So This Is My Why Ling Yah

Adrian Tan, the King of Singapore & ultimate Linkedin Influencer, is back with Part 2 (check out Part 1 in the previous episode)!

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

Highlights:

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


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


📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/101

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

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


Bio

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

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

The King of Singapore has spoken… to me! 😮

His accolades are every Asian parent’s wet dream:

👉🏻 President of Singapore’s Law Society;
👉🏻 Partner at TSMP;
👉🏻 Bestselling author of The Teenage Textbook & The Teenage Workbook, which were turned into a play, movie and TV series etc.; and
👉🏻 LinkedIn writing extraordinaire (all his posts go viral & even hit the mainstream media headlines!)

But who is Adrian Tan, really?

How did Adrian Tan end up where he is?

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

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

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

Why is he the King of Singapore?

And how has cancer ☹️ impacted him?

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

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

Highlights:

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

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


📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/101

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

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

Welcome to STIMY’s 100th episode!

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

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

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


All in the span of 2+ years!!

WOW.

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

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



Highlights:

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


📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/100

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

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

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

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

Welcome to STIMY's special Questions from the Audience episode!

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

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

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



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

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

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



📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/99

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

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

Davy Liu is a Chinese Forrest Gump.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And also the stark difference between Asia and the West.

Highlights:

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

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

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/99

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

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

Devil Wears Prada is the closest thing I have to the world of high fashion.

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

And she should know.

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

She was the American Fashion Director at Time Inc (InStyle), Conde Nast (Lucky magazine), and PaperCity Magazine as Style Editor at Large, working with fashion and jewelry brands Hermès, Gucci, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Cartier among others before transitioning to the technology space.

Francine is also a founding member of BFF, along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Paris Hilton and founders Brit Morin and Jaime Schmidt, and co-founder of several startups including Metagolden - a web3 emporium selling luxury phygitals.

In this episode, we tackle how Francine went from a small island in Hawaii to the world of high fashion publication, what it takes to rise to the top, how she got into the web3 space, how the fashion industry is shifting, why phygitals and more.

Highlights:

2:52 Growing up in Hawaii
4:24 Speed until you get a ticket
6:26 Devil Wears Prada in real life?
8:10 Climbing to the top of US high fashion publication
9:40 Founding a registered resale startup
13:09 Testing an idea
15:04 Fashion Industry x Web3
17:11 Origins of Metagolden
20:35 Phygitals
21:54 Traditional fashion house v fashion house of the future
24:51 Building community
38:06 Are brands afraid of web3?
30:09 Interesting use cases
32:07 Launching Francine’s 1st collection
37:07 How to decide on pricing
40:38 Where community comes from
43:31 Building partnerships
45:00 Dream partner
46:51 How to create a sense of belonging
47:55 Being a founding member of BFF


📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/98

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

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