Sep 24, 2020
KeyNote Women Speakers
James Taylor interviews Su-Yen Wong and they talked about KeyNote Women Speakers
In today's episode Su-Yen Wong they talk about KeyNote Women Speakers
What we cover:
- The power of co-authoring a book with your peers
- KeyNote Women Speakers
- The speaking business in Asia
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/keynote-women-speakers-sl081/
James Taylor
Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first
aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest
online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access
the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150
top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go
to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com,
where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit.
Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their
insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a
successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com
but not before you listen to today's episode.
Hey, there's James Taylor, and I'm delighted today to welcome Sue Yen Wong. Sue Yen is a professional speaker, board director and entrepreneur who engages audiences globally on the future of work. She is CEO of bronze Phoenix, a premier provider of solutions to help organizations and leaders reinvent themselves. She is also the author of an Amazon best seller and award winning photographer and early in life as a musician, which I never knew. So we're gonna learn all about these different stages of her career. So
Su-Yen Wong
first of all, welcome to you. Thank you, James. Great to be
here.
James Taylor
So share with us Oh, what's happening in your world just now?
Su-Yen Wong
Well, at the moment, I'm actually preparing for a couple of
meetings next week with one of the large major banks, I've got
another session coming up actually, with. It's a governmental setup
here, also in Singapore for one of their one of the conferences,
juggling a few things. Plus, of course, it's just been board
directors season. So it's, it's been pretty full on.
James Taylor
So take us back to I never knew you had you had the Secret Life of
being a musician to to take us through these different steps or
stages in your, in your your, your portfolio of Korea, Japan.
Su-Yen Wong
Right, right. Well, I did start out as a musician, my my mother
actually had a music school, she still she still teaches. So at the
age of three, I was pumped into the piano, and started to learn
piano. And so I actually majored in music in university. But just
to make it fun, I did music and computer science. And so there's
some recordings out there of me with a couple of orchestras and
things like that. And I also earned my living on the side Piano Bar
and stuff like that. So that that was sort of the first chapter.
But But I never actually aspired to be a professional musician,
because I actually think it's a fairly lonely life, certainly as a
pianist. So I morphed from there into strategy consulting, then he
went on to a leadership role in professional services morphed into
taking on a board, Director portfolio, and then in my current
incarnation, I'm continuing to do that, but but also with life as a
professional speaker and entrepreneur.
James Taylor
So it shows kind of circuitous Ray, you ended back on stages again,
or be in a different gaze.
Su-Yen Wong
You're quite right. And actually, it's the same, it works exactly
the same way, in the sense that you know, that lots of metaphors
that I use, from music to leadership to speaking, and I think they
actually translate pretty well.
James Taylor
Now you're based in Singapore, which is a phenomenal hub, to base
from if you're speaking across Southeast Asia, as well. You went to
you studied music was in the US is where you study. Right? Yeah.
And so tell us, what did you after you studied there, and you did
also your computer science program as well? Did you immediately
move back to Singapore? Or were you traveling around the world for
a little bit?
Su-Yen Wong
Yeah, great question. I started out in the US, I worked in the US
for a while then I relocated to Thailand, and then to Hong Kong.
And then they spent quite a bit of time in Korea, but of time in
China, and then finally landed back in Singapore. So it was a bit
of a circuitous route back here. And so part of the reason why I do
enjoy speaking globally is because I've actually worked with
clients around the world. So you've asked what else I'm working on.
So I've got a trip coming up to to Australia, and then to to the
US. So Boston, New York, DC. Yeah, and I guess when you live in a
particular place, you get a bit more of a cultural affinity, which,
at least for me, as a speaker makes it easier to connect the
audience. So that that's all come in handy, even though it wasn't
planned that way.
James Taylor
There's something I find really interesting about your obviously
your your speakers, you member as well, but something something I
find really working and working with you as well is because I end
up working with there. There may be speakers, authors, coaches, or
speakers, authors, mentors or speakers, trainers or sometimes like
speakers, advisors, perhaps, you know, you might have a little bit
of that as well, speakers, online marketers, but you actually have
this kind of speaker on the board. And, you know, you know, board
director board advisory in a person's well, so tell tell me about
now because I think that's quite uncommon that in terms of having
professional speakers, they have such a depth of experience in the
boardroom.
Su-Yen Wong
Yeah, um, I guess I might my board journey, I guess all of these
things are journeys, right, just as you have a speaker's journey,
there's a board journey is one, I've probably been in board
situations on board since over 10 years. And it started out as a
bit of a curiosity, which was you know, as as a as a consultant,
you advise clients, and then of course, the clients then take it
from there, in terms of what they want to do here advice, be going
to board has really allowed me I think, to get a little closer to
sort of actually directing action across a portfolio of different
companies in different countries. So some of the boards that I work
with are in Myanmar and India and Indonesia, the US, Australia, so
it's quite a diverse base to work with. And then in concurrently
with that in and as part of my role previously, and you know, with
multinational companies, I had to do a lot of speaking anyway. So
So I suppose you could think of it as I've been paid to speak for
quite a number of years, but in under corporate umbrella, and then
sort of now blending both the board journey as well as the speakers
training, I think it allows me to sort of see the perspective in
terms of what companies are going through as they go through
transformation, and then translate that into into the messages that
I bring when when I put on my other hat, right to sort of different
hats for different situations.
James Taylor
So can you remember that first speaking gig that you got where you
it wasn't because you were a board member there, you weren't going
for a company, but actually a company or an organization, we're
paying to bring you, Sudan to come and speak at their conference or
their event?
Su-Yen Wong
You know, that actually wasn't a very long time ago at all, that
was literally about a year and a half ago, because I had just left
my corporate gig, sort of in December of 2017. And it came via one
of my former clients, which was a large bank, here in Singapore.
And they were basically doing their their beginning beginning of
year kickoff. And they wanted to get an external perspective around
disruption and how they would affect affect work, not just foot
foot for their staff, but also how it would affect their clients in
turn. So So yeah, that was January of 2018. Not very long ago at
all.
James Taylor
I mean, and it's fantastic. Seeing how your career is really just
kind of take off as well. And I was talking, I think, I was talking
to a client the other day he was asked me to come and speak at an
event. I said, What speakers have you? Have you booked before? And
said, Oh, and this quote was actually in the UK, it's, you know,
we've just actually booked this disgrace. Because, see and wrong.
Who's speaking for isn't Singapore? Fantastic. That's great. It's
great to hear that you hear us members, because your members or
students or friends of yours again, getting things. And
Su-Yen Wong
so small world
James Taylor
is great, it's great. So so you're getting booked on all these,
these different stages at the moment, can you tell us about a time
when you were you you something just kind of happen, maybe they
kind of put you a little bit of balance, maybe or maybe a worst
moment you've had so far in your professional speaking career,
Su-Yen Wong
I can think of one specific incident, which is really unusual. So I
had just come off a board meeting in Australia and I had to
transfer in Singapore to fly to the Middle East. So I had a small
window, and sort of two separate flights. And one of the things
that I don't always do, but sometimes I do and since this incident,
I've done a lot more was I log on to Wi Fi on the flight because
sometimes you're busy doing other stuff. So I log into Wi Fi on the
Singapore to Middle East leg. And an email had come in with from
the conference organizers as a global conference for for the for
the aviation industry. And basically, the conference organizer
changed the spec, it was supposed to be a panel discussion, and
somehow evolved into a series of individual presentations, and they
wanted the four or five of us on the panel to each do an individual
presentation. Okay, that's not what I expected. Fortunately, the
flight from Singapore to the buoys is fairly long, right? So I was
able to sort of, you know, first of all think about First of all,
what what the other presenters are gonna be speaking about because
of the a series of you, you don't want to be all speaking the same
thing. So anticipate that a lot because I obviously couldn't reach
them while I was in flight to sort of coordinate think of the key
messages designed the slides and then practice and come up and
practice the speech all while that air. So yeah, that was a rather
unusual experience.
James Taylor
So thankfully, you have your previous PowerPoint presentations, or
you know, your files on your on your laptop. Anyway. So it's a you
had a basis from which to start from. Except,
Su-Yen Wong
yeah, Except that it was on the topic that I don't often speak
about. Me, I mean, it's tangentially related, otherwise, they
wouldn't have asked me to, to come on and join the conference. But
it wasn't something I could sort of, you know, take and repurpose,
I actually had to craft an entire thing. It was it was short, and
it was like 15 minutes or something like that. So it wasn't, it
wasn't a full blown, you know, typical 45 minute keynote. But
nevertheless, but more of the story, make sure you have your
laptop, your battery charger, on the flight, the images that you
need on your laptop. And one of the things that I learned through
multiple years in consulting is I'm actually pretty fluent in
PowerPoint, and Keynote. So
James Taylor
you get very good at it.
Su-Yen Wong
Pretty self sufficient, which is, which is helpful.
James Taylor
And something else you've also been involved in, and especially in
Singapore, Singapore is amazing place because you have so many
great speakers there that use it as their hub to go and speak in
other parts of the world. And something that you did was work on it
on a book, you co authored a book with a number of other women
speakers in I'm not sure if they were all in Singapore, or they
were from all places. Yes.
Su-Yen Wong
I mean, MIT, several of us are from Singapore, but but the authors
did come from two different countries, actually.
James Taylor
So tell tell us about the inception of that book. What was the idea
from that book? And what did you find writing a co writing a book
did for you and your speaking career?
Su-Yen Wong
Well, I don't take credit for the inception of a book that was
actually crafted literally one morning over brunch, they were, you
know, half a dozen women who are basically in the loop, the problem
statement is this. And we unfortunately, still do see this happen
when when you sort of see, you know, conferences that have you
know, all a very male slate of speakers or you know, that the
mammals as they would call them. And, and so it became an offshoot
of an organization called called primetime, which is for for
professional women, here locally. So the idea was, well, you know,
how do we actually craft a book that can actually inspire as well
as help women who need to speak in various situations, either
professionally, but also, even if you're in a, in a corporate
setting, you need to raise funds for a not for profit, or you need
to convince your management team. Now there's a whole spectrum of
reasons why one might need to speak. So from there was about
curating a group of us there was 16 of us who came together to do
this. And I got to say, the the takeaway that I got from that was,
when you pull together a project with a common purpose, and you do
it together, you can get so much done so quickly. Because we were
writing it together, we could divvy up the work. And I think from
inception to the time, we actually got the book in our hot little
hands was probably around six months.
James Taylor
Now, I also created a lot of noise because I'm, you know, if
someone's in either involved in the space of speaking, or if
they're in Singapore, or if they're they're looking at to bring in
a woman speaker and to speak at their event, suddenly, you had 12
people all talking about the same book, all these authorities are
about the same. But and so I mean, I think it's a great idea.
Because it creates this kind of crowding effect, that suddenly
you're hearing it from multiple sources. Sometimes, often, when you
hear things from like one source, you know that, you know, whatever
is interesting, when you're hearing it, hearing a book from
multiple sources, then you go, okay, maybe we should look at this a
little bit further. it amplifies.
Su-Yen Wong
And I think in many ways, it's a bit like the virtual summits that
you put on as well, right? When you when you bring together a large
group of people, there's an amplification effect, which is great.
I'm, you know, fairly convinced that none of us on our own would
have been able to get something out number one in the time that we
did. And number two, we were frankly, a little surprised that it
made it so quickly onto the Amazon bestseller list, but again, that
was to the power of having a large group behind it. So So yeah, it
was good fun.
James Taylor
I don't know if sitting alongside that, because the other thing
that's I've seen you've been involved in is this idea of the is the
keynote, which is a women's speaker directory. So it was something
that you involved in Section four, or was it something that just
you just packed up?
Su-Yen Wong
So the book actually emanated from keynote. So that's the link
between the two. So primetime was the organization that's that
that's basically spawned keynote, and out of keynote, keynote
supported this book, or the idea for this book came about, and then
we brought the women together, to to craft the book. So I've been
I've been part of the keynote directory, and as you may have heard,
the directory has now gone global, is closed, right? So again, I
take her a little credit for other than being an artist supporter.
And I think together, we're all trying to make it, you know, as
powerful and as compelling as it can be. But I think, you know, it
takes a village right to kind of move any of these things. So I
think each of us in our own way is trying to try to do that.
James Taylor
So I remember seeing a statistic A while back and hopefully about a
year ago, when he looked about the gender I think it was probably
meeting professionals international producers, this poor When he
looked at the gender differentials across different types of
events, what kind of speakers the higher? And I remember seeing
that I think women are the only area that will more women get
booked than men for conferences is around fundraising events, there
seems to be. So it was like 70% of women and 30% men. But then as
you start to look, and they broke it down by type of conference, as
you start to look at, for example, financial services, conferences,
it was like, I mean, I don't even know if it was on the scale, and
it might have been like, 5% maximum. Technology, right. Technology.
Exactly. So I mean, obviously, I'm and so I have to say this, I
can, I obviously benefit from from this from from speaker from
organizers, of conferences, but but it kind of, it kind of blows my
mind a little bit as to what was going on. And, and I had a
conversation a while back with pickiness Chavarria of power women
of NSA, and I was saying no. So for me, I'm like, treat me as a as,
as a little bit of an outsider, like, okay, what's going on? Why is
that it cannot just be obvious. You know, people just not booking
speakers, because they're women speakers, it can just be as simple
as simplistic as that. And she says, and, you know, the interesting
thing that she said to me is, she said, you know, part of it is a
function of who is writing the books, the nonfiction books. And
often it's it's a lot of nonfiction books have been in the business
world have been written by men. And a lot of the reviewers are men.
So that those books that doesn't get talked about in Forbes and
fortune and things, so you've got that going on. But she said, The
other thing that's going on, on her was that, let's see, if you
have a call for speakers for a particular event, you will get 100
guys who all think they're absolutely perfect. And the ideal
speaker for this event, you may have 100 women who are equally as
perfect for this event, but only 10 of them will come forward and
put put their name forward, as well. And, and, again, one of the
things that the power of NSA is like trying to just encourage women
to put themselves forward, you know, that give, build that
confidence. Go for that go for that get you should be on that, on
that. mainstage. So, I mean, from what you've seen as someone
that's actually living it and having to inhabit this and dealing
with every single day. what some of the things that are going on
there. What Why are these biases? Why are we seeing it so
squinted?
Su-Yen Wong
You know, I haven't thought about the one about books. But that
actually makes a lot of sense to me. But the one that the second
point that you made around who puts their hand up, I think is
definitely quite prevalent. And, and the analogy that I draw to
this is around women in leadership roles. So whether you look at it
in terms of women, at C suite, or women in the boardroom, very,
very similar symptoms manifest themselves. And and it has to do
with, like you said, you know, it's a bit stereotypical, but
nevertheless, stereotypes there are there because because there's a
little bit of truth to them, which is that, you know, somebody will
look at the job description for a particular role. And most, many
men will basically say, Well, you know, I fully fulfill seven out
of 10, that's pretty good, you know, so I think I'm qualified. And
women say, Well, I only fulfill seven out of 10. And so I therefore
she put my hand up for it. So So I think it holds true for speaking
as well. And part of the reason for getting this book out there
effect to unleash your voice was to really encourage more women to
to put up their hand and give it a shot. So in fact, last night,
four of the women who were co authors of the book, she ran the
first masterclass, and I think it was sold out, within a very short
period of time, to a group of I think about 60 women to try and
again, encourage and build the momentum in the space. So one step
at a time. But that's the idea.
James Taylor
But it can also change pretty quickly in terms of I was at an event
recently listening to a professor, Professor Sue black. She's a
leading forensic anthropologist, which is not really is a real is a
really interesting so she goes into former war zones, and when they
have to defend these mass graves and identify these people as mass
graves, very interesting job anyway. So what she was saying is, you
said lots of areas of science are quite masculine. But the world of
forensics, strangely enough, is heavily dominated by by a woman.
And I'm not saying in terms of women in Virginia, but the very most
senior positions are women. And she thinks that part of that is the
role model piece, that if I switch on TV, you know, all these I'm
not a big fan of movies, forensic TV shows like cop shows that the
forensic scientist is usually a woman on these things, and
Su-Yen Wong
cultural norm.
James Taylor
So he said, it's kind of interesting. Just having that having those
role models and showing those role models, especially in the media,
that it becomes like, Well, yeah, that makes makes absolute sense.
So I guess what we need to be doing is just getting more women
getting on their stages. So when we look at those, you know, the
lineup of speakers, those keynote speakers at that tech conference
without financial services conference, you know, that there's
there's mobile, which gives more other women encouragement to come
and take on those roles.
Su-Yen Wong
Yeah, you mentioned a really interesting point about scientists. So
there's been some research done, where the researchers were asking
children to draw a scientist. And when children are sort of
remember the specifics around the age of five, in a roughly equal
numbers of them drawn a girl or boy sciences, or male or female
scientists, but as they get older, that percentage switches, right.
And so I think a lot of it is incorporates the point that you're
making, which is around how do you see role models out there? And
some of the social conditioning that's, that's, that's prevalent.
So yeah, let's get more diversity on the stages so that we can
break this catch 22.
James Taylor
Now you speak about the future of work. And which is a big area,
obviously, a really hot topic area just now. What's your How do you
kind of stand out? Because there's obviously lots of speakers that
speak on this topic of future work? What is your unique take to
make art, you know, cn is the person that we need to book to kind
of speak on this event about the future of work.
Su-Yen Wong
So I think on one spectrum, from a future of work perspective,
there are speakers that talk a lot about the deep technology, let's
just call it that, where I come at it from is much more around how
does this impact organizations and individuals? So given what's
happening in terms of technology, and how that's impacting work?
How does that change how the way organizations need to think about
either their, their culture, their leadership, their organization
structure, the way they think about careers the way to think about
people development so forth? Or and or sometimes it happens, both
at the same speech. What does it mean for individuals as they think
about how to manage their own careers, reinvent themselves, as well
as have the right mindset. So it's very much about taking the human
dimension into the future of work.
James Taylor
And how people are learning mostly about your you and your speaking
programs, because obviously, you've been so known as a person in
the boardroom of organizations, how you can are getting the word
out there, and attracting potential clients to book you as a
speaker.
Su-Yen Wong
I would say there probably would break it down into three pillars.
The first pillar is I've been fortunate to work with a number of
speaker bureaus. So working with speakers connected home, they're
working with another speaker Bureau in Europe, and another one in
the US out of DC. So sort of three continents, different speaker
bureaus and obviously so that's that's one stream through which
engagements come through. The second pillar, I would say is
previous clients, I've been very fortunate to work with mostly
large organizations over the past 20 or so years. And so that's
drawing in my network contacts and then and then the third pillar
really is a lot of the work that I've been trying to do in terms of
you know, I think we talked about how you use social media and
LinkedIn and things like that and and I actually have received and
I do receive inquiries through some of that activity online as
well. So you know, three three different courses I would say
James Taylor
and is one particular social media platform you find works better
for you than than others. LinkedIn, LinkedIn is one
Su-Yen Wong
for me LinkedIn works works the most effectively. I should say that
there was a fourth pillar but I but I, I didn't focus on it because
I think relative to the others so far hasn't been a huge source yet
is other speakers
James Taylor
Yeah, it's a funny one really the other speakers because I'm in for
example, today and inquiry came in and and i'm not available for
this particular date. And I was I was thinking about it and I've
seen like, Who's the right speaker for this one is quite well known
client and and I've worked with this client and other other their
other offices in the world. And you know what, I couldn't think of
a particular speak on this area that they were really looking for.
And in the end, I just, I'm going to I'll end up giving it to a
bureau actually, because they have a much this seeing these
speakers all the time and I think me as a speaker, I'm lucky if I
get to see Maybe 10 professional speakers a year, you certainly see
them up on stage. And I am very reticent about recommending a
speaker unless I've, I've actually seen them on stage. Yeah,
yeah.
Su-Yen Wong
So so that one I think doesn't happen quite as often. But I've done
it both ways. I've had people recommend me. And I've also
recommended speakers when I like, as you just rightly described,
not available that particular day. But yeah, it's, it's, sometimes
sometimes I think it's just, you just don't know, right? Because
it's a topic in your space. Or maybe it's a topic that's completely
foreign to the space on that. So I'm not the best person to
recommend someone else. But I do think that some of the support,
for example, here in Singapore apss, that's a pretty good
community. Some of us I think, have, you know, basically say, hey,
there's this thing going on, and you know, anybody in that space?
So so some speakers actually have put up a couple of opportunities,
and sort of shared that around?
James Taylor
Where in terms of in Southeast Asia, where are you finding that's
exciting just now in terms of speaking opportunities? I hear that
Singapore is a very mature market for speakers but there's a
healing Vietnam, there's a lot of things going on. There's
different terror countries that are seem to be really growing fast
at the moment.
Su-Yen Wong
Yeah, I've spoken in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, I
find Vietnam and the Philippines, very receptive. Partly because I
think in those particular markets, there's a there's a huge pent up
demand for for people who can basically put in whatever, whatever
the domain, right, so I do find those two markets at the moment.
Like
James Taylor
I haven't spoken in Philippines yet. But all of our friends
probably got lots of mutual friends in the Philippines, other
speakers and learners of this world and, and every one of my teams
in the Philippines, I shouldn't be speaking in the Philippines. But
everyone told me the Philippines audiences have very, you know,
exuberant types of audiences when you compare them to other parts
of the world.
Su-Yen Wong
Yes, very warm. So then in Vietnam to but but in a slightly
different way. I mean, Vietnam, I think it's just a very
entrepreneurial kind of a dynamic. So everyone is really hungry,
you know, really keen to absorb, you know, best practices and
knowledge learnings around the world. Philippines, I think is just
a very, it's a very warm culture. And like you, like you said, you
do a session there. And after the session, people will be, you
know, coming up to you and mobbing you and in the way that they
don't in some other Asian countries, which are much more culturally
reserved.
James Taylor
Now, you're also in addition to going out the speaking being on
your boards, you obviously take you this idea of self care, looking
after yourself, you know, goes, you know, you're the Mom, you're I
think of training for Kilimanjaro, you're training for base camp
Everest base camp at the moment. So how do you in your busy
schedule? How do you make time to do the training must be a huge
amount of hours to go into the training to do those types of
expeditions?
Su-Yen Wong
Well, it's never been on the bucket list. I'm a very normal person
as far as physical activity does. But we're doing it for charity.
It's to support mental health. And one of the charities here and
and part of its really come out of the conviction that in many
corporates, there's an increasing focus and attention being being
placed on on the need for mental health, stress and corporate
pressures, and all that. But at the same time, that mental health,
I think, is something that's going to affect you, but it will touch
all of us in some way. Right? Whether it's a child with autism, or
whether it's a parent with Alzheimer's, or whether it's sort of you
know, stress and depression, the entire spectrum. And particularly,
I think, in in in Asia and Singapore, it's not as well advanced in
terms of awareness. So that's the reason why we're doing it. It's
not because I'm any particularly super athletically inclined, in
fact, my friends who have found out that I'm doing the best,
because if you really Oh, yeah. So as a consequence, it's just
really about putting putting the discipline into it. So the
combination of runs and lots of climbing of stairs. So yeah, we're
up to about 250 floors these days. It's only once a week, but
essentially, I think we need to get up to twice to twice a
week.
James Taylor
Amazing. Well, I wish you all the great success with that as well.
A couple of final questions start to finish up here. I'd love to
know I'm going to put you on a, an imaginary long haul flight.
Thankfully, thankfully, a lot of you do a lot of those I know. But
thankfully, I'm not gonna make you. I'm not gonna tell you just put
you on the flight. You have to go and give a presentation it won't
expect to give you when you land. But on this imaginary flight
sitting next to you, is any speaker, author, thought leader living
or dead. That you could just basically sit and have a conversation
with her on that long haul flight. Who would you like to be on that
flight with Obama.
Su-Yen Wong
He is. And I think it's interesting for two reasons. One as a
leader, but second as a speaker, and I think he blends both of
those dimensions very, very compellingly, regardless of your
political extraction, right? I think that when you look at somebody
as a speaker as being able to connect, convey, and, you know, as a
speaker, when you look at somebody like him delivering, at least I
think there are a lot of hours that have gone into that delivery.
Right. And I think, you know, speakers, you sort of appreciate how
that comes across, and how that comes to be so. So yeah, to two
parts of it. One is sort of just I think that'd be a lot of
interesting stories from the job perspective, right, you know, the
job. But then the second part of it is just as a really compelling
speaker, I think he'd be great fun to sit next to.
James Taylor
Great, so you're going to be on them, we're gonna have your secret
service agents, either side of you. So glad you have that
conversation? What about what is in your your speaker bag? What
isn't that bag that you carry with you to all of your various
speaking engagements with your gadgets and bits and pieces that you
never leave home without.
Su-Yen Wong
There's the extended back. And then there's the small kids, the
small kids very simple, I carry a multipurpose adapter. That's
basically got connectors into USB, HDMI, VGA, just because you
never quite know, the venue that going to even if you've got sort
of pre agreed the connections that you need, sometimes they don't
have them. So I like having that I bring my own clicker. And that's
sort of the basic that if I didn't have anything else, those two
things I would need to need to have with me. The other thing that
I'm just about to pick up is one of those tiny little video DJI DJI
video cams about the size. So that's in the acquisition,
James Taylor
because I'll be looking forward to all these all these videos from
your life on the road and then speaking and traveling that you're
you're doing. I'm not sure if they're working. I'm not sure if it's
gonna work at high altitude ever. So maybe you may have to test to
find out, we're gonna find out exactly what but if you were to
recommend one book to our audience, it could be a book on the no
one of your books about the future work or speaking or topic you
think more people should be reading and thinking about just now.
What would that book be? Hmm.
Su-Yen Wong
Well, me, I am finding some of the work by Dorie Clark, very
interesting. From the standpoint of reinvention, so I think she's
come at it from that perspective. But also think just as someone
who has come out and herself reinvented a couple of times, she also
speaks she's a she also writes quite extensively, and also has, I
think, done a really great job at scaling her own business. So
multiple dimensions, check a few things off. So so so let's say one
of one of her, one of her pieces would be
James Taylor
my recommendation. And warband online tool or app or mobile app,
for example, would you find very useful for doing the work you
do?
Su-Yen Wong
Gosh, um, well, I work up keynote. So so it's actually pretty
simple. I work of all all the all the apple tools. But in addition
to that, I, you know, I would say business wise, zero invoice Lee,
I run all of them through cloud apps. So yeah, it's sort of a full
suite of cloud based apps that I use, also also use some of the
collaboration tools like Asana, with my team, as well.
James Taylor
And I want you to imagine now, that tomorrow morning, you wake up,
and you have to start from scratch yet start at the start again,
you've got all the skills or the knowledge you've acquired over the
years, but no one knows you, you know, no one, what would you do?
How would you restart things?
Su-Yen Wong
So imagine I landed like in Timbuktu, right?
James Taylor
Anywhere Timbuktu, if you would, you've actually been, I think
you're probably the only person who's been
Su-Yen Wong
to prison, I guess, the first thing I would do is, I would reach
out to my network to understand the landscape of the market.
Because I do find that you know, wherever you plop yourself down,
whether it's, you know, Singapore, New York or London, there is a
different dynamic, you know, just the way decisions are made a
little bit different. The market context is different. So the first
thing we do really get a lay of the land to get an understanding of
the landscape, really, really important. But beyond an
understanding what the landscape is to further expand my my circle
of influence. So I suppose to this day and age, we're all sort of
two or three degrees. Separation which is great people did this 50
years ago. But so step one reach out to to my network. Second, I
would then work on building social proof either through this
network and or through social media. We talked about that earlier I
have found that to be quite effective. And then finally just get
out there and engage with with potential clients. no substitute for
that right just actually getting out there and meeting new people
and building from scratch
James Taylor
and talking about connecting where's the best place people to go to
learn more about you your work, your your keynote programs,
everything that you've got going on just now.
Su-Yen Wong
Just check out my website www.suyenwong.com as
James Taylor
well. So yeah, it's a pleasure speaking to you today. Thank you so
much for coming on. sharing with me It's been fantastic just
watching your journey as a speaker as a coach as well. It's just
great. I love working with speakers like you who you just you able
to make things happen you have a real commitment, you've got big
you know, big vision, what you want to create in the world. And so
I just I'm really looking forward to seeing your career go from
strength to strength.
Su-Yen Wong
And thank you James. It's been wonderful being part of speakers
your community so really appreciate that.
James Taylor
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