STIMY #44

Being Cocky Works?!

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👋🏻 STIMIES!

As a podcaster, you dream of finding guests who are great storytellers with great stories to tell.

It's a combination that is both rare and precious, and sheer dynamite when you find them! Like the latest guest to be featured on the So This Is My Why podcast.

I'll let you in on a secret: I chased after this guest for a really long time.

I first heard of him and his organisation PEMANDU in 2017 when I attended the Global Transformation Forum.

I had no expectations.

I had heard of some of the guests - Usain Bolt, Richard Branson and Jack Ma - but not all.

Including Dato Sri Idris Jala.

Then he took the stage - and held my attention in a vice-like gripe for the entire 40 minutes.

Never had I met someone who could make corporate life sound so… exciting?!

But then again, he’s has an unconventional career.

Including as Managing Director of Shell Sri Lanka, CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Senator and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and now the Chairman of an organisation that helps nations and ministries transformation achieve their impossible goals.

It only took 7 years to go from hearing his speech to having him on as a STIMY guest 🤭 and in a way, I don’t even know where to start.

He’s had a crazy life!

Here are some highlights:

🌟 He grew up in the Borneo Highlands as part of the Kelabit tribe (around 5,000 people) and when he was naughty, his dad would throw him in the pigsty!

🌟 Education was a matter of life and death for him. To become the top in class, he followed his dad’s advice: Become best friends with the No 1 in class, copy what they do and magnify that by x10 😂

🌟 He never intended to work at Shell. He applied only because they were offering a free flight back home and he wanted to see his family before beginning his MBA at Wharton! In his job application letter, his first line was: I'm the man you're looking for

He ended up abandoning Wharton in favour of a Shell scholarship at Warwick University and a 20+ year career in the O&G space.

🌟 His Shell Sri Lanka gig was his toughest - he had to handle a bomb threat to his depot, his manager being kidnapped, a massive strike and also threatening letters being sent to him by a professional sharpshooter!

🌟 He turned down the offer to be the Chairman of Shell (he would've been the youngest in history) to become the CEO of Malaysia Airlines

And that's just Part 1.

If ever there was an example of someone who has defied the odds and had the 'audacity' to go after impossible goals (+ succeed!), it'd be Dato' Sri Idris Jala.

So if you haven't already heard his story, I'd urge you to do so here:

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This is a beta launch so if you join now, you get a 50% discount as thanks for believing in a product that doesn't yet exist 🥺

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Paris Olympics: Insider Edition

The Olympics is known as the Greatest Shown on Earth but what does it really take to keep it going? And what is life really like for its unsung heroes?!

To understand, we have professional photographer & former national athlete Annice Lyn here to give a snippet into her life as a production assistant with Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC):

1. How do you divide your roles in ANOC?

As a production assistant at ANOC, I oversee the digital accelerate program for over 50 NOCs (National Olympic Committees), providing dedicated Games-time support and enhancing their social media presence through the NOC Video Studio Project, portraiture as well as behind the scenes images. Which means I'll be taking more of a backend role this time around as to compare my role back in Tokyo 2020, in the year 2021 .

What we do is we provide support for smaller countries, for example Palau who only have 3 athletes may not have the resources like Team USA, Canada, Japan and so have their own photographers, journalist to cover the games. That’s when we come in to support by providing them free subscription services such as photo access from Getty Images in partnership with the IOC.

About ANOC: ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committees) supports and represents all NOCs globally, providing coordination and resources, facilitating collaboration, promoting NOCs' interests, and acting as a liaison between the IOC and individual NOCs.

2. What does a day in the life look like for you?

A day in my life will involve waking up in the morning, entering the studio to check on communications from the 50+ countries in the digital accelerate program, liaising with country press attachés, and then moving on to production and photo shoots until bookings with National Olympic Committee athletes end around 6:30, after which I can relax, attend other events, and explore Paris; overall, it requires discipline and is a nonstop, three-week event.

3. What is something people don’t know about working as a photographer at the Olympics?

Many people don’t realize that there’s a group of "hidden" elves backend support personnel working around the venues without accreditation, who provide essential support to the Games, proving that not all heroes need to be in the spotlight.

4. Anything else?

It is very physical and mentally demanding, as a photographer I’m trying to get use to the backend role this time around as in times I do personally get FOMO seeing my peers going to venue shooting but I understand my job and what is required out of me.

See more of Annice's work HERE.

Interesting Discoveries

I spend hours on LinkedIn & love finding posts that inspire thought and teach me how to be a better writer on the platform.

Since the Olympics is wrapping up, here are some Olympic-related posts that just went viral:

Quick Thoughts

First up, a mini confession: I haven't been watching the Olympics.

The only thing I watched in full was the Opening Ceremony and let's just say... that I'm glad I never thought to buy any of those €2,700 tickets (again, lots of reels from people who DID & what they got).

But in a strange way, I feel as though I didn't miss out on anything.

Anything I 'needed to know', I knew thanks to social media - I'm quite sure I'm not the only one.

Setting that aside, let's talk about these posts and some quick lessons to extract:

Jump on the trend: You might not be watching the Olympics, but you'll know that it's on. And you'll likely know some of the same characters that every on earth does. Like the silver medalist sharp shooter from Turkey (those memes have gotten out of control) & Simone Biles dominating her sport as always. When writing, it's good to create evergreen content but writing content about something that everyone cares about right now is also a good bet.
Be story-driven: Olympics is the greatest show on earth because it's about the individual stories and HEROES that emerge. Each of these posts (save the last one) focus on a particular HERO and highlight why we should care about them. When writing, remember who the HERO of your story is - how can you make your readers care about them?
Make it Relevant: Don't just write about trendy topics because it's trendy. Make sure it aligns with why you're writing. Take Maya Raichoora as an example - she could've written about Simone Biles' entire sporting history but she chose instead to write from a mental health/power of visualisation angle, because she is in the mental fitness industry. It aligns with her work and thus, makes it relevant for her existing audience.

Now I'm off to prep for Part 2 of the STIMY interview with Dato' Sri Idris Jala!

I managed to record some lessons for the Build Your Why course earlier this week in the studio too so for those who have signed up, keep your eyes peeled for some big updates!

See you next Friday!

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