Overcoming the Failure of My First Marriage ft. Rachel Lim | Aiken Chia

Rachel Lim is the co-founder of highly successful m Singapore Fashion Label - Love, Bonito. The ending of this interview shocked me in the best way possible. @rachreflects has showed me the importance of living wide awake, not just sailing through life, choosing to be better, not bitter, owning our authenticity and taking ownership of our growth. When I last checked, Rachel ever only spoke publicly about her divorce once and I would like to thank her for sharing her story so powerfully and vulnerably here.

00:00 - Introduction and how Rach and I know met
02:10 - Growing up as a middle child in a big family
03:35 - Experiencing family bankruptcy and moving into a 1 room flat
05:10 - Rachel's Mom's secret to never losing her joy
06:50 - Rachel's family dynamics
08:04 - How Love, Bonito was birthed
10:18 - Where were you in your personal life when business grew in scale?
11:52 - Starting with a vision/mission vs starting without
12:43 - On her business partner leaving the company
15:00 - Choosing to be bitter or better
17:20 - Discovering Love, Bonito's purpose
18:40 - Trying to emulate other leaders and why it didn't work
21:39 - What are your leadership strengths?
22:54 - How a Founder/Boss can also be a people-pleaser
26:44 - Advice to the recovering people-pleasers
29:10 - My practical experience on healthy confrontation
32:05 - The Failure of Rachel's first marriage
35:05 - Being married in her early 20s
37:00 - How did your family respond to your decision for the divorce?
38:10 - Going through process of divorce
39:25 - Did divorce make you cynical about marriage?
42:16 - How did you meet Leo?
43:29 - Any fears to confront after the first marriage?
44:44 - Is Leo more similar to you or different?
45:45 - How has Leo's differences positively complimented you?
48:05 - Stereotypes of marrying someone older
51:20 - How did you separate your titles from your identity?
55:00 - I am not the best CEO for the company I founded
1:05:40 - What do you spend money on?

This episode was filmed on 24th April 2023
Produced by: Gaius Gay
Videography: Charmaine Zheng
Editor: Axel Tan + Mark Yeow
2nd Camera: Nicole Tan
Sound: Virus
Created with the help of BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

🍔: @aikenchia | @charzheng | @gaiusgaye
💌: [email protected]