We're back with Part 2 with Ken Perenyi, arguably one of the art world's greatest and most successful conman?! In Part 1 of Ken's STIMY interview (do check it out if you haven't already done so), we covered his journey including how he first launched his art forgery 'career' (hint: it involves a broken bathroom that crashed through the ceiling to the restaurant below!). In Part 2, Ken discusses his motivations, the thrill of creating and selling fake art, and how he managed to avoid capture by b...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 152
Would you break the law if it made you a multimillionaire? That’s what happened with Ken Perenyi - one of the most “successful” art forgers in the world. His works have been sold all over the world, including in Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with one painting going for as high as $717,000! He was also close friends with Roy Cohn - the notorious lawyer who helped Trump enter the New York market. The Independent called him the evil master architect who mentored Donald Trump (to Ken, he was just a grea...
Jan 06, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 152
Imagine growing up in a hair salon. Being thrown out of the house and sleeping in an abandoned cupboard. Being bullied in school and almost failing SPM. But knowing deep down inside that you love storytelling. You just… don’t know what that means. And how to make that dream a reality. That was Jared Lee - one of Malaysia’s most famous YouTubers and the founder of the award-winning production house, Grim Film. Jared started his journey in an event company, while also freelancing as a storyboard a...
Dec 01, 2024•54 min•Ep. 151
Jonathan Mildenhall is the former Managing Director of TBWA, SVP of the Coca-Cola Company, first CMO at Airbnb and Independent Board Member at Peloton Interactive, Co-Founder of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand and current Chief Marketing Officer at Rocket Companies. And we are back this week with Part 2 of our interview with Jonathan. Last week, we dove deep into his childhood growing up & how everything was stacked against him: he was the only black person in his family and community, was working c...
Nov 04, 2024•51 min•Ep. 164
Jonathan Mildenhall is the former Managing Director of TBWA, Senior Vice President of the Coca-Cola Company, first CMO at Airbnb and Independent Board Member at Peloton Interactive, Co-Founder of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand and current Chief Marketing Officer at Rocket Companies. In other words, someone at the very top of the marketing industry. Who was once treated as an experiment. Growing up in Leed, Jonathan faced tremendous physical and racial abuse. It got so bad that he once ran to his mum, t...
Oct 27, 2024•55 min
Rodney Wong is the CEO of Munchy's, one of the largest Malaysia-based snack food manufacturer with presence in over 60 countries globally. Which makes him the Willy Wonka of Malaysia! And he's had quite the varied career. From tobacco to Coca-Cola, Petronas and now the world of snacks and sweets, Rodney is testimony to the fact that we all need to take charge of our own career and personal development to get to where we want. The question is... how? While everyone's path is different, Rodney's s...
Sep 16, 2024•53 min•Ep. 149
We're back with Part 2 with Dato' Sri Idris Jala - the former CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Managing Director of Shell Sri Lanka and Senator & Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office, and current Chairman of PEMANDU. In Part 1 of this So This Is My Why feature, we delved into his tribal origins, how becoming top of his class was a matter of life and death, and his journey to becoming the Managing Director in Shell Sri Lanka - still his toughest gig to date. Listen here: https://youtu.b...
Sep 10, 2024•59 min•Ep. 148
When Dato Sri Idris Jala became the Managing Director of Shell Sri Lanka, he wasn’t expecting to hold the country on ransom. The Sri Lanka unit had already experienced 27 years of continuous losses when he took over. And on Day 1, what Idris had to handle was: bombs strapped to his depot, the kidnapping of his transport manager, a major labour strike and… Threatening letters sent by a professional sniper who knew where he lived, where he worked, when he left each place and the exact route he too...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 148
When Arthur Kiong, CEO of Far East Hospitality, failed his A Levels, he thought his life was pretty much over. His dad even told him, "I’m sorry, you had your shot but you missed it" and in Arthur's own words, "I was lost and I was discouraged and I was in a great deal of pain and despair." Arthur ended up selling slimming products on the streets because it was the only job he could find before applying to Mediocorp to become a stage technician. Things took a turn when he was asked to take a voi...
Jun 16, 2024•57 min•Ep. 147
“ When people say it’s ok, I don’t need a family, I don’t need a partner, I say bullshit .” Woon Tai Ho is most known for being the founder of Channel News Asia & author of prolific books like the trilogy by George Yeo (Singapore’s former foreign minister). But has the success been worth it? What are some of his biggest regrets in life? In Part 1 (which you should listen to if you haven’t), we explored all of his big career achievements and the challenges that came with it, including being s...
Jun 11, 2024•28 min•Ep. 146
Growing up, Woon Tai Ho - Channel NewsAsia founder & Bestselling Author of books like the George Yeo trilogy, Soul of Ink, Riot Green- didn’t know he was poor. Until he invited his friends over and was asked questions like: ❓ Where’s your phone? ❓ Where’s your sofa? None of which he had. Which made him realise that actually, he was pretty poor. 😅 But he was never ashamed of it. When his sister invited him to stay at the house she was working at as a domestic helper, that changed his world. ...
May 20, 2024•44 min•Ep. 146
“Are you a masochist?” “Do you love books that much?” If you want to be a bookseller, than those are the questions you need to ask yourself - according to Kenny Chan, the former Senior Director at Kinokuniya Book Stores (Asia Pacific) - he spent ~20 years of his career there prior to his retirement! But prior to bookseller, Kenny was a foreign diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore, where he was posted to London as their Trade and Culture Attache. He then switched to bookselling, ...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 145
Gero DiMaria knows what it means to go truly viral. He's an Italian chef & owner of Kucina - Singapore's first authentic halal food restaurant. But he's also a bona fide Italian culinary superstar with over 500k followers on social media - 256k on Instagram & 252.6k on TikTok! He took the world by storm with his recent series of viral reels on choosing the best pasta/cheeses in grocery stores, and that had a real trickle down effect on his business. So we dig into all the juicy stuff, in...
Mar 31, 2024•53 min•Ep. 144
Would you die for your passion? Most wouldn’t but for 58-year-old Swee Chiow, Singapore’s first professional adventurer, it’s a question he must face every day. And it all began when he caught a glimpse of Mount Everest from a plane. He was working in IT (Singapore Airlines) then, but he decided from that one glimpse that he wanted to climb Mount Everest - a dream that took him a mere 10 years to achieve! The journey was hard. He knew nothing. So he read many books & even went on a 10-day mo...
Mar 24, 2024•53 min•Ep. 143
Meet Lucas Lu - Head of Zoom Asia. And also a fellow Sarawakian! Lucas has had an illustrious career going from GM of Systems Technology Group at IBM Malaysia where they closed large deals within the first 6 months, leading to Lucas winning ASEAN Rookie of the Year - his first big recognition. He ended up staying at IBM for 10 years and won 2 Global Golden Circle Award before moving on to become: General Manager, Astro GM (Tech Sales Malaysia), Oracle Senior Director (APAC Enterprise Commercial ...
Mar 17, 2024•56 min•Ep. 142
This episode is a compilation of 6 of the most powerful women featured on the So This Is My Why podcast, discussing the milestones that led them on their journey to success Ep 124: Jacqueline Novogratz Jacqueline is the founder & CEO of Acumen - a non-profit global venture capital fund that aims to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty. As the OG of impact investing, she shares her experience in Rwanda and learning that the most important thing is to build something where ...
Mar 13, 2024•43 min•Ep. 141
Sponsor: Descript - an AI-enabled software that makes it possible to edit weekly videos efficiently because it transcribes a 1.5 hour interview in 1 minute - and allows all editing to be done via the transcript! To find out more: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=sjT9JA * It’s not every day that you get to inherit a 100-year-old family business, but that’s exactly what Fong Wai Kheng has done. Fong is the fourth generation of his family to run Tong Heng - Singapore’s top confectionary shop most kn...
Mar 10, 2024•46 min•Ep. 141
Hey STIMIES! Welcome back to Part 2 of the So This Is My Why Podcast with Loh Lik Peng - CEO & Founder of Unlisted Collection. In Part 1, we covered Lik Peng’s journey from wanting to become a doctor (just like his parents) to becoming a commercial litigator and purchasing his first hotel property: Hotel 1929. The property that kickstarted his crazy career pivot. But the F&B industry is a tough place to be. You need a good dose of hard work, luck and… a talent for spotting F&B talent...
Mar 05, 2024•36 min•Ep. 140
Want to know how a lawyer became a successful hotelier with 40 hotels & 9 Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, London, Ireland, Shanghai & Sydney?! Look no further than today’s STIMY guest: Loh Lik Peng , the founder of Unlisted Collection. Lik Peng grew up expecting to be a doctor, like his parents. But ended up practising as a commercial litigator for 3 years. During that time, the world was hit with the Asian Financial Crisis and a rundown property called Hotel 1929 came onto th...
Mar 04, 2024•45 min•Ep. 122
It’s finally happening! The launch of STIMY’s special Singapore subseries. Where you’ll be hearing from a range of fascinating Singaporeans/Singapore-based tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and daredevil adventurers on how they’ve built their careers, their journey in finding their why and the legacy that they want to leave behind (if any!). We ran the whole gamut: the media broadcasting space, F&B (what it takes to build an empire of nine 1 - 3 Michelin Starred restaurants + inheriting a 100+ ye...
Feb 25, 2024•20 min•Ep. 139
Steve Chao was just a kid from Toronto who loved reading encyclopaedias. Who later chose a career that would lead him to the middle of opium fields during harvest time surrounded by hundreds of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Just another “day in the life” of his career as a x2 Emmy-nominated and multiple award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker who’s led programming for the likes of CNN, Al Jazeera, VICE, CTV (Canadian Television), CBC, ABC News, Tencent & Channel 4. Steve has ...
Feb 18, 2024•59 min•Ep. 123
Simon Alexander Ong grew up often feeling like he didn’t fit in. Which is weird when you look at his CV: He graduated from LSE before going to work at Lehman Brothers (until it fell into administration) then a hedge fund as a junior trader. Along the way, he attended a 2-day coaching seminar that transformed the way he saw coaching and kickstarted his journey into becoming a bestselling author, international keynote speaker and business strategist. His work has seen him invited onto Sky News and...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 137
Prestine Davekhaw knows how much you earn. Thanks to a viral IG platform she launched called MalaysianPAYGAP, where she has Malaysians anonymously submit [payslip verified] details about their job, including: Their salary + benefits (if any) How they landed that job The realities of doing their job Advice for those wanting to do the same So you can see why people are obsessed with MPG. 😉 But what about the person behind MPG? Well, Prestine grew up in a drug-infested home with her grandmother, w...
Jan 14, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 136
It's the final day of 2023! So I'm doing a solo episode where I answer questions that you've sent in. I hope you enjoy this episode and find it helpful. Also, if you've been following STIMY and would like to support what's happening here, please do leave a rating and review. It truly makes a difference in spreading the word about this podcast! 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page...
Dec 31, 2023•25 min•Ep. 135
Welcome to STIMY Ep 134! Today, you have the pleasure of hanging out with me. 😉 What we'll cover today: What I've been up to in October (8 STIMY in-person interviews in Singapore), November (first conference panel & personal branding client wins) and December (6 STIMY interviews) I'm also in the midst of prepping for a new course! Tentatively titled " Build Your Why" . It's based off my learnings from working with my existing 1:1 personal branding clients, where I noticed that people often ...
Nov 26, 2023•54 min•Ep. 134
Adlin Yusman, Managing Director of Endeavor Malaysia, will work for anyone he’s hired. A huge contrast to when he began his entrepreneurial journey with the mentality of, “ I pay you a salary, you work for me and you do as I say .” Which, as you can imagine, created quite a lot of issues. That said, Adlin has had an eventful life. One that’s sprinkled with a generous serving of failures and spooky occurrences (e.g. receiving a 3am call from a female ghost?!). He’s founded several startups that f...
Nov 19, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 133
Who's got the juiciest gossip on startups these days? Well. The journalists, of course! And today, we have Terence Lee - Editor-in-Chief at Tech in Asia - to share the inside scoop on their organisation (TIA just sold for a reported $30 Million to Singapore Press Holdings!). Fun Fact : Terence Lee really didn't want his position. He's an introvert & does not consider himself a natural leader. ❓So what changed? ❓How has he adapted to his leadership role & navigated through 2 brutal layoff...
Nov 13, 2023•45 min•Ep. 132
Meet Charlie Todd - a professional prankster & also the founder of Improv Everywhere (a New York City-based prank collective with a twist!). Rather than pranks that embarrass people, Improv Everywhere organises large-scale pranks that create chaos & lots of joy in public. The kind of thing that’d make you go, “You’ll never believe what just happened!” E.g. ✨ A bunch of strangers ride the subway - without pants! ✨ 200 people freezing in place for 5 minutes in NYC’s Grand Central Terminal ...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 131
Meet Alvin Wee: Grammy, CAS & Golden Horse Award winning music mixer from Kuching (now based in LA)! You might've heard some of his work: 🔸 Disney's Encanto - it won the Grammy! 🔸 "Loyal, Brave & True" - sung by Christina Aguilera in Mulan 🔸 Top Gun: Maverick - with Hans Zimmer 🔸 Kung Fu Panda 3 🔸 Kingsman Series 🔸 "Arena Cahaya" - sung by Zee Avi 🔸 Video games like Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts 2.5, Resident Evil XII, PUBG Mobile x Arcane Collaboration & Kena: Bridge of ...
Oct 15, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 130
What does it take to bring a movie to life & have the general public participant as actual characters in said movie?! You need only ask Fabien Riggall - founder of Future Shots and Secret Cinema. Fabien has always loved films and began his career working as a runner before becoming an assistant producer of short films. In 2003, he set up Future Shorts: A series of mini pop-up film festivals that took off in 2003. That eventually evolved into the creation of a skate park under London Bridge, ...
Sep 30, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 129
