The Belinda Esterhammer Show

I met this week's guest - fitness entrepreneur Madeleine Chu - in my gym and she quickly became a favourite trainer of mine and we discovered that we share many similarities - from both being mixed Cantonese-Caucasians to our entrepreneurial spirit and to us both having lost our dad.

Tune in to the episode and learn…

How an injury became her lucky escape from her dream of becoming a ballerina

Her journey to becoming a sports entrepreneur

What it felt like growing up in a small town in the UK as mixed Caucasian and Cantonese

The turnover time of baking organic doughnuts

How there’s a lesson in every moment of sadness

How she took time out for herself and received bad news which put her on a completely different path in life

How her dad’s death changed her life and perspective

Lessons from dealing with loss

Head over to www.belindaesterhammer.com/podcast for more.

I always said that getting a divorce is easier than splitting up from a startup cofounder. My podcast guest Enkhe confirmed my hypothesis.

Learn from my guest Enkhbolor Gantulga what a previous startup split and her own divorce have in common; how she co-parents her daughter across different countries, especially now during COVID-19 and how before 2011 Mongolia didn't even have a word for startup.

Find out more about the Mongolian startup ecosystem and how she worked on building a startup ecosystem in 2011 with the godfather of the Mongolian startups Oko D.

For the show notes visit www.belindaesterhammer.com/podcast

I get it. Starting a business in the midst of a global economic crisis is the last thing on your lockdown to-do list. But maybe you've watched all there is that Netflix has to offer, baked all the banana bread you can bake and you've run out of dance moves to share on TikTok.

Successful businesses were often born in challenging times. The likes of Airbnb, Disney, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Slack, Pinterest, Uber, and Venmo are just a few that were established during or right after recessions.

For the show notes visit www.belindaesterhammer.com/podcast

Learn how Riya left her office job to become a full-time artist. Why we should stop feeling unworthy and punish ourselves. How she overcame anorexia and how that led to breaking shame and taboos becoming a massive part of her life. How that ties in with gender equality and taking up space. How cereal boxes can be complex and the epitome of capitalism. Why female bodies are fucking magical and males should stop sexualizing them. How she reclaims women’s role in history and portraits them in all glory inspired by Indo-Persian Miniature paintings.

Role models are nice to have but problematic. In this episode, I talk about role models, how I never had one when growing up, and why it's ok to be your own role model... Or how to DIY your role model.

It's much better to admire someone’s journey and path in life rather than the person they then become once they are successful. I am fascinated by rags to riches stories as that really shows the true character of a person and those stories are packed with learnings and resilience.

Several years ago, the term "The Future is Female" started to pop up everywhere and it became so mainstream that fast fashion brands were selling underwear with this slogan. The future is Female slogan always felt more like a trend and hype than really being this movement. Women, in much of the world are on the bottom of the hierarchy and I agree that we need a future where females are empowered because in the past and also throughout history human meant by default male. But the future is not just female - we need to reach overall diversity and we need to go way deeper. We need diversity of race, diversity when it comes to age and diversity of thought. The future is always now and lies in the choices we make today.

In 2019 fake followers in influencer marketing cost brands $1.3 billion. Learn more about the world of fake followers, engagement, fake awards and practices people use to boost their brand. And how these vanity metrics are all about appearances.

At the beginning of Belinda's startup journey imposter syndrome kicked in when she saw people within her industry who were seemingly doing so well on social media and she doubted her own accomplishments. Through social media people often create a distorted or even fake image of themselves pretending that they are someone that they're not. This is not just business-related but overall.

Belinda explains how to spot vanity influencers and brands with a fake following and why you should not pay for accomplishments.

The eternal procrastinating optimist thinks that there’s always enough time - enough time to get to a place, enough time to finish task A and task B, enough time to save the world while also cooking a 5-course dinner whilst learning advanced machine learning. Until there’s no time left and then Austrian panic mode kicks in.

Simon Sinek, the "godfather" of the WHY introduced us to the concept of WHY in his popular TED talk in 2009 and subsequently through his book Start with WHY. In this episode I am not talking about the WHY in context with running an organisation and leadership today, but how you - you as an individual can find your WHY for your life, not just your job.

This WHY is the purpose, cause or belief that drives every one of us. It’s what makes you get out of bed every morning and it’s why you are passionate about certain things. It’s more important than ever to now know your WHY which will keep you going through the uncertainty. Knowing your WHY injects passion into your work and everyday life. This is not a formula for success but rather helps you to achieve sustainable and fulfilling success. Find more information at www.belindaesterhammer.com

Get a glimpse into Belinda’s world as an entrepreneur, marketer, feminist, community builder, educator, mentor and passionate people-cheerleader where she discusses topics around business, marketing & branding and everything in between. Tune in for weekly episodes on her quest to educate people on why they need to stop using the Comic Sans Font when they want to be taken seriously, why they are not a business owner because they joined an MLM and also why pineapples do not belong on a pizza. Ever.