In this episode, Krista speaks to Singaporean entrepreneur, Audrey Phoon who is also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Eastside.asia where they discuss building a regional storytelling platform rooted in Asian authenticity and voices. 

From identifying a representation gap to launching a writer residency program, the conversation explores ethics, mentorship, and sustainable growth in Asia’s vibrant media landscape. Audrey shares personal inspirations, readings that inform her worldview and practical lessons on balancing risk, discipline and humanity in storytelling. 

A thoughtful, personal conversation about how to tell Asia’s stories with humility and boldness.

• 00:00–00:12: Eastside’s mission: Asian voices, Asian storytellers.
• 00:16–00:23: The core ethos: “We are Asian travel content by Asian storytellers.”
• 00:27–00:34: Administrative realities and the case for a more structured business approach.
• 00:42–00:50: Residency program: nurturing younger writers, mentorship, publication goals.
• 00:45–00:50: AI in writing: strong stance on keeping human voices at the center.
• 00:50–01:00: Audrey’s inspirations and the broader future for Eastside.

3 key takeaways 

• Center authentic regional voices to build trust and community.
• Invest in people and systems; mentorship can accelerate growth without sacrificing heart.
• Create structured programs (like residencies) to diversify voices and sustain the pipeline of regional storytelling.

This episode is brought to you by RedboxStudio.com 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

She explains her market-driven, under-market pricing approach to make books for mothers and children accessible and why she chose self-publishing to keep control.

The conversation dives into her series philosophy, how she tackles tough topics like single motherhood and adoption and the idea of building a “village”—a supportive circle to sustain women-led ventures.

She also reflects on the role of family, resilience and partnerships in growing multiple businesses from restaurants to fashion.

Tune in for practical insights on marketing, community-building and turning personal experiences into meaningful products that serve families in Asia.

• 00:00 Intro and Anissa’s background in publishing and family-focused work
• 00:02 Stroke as turning point; leaving corporate life to become a stay-at-home mom and entrepreneur
• 00:04 Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing; under-market pricing to reach more families
• 00:12 The work behind signature book illustrations and a proposed series approach
• 00:17 Adoption-themed book and the need for awareness and guidance for families
• 00:28 Early marketing challenges and building a name through community and celebrity endorsements
• 00:39 The value of a strong support system and NDAs for confidential discussions
• 00:47 The role of partners and family in sustaining entrepreneurship
• 00:55 How to connect with Anissa online and in her network
• 00:57 Final takeaway: trust your village and your instincts

3 key takeaways:

• Build your village: community and partnerships are as essential as capital for sustainable impact.
• Publish with purpose: price thoughtfully and market boldly to reach families who need it, while keeping control and authenticity.
• Lead with instinct and conversation: trust your gut, communicate openly, and address taboos with empathy to empower others.

Womenpreneur Asia is partnering with InnovNation and you are welcome to join me if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or established one: https://community.innovnation.ai/womenpreneur-asia

This episode is brought to you by RedboxStudio.com 

Marinel is the founder of Brown Gal Trekker LLC & Equity Global Treks / The Porter Voice Collective. 

From directing the docomentary, KM82 ,to developing her projects such as the Himalayan Women Trail Leaders, Marinel explains how tourism is rooted in systemic inequities that impact porters and women guides.

She shares her vision for a decolonized, people-centered industry—one that partners with local communities, values dignity and trains women to lead in the mountains.

She also opens up about the Filipino immigrant experience, the power of truthful storytelling, and why small, community-focused operators can deliver richer, more ethical travel.

Listen to rethink travel with heart, and learn practical steps to support women-led, ethical trekking and mountain tourism across Asia.

• 00:00 – Introduction to Marinel: from prosecutor to mountain nomad and social entrepreneur.
• 02:30 – The KM82 documentary and elevating porter voices.
• 05:15 – Systemic issues in tourism; why we need a decolonized approach.
• 08:45 – Himalayan Women Trail Leaders: training Nepali female guides; broader inclusion.
• 12:50 – The immigrant experience shaping leadership and cross-cultural understanding.
• 17:15 – Debunking myths about “bigger is better” in tourism; the value of smaller operators.

3 key takeaways

• Centering porters and women guides reshapes the entire tourism experience—dignity at the center.
• Smaller, relationship-driven operators can deliver more meaningful, ethical travel than large brands.
• True decolonization means co-creating with local communities, listening first, and letting local voices lead.

Marinel's websites:

www.browngaltrekker.com

www.theportervoicecollective

Womenpreneur Asia is partnering with InnovNation and you are welcome to join me if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or established one: https://community.innovnation.ai/womenpreneur-asia

This episode is brought to you by RedboxStudio.com 

• 00:00–00:01: Welcome to Season 11 and the fresh direction for Womenpreneur Asia.
• 00:01–00:03: In-between seasons, prepping for new episodes and gleaning insights.
• 00:03–00:04: The season’s theme: collective growth and expanding the show into a wider media platform.
• 00:04–00:06: Partnerships and programs: From Vision to Voice with Rowena Morais; the value of visibility and storytelling.
• 00:06–00:08: Opportunities with InnovNation and my invitation to you to be part of this community
• 00:08–00:10: Gratitude, being bold and the power of one-step-forward action.

3 key takeaways: 

• Collective growth amplifies impact: when the platform grows, everyone benefits.
• Authentic confidence wins: showing up as yourself is your super power and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise
• Small, bold steps compound: one step forward opens doors and creates opportunities.

Links mentioned in this episode:

My interview with Rowena Morais in Season 2: https://womenpreneurasia.com/podcast/s2-e2-rowena-morais/

From Vision to Voice program: Fromvisiontovoice.com 

My founder story: https://womenpreneurasia.com/visibility-brings-opportunities-my-story/

My newest partnership with InnovNation - the community that I am building and I invite you to join me if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or established one: https://community.innovnation.ai/womenpreneur-asia

This episode is brought to you by RedboxStudio.com 

From early online sales on Facebook to a flagship store, she explains her love for French pastry and everything crusty!

She cites how the French have a philosophy about “garnishing with a purpose”- how every decoration should add texture and flavour, not just look pretty.

She explains how she educates customers about French pastry, balances artistry with business, and uses seasonal menus, inspiration and beloved characters from Studio Ghibli and local ingredients to keep things fresh.

Social media, especially Instagram, has amplified her brand, but she emphasizes that word-of-mouth remains the strongest marketing tool. There’s a powerful message here for entrepreneurs: craft with care, learn from feedback, and build a legacy.

What you'll learn:

• 00:00 – Xiao-Ly, chef and founder of Xiao by Crutz patisserie and her journey to a flagship store.
• 02:00 – Defining roles: chef first, entrepreneur second; navigating multiple hats including content creator
• 04:30 – What is French pastry? Textures, garnishing with a purpose, and visual appeal.
• 08:30 – From education to trust: introducing customers to French pastry and expanding the menu.
• 12:00 – Marketing with stories: themed collections (Ghibli, kopitiam, local holidays) as differentiators.
• 16:30 – R&D in a small team: collaboration with staff, testing flavors, balancing trends with core offerings.
• 20:00 – Instagram as a visibility tool, but not the entirety of the business and how to differentiate which trends to follow (or not)
• 23:00 – Burnout, resilience, and the long game, pacing, legacy over quick growth.

3 big takeways:

• Craft and commerce can coexist: treat your artistry as a business asset by educating customers and balancing novelty with reliability.
• Garnishing with a purpose matters: visuals should complement flavor and texture, not just decorate.
• Build for longevity: balance ambition with sustainable systems, and focus on word-of-mouth and quality as your strongest growth engines.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAisa.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

She shares how academic excellence gave her visibility, how a quiet act of contributing built an entrepreneurial community, and how a simple “yes” to follow created something larger than any single person could achieve.

The balance of leading and following—timing, context, and courage—becomes a practical framework for womenpreneurs in Asia seeking impact without waiting for a title.

Listen in for memorable insights, actionable takeaways, and a reminder that true leadership is a collaborative act.

• [00:00:00] Redefining leadership: leadership can show up as listening, supporting, or saying, “I’ll follow you.”
• [00:01:00] Leadership through strengths: excelling academically can increase visibility and respect.
• [00:02:00] Organic leadership: co-founding a women’s entrepreneur group that grew from 6 to 30 and beyond.
• [00:02:45] The power of followership: following a vision can create results bigger than one person.
• [00:03:00] Balcony vs. dance floor: leadership and followership are complementary; know when to lead or follow.
• [00:04:00] Core belief: leadership isn’t about titles; both roles create change when used fluidly.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

From pivoting from supply chain to GTM at tech giants to building small but powerful AI tools, she reveals practical steps to align people, processes, and tools (even with Excel) to grow margins.

Learn why “the nervous system” approach to rev ops matters, how to avoid AI hype and why prioritizing talent over tools can unlock real value.

Listen, subscribe, and stay connected for more practical guidance.

What You'll Learn:

- 00:00 – 00:10: Sonam’s current focus in rev ops and AI

- 00:10 – 00:20: Rev ops as the nervous system—aligning sales, marketing, and operations

- 00:20 – 00:30: Career pivot from supply chain to GTM/AI; why taking her MBA at London Business School was the only option

- 00:30 – 00:40: Building practical AI tools (getting hands-on) and the significance of a growth mindset

- 00:40 – 01:10: Why small startups can succeed with MVP tools (e.g. Excel, HubSpot)

- 01:10 – 01:40: Data visibility, funnel metrics, and stopping revenue leakage

- 01:40 – 02:20: AI use, change management, and the importance of culture

- 02:20 – 02:50: The new roles in AI - GTM Engineer and the evolving AI workforce

- 02:50 – 03:30: How she develops confidence and why she is keen to help other women get into tech

- 03:30 – 04:30: Practical playbook for business owners: diagnose, stop leaks, build systems

- 04:30 – 05:00: Final reflections and how to connect with Sonam especially if you're a young woman in tech

3 Key Takeaways

- Rev ops = the nervous system that unifies what your teams do, so you don’t rely on gut feel.

- Start small: Excel or simple tools can create a single source of truth and reveal where revenue leaks hide.

- AI is powerful when paired with change management and people; treat AI like an intern, delegate the drudge work, and focus on human‑level storytelling and face time with customers. 

Like our show? Help others find our show when you rate/review Womenpreneur Asia.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

If you’d like to show up online with clarity and confidence, check out my program at FromVisionToVoice.com and take part in the ongoing Weekly Visibility Challenge.

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, I sit down with Beby Kale Lena, an Indonesian entrepreneur who lives in Bali who turned her struggle with curly hair into a viral beauty brand.

This episode was recorded in Beby Kale Lena’s villa in Sanur, Bali because I had booked a stay at her villa in August.

Growing up in Timor island, East Indonesia, Beby spent years trying to hide her natural curls. and big hair. She straightened and damaged her hair so much that a hairstylist said her hair was "crispy".

But when she learned how to care for them, she not only transformed her own confidence - she helped other women do the same.

We talk about how her homemade hair oil went viral on Twitter and TikTok, why she walked away from a 17-year career in finance, and how her mission today is about so much more than hair.

If you’ve ever doubted yourself, this conversation will remind you that what makes you different might just be your superpower.

Show Notes with Timestamps

• [00:05] Meeting Beby in her Bali villa and how her story began with her hair.
• [08:00] From a financial and insurance career to following her dream of living in Bali.
• [13:00] How mixing oils for herself turned into a viral business by accident!
• [20:00] The life-changing feedback from women who used her products which changed how she perceives her products and business
• [38:00] Going viral on TikTok by breaking all its rules and the challenges, anxiety and opportunities. that emerged afterwards
• [55:00] Beby’s reflections what she considers a simple yet contented life in Bali.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Your insecurities can spark ideas that inspire and empower others.
2. Authentic storytelling is more powerful than polished marketing.
3. True self-love means treating yourself with care, not comparison.

For the full show notes and links to Beby's socials, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

At just 17 years old, Danya Adriana Feri who is from Malaysia has already turned her passion for painting into a thriving art business. From discovering her style during lockdown to completing large-scale commissions for clients like YTL and Marriott, Danya is proof that age is no barrier to pursuing your creative dreams. 

In this conversation, she shares how she balances school with entrepreneurship, the role her mother plays as her manager and biggest cheerleader, and why she’s committed to showcasing Malaysia’s cultural heritage through her bold, vibrant abstract art. Danya also opens up about her vision to inspire other young people to create and her dream of building a community art studio. 

• [00:02] Discovering art during lockdown – How Danya began experimenting with abstract painting and found her unique style.
• 
  
• [00:08] First sale beyond family – The thrill of selling her artwork at Art Market Malaysia.
• 
  
• [00:12] Commissions with major brands – Working with YTL and Marriott on large-scale pieces.
• 
  
• [00:16] Balancing exams and entrepreneurship – How she manages schoolwork alongside her art career.
• 
  
• [00:21] Dreaming of a community art studio – Why she wants to teach and inspire young people through art.
• 
  
• [00:25] Staying rooted in Malaysian heritage – How her culture shapes her art and sense of purpose.
• 
  

Key Takeaways

• Passion can start small – Even simple experiments can lead to discovering your creative style.
• 
  
• Support matters – Having a champion, like Danya’s mom, can make all the difference in building a creative career.
• 
  

Heritage is powerful – Embracing your culture can give your art and business a unique voice.

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Find all links and show notes at Womenpreneur Asia.

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, Marie shares her journey from interning in Germany to creating ventures that bridge wellness, community, and entrepreneurship.

She opens up about the lessons of burnout, why she challenges common wellness myths, and how she’s building the Philippines’ first Longevity Social Club.

This candid conversation dives into identity shifts, the importance of bio-individuality, and how personal struggles with self-worth and anxiety became stepping stones toward her mission to help others live healthier, more intentional lives.

Marie’s story is a powerful reminder that reinvention starts with listening to yourself and daring to align your life with your values.

In This Episode:

• [00:02] Growing up in the Philippines and finding resourcefulness without privilege
• 
  
• [05:45] Moving to Germany: discovering slower living, balance, and holistic health
• 
  
• [12:10] Burnout, gap year, and the unexpected pivot into entrepreneurship
• 
  
• [18:50] Building Kaya Connections and the Longevity Social Club
• 
  
• [27:00] Debunking wellness myths and embracing bio-individuality
• 
  
• [35:20] How struggles with anxiety and self-worth shaped her mission
• 
  
• [42:00] Marie’s advice for women on reinvention and health
• 
  

Key Takeaways

1. Reinvention often starts with discomfort — burnout became Marie’s launchpad for transformation.
2. Health is multi-dimensional — beyond food and fitness, it includes mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
3. Sustainable change requires identity shifts — becoming someone who values movement, resilience, and balance.

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Get the full article at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Gabby shares the challenges she faced as a solo female founder, the problem of economic leakage in tourism and her vision for travel that benefits people and local economies.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Gabby’s background in hospitality and how that insider knowledge inspired her to start TRAppe
• The problem of economic leakage and woefully underpaid local staff in tourism
• The three pillars of sustainability: People, Planet, Economy
• Challenges of fundraising as a solo female founder with no tech background and no tech co-founder
• How TRAppe works in creating authentic, community-focused travel experiences
• Why sustainability isn’t one-size-fits-all and the importance of local context and nuances 
• The business model: e-guides and a membership platform
• Tips for travelers to make more conscious, impactful choices without the guilt 
• The importance of amplifying Asian thought leadership and Asian perspectives in the Asian travel industry

Practical Takeaways:

• Stay, eat, and buy local to ensure your travel spending benefits the community
• Book accommodations and experiences directly, not just through online travel agents or commercial platforms 
• Look for farm-to-table restaurants and artisan souvenirs that benefits the locals 
• Ask locals for recommendations to discover hidden gems like restaurants, hotels and experiences that contribute to more local prosperity 
• Take time to learn about the culture and needs of your destination
• Traveling better is about thoughtful choices, not perfection

Resources & Links:

• Trappe: trappetravel.com

Shoutouts:

• Special thanks to Michelle Coulson of Remote Rebellion for connecting Gabby and Krista

Connect with the host and the show:

• Host: Krista Goon on LinkedIn
• Full article about this episode on: Womenpreneur Asia

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

In this inspiring episode, Krista sits down with Rahel, a changemaker whose journey spans continents, careers, and cultures.

From her early days as a court interpreter in Zurich to founding BantayNet—a digital literacy initiative in the Philippines—Rahel’s story is a testament to the power of embracing life’s nonlinear paths.

She shares how her diverse experiences, struggles with identity, and mental health challenges ultimately led her to her true calling: empowering Filipinos to navigate the digital world safely and confidently.

About Our Guest:

Rahel Podobsky-Stucki is the Founder & CEO of BANTAYnet,, an initiative dedicated to promoting digital literacy and online safety in the Philippines. Drawing on her Swiss-Filipino heritage and a background in law, interpreting, and digital communication, Rahel creates accessible educational content and leads community workshops to help people of all ages stay safe online.

What We Discuss:

• Rahel’s multicultural upbringing and the contrasts between Switzerland and the Philippines
• The challenges and strengths of a nonlinear career path
• Overcoming identity crises and mental health struggles
• The founding story of BantayNet and its mission
• Digital literacy challenges in the Philippines: scams, fake news, and online safety
• Strategies for effective digital education and community engagement
• The realities of building a nonprofit and exploring social enterprise models
• Lessons in resilience, reinvention, and finding purpose

Key Takeaways:

• Your path doesn’t have to be linear to be meaningful or impactful
• Embracing your unique background and experiences can become your superpower
• Digital literacy is essential for everyone, especially in a rapidly changing online world
• Vulnerability and openness about challenges can empower others
• Sustainable impact often requires creative approaches and community involvement

Connect with Rahel & BantayNet:

• Facebook: BantayNet
• Website: BantayNet.org

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review Womenpreneur Asia on your favorite podcast platform.

Share this episode with friends who might be inspired by Rahel’s story, and join us next week for more empowering conversations with Asian women entrepreneurs!

Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

For more inspiring stories and resources, visit Womenpreneur Asia.

In this episode, Krista Goon sits down with Fumiko Inada, founder and CEO of Bee Informatica, to explore her inspiring journey from volunteering in Vietnam and Bangladesh to building a digital microfinance business that’s changing the game for small and micro-entrepreneurs.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• Fumiko’s early experiences with NGOs and what sparked her interest in economic empowerment
• The challenges and lessons learned from starting over in a new country
• How Bee Informatica is using technology to make microfinance faster, fairer, and more accessible
• The realities of raising funds as a woman founder in fintech
• Why Fumiko chose business over the NGO route for sustainable impact
• The importance of resilience, mission, and community in entrepreneurship
• Practical advice for women entrepreneurs and anyone looking to make a difference

About Fumiko Inada:

Fumiko is the founder and CEO of Bee Informatica, a digital microfinance company based in Malaysia. With a background in finance and a passion for social impact, she’s dedicated to empowering small businesses—especially women entrepreneurs—through innovative financial solutions.

Connect with Fumiko:

Website: fundingbee.my

About Your Host:

Krista Goon is the creator and host of Womenpreneur Asia, a podcast that uncovers the stories and strategies of Asian women entrepreneurs to inspire and guide you on your own entrepreneurial journey.

Enjoyed this episode?

Subscribe, rate, and review Womenpreneur Asia on your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend who needs some inspiration!

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, I talk to Mench Dizon, marathoner, changemaker, and Country Head of YGG Pilipinas.

Mench shares her incredible journey of completing the World Marathon Challenge, a test of endurance, resilience, and grit that pushed her to her limits both physically and mentally.

She reflects on what it taught her about facing life’s literal and metaphorical climates, from minus 25-degree chills to the tropical heat, and how those lessons carry into her professional life.

As the leader of YGG Pilipinas, Mench is committed to empowering Filipino talent by creating opportunities in gaming and technology, building communities, and helping Filipinos thrive in the digital economy.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• The mindset that helped Mench conquer the World Marathon Challenge
• Why she believes “how you do one thing is how you do everything”
• How she’s building opportunities for Filipinos through YGG Pilipinas and Metaversity
• The importance of leaning into discomfort and seizing opportunities before you feel ready

Mench’s story is a powerful reminder that the limits we set are often the ones we choose to accept — and that growth comes from daring to push beyond them.

Links & Resources:

Visit: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio — helping entrepreneurs grow with strategy-first marketing. 

Do you know that Krista’s From Vision to Voice program is now open for enrollment? Check it out here. 

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share this episode with someone who needs a dose of encouragement and clarity on their entrepreneurial journey.

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, I sit down with Carmen Salameh, a podcaster and entrepreneur who made the bold move from Paris to Hong Kong to create a new chapter in her life.

Carmen is the founder of Asian Business Owners, a podcast where she shares raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs across Asia, and Octo Gen, a social media marketing agency that helps businesses grow with purpose-driven content.

In our conversation, Carmen opens up about:

• Why she chose to leave the familiar behind in Paris for the challenges of Hong Kong
• How she built two businesses from scratch in a new city
• What reinvention really means and how to take charge of your own destiny
• The importance of aligning work with values and purpose

If you’ve ever felt the pull to reinvent yourself, to pursue a challenge that stretches you, or to take ownership of your destiny, Carmen’s story will inspire you to make bold moves and write your own next chapter.

Links & Resources:

Visit: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio — helping entrepreneurs grow with strategy-first marketing. 

Do you know that Krista’s From Vision to Voice program is now open for enrollment? Check it out here. 

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share this episode with someone who needs a dose of encouragement and clarity on their entrepreneurial journey.

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, Dun Concha shares her unexpected journey from a freelance copywriter to a business owner, remote work advocate and social impact leader.

She discusses the challenges and rewards of running a completely remote marketing agency, leveraging digital tools, and her passion for fostering digital literacy through her non-profit, Yabong.

Dun emphasizes the importance of authenticity, overcommunication, and understanding different priorities and dreams of employees.

She also delves into her personal background, driven by a single mother, and her philosophy of using technology and AI to create opportunities and bridge the digital divide.

In this episode, Dun shares about

00:10 The Path From Copywriter To Entrepreneur  

01:59 Challenges and Realities of Remote Work

06:11 Balancing Business and Community Initiatives

12:31 The Concept of Authenticity

14:28 Remote Work and Digital Nomad Lifestyle

18:53 Building a Supportive Remote Team

26:36 Tools and Productivity Hacks for Remote Work

29:44 Prioritizing Tasks with the Eisenhower Matrix

30:59 Introduction to Yabong: A Platform for Youth Advocacy

33:25 Digital Literacy and Youth Empowerment

35:33 Social Media Strategies for Business Owners

41:23 Reflections on Starting a Business and Personal Growth

46:36 The Future of Digital Trends and AI

48:01 Final Advice on Remote Work and Personal Authenticity

Links & Resources:

Visit: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio — helping entrepreneurs grow with strategy-first marketing. 

Do you know that Krista’s From Vision to Voice program is now open for enrollment? Check it out here. 

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share this episode with someone who needs a dose of encouragement and clarity on their entrepreneurial journey.

In this conversation, Ritu shares stories from her impressive career journey from corporate roles at Gillette and GE to becoming an entrepreneur and coach in Singapore.

This episode dives into the critical aspect of visibility for women leaders, highlighting actionable steps to be seen and heard in professional settings. Ritu also discusses the importance of executive presence, networking, and the nuances of Asian leadership.

Whether you're in the corporate world or an entrepreneur, this episode is filled with practical advice and inspiring stories that emphasize the power of owning your narrative and rewriting your own rules.

In this episode, Ritu discusses: 

• One major must-know strategy for career visibility
• How to engage in intentional networking at conferences
• Visibility techniques for new and established corporate employees
• Visibility for entrepreneurs and how to get more of it
• Strategies for building a network from scratch
• The importance of executive presence (and it's not what you think it is)
• A leadership practice that every successful leader knows about and practices daily

Links & Resources:

Visit: WomenpreneurAsia.com

Learn more about Ritu on:

LinkedIn

Youtube

Spotify

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio — helping entrepreneurs grow with strategy-first marketing. 

Did you know that Krista’s From Vision to Voice program is now open for enrollment? Check it out here.

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share this episode with someone who needs a dose of encouragement and clarity on their entrepreneurial journey.

Based in Singapore, Louisa shares her journey from running a small dental clinic with her husband to scaling it into DP Dental, a progressive boutique practice with over 50 team members and three branches.

But behind the accolades—including the Entrepreneur of the Year Award and B Corp Certification—is a story of rediscovery, resilience, and redefining what confidence truly means.

✨ At 40, Louisa found the courage to soar—thanks to a chance encounter with a shaman.

In this episode, Louisa opens up about:

• Why academic success didn’t translate into confidence—and how she finally found it
• Her leap from education to dentistry and from dentistry to building a thriving healthcare ecosystem
• Lessons learned from failed ventures and why staying within your lane matters
• The power of root-cause healthcare and integrating wellness with dentistry
• How bilingualism and cross-cultural understanding enrich her leadership style

Louisa is also actively shaping the healthcare conversation in Singapore as a Board Member of Connected Women and Council Member (VP Comms) at the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (ASME).

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a wellness advocate, or simply curious about how confidence can reshape a life, this episode is packed with wisdom, warmth, and powerful takeaways.

Listen now and be inspired by Louisa’s mission to breathe right, sleep well, and live long.

Links & Resources:

• Visit: WomenpreneurAsia.com
• Learn more about DP Healthverse and Louisa's work

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio — helping entrepreneurs grow with strategy-first marketing.

Key Takeaways:

• Confidence isn’t always tied to achievements—it can arrive later in life
• A strong business foundation begins with understanding your limits and learning from missteps
• Integrative, evidence-based healthcare is the future of wellness
• Cultural fluency can strengthen leadership and build deeper human connections
• Community involvement and purpose-driven platforms can amplify entrepreneurial impact

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share this episode with someone who needs a dose of encouragement and clarity on their entrepreneurial journey.

Did you know that Krista’s From Vision to Voice program is now open for enrollment? Check it out here. 

In this special Season 9 finale, the mic flips as I become the guest in a conversation hosted by leadership coach and content strategist Rowena Morais for her Thrive Meetup.

Together, we explore what it truly means to be visible with purpose—especially as women who often struggle with self-promotion, imposter syndrome, and the pressure to “have it all figured out.”

I share personal stories of how I built visibility for my business and podcast over the years, and how I reframe self-promotion.

Whether you’re running a business, building a personal brand, or growing your career—this episode is packed with honest insights, mindset shifts, and practical steps to help you start showing up with clarity and confidence.

This episode is for anyone who feels like they’re doing great work but still not being seen.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• What visibility really means (and what it doesn’t)
• How to reframe self-promotion to feel more natural
• Where imposter syndrome shows up—and how to move through it
• The power of platforms like podcasting, speaking, and writing
• Why building your body of work online is essential today
• 3 steps to begin building visibility that aligns with you

💡 3 Key Takeaways:

1. Visibility must have purpose. Know who you're talking to and why it matters.
2. You don’t need to be perfect—just present. Start showing up even if you're 80% ready.
3. Self-promotion isn’t about ego—it’s about value. Share what you’ve learned, not just what you’ve done.

Links & Resources:

• Visit my website: https://www.redboxstudio.com
• Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristagoon
• Learn more about Rowena Morais: https://rowenamorais.com
• Check out past episodes of Womenpreneur Asia: https://womenpreneurasia.com
• Get my ebook, Podcasting Power.

Jillian shares her journey from starting Poppylab more than a decade ago and growing it into a brand that celebrates individuality and happiness through unique costume jewellery that her clients have come appreciate.

In this episode:

• Discover how Jillian's passion for crafting and her experiences in Australia inspired her to create a brand that stands out with its vibrant designs.
• Learn about the emotional connection Jillian aims to create with her jewellery, making each piece more than just an accessory.
• Jillian discusses the hurdles she faced in the competitive jewellery industry and how she built a strong brand identity focused on quality and customer service.
• Explore Jillian's strategies for engaging with her audience through social media, pop-up events and personal connections.
• Hear about Jillian's vision for the future, including customer growth, product innovation and community collaborations plus her philosophy on starting small, staying true to your vision, and the importance of having a clear purpose.

Subscribe & Review

Subscribe to Womenpreneur Asia on your favorite podcast app. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review or share it with a friend who might find it inspiring.

Thank you for joining us on this colourful journey with Jillian Tan.

Stay tuned for the final episode of Season 9 next week. 

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

For the full article and links, visit Womenpreneur Asia.

Get your podcast started today.

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, I speak with Sarah Mei Chiang, founder of Red Line Limited, a Hong Kong-based marketing agency that helps businesses craft meaningful, emotion-driven brand experiences.

In this collaborative episode, Sarah Mei and Krista pull back the curtain on what it truly takes to build a business—from understanding your customer journey to identifying your niche and validating your idea through real, actionable ideas. 

This episode was conceived because Sarah Mei and Krista have observed how entrepreneurship is often romanticised resulting in new entrepreneurs suffering in private when they don’t know how to niche down and be creative about offering their products or solutions to their best customers. 

Some entrepreneurs get emotionally attached to their passions but without generating revenue, no passion can sustain the entrepreneur. 

Whether you're planning to leave your 9-to-5, just getting started, or refining your current business, this episode is packed with strategic tips and real-world insights that can help you move forward with clarity and confidence.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why passion alone isn't enough to build a business
• How to validate your business idea with prospective clients 
• How to figure out what business you’d like to start 
• How NOT to fall in love with your product or services
• How to identify your niche in a crowded market 
• Practical tips for 9-to-5 professionals thinking of transitioning into entrepreneurship 

Sarah and Krista also share some powerful thinking exercises for anyone who’s just left their job—or thinking about it—to get clarity on their next step.

Tune in now and discover how to turn your passion into purpose—and your purpose into a business that makes money!

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Want to get your own podcast started? Check out Krista's brand new ebook all about starting an interview-style podcast.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Email us and let us know if this episode struck a chord with you and what other topics we should cover, either with my guests or as solo episodes.

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, I speak with Sarah Mei Chiang, founder of Red Line LImited, a Hong Kong-based brand strategy and storytelling agency that helps businesses craft meaningful, emotion-driven brand experiences. She is also the founder of Women Beyond Nine to Five and a podcaster with her podcast, Hokma Women.

Sarah Mei together with Krista pull back the curtain on what it truly takes to build a business—from understanding your niche to identifying how you wish to put a creative spin on what you have to offer.

Newbie entrepreneurs over-emphasize their passions to the extent that they forget they're running a business!

Whether you're planning to leave your 9-to-5, just getting started, or refining your current business, this episode is packed with strategic tips and real-world insights that can help you move forward with clarity and confidence.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why passion alone isn't enough to build a business
• How to validate your business idea through conversations, not assumptions
• How to find your niche in a crowded market
• Tips for 9-to-5 professionals thinking of transitioning into entrepreneurship

Sarah also shares a powerful exercise for anyone who’s just left their job—or thinking about it—to get clarity on their next step.

Tune in now and discover how to turn your passion into a purposeful, creative and thriving business.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Interested in starting your podcast? Check out Krista's brand-new ebook all about helping you do so here.

Get the full show notes at Womenpreneur Asia.

If you’re a solopreneur looking to stand out, build trust and attract the right clients, this episode is packed with actionable insights!

I unpack why personal branding matters, how to craft a compelling story, and how to use it effectively in your marketing.

Plus, I share tips on overcoming imposter syndrome and putting yourself out there with confidence.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why personal branding is more than just a logo—it's about perception.

✔️ How to craft your personal brand story in four simple steps.

✔️ Where to use storytelling in your business to maximize impact.

✔️ Overcoming imposter syndrome and showing up authentically.

✔️ Practical exercises to help you develop and share your story.

Action Steps:

✅ Write down three words you want people to associate with your brand.

✅ Answer the four key questions to craft your brand story.

✅ Choose one platform to start sharing your story this week.

✅ Reframe a limiting belief you have about visibility and replace it with a positive statement.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

For the full show notes, visit Womenpreneur Asia.

I used to play by the rules, thinking that if something wasn’t meant for me, I shouldn’t even try. But then I discovered a game-changing truth—opportunities open up when you dare to ask.

In this episode, I share:

✅ How a simple “why not” mindset led me to unexpected opportunities

✅ The time I applied for a conference outside the stated age range—and got in

✅ How asking for help in Manila got me out of a tricky situation

✅ The life-changing lesson I learned from my mother’s passing

The worst that can happen? You get a no. But the best? A yes that changes everything.

🎧 Tune in and learn how to push past fear, embrace boldness, and start asking for what you want.

🚀 Want to take this further? I’m opening a small group coaching program for women who want to step into bigger opportunities. If you’re ready to break free from playing it safe, send an email to info@womenpreneurasia.com with the subject "Coaching" and I will keep you updated about my upcoming program.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Her journey from overcoming childhood bullying to creating a functional wellness brand is a testament to her mantra: Laugh, rise, and thrive through chaos.

She was bullied twice in her early years—once at nine in Hong Kong and again at fifteen in England. Instead of letting these experiences define her negatively, Amy used them as stepping stones to build mental resilience. She found solace in journaling, a practice she continues today, which later inspired one of Eve Bliss' products—a wellness journal.

Her experiences led her to prioritize both physical and mental well-being, values that have shaped the mission of Eve Bliss.

She envisioned a brand that would make wellness more accessible, enjoyable, and holistic with her flagship product, a functional soda infused with turmeric, Asian plum, electrolytes and vitamins.

Beyond healthy sodas, the brand has expanded its offerings to include wellness journals and liver protection packs, reinforcing the importance of both mental and physical health.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Discover Krista's ebook about podcasting.

Get the full show notes: Womenpreneur Asia

In this episode of Womenpreneur Asia, she shares her journey as a woman in an industry known for its unsavoury characters, navigating a major business crisis that almost broke her and modernizing an industry many shy away from.

In this episode,, she talks to Krista about:

✅ How she overcame doubts and family concerns and gave herself a year to test it out

✅ The toughest crisis in her business — cremating the wrong body - and how she bounced back despite the negative publicity

✅ The importance of technology in the funeral industry and how she markets her business on TikTok

✅ How she finds meaning in her work serving grieving families

Get the full show notes at Womenpreneur Asia.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Discover Krista's ebook about podcasting.

The webinar features Krista Goon and Roselin Das and is hosted by FutureLab.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why storytelling is the most powerful tool for women entrepreneurs

✅ How to build a strong personal brand that attracts the right clients

✅ Overcoming imposter syndrome and self-doubt in business

✅ The key to building credibility and trust in your industry

✅ Strategies to be consistent, visible, and authentic online

🌟 Whether you’re a solopreneur, startup founder, or business leader, this episode will help you craft a compelling personal brand and share your story with confidence!

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Have you ever wondered why some brands are instantly recognizable just by a sound? From McDonald’s signature jingle to Netflix’s iconic "ta-dum," audio branding is everywhere—yet often overlooked.

Phoebe shares her entrepreneurial journey, from her childhood love for singing to launching a business in a niche industry.

She opens up about the challenges of transitioning from composer to business owner, how she overcame self-doubt, and the game-changing advice from her father that helped her succeed. Plus, she reveals her biggest business lesson—why letting go of control was the best decision for growth.

Highlights from this episode:

🎵 What is audio branding, and why does it matter for businesses?

🎵 The biggest misconception about music in branding (and why stock music won’t cut it)

🎵 How Phoebe found her niche in a male-dominated industry

🎵 The mindset shift that helped her go from struggling entrepreneur to thriving business owner

🎵 Her favorite business book and the one skill she’s most proud of

If you’re a business owner, creative, or someone looking for inspiration on building a brand that stands out, this episode is for you!

📌 Listen now and discover the power of sound in branding! 🎧

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

From navigating gender bias to pivoting her business model, Renee’s journey is a masterclass in resilience and adaptation.

In this episode, she shares:

🎥 How she went from staying behind the scenes to building a strong personal brand

📱 The impact of social media on her business and why video is more important than ever

💡 Why she diversified her offerings to include mentoring, courses, and content retainers

🎙️ How she builds communities through podcasting and collaboration

Renee’s story proves that success isn’t about gender—it’s about passion, persistence, and evolution.

Whether you’re an aspiring content creator, solopreneur, or small business owner, this episode is packed with insights to help you stand out in the digital age and help you get started with your videos even if you're shy!

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Find out more about Podcasting Power, Krista's new ebook.

Sharyne shares her inspiring journey from a 30-year corporate career in financial services to taking the bold leap into entrepreneurship.

She opens up about the challenges she faced, including pricing her services with confidence, navigating the uncertainties of entrepreneurship, and leveraging her network for success.

Sharyne also reveals how the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly accelerated her business, allowing her to embrace digital solutions and reach a broader audience.

Her story is one of boldness coupled with the power of strategic thinking and artful networking.

Join Sharyne and I as we dive into her entrepreneurial story and learn how she started, her perspective on balancing tradition with modern business strategies, and her advice for aspiring business owners.

🎧 Tune in now to hear her story!

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Find out more about Podcasting Power, Krista's new ebook.

But her entrepreneurial journey didn’t start with a business plan or even the intention to launch a startup.

Instead, it was born from her years of experience in corporate healthcare communications and her desire to address a long-standing problem in patient care: effective communication.

Whei Chern’s startup, MIEA Health, is on a mission: “I want small clinics to thrive in today's digital world.” Her goal is to help small and medium-sized clinics in Southeast Asia benefit from digitization while preserving their personal touch.

For clinics, the AI chatbot solution takes on tasks no one enjoys, like following up with patients and answering routine questions. This not only improves efficiency but also allows healthcare professionals to focus on what matters most—patient care.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Find out more about Podcasting Power, Krista's new ebook.

She is a New York-based artist coach with a passion for empowering Asian women artists.

With a career rooted in the global art market and a life shaped by diverse cultural experiences as a child of a diplomat growing up in various parts of the world, Melor’s journey has been a journey of self-discovery which in turn has now become a journey of helping other women discover themselves.

As a coach, Melor combines business strategy, creative exploration and personal growth to help artists succeed. When women artists work wit her, they believe that they need more art business opportunities.

However, she doesn’t just address the business side of art; she also facilitates emotional and mindset transformations, helping her clients let go of societal and cultural expectations to embrace their creative selves fully. 

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Find out more about Podcasting Power, Krista's new ebook.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

🎙️ A Fresh Format: Krista introduces solo episodes to share her personal insights, actionable tips and entrepreneurial wisdom alongside the usual inspiring interviews.

🌏 The NEW API Alliance: Learn about the launch of the Network for Women Entrepreneurs in ASEAN, Pacific, and India (New API), an initiative aimed at fostering collaboration and empowering women-led entrepreneur organizations across the ASEAN, Pacific and India region.

📚 Podcasting Power: Krista unveils her new ebook, Podcasting Power, which provides a strategic and practical guide for anyone looking to start an interview-style podcast and grow their platform.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Find out more about NEW API and how you can be part of this movement across the region.

Find out more about Podcasting Power, Krista's new ebook.

We dive into the art of storytelling and the power of elevating diverse voices through our respective podcasts.

I launched my podcast - Womenpreneur Asia - in March 2020 during the pandemic, creating a space for the stories of Asian women entrepreneurs to be heard.

My podcast highlights the challenges and successes of women across Asia as they navigate the entrepreneurial landscape, offering my listeners invaluable insights into resilience, innovation and growth.

Payal Nayar, who is based in Singapore, is a fellow podcaster. She, too, launched her podcast in 2020. As a global citizen and experienced traveler, she brings her rich cultural background into her podcasts *Melting Pot* and *Now Boarding*.

With a career that spans across industries and continents, Payal has built her podcasting platform with a mission: to amplify voices that inspire change and build bridges across borders.

Her favorite quote, "Empower voices, inspire change, and build bridges that transcend borders," perfectly encapsulates her vision.

Her resilience and determination have fueled her success in founding multiple ventures, including her transition from corporate life to podcasting.

In this episode, Payal and I exchange stories from our podcasting experiences, sharing the wisdom we've gleaned from interviewing diverse guests. While I focus on Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia, Payal focuses on men and women from all around the world, discussing and unravellling topics such as wildlife conservation, ecotourism, sustainable living, responsible travel, culture, arts and more.

Payal draws inspiration from figures like Michelle Obama, Priyanka Chopra, and Lee Kuan Yew, further driving her passion for storytelling.

This is a candid discussion between two Asian women podcasters; one that is filled with personal stories, podcasting tips and inspiration drawn from both our experiences.

Tune in for a conversation that's honest and real, filled with creativity, inspiration and respect while underscoring the power of voice from two Asian women who are proud to be Asian and proud to be podcasters.

For the full show notes and links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio

Or if you prefer, a Github meets LinkedIn.

Ultimately, it’s about creating opportunities all around the world for those who don’t necessarily have access to those opportunities. 

This female co-founder and CEO started her platform as a passion project and it has become the leading professional network of data scientists today with some 70 000+ data scientists. 

Zindi is the first data science competition platform in Africa and hosts an entire data science ecosystem of scientists, engineers, academics, companies, NGOs, governments and institutions focused on solving Africa’s most pressing problems. 

While today’s episode is about Zindi, it is also about Celina and what it means to be female and Asian American and growing a dream that is making a tremendous impact in the world of data science, AI and machine learning. Zindi is at heart providing access and opportunities to data scientists in Africa and beyond. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio

Thank you for listening to Season 8 of the podcast. We will be taking a break and come back in October/November for Season 9.

Vimi candidly discusses the challenges that most business owners have when integrating ESG into their operations. She shares how most business owners have no idea where to begin. 

A key part of the interview is devoted to debunking common ESG myths, such as the notion that ESG is costly to implement and that it is only for multinational companies.

Vimi clarifies what ESG entails and its effects on various business aspects, including marketing and supply chain. She emphasizes that ESG can be implementable for every business.

Vimi provides insights and research data that encourage embracing sustainable practices and how businesses can adopt simple ESG actions to reduce their environmental footprint and enhance social responsibility while attaining higher profits. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

As an experience designer, adjunct lecturer and trainer, she has extensive experience in creating, planning and organizing events.

She knows all the ways to glam up an event and ensure the show runs smoothly so that her clients can make a distinct and positive impression all around. 

Unlike most entrepreneurs, Annie had a roster of paying clients the day she started.

And she also landed herself a million dollar project awarded by the Singapore government where she had to organize 500 events in a year! In this episode, Annie and I talk about her 30 years in the events management business where she shares some insider tips and strategies that you don’t want to miss.

She also shares why she wants to educate more corporate people about events organizing and planning, her regional work with sustainability projects and what sustainability means from an events planner perspective and how challenging it is! 

Get the full show notes and links: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. Redbox Studio offers an entrepreneur game and programme where teams can learn how to leverage entrepreneurial thinking. Discover more about the strategy game and programme, at BigTimerGame.com 

Tanah Aina which began as a glamping experience has now become an eco-resort experience complete with dining and nature activities. It serves up an eco-experience in the heart of the Malaysian jungles and it is as much a passion as it is a business for its owner, Shariffa Sabrina. 

Tanah Aina Eco Resorts and Cafes lets people reconnect with nature while enjoying the comforts and amenities of luxury accommodations. At their resorts, you can experience eco-friendly lodging, guided nature excursions, organic dining experiences, wellness activities and team building. 

As the founder of Tanah Aina eco-resorts. Sabrina is on a mission to change how we view development, and it all starts with a deep appreciation for the very nature we're neglecting.

Sabrina is quite the entrepreneur having built her cafes, glamping sites and resorts based on her love for nature and despite having grandchildren, there seems to be no stopping this woman who despite the tough challenges from authorities. 

Extra show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Wendy is the Managing Partner of Petadiri Leadership and a Leadership Performance Coach in Malaysia.

She was a high flyer with a tonne of corporate experience in finance and HR.

When she decided to start her own business as a coach, she hired a coach to help her strategize. Her coach had advised that she would take at least 3 years to get stabilized in her business but she thought she could do it in 6 months. 

You are in for a treat today if you’ve always wanted to know the nitty-gritty about starting a business.

What is it really like? And while today’s episode is about a coach in her coaching business, it’s universally applicable to any business. 

We spoke about the loneliness of being a solopreneur and also the surprises that Wendy encountered when she left her corporate role and became a coach.

We dug into her strategies and recommendations about starting a business if she could do it all over again.

We discussed the internal conflicts she had because as she said, when she left corporate, she left behind a lucrative paycheck only to start from ground zero as she only began her coaching training the week after she left her job.

In her own words, she was “all in” and completely committed to the art and craft of coaching but it still took time to build up her business.

Her own coach remarked that it would take at least 3 years to fully stabilize the business but she was confident she could do it in less time. 

This episode is a must-listen if you’re thinking of starting a business but more importantly, how you can prepare your own ‘runway’ before your takeoff.

Coach Wendy Wong shares how you can ensure your takeoff doesn’t have to be rocky and what you can do to avoid the bumps! 

Please enjoy today’s episode with Coach Wendy Wong. 

​​This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes on Womenpreneur Asia.

If you'd like to work with me, check out this page.

I was introduced to her by Michelle Yeo of Dandy as Afi and Dandy were collaborating. Michelle was a former guest of mine on this podcast and she knew that I would be open to meeting

Afi. If you’d like to check out Michelle’s episode where she talks about starting her restaurant business, look for Ep 11 in Season 2.

Afi is a millennial who was dabbling with digital art when she was in her gap year. At that time, she was undergoing mental health issues and looked towards art as a form of therapy and self-expression.

Little did she know that this path would propel her into the limelight and now she is a commissioned artist who works with corporate companies, small businesses and individuals. 

In this episode, Afi and I speak about:

• her journey as an artist and illustrator,
• gaining fast fame on Instagram and getting full community support,
• how she deals with pro bono requests for her art and illustrations,
• her own mental health experiences
• how she prices her art,
• how she determines which clients are a good fit for her and
• what she thinks of art as a business and how she works at her business. 

I believe you will enjoy this episode if you love art and business! 

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes on Womenpreneur Asia.

If you'd like to work with me, check out this page.

Juggling her business, taking care of her family and caring for elderly parents while navigating menopause led her to a dark place. She also experienced a slew of medical problems - from itchiness to hot flushes, coupled with frustration and sleepless nights. 

But from the depths of despair and a desire to figure things out came an "aha!" moment, a turning point that ignited a mission: to empower women on their own perimenopause and menopause journeys.

Karen is optimistic and hopes that through her work, she can offer support, encouragement and help to other women who are facing menopause, the very same support that she was searching for when she was undergoing menopause.

Through her workshops, she hopes to have more open conversations with women who are going through mid-life.

So if you’re heading towards menopause, this is the episode for you. 

Subscribe to our Youtube channel

Get all the show notes at our website.

This episode is proudly brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Ida is the owner of Asia Natural Essentials Sdn Bhd and the mastermind behind the Gogy Natural oral care brand, a proudly Made in Malaysia product. 

This is not her first business, mind you but she has finally found a business that she is happy with. She once owned a spa business and even a food business from home. 

This episode is filled with a lot of wisdom and learning as she shared how her own desire for whiter teeth brought her to her current ecommerce business.

You’ll hear about her early struggles and why she never started with a business plan. You will also learn how she validated her product, how she created further products and finally, the rebrand that she went ahead with although the rebranding exercise was costly. 

Full show notes: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

In this episode, we have Nandini Das Ghoshal who is the Co-Founder & Director, ION Consulting International Pte Ltd, based in Singapore.

Nandini shares her experiences from the fascinating world of applied neuroscience in the context of organisations, teams and leadership.

She reveals how we can leverage our brains to develop better teams, create better results and fundamentally shape us as more effective leaders.

Nandini is an experienced executive coach and learning facilitator, based out of Singapore.

She offers one-on-one executive coaching abd bespoke programmes on leadership, team effectiveness and career transitions for individuals and groups.

She enthralls us about our brain, not as a organ of cognitive performance but as an organ of relationship.

If you want to create improved performance at work or at home, you need to focus on using your brain to enhance your relationships. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsred by RedboxStudio.com

LIKE THIS PODCAST? Send in your audio review! 

Additionally, she is the co-founder of Bhorosha, an alternative job-sourcing platform in Bangladesh that connects informal sector women with skills training and matches them to better-paying jobs. 

Tahreem’s journey seamlessly integrates architecture, business and technology through her two startups.

With a background in architecture and a passion for social change, Tahreem dedicates herself to finding innovative solutions for the challenges faced by marginalized communities in her home country of Bangladesh. 

Tahreem's journey into social entrepreneurship began during an architectural internship in Norway. While there, she realized her true calling lay in addressing the pressing issues of urban disaster preparedness, unemployment, healthcare accessibility and financial inclusion.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

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From identifying a representation gap to launching a writer residency program, the conversation explores ethics, mentorship, and sustainable growth in Asia’s vibrant media landscape. Audrey shares personal inspirations, readings that inform her worldview and practical lessons on balancing risk, discipline and humanity in storytelling. 

A thoughtful, personal conversation about how to tell Asia’s stories with humility and boldness.

• 00:00–00:12: Eastside’s mission: Asian voices, Asian storytellers.
• 00:16–00:23: The core ethos: “We are Asian travel content by Asian storytellers.”
• 00:27–00:34: Administrative realities and the case for a more structured business approach.
• 00:42–00:50: Residency program: nurturing younger writers, mentorship, publication goals.
• 00:45–00:50: AI in writing: strong stance on keeping human voices at the center.
• 00:50–01:00: Audrey’s inspirations and the broader future for Eastside.

3 key takeaways 

• Center authentic regional voices to build trust and community.
• Invest in people and systems; mentorship can accelerate growth without sacrificing heart.
• Create structured programs (like residencies) to diversify voices and sustain the pipeline of regional storytelling.

Yet her story didn’t begin in waste management.

This French-speaking Thai national who grew up in the slum area of Bangkok has an inspiring story to share about herself and why she gave up a lucrative career in oil and gas to become an entrepreneur. 

Coming from a challenging background and growing up in the slums, Mayuree has always had a heart for her community. She was determined to make a positive impact but she didn’t know how until she chanced upon a news article that said every Thai person throws away 1.14 kg of rubbish a day.

She said she was clueless when she read the headline - was that a huge amount of rubbish? 

That took her and her co-founders down a rabbit hole of finding answers.and that's how they started their company which focuses on businesses and organisations using their digital platform. Their GEPP platform (hardware and software) helps companies to shift their mindsets from "dispose" to "manage" their waste successfully.

For the full show notes and links, visit: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

She owns a boutique law firm in Kuala Lumpur and handles initial public offerings, securities regulations, mergers and acquisitions, foreign direct investments and more. 

As a young female lawyer, she is not unusual in that she chose to set up her law firm after working with other law firms.

What’s unusual is that Wendy has always wanted to be a lawyer since young and she still carries that fire and passion in her till today. 

What I find most interesting about Wendy is that she loves business and by helping her clients with their business needs, she gets to discover entrepreneurship too.

Far from being conservative or staid, this young female lawyer is showing the world that you can be a lawyer and you can still retain your individuality and be a risk-taker!

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

Mandy's entrepreneurial venture emerged from burn out that resulted from running her first business, a branding and marketing agency for 10 years.

Our conversation is particularly illuminating as Mandy bravely unravels the less-discussed facets of entrepreneurship.

She opens up about the pressure to conform in Hong Kong, where success is often equated with perpetual busyness and "the bigger, the better".

If you've found yourself questioning the relentless pursuit of growth or yearning for a deeper sense of purpose in your entrepreneurial journey, this episode is a must-listen.

Join us as Mandy shares her inspiring story of resilience, reinvention, and the pursuit of aligned success.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

My is the CEO of EQuest Asia, a coaching and training business based in Vietnam. 

Despite never residing in Vietnam, My felt a profound calling to return to her ancestral homeland to establish her business.

She advocates for embracing happiness and fulfillment in the workplace while nurturing one's cultural identity, particularly among overseas Vietnamese and empowering women to find their voices. 

She is also a speaker, consultant and coach in corporate well-being, organizational change resilience and emotional intelligence.  

Born in France with Vietnamese heritage, My (pronounced "Mee" in Vietnamese) is a leader deeply immersed in cross-cultural experiences across various nations.

Interestingly, she was born on 20 March, the UN International Day of Happiness, a fact she interprets as more than mere coincidence. 

Her journey reflects a multicultural worldview, shaped by her upbringing in France, education in both France and the USA, and professional experiences spanning the USA, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, and New Zealand. 

It's a fascinating look at finding one's roots, embracing multiculturalism and being open to possibilities at every stage of one's life.

Get the full show notes: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

Hello and welcome to the final episode of Season 7 of the Womenpreneur Asia podcast and I am your host, Krista Goon. 

My mission is to uncover the stories and strategies of Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia to help you and inspire you as you navigate your business journey. This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. 

Today's episode is Episode 100 and I am happy you are with me and we’re getting into Episode number 100 together.

When I told Padmaja, a previous guest on this show, that I was hitting 100 episodes, she said we must do something together. And that is how Padmaja and I ended up recording this milestone episode. Padmaja is the CEO and founder of Siksha Group in India where they offer learning and development for companies across India and globally.

One of the best things about having friends across Asia is that I get a lot of support for my podcast. When I first mooted the idea in Hawaii in July 2019, my Asia Pacific friends said they loved the idea and many supported me through the first season.

And when I first started it, I just wanted to have a go and do something different - something that was technically challenging yet gave me a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. And 100 episodes later, I am still happy to do this although I need to carve time out to podcast. What you hear as an episode is just the tip of the iceberg. 

And having said that, I’m also officially announcing that I’m writing an ebook about podcasting so if you’re listening to this, sign up for my email updates at WomenpreneurAsia.com and I will keep you updated when that ebook is for sale plus some exciting plans for this year. 

The ebook was a result of many friends asking me how they too could start a podcast. It sounds sexy to start a podcast but I share with you in my ebook my own experiences of producing a podcast on my own. 

Today’s episode digs a little into those experiences - think of it as a behind-the-scenes of podcasting. 

Enjoy this episode! I will see you in Season 8 which starts in May.

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

Find out more about Padmaja's story in Season 3, Episode 8.

Shivani Reddy wears many hats - she is a HR and Organizational Development practitioner, startup mentor, coach, speaker and finally, #IAmRemarkable ambassador.

Her 15 years of experience spans positions in renowned organizations such as Groupon, Societe Generale, NIIT Limited, and TDCX Malaysia.

Shivani is also the Partnerships Manager at Girls in Tech Kuala Lumpur and a Google-trained #IAmRemarkable facilitator. 

As a Google-trained #IAmRemarkable facilitator, Shivani is part of a global network of 4500 individuals dedicated to empowering women and underrepresented groups.

In this episode, we discuss #IAmRemarkable, a transformative workshop that she facilitates. 

The workshop advocates the value of vocalizing one’s accomplishments no matter how big or small. Acknowledging achievements, regardless of their perceived size, is a crucial aspect of building genuine confidence.

In this episode, we discuss #IAmRemarkable, a transformative workshop that she facilitates including the stories of transformation that these workshops have created.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

Her floral business is unique in that stands apart from others on the twin pillars of creativity and sustainability or in her own words, "responsible floristry".

In this episode, we unravel Brenda's 15 years as a business owner and florist and uncover what makes this unique Malaysian floral studio what it is today.

For Brenda, Nook Flowers is more than a business—it's an extension of her ethos and values. The studio's grown not flown philosophy is seamlessly woven into its brand philosophy and operations.

And she closes Nook Flowers on Valentine's Day. It is a bold move, especially for a florist. Find out why in this episode.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

You are listening to Episode 12 of Season 7.

And it’s all fully online. I love fully online businesses because I am a big advocate of this - after all my own business is all about the digital world! 

Today I am speaking to Michelle Hon who is the founder of MomBoss Academy in Singapore. If her name sounds familiar, yes, she was featured in Season 4, Episode 8 so if you want to know her backstory of how she ended up starting this business, check that episode out. 

Today, though, Michelle and I are going deep into her business. We’re going to talk about motherhood and the art of building a business - a lifestyle business - as Michelle calls it - right from home.

This is a conversation that you don’t want to miss but the key thing is that Michelle believes that moms can carve out a path for themselves without compromising on their family life. 

In this episode, Michelle enlightened us on the concept of building assets for your business. Your programs, services, and offerings can be valuable assets that generate revenue long-term. It's not just about creating something for now; it's about crafting a sustainable foundation that keeps giving.

You can also take a cue from Michelle's playbook and reverse engineer the process of building your business. Understand your target market, listen to their needs, and identify the problems you can solve. Success lies in aligning your offerings with what your audience truly desires.

Michelle shared an important strategy for pre-launching your offer to test the waters. Before fully committing, gauge interest, collect feedback, and ensure there's a market for your product. It's a strategic move that can save time, and resources, and set you on the path to creating something truly in demand. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

To find out about Michelle and more, check out MomBoss Academy.

The family business that she is in comprises many moving parts - from aquaculture to sustainable farming to technology transfer to creating ripples in the local cafe scene with their cafe arm, Roots.

The Chua family's commitment to sustainable farming and smart urban agriculture forms the cornerstone of Kebun Kota.

This commitment also extends to Roots, a cafe that started as a haven for book lovers and evolved into a platform for sustainable practices, sparking vital conversations about nutrition, localizing food, and forgotten delicacies.

In today’s conversation, Hana opens up about her experiences as a young woman navigating the complex waters of a family business deeply rooted in sustainability.

For show notes and more, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Today's episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

As the CEO of Soundbytes11, an organisational consultancy, she focuses on working with leaders and teams to harness the power of storytelling to drive business outcomes.

Her expertise spans various domains, including change management, personal branding, cross-cultural intelligence and diversity and inclusion initiatives.

In this episode, we discuss how great stories can do wonders to help you communicate key values and messages to your team and clients.

Soundari shares examples from the work she has done and even delves into personal strategies for self-development and learning that have worked for her.

More information in the show notes on the website: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

Genevia, a spirited entrepreneur with a passion for frozen joy, started her first ice cream venture, Three Tiers Ice Cream when she came home to Penang after working in Singapore. 

In today's episode, we'll uncover the evolution of Three Tiers Ice Cream into the newly rebranded Wonkie Ice Cream (and Genevia explains why the rebrand was necessary).

Genevia’s journey takes us through the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, from the thrill and pain of going viral to the invaluable lessons learned when the unexpected happens.

This ice cream artisan has found her niche in alcoholic ice cream and her story is as rich and diverse as her ice cream offerings.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

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In the ever-evolving realm of corporate law, Janice Chew has emerged as a trailblazer.

As the principal and founder of JC Legal, a bespoke corporate law firm, Janice has not only defied traditional norms but has also brought a fresh and fabulous perspective to the legal industry.

In a field where the norm dictates that legal firms typically hire paralegals as their first staff members, Janice opted for an unconventional route - she hired a business development person!

Her unique approach to growing her business showcases her creative thinking from the outset.

Despite being a relatively young law firm, JC Legal has rapidly gained recognition. In 2021, the firm was honoured with the prestigious Lawyer Monthly Legal Award for Venture Capital Law Firm of the Year.

Janice, too, earned accolades as a finalist in two categories at the ALB Hong Kong Awards—Young Lawyer of the Year and Rising Law Firm of the Year. Additionally, the firm secured a spot in the ALB Fast 30 as one of Asia's fastest-growing firms in 2021.

What truly sets JC Legal apart is its commitment to innovation, demonstrated through innovative legal initiatives.

Their Startup Steward Programme, launched in 2018, has nurtured over 100 high-growth companies, including notable names in fintech and crypto.

The programme earned the firm the Bronze Award for Startup of the Year – Business Services at the CEO and Executive World Awards 2021.

In this episode, Janice speaks about the origins of JC Legal's Virtual Legal Clinic which was designed during the pandemic to offer legal services while helping a local charity.

Janice Chew and her firm, JC Legal, prove that you can inculcate creativity in your industry and spark the imagination of your community and clients.

As Janice says, “Success is a matter of choice.” What choices are you making today? 

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

🌟 Join us on an inspiring journey with Helen Tan, the creative force behind Double Woot fashion!

Hailing from Penang, Malaysia, Helen and her sister have built a cult-like following for their quality fashion at affordable prices.

From the early days as a pre-loved clothing shop on Blogspot to a global sensation, Helen shares her 18-year entrepreneurial voyage.

Dive into the challenges faced during the COVID pandemic, innovative marketing strategies, and the pivotal role of influencer marketing. Helen's insights on family support, passion, and finding purpose resonate deeply, making this episode a must-listen for aspiring women entrepreneurs.

Discover the unique naming conventions, emphasis on authenticity, and the multifaceted marketing approach that defines Double Woot's success.

Tune in now for a dose of empowerment and entrepreneurial wisdom!

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by RedboxStudio.com

She is not afraid of challenging norms and stereotypes about the deceased, death and dying.

As the Managing Director of Direct Funeral Services Pte Ltd, she is transforming the funeral services industry - usually dominated by rough-talking men and surrounded by superstitions - one taboo at a time.

To Jenny, the funeral services business is a hospitality business.

When she married in 2015, she made the front page news as she and her husband decided to take unusually daring wedding photos - she was photographed in her wedding finery lying in a coffin and sitting on the coffin!

Jenny and her husband worked to revamp society's shoddy perception of funeral services and raise the bar for funeral directors. 

Jenny approaches this business with deep respect for the deceased.

She recognizes the equalizing nature of death, emphasizing our shared humanity beneath societal roles and gender differences.

In her determined way, Jenny revolutionized the industry, pushing forth innovative ideas as she was dissatisfied with outdated practices in the industry.

Despite facing resistance, she believes families deserve a compassionate and personalized approach during times of grief.

She introduced uniforms and name tags for her team, redesigned funeral settings and backdrops to reflect calm and elegant spaces and even humanized the departed by creating biographies for guests at the wake and funeral to know them even in death.

Her ideas didn't stop there.

Concerned after overhearing how an adult explained death inappropriately to a child, she and her husband decided to author a children's book that approached the topic in a non-morbid yet respectful manner. 

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

For more information, show notes and links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

I'm your host, Krista Goon, and I'm thrilled to be back, uncovering the amazing stories and strategies of Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia to inspire and support you on your own business journey.

I'm excited to introduce you to our guest, a remarkable Malaysian entrepreneur, Amutha Subramaniam, the founder and director of HERS Manufacturing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Amutha's journey is nothing short of inspiring. At 47 years old, she embarked on her business with absolutely no knowledge of e-commerce, and for the first two years, she struggled to make any sales.

However, her unwavering eagerness to learn about online selling and her persistence ultimately paid off in a big way.

Today, she runs a highly successful 7-figure business, exporting food and beverages to the Pacific Islands.

It wasn't an easy path for Amutha, though. After her divorce, she found herself as a single mother with no capital, but she refused to be defined by her circumstances.

Moving from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur, she faced her challenges with courage and stepped out of her comfort zone to chase her ambitions.

The essence of this podcast lies in the belief that each of us carries a powerful story within ourselves.

These stories have the potential to inspire other women to embark on their own ventures, be it a business or a movement.

Amutha's journey from ground zero is a testament to the fact that with an unstoppable attitude and determination, one can overcome any obstacle and learn everything one needs along the way.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Today's episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast so that we can reach out to more women entrepreneurs in Asia.

She is the founder of EVOL Vietnam, a social enterprise that is raising awareness of urban citizens about the importance of reducing single use plastic and preventing these plastic from polluting the ocean via community projects. 

This is the second time we are recording this conversation because the first time, we had some audio interruptions and I wanted to showcase her work better and so this round, we re-recorded the episode and I must say I am excited for you to hear about Jolly’s strategies and tips.

In this episode, we spoke about strategy, fundraising, stakeholder management, networking and partnership-building for a greater good. 

She talks about asking for support for her projects, engaging her stakeholders beyond financials and expanding her network every time she goes out to speak or participate in conferences and programmes. 

Jolly is a well-networked individual and has seen the power of networking pay its dues directly and indirectly. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

A big shout out to ForGood Vietnam, our partner who introduced Jolly Nguyen to Womenpreneur Asia.

She spun off a publishing business, florist business and more. At one point, she was the wedding consultant for Hong Kong Disneyland! 

Despite being at the top of her game, she was never afraid to stop when it was time to stop. 

And stop she did. 

But that wasn't the last of her entrepreneurial ventures.

Today’s story is as fascinating as it is inspiring. It is the story of a remarkable and agile entrepreneur who is now focused on growing future leaders. 

Today’s episode is with a Hong Kong entrepreneur, Coco Wong. She is the co-founder of CEO Kids International and currently makes her home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Coco is truly a serial entrepreneur with a strong conviction and a creative mind.

She started many businesses and she was never afraid to walk away or sell them. In all her ventures, she admits that money was never the motivation. In fact, she’s always been one to focus on giving and doing good. Coco shares her mistakes, her highs and lows and what she has learned over the past 3 decades of being an entrepreneur and what she is most excited about now. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Today my guest and I talked about her first failed company and partnership and the lessons she learned from that time in her life.

While depressed and angry, she recounted that the failed business helped her understand what went wrong and taught her much about starting partnerships in foreign countries.

Many years later, she decided to use her skills and experiences to start her own company to help foreign companies get started in her home country of Morocco.

Hello and welcome to Season 7 of the Womenpreneur Asia podcast and I am your host, Krista Goon. 

My mission is to uncover the stories and strategies of Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia to help you as you navigate your own business journey.

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio. 

Today’s episode is with a Moroccan entrepreneur, Safaa Nasseh in Casablanca, Morocco. 

She is the Managing Director and founder of ARKAD Plus, a business that provides professional advice and expert knowledge about starting businesses in Morocco and working with Moroccan businesses. 

In this episode, we spoke about her first business - the business that failed and taught her priceless lessons about partnerships and trust.

Using the lessons learned from that harrowing episode in her life, she went back to work and in the process, realized she was excellent at building relationships and connecting people and businesses.

During the pandemic, she realized that she wanted to start her business again but this time, much wiser and much more intent on leveraging the strengths and experiences that she has honed while under employment. 

For more information about Safaa, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

What have you learned from your guests and from creating and producing this seasonal podcast since 2020? 

It got me thinking so today you are in for a treat with this bonus episode. 

This is the final episode of Season 6 of the Womenpreneur Asia podcast. After this, I take a quick break before Season 7 starts in October. 

Most of the time, I end my season with a guest interview but this time, I decided that I'll be your guest. I'm amazed that I've produced 86 episodes so far and that yes, I am celebrating myself today.

But it's never about me. I love that you're here too. Without listeners and supporters such as you, my podcast wouldn't have gone very far at all.

Today, I am sharing with you my favourite episodes of all my six seasons.

And I shall also share with you what I’ve personally learned and taken to heart after speaking to so many Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia.

It has been an empowering journey for me as I learned to become more self-aware of my own thoughts and perspectives about entrepreneurship. 

So which were my favourite episodes throughout these 6 seasons? Here are my top 15 selections.

Listen to the episode to find out why these are my favourite episodes.

Maresa Ng of Spark Group Asia, Malaysia

Dr Vimi Ramasamy of Stravik Business Consulting, Malaysia

Anja Juliah of Athena Holdings, Malaysia

See Wai Hun of Juristech, Malaysia

Zhafira Loebis of Babyloania, Indonesia

Maaike Doyer of Epic Angels, Singapore

Nancy Tran of Medifood, Vietnam 

Michelle Hon of MomBoss Academy, Singapore 

Titaporn Tuchinda of The Growth & Change Company, Thailand

Soline Lin of Vietnam Dental Tourism, Vietnam

Debbie Edirisinghe of Child Action Lanka, Sri Lanka

Kanyachat Lerttanapaiboon or Elle of Her Hyness, Thailand  

Cha-Ly Koh of Urbanmetry, Malaysia

Deepa Jivan of J Gordhan & Co Ltd., Hong Kong 

Jocelyn Pantastico of Olivia Technology Group, The Philippines

Which is YOUR favourite among all the 86 episodes of Womenpreneur Asia?

Which entrepreneur’s story made you a better entrepreneur or inspired you to think differently or work and live differently?

I’d love to hear from you. Just DM me on Instagram or send me a message. 

Today's episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Winnie is an educator and researcher and has had more than 10 years of corporate experience working with start-ups and tech companies. 

Her ebook launches today on Amazon, 9 June 2023. If you love books, Winnie is offering her ebook as a gift to you at US$0.99 for the first 200 readers. 

In this episode, we talk about her book, her book writing process, and her findings and key learnings from her book titled “You Don’t Have to Look the Part: How East Asian Women Thrive as Entrepreneurs”. 

In her book, she writes about Melanie Perkins of Canva who took 3 years to fundraise and who wrote a note to keep herself going despite the initial rejections. She also recounts the story of Vicky Tsai, the founder of Tatcha who was told she didn’t look like a CEO and was asked to step down from the business she started.  

We spoke about being the role models that we aspire to follow, we also spoke about doing something despite the fears and the humiliation of failing.

Winnie took a year to write her book and even raised money through pre-orders. She has had to market the book too leveraging LinkedIn (she said Twitter and Instagram just weren’t her thing) and has found supporters for her book from people she knew and people she didn’t.

Here’s a fun fact about Winnie: her parents are Malaysian. 

For the full show notes and links, go to: WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

She is a remarkable Malaysian woman with an illustrious 36-year career at the United Nations. She is also a Penangite who splits her time between Penang (Malaysia) and the US.

She culminated her tenure as Assistant Secretary-General in charge of peace-building after conflict, working under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Prior to this role, she served as Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Director of the Asia Bureau and the Balkans at the World Food Programme, and dedicated ten years to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Africa.

During our conversation, Dato Judy and I delved into a lively and incredible discussion about stepping outside one's comfort zone, shattering the glass ceiling, strategic decision-making, and how to become someone worthy of sponsorship.

We also touched on her recommended book for smart women leaders while exploring how she reached the pinnacle of her career as a highly respected woman leader on the international stage.

Although Dato Judy clarifies that her advice primarily caters to women aspiring to rise within large organizations and corporations, I discovered that the leadership insights she shared are invaluable for everyone, including women entrepreneurs.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Today’s episode is with Afshan Nasseri, the Founder and CEO of Aam Creative is a dynamic digital marketing agency comprising a diverse team of 15 talented women of color, scattered across the globe.

Afshan embarked on her entrepreneurial journey at the young age of 24, achieving remarkable success within just her second year of business, generating a six-figure revenue in US dollars and building a client portfolio of over 45 esteemed brands. 

While initially operating as a comprehensive 360 agency, Aam Creative is now embracing specialization, and in our conversation today, Afshan delves into the common entrepreneurial dilemma of maintaining creative excellence while navigating the path toward engaging with larger players in the industry.

Afshan recognized a crucial gap in the Western marketing world—the absence of cultural perspectives.

The creative space was in dire need of individuals who genuinely lived and breathed the Asian cultural experience, encompassing both the Muslim and South Asian viewpoints from the lens of Generation Z and millennials.

Today's episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Medifood started by supplying organic vegetables on a subscription basis but now produces healthy rice crispy snacks that are sold via subscription boxes. 

Besides producing for Vietnam, her rice crispy snacks are now available in North America.

Prior to founding the business, Nancy was as market analyst at VNDIRECT Securities and marketing team lead at VEAS Exhibition & Advertising Services with focus on developing markets such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam in the agriculture sector. 

Nancy started Medifood in 2016 because she was passionate about healthy eating and helping Vietnamese farmers earn a better living except that she didn’t know a thing about agriculture and organic farming.

In today’s episode, she talks about the struggles of farming and why farmers ate chemical-free vegetables while they supplied chemical-laden vegetables to the market.

She talks about the separate plot of land that farmers kept to grow their own organic vegetables for their family’s needs. She started by buying these organic produce and selling them to the city. 

While she grew a community of enthusiastic believers in organic farming from buyers to farmers, she couldn’t make the business work. She was underpricing her vegetables and the work was tough. In the end, she decided to pivot from her original idea to manufacturing food products using organic ingredients grown by the local farmers. 

Today, Medifood is a platform where you buy tasty and nutritious snacks and still help local farmers sustain themselves through organic and natural farming.

For the full show notes and links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Grace has always loved travelling and she decided that a freelance writing and communications business suited her lifestyle most as she went all over the world.

Grace was a digital nomad long before the term became trendy!

A couple of years later, she even partnered up with a fellow Singaporean to establish a business to teach English abroad in countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.  

While everyone was worried for their jobs during the pandemic lockdown, Grace said she hit one of her best months as a freelancer.

And yet she is taking a career in reverse by going from freelancing to full-time employment.

She calls it the Great Rejoining. 

In this episode we dig into her reasons for wanting to rejoin the corporate workforce again, why she decided to close her English teaching business and how the freelance world differs from the full-time and why she chooses the latter.

We also talk about starting companies as revenge (yes, that is a story that you need to hear) and the lessons learned from partnering up with others in a business.

Today’s conversation is unusual but at Womenpreneur Asia, I want to show you the realities, emotions and experiences of entrepreneurship - these are what I call the gritty realities of entrepreneurship.

I never shy away from the strange or unusual. In my conversation with Grace, she was initially unsure if her story could fit what I had in mind. I said that it would be helpful to share her story if only to enable us to reflect on what it means to be in business and to understand that entrepreneurship comes in all experiences, emotions and colours.

For the full show notes, go to WomenpreneurAsia.com

Today's episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

It is a private, vetted space where women from different fields and backgrounds can unite and it is also a private, group coaching community aimed to help female leaders transform the future of work. 

Yolanda says that being a woman in leadership roles in fast-growing tech companies was great but it came to a point where “ all of a sudden all the women disappear and it's incredibly lonely.” 

She had so many questions that her peers couldn’t answer. “And I started Uncommon organically out of a need. I felt as a female leader I wanted to connect with women who are really in that same boat and write the playbook for how we get ahead and what it actually means to get ahead.” 

Yolanda bootstrapped and launched Uncommon in December 2020 and today, it has hundreds of members from different fields and backgrounds with a growing waiting list. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

I’ve met many entrepreneurs who wear many hats but Soline takes the cake.

She is an entrepreneur, a university lecturer, a woman leader, a community developer and a gender equality advocate. Most of all, she is an ecosystem developer and her story will explain how she did it. 

She first had the idea to start her business, Vietnam Dental Tourism when foreign friends commented positively about visiting Vietnam for dental treatments. 

Paying attention to this, she realized that dentistry could be a way to grow tourism, a sector she was deeply familiar with. She brought together dentistry players and tour operators in Vietnam to create a medical tourism business to attract foreign tourists and American Vietnamese.

But that’s not all. The dental industry creates waste and she wanted to tackle the waste issue. Dental businesses were slow to adopt technology and she wanted to help them speed up their digital adoption. 

So it was not just about entrepreneurship but building a sustainable ecosystem with the right players while adding sustainability, digital adoption and gender equality to the mix.

We also spoke about her passion for paying it forward through her community involvement for Vietnamese women and her 3Es concept, her studies in Switzerland and the ecotourism role she took up in Uganda and why despite it all, Soline chose to return to Vietnam. Her story is fascinating as well as compelling. 

For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

If you've enjoyed the show, please rate and review our podcast!



As the Director for Nora Swann LTD, Nora started many fashion initiatives from founding the largest high-end fashion show for the Pacific people in New Zealand (Pacific Fusion Fashion Show) to leading New Zealand’s first Pasifika modelling agency, Swann Modelling Agency. 

She started a wellness programme, Dressed In Confidence supported by New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development and Ministry for Pacific Peoples to empower Pasifika people to learn about positive body image, professional styling and self-confidence.

In other words, she is helping to keep the Pacific fashion story alive. 

In today’s episode, she talks about being a minority in the fashion industry as fashion was never a path for the Pasifika people.

She has had a big year in business. 

In January, she was recognized by the New York City Journal as a ‘top personality disrupting the fashion industry in 2022’.

In March, she was featured in the International Entrepreneurs Herald followed by another feature story in Forbes Monaco in August

Nora was also a successful applicant for the East-West Centre’s 2022 Changing Faces Women's Leadership Seminar in Oahu Hawaii and received a partial scholarship to represent New Zealand along with 12 other women from USA, Asia and the Pacific.

She also won the Kanumea Afine Loto Toa -Pacific Woman in Business – Pacific Business Trust.

To get the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Today's episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Please rate and review the Womenpreneur Asia podcast if you have enjoyed today's episode.

Milena’s story is about tasting failure at a young age when her yoga studio closed after 2 years.

You will love today’s interview as we discuss entrepreneurship from the perspective of inner and outer journeys.

We spoke about permission and transitions and that entrepreneurship is learnable and why women should own their own brilliance. 

Her story began with a successful stint in Europe, working for AIESEC, the world’s largest organization for youth leadership development, overseeing 127 countries. 

Right after leaving AIESEC and coming back to Hanoi, Milena was buoyed by a desire to live her passion. In her early 20s, she decided she didn’t want to get a job. She loved yoga and at 24, decided to open her yoga studio in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

She believed she was a great yoga teacher and in many ways she was but she wasn’t a great yoga business owner.

Milena says that two years into her studio, she closed it because “we were barely getting by. I told everybody the reason for closing was that I wanted location freedom, which was true, but it wasn't the full truth.The other reason for closing was that we were struggling so much financially.”  

Milena took that lesson of failure and decided to bet on herself a second time.

Today she is in a very different place and a much smarter and successful entrepreneur because she says finally she has created a business that serves her best. 

Listen to the episode for the story of how she pulled herself out of feeling like a failure and the mindset reset that she had to undergo with the help of her coach.

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Get the full show notes and more at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Like this episode? Check out the other seasons and other Asian women entrepreneur stories on the website.

Eleen is the managing director of Lifestyle Ventures Sdn. Bhd whose principal business is in supplying chili paste to businesses.

When the business started in 2003, they supplied fresh chillis to customers but over time, ventured into processing chili.

Her story truly has humble beginnings because she and her late husband started the business from home. Thanks to a benefactor who supported them, they grew the business into a factory with 30 employees. 

Eleen was contented with her Business-to-Business (B2B) business for many years until the pandemic struck.

When the pandemic hit, her revenue fell by half and she had to figure out how to sustain her factory and continue employing her employees.

She didn’t want to retrench her employees and decided that she had to create retail products for the mass market if she wanted to continue being in business. 

Under these trying circumstances, Eleen founded a Malaysian brand of ready-to-eat Nyonya chili condiments and pastes and named the brand Man Fook (which interestingly, has its own story so listen to the episode for more).

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

For the full show notes and links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

If you have enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the podcast.

Anna or better known as Mel is the co-founder and CEO of 1Export whose tagline is “helping businesses go global”. 

She was a fun and energetic person to talk to and didn’t shy away from recounting the early days of her business when she took on a ghostwriting job to produce the Philippine export guidebook so that she could make some money and keep her business running. 

Today she has a team of 55 people located in 2 countries, the Phillippines and Indonesia and it is a far cry from the days when she used to scout for free co-working spaces to work in! 

We debunked the myths of exporting, how she came into this business, how she is growing right now with her team of 55 in two locations in Asia and what drives her.

We also talked about the early days of her business and how the greatest lesson she has learned came from her customers.

She thought it was all about the technology until she met a customer who said outright that he didn’t need the technology, he needed to solve his problems with exporting. 

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Subscribe to my email list and you'll be the first to know when new episodes air (as well as other news and good stuff).

More show notes and links at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Epic Angels comprise female executives and operators who want to give women the confidence to invest, by learning about the investment process, and understanding how other women invest.

They focus on early-stage startups in Asia across all verticals and invest in pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds.

In our previous episode, we talked about getting funded if you’re a female startup founder in Asia. 

In this episode, we continue the conversation about the other side of the coin - what does it take to become an angel investor?

Get the show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Although she is not Asian (as I only feature Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia), I made the exception and invited her to be part of this special International Women’s Day 2-parter episode.

We get an insider look at what angel investing is about, how female startup founders in Asia can get funded via angel investing and how to get the attention of angel investors.

This is the first part of a two-part series.

The next episode is about how women can become angel investors and Maaike will debunk some of the myths about angel investing as well as invite you to be part of her angel investing network. 

If you know any female startup founders who need to hear this episode, share this with them.

In this episode, Maaike talks about the cupcake test, the 2-minute test, what should be in your pitch deck and when you should be pitching to investors. 

Maaike wants to democratize angel investing and make angel investing accessible, like getting a cup of coffee.

The Epic Angels network comprising female executives and operators wants to give women the confidence to invest, by learning about the investment process, and understanding how other women invest.

Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Tina is the creator and owner of Haleakala Supah Shots. 

Her Haleakala Supah Shots is a healthy re-imagination of the classic Hawaiian chili pepper water. Her immune-boosting elixir is made with Hawaiian chili pepper water, fruit juice, vinegar, organic agave and hand-harvested Hawaiian sea salt.

Tina lives as a teacher and farmer on the island of Maui, having moved to Maui from Oahu where she grew up.

Tina moved to Maui in 2000 to work on a Kahoolawe bomb clearance project and has been on the island ever since.

When the Kahoolawe project ended, Tina began teaching and connecting with her community. At school, she teaches Hawaiian Studies to local children. When she is not teaching, she is growing food and making raw, vegan elixirs. 

Tina founded Haleakala Supah Shots in October 2016 and at the local community fair, sold out of her first batch of 40 bottles.

In 2019, her elixirs were named the best new food product at the Made in Maui County Festival. She experienced a rush of orders during the pandemic lockdown in March 2020 because everyone was concerned about boosting their immunity. 

Tina speaks of her products in a way that’s totally different from other entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to. She brings reverence to her products and imbues them with spirituality which I appreciate. We don’t speak enough about spirituality and particularly in the entrepreneurial context. 

I am also delighted that I cap the season with an episode with a Hawaiian entrepreneur who believes deeply that community health is community wealth. As we have experienced over the past 3 years, we are nothing without our health. 

As I wrap up my podcasting year (and a total of 72 published episodes as of December 2022), I look forward to taking a break and enjoying the holiday season. 

Season 6 begins in March next year and I hope you will continue to share my podcast with friends who are on their entrepreneurial journey. Each of us needs that one story that lifts us and I hope my podcast gives you a buffet of stories that you can listen to over and over! 

Thank you for being with me on this journey as I podcast my way into more stories and experiences from Asian women in Asia. I am already preparing for Season 6 and I can tell you, my guests for Season 7 are incredible indeed. Stay tuned for their stories and strategies.

Remember to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are.  

And that’s it, my friend. I’ll see you in 2023. Be well, be happy and appreciate your business journey! 

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She is the co-founder of Kebun Kota in Kuantan, Pahang. She is also an architect and mother of five. 

We started by talking about her farm, Kebun Kota which supplies fresh harvest her cafe, Roots.

Kebun Kota is a 14-acre farm that was once a quarry.

Kaniza is proud that she and her husband, Dr Muhklis Chua, regenerated this brownfield into an eco-friendly urban farm and agriculture research centre that she lovingly calls Kebun Kota (which means “city farm” in Malay)

She believes that micro-farming and smart farming are the way of the future.

We also spoke about women, technology, intentionality, learning how to say no, being true to ourselves and getting back to the core of our humanity.

In this interview, Kaniza talks about her childhood as well as motherhood.

She also speaks about being more intentional about her life now that she’s two years from 60 and what she truly desires to do with her life and business.

Get the show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and share this episode with a friend.

Debbie is with Child Action Lanka.

Child Action Lanka began in the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka in 2006.

She started it with her husband, Dilshan, when she was asked to take over from a woman teaching 8 street children. (Listen to her story in the episode.)

Some 16 years later, her organization has grown to reach over 1,500 children in 8 districts in Sri Lanka. 

Her organization offers housing and food, schooling and education resources, as well as counselling to ensure lower school dropout rates. 

In our conversation today, Debbie spoke about the need to give children a second chance and to transform their lives.

In our heartwarming interview, she spoke about the lessons she had learnt over the years in running a non-profit and her leadership style.

Despite what has happened in Sri Lanka this year, she is even more determined to help the children whose lives are the most affected.

She talks about making a difference through her work with women and children through various initiatives but what strikes me most is that she reminds her own daughters that she is raising them to be strong women. 

Get the show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com

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She is the founder of Interact Consulting and calls herself a courage catalyst, coach, facilitator, and speaker. 

Farah has more than 25 years of experience in the field of leadership and cross-cultural competence from her years abroad and working across countries and cultures.

She began her career in the aviation industry in the Middle East, returning to India during the IT and services boom to work in the business and learning development sectors. 

Farah started her company in 2006 with the belief that everyone has the potential to make a difference and she says her role is to inspire change and realise this potential.

When they work with her, they can reimagine their business with clarity and confidence.

In this episode, we spoke about seeing gifts in the adversity that life throws at us and having a sense of adventure in our lives. Farah also encouraged women to own their voices and express themselves fully.

As a coach, Farah’s desire is to make a difference in people’s lives, continuously growing as she develops others. She spoke about choosing oneself and being courageous to set our own agenda and here’s what I like most, factor playfulness in our daily agenda.

At the heart of what we spoke about were our choices and courage. 

Find more show notes about her on WomenpreneurAsia.com

If you have enjoyed today’s episode, please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your favourite podcast app. Or share this episode with a friend.

She started the business with her cousin when she was a university student studying medicine.

Today, she is the co-founder of By Sarah, a business she started with her cousin based on their love for each other and their love for the exquisite songket, a type of woven fabric in the brocade family of textiles unique to Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. 

By Sarah uses songket in crafting all of its bespoke accessories and clutches by their team of local artisans. Their products have been ordered by embassies and celebrities. 

In this episode, she doesn’t just tell us a story of her business but also how she started the business as a university student and how she switched careers from being a doctor to working in a telecommunications company while managing her business. 

If you have enjoyed today’s episode, please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your favourite podcast app.

Or share this episode with a friend.

Thank you for listening, I appreciate you and I’ll see you next Friday! 

More links, information and show notes: WomenpreneurAsia.com

Or what if you’re female and not as young as some of the tech startup founders you see around you?

Today’s episode is with an entrepreneur from Indonesia who lives in Singapore, Nino Mouton.

Nino is the founder of the education tech startup, Playbook.  

She’s the ex-editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Indonesia and content strategist turned education tech warrior who wants to reinvent education for the young people of Indonesia. 

Nino talks openly about her startup and the mistakes she made in the early days, forcing her to pivot. She used to panic when users found bugs in her app and she said she wished she stopped hesitating a lot more and started putting her product out to the world quicker. She talks about not knowing how to code and everyone said she needed to learn so she even took coding classes! Eventually, she realized that she wanted to be a business person, not a programmer. 

Playbook is an app that offers soft skills training in micro-learning segments. Nino and her team are presently focused on the Indonesian market with micro-learning lessons served in the Indonesian language or Bahasa Indonesia. 

If you’re a returning listener or a new listener and you like this podcast, do tell a friend about it. And I'd appreciate it if you could rate, review and subscribe too.

For more show notes and all the links to connect with my guests on the podcast, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Upasna took her love for storytelling to start her PR agency at 26 years old. She started with 10,000 rupees in 2017 which is barely RM600 or about US120 with a laptop, and her grandfather’s well-worn couch in her family home and has since grown it to a 50-person company with 40+ clients in a few short years!

Yet her motivation isn’t just about building a great PR business. It’s a lot deeper than that as you will hear in today’s episode. 

We had so many things to talk about in this episode - about women in decision-making roles, about being a young entrepreneur, about wanting to do great work and helping startups get seen. She said that building a business is hard but building a business as a young woman in a city like New Delhi is even harder! I like one of her quotes - she wants her impact to walk into the room before she does and have her work speak for her. In our conversation, we touch on why women need to make decisions at the right places and be given the right platforms to grow from. 

If you like her story, get more details in the show notes at the website link below.

You are listening to Season 5 of the Womenpreneur Asia podcast hosted by Krista Goon.

Find out more about the podcast, how you can get on her show and lots more at WomenpreneurAsia.com

My guest today didn’t want to regret that she didn’t do something for herself when she could. Her friends said she could just sit back and enjoy her life - after all she had the means to do so. Having had her own career when she was younger and being inspired by the mavens of the Malaysian beauty industry, she felt it would be tragic if she didn’t try something on her own and that’s how she started two businesses in her mid-40s.  

Today’s episode is with an entrepreneur from Malaysia, Joyce Chua. Joyce is the Founder & CEO of Queva Beauty based in Johor, Malaysia. Queva is a business service that Joyce believes is the answer and solution to the biggest headache that beauty consultants suffer from!

Joyce has always been in the beauty and skincare industry starting from the time she worked for some of the most popular brands in Malaysia in the 1990s such as Dermalogica, The Body Shop, Xixili and more. She used to work in training, marketing, PR and sales and she admitted that she learnt a lot working under industry mavens such as Datin Mina Cheah-Fong of The Body Shop franchise in Malaysia.

Besides the salon business, she is also the founder of a skincare product - a Vitamin C serum named Fabs Skin. Her fruit-powered serum contains apple and carrot extracts to prevent hyperpigmentation problems.

For the full show notes or to nominate a guest for our upcoming season, visit Womenpreneur Asia.com

If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review it.

My guest today is Emilie Chung who co-founded Sinellia Tea with her husband in Guangdong, China.

She left France (where she had grown up, born to a Chinese dad and British mum) for China when she was 30 years old and has never looked back since.

She didn't speak Mandarin when she arrived and yet felt completely at home!

In this episode, we talk about more than just tea. We spoke about how Emilie made decisions in her life and how she bucked perceptions as a woman who is unafraid to have some adventures of her own.

She didn't let conventions dictate her life and didn't limit herself to doing what everyone did.

Despite getting a degree to be a university teacher, Emilie is more than that.

She is a coach, facilitator, university teacher and entrepreneur of her own tea business and a new mother (she had a baby at 41 when she never thought she would have one!). Today she can discuss tea and the finer aspects of tea in Mandarin!

Get the full show notes or subscribe to our newsletter at WomenpreneurAsia.com

PLUS rate, review and subscribe to our podcast because it helps the show go further!

Her journey is a little unusual in that she started writing her bestseller book first and her business came after when more and more entrepreneurs started asking her to write their books. 

Pearlin started as a journalist at Singapore Press Holdings upon graduation.

In 2000, she left to found an online barter site (which she talks about in this episode) and later, entered the corporate world when she became the business development manager for CNET Asia.

This journalist turned entrepreneur published her first book - a bestseller - in 2002 - when she was inspired by Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Work Week. 

Soon after, she wrote three more books - Sleep & Get Rich, Secrets Of Asia's Most Successful Internet Gurus and Do You Have What It Takes To Be Boss.

Before long, she was getting a steady stream of clients who wanted to get their stories told and written.

Eventually, she moved into helping them publish their books by setting up her own team, working with book production experts such as designers, printers and book distributors.

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She is the co-founder of BoomGrow, an agritech company that is growing clean greens in Malaysia.

This mother of two never expected she would be in the tech space but she did know a lot about sustainability.

Jay said that she spent many years in the UK  studying and understanding corporate responsibility in human rights which she later expanded to re-imagining the corporation.

(ESG refers to Environmental, Social and Governance, the three key factors that measure the sustainability and ethical impact of a business or company.)

It made her realise how shifts and changes can happen very incrementally, starting with one person but once it’s combined with multi-stakeholders, transformation can happen.

She came back to Malaysia with the idea of making a difference but with the idea of staying in academia. 

She began working in the sustainability area with companies but realized just as quickly that broken systems don’t make changes happen. Structural problems hounded her and she became frustrated at how food was grown and distributed.  

Jay explains that they grow vegetables indoors in containers with technology that is set up to control variables such as water, light and humidity to maximize their output. With this setup, they are able to produce consistent yields for the supply chain. 

For more show notes and website links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

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Well in today’s episode, I speak to a guest who is at a crossroads of her business because she asked herself, “Do we want to keep growing and growing? Is it an inevitable path for all businesses?” What if she doesn’t want to do that and just wants to maintain what she’s doing now? 

Deepa is the founder & Innovation Director for J Gordhan & Co Ltd. in Hong Kong. She manages a business that brings fun into every child and adult’s life through her arts, craft and hobby products.

They design, manufacture and deliver products to their customers who are retailers around the world “whether it's a painting, stitching or anything hobby-related.” They supply everything from stickers to paper plates, Christmas decorations to crayons, paints and more.

Since she enjoyed marketing, her father encouraged her to start her first business, marketing a product that was seen as waste from paper mills! It is no surprise then that she is inspired by her father.

In the process, she grew her one product to 2,000 SKUs while learning about the manufacturing of products including safety compliance and quality testing in China. Later, she relocated to Hong Kong.

For more show notes and information about our guest today, visit https://womenpreneurasia.com/podcast-season-05/

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Today’s episode is with Jenny Toh. Jenny is a Certifed Life Coach and Founder of River Life Coaching in Singapore.

Jenny felt this strongly at one point in her life. At that juncture in her life, she was a mother of three with a legal career. Yet this former lawyer knew in her heart that she was meant to do something more. And that something more was to help introverted people find their place in this noisy world. 

Originally from Port Dickson, Malaysia, she was a practising lawyer until she relocated to Singapore due to her marriage.

We spoke about how she got the inspiration to become a coach, the differences between coaching and counselling, how she marketed herself at the beginning and the challenges she faced as she started her business right in the midst of the pandemic! 

She talks about how she marketed herself and how she managed to land coaching jobs through coaching platforms although, in the beginning, she was resistant to the idea. She also explains the differences between coaching and counselling. 

Like this episode? Check out more show notes on WomenpreneurAsia.com

Womenpreneur Asia is a podcast brought to you by Redbox Studio. The seasonal show brings you a new episode weekly on Friday, GMT+8.

The podcast is the brainchild of Krista Goon, an entrepreneur, author, marketer and communicator.

Send us an audio message about this episode and we will feature your message in future episodes!

She is the Founder & CEO of AI Talent, a business that develops child entrepreneurs.

At its core, it is an e-learning platform that provides a conducive environment for children to start their business journeys where they learn from entrepreneurs and corporate leaders through projects. 

According to their website, they have partnered with more than 70 corporations and trained more than 200 coaches and 150 education centres. Hers is a B2B business where they sell their entrepreneurial programmes to education centres as part of their offerings. Currently, AI Talent has grown beyond Malaysia to offer its programmes to Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia and The Philippines. 

She candidly reveals that she failed at her first startup but took the lessons to grow her present business not just in Malaysia but throughout Asia.

She also talks about the importance of having a bucket list and how the pandemic helped her business in so many ways and the leadership lessons she learnt. 

To connect with her, check out the links in our show notes on the Womenpreneur Asia website.

Please rate and review if you like our podcast.

Womenpreneur Asia is brought to you by Redbox Studio. It is a seasonal podcast featuring heartwarming yet insightful interviews with Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia.

You are listening to Season 5 of the podcast. All new episodes are uploaded every Friday until the end of the season.

If you are a returning listener, thank you! It means a lot to me.

If you've just found my podcast, thank you! I hope you enjoy this season (and if it intrigues you, listen to the rest of the other seasons as well).

The podcast proper starts today and for the next 14 weeks, every Friday, you'll get to listen to the stories, struggles and strategies of 14 Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia.

Please subscribe and if you like this podcast, leave me a rating or review.

See you next Friday!

WeCareJourney is an association that helps parents and caregivers with children who are born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).

She started her social enterprise, FriendenArts, to sell the art and art merchandise that her two sons, Jaden and Branden, create. Treatments for the two boys are expensive and Sook Yee and her husband wanted to use their boys’ art and art products as a way to fund the treatments. 

Branden was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) at the age of one. It is a rare terminal genetic condition and Sook Yee and her husband were told that their son only had one more year to live.

Sook Yee and her husband tried looking for more positive answers from doctors and everyone told them the same thing - that Branden would not live past 2 years old.

Today, Branden is 11 years old.

Sook Yee has been tireless in bringing awareness about SMA to parents and medical professionals. She and her husband advocate for the SMA community while lobbying for SMA drugs to be made available in Malaysia. She is seeing changes in the landscape and conversations about SMA. When before there seemed to be no hope, now she advises parents to never give up. Her Branden is living proof!

We talk a lot more in this episode about living and dying, gratitude, making memories, having dreams and why it's important to talk about the elephant in the room.

If you are listening to this on your favourite podcast player, please subscribe to the podcast. And if you have enjoyed my podcast, leave me a review.

This is a bonus episode and the final episode of Season 4.

I'll be back with Season 5 in September. Until then, check out the earlier seasons of the podcast.

For other information, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Thank you for being a listener.

Her business specialises in elderly care products and interestingly she began her business because of her own ageing parents.

Her business also complements her husband’s as he is a medical doctor and a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner.

Olivia is also expanding her business although her main focus is on her ecommerce website.

She has many plans in store for her elderly care products and services and she reveals in this episode how she has been successful so far in her product-driven business. 

Her 20 years of working experience in business development, trade and investment promotion and operations gave her insights and a ready network when she began her own business.

Her previous career contacts became useful when it was time for her to start Asian Integrated Medical Sdn Bhd, a licensed medical supply company specialising in elderly care products such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen concentrators and more.

In addition, they run and manage their own retail outlet, clinic, Chinese medicine clinic and nursing home and sell their products online at their own website. 

For more information, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Uyanga started the NGO when she discovered a 2015 survey of over 500 elderly citizens in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia revealing the need for senior social and medical care. 

Through Proliance LLC (the medical equipment distribution business that she runs), she founded one of Mongolia’s first senior recreation providers, Quality Life.

Quality Life Club is a social-based daycare that provides seniors with the opportunity to engage with peers, and their community, and exercise their bodies and minds. 

Uyanga’s company Proliance LLC and Quality Life NGO’s board are passionate about pioneering senior care service in Mongolia. In 2017, they started collaborating to support seniors to have meaningful jobs and share their extensive knowledge and experience with other businesses and community members.

When she was a teenager, Mongolia changed from being a communist country to a democracy. Prior to the change, everyone including Uyanga thought that her life and career were mapped out. She would get good grades and a job would be waiting for her when she got out of school.

With the change in the country, almost overnight she was left clueless about the next step in her life which was from having a guaranteed job to having nothing!

This is Uyanga's story as a woman entrepreneur and non-profit founder.

For more information about this episode, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

She is the co-founder & CEO of Her Hyness, a skincare brand that focuses on ingredients that are safe and good for your skin.

Elle had worked for well-known cosmetic and skincare brands in Singapore and China and despite being one of the rising stars in the corporate world, she left corporate to start her clean beauty skincare company in Thailand. 

If you’re a marketing person like me, you’d love this episode. Elle and I spoke about how she decided to focus on the Thai market despite her years of experience in China, how she pilot-tested her first product and how she grew her homegrown brand to rank in the top 20 beauty brands in Thailand next to global brands, a milestone she is truly proud of.

Elle says, “Never give up. Today is hard. Tomorrow will be worse but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine."  

Get more information about Elle and her business: WomenpreneurAsia.com

Jocs as she is more fondly known has spent most of her life in the corporate world, with many of those years as an expat in Indonesia.

In 2018, she returned to The Philippines to start her tech startup, Olivia, a milestone she is most proud of. 

Her software frees companies from tedious manual data capture so that they can focus on real work. Olivia processes receipts and invoices, translating them into reports and digital assets in seconds. 

But it really isn’t about the receipts as we get deeper into this interview. While today's episode is about software that keeps your money in check, it is also about the bigger concept of wealth, money management and investing. 

We spoke about how her world now is distinctly different from her corporate days. She talks about the startup lessons she learned as she built her startup and how she had to change the ways she thought about putting products out into the market. 

She also talks about how her software is creating more value for accountants rather than taking away their jobs. And in that process, she uncovered the reason people were leaving accountancy firms. 

We also discussed why women don’t talk about money as openly as men going back into her own past and her realization that she needed to be open about money with her daughter. She revealed some really smart strategies for teaching her daughter how to invest, ultimately giving her a headstart with money and how that has transformed her own daughter’s relationship with money and wealth. 

This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

For more information about Jocelyn, visit: https://womenpreneurasia.com/podcast-season-04/

Please subscribe if you've enjoyed this podcast. Thank you.

Evi was the former managing editor at The Jakarta Post. Her collaborative projects won the 2020 Public Service Journalism Award from the Society of Publishers in Asia and the 2020 Tasrif Award from the AJI. 

Evi and 3 other fellow journalists started Project Multatuli, a media organisation dedicated to carrying out the ideals of public journalism by giving a voice to the voiceless, spotlighting the marginalized, and reporting on the underreported. Multatuli comes from Latin meaning “I have suffered much.”

In this episode, we talk about how a crisis led Evi to start something that truly spoke to her heart - social justice. She said she was never raised to be political - all she wanted was to travel and see the world as a journalist.

As an Indonesian Chinese with a Catholic upbringing, social journalism wasn’t the path she was supposed to take. However, her first taste of political activism began in earnest when she entered Gajah Mada University which opened her eyes to diversity, pluralism, gender equality and so much more. 

Evi started her media organization during the pandemic which also pushed her to return to her Chinese business roots so to speak. She had to figure out the best model for her media business because she didn’t care much for the advertising model that most media defaulted to. 

As the only woman among the 4 founders of Project Multatuli, she is known as Ibu Dir. Evi is a woman who called herself an underachiever but today, she is the one who is pushing for greater change through the medium she knows best. 

Today’s conversation is a little deeper and more thoughtful but I know that Evi and Project Multatuli are exactly what we need to change the game. 

For links and other info, go to womenpreneurasia.com

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Most of my podcast guests are fun but Michelle is another level of fun. 

We talked about the concept of false beliefs about working hard and how income is tied to effort or is it? We spoke about being paid for results, not the 100 things that we do. It’s about the 80 20 principle. 

Michelle learnt this when she had to recover from dengue. At the same time, she was also pregnant. She worked fewer hours than before and yet, her revenue grew bigger than the years before. It flipped all the beliefs about working and hustling hard. 

For Michelle, it’s about the effort that gets people to results and that is not always tied to how hard you work. Beliefs impact actions. And when you change your actions, you change your outcomes. 

We also went back into Michelle’s past as a child when she was given a book called Mind Over Matter for a birthday party that didn’t happen. You have to listen to that part of the story that involved a difficult childhood and growing up having very little money. 

We talked about how Michelle’s tough childhood actually helped her get to who she is today. I love her strength when she said "If I start something new and it doesn’t work out what do I have to lose? I just go back to square one and that’s not too bad." 

You’ll love today’s episode. Let’s get into it! 

For more interesting information, visit: https://womenpreneurasia.com/podcast-season-04/

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One is about the community while the other is about products but both are about health, wellness and balanced living.

She said she enjoyed the food a bit too much when she studied in the US but realized that the sugary foods and carbs took a terrible toll on her health! 

When she came home to Thailand, May started blogging about herself and her own stories of regaining good health through healthier eating and lifestyle. Some 10 years later, this passion bloomed into two health-based businesses.

We talked about the dilemmas of entrepreneurship, what success means and how do work and life fit into everything that we want to do as entrepreneurs.

Plus have you taken our survey yet? It’s completely anonymous and it takes just 2 minutes to fill. Tell me what you think of my podcast. Just go to https://tinyurl.com/asianpodcast 

It wasn’t always this way and in the early days when she started the business, she found it a struggle to grow after a certain point. 

Evon grew up in Klang, Selangor and she had always wanted to become a businesswoman because of her parents. 

After getting her real estate negotiator licence, she began her career in selling real estate.

In 2018, Evon and her partner became the master licensor of PropNex Malaysia, enabling Malaysian real estate negotiators to become even more successful based on the systems of its mother company - Propnex Singapore.

For more information about Evon, check out womenpreneurasia.com

Her father, who was a property negotiator, was her main inspiration to join the real estate industry. While working at her first job, she enrolled on a part-time diploma course in estate agency.

This Mumbai native started her business in 2012 after spending 20+ years working in various investment banking organisations in Hong Kong. 

She talks about how she had to adapt to different roles and build new skills as she made that shift from employment to entrepreneurship.

In her coaching work, she helps executives do the same - finding in themselves the clarity and confidence to manage the change that comes with career shifts. 

For show notes and more, visit womenpreneurasia.com

She was a delight to interview - we had so much fun and laughter and even tears - as she was open enough to talk about her shortcomings, the fear of losing face and being a failure.

Success means a lot to her because she grew up in a small town and in an era and an environment where boys were favoured over girls. Her mother was her biggest supporter even borrowing money to put her through university and often had to deal with Wendy’s impulsive career changes. 

She learnt many hard lessons and struggled with her own pride and perfectionism and wished she had been less of a lone ranger and more of a leader when she first founded her business. 

When she was chasing after what she wanted, she couldn’t reach her goals but when she let go and learned to take helpful advice and opened up, her business began to change and soar.

Then the pandemic hit and again her business earnings hit the ground and now she is transforming her business for the next phase.

For other information and show notes, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Known as spekkeok or kue lapis in Indonesian, the layer cake originally was a Dutch cake. Spekkoek was made by the wives of Dutch administrators in Batavia during the colonial period and later, the Indonesians put their own unique twist to the cake by adding spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove, mace, and anise. It has a unique taste and flavour and Linda lets you in on what makes a great layer cake and what you should look for if you're buying one!

Linda started baking from home in 2015 - in the back lane behind her home - and not long after decided to take a leap of faith to start her own retail store.

This is her story of how her intense love for the cake of her homeland made her learn under five bakers so that she could share her Indonesian cakes with discerning customers in Kuala Lumpur and beyond!

For show notes and more, check out womenpreneurasia.com

Eri’s story starts in the most unlikely of places - Singapore. That’s where she was living for 10 years before she returned to Japan to start her fashion app business.

She was already a stylist and closet consultant but she wanted to build a platform that connects women to their stylists and continue to create confidence for women who didn't know how to put together lookbooks of their own.

For more show notes, visit womenpreneurasia.com

As the founder of Just Rent a COO, Jomie and her team help clients run their businesses on autopilot so that they can fall in love with their life (and business!) again.

Jomie decided to live the life that she wanted because she started questioning assumptions about life, family, travel and more.

She didn’t start out running a remote business - in fact, she ran an e-commerce business in The Philippines before selling the entire business and jumping on a plane headed to Singapore! 

For more information about Jomie, check out WomenpreneurAsia.com

If you're new to my podcast, please subscribe or check out the website too. If you're a returning listener, thank you for always being with me as I uncover more Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia and their stories.

I am continually humbled by everyone who has been on my podcast and it seemed apt that I launch my new season with a trailer of what's to come. Enjoy!

Dianne is an executive director with Kitchell Corporation, a construction engineering company. 

During the global lockdown last year, she decided to write a book that described her own journey as an Asian woman and how she believes Asian women would do well to leverage stereotypes to their advantage!  

Dianne writes about embracing challenges through what she calls “turning your yin into your yang”. 

She is proud of her journey “from a small town (Klang) Malaysia to Los Angeles, America and how I am paying it forward for all women in a Caucasian and highly male-dominated construction industry.”  

In this episode, we talk about how she climbed the corporate ladder, the values she lives by, her mom's favourite advice and how Dianne intends to help other women succeed as well.

More show notes at womenpreneurasia.com

Projek57 began when its founders were dismayed that racial polarisation and religious tension kept rising in Malaysia and believed they needed to do something and enable Malaysians to stand together as one.

Debbie and her husband, Collin started Projek57 with Collin’s long-time friend, Syed Sadiq Albar with the hope of bringing unity through youth engagement while giving back to the community.

Working with corporations and youth, Projek57 has channelled more than RM400,000 to help the underprivileged in Malaysia through undertaking workshops and projects that foster unity in Malaysian youth.

How did a lawyer, wife and mom like Debbie become a social enterprise founder? This is her story.

Krista's note: It's apt that this episode airs today. The past week has been incredibly trying for many Malaysians who lost their homes and for some their lives during the flooding. Malaysians leveraged Twitter to ask for help and rallied supplies and resources in this time of need whether it was cooking food, donating supplies or even cleaning up mud-filled houses. What a fantastic demonstration of our true Malaysian spirit despite the tragic circumstances! I for one am so heartened by the Malaysian spirit - the very same spirit that Debbie and Projek57 is championing!

More show notes at womenpreneurasia.com

The business had its roots in Penang but since Michelle and Melissa’s father took over, they relocated to Kuala Lumpur as urbanisation in the 80s saw a growing need for their steel products.

Michelle and Melissa had worked for KPMG before joining their parents in the manufacturing business. At SKB, Melissa heads sales and marketing while Michelle manages the operations. 

In this episode, Michelle and Melissa talk about: 

• What keeps this family business charging forward despite the uncertainties and changes in the business environment if they were music, what kinds of music they would be
• How their 5-year age difference doesn’t seem to matter now that they’re in the business together
• Their favourite books and why they each prefer a certain genre
• How fear can be a great motivator and demotivator
• What their most worthwhile investment was in the past 2 years 
• The guilt that Michelle feels because she is a working mother and what Melissa says about that 
• The unique advantages of being family in a business (and the drawbacks) 

For more show notes, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Sophia is a learning platform made for women who want to learn about money and investing and how to put their money towards venture capital funding and angel investment funding to support other women entrepreneurs. 

Sophia was born out of the founders' frustrations experienced in the world of investing towards female entrepreneurs.

Tanya and Christine (and another co-founder, Nicole) want to create a refreshingly new dialogue for women funders as well as women founders and create the right kind of impact from the clean and green perspective. 

Tanya’s in Singapore while Christine is in Hong Kong. Both were equally hilarious yet firm and ferocious in their desire to change the conversation about women, money and investing. 

From organic raspberries to standup comedy, these two ladies will surprise you with their experiences as women who do talk about money!

Check out the full show notes (and their best quotable quotes) at womenpreneurasia.com

She started five businesses in five years since she came back to Sarawak after being away with her family and caring for her son who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that happens to young children.

She is the founder and managing director of Borneo International Exhibition Sdn Bhd, an events management business that helps other businesses organise large-scale events and expos in Borneo and beyond. She is also the managing partner of Orion Social Media (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd.

This is a woman who became a mum at 21 and at one point even drove a lorry while pregnant as she had to manage events for her clients! 

Fiona is tough, strong-willed, pragmatic and persistent. She learnt about crisis management and decision-making from taking care of her son and the years of being in and out of hospitals. 

Due to her son's condition, Fiona also started The Royce Foundation (named after her son) as a primary source for cancer information and resources in Sarawak.

She also started and founded 11Ridgeway Kuching, a community-driven event venue in Kuching designed for people to meet, greet, work and network. 11Ridgeway is also the birthplace of The Royce Foundation.  

For more information, check out womenpreneurasia.com

Yet years ago, she was suffering from such severe migraine attacks that she couldn’t even get out of bed! 

Her story is quite unique in that she was focused on teaching financial education when she came back from the Middle East.

Yet life sometimes throws us curve balls and she came to a realization that she herself needed to be well first. She couldn’t help others if she herself wasn’t feeling absolutely her best. 

Thanks to solving her own migraine attacks, she has improved her health to the extent that “my health is better now in my 40s compared to my 20s”.

Penny is proud of her bounce back to wellness and now endeavours to share what she knows with her customers and her community of 40,000 people. 

For show notes and more, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Padmaja is the Founder & CEO of Siksha Group, which offers learning and development for companies across India.

She is also the CEO of NEWS Navigation that specializes in executive coaching and organizational transformation solutions.

She is also the co-founder of WeMantra which enables individuals and organizations to create a diverse and inclusive ecosystem and unleash growth. 

Padmaja also established the Siksha Mehak Foundation in 2006, a trust that supports children with cancer, orphaned autistic children and children from the lower economic strata.

She didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur - she was an athlete since young and she thought she had her life mapped out until a sports injury forced her to rethink what she wanted to do with her life. 

For show notes and more details, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Chalita is the Managing Director of Wakingbee Corporation based in Bangkok, Thailand. 

She doesn’t call herself a fitness freak but came to start a fitness and activewear clothing brand after quitting as a management consultant.

It was a desire to get healthy that put her on the entrepreneurial track. While trying to get to the gym, she realised all the available brands she looked at didn’t quite fit her need for something fun, feminine and active. That's how Wakingbee was born!

In this episode:

• What she was more concerned about and it wasn’t failure
• What surprised her the most about approaching manufacturers for her line of activewear 
• How she went from consultant to an entrepreneur all because she couldn’t find the right activewear for herself 
• What she does to keep her brand fresh and exciting even after 6 years in the Thai market 
• What she found most intriguing when she started her business and it had nothing to do with numbers or KPIs 
• How she convinced manufacturers to work with them despite having no track record in the clothing industry

For more show notes and information, visit womenpreneurasia.com

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Saliza manages a 100% woman-owned security services business - one which belonged to her late mother.

The original business offered physical guarding and security services. Since taking over, Saliza has expanded the scope of business to include training and surveillance.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What it's like running a fully woman-owned business with her late mother when she got back from the US
• What it's like now with her niece as the upcoming third generation 
• Restructuring the business into what it is today - revenues are now in the 8 figures
• Other businesses and diversification strategies that she embarked upon
• The real success markers in business
• Pushing the women’s agenda through her business and how she does it
• The creation of a family constitution as the basis of the business moving forward
• Why women must never be shy about talking about their businesses
• Why women are her best allies in business and the importance of the right networks
• How the pandemic helped her get better

For show notes and more, visit womenpreneurasia.com

She is the Managing Director of The Growth and Change Co., Ltd, Thailand and founder and board member of Brighton College International School just outside of Bangkok.

She has also conceptualised and set up two boutique hotels in Chiangmai from scratch!

Titaporn is also an executive coach with Aberkyn.

These businesses seem unrelated on the surface but as we went deeper into the conversation, we realized that each of these businesses taps into Titaporn’s love for learning and education.

A mother of three teenagers, Titaporn came into the business after 12 years in the corporate world of McKinsey. As a management consultant, she had no idea what she was going to do when she quit her job except that she wanted to go into business. 

In this episode, she spoke about:

• Why having 3 scenarios for a business is crucial
• What she is no longer afraid of, having learnt this lesson during this covid pandemic
• A pivotal time of her life - one that changed her life completely
• Her big regret until today (and it has nothing to do with her businesses) 
• The crucial 24 months in the startup phase of any business 
• How decisions are no longer escalated up to her 
• Where she intends to go into the next phase of her entrepreneurial life 
• Setting herself a crazy goal each year 
• The secret sauce enabling her to manage all her businesses as well as her family without losing her head 
• Why you don’t need to go to university to learn about business 

For other interesting nuggets about Titaporn, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Jayce spent years in the corporate world while Fanny was in the creative industry. 

The two Singaporean sisters created a pool and network of freelancers in Singapore and across the region to help corporate companies with everything media-related and creative-related such as photography to graphic design, from advertisements to short films.

Unlike other platforms which offer freelancer matchmaking, CreativesAtWork's value is in the project management so that the creatives can be at their creative best!

Jayce and Fanny saw that the market was ripe for a new generation of freelancers. Freelancing was becoming a more viable option for many especially the millennials.

In this episode, Jayce and I speak about how she started and the challenges of running a media agency. She spoke about growing beyond offering project management as their business matures.

We spoke about:

• What she wished she had known 9 years ago when she first started her media agency 
• How she and her sister navigate that tricky, slippery slope of being siblings who are in business together
• The importance of working for others if your dream is to become your own boss eventually 
• How she looked at clients’ work in the early years versus how she looks at the work now
• Her most important piece of advice for herself (and for you) and she said she wished she learnt this sooner and saved herself all the pain and frustration 
• The unpopular, contrarian opinion of dealing with difficult clients 

For show notes and more, visit womenpreneurasia.com

iZi Community is an online gamification and AI-based education platform made for learners who need snack-sized learning.

Interestingly, Laura is a non-tech founder where she leads her team of programmers in connecting learners and content creators in Vietnam. 

But this is not her first business. She started her first business at 21 with a team of 30 people because she wanted to prove a point.

In this episode, Laura talks about:

• How she defines success and its counterpart, failure 
• How she started her business at 21 and what she learned from that first venture of hers
• What she learnt from her failure in the early days of her business
• How she decided to get back into the business when she saw an opportunity open up during the pandemic lockdown
• Her own feelings about education prompted her to rethink education 
• How she didn’t focus on the money when she started and why this is important
• What’s important to know for non-tech women startup founders like her 
• How she validated her edu-tech idea (and what we can learn from this process)
• The habits that she practices daily to ensure she is always on the path she wants for herself 

More details and show notes at womenpreneurasia.com

After working for a few years in London, Helen came home to Penang, Malaysia to work in the family business.

Yet, her heart was always in the arts. She described how she would visit museums and art galleries in London and found that she was always joyful in these places.

And that was how she realised she had to pursue her love for the arts and started her design firm, Blanc Designs.

Helen loves to incorporate art as 3D forms for homes and offices rather than have art within a frame and within the confines of the museum or gallery.

She tests and tries unconventional ways of displaying and appreciating art while creating pieces that are functional. To her, art is life and life is art. 

For more information about Helen, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Yuka's business started as a B2C business and soon after, became also a B2B business and now she even has a third business due to the pandemic!

Due to her innate curiosity for the world at large, her business is all about fostering intercultural relations between international students with the local Japanese.

It started with a simple premise - tutoring services. Later, she also saw a need to help international students who graduated and wanted to stay in Japan to look for work. This became another business.

Because of the pandemic, her first two businesses almost came to a standstill and she had to quickly find a way to still keep her Japanese customers connected to her international students.

Thus began the online intercultural sessions, tapping again into the resources she had built up over the years!

For more about Yuka (and her background before she became an entrepreneur), get the full article at womenpreneurasia.com

If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and review!

TACT World began in 1991 when she had to leave full-time work to take care of her family and for 31 years, Amita has been training, coaching and facilitating.

She still works with corporate clients but she also now focuses her energy on women. Amita has a passion for working with women using women circles and retreats, incorporating storytelling and coaching and group therapy to help women overcome self-limiting beliefs.

In this episode, Amita talks about:

• The first book she authored had nothing to do with training or development surprisingly 
• Why Mrs Gandhi’s assassination in India also affected her and changed her path in life 
• Why she is more willing to embrace that which is uncommon right now in her life
• Being a one-woman business when she started although her passion was only in designing training curriculum
• Why she checked herself when her son said that he didn’t want to go to college and more

I hope you have enjoyed Season 2. I will be back with an even more stellar line-up of women CEOs and women founders in Season 3. Catch my personal message at the end of this episode. I'll see you in Season 3 which launches on 1 October.

More details: womenpreneurasia.com

She was top in her personal sales for the Mary Kay Singapore Sales Director Category last year despite it being a challenging year due to the pandemic. She also leads her own team of beauty consultants. 

But more than that, she spoke about how she saw herself transforming from a timid person to someone who now uses live videos to educate her customers.

She also talks about using personality tests and tools to help her manage her team of beauty consultants and she also debunks some of the myths associated with direct selling. 

She also admitted that running a business helped her become a better mother instead of always hovering around her children like a helicopter mum. She has given them the space to be themselves and to be independent. 

More at womenpreneurasia.com

She has two outlets in Penang with a third planned for Kuala Lumpur.

Dandy is an all-day casual eatery, bakery and café serving a massive 150 items on their menu. These contemporary Mediterranean dishes include pastries and desserts. 

Michelle who is from Kuching, Sarawak and her husband Jamal who is from Lebanon were already running a security systems business when they had the idea to start a food business despite no experience in F&B.

Michelle says it was her late father, who ran a textile business in Kuching, that encouraged her in business. Her mum was worried though.

From learning how to make the perfect cup of caramel macchiato to ensuring customers keep coming back, Michelle has never stopped learning about becoming a better restauranteur.

She shares a lot more gems in this episode so listen to find out more.

For more, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Boonsiri is of Malaysian Thai-Chinese descent and is well known in the multinational corporation circle where she had spent more than 30 years before she left to join her husband, Tony, in the business. 

In her previous corporate role, Boonsiri was a finance and operations professional leading a global team that delivered business accounting services that supported a multinational’s entire global entities.

Her turning point was a TEDx Talk that she gave in 2015 that spoke about failure for the first time ever in front of her family and people who knew her as a successful corporate high flyer.

In this interview, you will hear Boonsiri’s enthusiasm for life, work and family. She is determined, strong and capable and yet isn’t afraid to reveal that she too is human with her own shortcomings.

Find out more about Boonsiri at womenpreneurasia.com

She started her business when she was 41 and in looking back, she wished she had started much earlier!

Kereses Consulting India Private Ltd is a HR consulting business based in Bangalore, India that Radha started with her friend.

As a HR recruiter, Radha is responsible for the planning, budgeting and operations of recruitment and training, and engages with organizations to facilitate a connection between potential employers and employees.

While she helps employers in Bangalore find the right talents to power and run their businesses, she is also in her own way pushing the women’s agenda.

Radha who considers herself a tough cookie and a feminist said she would try to inject a gender perspective into the hiring process and open more doors for women in the labour force in Bangalore. 

Some factories, she said, never even had a women’s bathroom on their premises because hiring women was simply not in the equation!

These were some of the HR-related yet women-related matters that Radha is trying to push for in her business.

She may not run a social enterprise but it shows that a woman in business can influence how other women are hired and employed. 

In this episode, she talks about:

• The differences between running one’s own business versus working in the corporate world
• What she says to employers who insist that the jobs are meant for men 
• Her zero billings when the pandemic hit India and the world and hiring wasn’t even possible 
• That one single quality that differentiates a great recruiter from a good one
• How she has to chase after candidates and ensure they get to the interviews and the prep work she does before they even get to the interview 
• Why LinkedIn is a great place for people like her 
• What she does when she’s faced with a difficult decision

Find additional information on womenpreneurasia.com

Jaklin was born and bred in Kota Belud in rural Sabah, East Malaysia. Her village didn’t have electricity and as a child she studied by candlelight.

In this interview, she spoke about how she kept on moving and having the momentum to get out of her challenging situation, and being smart about the resources she had around her. 

She has certainly done well for herself. Since 2008, as a corporate trainer, Jaklin has trained more than 40 organizations, 35,000 participants and logged in 4200 hours of corporate training and 800 hours of 1-on-1 coaching and mentoring.

Quite inspiring for someone who admitted that as a young graduate, she had this intense fear of public speaking!

Jaklin had worked in Shell and Lafarge, two large multinational companies for years before she decided to start her own business.

Based on her experience, she had a vision of what her business would be like but her business didn’t exactly turn out that way.

Listen to this episode for the full story.

Get more information about Jaklin at womenpreneurasia.com

Shamala is the founder of Hanai, a social enterprise that empowers women to take charge of their health. 

Her first app, Hanai Jiwa Ibu, targeted at rural Malaysia provides women with access to information about maternal, mental health and domestic violence in addition to a complete doctor’s directory and information on COVID-19. 

Inspired by her own grandmother, Shamala who now lives in Germany with her husband and two children, calls herself an Ipoh girl at heart.

She worked in three continents - North America, Asia an Europe - and trained as a scientist and in her own words, had a comfortable life and career. 

Her pivotal turn came when she spent four months in India.

Shamala says, “A large part of the world is actually still rural and women never know what to do in an emergency, never know that it is an emergency and that they need to do something right there.” 

She adds, “We want to be in that position to give every woman the ability to make decisions on her own and get help.”

In this episode, Shamala talks about:

• Her time crossing north and south India, opening up her eyes to the issues plaguing rural women
• How she was moved by a death of a woman which pushed her to start with Borneo
• Why starting a health tech company wasn’t just about coding the apps 
• and lots more.

For more information about her, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Urbanmetry is a data company that cleans and analyses large amounts of city data, through its proprietary algorithms with the purpose of using data to better inform, plan and develop sustainable urban dwellings. 

With offices in Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi, Urbanmetry collaborated with ThinkCity to publish a book in 2016 titled The Secret Atlas of Greater Kuala Lumpur which offers insights to various industries through the lens of big data. 

For a woman in a largely male-dominated industry, Cha-Ly takes it in her stride, citing, “It’s not a bed of roses and not impossible either.” 

In this episode, you will hear some fascinating yet honest truths from Cha-Ly such as:

• What happened when she started with her “naive” idea and that didn’t stick even after she threw so much money at it! 
• How she decided to transform her business from a B2C to a B2B business (and how the realization came to her and surprisingly, it didn’t involve asking for feedback) 
• How she stopped “marketing” and where all if not most of her clients come from now 
• How her business started to grow after she did one thing that she should’ve done from the beginning
• The real truth about listening to the market 
• Her toughest challenges as a woman CEO who is also the single founder of her company 

For more information about Cha-Ly and some quotable quotes that you will love, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Intan, as she is fondly known, grew up in a small town of Batu Gajah, Perak but was encouraged by her father to be who she wanted to be. She admitted she once drove a Ferrari that wasn't hers and she even set up a daycare centre prior to setting up this training consultancy business.

She was 33 and a single mother of 2 daughters when she started her business. 

She went from being a bank executive to a unit trust consultant and finally found her calling in being an entrepreneur and trusted trainer for corporations and companies.

What’s in this episode:

• What this single mother of two did to plan her exit from the corporate world after realizing finance wasn’t her cup of tea 
• How she learnt business skills she knew she needed but didn’t yet have 
• What she realised about the world when she became an entrepreneur (and how she learnt through heartbreaking mistakes how to separate business from friendship)
• The two factors that helped her succeed in the training consultancy business and much more

Find out more about her at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Sophie's business was hit particularly hard by the pandemic as hers was a retail business, dependent on foot traffic in the mall.

What was supposed to be the worst possible year for her turned out to be a year of possibilities and renewed hope.

She had to make some decisions but by making these decisions, she grew a new business that was particularly suited to her experience and expertise in the fashion industry. She combined what she knew with what she could do for women who were looking for help.

She also chose the route of collaboration, partnering with a friend by sharing resources which in turn allowed her more freedom of time!

Sophie's entrepreneurial pivoting is truly an insightful story of resilience, of never giving up and of making the most of what one has.

For links and show notes, visit womenpreneurasia.com

Her business helps companies create memorable events, launches and conferences.

Some of her noteworthy events include:

• Managing the itinerary of the richest man in the world who was visiting Malaysia but she didn't even have time to gawk at him or request a photograph! (In case you didn't know, the man in question was Bill Gates.)
• Organising a 600-delegate conference in Macao and much of the stress made her sleep the entire day once the event was over. It was so significant that Hong Kong's TVB did a reality TV type of show having their TV crew trail Susan when she was organising this massive event. in Macao.
• Managing 80s pop icon Rick Astley when he arrived in Malaysia and she suddenly realised he wasn't very tall at all. (She was literally staring down at him.)

The business sounds glamorous when you're in front as a spectator. But when you're behind-the-scenes, managing multiple schedules, clients, sub-contractors, vendors and teams, it is complex artistry at its best.

It was a delight talking to Susan despite the fact that the pandemic had hit the events management business hard.

In this episode, Susan talks about:

• How she managed and "processed" 1000+ participants for the biggest Windows 2000 launch in Malaysia back then
• What happened when she got tired of everything
• How her growing billings changed her thinking from being a freelancer to being a boss
• How she handled prospecting
• How she became smart about her pitches and proposals
• Her "eye roll" list and the occupational hazards and the "sickness" that plagues most event planners and conference organisers

Find out more about Susan at womenpreneurasia.com

Rowena is the editor, writer, publisher and programme director at Vertical Distinct with offices in Malaysia and Australia.

She started her entrepreneurial journey in the most unusual way - she got herself a working visa to New Zealand which later landed her in Australia which turned into work for a startup!

That startup experience during the heady days of the dotcom boom eventually turned into the dot-com bust but that didn't stop Rowena from coming back to Malaysia to launch her business, armed with what she had seen and done in Australia. 

In this episode, Rowena talks about: 

• How she took her startup experience to help her start her conference business in Malaysia for HR professionals
• How that led her to her publishing business even though she had no magazine publishing experience! 
• How her business evolved into more private executive briefings and exclusive HR breakfast roundtables that were the talk of the town (which was creative but terrifying as she was the pioneer of such a concept)
• How she made safe spaces for authentic HR discussions with senior HR professionals
• How her internal marker shifted each time she undertakes a role she'd rather not take as she admits she is more of a behind-the-scenes person 

Find out more about her favourite books and more in our show notes at womenpreneurasia.com

For the next 13 weeks, we will feature 13 incredibly inspiring yet down-to-earth women in business across Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and India. A new episode airs every Friday.

In this first episode of Season 2, I am excited to present to you a smart and successful Malaysian entrepreneur, See Wai Hun. 

Wai Hun is the CEO and co-founder of Juristech, a Malaysian fintech company that provides banking solutions.

Since acquiring iMoney in 2020, she is also the CEO of iMoney, a personal finance company that empowers consumers so that they can make intelligent money decisions. 

She was amazing to talk to as she is down-to-earth with a curious yet sharp mind, possessing a practical humility about herself, her background and the businesses that she is running. 

Despite her fame and success in the fintech world, Wai Hun happily considers motherhood as her biggest accomplishment and milestone.

In this interview, Wai Hun openly shared her heartfelt thoughts and experiences that were fascinating as well as thoroughly inspiring from the challenges of growing a business to how she started her business during the Asian financial crisis in 1997 (the reason was totally surprising!).

She did a brilliant job as she made me talk about what mattered to me the most and how I ended up doing what I do now. I also had many a-ha moments during the course of our interview as I realised how stories have been a major influence in my life even from a young age.

I spoke about being uncomfortable, bored, angry and curious and these emotions catapulted me into starting life-changing projects that impact the community and solve problems. In this episode, I also spoke about the importance of raising leaders while being fulfilled and happy at what I do.

Season 2 launches on 16 April so stay tuned!

I never wanted to be an entrepreneur; all I wanted to do was to do well in my career. I never thought I was a risk-taker.

I've been truly blessed and grateful for the amazing opportunities that have come my way.

I've co-founded the business I am and I really enjoy helping our clients.

I've also co-founded a women entrepreneur organisation in Penang, Malaysia where we grow and nurture women in businesses and provide a network of support and resources.

And then I started this podcast. Not on a whim but something I had wanted to do for a long time.

Enjoy this story of mine!

Her journey as an entrepreneur has many twists and turns, some hilarious and others quite heartbreaking.

But Anja never gives up. She is one determined woman. She was so determined that she decided to go to Paris to pitch someone she didn't even know.

In this interview, she also talks about what it means to be a social enterprise and what shifted the balance for her in her entrepreneurial life. 

The idea behind Anja's business is about reducing period poverty issues while educating women and girls on safe and earth-friendly menstrual hygiene practices.

Having one's period shouldn't be the reason why rural girls drop out of school and lose out on education. This is where Anja's products come in to enable girls to reach their full potential. 

Initially, her business arose out of a curiosity to earn an income but eventually, she made a mission out of the business although she could not sew!

Presently, she is an angel investor with investments in businesses across Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. She also serves on several business advisory boards, NGOs & universities. She is also on the board of MATRADE. 

In this episode, she talks about how she grew up in Rifle Range, Penang and learnt entrepreneurship when she sold nasi lemak around the neighbourhood. She also helped with her mother's hairdressing business in their home which doubled up as a hair salon!

She has come a long way since then and her story is truly one of grit and hard work. Enjoy this episode!

She is in the business of providing wood packaging solutions such as pallets, crates and boxes to multinational corporations that need to ship and send their precious cargo all over the world. 

This is a multi-million ringgit industry but it is also a rough-and-tough business. The wood packaging industry is a challenging industry as sustainable timber resources need to be managed while competitors are aplenty. The factory is usually hot, noisy and dusty. In fact, Lay Pheng has experienced going into forests and jungles to visit timber suppliers and check on the wood supplies! 

Lay Pheng returned to helm the family business not because she wanted to but because her father asked her to. She couldn’t refuse as this family business was truly built on sweat, grit and tears.

She put aside her own plans which included her own business to step up and lead the manufacturing business.

The business has since expanded into Vietnam with more countries to come. In the last five years that she has come onboard, the company has gone on to win multiple awards for quality and innovation with the most recent one being Asia’s Leading SME Award in 2020. 

STRAVIK Business Consulting offers business startup consulting to multinational companies keen to establish a strong presence and foothold in Malaysia as well as business optimisation consulting to organisations and Small Medium Enterprises looking to increase revenue.

Together with her team, she provides strategic consultation with strong analytical and operational expertise, leveraging today's technology including artificial intelligence systems.

But she wasn’t always an entrepreneur. In fact, she started out as an engineer who loved challenges and problem-solving.

She kept climbing up the career ladder in the multinational corporation that she worked for and even chose, after a while, to change tracks and venture into human resources. 

Her last role before she left to start STRAVIK was a milestone to be proud of. She was the first Malaysian female managing director for a UK-based multinational company for five years, growing the company to a 600-strong workforce. 

In this interview, she talks about why she left the comfortable corporate world, a world she has known well since the day she started working more than two decades ago.

It is an initiative that helps the women of the Penan tribe in Sarawak to earn regular incomes and ensures the traditional art of weaving is kept alive.

The Penan women are expert weavers despite having no formal education.

Penan Women Project buys the handmade bags from the Penan women and markets the bags and totes at community fairs and bazaars in Miri, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, and Penang. Some volunteers also organise sale days at their homes to market these bags - bags that come with a story.

Ann used to study and work in the US for more than a decade before settling back in Kuching, Sarawak. 

She uses her art and design knowledge to help the Penan women through the Penan Women Project. This is her story but it is also a story of empowering the Penan women of Sarawak.

These nests are carefully harvested and made into edible health products and even skincare for the Indonesian market as well as overseas markets.

It isn't just a business like any other; Marlienna is tapping into her business acumen and network as a means to help her help the community she feels strongly about - underprivileged children - while providing jobs to women in need.

Grow The Goose happened because her sons came to her one day and asked for roller shoes.

She didn't give her boys the money. Nina encouraged her boys to put on their thinking caps and be creative in looking for solutions.

Her one idea for her boys turned into the quirkily named Grow The Goose, a social enterprise that empowers kids to be problem-solvers and solution-finders. Her business teaches children how to be financially-savvy while nurturing their entrepreneurial skills. 

Nina also openly talks about the reasons her 13 business ventures failed in the past and what she learnt from those experiences. She used her past to help her redefine her future and the future of her social enterprise!

She was making a list of baby items and equipment she wanted to buy for her firstborn with her husband when they realized how expensive everything was. 

This problem prompted them to look into starting Babyloania which began as a baby equipment rental business serving other parents in areas such as Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang dan Bekasi.

Babyloania has been quite the success story in Indonesia; Zhafira has been featured on CNN and CNBC Indonesia for not just her inventiveness but also her openness to share what she knows with other parents and businesses.

Interestingly, Zhafira and her husband have also started collaborating with their competitors - some 126 of them.

She has since started two other businesses as a result of starting Babyloania and she shares some of her best marketing and hiring strategies in this power-packed episode!

At every twist and turn, she has courageously taken the next step even though she didn’t really know what was in store. Anushia admits she has been very lucky throughout her career and business life.

From being an exchange student in Japan to backpacking overland from Germany to Malaysia, Anushia is adventurous and optimistic and yet has her feet planted firmly on the ground!

She believes that doing something for humanity and saving the world has always been on her agenda and business is one of the means to get her there.

Norhani Pacasum of Ziya Inc. had to re-evaluate her options and face her deepest fears as the Philippine government ordered a lockdown in the city of Manila.

She felt she was, for the first time ever, in a truly dark place. She was fearful but she decided she was going to find the silver lining in this period of uncertainty.

In this episode, Norhani speaks frankly about teamwork, resilience and the need to quickly adapt even though she and her team were incredibly afraid.

In this episode, Maresa Ng of The Spark Group Asia talks candidly about her coaching business. She began with a lot of passion and enthusiasm but she was pushing herself so hard and wanting to succeed so badly that she forgot how to live life.

Insecurity, exhaustion, frustration - you name it, she had it.

Maresa's business was running her to the ground and she came to a point where she had to make a huge decision about her business.

This is the introduction episode for Womenpreneur Asia and how I faced up to all my fears.

I had wanted to start a podcast for the longest time but it was just a lot of wishing and wondering. But Hawaii and the East-West Center (and all the good folks from mentors, mentees and peers) in July 2019 changed my life. Enjoy this episode!

For more details, visit FromVisionToVoice.com

• the impetus behind the 30 day visibility challenge they launched on 1 September
• who the challenge is for and how to participate
• tips for anyone who is keen to accept the challenge

To join our program waitlist, visit FromVisionToVoice.com

• staying flexible but ensuring a weekly cadence to get things done
• having difficult conversations and remaining independent yet respectful
• adding new items for discussion such as pricing, scholarship, new product lines
• ensuring accessibility and autonomy for program participants

If you are interested in joining this program, From Vision To Voice, please get more details from FromVisionToVoice.com

• why it's so important for you to build your visibility
• cohesive storytelling --- why this matters
• how experience and taking action are instrumental in helping you decide your path
• what makes our program unique --- "doing " is a core program feature

For more details, visit FromVisionToVoice.com

• what makes people generally uncomfortable about marketing
• what if you're not promoting yourself but advocating for an idea or cause instead?
• why you should consider embracing what feels uncomfortable
• the marketing strategies they find work best

For more, visit FromVisionToVoice.com

• exactly who this program is designed for
• the importance of showing up as themselves and what that means
• addressing the fear but also remaining authentic
• "what if I'm not a content creator?"

For more, visit FromVisionToVoice.com

• some of the fears that held them back in their early years
• dealing with "it's already been said..." and "everyone seems to be a guru these days....:
• no one has your exact set of experiences and this makes you uniquely you
• taking an experimental approach to failing and reframing failure

For more, visit FromVisionToVoice.com

• a week-by-week account of what the program looks like
• what participants can get out of the program
• how much time you need (just 3 hours a week)

For more information, visit FromVisionToVoice.com

• the tools used to develop this program
• why they started with an online form, a landing page and YouTube
• developing a behind-the-scenes series of videos
• why you need to protect your dream

Find out more about the program: FromVisionToVoice. com

We came up with this idea of a Behind-The-Scenes series as a series of videos (which you can watch on Youtube) as we were developing our virtual program.

I decided to repurpose this as an audio or podcast series to give the program a wider reach.

In this second episode, Rowena and I spoke about

• our career journeys including the challenges we faced along the way
• details about the program we're developing
• why the program is designed to last 4 weeks

This BTS or Behind-The-Scenes series is not to be confused with my regular podcast season.

The virtual program for Cohort 1 is now open for applications.

Get details at Tinyurl.com/FromVisionToVoice

We came up with this idea of a Behind-The-Scenes series as a series of videos (which you can watch on Youtube) as we were developing our virtual program.

I decided to repurpose this as an audio or podcast series to give the program a wider reach.

In this first episode, Rowena and I spoke about

• why we are developing this program
• who the program is designed for
• what it means to help women show up and shine

This BTS or Behind-The-Scenes series is not to be confused with my regular podcast season.

Get details at FromVisionToVoice.com