To Aaron Lim, Jeff Ong, Kris Ang, Jade Tan and Dave Nathan for submitting your questions.

And being part of STIMY!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/101

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you the most interesting person in the room: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605

Here, Adrian shares how his career developed as a lawyer, why he hated his time as a General Counsel, thinks that lawyers should be legal influencers, how his LinkedIn posts go so viral and more.

Highlights:

• 1:58 Embarrassed by his bestselling books
• 5:59 The non-confrontational litigator?
• 10:01 Working with Davinder Singh, one of Singapore’s top litigators
• 12:50 How to be a good legal associate
• 14:16 The art of persuasion
• 15:28 Secret to good writing
• 17:25 Becoming the General Counsel of Crimson Logic
• 20:18 It was awful
• 21:26 Being involved in the Singapore Law Society
• 24:05 Lawyers need to be legal influencers
• 26:55 Writing bland posts to…?
• 32:10 Advice for young lawyers writing online
• 33:20 The secret to viral posts
• 34:48 Fighting cancer, cases & for lawyers
• 37:41 The 3 friends we have

P/S: A special ‘Questions from the Audience’ with Adrian Tan will be released this Wednesday!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/101

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/i1eK1LO6WoU 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you the most interesting person in the room: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

Bio

Adrian Tan is a litigator specialising in technology, intellectual property, collective sales and shareholder disputes. He is the President of the Law Society of Singapore.

Adrian was the former general counsel of CrimsonLogic and holds a degree in computer science and psychology which gives him the foundation to address technology-related disputes. His degree in computer science and psychology gives him the foundation to address technology-related disputes. He has represented clients in a wide range of technology and intellectual property disputes, ranging from data centre construction, social media defamation, copyright infringement and passing-off in relation to consumer electronics, and patent infringement of vaccines.

His accolades are every Asian parent’s wet dream:

👉🏻 President of Singapore’s Law Society;

👉🏻 Partner at TSMP;

👉🏻 Bestselling author of The Teenage Textbook & The Teenage Workbook, which were turned into a play, movie and TV series etc.; and

👉🏻 LinkedIn writing extraordinaire (all his posts go viral & even hit the mainstream media headlines!)

But who is Adrian Tan, really?

How did Adrian Tan end up where he is?

What was it like growing up in a HDB community that didn’t understand the concept of “privacy”? 

E.g. Everyone treated Adrian’s family TV as their own, and crowded outside to watch together. 🤣

How did he end up writing bestselling fiction novels (whose royalties put him through university)?

Why is he the King of Singapore?

And how has cancer ☹️ impacted him? 

🔥 So much to cover in STIMY’s spanking new Episode 101 Part 1.

You’ll just have to listen to find out more! 😏

Highlights:

• 2:23 Singapore’s immigrant story
• 10:33 Getting into Anglo Chinese Primary School through ballot
• 15:54 Maternal gaslighting
• 19:20 The TV belongs to everyone! 😫
• 21:59 Top grades doesn’t guarantee success in life
• 24:59 Chinese people can be very racist
• 30:02 Failing to get a scholarship to study law because Adrian’s English was too good
• 33:10 Why law?
• 34:31 Writing for magazines & getting a book offer
• 36:31 Getting a book deal to write The Teenage Textbook & The Teenage Workbook
• 38:38 How much royalties do authors get?
• 40:56 Why did a subversive book become a bestseller?

Part 2 of Adrian Tan’s interview is coming out this coming Sunday (27 Nov)!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/101

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

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you the most interesting person in the room: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

In this landmark episode, Red Hong Yi (former STIMY Ep 2 guest) is back as the guest HOST!

She brings the 🔥 & asks about my entire journey because since June 2020, STIMY has grown to:

• 12k+ followers
• 31k+ downloads
• 35+ countries; 
• A book offer; and 
• 1 STIMY physical hangout. 

All in the span of 2+ years!!

WOW. 

If you’ve ever been curious as to who I am, why I started STIMY, lessons learned, my 200k word novel and what’ll happen moving forward… then this is the episode for you.

Please leave a review/tag us if you listen to this! I’d love to hear from you.

Highlights:

• 4:04 Kathmandu & a pet podcast project
• 5:02 My MBTI 
• 7:38 ISTP
• 10:01 How Red Hong Yi & I met
• 12:02 How serious was I about STIMY?
• 12:27 The milestone age of 30 & Daniel Pink
• 16:23 Juggling work & everything else
• 20:21 Podcast setup
• 21:28 Everything is figureoutable
• 23:22 Creating my 1st website at the age of 10
• 24:31 Being strategic about my travel blog (www.vidadeliya.com)
• 25:81 My secret aim with every STIMY interview
• 28:57 Why do I enjoy stories so much?
• 30:17 The most emotional story - Notle
• 35:07 The dream of being a novelist
• 37:44 Going viral on LinkedIn 
• 45:03 Keep going with no engagement
• 45:38 Gaining access to extraordinary people
• 46:16: Being intimidated?
• 53:07 The secret to success
• 55:51 Joe, Bumble & Dating
• 57:37 Web3, NFTs and Memebank
• 1:00:38 How I pick STIMY guests
• 1:01:22 Drag Queens
• 1:02:02 Faith & Davy Liu
• 1:04:41 STIMY Hangouts in person
• 1:10:18 LinkedIn writing is like reading a personal diary
• 1:11:14 Writer’s block
• 1:14:47 What’s after STIMY’s 100th episode?
• 1:17:24 Street art & Lawyah
• 1:18:43 Has my why changed?
• 1:19:28 Getting a book offer
• 1:20:20 Serendipity & Cesar Kuriyama
• 1:24:12 Have you questioned your own why?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/100

🍿 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Y1Maw1eUw 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

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

P/S: Descript is the life-changing video/audio editing app I mentioned, that you can find here: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=sjT9JA

Remember Davy Liu, the former Disney animator from STIMY Ep 99?

We collected some questions from you, dear listeners of STIMY, and had Davy answer them!

To Nathan, Wei Choon & Josh Wong - thank you for being part of STIMY. :)

0:24 At what point did Davy's parents change their mind about his profession as an artist?

4:02 Thoughts on merging or converting Asian stories in a Western or global audience

9:39 Challenges in creating wholesome content when the media is full of NSFW content

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/99

 🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

He’s also a former Disney animator who’s worked on Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, Mulan, Atlantis and Star Wars, and is the founder of Kendu Films.

Fun Fact: General Shang in Mulan was drawn based off Davy! There's an uncanny likeness between both fo them.

Now. Given Davy’s illustrious career, you would’ve thought that he’s had a smooth career trajectory but that’s hardly the case.

He struggled while growing up in Taiwan, where everyone was expected to score straight As but he just couldn’t. 

Instead, he had the gift of drawing straight lines. And being an artist was not on the cards.

When he later moved to the US, he was placed in an all-black school (everyone thought he was Bruce Lee!). 

While there, Poppy Kincaid, his 8th grade art teacher, transformed his life. Telling him that “he could do it”.

He ended up going to art school (then dropping out when he realised fine arts wasn’t for him), and had to apply 4 times to get into Disney!!

Davy intended only to be in Disney for 3 months but that turned into 5 years, and in this STIMY episode, Davy shares what it was like working on some of the most iconic Disney animation films to date, as well as what it takes to craft a great story.

We also talked about his faith, why he quit his cushy 6-figure Disney job, the terrible period straight after quitting where he lost everything (his marriage, finances etc.) and how he built himself back up.

Davy’s story is one of passion and having the gumption and determination to go after what you want.

And also the stark difference between Asia and the West.

Highlights:

• 2:34 Being “dead” in his mother’s womb for 10 days
• 5:03 Being dumber than Forrest Gump
• 6:37 Moving to an all-black school in Florida
• 8:22 How Poppy Kincaid, his 8th grade art teacher, changed his life
• 13:17 Dropping out of fine arts
• 16:02 Seeing himself as an artist
• 17:21 Nearly drowning
• 21:58 Applying to Disney
• 23:22 Working at Disney
• 26:07 Disney animation films take 4 years to complete - here’s why
• 29:53 Pushing boundaries v generating revenue
• 32:59 What makes a good story?
• 34:11 No one wanted to work on The Lion King!
• 35:27 Disney doesn’t teach you to draw cartoon characters; it teaches you to make the best commercials
• 39:31 Working on Mulan
• 41:05 The backstory to Mushu the Dragon
• 42:20 How to make Asians more creative?
• 46:15 Entering a dark period after quitting Disney
• 49:16 Feeling that God had abandoned him
• 50:49 Vision behind Kendu Films
• 51:25 Power of telling stories from an animal’s perspective
• 55:28 What’s next?

P/S: There’s a special episode focused on Questions from STIMY Audience Segment where Davy answers questions submitted by you! The episode will be released this Wednesday.

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/99  

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌  Get the latest STIMY updates/learn how to be the most interesting person in the room: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605

When I asked Francine Ballard how closely it mimicked reality, she said, “There is some truth to that.”

And she should know.

Francine Ballard has worked in the fashion industry for a while. 

She was the American Fashion Director at Time Inc (InStyle), Conde Nast (Lucky magazine), and PaperCity Magazine as Style Editor at Large, working with fashion and jewelry brands Hermès, Gucci, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Cartier among others before transitioning to the technology space.

Francine is also a founding member of BFF, along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Paris Hilton and founders Brit Morin and Jaime Schmidt, and co-founder of several startups including Metagolden - a web3 emporium selling luxury phygitals.

In this episode, we tackle how Francine went from a small island in Hawaii to the world of high fashion publication, what it takes to rise to the top, how she got into the web3 space, how the fashion industry is shifting, why phygitals and more.

Highlights:

• 2:52 Growing up in Hawaii
• 4:24 Speed until you get a ticket
• 6:26 Devil Wears Prada in real life?
• 8:10 Climbing to the top of US high fashion publication
• 9:40 Founding a registered resale startup
• 13:09 Testing an idea
• 15:04 Fashion Industry x Web3
• 17:11 Origins of Metagolden
• 20:35 Phygitals
• 21:54 Traditional fashion house v fashion house of the future
• 24:51 Building community
• 38:06 Are brands afraid of web3?
• 30:09 Interesting use cases
• 32:07 Launching Francine’s 1st collection
• 37:07 How to decide on pricing
• 40:38 Where community comes from 
• 43:31 Building partnerships 
• 45:00 Dream partner 
• 46:51 How to create a sense of belonging
• 47:55 Being a founding member of BFF

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/98

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌  Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

Prior to Monk’s Hill Ventures, Jeremy was CEO & Co-Founder of CozyKin, a VC-backed edtech startup, which was acquired by Higher Ground Education and scaled across multiple cities in North America. 

He was a Bain & Company consultant and has been recognized with Forbes “30 Under 30” and Prestige “40 Under 40.” 

If you’re interested in startups, VCs and podcasting, then this is the STIMY episode for you!

Highlights:

• 3:42 Helping others
• 5:11 Wanting to be a vaccine researcher
• 7:00 Losing his first love
• 11:23 How the army helped him cope with grief
• 14:25 Life at Berkeley
• 18:44 Founding his first startup
• 20:43 Overcoming scepticism
• 22:57 Finding people who believe in the same cause
• 26:07 Completing his MBA at Harvard University
• 32:31 Co-founding his 2nd startup in mental health
• 39:26 Returning to Singapore & becoming a VC at Monk’s Hill Ventures
• 44:30 Being the Head of Strategic Projects
• 47:03 Founders that have stood out
• 49:03 The current Southeast Asian startup scene

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/97    

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Get the latest STIMY alpha/exclusive updates: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

If you've ever seen some of Zeneca 33's works/writings, you'll know that he's very bullish about generative art: a type of NFT where the art is generated entirely from code.

A particular generative art project that he loves?

Art Blocks.

We unpacked all that in Zeneca 33's Part 1 STIMY interview & this ICYMI provides a glimpse of that conversation.

If you want to listen to the full Part 1 STIMY interview with Zeneca 33, here are the links:

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/86-1 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Get the latest STIMY alpha/exclusive updates: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605

🎙️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000566279914

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/037BVfsIJzU25wIkauefnw?si=PiwfYfD3TqyTbNHNWBDHfA

In many ways, Aaron’s career has been dictated by his “maximizer personality” & desire to make the greatest use of the resources he had. 

This has resulted in some pretty ingenious moves, including a use of multiple credit card schemes to pay off his RM58k student debt at the start of his career!

In this episode, we explore Aaron’s journey from a high flying oil & gas career to the world of social entrepreneurship (he took a 50% pay cut!), why he started the Mr Stingy blog and how that landed him a job in the crypto world as the current Country Manager of Luno. 

And of course, all things crypto/NFTs/DAOs!

Highlights:

• 3:06 Maximiser personality
• 6:51 Being a Petronas scholar & breaking his bond
• 9:18 Paying off his remaining RM58k student debt with credit cards (p/s: not financial advice!)
• 12:46 Making a contrarian move in his career
• 17:15 Tendering at a bad time
• 19:04 Taking a 50% pay cut
• 24:21 Maximising profits v helping the greatest number of people
• 25:20 Feedback loops
• 25:50 Starting the Mr Stingy blog
• 34:46 How Aaron started writing for the Huffington Post
• 35:46 How blogging got Aaron a job in the crypto space
• 36:54 Discovering bitcoin
• 38:05 Putting skin in the game
• 41:47 HODL & toxic positivity
• 42:43 Going through a baptism of fire as Employee #1
• 43:44 Becoming the Country Manager of Luno 
• 45:06 Being a regulated digital asset exchange
• 47:35 What regulators are most concerned about
• 48:55 El Salvador
• 49:42 Anti-money laundering concerns
• 53:50 Algorithmic stablecoins
• 54:35 Why Luna crashed
• 58:31 Are play-to-earn games all about insider trading?
• 1:00:14 Eating humble pie
• 1:01:44 Big idea that Aaron has changed his mind on
• 1:05:34 Underdogs
• 1:06:48 DAOs

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/96 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌  Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605

It’s hard enough applying for a job 😩, going through 5-8 rounds of interview 🤢before settling into your new role & figuring out how everything works.

And what it takes to reach the top. 🧐

It’s also not normal to work with NASA to launch a new product (Angry Birds Space🐦 !!) & have an astronaut 👨‍🚀 talk about it live from the International Space Station 🌚.

🎉And yet, that’s exactly what Marja Konttinen has been up to. 

Marja Konttinen is the current Marketing Director at Decentraland - yes, the place that hosts all those fancy avatar-attending Metaverse Fashion & Art Festivals 🎊 . Where virtual plots (pixels, really) have sold for millions 💸.

So what’s Marja’s story?

Well for starters, Marja has had a very varied career. Which is explained by her approach to work:

“My whole career has been this fun adventure where I like saying yes to opportunities and when that opportunity comes, I will definitely go for it.”

Her first job in the games industry = beta test Hitman Bloodmoney. 

Aka playing games all day to uncover bugs & determine the functioning of the gameplay.

Aka literally playing to earn money! 👾

That kickstarted her 15-year journey in the games industry.

A particular highlight we touched on was her stint as Marketing Director at Rovio Entertainment.

Her first job?

Call NASA. 😍

Because Rovio was about to launch Angry Birds Space. It was going to be HUGE, everyone wanted a slice of it, and Marja was at the eye of the storm🌪.

Now Marja’s at Decentraland. She’s spearheading its marketing efforts but is quick to say that her ultimate goal is to make herself redundant. Which ties back to the ethos of decentralisation (weird as it sounds!).

Her dream: that the Decentraland DAO runs the entire operations by themselves as a collective. 

So we of course talk about that. 

What are those challenges? What is the true value of virtual land? And what does it really take to throw a great virtual party?

✨Welcome to STIMY Ep 95!✨

Highlights:

• 2.56 Being artistic
• 4:47 Saying yes to opportunities
• 7:36 Lessons learned from the gaming industry
• 9:24 Working with gaming developers
• 10:51 Becoming the Marketing Director at Rovio Entertainment
• 12:12 Good partnerships are a gut feeling
• 13:23 Spearheading the launch of Angry Birds Space & NASA Collaboration
• 17:17 Planning the launch
• 17:56 Biggest challenge in the gaming industry
• 18:44 How do you build community?
• 20:34 Making herself redundant as the marketing director at Decentraland
• 23:34 How Decentraland’s DAO works
• 27:30 Challenges in removing herself as a marketing director
• 28:51 Why pick Decentraland over everyone else?
• 32:16 What is the true value of virtual land?
• 35:23 How companies can fully utilise virtual land
• 40:04 Renting, not buying
• 41:44 Behind-the-scenes of throwing a virtual party
• 43:26 What do people always forget to do when planning a virtual party?
• 44:32 Web3 metrics of success 
• 46:05 How companies can get started in web3

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/95 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Get the latest STIMY updates & learn about other curious things to become the most interesting person in the room:  https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🥺Please leave review for STIMY? -https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

About my personal journey, particularly with starting this So This Is My Why Podcast.

It's still strange to hear myself speak even after publishing 94 episodes, but I do hope you find something interesting out of this interview!

E.g. how I went from discovering what a podcast was to deciding to launch one, some of the highlights including interviewing James Corden's Big Boss & being featured multiple times on the Late Late Show with James Corden and my epic 40-day journey in the Himalayas, where my Everest Base Camp hike coincided with the start of the global pandemic. 😅

I'd love to know what you think of this episode!

So feel free to tag me with a review on any of the platforms you favour, e.g. LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter.

Highlights:

• 2:11 My background
• 3:38 Discovering the world of podcasts
• 5:05 Learning about how to run a podcast
• 6:03 Why "So This Is My Why"?
• 7:08 Main learnings from interviewing almost 100 podcast guests
• 9:08 Interviewing James Corden's Big Boss
• 12:56 How difficult is it to get STIMY's podcast guests?
• 20:07 Faith
• 21:33 Hiking to Everest Base Camp during the global pandemic
• 25:07 Why I wish I'd started the STIMY podcast earlier
• 26:18 Podcast guests that changed the way I think
• 28:41 Interviewing Guy Kawasaki & the "secret" to getting him on

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/94

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting reads to make you smarter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

Back in Episode 85, Dr Robin Dunbar (Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford) is most known for formulating Dunbar's Number = the cognitive limit of a person in terms of the number of relationships they can handle at any one time.

That number if 150.

Lots of people disagree, particularly that one person can only have around 150.

So what does Dr Robin Dunbar think? 🤔

Listen to the full episode here:

🎙️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000566279914

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VuxAs76IE0wJgItPzoZHe?si=m1NsNAl6QgCk4n4sY3TTow 

🎙️Watch episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ 

Other Links:

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/85   

💌 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 

Geoffrey See - World Economic Forum Young Global Leader & serial entrepreneur - knows this well, because of his extensive work as a social entrepreneur in North Korea via Choson Exchange.

But after 11 years, Geoffrey knew that it was time to move on. 

And in this episode (Part 2), we cover Geoffrey’s journey into the Web3 space. Why his experiences working in North Korea and Vietnam opened his eyes to the potential of blockchain, what he’s aiming to achieve with his new Y Combinator-backed startup, Poko, and his collaboration with the Kazakhstan government to provide the legal wrapper that many DAOs need but struggle to implement.

Highlights:

• 3:46 Introduction to Web3
• 6:33 Being economically marginalised
• 10:05 Is the ethos behind blockchain flawed?
• 12:18 What are DAOs?
• 14:24 Investment DAOs versus a Traditional VC
• 15:39 Reward mechanism
• 18:19 Proposals
• 20:22 Hallmarks of a successful DAO
• 22:02 Working with the Kazakhstan government 
• 27:20 Why pick the Astana International Financial Centre? 

If you’d like to learn about Geoffrey’s childhood and his experiences working in North Korea via Choson Exchange (it was turned into a Harvard Business School case study!), do head over to STIMY 93 Part 1 for a listen!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/93 

💌  Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting things to make you a more interesting people:  https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy

Not the first thing you might think of, but a reality that STIMY’s latest guest - Geoffrey See - knows very well.

So who is Geoffrey See?

Here’s a quick run down 👇🏻

• Graduated from Yale University & the Wharton Business School; 
• Worked as a Bain consultant;
• Co-founded Choson Exchange: a social enterprise that created the largest training program for female entrepreneurs in North Korea - which ended up being profiled in a Harvard Business School case study;
• Helped launch a blockchain protocol that had a $2B coin cap at its cap;
• Is a digital currency taskforce member and consumer protection report author at the World Economic Forum Global Council for Digital Currency Governance;
• Is a Ethereum Foundation fellow and a Kauffman Fellow; and
• Is now the CEO of Poko: a Y-Combinator backed startup focused on building DAOs to empower the next generation of investors, entrepreneurs and creators

In Part 1, we cover his childhood & experience building Choson Exchange.

Highlights:

• 3:22 A strange relationship with authority
• 5:28 Wharton Business School
• 8:15 First brush with North Korea
• 10:31 North Korean men in politics, women in business
• 11:17 What does “business” mean in North Korea?
• 14:51 Building partnerships with North Korean Universities
• 16:34 Overcoming paranoia 
• 20:16 How to find champions
• 21:48 Doing due diligence on potential partners
• 23:48 What North Koreans thought of the “rule of law”
• 28:26 Choson Exchange’s financing model
• 30:06 Measuring impact
• 31:15 Keeping the faith 
• 33:58 The people that helped Geoffrey the most (i.e. a former Foreign Minister, National Security Advisor to multiple South Korean Presidents & ex-Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company) 
• 37:05 Deciding to leave Choson Exchange 
• 38:56 The difficulties of letting go

Once you’ve listened to Part 1, head over to Part 2 to learn about how Geoffrey entered the web3 space and what he’s doing with Poko!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/93 

💌  Weekly Newsletter on upcoming STIMY guests/interesting things to make you a more interesting people:  https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy

By having the guts & conviction of a Tiger General. 👇🏻

Several months ago, I interviewed General Tan Sri (Dr)’ Borhan bin Ahmad (Retired): a retired 4 star General & former Chief of Defence Forces in Malaysia - the highest military rank that one can attain.

⚔️ This was the 82-year-old man who had:

• Established Malaysia’s special forces in the mid-1960s;
• Fought in the Congos, the Vietnam War (escaping days before the fall of Saigon) & Malaysia’s Undeclared War;
• Swam from Singapore to Johor because the British said that Malaysians could never become Commandos.

And we’re just getting started. 

I don’t want to spoil his epic story, so you’ll just have to listen to it yourself!

Highlights: 

• 1:43 Growing up under Japanese occupation
• 3:54 Pretending he had died
• 5:29 Running away to military school
• 6:27 Military life
• 7:41 Swimming through shark-infested waters from Pangkor Laut to Pulau Pangkor
• 8:56 Swimming from Singapore to Johor to prove that the Malaysians could be Commandos too (to the British)
• 9:51 Almost studying medicine
• 11:59 Being transformed into a professional soldier
• 12:49 Military strategies he learned
• 15:40 What’s it like to kill someone?
• 16:12 Was the General ever afraid of death?
• 17:40 Be cruel in order to be kind
• 18:28 What makes a good officer?
• 19:51 Fighting in the Congos
• 23:18 Fighting in Malaysia’s Undeclared War
• 27:08 Founding the Malaysian Special Forces
• 26:43 What makes a Commando?
• 27:52 The General’s toughest operation
• 30:49 A father + 3 sons
• 32:36 Fighting in the Vietnam War
• 38:43 Giving up the Green Beret
• 41:05 What is your leadership style? 
• 41:58 The greatest leader he ever met
• 44:44 Just join the system? 
• 45:56 His greatest achievement as the Chief of Defence Forces
• 47:00 Finding a treasure trove of oysters + getting Anuar to give him RM 500 million!
• 49:02 Being threatened with court-martial 
• 50:26 What he thinks of the Malaysian special forces today 
• 54:29 The General’s greatest regret 
• 55:35 Advice for those who want to be Commandos

Special thanks to Lt Col Assoc Prof Dr. Ananthan (Retired), National Defence University of Malaysia, for making this interview possible.

P/S: The General has his own book out. DM me if you’d like to get a copy!

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/92   

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Instead of the normal guest format, this episode will highlight:

• The reasons behind why I started So This Is My Why;
• The kind of guests you’ll find featured;
• A very shocking incident last summer involving the Late Late Show with James Corden; and
• 4 lessons learned from past STIMY guests. 

The short clips from 10 of STIMY’s past 90 guests will hopefully give you a feel for their episode, and whether it’s the one for you. 

The guests you’ll hear on this podcast include:

• Ep 1: Chloe Buiting - Wildlife conservationist & vet
• Ep 2: Red Hong Yi - Renowned architect turned artist who’s worked with the likes of Google, Nespresso & Jackie Chan
• Ep 3: Dr Julian Tan - BCG Consultant turned then Head of Digital Business Initiatives & Esports at Formula 1, London
• Ep 30: Dr Finian Tan - Chairman, Vickers Venture Partners 
• Ep 51: Nick Bernstein (Part 1, Part 2), - Senior VP of Late Night Programming (West Coast) & James Corden’s Big Boss
• Ep 55: Karl Mak - Co-founder & CEO of HEPMIL Media Group (SGAG, MGAG, PGAG, SGEEK)
• Ep 60: David Grief - Former Senior Clerk at Essex Court Chambers who nurtured the careers of barristers & judges including the former Chief Justice of England and Wales
• Ep 79: Nicole Quinn - General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners (investor/board member of HAUS (Lady Gaga), The Honest Company (Jessica Alba), Goop (Gwyneth Paltrow), Girlboss (Sophia Amoruso) etc.)
• Ep 84: Eric Toda - Global Head of Social Marketing, Meta
• Ep 87: Phil Libin - Co-founder of Evernote & mmhmm

To see a YouTube compilation of STIMY’s appearance on ViacomCBS’ The Late Late Show with James Corden, follow this link.

And please feel free to take a screenshot & tag me on LinkedIn/Twitter (or whichever platform you’re most comfortable with) & let me know what you thought of this episode, how you think it can be improved & future STIMY guests to consider.

See you next Sunday!

P/S: You’ll have to stick to the end of the episode to understand the weird sounds in the initial 6 seconds. 😅😉

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/91   

💌 I share my latest learnings/exclusive updates on STIMY’s weekly newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

But before becoming a founder, TM was first influenced by his brother to become a coder. He learned about Reddit and Digg, and even ended up studying computer science at Purdue University, where he was exposed to the likes of Jason Fried (Basecamp) - a huge proponent of the bootstrap mentality. 

TM tried many things. He wrote an aggregator in college until things went south, and eventually worked at a Big 4 audit firm but at the back of his mind was the thought that he wanted to start a business. 

Then in April 2014, he co-founded Coingecko with Bobby Ong. It began as a side project with a starting capital of $100, launched soon after the collapse of Mt Gox. And as you’ll see from our interview, they went through lots of ups & downs to get to where they are today. 

Highlights:

• 3:52 How his brother exposed TM to coding
• 5:01 Influenced by Kevin Rose (Digg)
• 5:44 Jason Fried of Basecamp
• 9:17 Evaluating business partners
• 10:35 Returning to Malaysia
• 11:47 Side projects
• 14:56 Building Coingecko
• 17:05 Meeting his co-founder, Bobby Ong
• 18:30 The early days of Coingecko
• 20:00 The significance behind the crash of Mt Gox
• 21:30 Why launch Coingecko right after the Mt Gox crash?
• 22:40 Building trust
• 22:40 Bootstrapping with $100
• 25:31 Building collaborations with universities
• 26:40 Scaling via organic marketing
• 27:47 Getting Coingecko translated into 15 languages 
• 30:19 Was TM worried about sharing his code to the public?
• 31:10 Getting investors on board 
• 24:12 Why the banking/fintech industry is so different from the crypto industry
• 35:51 Why maintain Coingecko’s API for free forever?
• 37:05 How Coingecko ensures that they have accurate price data feeds
• 38:25 Deciding on the tokens to list 
• 39:09 Sifting out the scams & rug pulls
• 40:53 Will Coingecko ever delist a token? 
• 42:21 Main milestones behind Coingecko
• 43:31 How the crypto space is impacted by banks (e.g. DBS) launching their own crypto trading services
• 44:14 Impact of Binance’s purchase of Coinmarketcap on Coingecko 
• 45:07 Is TM now more important to investors to remain competitive?
• 50:38 NFTs
• 52:00 The secret behind Coingecko’s rocket growth in 2021: From 50 million to 150 million in 11 months
• 53:03 Thoughts on the current bear market
• 55:34 Crash of the Luna token
• 56:54 Coinzilla’s malicious app script 
• 1:02:52 What to expect from Coingecko moving forward
• 1:03:42 Things to expect if the metaverse takes off
• 1:05:37 How much of your success is due to hard work v luck?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/90 

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In this STIMY episode, we dive into all things metaverse/web3:

• 3:32 Co-founding a Swiss freestyle label with CHF 100
• 4:11 Milestone achievements
• 5:28 Working at BCG
• 6:37 How Tibor first got into web3
• 7:46 How BCG internally prepared to offer web3 consulting services to clients
• 9:44 Key components of a “metaverse”
• 13:03 How do you create a metaverse strategy?
• 14:26 Should all companies have a metaverse strategy?
• 15:43 Mitigating risks when companies enter the web3 space
• 17:32 How companies can get buy-in from existing customers & employees
• 19:58 How did Nike do?
• 22:20 What is “cultural relevance”?
• 24:05 Companies that haven’t done a good job?
• 25:30 Can companies regain the trust of customers?
• 27:05 Defining “authenticity”
• 29:23 How should you measure web3 success?
• 31:08 How can companies share ownership with their customers?
• 33:58 Interesting DAO use cases
• 35:24 Future trends 
• 36:59 How BCG has incorporate web3/metaverse strategies into their own operations
• 38:06 Advice for people entering the web3 space for the first time
• 39:54 Lowest risk ways for companies to dabble in web3/metaverse

if you’re a brand interested in developing a web3 space, or just want to know what a consultant thinks about companies who are entering the metaverse, then this is the episode for you.

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/89 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

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What do you think of STIMY? -https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

He's a part of some of the most influential NFT projects around, including Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC), Cryptopunks, Goblintown, Art Blocks and more.

We've all heard of BAYC/Jimmy Fallon.

We hear (seemingly) everyone talk about being part of the Bored Apes community.

But... what is it really like?

What true value does it give Bored Apes holders?

Are BAYC overvalued?

Could BAYC's valuation crash?

We unpacked all that in Zeneca 33's Part 1 STIMY interview & this ICYMI provides a glimpse of that conversation.

If you want to listen to the full Part 1 STIMY interview with Zeneca 33, here are the links:

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/86-1 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Get the latest STIMY alpha/exclusive updates: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605

🎙️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000566279914

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/037BVfsIJzU25wIkauefnw?si=PiwfYfD3TqyTbNHNWBDHfA

Having featured a number of NFT founders & artists, this STIMY episode showcases how brands have and can enter the metaverse with Diego, who’s been in many Fortune 500 boardrooms & has his finger on the latest alpha: who’s done well, who hasn’t, how important “sustainability” is and ways to ensure that both employees and existing customers are onboard when a brand is launching a new metaverse initiative.

If you’ve ever wondered what a company/brand should look out for when taking the leap into the Web 3.0 space, then this is the episode for you.

Highlights:

• 3:11 How Diego entered the Web3 space
• 8:21 Why Diego took the leap
• 18:50 Brands driven by FOMO
• 24:31 What other brands can learn from Nike
• 29:26 Incorporating DAOs & shared ownership into brand strategies
• 34:48 Creating products with large communities
• 37:23 Mitigating risks
• 41:16 Bringing existing clients from Web2 to Web3
• 43:31 G-Star RAW Denim - why it’s an interesting use case
• 48:10 How important is climate change?
• 49:30 How brands can mitigate against environmental harm arising from use of blockchain
• 53:33 What happens when your own employees riot and go against your metaverse initiative?
• 56:37 The secret to the success behind Adidas’ Into the Metaverse, which generated USD 22 million within hours!
• 1:01:03 Diego’s favourite NFT project
• 1:02:59 What is big tech doing?
• 1:07:39 What Diego would love to see done, but hasn’t happened yet

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/89

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

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Back in Episode 85, Dr Robin Dunbar (Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford) shares why he thinks that the only way we can make REAL friends is through physical IRL interactions.

Virtual friends?

Meh, they're fake.

But do you agree? 🤔

Listen to the full episode here:

🎙️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000566279914

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VuxAs76IE0wJgItPzoZHe?si=m1NsNAl6QgCk4n4sY3TTow 

🎙️Watch episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ 

Other Links:

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/85   

💌 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 

• Co-founder and CEO of Evernote, which he grew to become a beloved product for hundreds of millions of users
• Managing Director at General Catalyst
• Co-founder and CEO of All Turtles, a globally distributed product studio 
• Co-founder of mmhmm, an all-in-one platform for making, watching, and talking on videos 

This is an episode that’s all about startups, growth, regret and why Phil hates the metaverse & thinks blockchain is bullshit and “communist propaganda”.

Here’s a little background:

Phil Libin was 8 years old when he moved from Leningrad (now St Petersburg) to Parkchester, New York as a refugee. His parents were both classical musicians and he lived in a fairly dangerous neighbourhood in the Bronx. 

Despite being a self-described “punchable” kid (he was poor, very physically uncoordinated and didn’t speak English well), he did well in school, earned good money doing repair work and freelance programming and sold his first company, Perseus Data systems, for $500.

But at the same time, he also got fired from his job selling ice-cream and took 30 years to get his Bachelors degree!

Why?

How?

What?

Here are the highlights:

• 3:43 Moving to New York as Russian immigrants
• 4:52 Being fired from his job selling ice-cream
• 6:11 Taking 30 years to complete his degree?!
• 8:15 Working with essentially the same core group of friends to build 5 startups
• 11:13 Selling Engine5 for $26 million, Hollywood-style
• 15:52 Building something for himself (Evernote)
• 18:19 Startup failure is brutal; startup success is much worse & much harder
• 20:57 Three types of regret
• 22:48 Maintaining his principles & ethics 
• 24:53 Metrics used to measure impact
• 26:30 3-year game plan for mmhmm
• 28:13 How mmhmm improves lives 
• 31:07 Why Phil hates the metaverse
• 32:27 Crypto blockchain is bullsh*t
• 33:45 The promise of blockchain is just communist propaganda?
• 37:14 Training himself to like what he hates, including durians! 
• 39:57 How listeners can help Phil Libin

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/87

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

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ICYMI: Zeneca is a former professional poker player (15 years!) turned NFT founder, investor and educator. He has nearly 300k followers on Twitter, founder of ZenAcademy, an NFT community that aims to create a safe learning environment for people discovering their place in web3, has a newsletter, YouTube channel and 2 podcasts!

If you want to listen to Part 1, head over to https://www.sothisismywhy.com/86-1

Things get juicy in this episode as we dive further into the world of NFT investments starting with… how did Zeneca x100 his net worth via NFT investments in 1 year? What’s the secret?!

Highlights:

• 2:25 How Zeneca x100 his NFT investment net worth
• 3:44 Moonbirds & Kevin Rose
• 4:56 Why did Moonbirds succeed?
• 7:26 Is Kevin Rose too… establishment?
• 10:14 Why haven’t women-led projects taken off?
• 12:57 How men can help Web3 women founders
• 13:36 Is it better to help women in Web3 by letting their projects fail fast, rather than investing and prolonging their hope?
• 15:12 Are “women in web3” events more divisive than helpful?
• 18:52 How Zeneca began his content creation journey
• 23:57 Zenacademy
• 30:40 Why 7,484 Genesis NFTs?
• 31:50 Isn’t it… unethical to claim to want to educate the general public about Web3.0, but keep exclusive access/opportunities to ask Web3.0 questions only to NFT holders?
• 36:01 What success looks like for Zenacademy
• 37:49 Building virtual relationships
• 40:59 How to build relationships on Twitter
• 42:15 What does mainstream adoption of NFTs look like?
• 43:41 Bear market
• 44:49 What Zeneca’s crypto portfolio look like during this bear market
• 45:54 Does Zeneca hesitate to share his investments because so many people would blindly follow his suggestions? What does he do?
• 50:29 With all his successes, is Zeneca… happy?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/86-1 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

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Back in Episode 79, we met Nicole Quinn: General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners aka the "Celebrity Whisperer".

Nicole led the Series A in Cameo and Lady Gaga's Haus Labs and seed rounds in Girlboss, Illumix and Sagely. She also invested in the Series B in Calm and Series C in Goop and sourced Rothy's and Zola.

Here, Nicole Quinn shares how she did her due diligence on Lady Gaga as a potential investor by measuring her "engaged followship" & what it's like working with her, as well as how one separates the "celebrity" from the company.

If you've enjoyed this ICYMI, you can listen to Nicole's full episode here: 

🎙️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000557140887

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QkxgQyRfgQ9bg53TwGyqI?si=zyrHVkeSRc-QuCySTV_DZA

🎙️Watch episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ 

Other Links:

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/79

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

💌 Get the latest STIMY alpha/exclusive event updates here: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 

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

Back in Episode 85, Dr Robin Dunbar (Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford) shares why we fall for romantic scams against our better judgment (even when everyone around us is warning us against it!!).

Listen to the full episode here:

🎙️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442?i=1000566279914

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VuxAs76IE0wJgItPzoZHe?si=m1NsNAl6QgCk4n4sY3TTow 

🎙️Watch episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ 

Other Links:

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/85   

💌 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 

Yes, the market is bearish. Crypto is crashing. But more companies & individuals than ever are entering the space. NFT NYC just ended. Soul tokens are coming…

To make, hopefully, some sense of it all, STIMY is proud to present its latest guest - one of the most prolific NFT content creators & thought leaders around - to provide his take on all things NFTs:

Zeneca → a former professional poker player (15 years!) turned NFT founder, investor and educator. He has nearly 300k followers on Twitter that follow him for his opinions and analysis in the space. He is also the founder of ZenAcademy, an NFT community that aims to create a safe learning environment for people discovering their place in web3, has a newsletter, YouTube channel and 2 podcasts!

We had such a wide-ranging conversation that the episode has been split into 2. 

This is Part 1.

Highlights:

• 4:22 Becoming a professional poker player
• 6:27 Money is a tool
• 10:24 What success means for a poker player
• 13:58 Going back to crypto in 2020
• 16:35 When everything “clicked” for Zeneca about the NFT space
• 21:57 Best NFT learning resources
• 24:13 The “infinite regret” behind Zeneca’s 1st NFT purchase
• 25:20 FOMO
• 30:42 Deciding on an NFT investment in 10-15 seconds based on gut instinct
• 31:44 Goblintown.wtf
• 33:56 Why no roadmap?
• 36:42 CC0 NFTs have no copyright?
• 39:37 Why Cryptopunks got so huge
• 41:52 Cryptopunks v Bored Apes Yacht Club
• 45:27 What it’s actually like being part of the BAYC community
• 48:14 Is BAYC overhyped?
• 50:49 What would it take for BAYC’s valuation to crash?
• 53:28 Buy a Punk, Sell an Ape?
• 55:04 What is generative art & why is Zeneca so bullish about it?
• 58:05 No copyright for generative art like Artblock?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/86-1 

🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 

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Back in STIMY Ep 30, we met Dr Finian Tan - Chairman & Co-Founder of Vickers Venture Partners - a $3 billion deep tech venture capital fund based out of Singapore. Some things he’s done: 

• founder of J.Aron (APAC trading arm of Goldman Sachs)
• Deputy Secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, where he was tasked with creating 
• Chairman of Singapore’s  $1 billion TIF Fund, to create the Silicon Valley of the East in Singapore
• Executive deputy chairman of A*Star 
• Founding partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Eplanet, a Silicon Valley VC that invested in Skype & Hotmail. 

While at DFJ, Dr Finian Tan made his first & most well-known investment in a little-known startup called Baidu. 

This is a ICYMI snippet that I felt really illustrates Dr Finian’s character & it happened all the way back when he was still a student.

He swept ALL the book prizes, and got perfect scores while at university.

How did he do it?

By planning it like a WAR.

🎙️Listen to the rest of Dr Finian's episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJELxqip89M 

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/30 

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50?

100?

Now how about close friends?

If you’ll recall back in the early days of Facebook, everyone was busy adding every single friend, casual acquaintance and stranger that they came across as a “friend” until it became too much and a “purge” took place. A purging that was partly influenced by a burger chain and this thing called Dunbar’s number: which concerns the maximum number of friends that one person can have at any one time. 

The person who formulated it?

Professor Robin Dunbar: Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, who was awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal for services to anthropology by the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the highest honour at the disposal of the RAI.

Fun fact: Robin was a featured character in the adaptation of Yuval Noah Harari’s book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind into a graphic novel in 2020!

In this episode you’ll learn about who Robin is, how he went from philosophy to tracking primates in Africa to formulating Dunbar’s Number, why we can only have 150 friends, the psychology behind romantic scams and what he thinks of the Web 3.0 space.

Do you agree that one person can only have 150 friends?

Highlights:

• 2:56 How Robin got hooked onto human evolution
• 7:18 Why Robin wanted to do philosophy
• 8:50 Tracking monkeys & antelopes in Africa in the early 1970s
• 24:50 The 7 pillars of friendship
• 30:35 Do opposites attract?
• 35:47 Where Dunbar’s Number came from
• 40:11 Why 150?
• 45:06 Even dogs can be part of your 150
• 51:54 Can you guard yourself against romantic scammers?
• 55:05 The problem with Web 3.0
• 1:02:21 How do you build a strong virtual community?
• 1:10:58 Common misconception with Dunbar’s Number
• 1:13:18 Challenging 150
• 1:16:34 How listeners can help Robin

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/85

💌 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 

He’s the Global Head of Social Marketing & Head of Meta Prosper at Meta as well as an advisory board member of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Prior to Meta, Eric was the CMO at Gap Inc, Global Head of Social Marketing and Editorial Content at Airbnb and Global Digital Brand Marketing Director at Nike. 

But Eric’s path has hardly been an easy one.

He’s had to deal with racism his entire life, despite being a fourth generation American and having a World War II veteran as his grandfather. 

When he landed his first job at Facebook, he was told that the key to succeeding was to never look a white executive in the eye. 

And even when he reached the pinnacle of his career - becoming CMO at Gap Inc - he was eventually fired. 

But Eric Toda has also had tremendous successes and his work was awarded by Cannes Lions, Webbys, Clios, Effie, Adweek ARC Awards, Brand Innovators amongst others for combining purpose, creativity, and business results. You might’ve seen some of them - Airbnb’s #LiveInTheMovies and the launch of Gap Inc’s Hill City brand.

So how has racism and failure moulded Eric into becoming a greater leader?

How do you become best friends with your executives?

And who is… Jonathan Mildenhall?

If you want to learn how to be a great leader and triumph over adversity and discrimination, then this is the episode for you.

And if you liked this episode, do share this episode and leave a review!

Highlights:

• 2:38 How Eric’s grandfather fought for him before he was born
• 10:05 Why Eric wanted to become a lawyer
• 12:08 Joining a little startup called… Facebook
• 15:59 Don’t look a white executive in the eye
• 20:42 Getting credit for your work
• 23:21 Being fired from Gap Inc as Chief Marketing Officer
• 25:09 Why Eric failed to challenge the status quo
• 28:19 Becoming friends with executives
• 30:35 Being an approachable leader
• 32:25 Jonathan Mildenhall
• 34:48 “Oi, you coming?”
• 36:28 Airbnb’s successful 2016 campaign during the Oscars
• 40:24 #WeAccept
• 44:54 You can’t teach ambition & fire
• 46:22 Launching the hardest, but right thing in Eric’s career - Meta Prosper
• 51:01 My people are dying in silence & I’m here with a megaphone 
• 53:31 Why Eric doesn’t want his children to remember him only as a businessman or marketer
• 56:01 Not being allowed to go to the Smithsonian
• 57:38 The challenges of Web 3.0 today 
• 1:01:48 Why is Eric Toda so easy to contact?! (p/s: his mobile number is available😅)

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/84         

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• Creator Lab: an entrepreneurship podcast & growth marketing consultancy
• Not Investment Advice: a weekly business podcast covering the latest in business, tech & web 3

Bilal Zaidi has interviewed some of the world's best, including people like Jim Mckelvey, the billionaire co-founder of Square, Tim Urban from Wait But Why, Kat Cole, president of Athletic Greens, Daymond John from Shark Tank & Gary Vee.

Beyond entrepreneurship - he's interviewed a wide range of creators ranging from Hollywood actors, Emmy-winning performers, leading writers, billionaire investors & non-profit founders. 

He started his first company, an e-commence business, aged 16yrs old after selling sim cards, CDs & clothes at school & also an Arsenal Review blog that racked over 500,000 views.

He later spent 7.5yrs working at Google managing a $100mil+ business. After meeting the founder of leading social enterprise, charity: water, Bilal left his job to join their leadership team full time as their first ever Director of Brand Partnerships, partnering with brands like Saint Laurent, J Crew, Amazon & 100+ others to raise money & awareness for clean water. To date, charity: water has helped almost 15mil+ people get access to clean drinking water in 29 countries.

Bilal is now a full time entrepreneur & creator, working on several ventures as a podcaster, consultant & investor. 

Highlights:

• 3:40 Growing up in East London as a Pakistani British
• 6:52 Being a fan of Nars the rapper
• 7:42 Taking money seriously
• 9:47 Starting his first company, Street Vibes, as a student
• 12:49 Learning the art of selling from the vendors at London street markets
• 15:24 Running an Arsenal Review website with over 500,000 readers
• 18:44 Being headhunted by Google on LinkedIn
• 22:14 Almost turning down the opportunity to work at Google
• 23:25 Being seen as a drug dealer?!
• 25:37 Spending 7.5 years at Google
• 27:19 Shutting down a $300M company within Google
• 29:19 Getting out of his low period
• 32:16 Starting the Creator Lab podcast
• 36:43 How Bilal lands amazing guests 
• 43:49 Focus on one platform
• 48:26 Landing podcast sponsorship deals
• 53:05 Milestones in Bilal’s podcasting journey
• 55:30 Meeting the Winklevoss twins
• 58:40 Interviewing Gary Vee
• 1:05:39 Jack Butcher - going from cold DMs to close friends
• 1:14:40 How much personality should you show?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/83

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She currently serves as CEO & managing partner of ByteBao. Her experience includes leading Data & Privacy Operations at Standard Chartered Bank and the Legal Compliance team for Marriott International based out of China and Singapore.

Ever wanted to know more about the laws surrounding NFTs and DAOs?

Then this is the episode for you.

Highlights:

• 6:55 What are NFTs?
• 8:26 IPRs in NFTs 
• 9:44 Where does copyright subsist?
• 11:32 Copyright in a high drop NFT project?
• 13:58 What happens if there is no licensing agreement?
• 15:16 Any legal recourse for NFT holders?
• 16:44 Effectiveness of DMCAs
• 18:44 How can you mitigate the scope of your liabilities?
• 19:41 Liability for copyright infringement if your NFT infringes the original owner’s IP rights?
• 20:45 Are NFTs a type of security?
• 25:45 Would you face greater regulation from the SEC if your NFT has a social purpose?
• 27:55 Hearing about WOW Pixies
• 28:37 The role of a lawyer in a DAO
• 29:35 What is a DAO?
• 30:53 Why DAOs aren’t a decentralised VC
• 32:58 Incorporating Web2 legal structures for a DAO
• 37:51 Legal documentations for a DAO
• 41:27 Giveaways
• 44:14 Airdrop issues

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/82                

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Mai Akiyoshi is a Silicon Valley engineer from Japan who has had a rather unconventional route littered with what one might conventionally consider to be “failures”.

And it all began… with Mai applying for a sales position at a Japanese company. 

The company decided unilaterally that they would train her up as a software engineer instead and it proved to be really difficult. She was consistently at the bottom of her cohort, but still made it through the training and… got into the most technically demanding department of the company, where she was treated like an alien!

Mai then got into a startup by accident - applying for a position she had no prior qualifications in, and even tried to rescind her application! That position eventually led her to the States, where she met Ben Yu (her co-founder & partner) through Nuseir of Nasdaily/Nas Academy and where her Web3 journey began. 

Now, Mai is the CEO and co-founder of Curious Addys, a Web3 startup building the best educational platform and community for newcomers to Web3 while celebrating ADHD. She is building ember.help, a platform where anyone can ask questions on Web3 and get guaranteed answers from experts. 

If you’re interested in all things Web3/thriving despite all the difficulties that life throws at you, then this is definitely the episode for you.

Highlights:

• 2:32 Growing up in Japan
• 4:35 Being diagnosed with ADHD
• 5:55 Being influenced by her grandparents, who founded their own company after World War II
• 7:02 Wanting to go to the US
• 8:27 Applying for a sales position & becoming a software engineer
• 10:02 Japan’s shaming culture
• 11:29 Feeling like she’d landed on an alien planet 
• 12:24 Moving to a new startup, Logbar
• 14:18 Moving to the US
• 15:03 How Nuseir of Nas Academy introduced her to Ben Yu & is the “mother” of Curious Addys
• 16:56 Studying at App Academy 
• 19:19 Becoming the senior software engineer at Gusto
• 21:55 How Mai first entered the Web3 space
• 22:51 Why Ethereum is so interesting
• 23:37 Meeting Zeneca & helping him with his smart contract 
• 24:47 Starting a Tamagochi education platform?
• 26:54 Why NFTs are here to stay
• 28:23 NFTs are the best way to bootstrap a community
• 29:32 The vision behind Curious Addys’ Trading Club: Education, Cute, NFTs
• 32:07 Why an octopus for a mascot?
• 33:56 The early days of building Curious Addys
• 36:01 Finding her founding team members
• 37:24 Maintaining the right values as the community grows
• 39:28 100% refund policy
• 40:15 Why release only 5,000 in the initial launch
• 40:51 How they promoted Curious Addys’ Trading Club
• 42:02 Building partnerships 
• 42:59 The type of products under Curious Addys’ Trading Club
• 44:39 What is Ember?
• 47:03 NFT portfolio tracker 
• 50:12 Reading smart contracts
• 52:35 Mai’s favourite NFT 
• 53:53 What Mai believes in that most people don’t in the crypto space
• 54:15 Biggest mistake Mai has done in the Web3 space
• 55:03 How to spot NFT/crypto scams

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/81         

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Ee Ling is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Smarter Me, a K-12 edutech startup headquartered in Singapore, that equips primary and secondary school students with the skillset, mindset, and heartset to define their own success and happiness in the future. Through digital technology and entrepreneurship education, students develop mastery in problem-solving, critical-thinking, collaboration, and creativity. She also hosts Young Founders Summit Asia, a leading startup program in Asia that provides aspiring teenage founders with workshops and mentorship to launch impact-based startups.  

In this episode, we discussed Ee Ling’s journey as an entrepreneur - including why for the longest time, she never considered herself an entrepreneur and how that perception changed, and how she shares her struggles with her own daughters, including having to fire people. We also delved into the topic of youth entrepreneurship: whether children are too young to learn about entrepreneurship, what they care about, and setting up a DAO.

Highlights:

• 3:13 Setting up her own preschool
• 4:43 Founding her first startup
• 7:49 The problem that Smarter Me is trying to solve
• 10:23 Determining the curriculum
• 12:08 Are children too young to learn about entrepreneurship?
• 14:49 Why Ee Ling wasn’t comfortable with calling herself an entrepreneur
• 17:10 Sharing her struggles with her girls
• 18:43 Young Founders Summit Asia
• 19:56 Organising the inaugural summit
• 28:53 What the youth care about most
• 30:30 Launching an NFT project with a DAO element
• 33:22 Managing the community
• 35:09 How funds in a DAO are managed
• 36:14 Biggest challenges
• 37:39 Why kids were writing off NFTs/DAOs
• 39:29 How to bring people from the Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 world
• 40:51 Great DAOs to look at
• 42:23 Being the Executive Directorof Global Programs at 500 Global
• 44:17 Main elements of a successful accelerator
• 45:23 How founders can make full use of accelerators
• 46:46 Going virtual
• 49:17 Having “People & Intention” as her 2022 driving words
• 52:40 How to be a good leader & lead others

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/80               

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In this episode, we learn how Nicole went from helping her dad run his online pharmacy chain as a child to spending around 8 years at Morgan Stanley to finally entering the VC space.

Nicole shares what a true brand is, how she measures an engaged followship, what it’s like working with celebrity-led companies, how to separate the celebrity from the company, the due diligence she did prior to investing in Lady Gaga’s company, what make founders like Sophia Amoruso of Girlboss stand out and why she produced a sizable term sheet to Lunchclub in less than 7 days. 

If you’ve been interested in consumer products and wondering what it’s like to spot & invest in future trends, then this is the episode for you. 

Highlights:

• 2:56 Learning the value of money
• 4:04 Working at Morgan Stanley for 8 years
• 5:06 Angel Investing
• 6:04 Joining an European fintech startup
• 7:40 Focus on your strengths & make them stronger (in Stanford)
• 9:46 Meeting members of Lightspeed Venture Partners, including Jeremy Liew
• 12:22 How founders find the thing they were born to do
• 14:40 Working with Lady Gaga to build Haus Laboratories
• 16:13 Doing due diligence on Lady Gaga to measure engagement
• 17:42 Separating the celebrity from the company
• 19:26 Leading indicators of a true brand being built
• 20:23 Why Nicole invests in early stage founders (e.g. Girlboss & Rothy’s)
• 22:03 How Lightspeed spots new trends
• 22:47 Being wrong about future trends
• 24:42 Why Nicole offered Lunchclub a sizable term sheet in less than 7 days
• 26:58 The ICE Influencer policy at Calm
• 29:50 Companies incorporating NFTs well into their business

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/79 

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Prior to Web3, Debbie was an equity investor where she managed over $1 billion of global consumer sector investments for one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, GIC. She then pivoted into the world of startups where she founded Singapore and Southeast Asia's first boutique indoor cycling studio before going on to build three businesses from scratch for one of the most successful unicorns in Southeast Asia, Sequoia Capital-backed ONE Championship. 

While there, she was Chief of Staff to the CEO, Chatri Sityodtong - yes, she was the OG Chief of Staff. Her colleagues joked that when she was promoted to VP, Head of Consumer Products, Chatri had to launch an entire reality show just to find her replacement! While at ONE Championship, Debbie spearheaded ONE Championship’s expansion into Japan, launched ONE Esports and ONE Shop, amongst many other things. 

As for how Debbie got into the Web3 world?

Well, it all began with her making a wish at the Wishing Well.

You’ll have to listen to find out more. 😉

Highlights:

• 4:20 “Accept the changeable, change the unacceptable”
• 6:00 Launching 7Cycle Pte - Southeast Asia’s first boutique indoor cycling studio
• 8:26 Joining ONE Championship
• 10:36 Being the OG (“The Apprentice”) Chief of Staff to CEO, Chatri Sityodtong
• 12:49 Establishing ONE Esports
• 15:50 Launching ONE Shop as VP, Head of Consumer Products
• 17:42 Moving to LA
• 19:52 Nearly stealing the furniture of a homeless person in LA
• 21:20 Launching her second startup
• 26:23 Meta Angels NFT & the Wishing Well
• 31:43 Getting on a Zoom call with Randi Zuckerberg
• 33:16 Getting a Web3 job without any relevant Web3 experience
• 35:25 The problem that HUG is trying to solve - discovery for creatives
• 38:48 Scaling HUG’s Curator Club from 300 to 3,000?
• 41:17 Making HUG’s Discord channel the go-to channel for people
• 42:03 Hosting weekly Twitter Spaces with Randi Zuckerberg
• 43:10 Analysing 3,000 reviews of NFT projects
• 44:46 Is art an important factor?
• 45:36 Analysing roadmaps for NFT projects
• 46:55 HUGhub - the curate-to-earn discovery platform for NFTs
• 49:00 How to make HUG unique from other NFT accelerators/platforms
• 51:04 Sharing of confidential information?
• 52:32 How groupHUG is different from a typical Web2 startup accelerator
• 53:39 How the groupHUG cohorts are curated
• 55:12 Biggest needs of NFT founders
• 56:03 Raising USD $5 million in VC funding for NFT projects in 1 month
• 57:32 When is a NFT project ready to pitch for VC funding?
• 58:51 Web 2.5
• 1:01:03 How NFT Collection founders can pitch for partnerships
• 1:04:13 Web3 influencers that Debbie recommends following
• 1:05:22 What a Web3 dating app might look like

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/78                  

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Lily Wu is currently the Startup Partner Lead, SEA at Stripe and co-founder of WOW Pixies, the first DAO to invest in the women-led web3 ecosystem. DAO stands for decentralised autonomous organisation where rather than decision making being centred at the very top, that decision making power is given away to everyone (aka all WOW Pixies NFT holders). Which is something that is being made possible in the Web3 world.

But how did Lily get into the world of NFTs and DAOs? 

Well, Lily has her grounding in the startup world. 

When she was 16, she founded her first startup - and ended up making half a million dollars selling shoes.

At age 19, she started her second business in the education space, Austern International, which ended up generating over 7-figures in revenue with over 1,000 students attending physical Career Bootcamps in New York, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne.

Thereafter, she became the Head of Programs for NewCampus, a Series A edutech startup based in Singapore before joining Stripe as the Startup Partner Lead. She is the founding ambassador of Future Females Singapore, a global organisation dedicated to helping female entrepreneurs get the resources and connections. 

To learn about all things startups, growth hacking, NFTs, DAOs and what it means to be part of groupHUG - an NFT accelerator co-founded by Randi Zuckerberg & Debbie Soon, then listen on!

Highlights:

• 3:56 Being taught by her parents to not ask for permission, ask for forgiveness
• 6:15 How being left with $100, led to Lily starting her first startup at the age of 16
• 8:19 Adidas Jeremy Scott wing shoes and the power of arbitrage
• 12:00 Spreading by word of mouth
• 15:43 Accounting
• 20:27 Finding her own internship in China (and getting 20 friends to do the same for $2000!)
• 25:06 Having the police called on her
• 28:47 Starting Austern International
• 30:11 Building the curriculum at Austern International
• 34:42 Helping Uber launch Uber Eats
• 36:50 Marketing Austern International
• 42:39 Working at New Campus
• 47:48 Becoming Startup Partner Lead at Stripe
• 50:44 What is an NFT?
• 55:04 WOW Pixies as a Venture DAO
• 56:55 Investing in women-led NFT projects
• 1:03:12 Decision-making process at WOW Pixies
• 1:06:29 Marketing efforts for WOW Pixies, which sold out in 5 days
• 1:08:37 The “thunderclap”
• 1:11:26 Roadmap for WOW Pixies
• 1:21:25 Metrics of success
• 1:23:41 How to invest in NFT projects

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/77                    

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She joined the world of NFTs in early 2021 after noticing the serious lack of representation of Asians and Women in the space. 

Together with 2 other co-founders, she launched 8SIAN: 8,888 NFTs of beautiful, Asian women painstakingly-crafted where even the most intricate details are steeped in historical significance. 8SIAN became the number 1 project ranked on OpenSea in 24hours based on percentage increase of traded volume with over 3k+ Eth!

If you’ve ever been curious about what it’s like to launch an NFT collection, from hustling in the lead up to the launch to building a team (reputable, experienced web3 developers aren’t exactly easy to find!), building a community on Discord with 15k members, and continuing to bring value by purchasing virtual land, building collaborations, setting up a legal entity and more… then this is the episode for you!

Highlights:

• 3:29 Getting into crypto/Bitcoin in 2013 & buying her first Chanel bag
• 6:48 Discovering NFTs
• 8:17 What is an NFT?
• 9:10 Not a scam?
• 10:30 Being told she didn’t belong in the NFT/crypto space because she was a female
• 12:49 How Nicole figured out the way to create and launch an NFT collection
• 14:43 Finding a Web3 developer (that doesn’t rug pull!)
• 16:42 Why NFTs?
• 17:57 The roadmap for 8SIAN
• 19:31 The launch of Genesis and Goddess collection before the main 8SIAN collection was dropped
• 22:24 Marketing 8SIAN & the hustle you don’t see
• 24:14 Launching the main collection & getting Steve Aoki as an 8SIAN NFT holder 
• 25:09 What’s next for 8SIAN?
• 26:33 Why companies in Asia haven’t jumped into the NFT space yet
• 27:36 The plans for building Chinatown in the metaverse
• 29:37 Managing a 15k strong Discord community
• 30:59 Creating value while still generating revenue from royalties 
• 32:56 How the 8SIAN 8% royalties are split
• 35:02 Why 8SIAN is setting up a legal entity
• 35:49 Are we in an NFT bubble?
• 36:29 Advice to females looking to get into tech

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/76                   

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Our first NFT guest is Mumu the Stan, aka MOON HMZ. She’s a young Muslim mother from Malaysia who’s an artist, poet, and published author and illustrator, while also being an advocate for diversity, inclusion, mental health and environmental awareness in the NFT space. She is the founder of MalaysiaNFT and a member of the local art collective, NFXT.io, and her work has been exhibited at Art Basel Miami 2021!

Moon shares how she first got into the world of NFTs - because the lead singer for Linkin Park, Mike Shinoda, encouraged her to do so and promised to buy her first NFT!! Her thoughts on why it’s exciting for artists, the reality of being a female in the crypto space, how the Malaysian NFT space is evolving, how to spot scams in the NFT space and how you can get involved/learn more about NFTs (if you aren’t already down the rabbit hole!).

P/S: This interview starts off with Moon battle with depression so please take note if that is of concern!

Highlights:

• 4:34 Battling depression
• 7:10 Spending 7 years feeling lost & how Moon got out of it
• 9:01 Creating a stan account
• 9:57 Mike Shinoda takes notice of Moon’s art
• 11:40 What are NFTs?
• 13:09 How to create an NFT
• 16:08 Environmental impact is linked to minority representation
• 18:28 Finding her NFT community
• 18:55 What the Malaysian NFT space is like
• 22:53 Getting Malaysian artists onto the international NFT scene
• 25:14 Being blacklisted
• 25:55 NFTs v traditional digital art collection
• 28:07 Has NFTs enhanced Moon’s art?
• 28:52 Do artists need to know the tech to get into NFTs?
• 29:23 Identifying the scams in the NFT space (aka the rug pulls)
• 31:52 Identifying when an artwork has been copied

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/75 

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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        

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

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     

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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                

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🪙 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.

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                

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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               

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

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              

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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       

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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  

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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  

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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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