So I graduated in 1989 and back in those days, you know, opportunities. And it was in Singapore. That's where I was born. And so we even though, you know, I would prefer to be in academia. But, you know, some of us have to take care of our family first and foremost. So I picked the job offer that came to me that paid me the most. So, you know, even though I was offered to go on, you know, pretty much a straight line track in the university that I was from, which is National University of Singapore. I chose theater ties, ING Agency that paid me more. That says, at the same time, I was also born. I wanted to be the anchor broadcast journalist, which I was also offered the job. But in the end again, you know, you kind of like just me under whatever opportunity that came with your needs. So that's where I started. Um, the good thing is, obviously, you know, being in the private sector during the nineties, where Asia was really enjoying a lot of prosperity. So I had a tremendous of opportunities and tremendous amount of kind of like, learning that I could just acquire at my fingertips. So I hope skip them jumped from Singapore to Hong Kong, which is pretty much the hub of marketing. So I ended up in Hong Kong and from there was able to go on international So with a very advertising agencies that I worked with, like B B, d o, Dentsu, DDB and and all those you know, large American and also multinationals. You know, I became very quickly, kind of like networked into the international advertising community. And that being said now, I still felt like I should somehow be in Ecuador, S O. You know, 20 years later, I went back to the University of Hong Kong through my master's and PhD, and after that here I am not the University of Florida, you know, half a step in advertising, a marketing and the other half mentoring and being the educator. So that's kind of like the short answer to where I am today.

um, I would say that, you know, being the communicator, the top priority, the number one job that I had to fulfill or deliver is to make my college, which is my product. Once you know that the objective, everything else falls into place and everything else become, you know, the dots that you just need to connect with logistics and relationship and all that. So making your product no is the first, most important job. Um, in terms of work hours. Unfortunately, um, it's kind of flexible. I am like, if you've watched incredible the mom, she's also called Helen. And so, you know, you're kind of like the rubber band person, the official hours or 40 hours a week. But, you know, a lot of times, what I'm doing right now is after I put my son to bed, you know, do the household chores. I go back to work and go upstairs. I go back to work and about from 10 to 12 midnight, um, on any given week, that's about I don't really tally up the hours, But so you're talking about 40 hours plus another good two hours a day for five days a week, at least. And then, you know, weekends here and there. So it's pretty long. Yeah,

I think that speaking Thio, what other people may be experiencing because I'm in the communications and marketing person of a complex public university and so complexity is is something that is almost unique to my job. I feel that it didn't have that level of complexity when I was in the private sector, because in the private sector, you know, you are focusing on profit and almost, you know, of course, no consumer preferences and all that, but that is very much a clear objective. But if you're a public good, you know, you have a lot of other things that you have to take care of. So politically complex, the client base. You have students, parents, you have legislators, you have public officials. And so all those complexity is the major challenge. And with that, you know, as you can imagine, um, managing 13 people group. Everybody has their own ways and preferences. So that adds to, you know, everyone has their own level of complexity. Then you also have managed that. So So those air the challenges, um, another challenge that you'll hear a lot from marketing communications is that everyone else who is not in that area will wanna have because they feel that everyone is a consumer. So everyone feels that they are justified and, you know, valid to give a point. So then, you know, do you? How much respect and leeway do you do that particularly if you know your stakeholders versus how much you say? No. You know, you give advice to give counsel and believe and push through in your professional opinion is the best way forward. So you're so the second challenge will be battling a perception that everybody knows your job rather than you know better. That's the second challenge. You know, everything else becomes kind of like just normal day today, But those two are The biggest challenge is how to solve them a lot of times, In my view, as I get older and older, I believe everyone else is better educated than I am. What I may have, um, as an edge over other people, is the fact that you know I have ethnicity. I work you and Asia, you know yourself North Asian. But there are a lot of things that the Asian Mississippi or the ethnic values that we have that were raised help us if bull is at in terms off, you know, not too, too impatient not to get emotional too quickly. I find that that's something that maybe my younger colleagues lack. And some of my publication quality probably feel the challenged patients and emotional gravity, if you will. And then also, I would attribute it to the immigrants mentality. Being the immigrant, being an international worker, your next collaborator. You're naturally sensitive to otherness, and when you're sensitive to otherness, you will reach out. You will try to understand you will try to solve those problems. So those two things my ethnicity, human values and my, you know, immigrant mentality that gives rise to the collaborator mentality help a lot in terms of smoothing out wrinkles and and and overcoming these challenges.