Curito Connects

Jenn speaks to Taiwan’s first female professional longboard surfer, Bay Bay Niu. Having picked up the sport later in life, she shares how she fell in love with the sport, self-taught herself how to surf, and eventually moved around the island to be near surf points where she has paved way for Taiwanese female surfers and shaped Taiwan’s surfing community - bringing more awareness to the sport on t...

Jenn speaks to Olivia Cotes-James, the founder of Luüna Naturals a company she founded in 2017 that is a purpose-drive period wellness company, proudly built between Hong Kong and Shanghai by a 100% women-led team. Olivia shares with us how her own negative period experiences led her to host period workshops amongst her peers that later inspired her to create LUÜNA Naturals. (Recorded on April 14...

Jenn speaks to Celia Cheng of Cravings Media a boutique design studio focused on the art of letterpress production, digital consulting, and lifestyle editor based out of Honolulu! Celia shares her viewpoint on how every obstacle or encounter you have in life can be viewed as a magical moment. A designer and card maker, with over two decades of digital media experience, Celia walks us down memory l...

Jenn speaks to Christina Maningo, founder of MYWELLNESS a health and wellness platform based out of Manila, Philippines where Christina teaches yoga, myofascial, nutrition and coaches individuals to achieve a better mind and body connection. Christina dives into the topic of habits and why building habits in her life journey has really helped her overcome different difficulties and why she encoura...

Jenn speaks to Annie Au, the creator, and founder of Soulful Yin Yoga Method, the only teacher training that specializes in the emotional side of yin yoga and Chinese meridians where she currently teaches online from Sri Lanka! Annie shares with us how a breakup in her early 20s led her to give up her ballet career to find herself and begin her spiritual path to seek happiness. How she grew up as...

Jenn speaks to Simone Zhang, a spiritual mentor, intuitive healer, and ascension guide about learning to forgive in order to find closure and how her own journey taught her this lesson. She shares how unlocking and understanding our spiritual self is helpful in our own healing and understanding of our own individual needs. (Recorded on October 6, 2021) About Simone: Simone is a spiritual mentor an...

Jenn speaks to Edwin Chong, VP of E-commerce and Digital Marketing at Luxury Brand Partners, a company focused on developing and nurturing prestige, artist-driven beauty brands, with a focus on innovation and a passion for the creative mind. We talk about Edwin’s time in Asia, how the difference in an environment challenged him, and how important it is to find and construct an environment that max...

Jenn speaks to Francesca Chang, founder of Attorney on a Journey Life Coaching based out of Taiwan. Francesca talks about her decision to quit law only a few months after passing the Bar, being resilient about finding her purpose, and how through many trials and errors she discovered her passion in helping others transition into a career or lifestyle that they dream of. (Recorded on September 8, 2...

Jenn speaks to Michael Tsai, founder and lead instructor at Wing Chun Connect a martial arts school based in Taipei. Born and raised in California, Mike moved to Taiwan in 2008 to dedicate himself to training full time, creating his school to spread more awareness in Chinese martial arts and how in these last 14 years there has been ups and downs in choosing this path and why he believes so strong...

Jenn speaks to Zara Seligson, a certified holistic nutritionist, herbalist, yoga & Ayurveda instructor who specialized in women’s reproductive health and education. Zara shares with us how an adrenal collapse in her early 20s led her to discover different holistic healing modalities that healed her and led her on the path of helping other women through physiological, spiritual and emotional issues...

Jenn speaks to Michael D’Hulst, CEO & Co-Founder of Super League Triathlon, the world’s premier swim-bike-run series, pitching the very best athletes against each other in quick and exciting race formats in fantastic destinations across the globe. Michael gets personal sharing how Luc Van Lierde, the first Belgium to win Ironman World Championship in 1996 inspired him to pick up the sport, race, a...

Jenn speaks to Max Huang (黃偉翔), founder of Skill for U a nonprofit organization that focuses on vocational school students and community in Taiwan, to bridge and communicate with society sharing their skills with others. Max shares with us his unconventional Taiwanese educated journey, career path, and lessons he has learned along the way that he wishes to teach the next generation. An inspirat...

Jenn speaks to Daria Kozhukar, founder of Little Heroes a visual learning aid product geared for teachers and parents working with autistic kids as well as an online global special needs platform. Russian born, Daria found herself working a corporate life in China in her 20s married, and starting her young family when her son, Maks at the age of 3 was diagnosed with autism. Having a special needs...

Jenn speaks to Mei Zhang, founder of WildChina, the inbound luxury travel company in China, HBS graduate, Aspen Institute China Fellow, Conde Nast Travel Expert, author, daughter, wife, and mother! A pioneer in the China travel landscape, Mei shares her most impactful moment that changed her world from a Yunnan girl to an HBS graduate, to returning home to China to start her own business. She talk...

Jenn speaks to Meredith Schweig, a Harvard PhD, Fulbright Scholar, and assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Emory University. Meredith talks about the field of ethnomusicology, her interest in East Asia which led her to focus her research on Taiwanese popular music and coincidently marry her best friend, Andres a Taiwanese American. She shares the many challenging encounters she has had from...

Jenn speaks to Davina Ho, founder of Inhabit Meditation who has a vision to create silent spaces for stressed out city dwellers in urban environments. Davina works with clients and companies dealing with issues from burnout and stress as well as trauma, sleep issues, depression, and anxiety. She shares with us how when her father passed away over a decade ago, therapy, yoga, and meditation were wh...

Jenn speaks to Taiwanese American singer, songwriter, Lara Veronin about the difficulty of finding stability as a child when she grew up in an environment having moved around a lot. Her memory of finding her tribe when enrolling at Taipei American School where she discovered her voice and blossomed. The sacrifices she made to pursue her career in the entertainment industry. Experiencing discrimina...

Jenn speaks to Dr. Austin Chiang, the Director of Endoscopic Weight Loss Program and Chief Medical Social Media Officer at Jefferson Health and Chief Medical Officer at Medtronics. Dr. Chiang has been a pioneer using his social media presence to push for an awareness of encouraging more doctors and healthcare professionals to utilize social media to impact more people and public health. We talk ab...

Jenn speaks to fashion designer, award-winning creative director, Alexander King Chen about his journey of realizing how to let go of one's ego to work collaboratively with others and how to integrate his creative visions for the greater good of humanity. Alex shares his insight about the fashion industry, on how he saw light at the end of the dark tunnel he experienced, and why going forward he h...

Jenn speaks to Vera Wu, founder of Beauty from Awareness. Born and raised in Taiwan, Vera lost her mom to depression as a teenager and her search for the meaning of love and confidence took her on a journey that led her to discover how beauty comes from within, skincare and makeup is a tool to enhance this discovery for individuals. Vera shares with us her own struggles with relationships, how she...

Jenn speaks to Aaron Goldman, a mental and emotional performance coach based out of Ashland, Oregon, and founder of PLAYfreesport a platform that provides training sessions, seminars, workshops and 1:1 consultations for youth, athletes, coaches, parents, and teams in order to help unlock their full potential in their performance environment. Aaron shares his own athletic career experience, what it...

Jenn speaks to Ben Wong, Head of Open Innovation at Eureka Nova based out of Hong Kong, a leading open innovation platform that empowers technology startups to co-create within the New World Group ecosystem of culture, creativity, and innovation! A fellow Dickinson College alumni, in this episode, Ben talks about growing up as a first-generation Asian immigrant, how sports really shaped him to bec...

Jenn speaks to Spaniard, Steffi Lopez Gonzalez from Your Life Your Playground a life coach, mentor, speaker, pilates, and yoga instructor currently based out of Hong Kong about letting go of old narratives and meanings we attach to the things that happen in our lives to create an empowered version of ourselves. Steffi shares her own struggles with her insecurities and fear of failure from a young...

Jenn speaks to Adam Keen founder of Keen on Yoga and Podcast about traumas, philosophy, narratives, and food! Adam talks about his earliest memories of suppressing his emotions, his first encounters with Indian philosophy and yoga, his favorite philosophers, and why he believes it is important to create your own understanding and narrative story. By sharing your suffering you can find meaning in i...

Jenn speaks to Independent Certified OPTAVIA Coach, Shantelle Flake on why failing her AP European History exam in High School led her to quit Varsity Basketball her senior year and taught her the lesson of switching from a set mindset to a growth mindset. A mother of 5, Shantelle shares her struggles with a healthy mindset after giving birth to her first baby. How having a growth mindset has also...