So This Is My Why

“Are you a masochist?” “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: 🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 🍿 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 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

Gero DiMaria knows what it means to go truly viral. 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 childhood4:11 What do Italians eat every day?5:38 People in Asia aren’t taught to think?!10:58 Entering the food industry12:13 Work hard to earn your money13:33 Your first job sets the bar14:49 That English breakfast shift 📍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

Would you die for your passion? 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: Highlights: 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 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

Meet Lucas Lu - Head of Zoom Asia. And also a fellow Sarawakian! Lucas has had an illustrious career going from GM of Systems Technology Group at IBM Malaysia where they closed large deals within the first 6 months, leading to Lucas winning ASEAN Rookie of the Year - his first big recognition. He ended up staying at IBM for 10 years and won 2 Global Golden Circle Award before moving on to become: 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: 🙊 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 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

This episode is a compilation of 6 of the most powerful women featured on the So This Is My Why podcast, discussing the milestones that led them on their journey to success Ep 124: Jacqueline Novogratz Jacqueline is the founder & CEO of Acumen - a non-profit global venture capital fund that aims to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty. As the OG of impact investing, she shares her experience in Rwanda and learning that the most important thing is to build something where you leave no footprint behind. And how there is no such thing as black & white. Everyone has an angel and demon within them that comes out at different times. 📍 Listen to Jacqueline's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/124 Ep 115: Lydia Fenet Lydia is the former Executive Director of Christie's New York and for 10 years, she thought it was a privilege to be working at Christie's. She never asked for more. Until she realised that you are just a number in the P&L, and you have to fight for what your worth. In one conversation, she managed to x3 her salary, obtain an international director designation and start a new department on strategic partnerships. 📍 Listen to Lydia's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/115 Ep 125: Tanya Zakowich Tanya has worked at NASA, Boeing and Hyperloop and shares her journey in making big career pivots which led to the creation of Pink Pencil Math with 2 million TikTok followers, 507k Instagram Followers & 99k YouTube followers. 📍 Listen to Tanya's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/125 Ep 79: Nicole Quinn Nicole is a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. She's known as the celebrity whisperer who's worked with the likes of Lady Gaga, Tom Brady, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba. 📍 Listen to Nicole's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/79 Ep 77: Lily Wu Lily is a two-time 7 figure business founder who shares how she got started on her entrepreneurial journey in Australia as a teenager 📍 Listen to Lily's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/77 Ep 56: Lauren Hom Lauren is a California-born designer, illustrator & hand lettering artist with a 250k strong following on Instagram. She is known for her use of bright colour palettes & playful letterings and has worked for clients such as Starbucks, YouTube, TIME Magazine, Google and AT&T. She has also been recognised by Communications Arts, the Art Directors Club, the One Club, the Type Directors Club and the Webby Awards She shares how she's built her enviable artistic career including with Daily Dishonesty. 📍 Listen to Lauren's full episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/56 * 🙊 Like STIMY? Buy me a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/ncLfbdQ7XQA 🌍 Website: https://www.sothisismywhy.com 💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

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

Hey STIMIES! Welcome back to Part 2 of the So This Is My Why Podcast with Loh Lik Peng - CEO & Founder of Unlisted Collection. In Part 1, we covered Lik Peng’s journey from wanting to become a doctor (just like his parents) to becoming a commercial litigator and purchasing his first hotel property: Hotel 1929. The property that kickstarted his crazy career pivot. But the F&B industry is a tough place to be. You need a good dose of hard work, luck and… a talent for spotting F&B talent (which Lik Peng has!). In this episode, we dive into the intricacies of his international hospitality business, tackling questions like: 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: 📍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

Want to know how a lawyer became a successful hotelier with 40 hotels & 9 Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, London, Ireland, Shanghai & Sydney?! Look no further than today’s STIMY guest: Loh Lik Peng, the founder of Unlisted Collection. Lik Peng grew up expecting to be a doctor, like his parents. But ended up practising as a commercial litigator for 3 years. During that time, the world was hit with the Asian Financial Crisis and a rundown property called Hotel 1929 came onto the Singapore property market. Hotel 1929 was located in Singapore’s red light district and Lik Peng saw potential in it, so he took a year off from law to develop the hotel with the full intention of going back to being a lawyer thereafter. But life didn’t turn out that way. He ended up opening his first restaurant at Hotel 1929, then another hotel and restaurant, and another and… In fact, he bought so many properties in the area that his friend once remarked that the street should be renamed “Peng Road”! 🤣 Lik Peng has now become one of Singapore’s most established hoteliers (he struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time when people called him a hotelier!) despite starting out by taking projects “by the seat of his pants”. And his Michelin-starred restaurants include: ⭐️: Burnt Ends, Marguerite, Nouri ⭐️⭐️: Cloudstreet, Da Terre ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Zen So do you want to know how he did it? Let’s go! P/S: This is Part 1 out of 2 of Lik Peng’s episode (Part 2 is coming out this Weds). Highlights: 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

It’s finally happening! 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

Steve Chao was just a kid from Toronto who loved reading encyclopaedias. Who later chose a career that would lead him to the middle of opium fields during harvest time surrounded by hundreds of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. 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 season4:19 Suicide Alley8:49 Just a kid from Toronto10:33 His first big break uncovering a drug cartel from Honduras12:40 Gaining a global perspective14:56 Going undercover as a refugee trafficked by the Snakeheads in Vancouver15:55 You have to learn on the job18:03 The unsung heroes or ‘fixers’ like JoJo21:25 Broken trust23:24 PTSD25:13 How does Steve ensure he isn’t crippled by what he’s seen?26:44 Mentors like Ted Huang29:42 Has Steve ever regretted any sacrifices made to cover a story?32:29 Do these stories have an actual impact? The Chinese spy35:08 Malaysian reporting on the UNHCR Mafia & Anson Wong - the notorious wildlife poacher from Penang39:56 Identifying the stories he wants to work on42:11 The next step to crafting the story43:34 The keyword in reporter is ‘porter’44:26 The state of journalism today47:27 Cancel culture & its impact on Steve’s work50:11 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

Simon Alexander Ong grew up often feeling like he didn’t fit in. 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: 📍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

Prestine Davekhaw knows how much you earn. Thanks to a viral IG platform she launched called MalaysianPAYGAP, where she has Malaysians anonymously submit [payslip verified] details about their job, including: 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: 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

It's the final day of 2023! 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

Welcome to STIMY Ep 134! Today, you have the pleasure of hanging out with me. 😉 What we'll cover today: 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: 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 122Peter Yong aka Mr MoneySTIMY Ep 129Fabien Riggall, founder of Secret CinemaSTIMY Ep 131Charlie Todd, founder of Improv EverywhereSTIMY 132Terence Lee, Editor-in-Chief of Tech in AsiaSTIMY 133Adlin Yusman (Managing Director, Endeavor Malaysia) 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!

Adlin Yusman, Managing Director of Endeavor Malaysia, will work for anyone he’s hired. 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 GrouponPrincipal at Digi TelecommunicationsSAVP at AstroCOO 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: 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

Who's got the juiciest gossip on startups these days? 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: Peter Cowan 📍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

Meet Charlie Todd - a professional prankster & also the founder of Improv Everywhere (a New York City-based prank collective with a twist!). 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: person 📍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

Meet Alvin Wee: Grammy, CAS & Golden Horse Award winning music mixer from Kuching (now based in LA)! 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: 📍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

What does it take to bring a movie to life & have the general public participant as actual characters in said movie?! 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: and 📍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

Imagine spending 30 years working as an architect. 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: 📍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