#18 – Via Tendon: Redundancy, Job Hunting with Honesty, Developing Agency and Community Generosity

What happens when you are suddenly made redundant and need to rebuild confidence, momentum, and direction?

In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Via Tendon about redundancy, rebuilding confidence, and the generosity that can unite and support people during uncertain career moments.

After being made redundant, Via began openly sharing her job-search journey on LinkedIn. What started as a simple act of honesty quickly resonated with many people navigating similar experiences. Her posts became a way to reduce isolation, share practical insights, and help others regain momentum in their careers.

Drawing on over a decade leading brand and content teams across global agencies and in-house organisations, Via reflects on the emotional realities of job searching, the value of community support, and the importance of developing personal agency when navigating change.

This is a conversation about kindness, professional courage, and how people can develop their career agency.

This episode explores
• Redundancy and the psychological impact of unexpected career disruption
• Why honesty during a job search can create connection and community
• Developing personal agency when navigating career uncertainty
• Practical approaches to networking, learning, and rebuilding momentum
• Paying forward the generosity of mentors, peers, and communities

Guest links
• Via Tendon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vtendon/ “I'm here to support early to mid-career people navigate their careers, especially post-redundancy. My four resources and network for careers:”
• Amelia Schubach (Via’s Career Coach)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelia-schubach/
• Gaurav Valani
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gauravvalani/
• Hilary Gridley - Be a Supermanager (with AI)
https://maven.com/hilary-gridley/ai-powered-people-management
• Wes Kao – Executive Communication and Influence
https://maven.com/wes-kao/executive-communication-influence
• Via's Metta Play
https://www.instagram.com/mettaplay
• A great job-hunting video Sam has shared a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L02GcDC76I&list=FLD0D7bPli784tcwmLIaYbQg&index=20

Chapters
00:00 What Happens When You’re Made Redundant
02:55 Why Via Shared Her Job Hunt Publicly on LinkedIn
06:40 The Community Support That Changed Everything
10:30 Rebuilding Confidence After Losing a Job
16:40 Networking and Learning During a Job Search
22:00 Developing Career Agency During Uncertainty
28:30 Paying Forward Help to Others Navigating Redundancy

Explore further
Book a Lab: https://naturalgenius.com.au
Learn more about Sam: https://samanthabell.com.au
Subscribe to hear future episodes.

Credits
Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Peregian Beach and Melbourne, 27 February 2026
Produced at the Violet Town and Peregian Beach offices, 27 February - 10 March 2026
Natural Genius Podcast https://naturalgenius.com.au 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. We're here to help you tap into your natural genius. Let's go. I'm so much looking forward to meeting Via. I hope that's how you pronounce her name. We'll soon find out. I've reached out to her because she was exceptionally generous and vulnerable and honest about her job hunt. Now she's in a great role, and I wanted to hear a bit more about what worked for her and what surprised her and the lovely people that she connected in with through this time of uncertainty when she was looking for a role. She just uninhibitedly shared where she was at and it's to be celebrated. So let's enjoy being uplifted. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Leah, welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. Thank you so much for your time.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Oh no, thank you. It's great to be here. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Oh well, we're new friends from having uh met through LinkedIn and largely because you were so generous through your job hunt to share what was going on and to share what was working. And it was so uh delightful and charming. It was really impressive to see that you were being so vulnerable and so kind to share what was working with others. Uh tell me more about what drove that and uh especially the honesty. Sometimes I think that that just takes extra bravery to be able to go through it and share it as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Oh, thank you. Um, that means a lot to thank you. Um, I think the reason so the big headline to why I decided to share was I myself got made redundant in 2024. And I mean, I've been made redundant probably twice before that in my career. So it wasn't anything new, but I think you get to a point where you established your career or you started to kind of you know get a good grip of it and become a little bit more senior, and after five years, I got made redundant, and you do feel like the rug got pulled under you, right? And I have a family and I've got kids, and I don't just look after myself, and so that was a big shot financially, it was a big shot at our stability, but also my confidence, to be honest. That was probably the biggest hit. It was hard to kind of bridge the gap between, yeah, I know I was good, but I just got laid off, you know, like it kind of didn't sink. And I what got me through that time was people, right? People who were generous with their time, people who were generous with their knowledge, people who were willing to help, and you know, just really share their time with me. And that got me through my experience, it made me feel lonely, it made me, I don't know, like it made me feel like I had momentum as well. Because you get through the days of job searching, they're so long, they're exhausting, you don't know if you're doing the right thing. It's just it's it takes a mental toll. And people got me through. And so I finally landed a job, been at this job for 15, 16 months, and as I'm going through the year and a half, I'm still getting texts from friends, you know, and I'm still getting emails and messages about hey, I just got made redundant, hey, they restructured. You watch the news and it's constant, right? It I mean, it just happened this week too. And you're like, dang, maybe this is my chance to kind of pay it back and pay it forward, to be honest. And I don't know, I didn't think people would care. I did not think people would resonate. I was just like, I'm just gonna ride it and see what happens. When people resonated, my DMs are pretty busy quite daily, and I I'm both sad and happy about that. You know, like I'm really happy that people resonate and feel less alone because I decided to write a little bit. I'm super sad that there are so many of us, you know. Like, I think there's this part of me that when I do it, even till this day, like even in the mornings or like when I write, I'm like, I hope no one reads this and no one needs this and no one has to reach out to me. You know what I mean? Because it's like, yeah, I don't want you to go through it, it's pretty shocking to go through it. And so it's quite an interesting experience, even for myself, to kind of go, oh my gosh, it's really sad. I'm really happy to help, and I love that people feel less alone, but you know, it stinks.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

It totally stinks, and it totally stinks that it uh through a business restructure or through um uh lack of profitability or foresight or uh moving in a different direction that people can be made redundant and it's not necessarily about their capabilities, that it each time uh each time every single person I know that has been through it has a hit to their psyche.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And like, you know, when you're in a job, and I don't know if this is for everyone, but even for me, like when I'm in a job, I'm in my job. You know what I mean? Like I'm not in my job of dating my CV. I'm not in my job. Do you know what I mean? So then when it happens to you, you suddenly have a this wave of emotional reaction, and then this wave of admin that you've never had to do for however period you've been, and the market has shifted and it's more competitive, and people are looking for different things, and the way we do CVs is different from 20 years before. Like, my god, it's just it's a lot to kind of navigate that, even like the simplest thing of like, do I design it on Canva or do I just write a Word document? Like, because you're in this chaotic headspace where everything's so scrambled, and then you put all this admin on top to have to sell yourself and make a really strong profile and present yourself with confidence and all that, it's a pretty big ask for people, right? And it's a lot, and so yeah, it's pretty tough.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

And you're bringing up new capabilities too. I know that uh some of the extra capabilities on people working in corporates or working in businesses of a significant size is financially planning, uh, as you're talking about the job hunt and uh life and life management, um getting your stuff from the dry cleaners. Some of those skills they're not uh they're not taught and they're sort of extraordinary around the everyday, and people just do them. But as you're talking about it, it's somebody was saying through the pandemic that uh nobody a lot of a lot of parents weren't taught to be teachers, and here they were as teachers to I don't know whether this was the case for you, but for little ones at home, and uh I I think that when you're not trained for something like financial planning, like job hunting, it is really confronting.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Yeah, yeah, and that I did not that's the interesting part about it too. Like you you're really good at your job, and I'll take me for an example. I'm let's say I'm okay at my job, I've done it for a few years, I know what I'm doing, but job hunting is a completely different skill set. I've hired, I've built teams, I've reviewed hundreds and thousands of resumes, then I have to write my own. It's a different ballgame, you know? And so it's like you never kind of it's a complete different, yeah, like you said, like capability, it's a different skill set, it's a different mental game, too. So, you know, you really have to, I don't know, suddenly learn new skills and adapt really fast to then play this game where the games are super competitive, people are networking left, right, and center. You know, like it's yeah, it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

It's crazy and and tell me how would you could you come up with ideas as to how you might want it to improve or how you think that it would work better?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

As in from which perspective? The the whole any aspect of the job hunt that you thought could be improved, because there's a lot that could be Yeah, I will say from a candidate's perspective, less so the company, because I don't know if we can control that much of other people's, you know, what they do and what they decide to do. But I think like from a candidate's experience, when and I'm not a candidate now, but you know, I think having a clear vision of who you are, what you do, what you bring to the table, plus so don't just rely on that, plus a body of evidence that reminds you that that is true, is really critical. I think a lot of the times, and I did this too, I'm job hunting, I'm looking for jobs, I know I'm good at my job, but my C V does not display how strong I am in my job, right? That's A B imposter syndrome kicks in, especially post-layoff. I don't have a reference point. Whereas like I have a lot of proofs technically, but I never written it down. I don't have a place where I like have this library of achievements, right? That's something that I shifted for myself when I was looking for job, uh, for jobs. Was I now have what I call a resume dump document, and it's literally every single thing I've ever achieved or done throughout all my years of career. It's like 12 pages of like this Word document that's just it's dirty, right? It has nothing to do with this, it's just like dot points, it's not fancy for anyone who's like wondering how fancy it looks, it is really not. But anytime I do something, it goes and close it.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

It's dirty.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

It is, it's gross. Like it's not well designed, it's not, but that's not the point. Yeah, no, no, no, it's literally a Word document and just scrolling it. But that's not the point. The purpose is I have tangible proof to remind myself of my achievements, my contributions. They're proof points. When you have proof points, they're kind of like irrefutable, you know what I mean? And so when you go through the job search process, you're like, Yeah, okay, I can do this job. And you go, why can I do this job? Oh, here is about 10 dot points that tell me that. And it also makes it easier for your CV building. But I think it's that it's like a combination of your mental mindset going, I know what I'm good at, I know what I'm good at, I know what they would pay me for, I know what I bring to the table, plus I have a body of evidence to prove that. And I think honestly, it takes a lot of pause once you get laid off. I don't think you can jump into it straight away. I think you need time, even if that's like a week or two weeks or a month or whatever you can afford from that layoff, is like to grieve it properly. Um it's a grief. Like you are losing something.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

And how would you suggest people do that grieving? Because I've not heard I've heard people say take a moment, but uh I don't know. How do you do that well? Do you think?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I don't know if I did it well because I have no chill.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

And so Is that um but yeah, do you mind me asking, is that because you love getting stuff done? Because if you're good at your job and the sort of work that you do, I would have thought that you're just good and as you talked about your loyalty for the job at hand, you just want to get in and do great work. Yeah. And so no wonder the I see this a bit actually, and I and my heart breaks because I think if you're loyal and you just want to do a great job, you as you said very eloquently earlier, you're not necessarily doing the sometimes the extraordinary stakeholder management or the extraordinary tooting your own horn or um to keep promoting that because you're actually uh a hundred or a hundred and twenty or more percent in the role doing the work that needs to be done.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah, I agree. And I think that was probably a really big shift. Like it's interesting that you mentioned that, but post redundancy definitely changed my mindset in terms of well, I need to get better at having my own agency, you know, and having, you know, what I want to be known for and how I can control my narrative. Like I will never be able to control other people's perception of me and you know, any of that. I'm and I will never waste my time doing that because that just won't happen. But I know that I am in control of my story, I am in control of my skill set, I'm in control whether I learn or I don't learn or I meet new people or not, you know, and so I think that has shifted a lot because I realize no one's coming to save me. And that's stung, obviously, but it's true. And it's my career. So I have to be in control, you know, and whatever I can control, I gotta do that, and I gotta have agency in that in that space, in that sphere of influence. And so, yeah, you're it's interesting that you brought that up because that was a really big shift. And um, yeah, sorry, you you were gonna face it.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Oh, sorry, there was two, so there's two parts to what you're talking about right now, and I'm very much enjoying it. So tell me, sorry, more agency, and then prior to that, I want to make sure that we keep on finishing off with the comment about grieving. Um so tell me a bit about the grieving and then tell me about agency. I would love that.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, the grieving. Look, I didn't do it well, I'll be very frank with you. I have no chill, I was crying, I was, I think the crying part was probably the good part of the grieving. I grieving looks different for every person, right? And I don't know, grieving for you might be but buying a one-ticket, a one-way ticket to I don't know, Paris. Grieving for someone else might be going and hanging out with all their friends, turning their phone off. Grieving for me looked like jumping straight into my family head on, right? I suddenly had the headspace and the time to really focus on my family, my kids, my in-laws, my circle. And I did that. I didn't touch work or anything like that for a week or for two, maybe. Um, and for people who know me and know that I have no chill, that's a really long time. But I cried. I cried a lot. I cried a lot, I spoke about it a lot to my close people. I've identified, you know, people who are really close to you and matter to you. I've told them the story, I've kind of unpacked it, nitpicked it, trying to understand it, and cried again and then did my CV and cried again. Like that was my grieving process. You know, it wasn't linear, it wasn't easy, it wasn't on anyone's timeline either. Um, and but I created space for it because I think in that moment, my mind felt so cloudy. You know, there was I didn't even know like what am I good at? What am I gonna look for now? What job am I gonna do? What if I don't have money in a month? You know, like you're in this space of I don't know what the heck just happened to me, and I have no idea what I'm gonna do about it. It's that shock. Yeah, it's this like it you you're winded. And in that moment, I think if I don't sit and process and cry and grieve about it, it'd be very difficult. And it was very difficult when I did my CV in that moment, or when I looked at jobs in that moment, because I look at the jobs and I'm like, I don't know, maybe I can do it, maybe I can't, maybe I'll apply, maybe I won't. Like it's just too wild in your mind. And so grieving for me looked like diving straight into my family, um, and just hanging out with my family time and crying and having conversations with my family, right? And my closest friends, and that helped me heal in a way where because they know you, they know different parts of you. So you're starting to like combine the puzzle pieces together from different people, you're starting to put it together for yourself, and I think around for me, and I was really fortunate, blessed, and lucky, I'm super grateful for this. I had a pretty good runway in terms of how long I could stretch myself. I think around the two-month mark was when I was like a bit clearer in my mind, you know? And I sat down, I sat down with um, I found like this beautiful uh beautiful career coach who helped me a lot. And I sat down with her and wrote this one page. It was I literally have it, I don't have it here, but um, it's this one piece of paper and it's just like pen and I could like see it in my head. And all I wrote was like, what actually matters to me in this next job? Like, what do I actually value? Right? Do I value um, I don't know, uh, do I value LND budget or do I value flexibility and working arrangement? Do I value a good manager or do I value a good team? Do I value, you know, these things, like the day to day of the jobs that you want to work for a retail company or do I want to work for an auto company or what? Like, and it was just super clear in terms of like, I want to work for a company that has purpose, as in whatever purpose that is, that's up to the company, and I'm fine with that. Um, I want to have direct ownership or like leadership and a scope that I own. I wrote on my salary basement for myself, right? This is something I won't tell the recruiters, but I tell myself so I can look at that. And then to me, what mattered was time, and I wrote it on the bottom time. Time with my kids is something I will never get back ever. And so, whatever will promote or support that, I'm willing to negotiate on the other things, but my non-negotiable was time, and I think it was just five dot points. It was a piece of paper that really helped clear my mind and clear my path, like in terms of what jobs am I going for, who am I going to talk to, what am I gonna do now? How do I build my CVN profile? Like that just really helped me get there. But I got there through people, you know. I didn't get there on my own.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

If something in this conversation lit you up, there's a signal in that. If you want help tuning your own signal into a clear next move, start with a three-minute signal check-in at naturalgenius.com.au. And if you want focused support, book a signal lab and we'll work through it together. Now back to the natural genius. I really appreciate what you just said then. Tell me about the agency and how that's changed because that sounds like there's extra spunk in Via's life now. What's going on? Tell me how you manage that because there's the internal, there's the inter I assume with your role you've got um many stakeholders in the role that you do, and then you've also got your external stakeholders and your network.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah, yeah. I think yeah, it's super spunk. That's like the right word for it for sure. It's super spunk, super spicy, and very fresh right now. But having agency for me, I think, was just that realization that no one was gonna save me. No amount of good work was ever gonna do the talking. You know what I mean? Like, oh, I'll let the good work talk for itself. And I read someone said, like, no, you will talk for yourself. You know, the work will not speak for itself. And I was like, Yeah, that is so true. Um and I think it and it's no I want to be also super clear when you know I speak about these things. I'm never trying to villainize like companies or brands. Do you know what I mean? Because it's a business, it's got to run, right? There are financial goals, commercials, all that. But we as people who contribute to it, employees, candidates, whatever it is, I think it's important for us to understand the role we have in that company and when we exit that company, that it's our career. Whether you're inside the company or outside the company, it's yours. No one else's, not your managers, not your teams, it's yours. And so that realization maybe just I don't know, clicked maybe at that time. And I went, okay, that means I gotta do a better job of knowing about what is my story, how do I want to show up? If I'm not in those rooms, you know, how am I presenting myself? What is um one of my closest networks said to me, like, what does it say on the back of your t-shirt? Right when you walk away, like what do people think and read it? Yeah, and it's so like visual, right? Because you're like, Oh yeah, you're walking away and you're going, yeah, what am I leaving behind for you? And you know, having agency is all sorts of ways. It is networking, it is saying hello to people more stakeholders than your, you know, immediate ones. It's saying to people in your industry, not just your company. It's saying hello to your competitors and building that community. It's having agency is making sure you show up in a way where when you communicate, it's effective, but it also is showcasing who you are and your intelligence. It is providing recommendations and not just saying, I don't know, you say whatever you want to say. You know, it's going, no, I've thought about this really well. I think this is where I think we should go. I'm open to working this out with you, but that would be my recommendation, right? Just being a little bit more confident in what you can offer. And that shifted for sure. And it's something that is really big in terms of like what the type of culture I want to have in my team as well, is like making sure everyone has that, like their own agency and have time to look after them themselves and you know, update your folio or make sure you do really good work so that you feel proud enough to put it in your folio. It's events and putting yourself in uncomfortable spaces, you know. That that I think means matters a lot more. Well, maybe I think it matters just as much as doing good work, you know, because if you marry both of them, it's like powerful. Um, but you kind of have to, you know, navigate this very confusing world, especially now where it's really competitive. And so I don't know, building your own safety net and building your own network and building your own confidence for what you can bring to the table, I think is really important.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

That sounds like you're leveled up as a leader as well.

unknown 25:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

That is a lovely impact on this people that you work with now and helping them to have more agency and to manage their career as well. That sounds like a not only are your LinkedIn connections winning from hearing what you have to say, and that also you you're uh the people around you are as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Yeah, hopefully. I mean, I hope that that is the case. And you know, for like my current immediate team, that's definitely something that I am big on, and they know is like I'm always like, y'all gotta have agency, right? Like, if you see a problem, fix it immediately. Like, find solutions, go for it and say, Hey, I saw a problem, I fixed it. These are the solutions, just wanted to let you know. Or, hey, these are my recommendations. I'm really good at this, right? Like, I'm the expert in this, which I of course you are. You're the expert in it, you're the expert in your domain, and so it's like, go for it, go after it. You know, you want to see and have coffee with someone, go for it. Like, it's important for you to also know that it is within your control.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yes. And Vera, I want to bring in Southeast Asia because before we chatted, before we hit record, we were chatting about Southeast Asian representation, which is close to both of our hearts. So I feel like that's a really nice uh other dimension that uh is part of the agency discussion. Do you want to brief on that for a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yeah, sure. So um I'm American born and raised Indonesian. For I mean, if you see this on video, it's just like very confusing for a lot of people. I don't sound the way I say, you know, my my sound and how I talk and how I look is like completely not matching. Um I'm Indonesian by uh ethnicity, but my Indonesian is half half. So I'm Chinese Indonesian and then I'm native indigenous Indonesian. So mom's play like palest skin, and my dad is like completely dark skinned. And back then, obviously not accepted. I I mean maybe it's a little bit more accepted now, but back then definitely not. And I would say historically, I you know, Asian Southeast Asian or just me in general, like people who look like me, would not be in a lot of rooms that currently exist, right? And I felt that throughout a lot of the years, and I've moved to Australia for university completely different. Like I would still be sometimes the only person of color in any room, and you double whammy that was like the only person of color who is a woman in that room. It's just like one, just one, um, which is shocking, to be honest. I just like wouldn't have never imagined that. And I think the more I, you know, the more I move through my career and build a life here and have kids, that agency is a big part of it for me. Is like I want to be in rooms where traditionally I would never be in, not necessarily because of me, but because it's like I want my daughters to have that space in the room, right? I want them to have a spot at the table. I want I want other people to have spots at the table. You know that it's not just one of us, it has to be all of us at the table. Um, and I still find myself the only person, like the only Southeast Asian, the only Asian, even sometimes in the room, which is wild, like 2026. 2026 in Australia, it is wild. It's crazy, right? But you also see the news and you know, the way the world is moving in so many different places. I think it's also more important now, right? Because you want to build community, like you want, I want my kids to live in a world where we have tolerance for each other and respect and love for each other. We are all different, right? Like, that's not it shouldn't be, I don't know, it shouldn't be this like big divider. If anything, it should be a connector because we're technically all different. And so it's like, let's all celebrate it and you know, respect one another and like live in harmony with one another. And so, you know, in my career, I try my hardest, whether that's like mentoring other people or just showing up in rooms that are honestly very uncomfortable for me, right? Because I might be the only one, and it's not really easy to be in those rooms. Um but I gotta stand tall in that as well and be like, yeah, okay, I'm not just doing this for me, I'm doing this for my daughters, like I can do this, and I'm good at my job, so it's like I can do this, but it's uncomfortable and it's hard.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

I want more people to do it, and I like I want more people to do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Yeah, yes, I uh I had I can relate in a different way, and that is uh studying engineering. So there was very few women when I studied engineering, and then recently when I was up in Southeast Asia, I was one of very few women amongst the tech bros, and I was at the other end of the age spectrum as well, which is slightly um confusing to me because I'm sure I'm I'm uh still in my 20s, probably, or in my 30s in my mind or in the way that I stay open to things, I hope. So yeah, I I love what you said then. I think that standing tall and being able to represent well and being able to provide role models to others, I think is uncomfortable. You said that very well, and at the same time, it's really important to be able to give people shining lights so that they can grow into not the same, but they can at least have something that they can feel like that's what they're aiming for, or that's something about it can be attractive to them that they want to create for themselves.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Yeah, for sure. I had someone who said to me, like, she was so lucky throughout her career and that she always had uh a woman or either a woman of color as her leader throughout all her roles.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

And I was like shocked to hear that. I was like, what? That sounds amazing. I've only gotten to that point, like maybe in the recent years, you know, like um I had a beautiful boss and uh she was female, and um, and I currently my boss is also female too, but I have too in like the years of like career that doesn't happen. And when you go on top, top, top, it also I've never seen anyone like me, right? In those rooms, like you see the photos of the CEOs and the boards and everything, they're not people like me, they're not people with a skin color or all of that, and so it's like I I also never thought I could excel, if that makes sense, in in my career, because it was always like this different factor. Um, and yeah, I hopefully we get a little step further.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Oh, yeah, you are completely inspiring. I'm so so pleased we're having this conversation and sharing it with others. Tell me this uh hearing about your girls. I want I wonder about what I saw uh Metaplay. Tell me about Meta Play and was it inspired by your girls, or yeah, just give me a little bit of insight around that. Sounds fun.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Yeah, yeah. So this is like the um the culmination of everything we talked about. MetaPlay was something I did um and I launched completely from scratch, product brand, everything. Um, and I launched it a month before I had my first daughter. I don't know what the heck I was thinking. And I had my daughter because like I was like, I'm gonna have something of my own, like my identity before my kids, rah-rah, rah. Then had my kids. It was the first month. So I was like managing like partnerships, trying to get collaborations, trying to get my products in stock, trying to manage orders. I'm in the hospital having a newborn.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Stupid idea. Don't know why I did that. Um, but you know, it stayed on for highly competent. So highly crazy, I think.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

You know, there's a line there. Um, Delulu. I know, Delulu. Highly delusional. I'm gonna stay with competent.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Highly delusional is where I'm going.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Oh, so lovely.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

It's funny. I remember like even going on this like podcast interview, and I was like, I've barely slept. You know, like I don't know what I'm doing. Oh gosh, wow. You're just like, okay, I'll do this, I guess. Um, I looked after that while having um while raising my first daughter, and then we got I got pregnant with my second one and still kept doing that. I don't know why I do this to myself. And the brand, I mean it's still it's still I still have product. I have put it on the shelf uh since the last year to focus on my girls and my career, but I had it for three, four years. Um, I trade it's a trademarked brand across Asia and America. So we opened up in the States as well for Amazon, sold it across the States, which is crazy. And it's also trademarked here. Um, and it was like from scratch, and something I'm super proud of, you know, because we had to go through everything, like printing it, it's product, then creating new products and collaboration, getting the word out there. Um, the reason I created it was because of everything we spoke about, you know, representation is important to me, having something that my girls could learn that the language that they speak at home is a beautiful language, and that it's not lesser than any other language that's spoken. I wanted to also teach it in a way where we speak about mental health and the power of mindfulness in yoga because that doesn't exist in my community, like in Southeast Asian, you know, mental health or all that wasn't is not really a thing as much as it's talked about in the Western world. And so I wanted to combine all of that and create this like little product where it was more of a tool for my kids to learn all those things, you know, be proud of their heritage, learn it, learn critical skills for their emotional regulation, and also hopefully touch more families that maybe were never exposed to this type of practice before, right? Or wanting to learn that and break generational cycles. And so created that, poured my heart and soul into it for a year and a half, testing it with kids, testing it with families, and then it's a life, got a beautiful illustrator friend to like draw everything and launched it and had a really good run for three years, you know, launched it in all different markets, had a great ton of fun. And I then just realized that my kids were going to my season this time, you know? And so it's on the shelf. I think it might have a comeback in a later stage in life and season. Um, but yeah, that's a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

That is amazing, and uh goodness, you've got a lot of hats that you created for yourself because I also noticed that you're doing mentoring as well. Do you want to talk to that?

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah, yeah. I wear many hats, which is crazy. Um, currently, yeah, I I mentor, I mentor through Headspace, um, and we help young Australians kind of navigate their career, like early career. Um, it's a volunteer position. It's something I do out of love and helping young Australians basically figure out like how do I break into the market? Like, how do I position myself? How do I find um new experiences? How do I network with people? Like all those things that I wish I had when I was like, you know, 18, 19, 20. Um, so yeah, I do that um in my spare time and I get to connect with like beautiful people. Um, and we do that for a pretty long stint. Like it's about, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get this wrong. But I think it's about like two, three months or a pretty long engagement with one person. So we try to see them through the journey and look after their mental health too. That's really fun. Like, that sounds amazing. How old did you say they are? They're about 18 to 20. Oh gosh, I'm gonna get this so wrong. Probably 18 to 25. 16 to 25. That age demographic, basically, they have either zero to three years experience in the industry. And so, like, for example, last year we just I had a pretty long engagement, and that was really awesome. So I got to see her through a lot of like just even building the resume, switching categories, um, pivoting, and then getting interviews, and like it actually we actually got pretty far in the process. I was like, I'm so pleased I got to see like more of this, you know?

SPEAKER_01 39:29

And tell me, would that have been in your industry or the industry doesn't matter?

SPEAKER_00 39:34

It would be in my industry a little bit more because I could offer a little bit more. You know what I mean? Like if it was like engineering, I'd be calling you because I'd be like, I don't know what's going on. I'd be helping. Yeah, not me, I'm not helpful.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Well, you what you're talking to is another dear friend does business mentoring for new Australians. And over the years, I have number one, been amazed how much time she allocates to it, and number two, absolutely delighted to see how much she gets from it. And it's like many things in life, stepping into it with an open mind, you don't know what you're gonna get. And I just it's anything from recipes to um, you know, the usual kind of mentoring things that we all mentor mentee, kind of then I still love this principle that the mentor actually gets more out of it than the mentee, and it's always sort of it's that's kind of like a selfish, a little selfish element for sure.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

And I think that that's kind of one of those lovely things that sort of is an opposite to the balance that people theoretically think about something. Uh there, you just delight me. So many different aspects of your life. There's like you should feel so, so proud of yourself. That's a lot to have achieved in the time since 2024 that you're talking about having been made redundant and um even uh hit it to hear about MetaPlay, and I love that it might come off the shelf in the future. Tell me, is there anything else that you want to share?

SPEAKER_00 41:15

No, I mean, thank you. I mean, thank you for having me on and unpacking different parts of my story. I've like so loved it. Um, I think if I could ask anything from anyone who's listening, it's definitely, you know, go out, meet people, and volunteer. Like, and when I say volunteer, like just give up, give your time. Give your time, give your knowledge, give your expertise. If you see a green banner on LinkedIn, reach out to them, say hello. If they reach out to you on LinkedIn, please respond. You know, it doesn't, it honestly doesn't take a lot. Intro people over to you, you know, within your network. Like, just don't be afraid to give because there's just like enough to go around instead of like, oh, I don't want to like broker this intro just in case I don't know this person and all these things, you know. Like, just give, give up your time, go out for coffee. It's five dollars or ten if you pay for the other person. It's five minutes to respond to someone. If you see a green banner, like give them a post, give them a like, whatever it is. It's help each other out. You know, you get way more out of it than you imagine, and you also help someone along the way. Like that's pretty damn cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Thanks for listening to the Natural Genius Podcast. Please share this with anyone who came to mind and visit us at naturalgenus.com.au. Thanks so much.