Clean Your Toilet Podcast

What if the real foundation of financial confidence wasn’t strategy or luck — but passion for the people and the conviction to stand the transformation it takes to make this dream a reality?In this episode, former NTUC Income CEO Tan Kin Lian sits down with Kat Aziz for a conversation that’s surprisingly unpolished, disarmingly honest, and refreshingly human. Long before he led one of Singapore’s biggest insurers, Tan Kin Lian grew up in a modest kampong, learning early that money wasn’t something to chase — it was something to understand, manage, and steward with intention.He shares how those childhood lessons shaped the rest of his life: why he committed to a long, steady career when society glorified fast achievement, how he built trust with millions of policyholders through transparency and simplicity, and why he still believes that financial wisdom begins with living below your means and knowing what “enough” looks like.But this conversation doesn’t romanticise frugality.Instead, it explores the quiet emotional truths behind his choices — the pressure of leadership, the responsibility of managing collective resources, and the personal values that kept him grounded even as success grew louder around him.You’ll hear Tan Kin Lian break down concepts we often overcomplicate:why clarity beats ambitionhow a simple life gives you more optionality, not lesswhy understanding risk is more important than avoiding itand how purpose — not prestige — has guided every major decision he’s madeAnd woven through the conversation is the same question that anchors Season 6:How do you build a life where money supports you, not defines you?If you’ve ever struggled with comparison, questioned your financial choices, or wondered whether success must come with stress, this episode offers a different blueprint — one built not on hustle, but on alignment.🧼 Your spending habits are the reflection.🚽 Your fears are the clog.💧 Clarity is the water that gets everything flowing again.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

What does it take to become one of the most successful businesses out there integrated with passion and intention?In this episode of the Clean Your Toilet Podcast, Sant Qiu, founder of Maneuver Marketing, a 9 figure business, sits down with Kat to unpack a journey that didn’t begin with confidence, clarity, or even a dream — but with survival. Growing up a sickly child in a small Indonesian town with limited access to healthcare, Sant learned early what it meant to be independent and to take care of himself. Those early lessons in resourcefulness became the backbone of everything he would eventually build.Before running multiple e-commerce brands in the health supplement space, Sant spent years in the trenches of SME coaching, marketing, self-development, and personal reinvention. His passions were never linear — and that’s precisely what shaped him. Fitness, marketing, psychology, business building… he layered each one over the years, combining them into a unique ecosystem of strategy, resilience, and real-world pragmatism.But the heart of this episode isn’t about hustle. It’s about clarity.Sant shares how passion alone is never enough — not if you want it to sustain you.You need proficiency. You need market reality. You need emotional resilience.His “3P” framework — Purpose, Proficiency, Profit — becomes a compass for anyone trying to build a life that doesn’t collapse under pressure.And in this conversation, Sant reveals the uncomfortable tension many of us carry:Do you start with what you love? Or do you start with what pays the bills?For Sant, the answer lies in integration. You don’t abandon your past, your skills, or your wounds. You learn from them. You use them. You combine them. And when you’re finally honest about what the market values — that’s when passion becomes sustainable.If you’ve ever found yourself:— Feeling torn between security and self-expression— Unsure whether your passion is “enough”— Wanting to pivot but terrified of losing stability— Or wondering how to build something that lasts…This episode is your reminder that passion isn’t magic — it’s mastery.And money isn’t the enemy — it’s information.The inner work is the strategic work.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

How can pure, simple and joyful dedication to your craft become a business big enough to outgrow the version of you who started it?For Ong Jing Ting, founder of Puffs and Peaks Bakery, that question has shaped every chapter of her 10-year journey. What started as a small Instagram side-hustle she ran with her mother slowly expanded into two physical bakeries, a growing team, and a life far bigger (and faster) than she ever imagined.But scaling a dream isn’t the same as living one.In this episode of the Clean Your Toilet Podcast, Jing Ting sits with anchor speaker Kat Aziz to revisit the quieter truths behind her success:the early years of selling trinkets, the strange clarity of realising recipes made more sense than textbooks, the blessing of finding passion young, and the emotional whiplash of becoming “a businesswoman” when all she wanted was to bake, connect, and create joy.They talk honestly about the turning points many creators face but seldom admit:✨ When passion meets pressure — which one wins?✨ When your business grows faster than you do, how do you keep from shrinking inside it?✨ When money enters the picture, can joy survive the spreadsheets?✨ What happens when you wake up one day and realise the thing you love now comes with payroll, leases, systems, and expectations?Jing Ting shares the moments she wanted to rewind everything, the fear of losing joy to responsibility, the bittersweet nostalgia of “simpler days” working alongside her mother, and the discipline it takes to build a business rooted not in expansion, but in quality, community and feeling.Because for her, success isn’t how many shops she has — it’s whether the people who walk through her doors feel seen, nourished, and a little more confident than when they arrived.If you’ve ever:Turned your passion into a job and wondered if you broke something along the wayStruggled with the fear that growth might cost you yourselfTried to balance joy with responsibilityQuestioned whether your dream still belongs to you…this conversation will feel like a deep breath you didn’t know you needed.🧼 Your joy is the spark.🚽 Your responsibilities are the clutter.💩 The overwhelm is the mess in between.Clear it, understand it, and maybe — like Jing Ting — you’ll remember why you started in the first place.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

When cruising in life becomes an experience of painful unhappiness and emptiness, and you see no other way out, stepping away from your familiar comfort to the unfamilar unknown can be the medicine you need to discover a new lease of life.For Anna Ong, creator of What’s Your Story Slam, her calling arrived in the most unexpected way — on a silent improv stage in New York.In this episode of the Clean Your Toilet Podcast, Anna shares the moment that changed everything: a pause, a feeling in her body, and a coach’s simple instruction — “When your body moves, don’t let your head stop you.” What followed was the first story she ever told aloud… a moment she describes as the skies opening and the angels singing. That night, she found not just her voice — but her purpose.But stories don’t become a livelihood overnight.When Anna returned to Singapore and told people she wanted to be a storyteller, they assumed she meant acting or Universal Studios. Personal narrative wasn’t a recognised craft — so she built it herself. What began as a one-off event became What’s Your Story Slam, now six years strong. And then something remarkable happened: opportunities started coming to her. Companies asked her to keynote. Executives hired her for narrative coaching. Strangers approached her for workshops. Her show became her marketing arm — and storytelling became her business.Throughout the conversation, Anna speaks with clarity and humility about the craft of story, the vulnerability it requires, and the emotional responsibility of helping others see themselves clearly on stage. She shares the joy of watching students shine for the first time, the power of the first paying client, and what it means to turn passion into something sustainable without losing its soul.If you’ve ever:✨ been told your passion isn’t “practical enough”✨ struggled to explain a calling that others don’t understand✨ wondered whether your personal story matters✨ or tried to build a business around something deeply human and deeply you…Anna’s journey will meet you exactly where you are.Her story is a reminder that passion doesn’t begin with certainty — it begins with a moment. A moment your body moves before your fear can stop you.🧼 Your story is your clarity.🚽 Your fears are the noise.💩 And the real work is learning which voice to trust.Tune in to rediscover the story you’re meant to tell — and the life it can lead you toward.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

Money is often a means to living with meaning and purpose. Taking it to the next level, what does it look like living and breathing money passionately, and impact livelihoods while doing so?For Reshveen Rajendran, CEO of Modern Wealth Academy, money was never just numbers — it was a money passion with a focus to uplift socio-economic statuses of folks wanting a better life, and it starts with a strong investment base.In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Resh sits down with anchor speaker Kat Aziz to unpack the years before his big breakthrough — the long stretch where he was a 19-year-old faced with a major wake-up call which he had to give up his known passions to carve a new passion path for himself. It took asking the hard questions most of us are afraid to confront:“How do ordinary people build extraordinary outcomes?”“Is wanting money shallow — or is it self-respect?”“And what if passion doesn’t come first… what if it forms only after you decide to pay attention?”Before he became known for investing and business teaching, Resh studied trends, behaviour, obsession, and value long before he taught anyone else how to do it. That curiosity became the seed of his financial journey.But his story isn’t a glossy rags-to-riches arc. Resh opens up about:Being dismissed as someone “good with money” but not understood for the hardship behind itRebuilding from zero while the world was shutting down in 2020Facing hate, doubt, and cultural beliefs around wealthRealising that mindset — not strategy — is what actually attracts or repels moneyKat and Resh also explore the emotional side of ambition: guilt around wanting wealth, the fear of instability, and how rebellion, family expectations and self-belief shape the way we chase opportunity.And this conversation lands where all honest money conversations eventually do:What do you really believe you deserve?Do your habits match the future you want?Can money and passion co-exist without burning you out?If you’ve ever:💰 Wanted to rebuild your life but didn’t know where to start🔥 Wondered why some people seem to attract opportunities🧠 Felt torn between stability and ambition💸 Or questioned whether your own money mindset is helping or sabotaging you…this episode will challenge the way you think about wealth — not as luck, privilege, or linear progression, but as energy, attention, and the courage to take yourself seriously.🧼 Your mindset is the water.🚽 Your old stories are the dirt.💩 Your money habits are the pipes.Clean out the blocks, and you might discover just how much flow your life has been capable of all along.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

What does it mean to inherit a business that wasn’t your dream — but becomes your responsibility, your teacher, and eventually, your purpose?In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Brillyn Toh sits down with Kat Aziz for a grounded, deeply human conversation about legacy, identity, and the emotional labour of running one of Singapore’s most beloved second-hand institutions: Hock Siong.Most people know Hock Siong for its pre-loved furniture, kampung charm, and the unspoken warmth of a family-run business. But behind the scenes is a daughter navigating expectations, change, and the quiet question many second-generation leaders carry:“If this path wasn’t chosen by me, can I still make it mine?”Brillyn opens up about growing up watching her parents build a business from necessity and grit, and the moment she realised that stewardship is a calling of its own. She speaks candidly about modernising a legacy brand without losing its soul, dealing with the pressure to honour what came before, and the complexity of leading teams who are called to evolve and transform as well.This is not a story about overnight success. It’s about slow leadership, anchored values, and learning to grow into a role that chooses you long before you choose it.Throughout the conversation, Brillyn and Kat explore:✨ What makes a legacy worth protecting — and what needs to change for it to survive✨ How financial responsibility shapes passion, purpose, and boundaries✨ Why second-generation entrepreneurs often feel torn between duty and desire✨ The hidden emotional work of caring for staff, community, and customers✨ The freedom that comes from redefining success on your own timelineIf you’ve ever struggled with expectation, inherited pressure, or the fear of disappointing the people who raised you…If you’ve ever questioned whether the life you’re living is yours or something you inherited…If you’re learning what it means to honour the past while building a future that feels true…This episode will sit with you long after it ends.🧼 Your story is allowed to evolve.🚽 The legacy you inherited does not have to trap you — it can grow with you.💛 And sometimes, the work that feels least chosen becomes the work that shapes you most.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

When does a hobby become a serious passion to monetize systematically, to live and breathe from?In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, botanical artist and founder of InOut Atelier, Ming Kuang, sits down with Kat Aziz to unpack what it really costs to build a life around the work you love. Before he was sculpting moss into miniature worlds, he was trained in architecture — steady job, clear path, predictable future. Until he realised that the life he was building looked stable on paper… but felt hollow on the inside.Leaving architecture wasn’t a brave leap — it was a terrifying calculation.What if this new journey doesn’t fit me? What if I earn less than my full-time job? What if I’m wrong?And the hardest part wasn’t money.It was the inner demons — the voices that said you’re not good enough, your craft won’t sustain you, people won’t value what you make.But that’s where his philosophy crystallised:If your passion can’t pay you yet, it doesn’t mean you chose wrongly —it means you have to hone your craft until the world can see what you see.Through stories of clients, tiny figurines, 3D-printed memories, and the meditative quiet of moss work, Ming Kuang shares how he builds landscapes that hold people’s most intimate moments — proposals, milestones, grief, joy. And he explains why “zen” isn’t an aesthetic; it’s a discipline you earn through repetition, precision, and patience.This conversation dives deep into:💭 The real definition of passion (and why most people confuse it with hobby)💭 How to decide if your passion can carry your life — or just your weekends💭 Why inner resistance is the real battlefield, not money💭 The emotional cost of choosing an artist’s path💭 How to know if it’s time to leave your stable jobAnd at the heart of it:Why do we spend one-third of our life working… only to be miserable?Ming Kuang reminds us that work is not just about time. It’s about aliveness, contentment, and crafting a day — and a life — you can stand behind.If you’ve ever:wondered whether your passion is “enough,”questioned if you have the discipline to make your craft sustainable,struggled with fear, identity, or the expectations of others,or felt torn between survival and soul……this conversation offers clarity, courage, and the honest, grounded truth from someone who has walked that bridge barefoot.🧼 Your craft is the landscape.🚽 Your insecurities are the overgrown weeds.💩 And your inner demons? They’re the shadows you must trim back — again and again — to let your real work shine.Clear the noise. Honour the craft. Build the life you’re meant to shape.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

When you’re a new mother running on fumes, juggling business calls between feeds, and losing track of who you are beyond the roles you hold — the smallest inconvenience can become the turning point.For Eugenia Ye-Yeo, founder of Nodspark, it wasn’t a grand moment of revelation. It was chipped nails, busy days, and the quiet frustration of wanting to feel put-together without sacrificing precious minutes she didn’t have. What started as a personal pain point became the seed of a brand now beloved across Singapore: a fuss-free beauty solution designed for real modern women with busy lives.But this episode isn’t just about nail wraps or entrepreneurship. It’s about the invisible labour behind the things we build — the motherhood guilt, the exhaustion you hide, the pressure to be “on” even when you want for rest, and the courage required to build something gentle in a world that demands hardness.In this conversation, Eugenia sits down with Kat Aziz for one of the most honest, vulnerable episodes of the season as they unpack:The myth of “doing it all” — and what it actually costs women who try.The emotional and physical burnout of building a business while mothering young children.The guilt-tax women pay when they prioritise themselves, even for a moment.Why convenience is not vanity, but survival — and how Nodspark was born from that truth.How a brand can be an extension of identity rather than a mask to hide behind.The tension between passion and responsibility, and why women often feel they must apologise for their ambition.What emerges is not a founder story polished for LinkedIn — but a deeply human narrative about reclaiming identity, choosing ease without shame, and building a business that supports life rather than competes with it.And that’s the heart of Season 6:In a world obsessed with hustle, how do you make money in ways that honour your passion, your limits, and your humanity?If you’ve ever found yourself torn between caring for others and caring for your dreams…If you’ve ever wondered whether convenience can be meaningful…If you’ve ever felt guilty for wanting more ease, more time, more space to breathe…This episode will meet you exactly where you are.🧼 Your energy is the resource.🚽 Your patterns are the plumbing.💛 Your truth is the redesign.Make it flow — and let yourself be supported by the life you’re building.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

What if you could find alignment to your passion, and overcome your internal conflicts through an innerwork process? Anita Kapoor offers just such a short demonstration on how to do so with our anchor speaker Kat Aziz to access a different experience. In this intimate conversation, Anita Kapoor sits down for one of her most honest, unfiltered reflections on identity, meaning, and the lifelong journey of becoming who you actually are. Known for her two decades of work across television, writing, advocacy and wellbeing, Anita has lived many lives. But as she shares here, the real work wasn’t in the career pivots — it was in learning to listen to herself again.From the start, Anita challenges the cultural narratives that shape us: the conditioning that tells us who we “should” be, the pressures to perform, the patterns we unconsciously repeat because we’ve been taught to prioritise approval over authenticity. She speaks about the years it took to unlearn these scripts, the cost of living out of alignment, and the quiet relief that comes when you stop running from your own truth.This episode goes deeper than passion as a buzzword. Anita reframes it as a life force — something shaped by your wounds, your wisdom, and all the versions of yourself you’ve had to shed along the way. She talks about the reckoning that comes with midlife, the discomfort of honest self-inquiry, and the radical idea that “success” only holds meaning when it’s grounded in self-trust and self-knowledge. At the heart of this conversation is a tension we all face:How do you honour your inner calling while navigating the reality of earning a living?Anita doesn’t offer easy answers — instead, she offers the more powerful truth: making passion and money work is not a formula, but a relationship. And it starts with knowing who you are beneath the noise.Together, we explore themes of:- Identity beyond job titles- Cultural conditioning and inherited expectations -The evolution of passion across a lifetime- The emotional cost of misalignment- The inner work required to build a meaningful, sustainable life- Learning to choose yourself without guiltIf you’ve ever questioned the life you’re living…If you’ve ever felt torn between meaning and survival…If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to build a version of success that actually feels like yours…This episode will meet you exactly where you are.🧼 Your truth is the clean water.🚽 Your conditioning is the mess in the bowl.💩 And the patterns that keep repeating? That’s the sludge we’re here to talk about.This is Anita Kapoor — raw, real, and ready to help you look inward.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #MoneyAndPassion #PersonalTransformation

When a flamboyant, colorful kid learns to hide himself because the world tells him he’s “too much,” you don’t just get a story about fashion — you get a story about survival. In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Leonard Cheong, founder of Singapore’s first gender-fluid athleisure label, joins Barbara Latimer for a raw conversation about suppression, bullying, and the long road back to authenticity.Most people think the hardest part of building a business is the grind: raising funds, managing operations, keeping up with trends. But what if the real battle isn’t in the market — it’s in the mirror?Leonard grew up loving drama, color, and flair. But teachers told him boys shouldn’t move that way. Classmates mocked him for being “too gaudy.” Even adults piled on, until he learned to shrink himself into something more acceptable. The result? A silence that lasted years. Only through the process of designing — first for himself, then for others — did he begin to reclaim the pieces of identity he’d buried.His brand isn’t just a clothing line. It’s a declaration that life doesn’t have to fit into rigid categories. Athflo, his “athletic + flow” aesthetic, emerged from his own need for clothes that could carry him from workouts to travel to work. But behind every seam and stitch lies a deeper truth: this is about creating space for people who, like him, were told they didn’t belong.And that’s the tension at the heart of this conversation.On one side: a culture that still polices gender, expression, and identity. On the other: the liberating act of designing for who you really are. Between them lies a messy middle every creative eventually confronts:Do I keep conforming to expectations, or do I risk being seen?How do I create work that reflects who I am without apology?What does it take to turn personal liberation into public leadership?Leonard shares openly about the cost of hiding, the liberation of expression, and the ongoing struggle to balance authenticity with acceptance. His journey is not just about fashion — it’s about reclaiming identity after years of erasure.If you’ve ever:Been told you were “too much” or “not enough”Felt the sting of bullying that made you question your worthWondered if there’s room in the world for your full, authentic self…this episode is your reminder that sometimes the most trailblazing thing you can do is to show up exactly as you are.🧼 Authenticity is the clean water.🚽 Suppression is the clogged pipe.💩 Shame is the sludge that blocks the flow.When you clear the pipes of judgment, you create space for color, movement, and life to stream through without apology.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters#LivingAuthentically #Trailblazing #DiscoverIdentity #Transformation #Personal Growth #GenderFluid #GenderFluidFashion

Food is never just food. For Yeo Min, pastry chef and author, every recipe is a story, every ingredient a memory, and every dish a link between past and present. In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Barbara Latimer enters her kitchen of ideas to talk about heritage, identity, and what it means to preserve more than just flavors.Most people think the hardest part of choosing a career is mastering the skills: the exams, the training, the hours of practice. But what if the deeper struggle is explaining why your choices matter at all?Yeo Min’s story didn’t begin with cookbooks or pastry courses. It began with social work — a path she pursued out of care for people and community. But studying overseas in London brought unexpected questions. When classmates rejected her pandan cake for being green, such encounters nudged her wrestle with identity: was food just something to eat, or was it something more? Slowly, she began to see that cooking could be activism, storytelling, and preservation rolled into one.Today, through her writing and the Museum of Food, she documents recipes not just as instructions but as cultural memory. Each dish is an archive of conversations with seniors, a record of techniques that risk being lost, a bridge between generations. Her work asks us to consider what’s worth carrying forward — and how easily the details of heritage can disappear if no one pays attention.And that’s the tension at the heart of this conversation.On one side: a world obsessed with food as content, aesthetics, and trend. On the other: the deeper calling to preserve food as memory, story, and truth. Between them lies the messy middle every culture must confront:What parts of heritage are we willing to let go of?Can preservation happen without becoming nostalgia?How does food become both survival and identity?Yeo Min speaks with candor and warmth about what it means to pivot careers, challenge expectations, and carry heritage in the most everyday of mediums: what we eat. Her story is a reminder that preservation isn’t passive — it’s active, creative, and deeply personal.If you’ve ever:Felt out of place because of what you carried from homeWondered whether your traditions still matter in a changing worldWanted to connect to your past but weren’t sure where to start…this episode is your invitation to taste memory differently.🧼 Heritage is the clean water.🚽 Forgetfulness is the slow leak.💩 Dismissal is the residue that erodes culture.Pay attention, hold onto the details, and let what nourishes you also remind you who you are.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #TrailBlazing#FoodIdentity #CulturalPreservation #StoriesThroughFood #HeritageInEveryBite

From prison officer to real estate entrepreneur, Melvin Lim’s (Property Lim Brothers) path was never straightforward. In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, he and Barbara Latimer dive into the messy evolution of a career that began in uniform and grew into multiple businesses, including one of Singapore’s most recognized real estate brands.Most people assume the hardest part of entrepreneurship is scaling up: hiring teams, managing systems, keeping the numbers afloat. But what if the real challenge is learning to shift your mindset — from chasing the next commission to seeing humans as more than transactions?Melvin entered real estate in what he calls the “cowboy era” of the industry. It was fast, unregulated, and rewarding to anyone who closed quick deals. For years, he treated clients like one-off commissions. But then came what he describes as a drought season: deals dried up, momentum stalled, and he was forced to ask deeper questions about what kind of leader — and man — he wanted to become.That crisis became a turning point. Instead of quitting, Melvin recalibrated. He read voraciously, studied business and leadership, and began to build not just sales but relationships. From there, he pioneered storytelling in real estate marketing, bringing video tours and lifestyle-driven narratives to a market that had barely left flyers behind. Today, he leads multiple ventures, but he still credits that season of drought as the moment he stopped hustling blindly and started leading with intention.And that’s the tension at the heart of this conversation.On one side: the lure of quick wins, commissions, and surface-level success. On the other: the slower, harder work of building trust, systems, and legacy. Between them lies a messy middle every entrepreneur eventually faces:Do I measure myself by deals closed or lives impacted?How do I reinvent when the old way of working no longer works?Can failure be the doorway to a different kind of growth?Melvin doesn’t shy away from the hard truths. He admits to his early mistakes, the cost of ego, and the temptations of shortcuts. But he also shows what’s possible when you stop seeing people as dollar signs and start seeing them as families, communities, and stories.If you’ve ever:Chased external markers of success only to feel empty afterwardWondered if your “drought season” was a sign to quit or a call to growWanted to lead with more purpose but didn’t know where to start…this episode is your reminder that trailblazing isn’t about avoiding the desert — it’s about who you become when you walk through it.🧼 Integrity is the clean water.🚽 Ego is the clogged pipe.💩 Shortcuts are the sludge that pollute your flow.Never mistake the drought for the end of the story.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters #TrailBlazing #ReinventIdentity#ValuesBasedLeadership #Entrepreneurship #FromHustleToPurpose #RealEstateReinvented

Some people create because they can. Chiang Ming Yang creates because he can’t not. In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Barbara Latimer dives deep with him into the obsession, exhaustion, and experimentation that come from pushing creative limits — and paying for it out of your own pocket.Most people think burnout is caused by overwork. For Ming Yang, it was caused by over-care.His path into film was never planned. At university, when no one else in his group wanted to touch the camera, he volunteered — the “sacrificial lamb” who had to teach himself how to shoot, light, and edit from scratch. That accident became a career. From there, he built a name for himself in advertising and commercial film, mastering the language of brands and clients. But something in him kept asking: What else is possible?Corporate work paid the bills, but passion projects fed his soul — even when they drained his savings. Car chases that didn’t make financial sense. Elaborate set-ups that no one asked for. Experimental edits that took weeks instead of days. Ming Yang poured himself, his time, and his money into work that challenged both industry norms and personal limits. Each project was a statement: creativity is worth paying for, even when you’re the one footing the bill.But there’s a cost to that kind of devotion. During COVID, the pace caught up with him. Hospitalized from burnout, Ming Yang had to face the truth that not every creative breakthrough is worth the toll it takes on the body. Recovery forced him to ask harder questions: What does enough look like? Where does passion end and self-punishment begin?And that’s the tension at the heart of this conversation.On one side: the relentless pursuit of craft, excellence, and innovation. On the other: the human need for rest, sustainability, and self-respect. Between them lies the messy middle every creator eventually confronts:How do you keep pushing boundaries without breaking yourself?Can passion coexist with balance?What happens when your art demands more than you can give?Ming Yang speaks with raw honesty about the thin line between discipline and obsession, the pride of self-funding his vision, and the humility it takes to slow down without losing momentum. His story is both a warning and an invitation — a reminder that mastery isn’t about giving everything; it’s about knowing what to give, and when to stop.If you’ve ever:Spent your own money chasing a creative visionEquated exhaustion with achievementLoved your craft so fiercely it almost broke you…this episode is your mirror.🧼 Passion is the clean water.🚽 Overinvestment is the clog.💩 Burnout is the residue that clouds the lens.Protect your energy, refine your focus, and remember — even the brightest light needs shadow to define its depth.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters#CreativeObsession #PassionProjects #FilmmakingLife #BurnoutRecovery #Trailblazing #ReinventIdentity

What happens when your career plan intersects with your family’s legacy? For Chan Weitian, a software engineer and startup founder, it meant swapping out code and venture pitches for laundry machines and customer tickets. In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Barbara Latimer explores with him the messy truth of second-generation succession: duty, identity, and the quiet weight of stepping into a business you didn’t choose.Most people imagine family businesses as inheritances waiting to be collected — stable, profitable, and ready for handover. But what if the reality is far less glamorous? What if the “succession plan” is simply a hole that needs plugging, and you’re the only one who can do it?Weitian grew up helping at his parents’ dry-cleaning shop, folding clothes and tagging orders, long before he learned coding. Later, he built his own path in tech, chasing the excitement of startups. But when his parents began to step back, the choice wasn’t abstract — the family business needed him. Returning meant more than just operating machines; it meant reconciling two very different worlds: his parents’ survival-driven entrepreneurship and his own generation’s search for strategy, innovation, and purpose.And that’s the tension at the heart of this conversation.On one side: tradition, built on sacrifice and sheer willpower. On the other: innovation, built on systems and fresh ideas. Between them lies a messy middle that every successor must navigate:How do you honor your family’s story while writing your own?Where’s the line between responsibility and self-betrayal?Can a legacy business become a platform for reinvention, not just repetition?Weitian speaks candidly about the guilt, the pragmatism, and the unexpected pride that come with taking the reins. His journey reminds us that trailblazing isn’t always about starting something new — sometimes it’s about breathing new life into what already exists.If you’ve ever:Felt the pull between personal ambition and family responsibilityWondered if “duty” and “dreams” can coexistInherited something you weren’t sure you wanted…this episode is your reminder that the mess of legacy can also be a workshop for growth.🧼 Responsibility is the clean water.🚽 Resentment is the blockage.💩 Guilt is the residue that lingers if you don’t clear it out.Keep the cycle running, choose what to preserve, and remember: every system — whether code or cleaning — needs maintenance to keep flowing.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters#FamilyBusiness #SecondGenerationLeadership #Trailblazing #Transformation #PersonalGrowth #LegacyAndInnovation #DutyAndDreams

When a kid who’s been called “lazy,” “stupid,” and “hopeless” discovers he might actually be a genius, you don’t just get a feel-good redemption story — you get a powerful reminder of how fragile and transformative belief can be. In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Adam Khoo sits down with Barbara Latimer to revisit the messy beginnings of his journey: expulsion in Primary 3, rejection from every secondary school, and the shame of being the family “idiot” when all his cousins were thriving at Raffles and ACS.Most people think the hardest part of school is the exams, the late nights, the endless grind. But what if the real burden isn’t the workload — it’s the labels we carry?For Adam, the turning point was a five-day “Super Teen” camp led by his mentor, Ernest Wong. Until then, teachers called him dumb, parents said he was lazy, and he believed them. Ernest was the first to look him in the eye and say: “Whatever others can achieve, you can too. It’s all a question of beliefs and strategy.” Naïve enough to believe it, Adam walked away with a new identity — and the spark that would change his life.But his story isn’t a straight-line transformation. Adam shares how being the underdog became his strength when he later stood in front of students. Instead of lecturing from a place of authority, he built trust through vulnerability. His PSLE results were worse than theirs, his expulsion story rawer — and that relatability became his superpower. If he could turn things around, so could they.And that’s the tension at the heart of this conversation.On one side: the limiting beliefs we inherit from authority figures, families, and culture. On the other: the possibility that one voice, one mentor, one program can rewrite our story. Between them lies a messy middle filled with questions every one of us eventually faces:Do I let the labels of my past define me?Am I willing to be “naïve” enough to believe in my own potential?How do rapport and vulnerability actually unlock change?Adam doesn’t gloss over the realities either. He admits most students in his programs don’t want to be there — dragged by parents, skeptical, resistant. The first day is often wasted unless he can break through their walls. But that’s where his journey comes full circle: because he knows what it feels like to be dismissed as hopeless, he knows how to reach those who’ve stopped believing.If you’ve ever:Felt crushed by the labels others gave youWondered if a single experience can change a lifeStruggled to motivate yourself or others in the face of doubt…this episode is your reminder that transformation is rarely clean. It’s messy, uncomfortable, and sometimes works only because you dared to believe before you had evidence.🧼 Your belief is the clean water.🚽 Old labels are the clogged pipes.💩 Doubt is the sludge that keeps you stuck.Clear them out, let new strategies flow, and see how different your reflection looks when the water finally runs clean.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #WhatTrulyMatters#Trailblazing #Transformation #PersonalDevelopment #InspireOthers #GrowthMindset #BelieveInYourself

Adulthood isn’t a straight line. It’s a juggling act — a little bit of survival, a little bit of dreaming, and a lot of mess. Joanne Xie knows this firsthand. As the founder of a lifestyle brand born during COVID, she never had a mentor, a map, or even much money. What she had was instinct, generosity, and a stubborn belief that she could figure it out as she went.In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Joanne shares what she calls her “butterfly cycle”: the phases of transformation that come fast, stall unexpectedly, or stretch far longer than expected. Some cycles were about business — sourcing products, building partnerships, risking collaborations that sometimes backfired. Others were about identity — being a solopreneur in her twenties, carving space for herself in a market that didn’t offer much guidance. Through it all, she carried the chaos of adulthood: finances, friendships, responsibilities that don’t wait for your timing.Travel became her therapy, offering distance from the noise. In Japan, away from expectations, Joanne found herself returning to the simple questions: what do I want, and who am I becoming? Susan Chen listens closely and reframes the story: strategy is often presented as control, but in reality, it’s about learning how to meet uncertainty without breaking. Together, they explore how business and selfhood grow in parallel — each misstep shaping not only a company, but a person.Key questions emerge:How do you build a business when you have no blueprint?What does it mean to trust intuition when chaos is louder than clarity?Can adulthood itself be seen not as a burden, but as a creative cycle?Joanne’s honesty is both practical and poetic. Juggling, she reminds us, isn’t about perfect balance — it’s about learning which balls can be dropped, which must be caught, and which new ones you dare to throw in the air.🧼 Curiosity is the clean water.🚽 Perfectionism is the drain.💩 Comparison, fear, self-doubt? That’s the clog.Keep juggling. Keep flying. Keep becoming.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #MessyButWorthIt#ButterflyCycle #Joanne #Entrepreneurship #SolopreneurJourney #IdentityAndBusiness #AdulthoodUnscripted #LifeInChaos

Most people think love is about romance, balance, or even compromise. But Leila Ng — childbirth educator, doula, trauma-informed space holder — offers a different lens: love is work, and often the kind you’d rather avoid. It’s like peeling an onion. Layer by layer, you discover hurt, history, and vulnerability you didn’t know were still inside. Tears are guaranteed. But so is growth.In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Leila opens up about partnership, marriage, and the hidden labor of intimacy. She shares how emotional safety, not romance, is the oxygen of relationships — and how fights are rarely about what they seem. A complaint about dishes might really be about not feeling heard; a sigh at bedtime might mask years of unspoken need. Susan Chen listens and reflects on how triggers and venting are not signs of weakness, but survival strategies that demand respect.Together, they map out how identity shifts within love. Leila speaks about how becoming a mother, a partner, and an entrepreneur blurred into one continuous negotiation: who am I when so much of me belongs to others? Susan highlights the parallels to leadership, where building trust and holding space requires the same patience as nurturing a family. The conversation is messy, tender, and unapologetically real.Key questions emerge:What does emotional safety actually look like in daily life?How do we recognize venting not as complaint, but as a plea for connection?When identity changes — as a parent, as a partner — how can love evolve alongside it?Leila’s voice reminds us that the work of love is never finished, and never wasted. The onion is not there to punish you with tears; it’s there to help you uncover the flavors of who you really are.🧼 Vulnerability is the clean water.🚽 Pretending everything is fine is the drain.💩 Dismissal, neglect, silence? That’s the clog.Peel the layers. Cry the tears. Taste the truth.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #MessyButWorthIt#LoveAndIdentity #EmotionalSafety #InnerWorkOnion #Partnerships #TriggersAndTrust #Leila #RelationshipsThatHeal

Ten years ago, Sophia Philippon-Tan was given a sentence, not a choice: acute myeloid leukemia, six months to live. Doctors spoke in absolutes, charts and probabilities. But Sophia felt something different rise up in her body: rage. A refusal. A quiet, stubborn no.In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Sophia retraces the journey from patient to protagonist — from lying in a hospital bed surrounded by statistics, to reclaiming her life one decision at a time. She speaks about the strange psychology of illness: how being told you are dying can strip you of agency before death itself arrives, and how survival sometimes begins with the simplest act of resistance.What followed was not an easy miracle. The treatments were brutal, the hospital stays long, and others she witnessed going through the same thing did not always make it. But Sophia’s story is not framed in sentimentality. It is framed in boundaries. The cancer, that stemmed from her internal resentment, forced her to redraw every line in her life: when to say yes, when to say no, and how to stop being the person who accepted every demand at the cost of her own well-being. Illness became a ruthless teacher — and oddly, a liberator.Susan Chen listens closely and reflects on the parallels to professional and personal life: how often we wait for crisis to give us permission to say no, and how identity can be reshaped by the very things we once feared would destroy it. Together, they examine what it means to live beyond survival, to carry both gratitude and exhaustion, and to tell your own story before others tell it for you.Key questions emerge:What happens when mortality becomes the sharpest boundary of all?How do you live differently when you realize survival is not guaranteed?What shifts when you stop being a patient in someone else’s system, and start becoming the author of your own?Sophia’s honesty cuts through the veil of survival stories. This is not about beating cancer with positivity — it’s about refusing to be edited out of your own life.🧼 Defiance is the clean water.🚽 Helplessness is the drain.💩 Fear, silence, resignation? That’s the clog.Say no. Say yes. And say it on your own terms.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #MessyButWorthIt#CancerSurvivor #Sophia #IdentityAfterIllness #Boundaries #ReclaimYourStory #RefusalAsStrength #FromPatientToProtagonist

As a senior operations manager, Angelia Ng was ordered to terminate a colleague. On paper, it was just a business decision. But to Angelia, it was a betrayal of values — a line she refused to cross. That decision cost her the role, but it also gave her something more enduring: a compass. Integrity became the strategy that would guide her life.In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Angelia reflects on the pivot from corporate security to entrepreneurship, from following orders to writing her own. She shares how she built a business to support women on the path to parenthood — couples navigating IVF, mothers carrying loss, families piecing together resilience. The business was never just about revenue; it was about creating spaces where compassion could live alongside science.But values don’t exempt anyone from struggle. Angelia recounts how a family health crisis, followed by the upheaval of COVID-19, threatened to close her doors. In that limbo, she wrote to her clients, offering refunds she could barely afford. Their answer stunned her: We’ll wait for you. That trust, born from years of choosing relationships over transactions, became the proof that integrity had never been weakness. It was her strongest asset.Susan Chen draws out the parallels to leadership and identity: how staying true to your principles may slow your climb in conventional systems, but creates deeper reservoirs of loyalty and strength when crisis hits. Together, they explore the tension between numbers and values — and what it means to build a life that counts differently.Key questions emerge:What is the cost of saying no to the corporate script?How do we measure success when the numbers contradict our values?Can a business built on compassion survive in a world obsessed with profit?Angelia’s story reminds us that reinvention isn’t about abandoning ambition — it’s about rewriting what ambition serves. Sometimes strategy is not growth at all costs, but growth with the right costs.🧼 Integrity is the clean water.🚽 Blind obedience is the drain.💩 Compromise, betrayal, short-term wins? That’s the clog.Lead with values. Build with endurance.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #MessyButWorthIt#IntegrityAsStrategy #WomenInBusiness #ParenthoodSupport #IVFJourney #CompassionInLeadership #Angelia #ValuesOverNumbers #ResilientEntrepreneurship

For two decades, Theresa Goh was synonymous with one thing: swimming. A Paralympian, national record-holder, and decorated athlete, she carried an identity that sparkled in medals and headlines. But when the cheering stopped in 2019 and retirement set in, she faced a quieter and more difficult question: who am I without the pool?In this episode of Clean Your Toilet, Theresa sits with Susan Chen to talk about the identity shifts that come with leaving behind the one role that once defined you. For athletes, retirement often feels like free fall — not because the training stops, but because the mirror does. The world remembers your lane lines, your splits, your podiums. Few are ready to meet you as a human first.Theresa shares how she navigated that liminal space: experimenting with shooting sports, working at the Singapore Disability Sports Council, and refusing to let her story calcify around a single chapter. She speaks candidly about the stubbornness of public perception — how strangers still ask if she’s competing, and how retirement can feel like a refusal others won’t accept. Susan reflects on similar transitions in business and identity, drawing out how reinvention isn’t about discarding the old self, but layering it into something broader.This conversation also touches the deeper currents beneath sport: disability advocacy, the invisibility of emotional labor, and the cultural fixation on external achievement. Theresa reminds us that medals are powerful symbols, but they cannot replace meaning — and that meaning is built in the quieter hours when no one is watching.Key questions emerge:How do you step beyond a label that others refuse to let go of?What happens when the public clings to your past success more tightly than you do?How do you find identity not in medals, but in the everyday work of growth and care?Theresa’s honesty reframes retirement not as an end, but as a beginning — a chance to keep moving, to keep discovering, and to build a self that no podium could ever contain.🧼 Curiosity is the clean water.🚽 Old labels are the drain.💩 Nostalgia and fear of change? That’s the clog.Step out of the pool. Step into yourself.#CleanYourToiletPodcast #GetReal #InnerWork #PersonalMastery #MessyButWorthIt#TheresaGoh #LifeAfterSport #FromMedalsToMeaning #AthleteIdentity #Reinvention #DisabilityAdvocacy #BeyondThePodium #RetirementAsBeginning