10 things I tell my clients on every coaching call

I have coached founders, creators, and leaders through identity shifts, burnout, and business pivots and every time, the real breakthrough comes from story.

When I first started coaching founders and creators, I thought my job was to teach frameworks like content systems, storytelling arcs, and positioning strategies.

However, what I learned over time is that people need mirrors. They need stories that show them who they could become if they stopped hiding behind credentials, titles, and social proof.

They need reminders that credibility is not built through perfection, but through transformation.

1. Lead with the transformation people can feel

When I advise my clients to lead with transformation, not credentials, I’m referring to their lived experience.

I grew up in Singapore, where fitting in was safer than standing out, where grades and titles defined the idea of success, and how well you could suppress the parts of yourself that didn’t belong.

By 15, I was already behind bars in Singapore Boys’ Home, staring at a concrete wall and wondering what my life was supposed to mean.

I had learned early that systems reward obedience, not curiosity. However, the real education began when I started asking different questions, like who I wanted to be when no one was watching, and what story I wanted to tell when all the masks came off.

That transformation, from juvenile delinquent to storyteller, from copywriter to founder, became my credential.

2. Make the outcome unavoidable and the process irrelevant

That is why I tell my clients to stop explaining what they do and start showing why it matters.

When I left the media industry to build Human Algorithm, I did not have a safety net, only a neurodiverse daughter whose therapy sessions cost more than most people’s rent and a vision to create something sustainable.

I needed to prove that what I wrote could make a difference because my story was the reason I woke up every morning.

People buy conviction and the “why” behind your work, and that “why” becomes magnetic when it’s rooted in truth.

3. Turn your lived history into an advantage that no résumé can match

During coaching calls, I frequently remind clients that their story is their unique differentiator. I know what it feels like to want to hide your truth, to wonder if revealing your queerness, your failures, or your fears will make you unrelatable. Yet those are the stories that build bridges.

When I started sharing about being gender-fluid, the DMs I received from founders, parents, and executives who had never been permitted to be themselves.

That is when I realised vulnerability deepens it and trust is built through stories, not statistics.

4. Choose consistency that compounds over polish that delays

And still, none of this works without consistency. I used to overcompensate and work longer hours until there was nothing left of my voice.

When my daughter was diagnosed, I no longer had the luxury of overworking. I built a four-hour workday out of necessity.

That constraint became my superpower because consistency beats perfection, because you cannot compound what you don’t start.

You can’t find your voice if you never speak because the same story, shared a hundred different ways, will consistently outperform the perfect one that never leaves your drafts.

5. Speak it first, then write what survives real conversation

Every client I work with eventually hits the same wall, like the one between authenticity and approval.

They fear being “too much,” or “too raw,” or “too different”, so I tell them what I had to learn the hard way: if you can’t explain it in person, don’t post it online.

Authenticity is about alignment because if your story doesn’t sound like you when you speak it aloud, you are performing.

6. Draw a bright line against the industry’s default playbook

The truth is, my entire business is built on contrarian positioning. In a world that rewards virality, I teach my clients to optimise for trust.

In a creator economy obsessed with reach, I show them how to build resonance. I remind them that rejection is direction and that “no” is proof that your clarity is doing its job.

That your business is sorting the right people in and the wrong ones out.

7. Define “enough” and measure what actually matters to your life

I have been broke, burnt out, and addicted to the illusion of progress. I used to measure success by metrics I couldn’t control, like impressions, reach, external praise, and so on.

However, those things never gave me peace. So now I measure differently. Did I write something true today? Did I have lunch with my wife? Did I cycle my daughter to school? Those are my KPIs.

In a culture obsessed with scaling, you must have the courage to ask yourself, “What is enough?” because growth without direction is just another form of chaos.

8. Build trust by telling the moments you once hid

The stories that connect most are the ones that reveal the cracks because I used to think telling people about my past, like getting arrested at 15, dropping out of university, struggling with identity, would disqualify me.

However, those stories became my bridge to others who were still hiding their own because you can build a business from your scars. I did not create a perfect funnel, but rather one pulled from the messiest parts of my life.

9. One signature story, endlessly recomposed into fresh angles

Every creator and founder has one pivotal story, that moment when everything shifted.

I teach my clients to extract that story and break it into pieces: the problem, the turning point, the lesson, the result.

From there, you can repurpose it into posts, podcasts, and even products. I’ve told my own origin story hundreds of times, each version refined or reframed because familiarity builds trust and repetition builds recognition.

10. Protect the voice only you can deliver, and never outsource it

At its core, this is what matters: your voice is your competitive advantage. AI can write posts, edit scripts, and design content calendars, but it cannot live your story.

It cannot feel your transformation. It cannot love, doubt, or believe the way you do. And that is your leverage.

Every transformation and struggle is a testament to your efforts and evidence that you have lived, changed, and evolved.

When my clients finally stop hiding behind their résumés and start building from their humanity, they see results because their content connects with their audience and sells.

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