Womenpreneur Asia

Here's a birthday gift to myself and to you too, yes, today is my birthday - I created a short trailer for Season 4 because I felt that this season is going to be super exciting.

If you're new to my podcast, please subscribe or check out the website too. If you're a returning listener, thank you for always being with me as I uncover more Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia and their stories.

I am continually humbled by everyone who has been on my podcast and it seemed apt that I launch my new season with a trailer of what's to come. Enjoy!

In this bonus episode that caps Season 3, I am speaking to Dianne Lee, a Malaysian-born woman who lives and works in Los Angeles, USA. 

Dianne is an executive director with Kitchell Corporation, a construction engineering company. 

During the global lockdown last year, she decided to write a book that described her own journey as an Asian woman and how she believes Asian women would do well to leverage stereotypes to their advantage!  

Dianne writes about embracing challenges through what she calls “turning your yin into your yang”. 

She is proud of her journey “from a small town (Klang) Malaysia to Los Angeles, America and how I am paying it forward for all women in a Caucasian and highly male-dominated construction industry.”  

In this episode, we talk about how she climbed the corporate ladder, the values she lives by, her mom's favourite advice and how Dianne intends to help other women succeed as well.

More show notes at womenpreneurasia.com

In this episode, I am speaking to Debbie Choa, co-founder and chief operating officer of Projek57, a social enterprise in Malaysia that focuses on unity and youth.

Projek57 began when its founders were dismayed that racial polarisation and religious tension kept rising in Malaysia and believed they needed to do something and enable Malaysians to stand together as one.

Debbie and her husband, Collin started Projek57 with Collin’s long-time friend, Syed Sadiq Albar with the hope of bringing unity through youth engagement while giving back to the community.

Working with corporations and youth, Projek57 has channelled more than RM400,000 to help the underprivileged in Malaysia through undertaking workshops and projects that foster unity in Malaysian youth.

How did a lawyer, wife and mom like Debbie become a social enterprise founder? This is her story.

Krista's note: It's apt that this episode airs today. The past week has been incredibly trying for many Malaysians who lost their homes and for some their lives during the flooding. Malaysians leveraged Twitter to ask for help and rallied supplies and resources in this time of need whether it was cooking food, donating supplies or even cleaning up mud-filled houses. What a fantastic demonstration of our true Malaysian spirit despite the tragic circumstances! I for one am so heartened by the Malaysian spirit - the very same spirit that Debbie and Projek57 is championing!

More show notes at womenpreneurasia.com

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Michelle and Melissa Sin of SKB Shutters Corporation Berhad from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

The business had its roots in Penang but since Michelle and Melissa’s father took over, they relocated to Kuala Lumpur as urbanisation in the 80s saw a growing need for their steel products.

Michelle and Melissa had worked for KPMG before joining their parents in the manufacturing business. At SKB, Melissa heads sales and marketing while Michelle manages the operations. 

In this episode, Michelle and Melissa talk about: 

• What keeps this family business charging forward despite the uncertainties and changes in the business environment if they were music, what kinds of music they would be
• How their 5-year age difference doesn’t seem to matter now that they’re in the business together
• Their favourite books and why they each prefer a certain genre
• How fear can be a great motivator and demotivator
• What their most worthwhile investment was in the past 2 years 
• The guilt that Michelle feels because she is a working mother and what Melissa says about that 
• The unique advantages of being family in a business (and the drawbacks) 

For more show notes, visit womenpreneurasia.com

In this episode, I spoke to Tanya Rolfe and Christine Yu, two out of the three founders of Sophia.

Sophia is a learning platform made for women who want to learn about money and investing and how to put their money towards venture capital funding and angel investment funding to support other women entrepreneurs. 

Sophia was born out of the founders' frustrations experienced in the world of investing towards female entrepreneurs.

Tanya and Christine (and another co-founder, Nicole) want to create a refreshingly new dialogue for women funders as well as women founders and create the right kind of impact from the clean and green perspective. 

Tanya’s in Singapore while Christine is in Hong Kong. Both were equally hilarious yet firm and ferocious in their desire to change the conversation about women, money and investing. 

From organic raspberries to standup comedy, these two ladies will surprise you with their experiences as women who do talk about money!

Check out the full show notes (and their best quotable quotes) at womenpreneurasia.com

This episode is all about Malaysian entrepreneur, Fiona Marcus Raja who is based in Kuching, Sarawak.

She started five businesses in five years since she came back to Sarawak after being away with her family and caring for her son who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that happens to young children.

She is the founder and managing director of Borneo International Exhibition Sdn Bhd, an events management business that helps other businesses organise large-scale events and expos in Borneo and beyond. She is also the managing partner of Orion Social Media (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd.

This is a woman who became a mum at 21 and at one point even drove a lorry while pregnant as she had to manage events for her clients! 

Fiona is tough, strong-willed, pragmatic and persistent. She learnt about crisis management and decision-making from taking care of her son and the years of being in and out of hospitals. 

Due to her son's condition, Fiona also started The Royce Foundation (named after her son) as a primary source for cancer information and resources in Sarawak.

She also started and founded 11Ridgeway Kuching, a community-driven event venue in Kuching designed for people to meet, greet, work and network. 11Ridgeway is also the birthplace of The Royce Foundation.  

For more information, check out womenpreneurasia.com

Penny Choong of Malaysia is this week's guest. She is the founder of Penny Essentials, a business that helps people enjoy being healthy.

Yet years ago, she was suffering from such severe migraine attacks that she couldn’t even get out of bed! 

Her story is quite unique in that she was focused on teaching financial education when she came back from the Middle East.

Yet life sometimes throws us curve balls and she came to a realization that she herself needed to be well first. She couldn’t help others if she herself wasn’t feeling absolutely her best. 

Thanks to solving her own migraine attacks, she has improved her health to the extent that “my health is better now in my 40s compared to my 20s”.

Penny is proud of her bounce back to wellness and now endeavours to share what she knows with her customers and her community of 40,000 people. 

For show notes and more, visit womenpreneurasia.com

This episode is about Padmaja Vaswani from India who manages 3 businesses focusing on learning and development, organisational development in addition to diversity and inclusion. 

Padmaja is the Founder & CEO of Siksha Group, which offers learning and development for companies across India.

She is also the CEO of NEWS Navigation that specializes in executive coaching and organizational transformation solutions.

She is also the co-founder of WeMantra which enables individuals and organizations to create a diverse and inclusive ecosystem and unleash growth. 

Padmaja also established the Siksha Mehak Foundation in 2006, a trust that supports children with cancer, orphaned autistic children and children from the lower economic strata.

She didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur - she was an athlete since young and she thought she had her life mapped out until a sports injury forced her to rethink what she wanted to do with her life. 

For show notes and more details, visit womenpreneurasia.com

This episode is about Thai entrepreneur, Chalita Hongsakul.

Chalita is the Managing Director of Wakingbee Corporation based in Bangkok, Thailand. 

She doesn’t call herself a fitness freak but came to start a fitness and activewear clothing brand after quitting as a management consultant.

It was a desire to get healthy that put her on the entrepreneurial track. While trying to get to the gym, she realised all the available brands she looked at didn’t quite fit her need for something fun, feminine and active. That's how Wakingbee was born!

In this episode:

• What she was more concerned about and it wasn’t failure
• What surprised her the most about approaching manufacturers for her line of activewear 
• How she went from consultant to an entrepreneur all because she couldn’t find the right activewear for herself 
• What she does to keep her brand fresh and exciting even after 6 years in the Thai market 
• What she found most intriguing when she started her business and it had nothing to do with numbers or KPIs 
• How she convinced manufacturers to work with them despite having no track record in the clothing industry

For more show notes and information, visit womenpreneurasia.com

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This episode of Season 3 is with Saliza Abdullah, the Managing Director & CEO, BG Capital Holdings Group of Companies in Malaysia. 

Saliza manages a 100% woman-owned security services business - one which belonged to her late mother.

The original business offered physical guarding and security services. Since taking over, Saliza has expanded the scope of business to include training and surveillance.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What it's like running a fully woman-owned business with her late mother when she got back from the US
• What it's like now with her niece as the upcoming third generation 
• Restructuring the business into what it is today - revenues are now in the 8 figures
• Other businesses and diversification strategies that she embarked upon
• The real success markers in business
• Pushing the women’s agenda through her business and how she does it
• The creation of a family constitution as the basis of the business moving forward
• Why women must never be shy about talking about their businesses
• Why women are her best allies in business and the importance of the right networks
• How the pandemic helped her get better

For show notes and more, visit womenpreneurasia.com