Who is Pearl and why did she start Rebel Curiosities? In this final episode of season 2, the tables have been turned - I get interviewed as a guest instead by the wonderfully insightful Dalglish Chew, professional coach and partner at Avalanche VC, who was my very first  guest on the podcast! Dalglish takes to his role as interviewer and coach effortlessly, digging deep into my psyche for the motivations behind the podcast.  I knew I started this podcast as a learning journey, into the...

Petr Ludwig is the best-selling author of the book, The end of Procrastination, and the founder and CEO of his company, procrastination.com.  His book has been translated in over 20 languages and sold 400,000 copies across 28 countries since it was published in 2013. He is a successful entrepreneur and keynote speaker.  But that’s not what we will be talking about today. In this episode, my conversation with Petr starts with him sharing what it means to be a rebel or “punk” soul - and...

In the world of business and marketing, product commonly trumps customer.  And by that, I mean we usually focus too much on product promotion, than thinking on focusing on the customers and their experience. I wanted to find out more about how we can do things differently.    So I reached out to our guest for this episode, Ilenia Vidili, who is the speaker and author of the book - Journey to Centricity - to find out more about her views on doing marketing differently.  But.  What I came...

Work.  It’s constantly  on our minds,  what we think of when things go wrong - or when things seem to be going well - and what consumes our being.   How do we think about work, and how do we get it right? What do companies have to do to help people find the right fit and roles? Aki Taha is the former Director of Talent Acquisition at Netflix, as well as the Head of Recruiting for organisations such as Uber and Google.  With his extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of recruitment,...

What does your own personal rebellion look like? You certainly don’t need to be that teenage rebel or be destructive. In fact, the ideal inner rebellion happens with deep self reflection and awareness, often for a better and more constructive mindset shift. In this part 2 of the interview with Kenneth Tan, we discussed more of his own personal journey, how he came to be who he is, with the reflection of “having a rebellion for every decade”.  His open honesty about his early years of...

“The smarter leaders are, the harder they find to make it simple.” Why do we find it so hard to learn the leadership language, one that transcends across cultures and people? What does true purposeful leadership look like... in a world that’s filled with buzzwords? **** In this conversation, I am speaking with Kenneth Tan, President of APAC at Varian, a global multinational company specialising in cancer diagnostic and treatment solutions, now part of Siemens Healthineers.  There were so...

How did a group of communication students transform - from what started as a school project - into a successful thriving media group across Southeast Asia, garnering accolades for their featured stories of Singapore... and being featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list? I speak with Kai Yuan Ng, co-founder of Our Grandfather Story, a successful media brand under the Unfold Asia group. “OGS", as it is commonly known, delivers a genuine story-telling approach to the raw, controversial and...

“I wish I can do it too.” This is a statement I get when people ask me about what I do - or when we share the inspirational stories of people stepping outside of the conventional paths.  But what’s really holding us back - and why is it so hard to find our “why”? * * In this episode, I speak with Wong Ling Yah, who’s a lawyer for 10 years, based in Malaysia.  In her journey to find out if there’s more to life than the job she was in, she started out with a travel blog, then created a...

“What would the 80-year-old you... thank you for what you do today?” That was the question with a coach that sparked Adeline Tiah to rethink her career path.  Having been an accomplished marketer with more than 20 years of experience across top banks and telco, Adeline had plenty to rest her laurels on.  But the question stuck with her. If she had to work for another 15 years, what would she do differently? So she started writing.  What was to be her own dissection of doing things...

For season 2 of Rebel Curiosities, we dive deeper into rethinking our own "status quo" - how to challenge some of our own personal biases and bring about change for better interactions and outcomes.  And we are kicking off with the topic - RESPECT.  Ever wondered why some people tend to feel disrespected, even if we didn’t intend it? Or how you felt the resentment of not given respect, from the smallest things like someone cutting you off to  being late? Julie Pham is an individual who is on...

In this season 1 roundup, I look back at the best moments that each expert guest on Rebel Curiosities have shared - across different areas of work, life, business and leadership. SECTION 1 - WORK/SELF (00:56) Lisa Partridge: Curiosity is more about listening - than asking questions(03:00) Jan Yeo: How to deviate from the “herd” with curiosity - while facing the fears(05:21) Dalglish Chew: Digging deeper in coaching to help others get unstuck (08:46) Matthew Murrie: Why AI is going to be...

Having grown up in an environment that does not have physical or psychological safety, Coen Tan is an empath who grew up not recognising his abilities to pick up emotions as a strength. As a result of that, he went through difficult periods in school, being bullied, with a yearning to be seen, heard and respected.  He watched and learned how people interacted with each other, pick up storytelling to get others’ attention productively without being too much. He discovered that being able to...

“You have to fail to know how to do it.... yet a lot of people lack the curiosity to deviate from the herd.”  Jan Yeo is a Singapore-based entrepreneur who certainly does not play by the rulebook when it comes to choosing a career path.  Jan started his studies in dual-sciences and realised that it wasn’t quite his calling. He then explored different routes as a web developer, to interactive advertising and marketing, to starting his own businesses - one of which included the...

How does curiosity drive the profit & loss of a business?  Why should we lead with curiosity for better business results? Today I speak with Febronia Ruocco, a Global Strategic Insights Director, who has worked for a number of notable companies and brands such as Cadbury, Diageo, Heineken, McDonalds, Mars, and Heinz. Having been exposed to marketing in her early career, she discovered her fascination with how consumers behave with certain brands - and how that curiosity unlocks a deeper...

Gail Robertson started out as a journalist and learnt that asking questions, not just any questions but the right ones, will get you better stories... and better relationships for work.  And being a force of nature herself, she soon found herself pulled into different paths in her career, following her curiosities along the way.  Gail is currently the CEO - or more accurately, the Chief Curiosity Officer - of GailNow, a marketing and business consultancy specialising in manufacturing,...

Matthew Murrie is a curious guy.  In fact, he is so curious about things around him and the way we learn and work, that he pursued the research of science and psychology in curiosity, asking questions along the way that challenges the status quo. Matt is the executive director of What If Curiosity, a professional consultancy focused on developing and driving curiosity-based thinking in the workplace - and the author of eight science books on curiosity. He is a two-time Returned Peace Corps...

Curious rebels harness the power of curiosity in the way they think, to being who they are and driving what they do. They are the ones who rethink the status quo and are likely to have chosen unconventional paths, than follow the one laid out for them.  And today’s guest, Leonard Reese, is someone who has done just that.  After college, Leonard moved to East Africa to teach computer literacy to adults in rural Zanzibar. He continued to travel for the next several years, as he freelanced...

Curiosity is a wonderful trait for connecting with people - but what happens when the other person get a little too inquisitive and starts asking questions that feel like an interrogation? Or worse, use the curiosity against you in conversations you aren’t prepared for - especially on social media? I speak with Lisa Partridge, a communications specialist and founder of SIXCOMMS consultancy, which runs training programs for professionals looking to improve their communication skills. She...

Walking into retail pharmacies these days is a very different experience - and no one understands this better than Rhett Hemedes, who began his career in advertising in global agencies like Leo Burnett, Lintas and BBDO, working on multinational pharmaceutical accounts like Glaxo Smithkline and Boehringer Ingelheim. He is currently an Independent Advisor on Strategy & Innovation in Health, Wellness & Marketing Technology. He began consulting at Sasin School of Management where he...

What does curious leadership look like? Why don’t corporate environments make it easy for curiosity to thrive?  I discuss the challenges and opportunities of leading with curiosity with Wayne Reuben - founder and CEO of www.engage4performance.com - who has over 30 years of commercial leadership experience, building and leading teams across Asia Pacific markets.  He shares his thoughts on what exists for reinvention in a curiosity-based leadership approach, and why everyone - including...

We may feel stuck, personally or professionally.  We feel like we have no other choices, no alternate paths ahead. Most often times with deep frustration, exhaustion and eventually, resignation. We tell ourselves life is meant to be like that.  To get unstuck, we need to challenge that inertia to self-awareness, and by gently being curious with ourselves on how we got there.  Dalglish Chew is a professional coach and partner at Avalanche VC, working with startup founders and business leaders...

Join me as I explore conversations with different experts in fields of business, behavioural coaching, leadership and entrepreneurship - on how curiosity has been their own personal superpower and how we can harness it to achieve better results.  For more information on Rebel Curiosities and our guests, please visit www.rebelcuriosities.com.