REBEL CURIOSITIES

Many of us would have felt stuck with what we do at some point in life. We’ve studied and trained in a particular field, or worked in a sector which likely defined our career trajectories.  Not Jeevi Pillai.  To call her a dance maestro (dancing since the age of four!), successful business entrepreneur and professional national sports psychologist would be more than fitting.  As a career, she has...

To say that "change is a constant" will be an understatement these days.  Yet, why does it seem that reacting to changes or driving change is so difficult to do? Why do we suck at it so much?  Well, to break this down, we’ll have to look the intricacies of human behaviours. And I speak with Oliver Foo, who’s not only a veteran in corporate leadership, but had also recently published a bo...

“We are told that fitting in is the way to be accepted in this world... so the outlier mind is about how do we give people the permission to feel, love and embrace the outlier that’s in them."  ****** In this episode, I sit with Judy Liu, who is a true rebel in every sense of that word in the corporate world.  Her joie de vivre, her energy and way of seeing the world and the people around her...

There’s a famous quote by Albert Einstein that goes, "it’s a miracle that curiosity survives the formal education.” Yet when we think about education, there’s a sense that we focus a lot more on the teaching, the academic curriculum, the results... rather than the experiences of  learning from the child’s perspective. Where it seems to be all about getting the right answers, rather than askin...

“There shouldn’t be a concept of retirement actually... whenever people want to stop working, they can; when they want to start, they can. And they shouldn’t be questioned about it. We want to facilitate the fluidity of work.” ****** We often think about our career journey from our mid-20s to 50s, and it’s commonly one that is linear from university to corporate, then retirement. And we know that...

“Learning and figuring things out has always been a fundamental part of who I am... to think about things in a different way and explore the world with a curious lens.” ----   AI has gotten quite the reputation of being inauthentic, fake and being the ultimate risk in replacing our jobs, since the launch of ChatGPT. So I wanted to speak with Ashvin Praveen, who is the co-founder and CEO of an AI s...

What would you do differently, knowing that you probably have 1,000 weeks left in this world? Neeraj Narayan has spent 14 years with Nike as a top global director, working his way through roles and ranks across different countries.  These days, he is an entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and CEO of Synergy India Ventures, which is dedicated to social impact. He is also embracing his creativity throug...

Who is Pearl and why did she start Rebel Curiosities? In this final episode of season 2, the tables have been turned - I get interviewed as a guest instead by the wonderfully insightful Dalglish Chew, professional coach and partner at Avalanche VC, who was my very first  guest on the podcast! Dalglish takes to his role as interviewer and coach effortlessly, digging deep into my psyche for the moti...

Petr Ludwig is the best-selling author of the book, The end of Procrastination, and the founder and CEO of his company, procrastination.com.  His book has been translated in over 20 languages and sold 400,000 copies across 28 countries since it was published in 2013. He is a successful entrepreneur and keynote speaker.  But that’s not what we will be talking about today. In this episode, my conver...

In the world of business and marketing, product commonly trumps customer.  And by that, I mean we usually focus too much on product promotion, than thinking on focusing on the customers and their experience. I wanted to find out more about how we can do things differently.    So I reached out to our guest for this episode, Ilenia Vidili, who is the speaker and author of the book - Journey to Centr...

Work.  It’s constantly  on our minds,  what we think of when things go wrong - or when things seem to be going well - and what consumes our being.   How do we think about work, and how do we get it right? What do companies have to do to help people find the right fit and roles? Aki Taha is the former Director of Talent Acquisition at Netflix, as well as the Head of Recruiting for organisations suc...

What does your own personal rebellion look like? You certainly don’t need to be that teenage rebel or be destructive. In fact, the ideal inner rebellion happens with deep self reflection and awareness, often for a better and more constructive mindset shift. In this part 2 of the interview with Kenneth Tan, we discussed more of his own personal journey, how he came to be who he is, with the reflect...

“The smarter leaders are, the harder they find to make it simple.” Why do we find it so hard to learn the leadership language, one that transcends across cultures and people? What does true purposeful leadership look like... in a world that’s filled with buzzwords? **** In this conversation, I am speaking with Kenneth Tan, President of APAC at Varian, a global multinational company specialising in...

How did a group of communication students transform - from what started as a school project - into a successful thriving media group across Southeast Asia, garnering accolades for their featured stories of Singapore... and being featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list? I speak with Kai Yuan Ng, co-founder of Our Grandfather Story, a successful media brand under the Unfold Asia group. “OGS", a...

“I wish I can do it too.” This is a statement I get when people ask me about what I do - or when we share the inspirational stories of people stepping outside of the conventional paths.  But what’s really holding us back - and why is it so hard to find our “why”? * * In this episode, I speak with Wong Ling Yah, who’s a lawyer for 10 years, based in Malaysia.  In her journey to find out if there’s...

“What would the 80-year-old you... thank you for what you do today?” That was the question with a coach that sparked Adeline Tiah to rethink her career path.  Having been an accomplished marketer with more than 20 years of experience across top banks and telco, Adeline had plenty to rest her laurels on.  But the question stuck with her. If she had to work for another 15 years, what would she do di...

For season 2 of Rebel Curiosities, we dive deeper into rethinking our own "status quo" - how to challenge some of our own personal biases and bring about change for better interactions and outcomes.  And we are kicking off with the topic - RESPECT.  Ever wondered why some people tend to feel disrespected, even if we didn’t intend it?  Or how you felt the resentment of not given respect,...

In this season 1 roundup, I look back at the best moments that each expert guest on Rebel Curiosities have shared - across different areas of work, life, business and leadership. SECTION 1 - WORK/SELF (00:56) Lisa Partridge: Curiosity is more about listening - than asking questions (03:00) Jan Yeo: How to deviate from the “herd” with curiosity - while facing the fears (05:21) Dalglish Chew: Diggin...

Having grown up in an environment that does not have physical or psychological safety, Coen Tan is an empath who grew up not recognising his abilities to pick up emotions as a strength. As a result of that, he went through difficult periods in school, being bullied, with a yearning to be seen, heard and respected.  He watched and learned how people interacted with each other, pick up storytelling...

“You have to fail to know how to do it.... yet a lot of people lack the curiosity to deviate from the herd.”  Jan Yeo is a Singapore-based entrepreneur who certainly does not play by the rulebook when it comes to choosing a career path.  Jan started his studies in dual-sciences and realised that it wasn’t quite his calling. He then explored different routes as a web developer, to interactive adver...

How does curiosity drive the profit & loss of a business?  Why should we lead with curiosity for better business results? Today I speak with Febronia Ruocco, a Global Strategic Insights Director, who has worked for a number of notable companies and brands such as Cadbury, Diageo, Heineken, McDonalds, Mars, and Heinz. Having been exposed to marketing in her early career, she discovered her fasc...

Gail Robertson started out as a journalist and learnt that asking questions, not just any questions but the right ones, will get you better stories... and better relationships for work.  And being a force of nature herself, she soon found herself pulled into different paths in her career, following her curiosities along the way.  Gail is currently the CEO - or more accurately, the Chief Curiosity...

Matthew Murrie is a curious guy.  In fact, he is so curious about things around him and the way we learn and work, that he pursued the research of science and psychology in curiosity, asking questions along the way that challenges the status quo. Matt is the executive director of What If Curiosity, a professional consultancy focused on developing and driving curiosity-based thinking in the workpla...

Curious rebels harness the power of curiosity in the way they think, to being who they are and driving what they do. They are the ones who rethink the status quo and are likely to have chosen unconventional paths, than follow the one laid out for them.  And today’s guest, Leonard Reese, is someone who has done just that.  After college, Leonard moved to East Africa to teach computer literacy to ad...

Curiosity is a wonderful trait for connecting with people - but what happens when the other person get a little too inquisitive and starts asking questions that feel like an interrogation? Or worse, use the curiosity against you in conversations you aren’t prepared for - especially on social media? I speak with Lisa Partridge, a communications specialist and founder of SIXCOMMS consultancy, which...