Misfits: Wisdom from Unconventional Individuals

Michelle Florendo, is a coach for Type-A professionals and executives. She has served on the inaugural coaching team for Seth Godin’s altMBA, guest-taught on Stanford’s famous Design Your Life course, and is a founding member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Michelle is also a mother of 2, admits these achievements.

Her coaching philosophy is a blend of decision engineering, design thinking, and lean startup principles.

Michelle holds a bachelor from Stanford University and an MBA from UC Berkeley.

In this conversation, we spoke about:

• Michelle’s evolution as a coach
• What is travel roulette?
• The hard truth about being a coach
• and much more!

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Steph Smith (@stephsmithio), 25 is a senior analyst working on Trends, tracking up-and-coming trends. 

After less than a year of learning to code (while having a full-time job), she has won the Golden Kitty award for inclusion, on Product Hunt. 

Steph writes a blog about remote work, women in tech and learning to code. 

These days when she is not at work, she is building Upread, a tool connecting indie publishers with their readers.

In this conversation, we spoke about:

• Things women face in the tech industry
• Steph’s transition from consulting to remote work
• The ups and downs of remote work
• and much more!

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Khailee Ng is a managing partner of 500 Startups, a venture capital firm. He has led more than 180 startup investments, with a few “unicorn” successes such as Grab and Bukalapa.

Khailee has previously founded Groupsmore which got acquired by Groupon and Says.com, which got subsequently acquired by Media Prima, Malaysia’s largest online media company.

BUT, even if you have zero interest in startups, this episode is well worth the time. This is really about the habits and beliefs of a successful (and fun) person.

Enjoy this conversation with a curious character!

In this conversation, we spoke about:

• Lesson learnt at Richard’s Branson Necker Island
• How does Khailee study and prepare for marriage
• Principal to a kick-ass pitch

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Alvin Poh is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Vodien, a cloud hosting company.

Vodien was founded in 2002. It was later acquired by Dreamscape in 2017, and was valued for S$ 30million. Shortly after being a millionaire at 33 years old, he sold most of his belongings (including his Lamborghini) and embraced minimalism.

Alvin holds a masters in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon.

He is now travelling and snowboarding around the world.

In this conversation, we spoke about:

• Why Alvin sold his Lamborghini and embrace minimalism
• The evolution of Alvin’s fitness routine
• How Alvin apply the 80/20 principle to business

Links Mentioned Connect with Alvin Poh: Website | Instagram

At 34, Alvin Poh Is A Multi-Millionaire. But He Doesn’t Think He’s Rich by Justin Vanderstraaten I Became a Millionaire at 33 And It Was A Disappointment by Alvin Poh Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat Naval Ravikant interview on Farnam Street by Shane Parrish (Transcript) Interactive BrokersSAXOVanguard Total Index Fund Accumulating Capital Class Withholding tax on ETFs for Singaporeans Powerlifting Callisthenics The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman Book review by Derek Sivers Notepad++Tasker (Andriod) Foxit (Andriod)  PDFpen (Mac OS and iOS) Transporter 95 by Osprey

Show Notes How does Alvin network during his time at Vodien? [02:48] When did Alvin know he was an entrepreneur? [24:21] Alvin sharing how his childhood influence his outlook on materialism [27:08] What does happiness means to Alvin now? [30:05] What did Alvin do after exiting Vodien? [44:23] Why did Alvin decide to drop out of Junior College and enrol in Polytechnic? [56:01] What is one thing Alvin wished he learnt earlier as a leader? [01:05:18] How does Alvin identity and form his inner circle? [01:14:15] What are the pro & cons of SAXO and InteractiveBrokers? [01:17:09] What is the evolution of Alvin’s fitness routine? [01:20:48]

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JR Hinds is the owner of Hinds and Associates, specialising in employer-sponsored health insurance plans. Today, over 90% of his business is developed through referrals.

He has a private pilot’s license and flies a Cessna 172. He also jumped out of an airplane twice (but never one that he was flying).

JR rappelled down the building the day before his wedding day and threw a surprise wedding for his 50 guests.

One of his favourite things to do is to spend time with his 4 nephews and his niece.

In this conversation, we spoke about

• Learnings from the World Domination Summit
• Conference hacking
• JR's personal mission statement
• and much more!

JR apologise for the wrong mention of "Yes Marsha Marsha". It's Yes Yes Marsha.

There was a lot of nervous laughter in this episode - mainly from me. Listen to the podcast to know why.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

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“I don't think we ask deep enough questions and give young people enough credit for being able to have those answer within themselves.”– Michelle Jones

Michelle Jones is the founder of a higher education institution, Wayfinding Academy. It is a new 2-year college aiming to revolutionize higher education. They have been approved to offer Associate’s degrees by Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

She has taught in traditional colleges for 15 years. Some of the institutions include (but not limited to) Boston University,  University of New Mexico and Concordia University of Portland.

Michelle is also the organizer of TEDx Mt Hood for the last 8 years.

Wayfinding Academy is currently having a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign from June 17th - July 27th to raise $60,000. Thier goals are to double their student body size, launch a second program, and impact twice as many lives. Donate here.

In the podcast episode [02:40:00], you can listen to a conversation with a student (Meg Lamberger) of the Wayfinding Academy about her experiences.

Enjoy this incredible conversation! It was very eye-opening for me.

In this conversation, we spoke about

• How Michelle started Wayfinding Academy with a personal budget of $15,000 for 2 years
• Why Wayfinding Academy doesn't have grades
• The importance of guides in a student's growth
• and much more!

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“It is not a failure if there are lessons to be learnt from it.” – Daniel Lim

Daniel Lim is an entrepreneur and business coach.

His coaching and training practice aims to help people to redefine success, build businesses and do work which is aligned with their values and purpose.

Daniel's former design studio, Studio MDS work with clients such as Capella Hotels, Singapore Flyer and National Heritage Board.

In 2017, he designed and ran a retreat called #howtohuman for DesignSingapore Council.

In this conversation, we spoke about

• The story of Daniel's burnout
• Toxic behaviour in the workplace
• Characteristics of people that who should not be an entrepreneur
• and much more!

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Annabelle Kwok, 25 is the founder of NeuralBay, an Artificial Intelligence company that specialises in vision analytics.

She consults with companies on A.I. driven solutions and was previously the founding CEO of SmartCow.

At 20, she travelled alone for 6 weeks to Togo, West Africa. She has witness people fainting from malaria, getting robbed at knife-point, and balanced buckets of water on her head.

At 22, she met U.S. President Barack Obama under a youth programme representing Singapore.

Annabelle is a black-belt in Taekwondo, a licensed windsurfer, and an avid runner.

In this conversation, we spoke about

• Why did Annabelle has joined the 10 days silent retreat, twice
• Why she decided to run a marathon in North Korea
• Her experiences of travelling alone in Togo, West Africa
• and much more!

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

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In 2018, I am getting my health in order. I have already lost 5kg in one month. If you have similar goals, and tried a bunch of diet and regime that didn't help. I want to work with you. I have enough time for 3 people at the moment to help achieve their health goals. The session would be free of charge, as I learning and testing things out.

I also ask that you only sign up if you are really ready to make some changes. I will motivate you and keep you accountable, but you'll get the most out of my time if we can spend the bulk of our time analysing what you've done and implementing changes.

If you are interested, please email me a little introduction of yourself and your goals. Amongst potential candidate who I think we are a good fit, I'll accept people first come first serve. Get in touch by emailing to ask [at] bryanvictor.com. 

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"No one says that decided to start drinking because my ambition in life is to be an alcoholic. It’s rubbish.” – Dr Munidasa Winslow

Munidasa Winslow is a psychiatrist and the executive director of Promises Healthcare. He has been practising psychiatry since 1988 and is known for his work in addiction medicine and impulse control disorders.

He was also responsible for the setting up the Addiction Management Department at the Institute of Mental Health. His last appointment at IMH was the Chief of the Department of Addiction Medicine Department at IMH Singapore.

Dr Winslow is accredited as a master addiction counsellor and a clinical supervisor.

In this conversation, we spoke about

• Simple yardstick to test if one has an addiction
• The framework recovery process for addictions
• Dr Winslow’s views on ADHD
• and much more!

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Lim Der Shing is currently a private investor, Venture Advisor with Jungle Seedplus and board member with several organizations. Huang Shao-Ning is the Managing Partner of Hub Ventures Fund and a Partner at Entrepreneur First, the world’s leading company builder.

Together, they are the co-founders of JobsCentral Group and manage a regional portfolio of over 17 angel investments in startups.

JobCentral grew from a 2-man startup into an organization with 150 employees over a period of 14 years.  In 2011, JobsCentral was acquired by CareerBuilder, making it one of Singapore’s largest tech exits at the time.

They did all of that while raising a family of 4 kids.

In this conversation, we spoke about

• How to discern good advice from noise
• Strategies for hiring and managing talents
• Effective communication between a couple
• and much more!

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

Show Notes

Huang Shao-Ning shares about her childhood [01:04] Lim Der Shing shares about his childhood [04:18] How did Der Shing and Shao-Ning end up at Ann Habour University [08:17] How did Der Shing first meet Shao Ning? [12:10] Shao-Ning and Der Shing shares views about taking advice from the elderly [17:14] How do Der Shing and Shao Ning discern good advice from noise? [26:01] Why did Shao-Ning and Der Shing quit their jobs to start JobCentral? [37:10] What are the different stages of JobsCentral's growth? [46:13] Shao Ning and Der Shing shares insights on hiring [51:52] How do you develop a "bullshit" meter for sussing out candidates? [56:12] How do Shao Ning and Der Shing define and view entrepreneurship? [59:14] What did Shao Ning learn from Der Shing? [01:06:23]

Links Mentioned

Connect with Lim Der Shing and Huang Shao-Ning: Website (Der Shing) | LinkedIn (Shao-Ning)

Thanks for listening!

And if you have any experience with anything we talked about, I’d love for you to open up in the comments.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.

Share your story in the comments.

Also, please leave an honest review for Misfits Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.

Special thanks to Shao-Ning and Der Shing. Until next time!

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