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Genecia Alluora: A strong and independent woman is something to behold. She pays her own bills, buys her own things, and she doesn't let a man affect her stability or self-confidence. She is a Soul Rich Woman. Are you ready to be rich, doing what you love? Be on purpose and in control of your life again. And For Women Who Love the F-word Podcast, we will be openly talking about getting more clients online, getting recognition as the leader and female entrepreneur, and also the F word. Being fabulous, having freedom and financial independence. It's time to own and love the F word. Welcome to the show.

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Genecia Alluora: Hey! Gorgeous. I'm Genecia Alluora. How are you? I hope that my podcast has been helping you walking along with you on your journey. Do connect with me on social media, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram at Genecia Alluora. Today's guest, we have Dr. Yong Hsin Ning. She is my mentee and my mentor. And she has completed one season of her podcast. Podcasting is something that I highly recommend the women in our community to embark on because it's relatively easier to share your content without showing your face. And I know that many of you are shy of showing your face. So I'll let her share with you her journey, her lessons learned and some of the wrap-up that she has for you. Enjoy today's episode and I look forward to see you really soon.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: Hi, I'm Dr. Yong Hsin Ning. What's so special about this episode? It's special because it's going to be a wrap-up of my journey over the past 10 months since I started recording my first episode in November 2019 last year. I'm going to reflect on the impact of embarking on this journey, and the challenges that I overcame. First, let's talk about the impact. The journey started with a conversation with Genecia, my business mentor, that pretty much went like this. Hey, Hsin Ning, are you interested in doing a podcast? Oh, yeah, sure. I love to talk. Okay, the rest is history. I came into the process not expecting that anybody would be listening to me. I just wanted to share what I felt strongly about, which was in the area of mindset shifts.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: 10 months into my journey, and I was obviously way off in my expectations, in a good way. Square Apple Show now is downloaded by listeners across 10 countries. I also receive personal notes about how people are impacted by the messages in my podcast. So, in the next five minutes or so, I'm going to share with you the positive impacts that starting this podcast journey has on me. Firstly, it messes with my brains. And it made me see things that I didn't see previously. Don't worry, there's nothing spiritual about this, and I'll explain this to you. When I started to prepare for the podcast, I had some ideas in mind what I wanted to focus on, which was around mindset shifts, organisational change, and my entrepreneurship journey.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: But increasingly, I realised that everything and anything I wrote kind of converged to a framework that I used to see and do things differently. So, after writing 55 episodes and about 82,500 words later, I developed the SquareApple Mindset Framework, which is a systematic way for people to see 10 times more opportunities in their careers and businesses. I've used this method when I teach university and undergraduate learners, and the feedback that I get is consistent. This method helps people to see opportunities that they usually miss, and it gives them the courage to take action and pursue those opportunities.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: So, in summary, through the process of preparing for the podcast, it honed my thought process and I developed a set of framework that sets me apart from other business advisors or change management consultants. Secondly, it helps me in developing valuable assets that I can use for my teaching and my business. I have repurposed podcast content into an e-book, into prompt cards, into teaching materials, and I'm in the process of creating a digital course as well. So, there's huge leverage on the content that has been created, and I'm really thankful that I put in the effort to prepare for each podcast.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: The third and final impact is to other people. In a way, this impact is a different side of the coin from the first impact. The first impact talks about how I got clarity. This impact is about how this clarity then translates to helping other people do things differently. My passion is to help people see things in a different light from what they have been used to, especially for business owners and entrepreneurs. It is especially critical in this very, very dynamic business environment. A lot of times, people have the desire to think and act differently and to change the situation that they are in, but they don't know how.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: So, by telling people, you have to think out of the box. It's very tough because people firstly don't even know what's in their box and they don't know what's outside the box. So, it really doesn't help. So, the consistent feedback that I have from the people that I work with is that the messages that I have shared is very practical. So, it's easy for people to apply it to their careers or businesses. So, the final impact that I want to share is that the podcast has been effective in helping me become a good coach to my audience who are really fellow entrepreneurs who are on their business building adventure. It's amazing that it has benefited both seasoned business owners as well as startup entrepreneurs.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: And you know what? The podcast is a key catalyst for this. So, now let's talk about the challenges that I needed to overcome in my podcast journey. Joanne, my podcast coach, asked me to list 10 of them. But I choose to stay with 2 because I believe less is more. The first obstacle for me is finding the time to think and to write the podcast script. The way that I prepare for the podcast is to write out the entire script and each script is about 1,600 words on average. But words don't just pour out when I sit in front of the computer. I usually need time for the idea to kind of solidify in my head and then when I sit down in my computer, I can just dump it out within a 2-hour time frame. I needed to be very disciplined to find time to work on the scripts. So what I do is that I would set a goal.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: This goal comes in the form of setting an appointment with Joanne, my podcast coach, to record, say, X number of episodes in one sitting. Then I will work backwards to plan out how many episodes I must complete writing within a week. I have a simple Excel which I indicate the dates that I will work on the podcast and I have a formula to track the completion. Well, I fall short most of the time. Partly because I have a very stretched target. But you know, when you aim high, you may fall a little short. But if you don't aim high, you will fall very short. So setting a tangible goal and breaking it down into baby steps helped me overcome this obstacle. The second obstacle is figuring out what to write. So even though I can find the time to write, it's not that easy to just write.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: Sometimes I don't even have a block of two hours and I need to squeeze it in between meetings. So I have done two things to overcome this obstacle. The first thing is to constantly look out for things and make a note of the interesting stuff that I come across and I can write about. I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of these and it's like my inventory list. The second thing that I have done is to create a very structured template for my podcast script. For example, the first section is always talking about who would benefit from my podcast. Then the second section will be talking about a story that will segue into a key theme that I want to talk about. Then the third section onwards will be about the key concepts around that theme that I want to share.

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Dr. Yong Hsin Ning: This template is a lifesaver because I can actually start writing once I hit the computer. No doubt, not all podcast episodes will flow out exactly in the same way but at least all the big blocks of content are there and I can rejig it in the way that makes sense. It really, really saved a lot of time. So you can see from what I've shared above, podcast is a really viable option for you to consider if you want to do something meaningful for yourself and for others. Soul Rich Woman has got many different options for you to get started and at different times, at different price points and in the market out there, there are options as well. And I really, really urge you to seriously consider taking up podcasting because it can be your catalyst to change your life as well as the life of others.

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Genecia Alluora: Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so honored that we are connected. And I hope that I can continue to serve you as you build your dreams. And if you love this episode, and I hope that you did, rate it five stars. Give us that glowing review because it will help more women around the world finding the Soul Rich Woman podcast. Alone you are strong. Together we are unstoppable. Now share this with every woman who needs it because this is how we are changing the world. One woman at a time. As always, get out of your comfort zone and go towards the dreams you've always wanted to achieve. For women who love the F word, being fabulous, having freedom, and financial independence. My dear Soul Rich Woman, sending you my love and I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.