Most people know Ing as the founder of INGU - the skincare brand that sold out 30,000 units in three minutes with zero advertising. The trusted voice who built a community of millions by doing the one thing his industry often punishes: telling the truth.

But this conversation isn't really about skincare.. it's about what happens after you build something people believe in. The weight of carrying other people's trust. The loneliness of being misunderstood. The panic attacks that made him think he was dying. The goodbye video he filmed, edited, and still hasn't had the courage to post.

For the first time, Ing shares what was happening behind the scenes during one of the biggest seasons of his life, and how it changed the way he thinks about ambition, happiness and success itself. We also talk about the person who answered the phone from a surgery room when Ing thought he was going to die on the floor of a café, and why that relationship ultimately reshaped his definition of what really matters.

I left this conversation seeing success a little differently. I hope you do too.

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Follow Ing here: https://www.instagram.com/ingck/

Follow Ingu Skin here: https://www.instagram.com/inguskin/

You don't need a crisis to enter a new chapter. Sometimes life is moving along just fine. And yet, you find yourself carrying questions you can't quite shake.

This conversation feels especially meaningful to me. Three years ago, Bill Burnett helped shape one of the biggest chapters of my life. Today, I'm returning to his work because the questions I'm asking have changed, and I need that space again.

Together, we explore why so many of us feel there's "something more," why life was never meant to be a straight line, and how creating the time, space, and structure to think differently can help us navigate what's next with greater clarity, intention, and possibility.

If this conversation resonates with you, Bill and I will be hosting a special CLOSER experience in Singapore on 25th July. We'd love for you to join us as we explore what your next chapter could become.

Sing up for CLOSER x Bill Burnett here: https://tinyurl.com/5n7dkdrb

Follow Rachel here: https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Visit Bill Burnett’s website here: https://designingyour.life/

Read ‘Designing Your Life’ here: https://designingyour.life/books-designing-life-original-book/

Most of us have been taught that the pressure Singaporean parents feel is a mindset problem. That we just need to relax. Stop being so kiasu. The data tells a completely different story.

Associate Professor Teo You Yenn spent three years interviewing 92 Singaporean parents across every class background for her new book Unease; and what she found will reframe how you see your own life. Not just parenting. The whole thing.

She makes the case that the exhaustion, the anxiety, the feeling that you're doing everything right and still something is off.. none of it is personal. It's structural. And until we understand that distinction, nothing changes.

We talked about:

• Why "kiasu" is not a cultural trait; and what it actually is
• What it means that most parents describe their child as a problem to solve
• Why Singapore's falling birth rate isn't a fertility problem - it's a conditions-for-family-life problem
• The three quiet costs to our society that nobody is talking about
• What the opposite of unease actually is (it's not ease)

What stayed with me long after we stopped recording: the way we're living is shaping who we're becoming. As individuals, as parents, as a society. And we haven't stopped to ask if this is who we want to be.

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:36 Meet You Yenn: Exposing the Contradiction of Singaporean Success
• 00:04:02 Defining “Unease”: The Quiet Struggle of Helplessness in Singapore
• 00:05:45 Why “Kiasu Mentality” is Too Simple an Excuse
• 00:07:33 How the System Conditions Singaporeans to Run the Race
• 00:10:48 The Painful Cost of Losing Agency
• 00:12:00 Returning to the Original Dream of Prosperity in Singapore
• 00:14:30 Seeing Our Children Through the Lens of Problems
• 00:16:49 Reevaluating Our Values Across Class Lines
• 00:20:48 The Unequal Weight of Motherhood
• 00:23:42 What Does a “Pro-Family” Society Look Like?
• 00:25:43 Singapore’s Low TFR: A Fertility Problem or a Family Life Problem?
• 00:28:01 Singapore’s Obsession with Finding “Top Talents”
• 00:32:29 Shifting the Narrow Definition of “Family” in Singapore
• 00:34:17 Writing for a Historian 50 Years from Now
• 00:36:10 Finding Hope in a Shared Public Resonance
• 00:39:15 Final Reflections

Follow Rachel here: https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Follow You Yenn’s updates here: https://www.instagram.com/ethosbooks/

Purchase ‘Unease: Life in Singapore Families’ here: https://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/products/unease-life-in-singapore-families

Write in to the team at [email protected]

Singapore's total fertility rate has hit a historic low. But this conversation was never really about birth rates.

It was about what modern life actually feels like for many Singaporeans today. The pressure. The exhaustion. The invisible weight of always having to keep up. And the quiet calculation so many people are running; about whether building a family here is something they can imagine, afford, or want.

Minister Indranee Rajah leads Singapore's Marriage and Parenthood Reset. She is also single. And she has no children of her own.

In this conversation, we go beyond policy. We talk about:

• The invisible mental load women carry that no support system fully removes
• ⁠The pressure parents feel before a child is even born - and why it starts earlier than most people realise
• ⁠The women who have built lives they genuinely love - and aren't sure they want to give that up
• What the public reaction to the word "detour" was really saying
• What it means to lead this conversation as a single woman without children
• The family she lost - and why their absence shaped her understanding of family itself
• Whether modern Singaporean life still feels emotionally sustainable enough to build a family within

• 00:00:00 Minister Indranee Rajah: The Minister Tasked With Singapore’s Future
• 00:02:50 Growing Up Between Two Cultures & Faiths
• 00:05:59 Her Mother's Greatest Gift
• 00:06:57 How Her Legal Mindset Shapes Singapore’s Toughest Conversation
• 00:10:21 Why Singaporeans Are Rejecting the Life Script — Not Family
• 00:14:36 The Overachievement Culture That Made Good Enough Feel Like Failure
• 00:17:14 The Growing Pressure of Raising Kids in Singapore
• 00:21:08 The Invisible Mental Load Women Carry
• 00:22:31 The Woman Who Hid Her Fertility Treatment From Her Boss
• 00:23:37 Addressing Singaporean Work Culture & Fertility Stigma
• 00:29:56 Why Singaporeans Are Choosing Their Quality of Life Over Parenthood
• 00:32:07 The “Detour” Comment That Sparked Debate
• 00:35:37 Leading Singapore’s Parenthood Conversation as a Single Woman
• 00:38:10 Why Baby Bonuses Don’t Apply to Unwed Mothers
• 00:41:43 Why She's Doing This — Even When Everyone Says It's Impossible
• 00:44:47 What Makes Her Believe Singapore Can Change

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Follow Minister Indranee here: https://www.instagram.com/indraneerajah/

Download the FSS fertility workplace support guide here: https://fertilitysupport.sg/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/FSS-workplace-support-guide.pdf

Write in to the team at [email protected]. 

Most of us only start thinking about fertility when something suddenly feels urgent; a doctor’s appointment, a breakup, a birthday, or the quiet realisation that time may not feel as endless as we once thought. In this episode, I sit down with Margaret Wang, CEO of GenPrime and Rhea Fertility, for a deeply honest conversation about fertility, womanhood, pressure, timing, and learning to listen to our bodies before life forces us to.

Together, we talk about:

• why fertility shouldn’t just be a “women’s issue”
• the invisible emotional load many women quietly carry
• ⁠egg freezing, aging, and the pressure surrounding motherhood and timelines
• the questions many of us don’t even know to ask about our own bodies
• and why so many women still feel alone in this conversation

Margaret also opens up personally about navigating egg freezing, heartbreak, societal expectations, and the tension between building a career, building a company, and hoping to one day build a family. Whether fertility feels far away, deeply present, or painfully emotional for you right now, this conversation is an invitation to get curious, ask earlier questions, and feel a little less alone.

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:09 Get to Know Margaret Wang: The Woman Reshaping Fertility Care Across Asia
• 00:04:18 A Holistic Approach to Redefining Fertility Stigma
• 00:06:12 Egg Freezing: Progress, Freedom and the Gaps We Don’t Talk About
• 00:08:52 Why Fertility Conversations Still Feel Taboo
• 00:13:22 Nobody Taught Us How Fertility Actually Works
• 00:15:51 How to Ask the Right Questions About Fertility
• 00:19:01 Numerical Age vs Biological Age: Is It Too Late?
• 00:21:08 Debunking Fertility Myths and Misconceptions
• 00:23:20 The Personal Cost of Working in Fertility Care
• 00:25:53 Margaret Wang’s Message to the World
• 00:27:07 Final Reflections

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Connect with Margaret here: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/margaretmwang

Find out more about Rhea Fertility here: https://www.rheafertility.com/

Write in to the team at [email protected].

Nathania Ong is the first Singaporean to lead both Les Misérables and Hamilton on London’s West End.

But before any of that, she was 18, alone in a foreign city, rejected by every drama school she applied to in a single week.

This is a story about the years nobody sees.. the flight home after every door closes, and the quiet season where you have to decide: Do I keep going, or do I let this go?

In this conversation, Nathania opens up about:

• the rejections that almost broke her
• the stage fright she developed after going viral
• ⁠the best friend who talked her back from the edge
• and the philosophy that has carried her through every closed door since

“Sometimes it’s not no. Sometimes it’s not yet. And what is for you will not pass you by.”

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:29 Meet Nathania Ong: From Singapore to the West End
• 00:02:35 Growing Up in a House Full of Voices
• 00:07:11 The First Win That Changed Everything
• 00:10:00 Losing Singing — and Finding Herself Again
• 00:13:57 Five Rejections in One Week
• 00:18:00 “I Almost Gave Up”
• 00:19:47 The Second Chance She Almost Didn’t Take
• 00:25:55 Her Greatest Triumph Wasn’t Success
• 00:28:10 What Keeps You Going When Nothing Does
• 00:29:18 Why Rejection Feels So Personal
• 00:32:22 Becoming Éponine — And Redefining the Role
• 00:37:00 When Success Brings Fear
• 00:38:28 Stage Fright, Anxiety, and Finding Ground Again
• 00:41:04 Pre-Show Rituals & Becoming the Character
• 00:42:04 Creating Something Honest for Herself
• 00:43:33 What She’d Tell Her Younger Self
• 00:45:11 Advice for Anyone Chasing a Dream
• 00:45:38 Final Reflections

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Follow Nathania Ong here: https://www.instagram.com/nattyong/

Write in to the team at [email protected].

“I did not know what I wanted to do. But I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be.”

Diane von Furstenberg’s mother survived Auschwitz at 29 kilos. Doctors said she would die in childbirth, that her child would not be normal. The following December, Diane was born.

In this conversation, DVF takes us through the moments that shaped her: the principles her mother gave her that she never let go of, the little dress that became a flag of freedom, the empire she built, lost, and rebuilt, and the philosophy of life she has arrived at after 79 years.

We talk about:

• How to stay whole across love, ambition, and motherhood
• Why kindness is a currency that compounds
• What it means to own who you are; not perform it
• Aging as living, not losing
• The one relationship we cannot afford to lose

This is not a conversation about fashion.

It’s a conversation about what it means to be in charge of your own life.

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:24 Diane von Furstenberg: Born a “Torch of Freedom”
• 00:03:53 The Childhood That Shaped Everything
• 00:05:11 The Little Dress That Changed Her Life
• 00:06:14 Finding Her Door to Success in New York
• 00:08:20 Making 25,000 Dresses By 27
• 00:09:27 The Fall & Reinvention of DVF
• 00:11:03 Taking Back and Owning Her Legacy
• 00:12:12 Diane’s Most Important Advice to Women — Don’t Lose Yourself
• 00:14:02 Breaking the Fear of Aging in Women
• 00:14:56 Choosing 3 Words That Defines Her Year
• 00:16:11 Diane von Furstenberg’s Message to the World
• 00:17:13 Discovering The Power of Self & Kindness: Currency That Compounds
• 00:20:34 Embracing Her Winter Season in Life

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Follow Diane von Furstenberg here: https://www.instagram.com/therealdvf/

Purchase ‘Own It: The Secret to Life’ by Diane von Furstenberg here: https://www.amazon.sg/Own-Secret-Diane-von-Furstenberg/dp/B0BGN66CK4

Write in to the team at [email protected].

Jennifer Baile is the Vice President of Global Services & Solutions at HP; one of the world's most recognised technology companies. But what drew me to her wasn't the title or the résumé. It was the quiet steadiness underneath it all.

Four weeks after moving her entire life to Singapore, her role was eliminated. She had 450 people depending on her. And instead of panicking, she did something that changed the trajectory of everything that came after.

In this episode, Jennifer and I talk about:

• What it actually means to lead when certainty is unavailable and the data is incomplete
• Why she stopped trying to do it all — and what she outsourced instead
• The mindset that turned job loss into a better role
• How to ask for help without feeling like a failure
• What titles, status and success actually mean once you've had enough of them
• Raising four children to know they are enough in a world that constantly tells them otherwise
• The dinner table ritual she started when her girls were small - and why it changed everything

This is a conversation about the long game. About trading titles for purpose. About what age, experience and a few very good mentors can clarify in you over time. If you're navigating a hard season — professionally or personally — this one is for you.

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:12 Meet Jennifer Baile: A Leader with an Unlikely Career Path
• 00:02:25 Learning to Sit in the Storm
• 00:04:47 Unlocking the Courage to Ask for Help
• 00:06:10 How to Lead Without Certainty
• 00:11:58 What People Get Wrong About Leadership
• 00:14:18 How to Steward Strong Business Mentorships
• 00:18:04 Redefining Success After 30 Years in Business
• 00:19:38 Growing a Family Amid Heavy Responsibilities
• 00:23:02 Dealing with Mom Guilt and Not “Doing It All”
• 00:26:09 Raising Confident Daughters in a Social Media World
• 00:31:17 You’re Only as Happy as Your Unhappiest Child
• 00:32:50 Strengthening Your Marriage After Having Kids
• 00:34:52 The Message Jennifer Baile Hopes to Leave Behind

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Connect with Jennifer Baile here: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/jenbaile

Write in to the team at [email protected].

Tan Kheng Hua is one of Singapore’s most beloved actors; known for Phua Chu Kang, Crazy Rich Asians, and three seasons of Kung Fu on The CW. She has spent a lifetime choosing herself, not selfishly, but deliberately. And in doing so, she became a better mother, a better artist, and a more grounded human being.

She did not build a long and remarkable career by chasing what looked good or what felt safe. She built it by returning, again and again, to what felt true. To joy over ego. To interest over image. To a life she did not have to shrink in order to hold.

In this episode, Kheng Hua speaks with striking honesty about what it really takes to stay rooted in your craft, your relationships, and yourself.

We spoke about:

• motherhood, and why she refused to let it shrink her life.
• ⁠the decision-making rule she has followed for decades that gave her her longevity.
• ⁠divorce, co-parenting, and how a friendship outlasted a marriage.
• ⁠the honesty cave: going inward, admitting the ugly feelings first, and choosing the next step from truth rather than fear.
• ⁠therapy, and why she believes gathering the tools to be better is not optional, but a responsibility to everyone who loves you.

This is a conversation about living from the inside out. About following joy over ego. About learning that being responsible and being happy are not opposites after all.

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:34 The Childhood That Quietly Shaped Everything
• 00:06:50 What Her 25-Year-Old Self Would Never Have Predicted
• 00:10:32 Why She Treated Her Daughter Like a Person, Not a Project
• 00:16:12 "My Purpose Was Never Just For Her"
• 00:22:25 The Secret to Co-Parenting With Someone You Divorced After 27 Years
• 00:27:16 The 8am Class Nobody Wanted That Changed Her Life
• 00:35:12 The One Habit Behind 30 Years of Staying Power
• 00:36:29 Her Golden Rule for Choosing Every Project
• 00:40:13 11 Years, One Family, One Stage — Inside Phua Chu Kang
• 00:42:10 What Crazy Rich Asians Taught Her About Letting Go
• 00:48:22 The Honesty Cave — How She Faces Every Hard Moment
• 00:49:56 Why She'd Rather Call Her Therapist Than Her Best Friend
• 00:54:10 Be Better. Do Better. Live Guided By How You Want to Die.
• 00:56:54 What Kheng Hua Wants You to Know If You're Still Finding Your Way

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Follow Kheng Hua here: https://www.instagram.com/khenghua/

Write in to the team at [email protected].

What does a trial lawyer — someone trained to win arguments — learn about love, emotional regulation, and parenting?

In this episode, Jefferson Fisher shares the courtroom lessons that completely changed how he sees conflict, persuasion, and connection.

We explore:

• ⁠The hidden cost of winning arguments
• What people are really fighting for beneath the surface
• How to regulate yourself before you react
• The breathing technique Jefferson teaches his clients — and his kids
• The 3 steps to shifting someone’s perspective with empathy
• Why he lets his children argue — and what that builds in them
• How to model repair, humility, and recovery at home
• And why being a safe space matters more than being right

This conversation goes beyond communication tips. It’s about security, ego, humility, and choosing kindness.. especially when it’s hard.

If you’ve ever walked away from a conversation wishing you handled it differently, this episode will stay with you.

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:07 Meet Jefferson Fisher: From Trial Lawyer to Communication Coach
• 00:03:14 The Cost of Winning an Argument
• 00:04:44 A Technique That Turns Timidness Into Calm Confidence
• 00:08:02 Jefferson’s Biggest Lessons From the Courtroom
• 00:11:22 3 Steps to Changing Someone’s Mind
• 00:14:47 Thinking Like a Lawyer in Everyday Conversations
• 00:17:39 Parenting With Humility: Modelling Recovery
• 00:19:29 Becoming a Safe Space for Your Children
• 00:22:24 Why Jefferson Fisher Allows His Children to Argue
• 00:26:21 What People Are Really Fighting For Beneath Arguments
• 00:29:37 How to Stay Grounded When Triggered
• 00:36:03 The Message Jefferson Fisher Hopes to Leave Behind

Follow Rachel here:  https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/

Follow Jefferson Fisher here: https://www.instagram.com/jefferson_fisher/

Purchase ‘The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More’ here: https://singapore.kinokuniya.com/bw/9780241719886

Write in to the team at [email protected]