You Never Know with Nicole Lee

Have you ever felt like your life was a movie?   One minute, you’re in a romantic comedy. The next, a drama with a plot twist no one saw coming.   But what if life isn’t just a movie? What if it’s a whole cinema?   You get to choose which movie to be in. Write it. Rewrite it. I know—it sounds crazy. But what if it’s real?   What if you’re more powerful than you think?   🚀 Follow me for real conve...

You shouldn’t need a bank — or 4x your country’s GDP per capita — just to buy a government bond. But in many parts of the world, that’s still the reality. And for Aaron Gwak, it was a problem worth solving.   Born in Korea, raised in Ghana, and shaped by two decades in investment banking, Aaron spent years helping governments and financial institutions raise capital through bonds. From UBS to Stan...

Men don’t talk enough about the failure, burnout, or mental toll of running a business or leading in the workplace — but perhaps they should.   In this episode of You Never Know, Neil Patwardhan shares what it’s really like behind the scenes — from working in the corporate world at Dell and Accenture to becoming an “accidental founder,” and learning the sometimes-dark lessons of entrepreneurship....

Your voice is your personal brand. And your brand is your biggest asset. Not your knowledge. Not your picture-perfect image. Not even your business card.   In this episode of You Never Know, I sit down with Own Your Voice coach, speaker, and emcee, Rae Fung for a real conversation about what it means to find — and own — your voice.   From starting out as an emcee at 15, to navigating the raw hunge...

What if winning awards doesn’t mean you’ve truly succeeded? What if purpose matters more than, and can even lead to, success?   In this episode I speak with Anser Aly, an award-winning "accidental marketer" who spent nearly two decades at Unilever leading campaigns at global brands — including three Cannes Lions wins.   But despite all the accolades, something was missing. And that somet...

From teacher to CEO of a dental practice and health & wellness group, DP Healthverse, Louisa Lee’s career journey is anything but ordinary.   In this episode of You Never Know, Louisa opens up about the internal struggles many don’t see behind the teaching profession, why she left it to build a business with her husband, how she grew it without being a dentist herself, and the surprising truth...

At just 21, Jeraldine Phneah started speaking out online about things that mattered to her and her millennial generation — even when many of her peers didn’t. In this episode of You Never Know , she opens up about why social issues have always interested her, the emotional cost and personal growth of speaking out, and her experiences from investing to dating in her 30s.   For anyone who’s ever str...

If you want to thrive in banking and finance, this episode is for you. Finance veteran, Paul Hodes, shares about the key moves that shaped his long-standing career, including experiences at Fidelity, more than 25 years at senior positions in Citi, and his transition to fintech at Privé Technologies, where he is now CEO.   We dive deep into what really makes a difference in your career — how networ...

Most people wait until they’re fully ready to start a business. 23-year-old Amanda Cua didn’t.   At 19, she skipped university and launched Backscoop, a media startup covering Southeast Asia’s startup scene. No degree, little experience—just an idea, a problem to solve, and the determination to make it work.   Now, at 23, she’s a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia entrepreneur. But her biggest challenge? Man...

Let’s face it. We all want and need money, but most of us don’t like to talk about it. I speak with Crystal Chow, a Money Consciousness Coach, as we dive into her transformative journey—from abuse to abundance, banking to crypto, and starting her own business.   We go deep into how scarcity beliefs and self-doubt block wealth, the powerful role of self-worth in shaping our financial reality, and h...

Have you ever felt like you needed to be "perfect" to be enough? I have. For years, I thought I had to be in control. I thought I could. I planned everything. I strived to meet every expectation. I anticipated people's needs.  In this special edition of You Never Know , the mic gets turned on me! Guest host Daria Huck leads a deep and honest conversation about my journey as a woman...

Everyone talks about their wins, but not many talk about their failures. Ned Phillips spent 8 years building Bambu, a prominent robo-advisory fintech firm based in Singapore. Then one day, he had to face the brutal truth – they ran out of money. And it was over.   Shutting it down wasn’t just a business decision. It was an emotional toll, a hit to his identity, and a reckoning with what it really...

Sometimes, the hardest moments in life are the ones that bring us back to who we truly are.  For Will Finn, that moment came when he was diagnosed with cancer.   It wasn’t just a health battle — it was a wake-up call.   A moment that forced him to step back and ask: Am I living in alignment with who I truly am? Or am I just following a path that was expected of me?   For years, he was a lawyer at...

Like many of you, I never believed in astrology.   I thought it was just something fun for magazine editors to write about, or for us girls to get to know each other a little quicker. I thought it can’t be real.   But what if our stars and planets in the universe are telling us part of our story? WHAT IF they could guide us on our some of our biggest decisions in our lives?   A little more than a...

Would you take a pay cut to do something you love? Frank Koo reveals that’s what he did. And he never looked backed since. Many of us were raised to believe that Success = Earning more money + More social status. But what if true fulfilment comes from something bigger than yourself? Something bigger than material pursuits? In Episode 5 of You Never Know , I speak with Frank Koo , who has navigated...

“Gen Zs are strawberries -- they bruise easily and don’t want to work hard.”   That’s what the media and many others have to say about the generation who’s now in their late teens to mid-20s.   But honestly, that’s completely opposite to my experience with these bright, young sparks of light whom I’ve had the chance to work and interact with.   They dare to think different and believe different. A...

So many of us, including myself, have unconsciously let life happen to us.   And so often, perhaps because of how we grew up or what we’ve been through, we get so used to going with someone else’s flow that we don’t even realize what it actually does to our happiness, our fulfilment, our health, and our true desires.   In this episode, I speak with Keith Power, an executive coach and soon-to-be ho...

It's amazing how life can change so much in a year, a month, or even a day.   The only power we have is in the now, not in the past or the future. But we MUST learn from our past and our experiences to help us move forward with clarity, to know ourselves better, and to learn to align our actions more closely with our truer selves.   Before we leave 2024 completely behind, here are 5 BIG LESSO...

It feels so unreal filming and launching the first solo episode of my new podcast, You Never Know with Nicole Lee.   It started with an idea. A dream. A vision of a part of me I’m meant to be amid the depths of my reflection more than a year ago.   A calling for me to share my truth, and those of others, with you and with the world. To talk about things we don’t normally talk about, especially her...