Many of us would have felt stuck with what we do at some point in life. We’ve studied and trained in a particular field, or worked in a sector which likely defined our career trajectories.

Not Jeevi Pillai.

To call her a dance maestro (dancing since the age of four!), successful business entrepreneur and professional national sports psychologist would be more than fitting.

As a career, she has worked with national athletes in Singapore to help them achieve high performance. As a passion, she learnt Chinese dance to Ballet, Bharatanatyam, modern Indian dance, Reggaeton, and Hip Hop. And her most recent love, African dance. Her interest and curiosity in exploring different experiences had led her to travel to the many countries in Africa learning AfroDance - a dance form which she eventually fell deeply for and brought to Singapore. Yet, listening to her speak of her journey and goals suggest that she’s not done yet.

She’s a pure explorer and adventurer. And that’s exactly the spirit one need to not be constrained by the definitions of what you do. Jeevi shares on her journey of learning, being in unfamiliar spaces, and how her foundation in sports psychology helped frame her own mindset towards her business. We talk about making mistakes, letting go of perfection, or merely chasing goals or breaking boundaries - but rather, “it’s about allowing yourself to be you.”

Key moments:

• How growing up in Singapore shaped her curiosities towards the many dance forms
• Why African dance is so different and “speaks to her soul”
• The secret to enjoying dance is also a life philosophy (which is also the hardest thing to do!)
• Her journey struggling with perfectionism - and how Africa uncovered a whole new perspective
• Combining her passion in sports psychology to dance and entrepreneurship
• How she learnt how to embrace her curiosity, trusting the process and letting things happen
• Why she doesn’t believe in the phrase “being the best version of yourself”
• Follow your passion - is that good or bad advice?
• Her new venture in DARE platform, which combines the high performance mindset with mental well-being for everyone

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeevi-pillai-248089bb/

Website: https://www.afrowithjeevi.com/

Afrowithjeevi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afrowithjeevi/

AWJ Retreat Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/awjretreat/

The DARE Platform: https://www.instagram.com/thedareplatform/

The DARE Platform Freebie - 7 ways to optimise your performance through Mental Rest

Email: jeevi@afrowithjeevi.com / thedareplatform.sp@gmail.com

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

To say that "change is a constant" will be an understatement these days.

Yet, why does it seem that reacting to changes or driving change is so difficult to do? Why do we suck at it so much?

Well, to break this down, we’ll have to look the intricacies of human behaviours. And I speak with Oliver Foo, who’s not only a veteran in corporate leadership, but had also recently published a book called Head to Heart to Habit on driving behavioural change.

Oliver has spent 30 years in the tech and telecommunications industry, leading people and businesses across markets, with him living in countries such as Singapore, UK, Germany, Canada and Finland - and has since made the transition to help fellow executives in complex leadership roles. I met Oliver at a coaching workshop and I find him to be a deeply reflective person with a sense of humour and wit. Now, what does it take to do adapt to changes well? Let’s find out….

Key moments:

• How his childhood formed his curiosity around human behaviours
• Switching from being a software engineer to a two-decades long career in sales and marketing
• Finding out what the opposite of curiosity looks like - and why that is BAD for you
• Why having “experience" can actually sabotage us
• The single key question that we need to ask ourselves when making decisions
• His personal reason for writing the book, Head to Heart to Habit
• Addressing the myths of making behavioural changes (or… why is it so darn hard for us to change!)
• The secret model behind understanding why people behave the way they do (or why you may not be happy at your job)
• What you must do if working with someone of opposing values to you
• His advice for addressing our fears of failure in driving change

Connect with Oliver Foo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olifoo/

To learn more about his bestselling book: https://www.headtohearttohabit.com/

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

“We are told that fitting in is the way to be accepted in this world... so the outlier mind is about how do we give people the permission to feel, love and embrace the outlier that’s in them."

******

In this episode, I sit with Judy Liu, who is a true rebel in every sense of that word in the corporate world.

Her joie de vivre, her energy and way of seeing the world and the people around her, runs with the refusal to adhere to societal expectations of what should be.

She’s navigated multiple career pivots, defying conventional paths to carve out a niche that defies most people’s expectations of what a career should look like. From learning structural drawings as an aspiring architect, to drafting legal strategies as a student of law degree, to studying psychology as the Head of Learning and Development at Hays.

She also candidly shares about how her diverse background has shaped her own views on leadership behaviours and expectations.

She is a Third Culture Kid, as someone who spent her childhood across seven different schools by the age of 12, and has lived in Australia, Taiwan and now Singapore. It’s perhaps that upbringing and experience during her formative years that has given her such a unique perspective on things, preferring to see things with lightness, humour and cheekiness - rather than giving in to the drudgery of work.

These days, Judy is the founder who runs a new company called The Outlier Mind, which is dedicated to helping leaders uncover their own uniqueness, weirdness even, and building resilience and optimism by thinking differently.

We discuss the power of challenging assumptions, why she leans into difficult moments of conflicts and tension rather than shy away, and why she thinks holding lightness and humour can be the most rebellious thing an outlier can do to be thriving at work.


Key moments:

• What does an “outlier” in corporate look like?
• How she purposely seeks out tension and discomfort, rather than avoiding them
• What is the first thing to do when having difficult conversations
• Why the implicit leadership theory creates more challenges for leaders looking to bring their true selves to work
• The moment her boss called her “shameless”... and how she reacted to that comment
• Being the third culture kid - it can either be really distressing... or really liberating
• Why she believes in keeping a sense of humour and lightness
• Her “fan-girl” moment talking about Derren Brown (with a special shoutout to this English mentalist, illusionist, and writer!)
• .... and the cheekiest thing she ever did!

Connect with Judy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyliucoaching/

Her website:
https://www.judyliucoaching.com/

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/