Stories of Asia Podcast

About ten years ago, Lesli Berggren was making her home in Singapore. She had two beautiful twins, a fulfilling business where she created jewellery, and she felt like the world was her oyster.

But when her doctor told her ten years later that her 12-year-old boy had a type of rare cancer, she gave up her life as she knew it to take care of him.

What followed was a lot of emotional pain and suffering, but Lesli discovered that despite all the devastating things that happened, she was able to find her purpose and become the person she needed to be.

This is Lesli's #10YearChallenge.

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Welcome to the #10yearchallenge podcast by Stories of Asia, hosted by Sara Mahendran. In this podcast, we talk to Asians from all walks of life about their life journeys in the last ten years, so we can learn and grow together.

Follow us on social media:

Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn: @storiesofasiaco

Sara Mahendran:

Instagram - @saras.take

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramahendran/

Support Lesli in her campaign to shine a light on Childhood Cancer by visiting https://www.lovenils.org/

About ten years ago, Lesli Berggren was making her home in Singapore. She had two beautiful twins, a fulfilling business where she created jewellery, and she felt like the world was her oyster.

But when her doctor told her ten years later that her 12-year-old boy had a type of rare cancer, she gave up her life as she knew it to take care of him.

What followed was a lot of emotional pain and suffering, but Lesli discovered that despite all the devastating things that happened, she was able to find her purpose and become the person she needed to be.

This is Lesli's #10YearChallenge.

—

Welcome to the #10yearchallenge podcast by Stories of Asia, hosted by Sara Mahendran. In this podcast, we talk to Asians from all walks of life about their life journeys in the last ten years, so we can learn and grow together.

Follow us on social media:

Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn: @storiesofasiaco

Sara Mahendran:

Instagram - @saras.take

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramahendran/

Support Lesli in her campaign to shine a light on Childhood Cancer by visiting https://www.lovenils.org/

About ten years ago, Ashley Low took on a $40,000 loan to be educated in professional photography. But after graduation, she found herself working part-time as a receptionist because it was hard to find photography work.

Today, she's an award winning photographer with her own studio, and she's one of the best in the field.

But trust us, it was not an easy journey to get there.

She had to deal with family issues, an abusive boyfriend, and it took hundreds of photoshoots, where she earned a pittance, before she could use that money to launch herself to bigger projects.

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Welcome to the #10yearchallenge podcast by Stories of Asia, hosted by Sara Mahendran. In this podcast, we talk to Asians from all walks of life about their life journeys in the last ten years, so we can learn and grow together.

Follow us on social media:

Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn: @storiesofasiaco

Sara Mahendran:

Instagram - @saras.take

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramahendran/

Janine had been travelling half a million miles a year, working in the hotel industry, until she asked herself what her 'why' in life was. That was about 10 years ago.

Today, Janine works at Solve Education!, an edutech startup she co-founded, to help make education accessible for children in poverty, all over the world.

Welcome to the #10yearchallenge podcast by Stories of Asia, hosted by Sara Mahendran. In this podcast, we talk to Asians from all walks of life about their life journeys in the last ten years, so we can learn and grow together.

--

Follow us on social media:

Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn: @storiesofasiaco

Sara Mahendran:

Instagram - @saras.take

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramahendran/

Imagine you and your partner are trying to start a new business. This is the crucial period, and you've both quit your former business to make this work. However, you also have a new child to take care of, and there's no money coming in. One day, you get an offer for a full time job. This means you don't have to worry about buying baby milk powder, meals, paying the bills, and so on. But it also means you don't get to work on your startup during this crucial period. So what do you do?

Dason & Fanny were in this situation and decided to reject the job offer to focus on their startup. Ten years later, they are making it with their logistics tech startup Detrack, which makes delivery tracking easy for everyone. This Singaporean-grown startup had a lot of hurdles to overcome. But today, they have worked with over 700 companies in more than 50 countries and have raked in 2 million dollars of profit in the last year.

Welcome to the ten year challenge podcast by Stories of Asia, hosted by Sara Mahendran. In this podcast, we talk to Asians from all walks of life about their life journeys in the last ten years, so we can learn and grow together.

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Follow us on social media:
Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn: @storiesofasiaco
Sara Mahendran:
Instagram - @saras.take
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramahendran/

10 years ago, Tess Charng always felt an extreme urgency in life. "I felt like I had to do everything now, I wanted to accomplish all my dreams now," she said.

And to some extent, she was doing well. She was excelling at her studies from a young age, and was even chosen to be the spokesperson for Kumon!

However, as she grew, she started to realise that she shouldn’t try to take control of everything. She decided to follow her heart and that led her to travel all over the world. It wasn’t all easy though. She had plenty of hard experiences, and once, she had only $6 in her bank account. The surprising thing was, she was okay with it, and happy through it still.

How did someone who was obsessed with control become a person who is not afraid of change? Listen to Tess' incredible ten-year journey on the #10yearchallenge podcast now.

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Find Stories of Asia at @storiesofasiaco on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Follow our host Sara Mahendran on LinkedIn, and on Instagram at @saras.take

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲?

For some people, it may be, “adventurous” or “candid” but for Teresa Norton,  someone commended her for being “very good and very expensive”.

Kavita says, “It’s not an overnight success but it takes years of commitment and consistency, hard work and being humble enough to know that sometimes you get it wrong.”

In this episode, we invited Kavita Hans, General Manager of Diageo Philippines and Teresa Norton, Founder of STARMAKERS HK to share their views on personal branding.

Tune in to this episode to gain insights from their personal branding journey!

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This is the second parts of the Tell Your Story, Inspire A Journey workshop.

Find Stories of Asia at @storiesofasiaco on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

For more insightful content that helps you build your career, follow Sam Neo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samneo/

𝗜𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗙𝗨𝗟?

There is no doubt that interviews are scary for most people but you can ace it with the right mindset!

In this episode, we invited Kavita Hans, General Manager of Diageo Philippines and Teresa Norton, Founder of STARMAKER HK to share their seasoned tips for interviews and the mindset you should carry when going for your next interview.

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This is the first of two parts of the Tell Your Story, Inspire A Journey workshop.

Find Stories of Asia at @storiesofasiaco on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

For more insightful content that helps you build your career, follow Sam Neo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samneo/

In this episode, Sam shares some of his key takeaways from his conversation with Kanchan Porta-Panjabi, a Plant-Based Chef at Masalas and Olives and a Serial Entrepreneur with her business, La Taula.

When we think about leadership tips and tricks, we usually think of tips like, “listen and communicate”. However, it is equally important to learn things like self-care and coping with burnout.

Tune in to this episode as Sam shares his perspective and some practical tips on coping with burnout, switching careers and slowing down in life and more!

Find Stories of Asia at @storiesofasiaco on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

For more insightful content that helps you build your career, follow Sam Neo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samneo/

In this episode of the Stories of Asia podcast we chat with, Kanchan Porta-Panjabi, a Plant-Based Chef at Masalas and Olives and a Serial Entrepreneur with her business, La Taula.

We discuss how Kanch gathered all her courage to make the switch from the fashion to food industry. What were some of the challenges and what kind of mindset does she have now?

Listen to her unpack these stories and insights in our brand new season of the Stories of Asia Podcast.

Find Stories of Asia at @storiesofasiaco on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

For more insightful content that helps you build your career, follow Sam Neo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samneo/

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This episode is in partnership with Diageo Southeast Asia. We are dedicating this season of the Stories of Asia podcast to inspiring women and allies across Asia, in celebration of International Women’s Day.