When your story becomes someone else’s survival
Sunday musings: A stranger told me their therapist used my words in session, proof that storytelling is not performance, it is medicine.
Yesterday, I gave a talk at Transgender Stories organised by TransgenderSG, sharing my journey of queerness, fluidity, and parenthood in Singapore, and something unexpected happened that I will never forget.
After the session ended, a trans non-binary person approached me, their voice soft but steady, and said their therapist had used my story in therapy, not because I was in the room, but because they had read it online.
I froze for a moment, not out of discomfort but out of awe, because the words I once wrote in silence for survival had travelled into a private space of healing I had never imagined reaching.
It reminded me why I first began sharing openly in the first place, not to build a platform or to gather followers, but to make sure no one out there felt like they were fighting invisible battles alone.
Living authentically in Singapore, where cultural norms are still rigid, means you get used to the stares, the whispers, the unkind comments, yet in moments like this, you see the other side of visibility, the proof that vulnerability does not vanish into the void but multiplies quietly in rooms you will never enter.
That is the essence of personal branding, not the logos or the perfect tagline, but the willingness to tell stories people can use as anchors in their own lives.
In the creator economy, we often obsess over algorithms, impressions, or engagement, but what truly compounds is trust, the kind of trust that lets your words become medicine for someone you will never meet.
This is why I built Human Algorithm, not as a business-first venture, but as a human-first practice where stories become systems, and scars become strategy.
Through my coaching programs, I guide founders, leaders, and creators to build these systems and strategies because clarity in story is the architecture of influence, the difference between a forgotten post and a remembered message.
Whether through my storytelling and communication strategy, leadership communication coaching, LinkedIn personal branding work, or brand narrative workshops, I aim to help you hold attention with integrity, to turn authenticity into leverage, and to design a presence that works for you even when you are not in the room.
Because the truth is, the future of work belongs to creators who understand that stories are not decoration but navigation, and that the right story told clearly can transform doubt into direction and silence into sales.
When I look back at the kid who was arrested twice before 16, who thought survival meant becoming someone else, I know now that every scar was preparing me for this work, to show others that stories heal, sell, and sustain, if you dare to tell them.
See you next Sunday.