Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to the Systemized Business, where we explore strategic productivity and systems optimization to help you overcome entrepreneurial overwhelm. I'm your host, bk, and today I'm thrilled to have a guest on the show. Lynn is an innovative and a driven international entrepreneur who specializes in digital branding for educational institutions. As a visual spatial thinker, lin thrives on creative solutions that have impacted the realm of international student recruitment through groundbreaking methods. With a rich background that includes sales management and marketing research in China, coupled with academic expertise in social anthropology, lin successfully bridges the gap between schools and parents by crafting personalized and effective digital narratives.

Speaker 1: 0:59

I had the pleasure of meeting Lin for the first time at an online networking event, and it constantly amazes me how stepping out of our comfort zones can lead us to such incredible opportunities and connections. So, without further ado, let's get started. Let's get started. Thank you so much, lynn, for joining me on today. You're welcome, my pleasure. Yeah, I can't wait to get in, but before we get into kind of like you know, like what you do and your business and stuff, can you just briefly tell us who you are? Yeah, tell us about yourself and all that good stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:52

Yes, oh, how can I introduce myself? I think the biggest thing for me is I'm a visual spatial thinker. I'm not sure whether you know this is a learning style, so it was, yeah, uh, identified, yeah, by a psychologist in the us in the 1990s. So so that's my biggest thing. It's like my way of thinking and also my way of existing, and it took me many years actually to figure out what's going on in my head because I have this kind of, you know, very, very weird way of thinking and seeing things. But I didn't know that is actually a learning style, so it has been confusing me for many years.

Speaker 2: 2:37

So visual thinking is the first thing I want to introduce about myself, thing I want to introduce about myself so I can actually allowing myself to live in. This creativity and this way of thinking has been very liberating for me for the last couple of years and that is also kind of the foundation to set myself on this path of becoming an entrepreneur. I never thought about that to become an entrepreneur. What's the second thing? I really love food, nice food, food is my thing and also I I feel food can connect people from different cultures oh, yeah, definitely yeah, so like when I was living in a city in South Island in New Zealand, I organized a group called the Foodies.

Speaker 2: 3:33

So those are the Chinese people who are interested in food or cooking or trying out new restaurants. So I have this group of around 100 people in a very small city. So it's quite a success and we have like offline organize, offline event every month and then you can see that trust start to build in the group when people just simply talk about food and then they start to actually trust each other and ask other kind of questions and they trust the answer they get from the group. That bond from the food was actually quite amazing. What's the third thing? I really like watching movies in cinema and also I have a favorite film composer, hans Zimmer. So he's like the god for me. His music kind of helped me travel to another world by listening to it, like the soundtracks from his films like doom, interstellar inception yeah, yeah, those music and I really like dog.

Speaker 1: 4:52

So are those your? Oh yeah, are those your favorite kind of that genre of of movie? Is that your favorite? Like Inception, kind of like mystery and intrigue?

Speaker 2: 5:08

I think I'm like in cinema I really enjoyed like the action-packed movie or Marvel movie, like those colors and the sound and all those can feel the texture in the picture and the movement. It's really a thing for visual special thinkers. But for content, like the, the story itself, I don't have like a very specific. But I'm also a fan of christopher nolan, that director. So those and he has been collaborating, yeah, for many, many movies. So so like Inception, interstellar, all are from them, from him. Dune was from another director, but Oppenheimer is another one of my favorites. That's also from Christopher Nolan.

Speaker 2: 5:55

But I think that's complexity. Complexity is what I like. Christopher Nolan's yeah, and also he always can. He's able to connect that huge scape or scope and the huge complexity with something deeply personal and intimate about human relationships. That is something I'm really into. It's like the, the big structure and the long outside of the universe and the time and space. But then at the end of the day you always come back to this love between maybe a mom to a son, between a human to a dog, so something like that. I like that.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Yeah, that is so interesting. I now kind of wish this was a movie podcast because I want to ask more. But I love how, how, how broad, like, how deeply you think about it, because it's it's not just oh, I like the action, but really getting into the like, the, the depths of, maybe what the director or the writer or the producer was trying to communicate through this artwork. Right, is that kind of this deep thinking about things? Is that what led you to become an entrepreneur as well? Is that something that played a part in how you saw solving problems and starting a business?

Speaker 2: 7:29

I think that's my strength in becoming an entrepreneur, because I see things from this holistic way and also this big picture and also this acknowledging that complexity in social, cultural context, in human relationships. So I don't see like solving problem as just this is the solution, this one way or this the most efficient way. So I'm so very aware of that context around the people who are in the problem, who is having the problem? Around the people who are in the problem, who is having the problem? And when it comes to what I work on parenting, schooling teenagers I think that's my strength because I can see something more about the issue itself.

Speaker 1: 8:18

Yeah, okay, and you are a digital branding specialist, but you specialize in providing this service for schools. Tell me a little bit more about that.

Speaker 2: 8:32

Why schools in particular. So this service actually kind of was born from academic research I did before in social anthropology, so I studied why Chinese parents were sending their adolescent children to study overseas. And then when I got into the research, I did around 50 in-depth semi-structured interviews with parents and educators and you realize that is such a complicated issue for the parents to think about and deal with. And then I identified four types of motives they have and that is beyond a lot of people's current understanding of why are parents sending their teenagers overseas. They can't deal with their child or they simply think of qualification in the West and give them something like a golden ticket or something. But actually what's happening in the parents' head, the things they need to juggle in ways to make this decision, is far beyond that simple answers. To make this decision is far beyond that simple answers.

Speaker 2: 9:45

And then, after the research, when I was actually presenting the research in the conference in New Zealand last year, an association approached me. So like this is really good, this really makes sense in our international recruitment for schools among the practitioners. So can you explore a bit more about the business part from your academic research to something we can actually use? And I was like huh, because before coming to New Zealand I worked in consumer goods industry. So I started in sales, a management trainee, and then I was in marketing research in a quite big company in China. Wow, so I realized I have the skill set and the mindset of seeing this industry or their business model like the recruitment model from the business side and the educational side and the social-cultural perspective. So I started to develop things and I gave a webinar to the international directors registered in this association Around 300 schools registered in this association, Around 300 schools registered in this association.

Speaker 2: 10:57

And then schools, yeah, and they start to get clients, Like the schools some schools come to like, start to contact me. It's like, oh, this really makes sense again, so can we do something together. So that's how I got my first client. Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1: 11:15

So how does it work, how does your partnership with these schools work? Because you are in the middle of the school and the families, right? You kind of help bridge that. So how does it work with families, families?

Speaker 2: 11:32

so I can tell you like, yeah, yeah, the current model of recruiting international students is basically uh, schools will have agents, whether in new zealand or in the, in the, maybe in china or in other countries, and they they have their ways to connect with parents and children and then they will recommend it, they will make the connection. My approach is kind of another way of doing it, so I'm more like doing branding. So I'm working with schools with in-depth interviews and data analysis and I help them to identify their core brand value and their unique personality and those real-life stories that parents are really curious about but they haven't got any access to really know about those content or the stories. And then I construct those digital content put on Chinese social medias and also LinkedIn to connect with parents in other parts of the world. And so the idea is through branding, you attract that ideal client. Schools are the ideal parents. So my idea is you don't like the agent's way of doing recruitment is more like the sales oriented. That's quite important, but this is another way of like attracting the ideal clients for the schools.

Speaker 2: 13:07

So my idea is schools don't have to be perfect, the students don't have to be perfect either. We just need the perfect match, especially for the teenagers. If they have the teacher they trust, they have the environment, they feel safe and happy to learn and they have friends and that makes the most. It's not just because for high school, the qualification is not the most important thing. I think the development, the growth and the trust they can build in this journey is the most important thing. So through branding and also I built communication channels in China among parents. So I started to work with parent opinion leaders. So I'm developing those channels to get the stories transmitted through influential parents to other families. So it's an entire kind of a revolutionary model.

Speaker 2: 14:21

And because we launched our project the social media accounts a month ago and it has proved it really worked. So we have attracted long-term study students to have an inquiry with the school, to have an inquiry with the school and I will organize a 15 minutes like this kind of Zoom call with the student, the parent and the international school director at the school. So we'll sit together and I will translate and facilitate. Basically I help each party shine. So I help the director promote the strengths like the confidence of introducing their school. I help the children to introduce themselves and what other strengths they have.

Speaker 2: 15:00

And then today, like the breakthrough I told you I had today is one family basically has chosen the one school among our school class. We still have some competitors in Australia, but that is the one and what happened was was not the facility or those kind of the number thing attracted the parents. The thing is the boy was talking about I like physics and I like hands-on subjects and the international director was a chemistry teacher before becoming the director and she was a dean in the school, so she was really good at seeing what's the best resource portfolio to support the student's study. So they were communicating based on the interest the students had and the director was showing him the resources, the things that he can learn, like building electric cars or certain STEM subjects he can learn in this school, so that mutual interest actually becomes the hook, not the superficial information. So that was my big breakthrough. And there's this model it has come from the papers to real life and it works.

Speaker 1: 16:22

I really love that. I really love that it does. It does go a step beyond just looking at oh, does this school have the facilities that I want for my child? Does it have the maybe progression they want? Is it like a good foundation?

Speaker 1: 16:41

I think what I really love is that you go beyond those things which are very important as well, but to see if, is this a personal good fit for my child, especially, you know, for kids who are Leaving their families, and sometimes for the very first time. They want to know. You know parents want to have this piece. That Okay, my child will be fine. They'll be supported, not only academically, but also in other ways too, like emotionally and socially as well. So that's really nice Congratulations, thank you. Not only academically, but also in other ways too, like emotionally and socially as well. So that's really nice Congratulations, thank you. Wow, that is, that is really interesting, I think it. Um, so are you a solopreneur? So you are a consultant? Yeah, how do you manage, cause there's seven schools in this group. Do you work with them one-on-one within this group or is it bunched together? Like, how do you manage your time, how do you manage your tasks and things to get things done?

Speaker 2: 17:40

So I have, like the cluster client, like this one cluster, seven schools. I built one WeChat account, one LinkedIn account, one Little Red Book account and one Bilibili account for them, but I will also have an individual school client. So there's one school building this one account. I would say how I manage it. It's actually still I'm at this very exciting stage because this is an original new thing and everything we do together is revolutionary. So, yeah, you just feel like, oh, this result really happening and so it's like still in this really exciting stage. And but for the long-term business development, so I'm working with a business coach. She's really good, so I have learned a lot of my side about how to develop a business rather than a job.

Speaker 2: 18:38

So, right, so I'm yeah, so I'm breaking down the process into elements and then I standardize those elements, although it's still emerging, but I have the mindset to standardize them.

Speaker 2: 18:50

And also it helps me to create service packages, like if I think this is a whole big long-term thing. It's not very flexible when you do proposal to different schools, because when you have a cluster together, they can have a bigger budget, but if you are working with individual school, you need to think about their budgets. Working with individual schools, you need to think about their budgets. So if I break down those processes and creating flexible service packages, I can actually reach out to more individual schools. And I told the directors I was doing the proposal like, think about, like Lego, so each element of my service is a piece of Lego. So we can this year, when you don't have many international students so you won't have a big budget we can build a one-bedroom house with this Lego and next year we can move around and build a two-bedroom or, in the future, five bedrooms. So that's kind of how I'm managing this business in growth.

Speaker 1: 19:50

I love that you say you're working with a coach, because I think there are a lot of people who kind of feel like they need to figure things out, not ask anybody, not be mentored. So what are some of the biggest lessons that you have learned and discovered while working with a coach and how how has this benefited not only your business and kind of structuring and things like that, but you as a person with mindset and tackling business issues?

Speaker 2: 20:27

yeah, I think the biggest thing actually is the change of mindset in general. So that for me, is a shifting from uh, thinking about this is something exciting, meaningful for me to do, uh then into oh, this is actually a business. I need to learn how to develop and run the business. That's an entirely new thing, although I've done my MBA before. But, like, become entrepreneur is an entirely different thing.

Speaker 2: 21:01

And I think and also I think another thing I learned a lot from this business coach is I think we are at the core, we are the same type of person.

Speaker 2: 21:12

It I think we are at the core, we are the same type of person. It's like we are creative and we value our creativity and our values at the highest priority. So for me it was a struggling. It's like how to reconcile or incorporate my way of thinking or learning into my daily life and work. And I have many years not accepting it. But I think, working with this business coach, she has this kind of how to say acknowledging the value and the success you want to create, kind of I'll say, acknowledging the value and the success you want to create, not like when other people say, doing a business, you should be doing this and this, but rather than what's your value, what's who you are, that's the core of growing this business. So I think that's the biggest thing Kind of empowering me to acknowledge or accept who I am, but and then growing this business from that core rather than denying it and growing something.

Speaker 1: 22:20

yeah, at the side you just remind me, I was recently in a master um class mastermind um and the speaker was talking about leadership styles and how you need to learn your leadership style.

Speaker 1: 22:37

You need to love your leadership style and then you need to leverage your leadership style, because that's what makes you unique.

Speaker 1: 22:44

And sometimes you know we're in businesses that maybe 10, 20 other people are in, but what's really going to differentiate you is that you are, you are infusing yourself into this business and, like you're saying, like, just be who you are. You know, because we can learn things in business school and we can learn things on the internet about what business should be or what leadership should be. But if we're not those things, we might think that, oh, maybe I'm not cut out for running a business or being an entrepreneur, but it it just looks different for us and it's okay. So I really love that you acknowledge that this is how I am running my business, presenting my business, and it works because it's authentically you Like you're not trying to be somebody else, you know, and so I feel like that is even. It's even easier to communicate how you can serve your client, how you can, what you can bring to the table, because it's just an extension of who you are, so I love that so much.

Speaker 1: 23:56

I love, I love business coaches because they can get you out of your head, you know, and to even to challenge some of the beliefs that we have about ourselves, about what we're supposed to do. I love that. So, so, in terms of cause, I so, I know your main client is schools, organizations, but you, I mean you try to bring the personal, you know, faces and experiences to the table to market your schools. I guess I'm, I'm, I'm wondering what sort of lessons do you think, like other business owners can take from your approach? Like, how could they like, is there a specific way that maybe they can present themselves or you know that can set them apart? Because when you look at a bunch of schools, you can see a bunch of schools, but what is that one thing that can just make you stand out as a business, as an owner? So, yeah, any lessons that you can share in that regard.

Speaker 2: 25:04

I think what you just said seems like to me seems like two areas. One is with the schools or institutions. They might look quite homogenized or quite similar on their website, or yeah, although they all have their motto, or or like the marketing part. I think my approach of really getting to understand them one thing is it came actually from my uh experience in research. Like I know the parents so well, so many conversations I've had about their children's overseas schooling. Like I sat with a interviewee, a mom, in the kfc for six hours in an interview, like she. Like we finished the interview in three hours and she asked asked me, can I buy you lunch? And I was like, of course, and I think she was overwhelmed by raising two teenagers and so many decisions and problems and she just wanted someone to talk to.

Speaker 2: 26:07

And then, with all those experiences in my head, when I go into a school and also I develop my own experience, understanding of school by actually doing a lot of volunteering work with school. Like I volunteered in a gifted children program in a local intermediate school for two years. Like every Friday I stay there a whole day, I stay with the teacher in the classroom. So I really that's my way of developing my lived experience with schools in New Zealand. And also I volunteered in girl guiding. I don't know whether you have. Do you have girl guiding in your country?

Speaker 1: 26:48

Yeah, girl guides, right, yeah, girl guides, girl guides.

Speaker 2: 26:52

Yeah, I was a brown team leader. I worked with seven to nine and a half year olds girls, so that's also my way of getting to know how parents uh are leaders and the the the children how we interact. What is the new? Like the norms in china and in new zealand around parenting and schooling are very different. So what are the new? I experiment, right, I kind of being challenged in my work and learn so, oh, this is how they do things here, this is how they perceive things here. So actually I developed my expertise from those work and I combine those two together.

Speaker 2: 27:33

So when I go now in my work, when I go into a school, I'm not really a fresh, kind of like a newbie there and kind of my eyes are very, become really kind of sharp so I can spot on things oh, this thing I've heard parents talk about, or this thing I have experience in girl guiding or in the gifted children program and so I've literally become someone I think I have a quite good understanding of both sides. So when I try to analyze the core brand values for school, I have my this pool of knowledge and experience here to support like why I think this? Um, like I normally, uh, after the interviews and the the visit, I will come up with actually a lot of keywords, a lot of things. I think that's their characteristics, but I will condense this to five most important core brand values. I call it the brand value launch and I've developed my content from there and the feedback I got from the directors was some of them saying I have been in this school for like 30 years, 40 years. I went through the pictures you took, like the place I've been there every day. I never noticed anything or interpreted in such a way, but that feels so right. That's exactly my school so I can capture things like this based on, maybe, my creativity and also my, the expertise I designed for myself to to learn and have this pool of knowledge. So I think that's one thing is like how my approach in uh developing, identifying brand values for schools, for other business owners, like what I learned from my business development.

Speaker 2: 29:30

I think that's another topic and I think for me, embracing who I am and my creativity is the core and especially when you are doing something original, it take me, it has take it, took me a quite a long time to, to develop the faith in myself. I would say, like, when you are doing something original, no one in the market is doing this thing your client, that will be something original. No one in the market is doing this thing. Your client, that will be trying to support you. But they're also like, is it going to work? And then, like I would, I have this kind of self-doubt going on quite a lot, especially at the beginning.

Speaker 2: 30:15

So we're not like like when we start to see the results and you can see that like, uh, after the video chat between the children, parent and the directors, the satisfaction you can see in the people, like the, the children feel they're heard, the parents see they can feel they can really meet the school people from the school seeing what their children might be with every day in the next several years.

Speaker 2: 30:43

And the director has a chance to introduce themselves, telling their stories directly to a parent and the children. And some director wrote me emails like thank you for helping us. Just getting in front of the parent, connecting directly. I think they're not really talking about oh, we nailed this recruitment or something. They're talking about that authentic connection. So I think when you are doing something original instead of being an entrepreneur, it's quite daunting, you can't see anything similar and it's like is it going to work? But I think having that faith, even the at the beginning, like the blinded faith in yourself and just to you know, push us through. And magic not just magic it's like you you may get the result you were like in your vision and that really happened and that feels so joyful.

Speaker 1: 31:47

Yeah, yeah, you know, one thing that I I got from what you said is how much time you invested in really getting to know what the students think or thought, felt, what the parents and what the schools. And I think my takeaway from that is to really get intimately acquainted with the pain points that you're trying to address, because that's the only way you can communicate effectively, right, and then bridge the gaps that are that that your customer or your client is trying to to to alleviate. So I love that and and it and it. I mean six hours is a long time, yeah, to dig in with one person, but but it's. It's beautiful too, because you get to really get to the heart of issues, because you could feel that, oh, it's just a surface problem.

Speaker 1: 32:53

But then you know, when you're coming up with the solution and the business and whatever, you really get an opportunity to address the heart of the problem, which I think is wonderful too, because that comes out in the, in the strategy, in the branding and it, and it's not like it's done from a place of care and not just a place of, oh, I just want to start a business and make money. So I really love that investment of your time and literally your life in trying to understand what people are feeling and how you can help.

Speaker 2: 33:32

You know the various situations, yeah, and I really love what you said about getting to the heart of the problem or of the person, because, for example, with that mom sitting in a KFC for six hours, we didn't have any solution for her suffering. At the end I was trying to recommend some people or something might be helpful, but it was feeling her frustration when she was crying, feeling that you know the hurt, the suffering from a mom. That's just so impactful for me. And, yeah, that feels. And also, actually, I think at the beginning of that research I was trying to find an answer, like what is the best education? What is the right way of doing parenting or schooling? Like maybe not one answer, but I wanted, like the concrete, several answers. But actually, coming out of the research, I just realized there's no perfect answer for parenting and schooling.

Speaker 2: 34:45

It's very rude to point a finger to a parent and say, oh, you are doing something wrong. You should be. You know, this is the more advanced way of doing parenting or something. That is the person who's day in, day out being with the child, feeding them, doing the cleaning, making the bed for the child into the bed. They are doing the things daily, day in, day out. They are exhausted already. So, being somewhere, you just point the finger and say this is wrong, it's just inhumane.

Speaker 2: 35:18

And also, every parent comes from somewhere. They have their parent, something they experience, maybe traumatized or maybe benefited from their parents' parenting that's, in a way, is the lineage, could be a burden or something. That is where the child come from. So you can't strip the child out of the context, say that is the scientific way of doing parenting or that is the way of doing schooling. They're always living in their contact. They have their struggle of course every family has their struggle but that balance at the end they can come together. That is the.

Speaker 2: 35:56

I think that's the solution, the beautiful moment similar to schooling. It's no perfect school or it's like a top 10, top three school that his will be, your child will be all right for the rest of his or her life. It's not like that. It's not finding that balance or that perfect match where they just need that, this type of teacher or this type of environment and they grow from who they are. I think that's the anxiety and I find it's almost like a no answer becomes the answer and becomes the engine. The origin of my business, I think, is finding that perfect match.

Speaker 1: 36:39

Yeah, and just coming to the table from a perspective of being empathetic of the different people that you're trying to serve, oh, I love that. Yeah, interesting. I think the you know, when you look at the world, there's a lot of, there's a lot of changes happening in the way we communicate. You know the technology that's coming out. What do you see about? You know, digital branding and that kind of space. What do you see as an opportunity that is emerging in terms of a digital branding strategy?

Speaker 2: 37:25

Yeah, I think I'm a fan of those new technologies, especially AI.

Speaker 1: 37:38

Yes, we love AI yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:39

Yes, we love AI yeah because I think one thing is we all know in human history, no one can really stop the wheel or the step of technology. It will. Just if they are breaking something, they are just breaking it. It will make a new path for human beings. So one thing is you know you can't stop it. So why deny it? Just embrace it. And we always know technology at the end of the day, no matter how mind-blowing it is at the moment, it will always become a tool for us. It's almost always about how we use it. So I think for digital branding, those new technologies are actually making my work more efficient After the interview. I don't have to transcribe the interview anymore, I just put it in an AI transcription website. It's very cheap and very efficient and I can get the information out super fast.

Speaker 2: 38:41

And also, I think, especially for me as a visual-spatial thinker, we have this in this way of people, with this way of thinking. We always have this. We call it a constellation of thoughts, so it's like different ideas have the different relationships and it's a complex. That's why we always have some very original idea come out out of this complex, but you can't really trace back how, like how I developed. It's not a step, abc, it's just suddenly, it's a moment or something, but you need to accumulate or developed uh, develop that constellation first.

Speaker 2: 39:21

So with the help of technologies like AI, it's much easier for me to have a process called decipher. It's like when I have those complex, I need to somehow reduce the dimension, because that is a chunk of experience, almost like 5D, like the sound, the scent, the scent, the smell is all in this memory. It's a very big file. So if I want to extract the information I really need to develop my product, I need to reduce the dimension. Like transcription is one way for me to decipher the other ways. So the technology is actually helping me to deal with this process. So for me, I think I'm quite supportive of the new technology.

Speaker 1: 40:09

Yeah, yeah, me too. And I come at it from a lens of just staying curious and not letting things be overwhelming, Like I think. Sometimes, when we think of different technology and oh, ai can do this we're like, oh, this it's too much, I'm not gonna even gonna try and figure out what is going on, but but just staying curious, I'm like, oh, you know, let let's poke around with this tool and what this can do. And yeah, I have this little art project on instagram.

Speaker 2: 40:48

I called conversations with ai, so I basically got what I see in my, in my mind. I write them down and then give those kind of a poem or something to the ai and see what kind of image they come up with. Because that's very different from, yeah, like the description of an image. It's almost sometimes a feeling or a thought. So the AI sometimes got confused. It's like what am I talking about? And then they come up with some image so interesting and so inspiring, sometimes Like, oh, actually, when I was writing down those sentences or the poem, the actual feeling, the subconscious, is what ai is presenting to me. So it's basically like one subconscious is talking to another subconscious, because I feel the way of ai is almost like a subconscious. It's like accumulating's not very obvious. You don't know how exactly how it works. For normal people like me, it's like one subconscious talking to another one.

Speaker 1: 41:49

Exactly, I will send you my Instagram later.

Speaker 1: 41:53

Have a look. Oh yeah, that would be cool, and I'll put it in the show notes too, so that you know the listeners can also check out your Instagram and see some of the images that you've produced there. Oh, that is wonderful. Okay, so I do like to. I mean, this has been amazing and so fascinating too, like I feel like we could go on and on, but I'm going to kind of pivot to conclude our conversation. I'd love to end with like rapid fire questions. Yeah, so just a few, just quick, whatever first thing that comes to your head.

Speaker 2: 42:39

I'll hear it okay okay, favorite past time.

Speaker 1: 42:40

But the first thing that comes to your head, I'll hear it. Okay, well, it's fun.

Speaker 2: 42:44

Okay, favorite favorite pastime, past or delight entertainment, or going to the cinema.

Speaker 1: 42:54

Okay, cover that one yeah.

Speaker 2: 42:56

Okay.

Speaker 1: 42:56

Okay, any quirky talent or skill that you have.

Speaker 2: 43:02

Oh, actually I'm very good at making dumpling skins. It's like in Chinese dumplings making Chinese dumplings you need to have like a small piece of dough and you need to have a rolling pin and a very thin one in Chinese and you need to kind of doing this movement like a turning this, and it's a kind of a coordination there and I'm really good at this. But I was trained when I was four in doing Chinese New Year. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's like because we in my grandpa, grandma's house we make tons of dumplings and I was like basically the on the, I'm doing this with my aunt, like my uncle's wife, and so from like age of around four or five I started to do that. So it's like natural, oh wow, you're a dumpling queen.

Speaker 1: 43:55

Okay, oh, I love that. You mentioned that you were a foodie, so what's your favorite food?

Speaker 2: 44:02

That's a very difficult question. So many, oh, what's the favorite? I can say several Like. I quite like Korean food, japanese food and I quite like a good baked potato, like the creamy, like the Western creamy baked potato, yeah, okay. Also many that's a very difficult question for me. And chips, okay.

Speaker 1: 44:30

Okay, are you a morning person or a night owl?

Speaker 2: 44:34

Night owl. I'm really not a morning person.

Speaker 1: 44:37

Right, because what time is it now in New Zealand? 11 o'clock, 10?, 11 o'clock, oh, my goodness. Okay, I'm a night owl too, like I get all these crazy ideas at night.

Speaker 2: 44:52

I'm like oh, I need to go to bed. Okay, right, I feel like pretty people often is like at night is the best time.

Speaker 1: 45:05

Yes, I don't know what it is, but it works. It works okay. So what do you think is the one skill or the one trait that you can count on, whether in your business or in your life? What, what is that one thing that you feel like, if I have this, if I can keep this, if I can keep this, if I can nurture this skill, or talent or trait, I'm good.

Speaker 2: 45:26

I think I have a strength and it's very beneficial to my business is intercultural communication, because it's barely on this topic, because I really have a deep, in-depth understanding of both sides so I can have this nuance in my communication. I know where is the limelight, I know where is the like, why they're asking this question feels quite weird to the other side and I will contribute a social context in the conversation. So I think, yeah, intercultural communication is my strength.

Speaker 1: 45:58

Oh, that's so good, yeah, and I love it. I love it because you can talk to anybody and now, the world being the way it is, like I'm in Rwanda, you are in New Zealand. Yeah, it's crazy how connected we can, we can be, and I mean, I don't know if know people listening could tell that we literally met just now at the beginning of the interview and, yeah, you do that so well, like easy to communicate with and to talk to, and, man, I love it. Thank you so so much for joining me. So I will bid you a good night, because I know it is late, unless you're going to embark on some other project right now, but thank you so much for joining me.

Speaker 2: 46:49

It was a wonderful, wonderful conversation.

Speaker 1: 46:51

Thank you, lynn. Yeah, you made my day. Thank you, I hope you found today's discussion as enlightening as I did. I absolutely love learning about other people and other people's businesses, and I particularly liked how Lynn reminded me, you know, to stay curious and experimental with emerging technology and innovative strategies, because these can really transform the way you do your business and it will certainly transform the way you serve your clients or customers. So thank you for joining me today. Don't forget to subscribe to the Systemized Business for more episodes like this, and we even have more practical, workshop-like episodes. So if you enjoyed today's conversation, please leave a review. It'll help more people find this podcast and benefit from the valuable insight shared by our wonderful guests. Thank you for listening and remember to step out of your comfort zone, because you will never know where it will take you and what unexpected and transformative experiences you will find yourself in. So until next time. Bye for now.