Building Singapore’s First Olive Oil Brand | Alia Ballo… — Transcript

Alia Ballout shares her journey building Singapore's first olive oil brand and processing facility, blending her Lebanese-Singaporean heritage.

Key Takeaways

Building a unique business in Singapore by pioneering local olive oil production.
Leveraging multicultural heritage to shape identity and entrepreneurial vision.
Authentic storytelling on social media can lead to unexpected viral success.
Family legacy and upbringing strongly influence personal and professional paths.
The importance of having a strong, authentic voice in business and content creation.

Summary

Alia Ballout is the founder of Singapore's first olive oil brand and is building the country's first olive oil processing facility.
She has a mixed heritage, with a Lebanese father and Chinese Singaporean mother, which influences her unique perspective.
Her family background is politically and journalistically rich, including a feminist pioneer and political advisers.
Alia initially avoided the spotlight but gained viral attention through social media content about her family's olive oil business.
Her content style is long-form and authentic, resonating with a niche but engaged audience.
She discusses the importance of having a strong voice, influenced by her family's history and upbringing.
Alia grew up in Oman, where her parents met, and she embraces her multicultural upbringing.
Her mother left Singapore early to avoid the traditional rat race, joining the airlines and eventually meeting her father in Oman.
Alia balances multiple roles as an entrepreneur, athlete, content creator, and social personality.
The interview highlights the intersection of sports, business, and life, emphasizing human connection beyond AI capabilities.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Number one, we're Singapore's first olive oil brand. My grandfather owned a newspaper firm in Lebanon. He was actually one of the political advisers to Saddam Hussein when he was still alive. I'm like, okay, Chinese Singaporean woman holding olives.

Speaker A

Yeah. So, so absurd. So weird. Yeah. And I looked at her and I was like, uh, okay, this is it.

Speaker A

We're going to make, we're going to make olive oil. Like, this is, this is going to be it. We're also building Singapore's first olive oil processing facility.

Speaker A

Wow. Good morning, Aliyia. How are you? Good morning, Paul. Thank you for having me.

Speaker A

Lovely to see you. Mhm. Now, I was looking at your LinkedIn bio and I didn't realize that we actually got far more in common than I realized.

Speaker A

Like, um, my wife used to work at Rajatan. Oh, okay. RT for many years. And then you were in recruitment.

Speaker A

So before we, before we, you know, unpack the pages of time, just can you give a quick audience introduction as to who you are please?

Speaker A

I always find that question super hard to answer because I feel like not one thing defines me and I'm not saying that in a pretentious way. It's just I do so many things.

Speaker A

Yeah. Uh, but if we want to do it in a LinkedIn kind of fashion.

Speaker A

That's no, no, just like who are you, like you know, and then we'll, we'll jump in.

Speaker A

Um, these days because it can always change I guess I'm an entrepreneur. I'm building up a startup. I'm an athlete when I have the time. I'm a content creator and I guess now becoming more of a personality.

Speaker A

Yeah. Um, a social personality because kind of I think you've always been a personality.

Speaker A

You're not wrong. You know what I mean? Um, but it all really just happened organically. So, I just started posting content without any plan and it started to resonate with people.

Speaker A

Like I don't post the generic content where I'm trying to, it's not clickbait. It's more long form and I, that's actually harder to do on Instagram because of people's attention span for sure.

Speaker A

But I think there's a crowd for that. It might not be in the thousands but it's definitely a strong crowd. Yeah.

Speaker A

Yeah. I think interestingly enough I think this short form thing is going to disappear because if you think about it right during COVID we would listen to podcasts and if you, if you're a deep thinker you want to hear about what

Speaker A

people's ideas are, right? 100%. That's why you resonated with me and then I want to give a shout out to Amita Bertier because I had reached out to her and I said hey Amita is there anyone that you think that you could connect me

Speaker A

with that would be great for the podcast. So then, but in the meantime, I had written to you privately and then two weeks later she said there's this one lady because she could have mentioned anyone but then she mentioned

Speaker A

you which I just thought was really funny. Yeah. Honestly, everything seems to be very in alignment because I also blew up very quickly without wanting to. So, prior to this, I actually had a private Instagram.

Speaker A

I didn't believe in putting myself out there, but I guess I, I didn't plan for it. But the first reel that I did post went viral.

Speaker A

And then what was it on? It was just about like my family making olive oil in Lebanon.

Speaker A

Yeah. And you know, it's a long story. We can get into it later. But I post one reel, it goes viral. Then I get covered in the news.

Speaker A

Oh, did you? And it doesn't just go from like article, it goes to a reel like, you know, gaining a lot of traction. Then it goes into Straits Times. That's and then also not just Straits Times online but

Speaker A

in print. Yeah. So if you didn't see it online, you definitely saw it in print.

Speaker A

Really? So I guess my name was like put everywhere and like what my family was doing and you know then I also, I guess my first ever coverage was in Tatler and then the Rice Media article came out

Speaker A

which was one of their stronger pieces. Yeah. And I went from being like somebody who was so afraid of being in the spotlight.

Speaker A

I like to be honest with you, I did everything I could to not be in the spotlight.

Speaker A

Yeah. But I guess someone upstairs was like, "No, you can't be hiding." I think you have a message and you have a voice, a very powerful voice, which I didn't realize, you know.

Speaker A

Yeah. It's so interesting. Well, look, one of the things I love because my show is about people's career journeys and for me as a former sportsman, the nexus between the connection between sports, business, and just life, right?

Speaker A

And that's the one thing AI can't change, right? You know, so talk about, so you are half Lebanese, half Singaporean.

Speaker A

Yes. So I love mixed people. I just think we think differently, right? We are different. We are different.

Speaker A

Yeah. So my, my, my dad's Lebanese. He comes from the south of Lebanon. And my dad comes from a pretty big family, I would say. Um, they're all, they've all been journalists and writers. And um, I guess more interestingly, um, my grand

Speaker A

aunt, which is my dad's auntie, she was the first female feminist in the Middle East. She revolted against religious leaders in Lebanon. She was actually very, her name is Leila Balbaki and if you Google her you'll see

Speaker A

all her work. Amazing. Um, she was the first of her kind and she actually set the trajectory for the feminist movement in the Middle East. Then my grandfather owned a newspaper firm in Lebanon and he was actually one of

Speaker A

the political advisers to Saddam Hussein when he was still alive. Wow. Yeah. So, and now when I'm saying this, I realize like how was I ever going to be quiet and in the shadows?

Speaker A

It's in your DNA. It's in your blood. What did you say off camera about in your family having to have a voice?

Speaker A

Yeah. You have to be loud or you, you will get eaten up by conversation.

Speaker A

You have to be full of main characters is what you say. I love, I absolutely love that. Actually, in my household, my 10-year-old, she's the CEO. She runs me.

Speaker A

She's my boss. I think we spoke about this off camera to her. I said, "Your daughter is your karma." Yeah.

Speaker A

It's every man's karma. Yeah. So, they give you a hard time because you did something somewhere.

Speaker A

My 17-year-old is, it's retribution. We argue a lot. We're very similar. Exactly. It's the same with me and my dad.

Speaker A

Yeah. Really? Who are you closer to, mom or dad? We're close in different ways. Um, dad and me definitely have a similar personality, but mom is like it's a different type of relationship.

Speaker A

Yeah. Um, but yeah, so family. Um, then my uncle, he was one of the founding members of Al Jazeera where he was like one of their communicators. Then he went to London and became the head speaker of BBC.

Speaker A

So I grew up in quite like a very political family and I heard all these conversations like growing up, right? My mom on the other hand, she left Singapore when she was really young. She always felt like it wasn't for her. It

Speaker A

didn't, you know, she's Chinese Singaporean. She's Chinese Singaporean. She didn't believe in the rat race, which is again ahead of her time. Um, felt in her body she could not be here anymore. So, she just left. She left her entire family

Speaker A

behind. And my mom came from quite like a pro, like I would say upper middle class family. So, as a Chinese girl, the youngest of the family to just leave and uproot her life.

Speaker A

Yeah. Was really big. So, she risked it all because my mom said that she could see her life panning out and she did not want to follow the trajectory of marrying, getting a BTO, falling into the rat race.

Speaker A

Where did she go? What was it? She joined the airlines. So, she got to fly around the world. Uh, opened up her mind a lot and then she got selected to be part of the royal flight in Muscat

Speaker A

to fly with the Sultan of Oman. So, she met, she met your dad in Oman in Muscat. Correct.

Speaker A

Wow. Yeah. So, these two opposite people from different parts of the world met in this very neutral country and that's where like I guess my story begins.

Speaker A

Yes. Um, but I was born in Singapore but I grew up in Oman. Uh, it was the most beautiful upbringing ever.

Speaker A

Can you describe because I told you I've spent two weeks and I

Speaker A

so much to offer. Right. It's the most I I it's so difficult to explain especially when you live somewhere like Singapore.

Speaker A

There's no there's no explanation for Awan. Well, for starters, you know, it's all across like it's on the coast. So, anywhere you look, there's sea. Yeah.

Speaker A

There are these beautiful mountains that cover the entire region and just behind you, you what's unusual is the contrast. So, you be at the ocean, you're in the water, but then you look behind you and there's this beautiful mountain range close.

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And um the culture is very much kept intact. So there's a rule in Oman that buildings can't be higher than the mosque.

Speaker A

Yeah. So you get anywhere you look you can just see just it's so serene. It's so peaceful and it's very free and people are very kind.

Speaker A

Very kind. Very kind. Like I I I will never not talk about Oman because it really shaped who I am.

Speaker A

I'll tell I'll tell you a funny story. So, uh, when we went there, uh, it was for my son's 12th birthday, and we were doing like a night in the desert, but in between, my goal was to go camping, but I didn't know where. And

Speaker A

I pulled up on the side of a road, and it was quite late, and I thought, "This is a good spot." And the floor was like granite. Went somewhere else, the floor was like granite, but we it was the GPS

Speaker A

wasn't working. So, I was kind of stuck. And then my wife said, "I found a place uh on Google, right? Google Maps wasn't working. It's just close by. It's a small hotel. It was in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker A

Whoever owned it is really wealthy. The Shangrila. No, it wasn't. It was I don't know where it is. I I'll have to look it up. I'll I'll send it to you. But basically, they had built a hotel in the middle of

Speaker A

nowhere, but it was designed like as a kid's playground, right? It was re It was so surreal. So, for example, they had a water theme park inside the hotel. They had taken old barrels, made them nice. You could sit

Speaker A

in there like a train. And I just said this was like it was almost like a figment of our imagination. It's like how is this right here in the middle of nowhere? But what I love most about there was then going up into the

Speaker A

mountains. So have you been to the view which it's a hotel right up in in Jebel?

Speaker A

Uh which one? There's two Jebels. Yeah. Um there's Jear and Jeabel Shams. Do you know what that they mean by the way in Arabic? Jebel means mountain.

Speaker A

Akar is green. So there's green mountain and and Shams means sun. Okay. So it's probably Yeah.

Speaker A

Yeah. That's where we went. It was It was stunning. And And in fact, the hotel that we've stayed up, I forgotten the name of it. It is arguably one of the most beautiful hotels.

Speaker A

Is it the Alila? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. That's a nice one. It was It was expensive. I know that.

Speaker A

They They usually are. We We crammed into one room with the kids the kids were small like, "Daddy, I'm hungry." Yeah.

Speaker A

Go back go back to go and eat a date. Um so what so what happened when you So you grew up in Muscat.

Speaker A

Yes. I went to school there. I went to international school. My school was also really interesting. Like I had near to like 80 different nationalities. Wow.

Speaker A

Everybody was from somewhere else. Like one of my best friends growing up was Irish. She looked like a white girl but could speak Arabic and read Arabic.

Speaker A

She had a Saudi passport. Like these were the people I grew up with, you know, like we didn't really see race or color. And in fact, we were so comfortable with it that we would make fun of these obvious traits.

Speaker A

And that's what I really feel like when you're really comfortable with somebody, you you're able to number one take that and or dish it out.

Speaker A

Yeah. And it's in these societies that we're like, "Oh, you can't say this. You can't." It's like, "Why does it make you uncomfortable?" Or, you know, because it doesn't make me uncomfortable.

Speaker A

So, I think moving to Singapore also really confused me because people categorize me into my race.

Speaker A

So, we were I was talking about Isabelle like that. It says it even on your IC.

Speaker A

Yeah. It's it's it it to me it sound it it runs counterintuitive to the message. If we're all the same, why why is it there? Yeah.

Speaker A

Yeah. Um, it is interesting. But the the funny thing, I was talking to my kids about dating apps, the older kids. And I said, "Your mother and I probably would have never met if it was today, unless I

Speaker A

physically met and chatted her up because of the dating apps." Cuz she'd never gone out with a non- brown guy before. Right. So, she probably would have looked at me and said, "No." Right?

Speaker A

Do you know what I mean? But, but um I Yeah, that's And I was saying to my but my kids are they're bold, you know, like they my my daughter will ask someone out if she wants. My son is, you know, he's

Speaker A

a little bit too progressive for my liking. His current girlfriend's 26. He's 19, you know, she's lovely. But, um, so then, so, so tell me a little bit about growing up there. Like, when you grew up there, what was it? What type of

Speaker A

international school was it? I went to an IB school. Okay. Uh, yeah, my school was was very chill.

Speaker A

And the thing is with both my parents, they never pushed academics on me. So they gave me a lot of freedom to explore, express. In fact, I would come home with a grade that was probably closer to a C and my mom would look at

Speaker A

it and be like, "Good job." Like, "Yay!" You know, but so I really appreciate that from my parents cuz both of them didn't go to university.

Speaker A

Okay. They just built things. So, in fact, my mom built the first day spa in Oman.

Speaker A

Really? Yeah. She's she was a pioneer in her own right cuz she went there and realized it wasn't there. So actually my mom's business is very well known now in in still running.

Speaker A

Wow. Um you know she poured her heart and soul into it and I suppose that's where I also learned that from. My mom's very creative. Uh she can see things before they happen and she and the difference is she does them.

Speaker A

Yeah. And my dad is the means for her to express her creativity cuz he's very practical. So it's like she'll be like dear I want to do this. Okay. This is how we do it.

Speaker A

So you still married? Yeah they're still married. you know, cuz nowadays at least 50% of my friends have gotten divorced.

Speaker A

Yeah. I think my my parents, they really can't live without each other. I love that.

Speaker A

And they've built businesses together and they Yeah, they're they're a good partnership. I'm telling you, you and I have a lot in common cuz I I set up um before COVID a mobile spa.

Speaker A

Oo. Because I always struggled to get really great massages here at home, right? And uh so my goal was I would have a segment for women specifically. So for example, you know, if you if you have a child

Speaker A

here, you will get an auntie that will come and sort you out, but they weren't necessarily formally trained, right? And I just thought the ultimate luxury is having a massage at home.

Speaker A

And then the goal was to make that take that into nursing. So for example, when my wife's granny was alive, she died at 102. Towards the end, she was bedridden.

Speaker A

And we needed nurses to come and change her drip. and you know you you had to be professionally qualified but you know towards the end of her life she she had Alzheimer's and dementia and the problem is the nurses would change each week and

Speaker A

that created more instability so I thought my goal was to have that and then co happened and I I decided it's the only time I've ever done anything where in theory I failed because I I I but I always say it's never failure it's

Speaker A

just data right yeah no listen it's a great point it was an expensive data point because I lost quarter of a million dollars okay well it's still data yeah I just thought I had to, you know, do I do I cut ties now? And I've never

Speaker A

done that before, but I decided I've got to. Um, but then, so talk talk a little bit about Go for it. Talk a little bit about um why you came back to Singapore.

Speaker A

Why I came back to Singapore? Okay. So, when I finished um so the school I went to was called ABA.

Speaker A

Okay. Um, the American British Academy in itself doesn't make sense, but that's the school I went to because you could choose either to go the American route or the British route. Okay. Because the kids were so international. All their

Speaker A

kid, sorry, all their parents worked in the Air Force, oil, so they were kind of like army kids. Yeah.

Speaker A

So you had to prepare them for whatever. Um, so after that I went to the UK.

Speaker A

I went to Newcastle. Did you? Yeah. I know. It was a weird one because they came to our school. Okay. Okay.

Speaker A

And they offered me um like a partial kind of scholarship for sport. So I was like, "Oh, I'll go." And also my dad had a lot of friends in London.

Speaker A

So as a young 18-year-old, I was like, "I'm going to go somewhere as far as possible." So describe what the girls are like at 11 11:00 p.m. at night when it's minus degrees out. They're still in short skirts. You can see the thing is their

Speaker A

skin's almost translucent. Oh, it was when I grew up. There was no spray tan back then. And it was just the weirdest culture. Like freezing.

Speaker A

No, no. Newcastle was a weird culture for sure. I I I loved it. I met a lot of interesting people, but it was a huge culture shock from somebody that grew up in the GCC.

Speaker A

Yeah. Chalk and cheese. It's just completely different. But uh yeah, I met some really interesting people and it really developed me as a person.

Speaker A

Yeah. Um what did you study there? Politics. Okay. I did a double degree in politics and sociology.

Speaker A

So I did that and then I did an internship at the Lebanese embassy. So that was my you know I always thought I was going to be a politician.

Speaker A

You did or or some sort of journalist or something cuz all throughout I would I would be writing so I like I write a lot and hence I was trying to plug my Substack earlier. Follow my substack. Anyway um

Speaker A

so yeah I did that and it was at the point of when do you remember the Salsbury attacks from Russia?

Speaker A

Yeah. It was such an interesting time for me and also Theresa May's white papers that were coming out. So I got to go into the Russian embassy because it all the embassies had to come together and I remember being like 18 19 looking

Speaker A

at this place. I was like this is so interesting and each embassy really had the feel of the country. I don't know how to explain that more than it's it's not just an office. You really feel the culture and the way that

Speaker A

walking into into their Yeah, it was so interesting. Um I listened to a briefing from the Russian ambassador on based on the Salsbury attacks. Yeah.

Speaker A

Then I had to read through the white papers and all all through like so I was in the Lebanese consulate. I also had to deal with uh people who were refugees trying to come into London and the Lebanese ambassador was trying

Speaker A

to help them or reject them cuz a lot of people would just throw away their passports and claim refugee status.

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. So, you'd have to like sift out that and you know, it was it was just such an interesting period of time, but I realized very quickly that I could not go down that trajectory.

Speaker A

Why? It just didn't suit me. Um, you know, you, as you can see, I have tattoos.

Speaker A

I I'm not very diplomatic in the sense of if you say something that I don't agree with, it's very hard for you not to see my feelings about it.

Speaker A

Yeah. So, I didn't I didn't quite fit that. So, the Lebanese ambassador is actually one of my dad's friends.

Speaker A

Okay. And you can see he is the perfect diplomat. Yeah. You don't know what he's feeling.

Speaker A

Yeah. And I I remember watching that thinking like, "Oh, this is this is not for me." It is a skill.

Speaker A

Oh, for sure. You know, like you can't react and I know a few ex diplomats and ambassadors and they they don't flinch.

Speaker A

Exactly. And I I I I just realized that. Um so then I also another thing because I grew up as an expat, I didn't really understand these like visa things cuz my dad just took care of it, you know?

Speaker A

Yeah, I was on his sponsorship, but in the UK I was on a student visa.

Speaker A

So that was expiring, so I couldn't stay. And then dad goes, "You know, you're Singaporean right?" Yeah.

Speaker A

Had you been to Singapore? No. Oh, you never went. That's crazy. I would only come to visit for like 2 weeks at a time.

Speaker A

Okay. And I was like, "Yeah, I guess I am." He was like, "Just go. Just go experience your own country." And I didn't even know what that felt like. So I came here and within that I think it was that same

Speaker A

weekend, there was the general elections. And I remember having to go to the general elections having only been here for a few weeks. I Googled who was the current ruling party on the bus. Yeah.

Speaker A

And I was like, "Wait, it's been the same." Interesting. Like I didn't even That's how much I did not know about my own country cuz my mom just she left, you know?

Speaker A

Yeah. Um so yeah, I I voted. I won't say who. And then I just I just ended up staying.

Speaker A

And I actually wanted to leave because I was telling my dad, I'm finding it very hard here.

Speaker A

Boom. Co. Yeah. Got stuck. Yeah. Couldn't leave. Adjust. What were you doing at that time? Work-wise.

Speaker A

I wasn't I I just finished. Um Oh, really? I just like finished. Were you staying with in-laws?

Speaker A

Um No, my parents had a place here. Okay. Um because my brother was here doing NS.

Speaker A

Okay. Ah. Yeah. Which also where's my poor brother? He just finished his studies in the UK.

Speaker A

Okay. and he's about to join my company to help me out with some stuff.

Speaker A

Okay. But congrats. Thank you. I put a lot of stress on the relationship. Um it's definitely going to be a bonding moment.

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. Are you into spirituality at all? I am. I am. I'm not religious. I'm very spiritual but So am I. But um all my whole family were all born on the 22nd.

Speaker A

Okay. That's crazy. Oh, you have no idea. My youngest is born on the 21st of April, which is um was her grandfather's birthday and he was deceased and we we kind of I mean we had a C-section so we could have maybe

Speaker A

chosen but it was they they had said look this is the birthday and I thought wow dates are big for me.

Speaker A

Yeah. If you think that's like my mom is born on the uh 22nd of May, my my brother's March 22nd, my dad's September 22nd. I'm December 22nd.

Speaker A

Mad. Um 22 is the master builder number in spirituality. My mom has built a business from nothing. So has my dad and I'm doing that too naturally. And it's just it's just so crazy as well cuz both my parents their wedding date was on the

Speaker A

22nd too. Wow. Crazy crazy. Yeah. Wait, where was I? Um we were talking about coming back to Singapore.

Speaker A

Yeah. Coming back to Singapore. Yeah. So my brother as well when he turned 18 and he graduated high school.

Speaker A

My mom was like oh uh by the way you have you can't go to uni now because you have to fly to Singapore and serve NS and he was like what?

Speaker A

And he'd never been here spent time or lived here. Yeah. So he also had it really really rough.

Speaker A

Wow. Uh he was put into the police force and he explained NS as like going to prison because all the races stick together.

Speaker A

Yeah. And because he's other, he was grouped with the other others. Yeah. So he's had this group of misfits.

Speaker A

Yeah. And um Yeah. He had a hard time. So I think he cuz he had to watch all his friends go to uni.

Speaker A

Yeah. And when he went he was the oldest at uni. So he definitely Yeah, it's hard. It's It is It is tough. I mean I you know cuz I grew up I'm half Chinese, half Irish. So where I grew up

Speaker A

um in London for the first 11 years it was a migrant area called Southall which is basically Little India. So my street of 110 houses I always tell people this and because they just to give them an idea 110 houses there were

Speaker A

only two non-br families. Jamaican family in my family but South is usually Jamaicans. No no it's Indian. It's Indian. It's Punjabis mainly.

Speaker A

Right. So it was like, you know, so I got racism there and then the Irish hate the English and the English hate the Irish and I've got an Irish surname. So I got racism because I had an Irish

Speaker A

surname. I I'm perceived as Chinese cuz I look Chinese to the majority of the world.

Speaker A

You could be Filipino. Could be Filipino, right? But Asian. And then and then in Ireland, I really got it. And then so that's why I've got a big personality cuz like [ __ ] You've had to, you know, be you. And

Speaker A

that was that was fine. I never really felt racism after after about like when I got to my teenage years, right? I thought I would I would set the narrative about what someone like me is.

Speaker A

And then when I came here was you're not Asian enough. You don't speak Chinese.

Speaker A

Yeah. So So and that's why I think when I met my wife, her dad was president of the Eurasian Association. So So that's perfect.

Speaker A

Yeah. So he was he's he was like Anglo-Indian and her mom's Bengali and they embraced me. They're divorced, but they embraced me. And I realized that that's that's actually really important because when you get married, you marry the family.

Speaker A

Oh, true. Yeah. Especially in Asian families. Yeah. If they don't if they don't embrace you, it's it's and I'll tell you a lovely story. So, cuz he died, you know, a year and a half into our relationship, right? Very suddenly he

Speaker A

was 62, but um after one year we that we were together, he wrote us this uh lovely anniversary letter and then he just said, "I think you guys are going to go all the way." And um Oh, that's

Speaker A

very sweet. And he was a he was a womanizer. It was it was a bit naughty.

Speaker A

And he said, "Paul, you've even taught me an old dog, a few new tricks." And then we got married like two and a half years into our relationship. He'd passed on.

Speaker A

So when we got married, we we set a plate for him at the head of the table, right? So he was there with us in spirit. And then I read that letter cuz obviously he wasn't there to speak. And

Speaker A

um but this is the story. So after a few months, he called me up. Tyra was in Hong Kong for work and he said, "Where are you?" I said, "I'm I'm having a few drinks with my buddies." And he said,

Speaker A

"Uh, come out with me." And I said, "Okay, cool." So, he took me around to meet all of his friends. And um and then he said, "Why don't we get a bag? Why don't you spend the weekend at the at

Speaker A

the house with me?" And I said, "Sure, it'd be lovely." He goes, "I'll cook you breakfast in the morning." And we had a we were a bit drunk. And then as we were walking in the front door, he put his

Speaker A

arm around my shoulder and he said, "Paul, you're like the son I always wanted, but I never had." Oh, and I just thought, so that taught me a lot about how cuz cuz in theory when my daughters bring home guys or girls,

Speaker A

you know, don't judge here. Yeah. Naturally, it's like I want to, you know, I want to scare the [ __ ] out of this guy, but I I'm not going that route. Um, but anyway, so Singapore and then what did you do like during COVID?

Speaker A

You're stuck. What didn't I do is the the better question. I started with uh a fitness Instagram because I had nothing else to do and I have ADHD as we've mentioned and I I have a lot of energy.

Speaker A

So I I was cooped up. I couldn't do nothing. So I was like, "Oh, I'm just going to be I'm just going to record myself and post, you know, online." People started to like that.

Speaker A

But at the time, I don't think I was ready to be seen. And this is an ongoing theme in my in my, you know, my life.

Speaker A

Uh, one of the first pieces of content I talked about on my Instagram was the fear of being seen.

Speaker A

And it was that fear of, "Oh no, can't." So I I would always post, delete, post, delete, but then be upset with myself cuz I was like, "No, this is what I wanted to do." Then I tried to do a YouTube channel.

Speaker A

Same thing. I'd vlog my entire day. I'd go home and edit about to press. Fear would hold me back.

Speaker A

Wow. Never did it. I'm glad you're talking about this because a lot but a lot of people women in particular, you know, when I coach ladies, some of the best people I've ever worked with have imposter syndrome. But the women in

Speaker A

particular, if they're applying for a role, let's pretend what they're applying for is is above and beyond what they're doing, which is as it should be.

Speaker A

They'll be very honest and they'll say, "I I I don't know if I can do that. I haven't done it before." Whereas most men will [ __ ] it. Yeah, [ __ ] I can do it. And and they sabotage themselves.

Speaker A

So, I can I I see both sides. I'm somebody who believes I can do anything.

Speaker A

Yeah. But that's not this outrageous, arrogant belief. It's because I have gone through so much. I actually believe and trust that I can do it. I don't have imposter syndrome cuz I know how hard I've worked to get where I am.

Speaker A

Yeah. And I always dream bigger. Like when I'm working with Isabelle, any idea we're like, "Yeah, we can do it. Let's do it." We have this thing where we would say in the like if I if she catches me saying

Speaker A

something negative, we go, "No, no, no, no, no. Do anything. Superstar, superstar, superstar. President, president, president, astronaut. And it's just this outrageous thing that we affirmations.

Speaker A

Yeah. But they're outrageous. Like obviously I'm not going to be an astronaut. But if I wanted to, you never know, baby.

Speaker A

You know, so I I don't believe in imposter syndrome. I do believe it's this insecurity.

Speaker A

Yeah. But you need to believe you deserve it. Yeah. Right. But there has to be some sort of reality, too, right? Like I'm not going to be an NBA woman's NBA player.

Speaker A

Yeah. But if I I'm kidding, but I really couldn't, you know, just horizontally. You got to think You got to think about the the realities. Yeah.

Speaker A

No, it's true. It's like you have to adapt. Like I was I was a sprinter and I was a very good sprinter, but I wasn't good enough and and I realized I had to swap it out, you know, and then but then but what

Speaker A

about Yes. Yes. So fitness and then when did football tell us about that? Yeah. So then I got the opportunity to try out for the national team for football.

Speaker A

Okay. And I had never played on that kind of level before. Yeah. I was playing all through uni. I played all through school, but I was selftaught. Okay.

Speaker A

Cuz in the Middle East, there aren't any girls schools, so I just taught myself.

Speaker A

I love the sport. Wow. Um, so I got trials and I realized, whoa, I'm in a different arena now, you know, pun intended. But like the girls there had been playing, they've played, you know, they have international caps. But my dad was

Speaker A

pushing me to do law. He always thought I would be a good lawyer. I never believed it, but he he did. And I can see why. It's just it's innate in your personality.

Speaker A

Exactly. That's what you think, right? So, I'll get to that later. Not in Singapore.

Speaker A

Lawyers here. Yeah, it's different. So, I was like, "Yeah, I'll be a great lawyer." So, um I was balancing trying to get into law school and the national team.

Speaker A

Yeah. And it just wasn't working for me. So, I dropped out unfortunately, but I kept all my contacts. Then I went and did a law degree for three years. That was the most difficult thing I've ever done in

Speaker A

my life. N US was it or uh SMU? I did the jurist doctor. Okay.

Speaker A

And I very quickly understood the rigor and rigidity. How do you say that word?

Speaker A

Yeah, you said it. Thank you. Yeah. Um of Singapore academia. Like it was just so difficult.

Speaker A

Um the competitiveness like I had classmates who would go into the library and hide books before an exam. Yeah.

Speaker A

Jeez, that's savage. I know. And you need to understand my background. I wasn't an academic at school. I was, you know, I was an okay student. Teachers were like, "Ah, that's just Alia, like whatever. Let her do her

Speaker A

thing." You know, I and and I I graduated. I had a politics degree. I But this was a different ballgame.

Speaker A

Yeah. And it was constant competition to the point where I was I was like, "Why are you competing with me?" Yeah.

Speaker A

Like we're all here to learn the same thing. Anyway, so I did that for three years. I still don't know how I I managed.

Speaker A

Graduated and then started the trajectory of law. But before that as well, I took a break. Um, I did advertising.

Speaker A

I did recruitment. Yeah. I worked in a hotel. I was part of the opening team of the Mandreon now.

Speaker A

Yeah. I wrote them nice hotel. Very lovely. Thank you. Lovely. Oh, at the hotel I learned how to make coffee. I learned service. I learned FnB. Uh, I wrote you the menus in one of the uh bars. I had to like copyright.

Speaker A

Yeah. Because I think they they also realized like I had skills apart from serving coffee.

Speaker A

You're multifaceted. Yeah. So they used me for everything, right? And in the FnB space was the first time I had seen people with my energy. You'd be talking to somebody and they're like, "Yeah." Right. And in other areas,

Speaker A

100 miles an hour and I was like, "Oh my god, these are my people. Maybe I'm supposed to be an FNB, but I wasn't." But I just didn't know what you're you're young. You're But you find out by trying different things. You test

Speaker A

drive differently. And this is the thing I appreciate about my parents because they always allowed me to test out different things.

Speaker A

That's big, right? So after I did that, I was like, "Okay, these are my people." Because now I'm bringing it back to law. Every time I was in a law office, I would get comments about my personality, never

Speaker A

about my quality of work. They would pull me aside and say, "Oh, you can't say this or you can't be like this." And I was like, "All I'm doing is saying good morning to everybody in the office cuz the atmosphere is so bleak." Yeah.

Speaker A

you know, I I just brought energy and I brought a light that these corporate people did not have.

Speaker A

Yeah. And they didn't like that. Um but I also had a few other like very negative experiences and you know I had um Yeah. So that working in practice I mean you you don't have to touch upon it but what my

Speaker A

observations were that I'm putting this number out there maybe 90% of people in law give up working in practice. Some of them move in house in house. Yeah.

Speaker A

And a lot leave completely because what happened my wife worked at Raja for years. She was a shipping lawyer and um it just didn't sit well with her. Right.

Speaker A

And we had two kids and she was easily working 18 hours a day. So she would come back like maybe 8:00 at night, feed the baby, breastfeed the babies, and then go back to work. Right. And it was

Speaker A

and I I knew that time would pass, but I did a fast forward scenario. So, I run a career coaching business. It's one of my two key businesses. And I wrote her a five-page love letter with all of her

Speaker A

career options. And I always I was telling Isabelle that my wife doesn't listen to anything I say. Not now, not then. That's why as we that's why we're still together. She calls it selective hearing. But like on page one, there was

Speaker A

a picture of a Harry Potter novel. And I said, "Look, you could become a writer.

Speaker A

This is what it would look like." Um, and then what I said to her is, "Look, if you stay, you're going to become a partner. But when you become a partner, you now are responsible for generating revenue. You're a salesperson. And the

Speaker A

truth is most lawyers didn't have that skill. They didn't understand that, right? No, but they also don't have that skill because they spend most of their lives in a book.

Speaker A

Yeah. Right. So, and then listen, as as I'm a world-class sales guy, and what I realized is, yeah, I've studied for I've worked on it and I've got that personality, but I think it helps for me like I grew up with nothing. So, I had

Speaker A

to sell. don't sell, you don't eat. Right? And then because of that, so I'm an introvert by nature. So I've learned how how to become extroverted in those moments. But your reason why your drive is really important, right? And then so with her, she then we

Speaker A

then said, "Well, what do you want to do?" And she said, "I want to become an ambassador or a diplomat." So I said, "Okay, let's unpack that." So she ended up uh joining Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Speaker A

Wow. That didn't work for her. Okay. Um yeah, she was there for a bit, but it was not for her. And I just said to her, she was still young enough in her career to make choices. Anyway, fast forward,

Speaker A

she got a fullbrite scholarship and then she got accepted into Yale to do her masters because they didn't recognize the masters she did here, right?

Speaker A

She did her first degree at LSE and then everyone thinks my wife's naturally very academic. She is naturally to a certain level, but she puts the work in. And then she That's the same with me.

Speaker A

Then she did a PhD or a JD at Yale. Oh, she has a JD, too.

Speaker A

Yeah. No, no, she's got as in a JSD. Sorry. Oh, she's got a a PhD uh in international law. So now she's a professor at N US.

Speaker A

Very cool. And so when she so her goal is to get tenure, then after that she's got options. But interestingly enough, because I've been talking to quite a few ambassadors. I had one on here on the show, an ex ambassador, and she said to

Speaker A

me, "It's not what everyone thinks it is. you you have to talk about 100 different subjects, which is actually quite fun, but your your social level of engagement, so if you if you don't like talking to people day in day out, it's

Speaker A

going to kill you. Yeah. The uh the one ambassador friend that I I was speaking to you about, he is very like he can switch on, but then you can see him completely just again, it's almost like a like a mask.

Speaker A

You're constantly like switching in and out. It's a skill. So, hold on. So did you did you work in the law firms before you went into recruitment or the other way around?

Speaker A

So every time I would started in a new law firm I always thought you know it's difficult as well cuz I always felt like an outsider and everyone else seemed to seem fine.

Speaker A

So the only natural thing I could do is like oh it's me. So I was like okay let me pace it out you know because I know I have ADHD. I know I have a very creative brain. It's

Speaker A

me. I'm the problem. I'm slightly dyslexic too. So it's like I'm dyslexic. Yeah. means you're creative.

Speaker A

Yeah. My brain just doesn't work the same way as other people. So, and I'm saying that cuz I'm special. It just doesn't, you know.

Speaker A

Um, so I'd be like, "Okay, I need to pace myself." The same way like any athlete would say like, "Okay, this is what I need to do in order to sustain the law firm." So, I take these breaks

Speaker A

and thankfully I found this job. Um, shout out William, thank you for giving me the recruitment job. But yeah, he he uh is a director at HSBC Life and he saw me and was like, "You're perfect. you're a salesperson. So, I went into

Speaker A

recruitment and it was super easy for me. Where were you based? In um in Singapore?

Speaker A

No, but the old HSBC building. It was in opposite uh South Beach. Oh, South Beach. Okay. You're in the um in the one of the back offices, I I guess. So, yeah.

Speaker A

Um and I realized like it was so easy for me to tell somebody, "Hey, yeah, you can do it." Like I would almost inspire them into the job.

Speaker A

Yeah. So, my my turnover rate was really really I was doing really well. I was making way more money um than I was at law firms. So, but William allowed me to shine. So then like we spoke about FnB

Speaker A

the energy and now I'm like wait you're allowed to express yourself. So it was like slowly unlearning things that I feel like Singapore society had put me like a spell they put me under that I was there was something wrong

Speaker A

with me. Yeah. And all throughout this, I was also dealing with, okay, now I'm feeling more comfortable in myself to be seen.

Speaker A

After a few years of just taking [ __ ] from law firms all the time, um, not one thing about my work, by the way, on that that 11 pointed list and I looked at the partner and I looked

Speaker A

at the HR lady and I said, I quit. Yeah. They they were so shocked and I I was like, I don't want this life.

Speaker A

Yeah. Good for you. Yeah. So that was when I started decided to take my startup you know seriously.

Speaker A

Had you been thinking about it beforehand? I was doing it simultaneously. So it was already there.

Speaker A

Yeah. But I just never had time. So tell us the genesis cuz a lot by the way before you do I want you know I just came back from Dubai and Abu Dhabi and and uh I I had the privilege of sitting

Speaker A

down and having real discussions with three Lebanese women and I hadn't done that before. I met some Lebanese men. Um, but they blew me out of the water because they they they were just very regal. No nonsense. Two

Speaker A

of the women got divorced and the way they spoke about it, it just they they spoke about it with such sincerity, right? And then the other thing that I realized was you can't you cannot ruffle these women. They're tough.

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's if you watch any videos of even little girls in Lebanon, they go out into the street and you know, people ask them, "Aren't you scared?" And they look at you like they're these girls are like 10 years

Speaker A

old with like no fear in their eyes. They say, "No, we Yeah. We're scared of nothing." Yeah.

Speaker A

And that's what I grew up seeing like um Yeah. Le Lebanese people, we just have this like resilience and this fearlessness, which I absolutely love and I'm so appreciative that I have because really Yeah. I'm not afraid of

Speaker A

anything. Yeah. Well, I mean, there are a few things, but like generally speaking, I'm not afraid.

Speaker A

So, so olive oil. Yes. Olive oil, which you forgot to bring. Yeah, I know. I was I was rushing this morning.

Speaker A

I do. No, I love it. I'd love to taste it cuz it is You should come to our office.

Speaker A

I I will do. Where is it? Uh, Alexandra. Okay, cool. Yeah, I will do.

Speaker A

Um, where was I? Yeah, olive oil. So I came I came to Singapore and felt very isolated and during that isolation I wanted to do something that meant I like I'm just that type of person. I always wanted to do something with meaning.

Speaker A

And you know coming from where I come from when you step foot in Singapore you don't feel any political or anything that's going on in the world. Every time I told taxi drivers I'm Lebanese. Hey where where's that one? I like oh you know

Speaker A

it's like here they still don't know. Yeah. So I was like, "Okay, that was one data point for me, like people don't know this place." And then um the October 7th attacks had happened and that like my phone was like blowing up,

Speaker A

you know? You know, I've dealt like I've dealt with I've heard bombs, I've seen bombs, I've experienced death, I've seen people die, like I've seen all of these things.

Speaker A

Yeah, it is scary. And so I grew up with that kind of background anyway. And then I was like in my corporate law class listening to my lecturer drone on and on and on. Everyone's wearing a mask cuz

Speaker A

it's co it's just it was just a terrible environment. And he was talking about opening companies. All of a sudden, for the first time in three years of law, I went, you started to listen.

Speaker A

Yeah. I was like, okay, wait. And then I thought to myself, wait, it's that easy?

Speaker A

Yeah. By the way, Singapore Inc., you know, I think Hong Kong, Dubai, these are the three easiest places to set up a company.

Speaker A

I learned that then and there. Yeah. So, in that corporate law class, I just registered a company. I didn't like I didn't even know what I was going to do yet.

Speaker A

I love it. I just knew. I just wanted to. I was like, "That's me." But by the way, there's a big thing.

Speaker A

Just do it. Just Just that. But that's been my whole life. People are always like, "But what if?" I'm like, "No." Yeah.

Speaker A

I don't care. I'm I'm going to do it and if it doesn't work out, cool. I'll just do something else.

Speaker A

All right. Like that's literally my mindset. But did you know that it was going to be in the olive oil business?

Speaker A

No. No. So you just I did. I just knew I wanted to run a business.

Speaker A

So I want to know how it came about, man. Yeah. So I I registered the business. I put the name as my last name because my lecturer taught us that if you put it as your name, you don't need to do anything

Speaker A

else. Yeah. You know, so it's like, okay, put it as my name. So proprietor. Okay, now what?

Speaker A

Like now what's the next step? Um after that class, my mom called me. She's like, hi. And like cuz my parents have people every time they video call you, you have no idea where they are.

Speaker A

Yeah. It's like jump scare. Yeah. My mom goes, "Hi." She's in a sun hat in a basket. I'm like, "Okay, she can be in a few places." And then she's like holding up some like olives in the basket. Oh, me and your dad, we just um

Speaker A

we just finished building the house. Um we went down to the orchard and picked some olives. And I was like, "Mom, I'm so tired." Like whatever. You know, like cool.

Speaker A

And then I was like looking at my mom and then looking at Sorry. Looking at people in my class, I'm like, "Okay, Chinese Singaporean woman holding olives." Yeah.

Speaker A

So So absurd. So weird. Yeah. And I looked at her and I was like, "Uh, okay. This is it. something we're gonna make. We're going to make olive oil like this is this is going to be it.

Speaker A

So I I I told my dad I called my dad. I was like how fast can you get me tins here?

Speaker A

But at the time as well I was approaching the laundry on time. So that with the FnB you know understanding of how you know goods come into the hotel out all of this. So the time I spent there was like going to

Speaker A

hotel school. Yeah. Brilliant. Essentially. So I got like free hotel school for you know management for free. Yeah. Yeah. And just by nature of my personality, I ask a lot of questions. I make connections very easily. Um, I made friends with the

Speaker A

chefs. By the way, that's something that a lot of young people don't realize. You know, like networking is everything.

Speaker A

When you're in there, you can you can almost work out, okay, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that. How do they do this? How do they purchase this?

Speaker A

You know what I mean? Cuz I think it's it's so important. Like I I was watching a TV show last night and um before that I was at Cir. came home really like I shouldn't be watching TV when I got back but I was thinking how

Speaker A

does cir sole come in and they SAP were sponsoring them they're working with uh the Singapore Tourism Board who puts them up do they get concessions on hotels how much do they pay people that's how I think too

Speaker A

I love that cuz I was just think how does this all work that people see here but they don't see the systems that go into it and that's where like even with movies when I'm like when I watch a movie I'm like wait

Speaker A

how did they get that to be like that I don't just watched the movie on it.

Speaker A

Thinking behind the scenes. Yeah, I'm always thinking behind the scenes. Um, but yeah. Uh, so yeah, I learned a lot there. I made a lot of connections. In fact, I don't realize a lot. I don't think a lot of Singaporeans

Speaker A

or young people realize that, you know, work is one thing, but your network is everything.

Speaker A

And I learned that from my dad cuz my dad went to Oman with zero network.

Speaker A

Yeah. Now my dad has possibly you go through his contact list, anything you need, it's there. The saying is your your net worth is your network.

Speaker A

100%. 100%. That and that's been my dad's life and he taught us how to, you know, speak to people and and and my dad's very charismatic. Um, so I learned that from him.

Speaker A

Well, Isabelle was saying off camera, one of the reasons why she admired you was because you had reached out, you wrote something or created something about reaching out to a client multiple times.

Speaker A

Yeah. Right. And like in sales, that's the I I teach people like how do you find somebody? How do you get the number? How do you call them? and how do you invite them for a coffee? You know what I mean?

Speaker A

Because it's it's that simple. It's powerful. It's scary at the beginning. It's super scary, but it's like it's your mindset. You always have to think it from that perspective. Like I don't see loss. Like I can't lose. Like I

Speaker A

there's no loss for me. Yeah. You know, like it's just understanding. So like even if I pitch somebody and it doesn't work out, okay, cool. I start thinking where did I go wrong? How can I do it?

Speaker A

It means nothing to me. It's just a data point. So, so at that point you started like how quickly before you were bringing in olive oil into Singapore?

Speaker A

Probably a few weeks. Wow. Yeah. Fast. Yeah. And uh I had no business background. I'm dyslexic. I I have ADHD.

Speaker A

I was trying to balance law school, all this kind of stuff. So I just said, you know what? I I need bottles. I don't have any money to buy bottles. So I went into scoop and I would buy at the time you could

Speaker A

fill olive oil. So just bought a few bottles there. randomly printed some stickers cheaply, but I only did like 10. Okay.

Speaker A

I didn't understand supply. I didn't understand ordering bottles for bulk and all this stuff. Economies of scale.

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. But I also wanted Exactly. Economies of scale. And I also just wanted to test it.

Speaker A

Yeah. I was so excited. I felt like, you know, Yeah. Just get get going. Start small.

Speaker A

Exactly. Yeah. Uh posted it on my Instagram. You know, I was still a private account.

Speaker A

People were like, "Yo, I want that [ __ ] I want that." Like, "Okay." And I was like thinking to myself at the whole time, why do they want it? There were two things. Number one, the absurdity of

Speaker A

our story of a Chinese Singaporean woman who picked these olives. And number two, because of me.

Speaker A

Because of you. Yeah. So I realized that very quickly. I was like, "Okay, these are two things I can put together and let's see if something happens." So I did that.

Speaker A

When did you realize or that branding branding is is far more important than just the business? Because you can have the best business. If you don't brand it, can't market, can't sell it.

Speaker A

I I Okay. All through high school, people always were interested in what I was doing.

Speaker A

Yeah. So, I always knew that about myself, but I was too afraid to be seen to completely maximize it.

Speaker A

So, you know, people would ask me questions, hey, what are you doing now? Or what are you doing? And I just Yeah.

Speaker A

Takes a lot of courage. Yeah. And then it's it's also like I don't like to feel consumed by people.

Speaker A

So, I I I like to kind of keep to myself. But anyway, it's it's the whole trajectory.

Speaker A

Are you an introvert, do you think? No. No. I'm a full extrovert. You are full.

Speaker A

Yeah. But I perhaps it's like my Asian Arab heritage where I'm a little bit more conservative.

Speaker A

Yes. I would rather talk to someone on the phone than have them like meet me. And if I did meet them, I I wouldn't like to be dressed up cuz I don't like how they You know, when you video call me that

Speaker A

day, it was like I I'm normally at my office 8 8:30, but I had a ma major hangover because I had drinks that night and you called me and I was not shaved.

Speaker A

I was not and you video called me and I thought, you know what? I'm the only other person I know that videos calls people and they don't know and a lot of people don't like it. They go I'm not

Speaker A

I'm not [ __ ] dressed, you know, like and it was like and I was I was I was in my I was just like let's roll, man.

Speaker A

Let's go have a chat. No, my my favorite ongoing joke is like I love to video call my friends, but they hate me. They never pick up and but I'm the type of person I'll call you three times. I'll call you back to back.

Speaker A

I love it. Um but yeah, so I I did that and I started with um yeah, so a few friends I sold it and I just continued doing it. I just I did not stop like it was the only thing that gave me joy.

Speaker A

Yeah. Like and it was so like labor intensive. So actually before Bait Belalute is what it is now, it was 3 years of me behind the scenes.

Speaker A

That's what people don't see. They did not see. And also because I did not show I was too embarrassed of my process.

Speaker A

share share share share your story because that to me is is all about the success is being that roll out of that three years.

Speaker A

Yeah. But nobody sees that and people aren't willing to put the work in like they romanticize. So I have friends who will you know the Gym Shark owner.

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. Um they'll I'll see them commenting under his things being like, "Oh my god, good job, bro." Like it's like your friends right here building.

Speaker A

Yeah. And you y you all don't understand. They romanticize this idea of entrepreneurs and and I mean his story is amazing, you know, and he's he's he's in his house getting his shirts.

Speaker A

It's the same story though. It's it's grafting, but I'm saying people romanticize it without understanding the sheer grit and [ __ ] you have to eat for it to finally work one day.

Speaker A

Yeah. And it will catch you like by surprise or maybe it won't and that's an even harder pill to swallow.

Speaker A

Yeah. But I was always okay with that anyway. So I did that for three years. Like after law school, I would go um meet my forwarder who would bring in my product from the Changi airport.

Speaker A

Yeah. Send it to my house, send me this fat bill, be like, "Ah [ __ ] Okay, I got to sell all this stuff." So, I'd sign myself up for these fairs.

Speaker A

Oh, and that's where I learned. Do they have them fairs in Singapore? I didn't realize.

Speaker A

Yeah, it's a whole thing for Yeah, I'll I'll get to it. It's a very interesting story, but um I So, that's where I learned this idea of on credit. I can't pay you right now.

Speaker A

Yeah. Give it to me on credit. I'll give you the money. You'll see the money soon.

Speaker A

Yeah. So, I end up grafting behind the scenes, but it just gave me so much joy.

Speaker A

So, I'd go to these fairs on my own, too embarrassed to tell anyone about it. Too embarrassed to take any photos to be honest with you. So, when I go back through my photos and have any, I was

Speaker A

like, why? That's so silly. Yeah. Um, but I did that for hours. These fairs are 9 to 10 hours me explaining.

Speaker A

And I had such a shitty bottle with such a shitty label. And when you said you grew up from nothing and you have to sell, that forced me to sell the f out of my product.

Speaker A

Yeah. Because it didn't look good. Yeah. But I I knew like when I looked at my product and it looked like that, I was like, "Nah, this is a million-dollar product." That's that's my mindset. Yes.

Speaker A

Delusional. But that's how I thought. Yeah. I would yap and yap and yap and yap for like the entire weekend.

Speaker A

And that slowly is what started to build momentum, but I didn't realize it yet.

Speaker A

Pack up all my stuff, push the trolley back home. Dad, sorry. The taxi is like 40 bucks. Can you send me? He's like, I'll send you 10. Fine.

Speaker A

Go home. I love you, Dad. Go home and just repeat. So, I did that for three years. And then one day somebody says, "Why don't you do boutique fairs?" I'm like, "What's that?" Google it. Biggest fair in Southeast Asia. Exclusive uh hand

Speaker A

selection of brands getting in. The only other brand I knew was a big brand that was stocked in Little Farms. I still with my shitty bottle. It's like, "Fuck it. Let me just apply." I applied, got the email back. You've been approved.

Speaker A

Wow. Now it's real. Now, now you're step up. Yeah. I was like, "What? Every other brand was a brand. I was a nobody." Yeah.

Speaker A

I By the way, with boutiques as well, you need to set up everything. So, you rent a space, which is this ground and air.

Speaker A

Yeah. You got to build up everything. So I did that, stood there not knowing what what I was doing and just started selling.

Speaker A

Amazing. And boutiques is selling on steroids. Like it's you really have to be very dynamic and it's all day.

Speaker A

There's nohere nowhere to hide. There's nowhere to hide. There's nowhere to sit down because as I'm talking to you, someone behind me is asking me a question. There's something wrong going behind me here. Any backup? Nothing.

Speaker A

Yeah. But that's what I'm saying. It it built me into this person that you see today cuz I came out of that being like, "Oh, okay. It was it was terrible, but I'm not dead." But you can do it.

Speaker A

Yeah. I love it. And this is going to be my third time back at boutiques. But the trajectory of it is behind the scenes, too. I was trying to be so creative.

Speaker A

Yeah. So, when I was still at uni, I was like, how can I activate my product? What do I like doing?

Speaker A

I liked bringing people together. So, now I run an events called the Shared Table. But this was the genesis of Shared Table. It was me reaching out to a random ass chef being like, "Hey, let's work." I was a nobody. I was at

Speaker A

uni. Yeah. I had a shitty bottle. This is still a gen one of the bottle. I said, I sold myself. I said, "I'm going to run events one day. Do you want to do this event with me?" I managed to rope the Provador

Speaker A

in. Don't even ask me how. Wow. So, I managed to get the very prominent cafe here for those that they closed down, you know.

Speaker A

No. Yeah. Really? When? Yeah. Everywhere. Really? Yeah. A few few days ago, actually. Really? RIP Providor.

Speaker A

Yeah. Um, [ __ ] I didn't know that. Yeah. All all their branches. [ __ ] But I managed to give them to give me a space for free.

Speaker A

Okay. Got the chef in, created a menu. This is all like back toback two weeks.

Speaker A

Yeah. Uh I was still like I don't even understand how people I sold out. I priced a ticket at $97.

Speaker A

Sold out. Bang. I remember when people were arriving, I was like, wait, what am I? Because I'm that person where it's like I'm like I can do anything and then I'm like whoa.

Speaker A

Okay. And then that slight doubt creep started to creep in and I just pushed it away. I was like no I got this. I hosted the entire event. The night I helped serve three course meal. I made sure

Speaker A

chef was okay. People left knowing me and my product and I started to think okay product placement and branding is so much more than sitting on a shelf.

Speaker A

It's what people feel. It's what people experience. It's the It's what you Yeah. So, Balutude was becoming the genesis was becoming something that people gather around, you know, and I saw that I was watching it. I was like, "Oh, okay. That makes sense."

Speaker A

Second year boutiques, um, I got covered in Tatler. That was my first coverage. Tatler dining. I was a nobody.

Speaker A

That's huge. It's the biggest coverage you could get really. I think Straits was bigger to be honest with you.

Speaker A

Yeah, that's true. But in terms of like prestige. Yeah. I mean, you know, and and it was such a random thing because when I told people, they were like, "Oh, how much did you pay for that coverage?" It's interesting thinking.

Speaker A

I've never paid for anything. I know cuz most people they they do advertorials, so people don't realize that what they're doing is actually been paid for.

Speaker A

Yeah. So yours is genuine. It's Mine's genuine. Legit. All All of my coverages have been genuine. I don't reach out to people because I'm so bloody busy. I don't have time to text.

Speaker A

So I'm very very honored. Um Ethan, he's now a friend. He covered me. He told my story in a way that you know what is Ethan the editor or Yeah, he was the editor at Tatler at the time. I didn't know him prior. He just

Speaker A

he said, "Hey, I saw your TikTok." Uh, you know, and again, that was the first Tik Tok I ever posted.

Speaker A

Crazy. Went viral. It's almost as if like life wanted me so badly to do this and push me out of being seen. And I remember Ethan was asking me questions about myself in the Tatler article. And when you read it, I was saying, "Please don't

Speaker A

write about me. Please like like for I'm I'm being covered in Tatler and I'm asking the editor not to write about me.

Speaker A

That's how like you know so uh the opening lines of Tatler like do talk about me but then it goes into my parents and everything and even on the Instagram of our business I tried to hide myself as much as possible because

Speaker A

I had this idea that Singaporeans hated me and I think that was my experience in perhaps the wrong circles. So I carried this oh Singapore hates me Singapore hates me. So I hid but while I was the one building. So even when like Straits

Speaker A

reached out to me or Rice or even CNA which didn't work out for own personal reasons, they always addressed the phone call to May which is my mom cuz I used her as the face of it. So I could hide

Speaker A

behind her because she's the Chinese Singaporean one. They will accept her with open arms.

Speaker A

Yeah. But yeah, I think um so yeah, fast forward now, you know, the brand has grown. It's taken up a life of its own.

Speaker A

Now I do run events with like called the shared table. But it's this thing like you need to try things.

Speaker A

You have to like yes hor it the private dining experience could have gone horribly wrong but I was so low risk. I was a nobody.

Speaker A

Yeah. And that is the best time you know. But what why I like I said to you on the phone is I think your story will resonate with so many young people up and coming because a lot of people

Speaker A

are afraid. Like for example, when I set up this podcast, I didn't I didn't tell anyone.

Speaker A

Not my wife. No one. And the reason is it's not my my two biggest heroes in my life were my mom.

Speaker A

She's passed on and my wife. But they're both very conservative. And you know, I I I believe in myself 100%. So I set it up and within two weeks of the idea, we we bought the equipment and we rolled.

Speaker A

And the thing is a lot of people started reaching out to me saying, "Oh, your format's too long." And I said, "Well, I didn't ask you and give a [ __ ] why you reaching out to me." Right?

Speaker A

But these are some of my friends, right? But but I just said to actually it was my ex business partner. He goes, "Yeah, if you don't mind me saying," I said, "I do.

Speaker A

I do." Actually, I didn't ask you for your advice. Literally how I feel when people, you know, but we have that but we have that kind of relationship. I just said, "What are your three favorite podcasts?" So he goes, "Direct CEO, Joe Rogan,

Speaker A

Hubberman." I said, "The average two and a half, four hours, not four hours, two and a half hours." Hubberman's dry.

Speaker A

Yeah. So it's like so I said but then the thing for me was the the gen so my wife even asked me do you have a plan for this what are you doing I said no I just went out and dropped 20 grand on of

Speaker A

course I have a plan for it right and there but the the thing is what I find very interesting about again we talked about this on the phone was I find that a lot of people they they are only happy for you

Speaker A

unless you're more successful than they are. And I always say you I would never take advice from people that I wouldn't trade places with. And I'm not going to take advice from someone unless they've been there and done that, right? And um

Speaker A

and those people actually don't want to give advice. They're too busy being successful. They're too busy doing it. So, you know, like for for this, I mean, my my sense is you're you come across you got serious charisma. You're very dynamic,

Speaker A

but you're you're also very authentic saying, "Well, this was actually not very easy. I struggled with this." And that's real.

Speaker A

Yeah. I mean, it's it's so weird because I people keep complimenting me on these things and I I physically cannot be any other way. So, you know, people are like, "Oh, you're so authentic. You're so this." It's like, "Yeah, but I even

Speaker A

if I tried to be somebody else, it would fail miserably." Yeah. Like I have this this inability to be any other way. Like if someone's talking about something that doesn't make any sense. Yeah.

Speaker A

I Maybe it's Tourette's. I I literally cannot be like, "Oh, that's cool." I'll be like, "That doesn't make any sense." I I the thing the thing is I can't be 100% authentic because if I am But that's real. That was authentic.

Speaker A

If if I'm 100% myself, I the kids couldn't listen. There'd be a lot of swearing and cursing. There will be some savagery. You know what I mean? So within So I've got I've got So for example, let's just say so like HSBC, I

Speaker A

placed they were my client for eight years. So I was their number one. We have a lot of crossover.

Speaker A

That's what I said to you. I was the number one retained search firm for the private bank. I placed the CEO of the bank and and the head of HR, a lady called Gene Lee, an amazing woman. She

Speaker A

was an excharted accountant. She was more like a chief of staff. She was a strategist. Then she joined Bank of Singapore. And then I said before she resigned and I said, "Look, wherever you go, I'd love to follow you. Like if you if

Speaker A

you went to Nestle and you need to hire warehouse managers, I'm with you." Yeah. And it's just like and I wrote to her the other day because she's retired now. and and I just said I just want to

Speaker A

thank you. I've been I I've run my business for 20 years now and and uh you were a big part of my journey early on.

Speaker A

But what what I learned about um being seen I tell I tell you one of my very first early memories of aggressive sales when my when I had nowhere to go. So um when I was 18 I was at university and I

Speaker A

sold uh recruitment to the Institute of Electrical Engineers. They wanted to hire wine waiters, silver service waiters, sous chefs, four nights a week and they were using like a dozen agencies. And I called the woman and and I knew about it because one of the guys

Speaker A

at uni was going to all these events wearing a kilt. And I said, "Where are you going? Like every three nights a week you're going to events." And and then he told me about it. So I called her and I didn't even run the desk. I

Speaker A

was just an assistant. And I called and I said, "I run HMS services England, right?" which I didn't. And I said, "Look, are you paying multiple agencies?" "Yes." "What are you paying them the rates?" And I said, "I can do it for less. I can do

Speaker A

payment terms for 60 to 90 days, but you have to give me all of it." And she goes, "We have we have an event in a week's time." And um they needed 100 staff. And I said, "Yeah, I can do it. No problem." I

Speaker A

had to go and recruit everyone. And I recruited all of my friends. I even recruited my brother who was 15 and two of his friends to do wine waiting. So I I learned how to become a you know to

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teach I I became a qualified silver service waiter a very bad sue chef. This is very quickly but the fir no as in it happened very quick the first event check this out on the night itself the first inaugural

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big event I was hosting free wine waiters didn't turn up and I thought I've I've hired everyone I know I'm stuck and I went to Mr. buy which was a poor man's version of G2000 in Singapore.

Speaker A

Right. Okay. And I bought three white shirts, three black waist coats, three trousers, three bow ties. I love that.

Speaker A

My total net worth was £250. So I'm thinking someone will call. Something will happen.

Speaker A

And I was upset. I think I'm going to lose this contract. So I went into the pub at the top of the road and I thought I'll have a quick pint.

Speaker A

Got smashed. Just just I didn't get smashed but I was like just I just needed a timeout. I was really stressed. And then there were three South African guys in the bar and they were complaining about their manager and I said he's a bit of a [ __ ]

Speaker A

Is he that guy? He's the biggest [ __ ] [ __ ] Something I I know where you're going to go with this.

Speaker A

And I said, "How much do you earn an hour?" So I said, "Look, if I could get you a gig paying 680 an hour, which was what I was charging the institute, so I would make no commission four nights a

Speaker A

week from from 6:00 to 10:30 and then you could do what you want during the day. Would you be up for it?" They said, "It sounds great." I said, "The only thing is you have to leave now." They

Speaker A

go, "Now?" I said, "You got to go there and tell your boss to [ __ ] off and you're going to leave now." And they said, "For real?" I said, "I'm going to pay you cash in hand tonight."

Speaker A

And they said, "For real?" I said, "Go on, tell him. I'm walking down the street with them, filling in their forms, health declaration forms." I said, "If anyone asks, you've been working for me for 6 months. This is how you pour white wine,

Speaker A

red wine, port madiraa." And that's how it happened. And then I was only 18. And I look back now and I think, wow, that was crazy. But at the time, I didn't want something. I know when you want

Speaker A

something, you're going to get it. That's it. That's that's exactly what I say to myself all the time. Like, ever since I was a kid, that story is incredible. And I honestly I'm I've done that before in different

Speaker A

in different ways. Like, if I want something, it's happening. I don't care what is in front of me, I'm going to find a way.

Speaker A

You got to go, right? Yeah. No, no, but you know, so one of the things, in fact, just as you were uh went to the bathroom, one of my clients, it's a lady that I've worked with for I don't know 15 years,

Speaker A

16 years. She just wrote to me cuz I gave her some advice on how to get a pay rise and the analysis and she just wrote to me that she got it, right? And it probably means over the next 5 years probably another

Speaker A

half a million dollars, right? And but I'm so happy for her. But the thing is is it sharing with people how to ask, when to ask, right? So I've got I've got a friend, one of my wife's best friends

Speaker A

who is a partner in a law firm. She's very successful, earns a lot of money.

Speaker A

Yeah. Um but we were talking about business development and I I was sharing with her how she could do it because for her it was networking and going out and eating and drinking with many people and I said look you can do it that way but I

Speaker A

think I I can teach you how to do it and uh I shared with her what would be my approach. I know she won't do it because it's it's too difficult. But the reality is if so, say you want to work with a

Speaker A

company, you reach out to them just like I reached out to you um and invite them for a coffee and sit down, build a relationship, and one day they're going to need to work with someone of you, right? And it's actually better because

Speaker A

there's no transaction. It's it's like you're developing a relationship. Um, but how you engage and carry yourself and hold yourself for sure.

Speaker A

And just to try. For sure. Do you know what I mean? So, so talk to me about where are you at? What iteration of the bottle are you on now?

Speaker A

You said that was G1. We're on G4. G4. Okay. And it's uh I Where are you doing it? Where's the bottle designed and made here?

Speaker A

No, it's designed in our office in our which you will come and see. We call it the BB studio because also I am I'm in the process of building Singapore's number one, we're Singapore's first olive oil brand.

Speaker A

Okay. Just I didn't even know that until I knew it. Y and then we're also building Singapore's first olive oil processing facility.

Speaker A

Wow. Yeah. This has never been been done before. In fact, nothing I'm doing has ever been done before. I have a studio where we're creating um shared table experiences where we you know it's so crazy I think by nature of who I am

Speaker A

because I'm quite an open person similar to you in a day you can ask Isabelle she working with me is like she says is a fever dream she almost cannot number one cannot believe the possibility of life and how fun it can be but also

Speaker A

how fun it can be by the way it's so fun I I people don't think of work like that's fun but you can have as much fun as you want you should see my content cuz all I talk

Speaker A

about is like life should be a state of play. That's how you it's it's okay. So for maybe similar to you everything for me has to be sustainable. Yeah.

Speaker A

That's how my brain works. When I meet you I'm like how is this going to be sustainable? Then I find ways of making it sustainable. So for example for work to be fun I have to be enjoying myself.

Speaker A

Therefore, I'm going to implement when you break it down, it's not as fun anymore, but I'm going to implement things that are fun so we can continuously run the ship.

Speaker A

You need you need systems. You need processes that make things easier, right? But people think of systems and processes as something so mundane and boring.

Speaker A

No, but systems and processes are part of everything and I just add a fun flavor to it. So, like at at work, we're laughing, but then it's like, okay, have you messaged this person, reached out to them? When's the supplier coming back to

Speaker A

us? Okay. It's like that's how it is. Cuz when I was working Yeah. all my bosses tried to suppress that.

Speaker A

Yeah. And it's it's cuz you said to me on the phone, you're corporate. And it's funny, I work with corporates, but I'm I'm not corporate. So So Galam, who I hired in was it November as my media producer. I

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said, we're going to uh we're going to create all this footage and film vlogs, which I've never done before. And I said, we're going to Dubai in Abu Dhabi.

Speaker A

And then I said, did you bring him? Yeah, I bought him. So I said, "Check this This was only a few two weeks ago.

Speaker A

Two weeks ago. And then I said to him, "How do you feel about Dubai?" And he goes, "Yeah." And I said, "What do you mean, yeah? It's [ __ ] going to be amazing." And then he goes, "Well, I

Speaker A

don't I don't get that excited about things." And I said, "You need to get excited." I that pissed me off already. I was telling like, "Bro, you need to get excited." Let me tell you, I was pissed off. I

Speaker A

just said because your if your energy is not with in line with mine and the people we're meeting, it's not going to roll.

Speaker A

But you know what that is? that is sorry to psychoanalyze you hear go on camera but what it is it's somebody who as a child was not allowed to be excited by things so they feel like they have to no

Speaker A

no that's that's how anything is an inner child you feel that you you might get ridiculed or made fun of or maybe you weren't allowed a space to feel excited so he wants to but he might hold himself sorry

Speaker A

no but you know I always say you can't escape your childhood it it carries through into and that's why you have to heal I talk about this all the time. You have to heal your inner child, which is not easy.

Speaker A

No, it's not. But once you do that work, so so I'm going to share with you what happened. So then we bought all these new cameras. No, no, it's all right. So he we bought these new cameras that he

Speaker A

recommended. He goes, "You need to upgrade." I said, "Oh god, how much is it going to cost me?" Anyway, so then the cameras arrived and he he was unboxing goes, "These are amazing. This is brilliant." And I said, "Yeah,

Speaker A

they're all right." And then and then he goes, "No, you know." And I said, "Listen, they're [ __ ] cameras that you shoot with them." And then he goes, "I know what you're doing." Anyway, we're in Dubai for six hours. He goes,

Speaker A

"I love it." And we did, listen, we went, we went on, we went on a boat. We were out on a speedboat. We were duning.

Speaker A

We were horse riding, camel riding, F300. It was, you know, like it was like, you know what I mean? Because you could, you have to make it fun.

Speaker A

Oh, for sure. For sure. I think also when I first met Isabelle, I don't think she felt like she enjoyed meeting people, but we've made it so fun because all the people that we meet are super interesting. And in KL in in 24 hours,

Speaker A

well, 12 hours, we had backtoback meetings. We drove from one end of of KL to the other end out stacked stacked as as you can imagine. We ended up at the Polo Club at the very end.

Speaker A

Was that Kale Polo Club? I thought it was a Singapore polo club. know is it I didn't even know Kale had a polo but it's just it's an energy you bring to anything and like you know I've I've

Speaker A

had the privilege as well of like knowing many successful people yourself included but people from all over the world like artists I know um I was speaking to an olive oil farmer the other day and he was talking to me about

Speaker A

business and I said to him I said you know at a certain level everything is spiritual like you know people do business at this level and I'm not to say that one is better than the other but then you do

Speaker A

business from this level where it's a spiritual feeling I work with you because I feel something not because the numbers make sense.

Speaker A

And I think that's something that Singaporeans can learn that not numbers don't have to be shown first. It's a feeling. You need to have people be engaged.

Speaker A

Yeah. And you know, I get this question a lot on Instagram. They're like, why are you here? It's such a a suppressing uh rigid place. I said, I want to be here so I can offer people a different

Speaker A

perspective. Yeah. You know, to to Well, we we are helping evolve that culture and change things.

Speaker A

Exactly. I said, I want to be a part of the culture. It's so easy for me to leave.

Speaker A

Yeah. Like I could do that. Yeah. But I I want to show people there's a different way of living cuz if you're happy and I'm happy, the world is a happier place.

Speaker A

Well, you know, cuz I moved here in 01 and I always laugh about bit this where the first seven years I learned that in Singapore, it took me seven years to learn this. Yes. Yes. Yes. Is actually no.

Speaker A

Right. Whereas now it's changing a little bit. In Hong Kong, you know, no, they kick you out of the office. It's a it's a hard no. In the US, it's a hard no.

Speaker A

Right. Interesting. Because people are almost afraid to say no because they don't want to be rude or or they don't know.

Speaker A

So different from my culture, right? So what I do is I I teach people how do you bring the no forward?

Speaker A

So I've I've got all these methodologies in teaching sales. So let's test it right now. So yeah, Paul, I'd like a drink of your coffee.

Speaker A

You want to from my cup? Yeah. Well, give us your cup then. I'll pour a little bit in.

Speaker A

No, but I want your cup cuz mine has a chip on it. You don't mind drinking from the same cup as me? No, we're not married, you know.

Speaker A

No, but that How do you You're not saying no. Is that you saying no?

Speaker A

No, no, no. So, let's No. Oh, you mean you're testing the theory, but are you looking for the No. Or I'm looking for the no.

Speaker A

I'm looking from a no from you. Okay. Okay. Are you going to try it out?

Speaker A

Yeah. So, that's what I was trying to do. No, you can't. I'll get you another cup, but you can't have my cup.

Speaker A

Why? Cuz it's my cup. Yeah, but I'm But I'm I'm a guest here, so I should be able to have That's true. But also, I've almost finished my cup. So you're going to be drinking, you know, the residuals.

Speaker A

So you don't, it's not a direct no, but you're trying to like lead into you're making it more difficult for me to ask the next question.

Speaker A

So what people So what I found here is that if historically is that people want to avoid they can't say no.

Speaker A

It's it's almost they'd rather not talk to you anymore or they'll ghost you or avoid it's more avoidant.

Speaker A

Yeah. So so what I will say to someone, I'll say, "Look, it's okay. You know, if this is not for you, let me know now. We can stop wasting time. No problem. And then what I do is I call it the art of

Speaker A

the pull away. So at that point I say, "Look, it seems like you're really busy.

Speaker A

This may not be important enough to you. No problem. Leave it. Here's my number.

Speaker A

You can always contact me." And I get off there because I'm not clambering after them.

Speaker A

So in my sales methodology, I I'll share it with you. One of the key techniques is so you face an objection when you're selling something. So the person says no to you and they'll give you a reason why. So, I'm, you know, we don't need to

Speaker A

have a new uh a new olive oil uh producer. We've already got enough olive oil. So, then you create a rebuttal. The problem is you're rebutting something they've already said no. So, they're already thinking no. So, when the

Speaker A

person's already thinking no, you're struggling. So, what you do is you anticipate what this potential objection is and you say it first and just say, "Look, I realize that you may not be able to bring um any more olive oil

Speaker A

producers, you know, to the table right now." And they're nodding their head. They're saying yes. just say, "Well, just out of curiosity, when is the next cycle that you'd be looking to do that?

Speaker A

Can I just suggest this? Why don't we try it? I'm I'm going to do a taste test. We're going to taste your olive oil, my olive oil, another olive oil.

Speaker A

We'll blindfold test it and if it's better, you got to consider it." Right? So, what it is is then I call it yes platform.

Speaker A

So, that point the person's nodding, they're agreeing because you're making statements that they will generically agree with. So, I'll give you one example in banking. So I'll say to a cander I say look the biggest dichotomy that we face today in banking is that

Speaker A

the CEO in the job today is unlikely to be in the job 5 years from now.

Speaker A

So how do we navigate that and you got to read the tea leaves and they're they're agreeing cuz they're potentially going to say I'm not looking to move right or I I'm happy where I am. And then you've got to do your research. You

Speaker A

got to say well look in your current organization these three people have left and these three people are new and those people are two levels above you. And you've got to ask yourself why.

Speaker A

So all of a sudden you're you're connecting with them. But most people haven't they don't think about those things. So even when I did sport, right?

Speaker A

So I could tell you when I was 400 meter runner, it would take me 47 strides, right? Um before I would hit my main speed, okay?

Speaker A

Right. Or if I was doing hurdles and not I was a very good hurdler, I would have to change steps because it was 17 steps between each hurdle. Right? And then when I was boxing, I would look at

Speaker A

patterns like when I was fighting someone, where are they where they going? How do I take the center of the ring, right? Or I would do silly things. So if I put the the opponent into their corner, I would say things like, I'm dominating

Speaker A

your boy. He's my [ __ ] I own him. I would do I would say things just to rile them up because it cuz that would make him angry.

Speaker A

Yeah. Right. But then you look at at patterns. So I always think pattern recognition. That's any successful person has patterns. Like that's what it is. But most people don't think of it like that, right?

Speaker A

No, no. I I have something similar when I deal with people where I can I pick up patterns on them and then based on that pattern that they do enough times, I understand their strengths and weaknesses, then I categorize them in my

Speaker A

head and then I know how. Yeah, that's that's how powerful. Yeah. I like it's such a weird I've done that naturally always.

Speaker A

Do you see do you see and feel energy? I don't feel it, but I think you see it as well.

Speaker A

I see it. I see it. I can like um with some people who that's why I'm very spiritual because maybe off camera I'll speak to about more things that have happened naturally. Um with some people that don't deal with

Speaker A

their insecurities, I only see them as a dark energy and my body uh genuinely repulses.

Speaker A

I I I get um a visceral reaction where I'm disgusted by them. It's it's very it's very weird. Um I get it. I have I've also, you know, earlier we're talking about friends supporting. So if I've had a lot of

Speaker A

friends in Singapore, not around the world, but mainly here, who when I was growing and I was a nobody, they could offer their support so easily. And then as soon as I started to get a little bit of gone or they started to gatekeep from

Speaker A

me or the worst one copy me but then not give me any recognition and then these type of people that orbit me.

Speaker A

So, they ask me questions not because they're interested. Yeah. But because they're calculated and they want to know what I'm going to do next.

Speaker A

Sad, right? Yeah. And I But I can pick this up so easily that I think they they think, you know, cuz they've been doing it their whole life. And this is the thing with like I always want to tell people like you are

Speaker A

good as your yourself. You don't have to copy anybody. And the thing is with with both of us, I'm sure you can agree with this is that who you are now took years of deaths, repetitive deaths to become

Speaker A

Paul Quinn. I love that and nobody sees that part. So yes, you can copy the formula, but the soul and the essence and the energy that you emit is come from defeats that no like picking yourself up when there was no one there. I love it.

Speaker A

Yeah. You know, it's I know. And that's the thing when when I notice like friends copying me or imitating me and not giving me any credit and then gatekeeping from me after you took a page out of my book.

Speaker A

Yeah. It's like, "Okay, girl. Good job." But you you don't have the sole essence.

Speaker A

I love that. There's a saying like one fisherman sees another fisherman. So I think if you have real recognize real in other words.

Speaker A

Yes. Exactly. So like that was so British. Yeah. One fisherman sees another fisherman. Yes, darling. But but like um so this this gentleman who was on my podcast last week, Koko Kai Jackson's his name.

Speaker A

Um he I told you he was a two-time Commonwealth gold medalist. worked for set double typical and you know we were in the same high school and we we competed against each other in athletics and I mean he did his

Speaker A

thing though and I did my thing and I think people thought that we were rivals we weren't because of listen firstly that guy's in ridiculous shape but I saw him and then you know my mind I think when you I believe a rising tide

Speaker A

raises all ships oh my god me too you you meet other strong like-minded people and you you you step up where they are do you know what I I've always believed this. I've always said this. I said people at the top are collaborating.

Speaker A

Yeah. It's like even if I if I take a different perspective as well, like to change a culture, but like Tupac and Biggie, they were friends.

Speaker A

They were they were good. They they met each other at the same level. Like when I meet you now, I'm like, "Oh, okay. I'm not saying we're at the same level cuz you're way ahead of me in life. I'm a

Speaker A

lot older than you." Yeah. But I'm saying like it's a like what we were saying before, we all recognize real.

Speaker A

when I see you, I could not picture a reality where I would wish you harm or would try and gatekeep something from you. In fact, if somebody reached out to me and it aligned with Paul, I'd connect them immediately.

Speaker A

100%. Yeah. Whereas like I think more people who haven't dealt with their own insecurities.

Speaker A

Yeah. They would try and stop that from happening when it's like, no, just focus that energy into yourself. Build yourself up.

Speaker A

Yeah. Cuz yeah, people at the top are always collaborating. But you can't. It's so difficult cuz I don't think it's possible to change those people. They're set for whatever reason. And then poisonous people I just avoid like the

Speaker A

plague. Yeah. You can feel it. Oh man. And they think you can't. I have this uh eye on my hand. I love it.

Speaker A

Which is like my third eye. And it's cuz it's so strong. I can feel it immediately in in the way that you that small minute in the way that you look at me. I know already.

Speaker A

And you know your your name, your brand reputation, it carries through for years. like you you'll know you'll know cuz that you you'll outlast other people.

Speaker A

Consistency cuz I'm not showing up like anybody else but myself. And that's possibly why I I feel like this cuz I know it's the only way to be sustainable. If I'm pretending to be somebody else, I'm going to fall through

Speaker A

cracks, my own cracks for sure. Now, you know why? So, my executive search business is primarily in the world of private banking, which caters for the ultra high net worth and whatnot.

Speaker A

um tell people about like how they can reach out to you, what you're doing. Are you selling uh business to business or individual consumers?

Speaker A

Okay, so currently where Bitute is positioned is we are in a position to expand. So the reason I was in KL and the reason I'm flying to Spain is to so my my so let me start from the

Speaker A

beginning. I always wanted to co-op farms with our own um ethos on how to press olives. I wanted to bring something fresh, transparent, and real to produce. So, you know, as a young entrepreneur, I've understood very quickly like how supermarkets work. So,

Speaker A

by the way, just to let you know, supermarkets take about 50% of your profit margin. Yeah.

Speaker A

50. Crazy. So, that's before all these imports, exports. So, if you really think about something sitting on the shelf, let's break that down. You're sell you're buying an olive oil, it costs $10. All right, the supermarket sucked and takes 50%. Now you're at five. Any

Speaker A

business wants to take a healthy margin. So after you minus all of that off, bottle cost, shipping cost, what is in the bottle?

Speaker A

Yeah. So the the very nature of how supermarkets are built are not to give you fresh food despite what they're saying.

Speaker A

Yeah. And great point. Yeah. So that doesn't make sense for us. So, I'm trying to build our brand as something that's honest and real that I'm hopefully going to bring other products that align with my vision and not do that anymore.

Speaker A

Wow. I am not a greedy person. I don't believe that I have to take 50% of your profits.

Speaker A

That's ridiculous. What am I feeding to people? So, it's starting off as olive oil that's been our hero product. Um, I'm going to co-op more farms. My initial dream was to co-op farms in the south of Lebanon because they are the guys that

Speaker A

are closest to my heart and make great produce but unfortunately are affected by the war because I also realized very quickly that the only protection you have in this world is economic.

Speaker A

I I always thought to myself if Tamasic invested in land in South Lebanon would it get bombed?

Speaker A

No. Interesting. So that's that's how I think you can protect not by like sanction I mean by sanctions really but by the economic arm of you know politics.

Speaker A

Yeah. And also to carry different products. So we're launching um handmade soap. So as I mentioned my mom you know runs a day spa in in Oman and she has soap making certificates. So she makes soap with our herbs from our

Speaker A

land that she dries using our olive oil. Okay. Chemical free. Very good for the body.

Speaker A

So I'm just trying to bring something real trans that's who I am like I'm walking this walk. So anything I do amazing is going to have that. Another thing on branding sorry just to to point it a lot

Speaker A

of people push brands without actually living that life themselves and there's a huge disconnect. I don't understand it.

Speaker A

Yeah. So because I'm outspoken I say what I feel and I'm honest. That's like I have to be because my brand is that.

Speaker A

When you're doing these um table sessions, Yeah. are you are you're having other people serving other products there or is it primarily just Yeah. So we we hand select we we curate um different brands but this each year

Speaker A

table like myself will never be the same. Okay. It will have an essence of us which is thoughtful uh you know an experience but I never want it to be the same because that will just bore me and

Speaker A

it's not sustainable. Yeah. So I love it. Yeah. So the next one we're working with the Mandreon because I kept all my contacts as a young girl.

Speaker A

Well done. So I could call them up and be like hey I've got a proposal for you.

Speaker A

Well they they must still love you because otherwise they wouldn't be working with me.

Speaker A

I mean they do they do and I'm glad I made that connection. Um, so we're going to work with three different chefs that I also personally have made connections with. Um, Wow.

Speaker A

And we're going to create a And who do you invite to these? So, we usually only give out like 30 tickets. Yeah. First come, first serve.

Speaker A

Yeah. And yeah, you you'll get to learn the And I'm I I'm a storyteller, so similar to you.

Speaker A

Yeah. So, I want to tell the stories of all these chefs. They're very interesting people. Like we've got a chef from Palestine, we've got the chef from Lebanon, and we've got a Chinese chef who speaks Italian, spent all of his

Speaker A

culinary journey in Italy. What a journey. Yeah. So, you get to learn from brilliant people.

Speaker A

All these people. Good. So, what we'll do, we'll put a link to everything and um I'll get you to send some pictures and videos and collaterals and we'll build it in. Um but, you know, I think your journey, if

Speaker A

I think about this, you're multifaceted. You know, who are your favorite uh football stars?

Speaker A

Oh, they're going to say favorite people. Yeah. No. Favorite football stars that you've always admired, male or female.

Speaker A

Paul Skulls. Paul Scholes. He's number 22. Yeah. As well. And he can volley like no one else.

Speaker A

And he is a great cam. Yeah. Uh the closest one to Paul Skulls maybe De Bruyne.

Speaker A

Okay. Okay. Um but yeah, I thought you going to say people. No, people. Now we're going to that. I want to know about footballers first, but people.

Speaker A

My favorite people. Do you have time? Okay. No, it's uh Anthony Bourdain. Um, Nipy Hustle, 50 Cent, the two watch.

Speaker A

I love it. Um, I took my son's watch 50 Cent for his birthday in London.

Speaker A

He's so cool. Yeah, he's got a lot of energy. Oh, I mean like all these people I look up to. Tyler the Creator.

Speaker A

Yeah. ASAP Rocky. Like I don't know the last two. Okay. They're like rappers. I'm old, man. I'm turning 50 next year.

Speaker A

Yeah, we know Anthony Bourdain. Yeah, of course. So like like I just look up to that guy.

Speaker A

We we talk about a lot cuz for some of our video our vlogs, you know, I wanted to talk about food cuz I love food. I'm a foodie and I just said we need to build in some cuz I wanted to kind

Speaker A

We can work together on something soon. I'd love to cuz I wanted to do a lot of the things that I'm doing now cuz my goal is is all the guests that I have on the show, the podcast is like a love

Speaker A

letter to them, right? where I try to because there's a show that when I grew up called uh this is your life where a host will sit down on TV and go through the person's journey right so in my own

Speaker A

small way that's what it is but I've been able to connect quite a few of my guests with different people you know and that's that's how it works just kindness yeah and and I think energy transfers so you know it's a privilege to be here

Speaker A

thank you for having me you know meeting your energy it's so nice because I feel like as I as I said a certain point everything's spiritual I feel like I'm talking to you fear rather than like 100%.

Speaker A

It's so weird and it's so refreshing for me to you know experience cuz I think also at my age I don't meet many people who are like in this. So it feels How old are you now?

Speaker A

I'm 28. Yeah. So I I set up my first company when I was 27 and um 28.

Speaker A

I said 25. Yeah. Amazing. So I beat you. You did beat me. You did. No, but it's it's it takes it takes a lot of courage and and and like um for me cuz I've seen a lot of people come and go. So, I've

Speaker A

run this company for 20 years now, right? And when I started the journey, I had hair. So, hopefully you don't have that that uh No, I have a lot. You got a lot. I need you can give me some. Ali,

Speaker A

it's been a pleasure. Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. Cool.

Topics:Alia Balloutolive oil Singaporeentrepreneurshipmulticultural heritagesocial media contentLebanese Singaporeanstartupfamily legacybusiness journeyQuinntessential Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Alia Ballout and what is she known for?

Alia Ballout is an entrepreneur known for founding Singapore's first olive oil brand and building the country's first olive oil processing facility.

How did Alia Ballout gain public attention?

She gained public attention after posting a viral Instagram reel about her family's olive oil production in Lebanon, which led to media coverage including Straits Times and Tatler.

What is unique about Alia Ballout's background?

Alia has a mixed Lebanese and Chinese Singaporean heritage, with a family history rich in journalism, politics, and feminism, which shapes her entrepreneurial and personal identity.

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