Comfort & Growth with Crystal Lim-Lange

Christine is a powerhouse and one of the most positive and charismatic superconnectors I know. She is also an unapologetically feminine force in the world of leadership, and one of the friends I trust to give me her candid, unfiltered feedback always!

Her diverse career spans roles at McCann Erickson in Tokyo, Nike across four continents, and leadership in Marketing & Communications at Temasek Trust—the philanthropic arm of Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Temasek Holdings.

A true global nomad, Christine was raised in Philippines with a Filipina mother and a French and Swiss father. She speaks six languages, has called four continents and seven cities home, traversing close to 80 countries and currently resides in Singapore, with her husband and four children. 

She is a a dedicated social entrepreneur, driven by a passion for philanthropy, community building, climate and gender-lens investing, and has founded two impactful NGOs, Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth, using the power of expeditionary travel to support vulnerable women.

 These organisations raise awareness about critical issues disproportionately affecting women such as violence, economic crisis and climate change. Through the education and entrepreneurship initiatives, climate resilience programs, agriculture and wildlife conservation efforts that we fund, she aims to empower women across Asia and Africa.

Christine's links

⁠https://www.christineamourlevar.com/⁠

⁠https://www.herplanetearth.com/⁠

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-amour-levar007/⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/christineamourlevar/⁠

Meet my wellness secret and the go-to TCM expert for celebrities in Singapore, Victoria Tan, founder of Common TCM Medical. In this episode, we talk about the importance of self-care and what TCM can teach us, including practical tips for every day stress reduction.

Victoria is a highly accomplished TCM physician who graduated as Valedictorian with a 1st Class Honours (Bachelor in Biomedical Sciences) and Bachelor of Medicine (Chinese Medicine) from NTU and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. She holds a Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology from NUS, where she was a recipient of the post-graduate scholarship from Academy of Chinese Medicine, Singapore. Throughout her academic journey, she is a two-time recipient of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Foreign Student Scholarship and the Ngee Ann Kongsi Tertiary Scholarship Award.

Being the youngest clinical mentor incorporated by the Singapore TCM Academy, Victoria has given talks to both local and international audiences on TCM and its role in managing various health conditions, and has various media appearances and articles. 

Find out more about Common TCM: 

Instagram: @common.tcm

Website: ⁠www.commontcm.sg⁠

This is a truly special episode with Henry Shukman, one of my personal heroes, a poet, author and Zen master in the Sanbo Zen lineage.

Henry is deeply wise and shares his practical insights on the path of personal growth and awakening. A teacher's teacher, he is respected and loved by many. Tim Ferriss has interviewed him many times, and was an investor in Henry's single-path meditation app ⁠The Way⁠.

Henry is the founder of the ⁠Original Love⁠ meditation program, and spiritual director emeritus at ⁠Mountain Cloud Zen Center⁠. His most recent books are ⁠Original Love: the Four Inns on the Path of Awakening⁠ (HarperOne) and the Zen memoir ⁠One Blade of Grass⁠. He has taught at Google and Harvard Business School, the Institute of American Indian Arts and Oxford Brookes University, and is the author of several award-winning books of poetry and fiction. His poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Sunday Times and Financial Times. Henry has an M.A. from Cambridge and an MLitt from St Andrews.

• Henry’s website: https://henryshukman.com/
• Original Love book: https://henryshukman.com/writing/original-love
• The Way app: https://www.thewayapp.com/
• Henry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/henryshukman/

This week I'm thrilled to have my friend Sarah Samuel, a veteran leader and Head of Airport IT APAC at Amadeus, to share her candid insider views on the leadership game, career visibility, speaking up at work and being a working mom!

Sarah has over 25 years of industry experience, having worked on airport projects such as KL International Airport. Sarah is a prominent voice within the Airport IT industry. 

As a leader, Sarah is passionate about diversity in the workplace. Both within her team and in the wider industry, she is an advocate for all people in aviation and ensuring they have the confidence and opportunity to pursue career exceptionalism.

Follow Sarah on Linkedin here and enjoy the ep!

 ⁠Sarah Samuel | LinkedIn

I know so many of you have been waiting for the start of season 2 and in this special episode, I give you all a life update, talk about my birthday blues, the reality of being a working parent, and share my intentions for a very real and authentic season 2 of Comfort & Growth!

Have you ever wondered how some people seem to bounce back from hard knocks or cope with so many challenges without letting it get them down? In this mini-workshop episode, Crystal shares some science-based strategies, tips and practices to optimise your grit and inner strength.  Using her 5 Gardens of Resilience methodology, which she has taught to tens of thousands of people, we will go on a journey to discover how we can grow a bumper crop of resilience resources so that when life hands us hard things, we feel prepared to face them with confidence.

Highlights
 —————

00:00 Intro

02:07 Resilience definition

05:00 5 Aspects of Resilience model

05:00 Mental resilience

10:30 Emotional Resilience

14:25 Emotional expression + how to deal with emotional flooding

17:42  Physical resilience

23:00 Spiritual resilience

26:00 Wonder and awe

27:50 Social Resilience

33:30 Switching gardens

Useful links

——————

Negative thinking styles article
 https://www.psychologytools.com/articles/unhelpful-thinking-styles-cognitive-distortions-in-cbt/

Self-love and self-compassion
 https://open.spotify.com/episode/44QKP5kfI0or1kex6rrZ1W?si=8dd529aacfe546fe

 (Book) Awe - Dacher Keltner

https://www.amazon.sg/Awe-Science-Everyday-Wonder-Transform/dp/1984879685

This week, we delve into the extraordinary journey of Jianhao Tan, Singapore’s OG YouTuber superstar and founder of Titan Digital Media. Despite his introverted nature, Jianhao has amassed a staggering 7 million devoted fans, captivating audiences with his unique blend of humor and relatability.

Jianhao reflects on his remarkable rise to prominence, shares his origin story about growing up in Cambodia and Vietnam, and then returning home to Singapore and discovering a passion for making videos. With candor and insight, Jianhao shares the challenges he encountered along the way, from overcoming self-doubt to navigating the complexities of fame in the digital age.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Jianhao provides a heartfelt glimpse into his personal life as a devoted family man sharing poignant anecdotes about balancing his career aspirations with the joys and responsibilities of fatherhood. 

Join us as we embark on an inspiring journey with Jianhao!

Highlights

————

02:56 Jianhao’s origin story - growing up in Cambodia and Vietnam

07:20 150 million views per month

0830 Starting a business at 21 from the piano room

1100 Adversity bonds people

1200 Balancing advertising and being a creative

1300 How to price yourself as a creator

1455 Mentoring other influencers

1700 Becoming a parent

1735 Buncha and meeting his wife 

1900 Navigating boundaries between public and private life

2226 On Oversharing

2400 Managing different types of people

2615 Titan Academy hits 100 episodes and the importance of celebrating

2812 Milestones that matter and balancing act

2934 Working with a PA

3100 Being a stoic and stoicism

3230 The self-awareness deficit

Find Jianhao at:

Youtube

⁠https://www.youtube.com/@jianhao⁠

Instagram

⁠instagram.com/thejianhaotan⁠

TikTok

⁠tiktok.com/@thejianhaotan⁠

Facebook Page

⁠facebook.com/thejianhaotan⁠

Twitter

⁠twitter.com/thejianhaotan⁠

Twitch

⁠twitch.com/thejianhaotan⁠

And check out ⁠https://thestarry.co/⁠ Debbie’s jewellery line  of high quality diamond simulate pieces for everyday wear!

This week we are going to take a practical and insightful deep dive into difficult conversations and storytelling at work with regional communications expert Shruti Bose, Head of Communications and Public Affairs Asia Pacific for Roche Diagnostics.

Shruti shares real life stories of influencing stakeholders using empathy and storytelling as a secret weapon, not taking conflict personally, and her tips for having difficult conversations at work.

I also loved her groundedness and attitude of gratitude, and hope you are inspired by her story too!

Shownotes

On the National Women’s Checkup Week with Singapore Cancer Society

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rochediagnosticsasiapacific_sgcheckup-xproject-everywoman-activity-7064820493081608192-OM52?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Get screened - link to Singapore Cancer Society

https://www.singaporecancersociety.org.sg/get-screened/breast-cancer/mammogram.html

Highlights

========

01:00  How we met in the Biopharma industry

03:20 Shruti’s childhood and how it shaped her

03:52 The Fs of Life challenges - Fairness, Failure, Fear

06:00 On losing her voice

08:43 How she came to work for the Biopharma sector

13:20  Intellectual vs social friction and not personalising

15:30 - reading too much into a situation

18:00 - On asking for support

18:55 - Her difficult conversation at work with her stakeholders

20:00 - Don’t be married to an idea

21:58 - What you can and can’t control

22:54 - On our unconscious bias

23:58 - Gratitude Quotient GQ 

25:00 - The worst time to be grateful is after you lost it

26:25 - Happiness, freedom and courage

27:43 - Launch of National Women’s Checkup Week

30:30 - Not every conflict needs to be resolved

31:00 - Storytelling model - CAP - Connection, Appeal, Proof

33:00 - The power of storytelling at work - examples in real life, Jack Ma, Indra Nooyi

35:00 - Creating demand for what we need

36:40 - Word of the year!

Want to be a luckier, calmer, more productive person in 2024? You’ve come to the right place! Join Crystal and Dr. Greg as they share their best little mindset hacks and rituals for success and positivity!

 In this episode, we’ll talk about developing a lucky identity, arigato in and out (or the joy of spending money), “off gassing walks”, magic sleep music and much much more!

Enjoy this fun episode and let us know what you think!

Resources:

The “Arigato In Arigato Out” book we mentioned on money is

Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money Kindle Edition

by Ken Honda

The amazing deep sleep music is
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0vJYui0LnaQQEK8PamfKrp?si=93c3a1fa13c14161

We are super privileged to have with us Elaine Yew, one of the world’s most respected leadership advisors, making a rare appearance on social media! Although Elaine prefers to shun the spotlight, she is very well known to industry insiders as the go to person for advice on senior leadership, succession planning, board advisory and any sort of problem that keeps powerful organisations and leaders up at night.

 In this episode, we cover practical advice for anyone who wants to develop more gravitas, confidence and impact at work, and also delve into deeper topics such as developing your own leadership identity and how to navigate a bicultural Asian and Western context, especially for Asian women! Hope you find this episode as engaging and practical as I did :)

00:00  Introduction

1:40  Elaine’s career

4:49 On having a unrelated career to what you studied and unfair advantages

5:55 Passion and originality

6:13 Egon Zehnder’s research on what the 4 factors of potential in people - Curiosity, Insight, Engagement, Determination

9:00 Navigating male dominated workplaces

13:12 Leadership styles - embracing the range and the “AND”

14:50 Jo Chew’s Masters thesis on how Asian women in Singapore and Malaysia make it to the top of their careers in a bi-cultural context

16:00 Tea Pouring Boss B*tch story

21:33 On the quality of energy in leadership

24:00 Developing your own identity at work - defining who you are, not who you are not

25:15 Being realistic about whether you can bridge the gap or not

25:35 On dealing with people dehumanising or objectifying you the workplace

27:00 Consciously conveying to other who you are about and sharing about yourself

29:25 How to develop gravitas 

30:55 The importance of arriving and connecting in the boardroom

32:05 On not rushing yourself - Crystal’s childhood story

35:49 Setting the tone of a meeting

37:00 The ability to adjust to different time parameters, prioritise and synthesise important points

 Resources:

 Jo Chew’s thesis on female Asian leadership 

https://flora.insead.edu/fichiersti_wp/InseadEMCtheseswave34/98788.pdf

Call number link on the Insead catalogue:

https://librarycatalogue.insead.edu/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=98788