Beyond the Highlight Reel: Yuki Bi on Cross-Cultural Growth, Resilient Leadership, and Owning Your Weakness Artwork

Badass Women in Business

Welcome to The Badass Women in Business Podcast, where real women share the unfiltered stories behind their success.

Hosted by Cristy O’Connor and Aggie Chydzinski, this podcast brings you inside the minds of founders, CEOs, and changemakers who have built, rebuilt, and redefined what leadership looks like.

Each week, you will hear how these women turned obstacles into opportunity, silence into strategy, and ambition into impact. These are not highlight reels. They are hard-earned lessons from women who built empires, challenged norms, and did it all on their own terms.

If you are building something, leading something, or dreaming of more, this show will light the fire that keeps you moving.

Subscribe now and join the movement of women rewriting the rules of business, one badass story at a time.

New episodes drop every Tuesday.

All Episodes

Badass Women in Business

Beyond the Highlight Reel: Yuki Bi on Cross-Cultural Growth, Resilient Leadership, and Owning Your Weakness

August 19, 2025 • Aggie & Cristy • Season 4 • Episode 38

Send us a text

In this episode of Badass Women in Business, we sit down with Yuki Bi, global advertising executive and co-founder of Helios Worldwide. Yuki shares how her journey from a Canadian ad intern to leading a private equity-backed global consultancy has been shaped by risk, reinvention, and relentless self-awareness.

This conversation goes beyond the polished version of success. Yuki opens up about leading a 500-person team at the height of her career, losing half that team in one difficult moment, and how that experience transformed her approach to leadership. She talks about learning to lead across cultures, building long-term partnerships, and how she has grown by facing her own vulnerabilities rather than hiding them.

From navigating gender bias in conservative markets to rethinking business as a deeply personal endeavor, Yuki brings nuance, honesty, and strategic clarity. Whether you are scaling globally or just trying to figure out your next move, her story will leave you grounded and inspired.

Show Notes

Guest: Yuki Bi, CEO and Co-Founder of Helios Worldwide
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yukun-yuki-bi-08638153

Topics Covered:

Building a truly global independent agency with a unified culture
The turning point moment when burnout led to losing half her team
How WPI supports global collaboration between independent agencies
The difference between cultural nuance and cultural stereotypes in advertising
The power of “slow dating” in business partnerships and what to watch for
Reframing guilt and pressure as a woman in leadership
Why knowing your weaknesses can be a leadership strength
Lessons from working across Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East
Moving beyond the service model to become a growth partner
What she wishes more women would embrace when scaling a business

Three Takeaways

Leadership is about responsibility, not ego. You cannot walk away when it gets hard.
Weaknesses, when acknowledged and shared, can build deeper trust than strengths ever could.
Long-term growth requires clear roles, honest partnership, and the discipline to walk away when values do not align.

Call to Action

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it with someone who is ready to lead with courage and clarity. Stay badass.

---

Subscribe and Review
If you loved this episode, drop us a review, share it with a badass woman in your life, and subscribe to Badass Women in Business wherever you get your podcasts.

Stay badass. Stay bold. Build it your way.

Keep up with more content from Aggie and Cristy here: