STIMY Ep 94:Turning the Tables On... Me?! | Ling Yah x Freda Liu

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Ling Yah: Hey everyone! Welcome to episode 94 of the So this is My Why podcast. I'm your host and producer Ling Yah, and today's guest is me.

This is the recording of an interview I did with Freda Liu, a business radio TV host at BFM 89.9, and also a former STIMY guest in episode 27.

Freda turned the tables on me and ask me about my journey and what it's like building this podcast. And I have to admit that even though we are now at episode 94, I still feel kind of awkward hearing myself speak, but I do hope you find this conversation interesting because in this episode we talked about how I first discovered this thing called a podcast.

Why I started So Is My Why, and also decided to keep the focus very broad. Ignoring common advice that the riches are in the niches, and also some of my highlights along this journey, including interviewing James Corden's Big Boss, and also being featured multiple times on the Late Late Show with James Corden, which if you didn't know, is the same late night show that is known for its Carpool karaoke and also crosswalk the musical.

And we also touched on lastly, my 40 day journey into the Himalayas, hiking up to Everest Space Camp at the start of the global pandemic. If you've enjoyed so this is my why in anyway, please do leave a rating and review on podcast on any other platform that you're listening to this podcast on.

Now, are you ready?

Let's go.

Freda Liu: I first met uh, Wong Ling Yah, when she asked me to be a guest on her podcast series. So this is my why. So I've been following this young lady, and of course, you know, she's got close to 100 episodes right now and she's got some very interesting guests. It's like, you know what got her thinking about doing this podcast series, and I know her background's legal and, uh, a couple of discoveries along the way that she's also a fellow Sarawakian, but wanna find out, you know, what is her why.

And so now the table is on her. So, you know, Good to finally meet

Ling Yah: you. Yes. Great to meet you in love,

Freda Liu: basically. Yes. Okay. So, uh, I'm very excited, uh, you know, mostly to know that you're Sarwakian Yes. course. We should stick. And then, um, what I'm gonna do is like, I'll get you to introduce yourself, right. You know, a little bit about your background Yeah.

Um, your career and legal before we get into your podcast series.

Ling Yah: So tell me. Okay. So as you mentioned, I'm from Ciwa, Born and BR there. And when I finished sbm I thought, Okay, I think I wanna go to uk. So I did a levels, went to UK studied lsc, did. When I was back in care, I was a litigator and I thought, probably not for me because I'm not the kind of aggressive person who wants to go and be adversarial every single day.

So I decide to go in house to try a different kind of law. And that's basically where I've been for up to this point. And I thought, there must be more than this. All my friends are lawyers. Surely there must be people out there who are not lawyers. What are they doing? How do they end up not doing law?

And then this was around the time when the pandemic started and I thought, Well, the only way to reach out is online. So at the time I had discovered podcast. Right. And it just, somehow it became, not just that it would be nice have a podcast, but I need to have a podcast. Right.

Freda Liu: And I just did it. Okay. No, cuz you thought about this before, uh, you know, there's any news or the panic, but you thought about it.

You never, you haven't started on this. And this was in, in 2019, right before the world came to a you a crashing hall. Um, and you. bef. And you started this in June, 2020, right? What happened before then? Cause I know what, What was interesting was that you were, during the pandemic, you were stuck in Nepal.

Yes. . Tell me

Ling Yah: about that. I was stuck in Nepal. So what happened is, going back to 2019, I had just discovered podcasting. When I had mean discover. I mean, I was listening to a podcast and they would say at the end, If you like what we are doing, subscribe to us and. , Sorry. How do you subscribe? . Okay. And then I had to go into my phone and realize, Oh, there is an Apple podcast app.

How do you use this thing? Right? That was where I was. But then once I discovered the podcast, I really liked the host. I realized I started listening, and I started listening every single day. So you switch from listening to music to podcasts, right? Every single moment. And I realized, It's really changed my life.

And so at the same time, I was listening to people who were in the startup world, and of course these people were trying to sell me something. I'm a podcast, so you should start a podcast and you should spy my course. And I was aware of what they were doing, but even though I was aware, I was still convinced, right?

I still thought maybe I should buy a course. No, actually I think I figure it out. And so it was there in my. I should start a podcast, but I know I'm going to Nepal. And the one thing you wanna do as a content creator is you want to be consistent, right? So I didn't wanna have that break, so I thought, park it there, reach out to people, get the yeses, do Nepal, then come back.

But who knew when I was in Nepal, was stuck there for 40 days

Freda Liu: and thank God you came back. No. What was also interesting said, so you learned, you know, like of course they say you wanna learn how to do podcaster. You learned everything on your, By yourself. Yeah, by myself. What was that process like?

Ling Yah: It was, in a way, it was not that hard because there's so much information there.

And if you find one right person, they will naturally introduce people, bring on guest code of that same caliber, right? And if you follow them, then they also have their own thing. And in the end, the advice is all the same. And it really is a question ultimately. To What kind of quality do you want that podcast to be?

Do you want it to be like a 40,000 ring get set up, or do you want just a phone? Right, And just record and put up, because you can do that. Right. And so I heard every single person who was interviewed about starting a podcast, they always set. I regret not starting su because you shouldn't be too hung up over the fact that all the technicalities is really difficult.

I can't reach guests. Just do it and it will all come together.

Freda Liu: Okay. Okay. So I, I want, I want touch on that point, uh, a little bit earlier, but, so this is my why. Mm-hmm. . , Why? So this is my why,

Ling Yah: because I'm still in the process of fighting my why. I just thought, I mean some, there are people out there who feel it seems as though they know exactly what they're meant to do from the day they were born.

They're so driven. They don't care what people say. They don't care how difficult it is. I'm gonna do it. And because they work so high, they succeed. But then I thought there are also other people who moan and grown all the time, and they would spend a couple months at the job, quit, go to another one, quit.

Go to another one, and ask them why do you. , I dunno. And I didn't like this place, so I'm going That why? I'm not sure. I just wanted to try and I thought there must be a, there must be something. There must be people who know that. And I want to find these people. And if I couldn't find these people who knew their why, there are people who are successful.

And then I was, uh, I was curious of, but are you happy? Is that your purpose? And I, I mean, we look up to you. Are you senneca and going? Actually, I didn't do anything much. Okay. So I was

Freda Liu: curious. Okay. Uh, any common denomination having spoken to, you know, I guess close to a hundred people? Yeah. Or, or, you know, maybe more in the bank, as you were say,

Anything that struck out to you? I mean, like was, would each be a learning. , you know, a learning point that takes you to a another

Ling Yah: level. Yeah. So two points I would say. Um, the first one is the reason. So when you start content creation, within my research, people always say you should niche down. That's how you get your audience.

Okay. I'm definitely not niche. I've got entrepreneurs, I've got artists, I've got stunt woman from Hollywood. And it was very deliberate because I realized that I. , even though I didn't want to be, I was in a bubble. I always thought, Oh, I'm open to, and I'm aware of everything out there, but I'm not really.

And I realized that sometimes there were certain guests that would come to me and I would feel like, Oh, maybe I don't wanna interview them. But when I really drill down to why it wasn't because they weren't great, it was because I dunno anything about it. And I'm scared that I would come across as nothing spot.

And that was such a silly reason for me. This is. Way of insuring I always learn something cuz I interview one person every week. That means, even though I'm a new this, because I always do a lot of research, maybe with 20 hours, maybe 40 hours, at the end of that conversation, I should come away with something.

I should have learned something more. And I will always carry that knowledge with me and hopefully bring people along with me. Right. So that's the first thing. I think the second thing you asked for the common theme, right? Yeah. It came up, the word serendipity came up with my third guess. Episode 30 talks Julian time.

He said the word first, and I've noticed that come up all the time. Serenity always, always, always, it was everyone. It seems almost everyone is driven by curiosity. Most people would say, I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. Most people really don't know. But it was always, I was curious, I was interested and I just did it right.

And that's how they got to where they are. And

Freda Liu: motto in life, I was curious. I'm interested, let's just do it. Yes. Right. That's it. That should be a motto in life. Yeah. Um, so, so I guess I was going to say that your guests are so very, but actually there then there is something in common. They're all different.

Yeah. Different . That's, that's the, that's the differentiating factor. So you're saying stand woman and all that. Now obviously you've got, you know, some Malaysians and then you've got people from broad end of course one that got you on the global stage. Yes. That interview. Tell me about that one. That is James Cords.

Boss, James

Ling Yah: Carter's boss, Nick friends thing. So this is what happened. I was on YouTube cuz we were lockdown and somehow for some reason YouTube decided I wanted to see snippets from the Late Lake show with James Carter. Okay? And I have to tell you, I really did not know what late night was. I just thought, Oh, James Gordon does this.

Like musicals cross from musicals, car karaoke. I thought that's it. I didn't realize there was a whole show that was happening every single day in a week. And I didn't realize they had a monologue. So during this whole pandemic period, they took away the audience and it was just the crew chatting with each other.

Mm-hmm. . And so this one particular clip I saw, it was basically Nick. He was in a chair and they were teasing him. And I often read the comments and when I read the comments, they're talking about this high chair, high chair. Oh, Nick is so funny. And I thought, This sounds like there's some kind of insight joke that's going on.

Right? And I really wanna know what this high chair is. So I went all the way back two weeks and I started watching and I thought, he's really funny. Okay. He's actually really funny. This is a TV executive, right? James Cord's boss. And he's been teased live every single day for. Just because it's a, it makes a great show.

And so in my head I thought, I need to interview this guy, but I thought, Oh, he's a TV executive. Maybe I should just park it. Let me grow a little bit bigger. And then there was this one particular episode where Nick basically went on. He said, Oh yeah, everyone's been like, My LinkedIn connection request has been bursting.

I've got this request to invest in real estate Miami to be interviewed for a German entertainment block. And then he set the. I'm just gonna say yes to everything. Ha. Oh, amazing. So the moment I heard that, even though he was late at night, I think 11:00 PM I just went, I'm gonna send an email to him right now.

And so I sent it to him. Within an hour or two he replies saying, Yes, but let my PR from CVS vet this through. Right? And when I work next morning, they have vetted this set shot. Let's do it right within less than. We had an interview. Right. It was so fast.

Freda Liu: Yeah. Okay. And I, I, I know that it went on for three hours.

Yes. It went for three

Ling Yah: hours. So, poor guy. I mean, I told him it was gonna be an hour and a half, but he has such an interesting story. And he's been in late night for so long. He was working with the person who knows who started Latenight show. Right. He knew everyone from Connor O'Brien all the way up to this point, Pete.

James Gordon. So I wanted to really delve into it. And so when we hit the two hour mark, I went, Nick, are you okay? And he went, Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. So we continued on. First time I hit, the second time, I hit three hours. And I only found out later that, And he, Nick revealed it on the show that, yeah, because it was three hours, I kind of missed dinner and my wife got angry at me for doing that

Freda Liu: Okay. So from there, and then of course your, your podcast was mentioned on, on the, uh, the late, late night show and all that. . Um, and then you got a lot of, uh, I guess interest, right? And so did that help change things with your podcast? Was it easier then to get guests and all that? It is an

Ling Yah: interesting question, and while I've tried to.

Drew down. I don't know. Actually. I do always include a snippet of that in every single pitch, and I do get sometimes people coming back say, Oh, that's really funny. That video is amazing. I think because it's such a known entity, right? Right. If for it to have mentioned on the global stage does give it that kind of authenticity so I can drew down and say, this is.

Definitely something that helped, but I would be surprised if it did. Right.

Freda Liu: It's that, that, I guess it's like that one, uh, one big thing, right? Yeah. And then from there you just sort of like, I mean, was it difficult in the early days when you just tried to approach as many people as possible, da, da, da and then you know, people not responding or, you know, say No?

I think, cause I work in a radio station, right? Yeah. And as it is, it's so difficult, right? I mean, I've got the backing of radio station and yet Yeah, it's still not easy to get certain guests. I,

Ling Yah: for me, surprisingly, no. I feel like it hasn't changed in terms of getting easier or harder. Before I even had a name for the podcast, before I had anything.

I really have 15 people say yes. Right. And I did leverage on some personal connections, and I knew they were quite well established. Right. And then from there on, not really, I haven't, the, the silences, the no replies are really long and they're still there, but I am not the kind of person who likes to give up.

So even if they're silent, I wait month, two months. Hi, have you received my email? Right. I can follow up six times, seven times. And honestly, it does work. It really does work. Okay. Persistence. It's just as. Yeah. And Naga, shameless ,

Freda Liu: right. And that's the thing, right? People don't understand the work that goes behind it.

Yeah. It's probably a ratio one to 10 or whatever. But the more people you approach, the chances are higher. Yeah. Um, yeah. So this is really, really cool. Now, um, is there an end game to what you're

Ling Yah: doing? I mean, the thing about podcast is that it's so hard to make it big and to make it sustainable. I would love for it to take on the live of its own.

I would love for it to be sustainable. I would love, because the bigger it is, the better the get it can get on right and the easier it is. And for me, I knew, I know even now, even though it sounds crazy, I wanna do this for the rest of my life just because it just gives me so much personal satisfaction. I like to see that the people who do.

Really connect with it. They come to me. Just yesterday, this person came to me and she talked to me like she was my best friend. I never met her, but she said, Because I've been listening to you, I feel the connection. Right? I met another person who in London for the first time, he'd been listening and when I spoke to him and said hi, he just went, Oh my goodness, he, you're talking to me.

I've been listening to to you this whole time and you're speaking to me. So this kind of thing is amazing. I think I definitely wanna con, no matter what, I want to continue growing that community, right? I would love for it to be a business if it could. It's, You never know where we go. Right.

Freda Liu: So, Okay. So people can, obviously, you know, of course the, the find you on your, your, uh, link on YouTube.

Ling Yah: Yeah. YouTube is Spotify of Apple Podcast. Stitch it pretty much anywhere and everywhere. Okay. You

Freda Liu: know, uh, before we came on, I got you to do a little. Uh, exercise, right? I mean, this is this whole thing cuz I, the book I wrote called Life the Stage. And I think that, uh, you know, and it's so important as we grow and change and different people have different, uh, aspects of their life, uh, that they need to work on or want to improve and everything.

So I wanna talk a little bit about, um, Korea. Okay. Right, right. What you're doing right now, you know? Um, and where do you see evolving? You saying that? Yeah, it can be improved. Okay. Yeah. Uh, what aspect? And, and maybe like it's, there's that lovely balance of I'm doing this and then I've got this. Podcast as well, and it works out really well.

You know what's, what's in your mind at this point in your life? Yeah, I

Ling Yah: think because I've been listening to podcast so much and most of the people featured are, do really interesting, quirky things, right? They're the ones who are brave and take that risk, leap into the unknown, and I suppose something of that has filter in and I go, Well, legal legal world is very safe.

It's very conventional, it's very risk adverse. I know exactly where I'll be in 20, 30, 40 years. . That kinda scares me. . Okay. I'm not sure if I really want that. So there's definitely a part of me that goes, I'm still young. Now it's the time to take that risk. Right. To just try and see where things are going.

I mean, it's not as. The place I'm at is bad. It's not at all. I mean, the people are so nice, Right? They are too nice. Okay. To the point where it scares me to think that I could just let life pass me by because I wasn't pushing myself constantly.

Hey, everyone. Just interrupting this interview to briefly say that if you've been enjoying this episode so far and any other episode on So This Is My Why, I also ran a weekly newsletter featuring other interesting things and people I found over the course of the week. I share this in the newsletter in the hopes that everyone will become well, more rounded, interesting individuals.

So if you're interested in subscribing to the STIMY newsletter, just head over to the show notes www.sothisismywhy.com/94. Now let's get back to this episode.

Freda Liu: Right. Okay. And you know what? You can always take, I'm just, I'm speaking, speaking from experience, you know there's numbers.

You can always try new things at any stage in your life. Yes. Right? Yeah. So, but I get where you're from, you know, cuz like when I was working in my previous company, love the company, been really good to me, but it's just. Ah, is there more? Yeah, this is it. Yeah. Right. So I, I get it. I, you know, and, and I think people do go through that, right?

Mm-hmm. depending on life stage, because it was relevant when my son was younger, and then now that he's older, It's not so, you know, like different things change, right? And then of course when we talk about the, the wheel of life, and I look at it, right? There's, there's the spiritual side, there's family, there's friends, everything.

And, and things move, right? Yeah. Things change. Um, and so the other thing is I wanna talk about, um, love and romance. Okay. So he is like, Yeah, it's not great, but okay. , is that something that has this whole idea of, cuz when I took a love and romance, there's also the other aspect of self love, right? Mm-hmm.

and I'm very happy where, when, when it comes to the air, I, I, you know, whether there's someone in my life or not is, is relevant, is lovely. If that's the case, like for you, uh, what's, what's going through your

Ling Yah: mind? So when I saw that question, I thought it was just love in sense of romance. Romance and there isn't anything.

So that's why I put it low, but I. . It's really strange. I do wonder sometimes why I'm not concerned about it. Okay. But I don't, If you're concerned, I suppose there's a part of me that thinks there will be someone out there. Right. And it's more about where am I? Right? I need to be in a place where I am.

Happy and I'm confident I'm, that person shouldn't be feeling a gap within me. And so I need to work on myself as, and everything fall into place. And I'm very lucky that my parents don't push me at all. Okay. Okay. So very, very lucky in that aspect. So I suppose, I mean they, I do have friends sometimes to go, You should try a lot more, you should go on the apps.

I have tried, but just doesn't link. Right. There's. No connections, so I'm not that concerned because there's so much going on in my life. Right. But yeah,

Freda Liu: it's okay. So you know the whole, it's more the societal expectations, right? And then what people expect of us. Oh, maybe there are other well meaning relatives, like grandma, well mean not married yet.

Yeah.

Ling Yah: I mean, you kind of feel it when you go to events like weddings and people always go to Pariss. So it's little moments like that when you go, It'd be nice to have someone, but I. Is

Freda Liu: what it is. It is what it is. And very interesting thing you said, Right. You, you know, you don't wait for someone to complete me.

Yeah. Right. You, you don't wanna attract people that are halfs. Yeah. Right. You wanna attract complete people as well. Yeah. Um, I wanna talk about the spiritual side of things, right? Yeah. And, you know, how has that led you in your decisions?

Ling Yah: Mm. I think for me, like God has always been a part of my life. I remember when I was very, very young that I had this little moment of, But that's got root even exists.

And then I just did this little experi myself where I went, Okay, imagine if God didn't exist right? And I couldn't have lost away and I just broke down. I just cried. Right? And I just thought, I can't, like, the fact that God doesn't exist is not something I can imagine. And so it just became okay. What does it mean to be a child of God?

It means having those kind of values, right? Um, it means, and you can maintain those values by surrounding yourself with the right people. Mm. And I've always been in church. They are the loveliest people in the world. They're so encouraging. Every time I'm down and I'm really. Negative. I speak to them and I go, Actually, I should be a lot kind of more, more gracious , because people respond very differently, right?

Compared to those who are not, I suppose, in that Christian environment, right? They will give you the right process. They will. They would just be very kind right about everything. Right. And give me a different

Freda Liu: perspective. I think it a test of, uh, a God in your life was going to Everest, a big base camp and managing to come back.

Ling Yah: Yes. I mean, my whole church was praying for me. They were freaking out and there I was going. I feel got sound in this. I'm fine guys. . So, So,

Freda Liu: okay, so what, what happened? Tell me about that journey. So it was like, it happened and when did you know? And then of course it was locked down. It was March, April, Yeah.

Yeah, .

Ling Yah: So the whole journey was basically, I, I was 20, I should go back to when I was 27. It was 2017 and I did my first ever hike in my life, which was Monkey N because that's how I do things. I jump straight and when I went out to Monkey Nbu, I thought, I love this so much. I wanted to do it at a space camp.

That was just it. Okay. And so I thought, Okay, I know me. If I don't set a deadline, I'm not gonna do it, so I'm gonna do it when I'm 30. So that's 20 20, 20 19, rolled by and I went, Yep. Really didn't do anything. So better reach out. So I got it planned. A friend set. I'm going in March, 2020, okay. I turned April.

At in April. Okay. So I thought, Perfect. I have to say yes, I have to say yes. And before we went, there were these rumors of this thing coming up from China, whatever it is. Everyone's like, Yeah, whatever this forest. Cool. And then we went, we wrapping Kathmandu. We went to buy unnecessary last minute thing.

Again, bustling. No rumors whatsoever. First say hi, No problem. Second. We all got this email saying, Oh, your flight's been canceled, but you're free to reschedule. And we were asking people, we were asking the local embassy as well, and they said, Don't worry about it. You're gonna be hiking for 18 days, two weeks in the mountain, you're in the safest place in the world.

Mm-hmm. , there's no one there that the world saw itself out and you can come down. So we went, Okay, fine. So we went all the way up to base camp. It wasn't great. So some of us, I, I got really, really, really bad artistic sickness, so I decided to take the helicopter down with a couple of friends from hypo them.

Yeah, Which was a very, very lucky thing cuz I arrive, I had one day in Kathmandu and the next day my friends were gonna fight down the remaining who decided to hike. That's when Nepal went to a sudden lockdown. Oh. So I spent two weeks, thankfully in Kathmandu. My friends spent the next two and a half weeks stuck in the mountains when they stuck in the mountains they had, we had not showered at all.

We were talking about negative 20 south stair freezing coal. Even if there's water you don't want to it. Right. It's, it's freezing. It hurts to, if you can't melt the ice, can you only have two hours of heating because they control the on wood, you barely have any wifi. You just sit it in this tea house commun area, right?

Doing nothing. What's gonna happen? I'm so glad I wasn't sat there. But that's what they went through. And it was a bit of a drama because the only way you could get out is if your government speaks to the, the power government. Okay? And guess especially chartered plane to bring you home. So that's what that.

As one of my friends, so the whole bunch of us, we were all in communication with the local embassy. They brought 40 of us into this specialty charter plane. All Malaysians packed us in. We arrived in K I. I remember my mom was tracking our flight and she showed me, because you can see online, we were the only plane in this air.

We arrived in K I A. It was everything was dark, dark. We were the only ones who had just arrived. And it was just so many policemen really. They outnumber us. , like two, three, and they just, yeah, they process us. For the first time in our lives, we had to actually stand apart from each other because in Nepal, who cares?

We just stick toward each other.

Freda Liu: No, Ma, we didn't know the significance of it.

Ling Yah: Yeah, we didn't know the significance. And we had like being traveling in the mountains together this whole time. If we got it, we got it too late. But in Malaysia, that's when we first had that, and then they just packed us off for two weeks.

Freda Liu: Right. So I made the hypothermia worked out really well. Yes.

Ling Yah: It worked out. I was so lucky. .

Freda Liu: Okay. Um, now you said that you wish you could have started the podcast earlier, right? Uh, why?

Ling Yah: Because I suppose it's just time and if I started earlier, I could get to meet more people. Right. That's really it. And.

When I think about it, the reason why I didn't start it was I was just scared of the technical side. Mm-hmm. . And what I was scared of was how not do I record this and how do I release this? And I knew me. I knew I had to corner myself to such a point where I just gotta figure it out and do it. And so after getting the 15 years and having set only for two months, I thought, I'm just gonna reach out.

I'm just gonna schedule it. And I had one, so I remember distantly coming out the first one on Thursday and it was a Tuesday and I went. You gotta figure this out, man. Just sit down and just figure it out. And within 15 minutes I figured out, just go on Zoom and just click record. That's it. , it was so simple, but it was a mental block and I knew it was a mental block.

I just hadn't gotten over it. So for me, I look back and go, Gosh, I wish I just sat down and just scheduled it cuz I would have started

Freda Liu: earlier. But, But you know, it's so funny, right, that you should think about it and then after. We were just stuck at home. Yeah. You know, people who was like, Yeah, why not?

I've got nothing else to do. Right. So it's just like how, how timing, serendipity. Yes. Exactly As you were saying. Um, you know, I just wanna ask, like of course you've got Nick and all these other different people as well that you interview, were maybe just some that you felt was, got you thinking right? And, and actually just sort of change a little bit of your behavior after having spoken to them.

Were, were they some that just stood out for you?

Ling Yah: Something stood out to me. Hmm. So there's this person called Cesar Kuriyama. So he's a founder of one second every day, which is video app. And what's amazing is that basically he also had this crisis of what to do with my life. I wanted that quit cuz he was doing advertising in New York and he took a sabbatical and he thought, I wanna remember.

What happened during this year sabbatical, And I can't, I've tried journaling my whole life and I can't, I just don't have that patience. What if I take a video of one second every single day? And it's amazing. Yeah. When you stitch it all together, right? You see that? One second. You do remember that life.

And so I heard of it through a, a good friend of mine, uh, Hong Yes. Yes. And she said, You should interview this person. So I interviewed him and for me, what? What was amazing is that he had so many incredible seren ous moments, right? One of it was he said, Oh, I, he was a Marvel intern. I love Marvel. I love Ironman.

He was following John fio who directed Ironman one Ironman, so he was also happy. The driver in the movies, right? For the third one, he wasn't the director. Right. And that's kind of a big thing. And he still appeared on the premier. He still appeared as a driver. And Caesar said he didn't have to. I understand the industry.

He really didn't have to, but he did. And why is no one acknowledging that? So he created this tweet and he spent the whole night, he was drafting me, drafting, not say I nevermind, Fell asleep on it. Woke up really early, still had that too open. And he went, I'm just gonna click send. No one's gonna see you.

But John did see it. Not only did John see it, he reached out to his producers and said, I wanna feature one second every day in my movie, my Hollywood movie. And so for me it was just this story of one tweet could change your life, right? And you just never know. You just have to put yourself out there.

How can you imagine if I sang one tweet, I could appear in a Hollywood movie? What are the chances? But then there's no chance if you don't even.

Freda Liu: Right. Yeah. Okay. It's definitely a no if you don't even try. Yeah, exactly Right. Okay. That's such an interesting story. Um, and I'm sure you've got a lot more as well, so I'm listening to you.

I'm like, Wow, you know, the different kinds of, You mentioned that you had, you, you spoke to Gei Kawasaki as well? Yes, I did. What was that like? So Guy,

Ling Yah: he's very interesting because I had been following him for a while. This was a time. Clubhouse was the thing. And I noticed he had this AMA room. So I jumped in.

Cause I wanna say what's on his mind right now. Cause I listened to all his podcasts. That's what I do. I wanna know exactly what they say. And I realized he always said the same thing. People asked the same questions, he said the same thing, I wanna be different. And so when I interviewed him, what was interesting was that, and I also read, so I, before that I also read his book.

Return about 10, 12 books. As I read his books for the first time, I realized, actually I know all the content of the books cuz whatever he says in the book is in the ama, is in the interview. It's the same thing. When I interviewed him, I tried to ask different questions. He basically gave the same answer, right?

And I could try and push him beyond it, but not really. And that's when I realized, oh gosh, he's really great. Yeah, he has his fixed stories for these fixed questions, right? Which is very fascinating. So I thought, okay, I wanna push more. While the questions never been asked, why are you gonna clubhouse? And also, why do you always give your email out?

Cuz he, in his clubhouse, he always says, Contact [email protected] all the time in his books, he puts it down, right? Surely this is the last person in the world should release it. And so I asked him that question cuz no one asks it for. And he said, Well, you might be surprised. People just self select themselves.

All of it. They think I have tons of emails. Actually I don't. And I do say yes to everything. Wow.

Freda Liu: So there you go. And then there you go. That led to the interview as well. Okay, let me process this for a while. , It might take a few seconds of footage, as I'm processing this, but, but, you know, Um, but yeah, I know there's some people who just got these canned answers Yes.

And, and all that, but yeah. So you have to think of something that wasn't part of the canned answers. Yes. Future episodes, Future, what, what else can we look forward?

Ling Yah: Ooh, I'm really excited. Um, Teaser. Teaser. So I haven't interviewed them and I've realized that if I haven't got the interview doesn't mean I'll get it.

But the yeses, I dunno, we might have to idea this out. The yeses that the people who have promised would be the founders of Evernote, Ah, um, the, let me see. The Chairman of London Evening Standard and also independent in London. Wow. I've got one person who basically co-owns Billy Elliot, the musical. Right.

She also co-owns quite a few West End theaters and also has produced lots of shows and movies. She also owns Meet Jas favorite restaurant. She's meet Ja um, neighbor. Right. So that's really exciting. Um, I've. This VC and quite excited, thought I interviewing later this month. She really believes in influences, right?

And using influences to promote startups. So she's an investor in lady. Wow. Company. She's invested with Jessica Elba, she's an investor with all these huge celebrities. Right. So I think it should be really, really fascinated.

Freda Liu: Right. I'm just looking at your guesses. I'm just thinking what's going through your mind?

Because it's so varied, right? You're just covering and that's amazing. Right. And I think that's the, the common thing with all your interviews, they're all different.

Ling Yah: Yes. , yes. They are all different.

Freda Liu: Right? Of course. If you know, um, Ling. Yeah, if you wanna know more about her, you, She won't talk so much about her, but check it out.

So this is my Why Podcast series. Just do a Google search. You'll be able find her. Hi, this is Relu, and live the stage. If you found this conversation thought provoking, please like, share and subscribe.

Ling Yah: And that was the end of episode 94. I do hope you enjoyed it because it's my first time having my own story being shared on the podcast, and not gonna lie, it feels kind of strange and awkward. As always the show notes and transcript can be found at www.sothisismywhy.com/ 94. If you have enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you could just leave a rating and review on podcast or also tag me on any of your favorite platforms with a review.

Whether that's LinkedIn, which I'm often at, Instagram or even Twitter.

And stay tuned for next Sunday because we'll be meeting the marketing director of Decentraland.

What I found fascinating is that prior to Decentraland, this next guest spent many years in the gaming industry. She spearheaded the launch of Angry Bird Space, which included collaborating with NASA and an astronaut in the International Space Station, as well as the national geography and slash.

We also talked about all things web three, the value of virtual land and how companies are entering this new space.

Wanna learn more?

Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and see you next Sunday.