Rhea Ong Yiu
6 min readJan 10, 2021

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Thoughts from my First 100 Days with LIVEsciences

New roads in the wilderness, new rivers in the desert.

My official countdown started on the 1st of October 2020. Truth be told, this was an interesting first day at work. Totally unconventional and unlike anything I have ever done before. Not that any of my previous employers did anything wrong, in fact, they did everything right by the books. One even flew me in from the Philippines, to meet me face-to-face for an interview, before offering the job and arranging my transfer to Europe! But joining LIVEsciences was different on so many levels. Here’s my little reflection about my first 100 days, why it‘s unlike any other job I‘ve taken on before, and why I‘m loving it.

We had a long engagement and a mutual opportunity to make a decision. I can’t remember any of my previous interviews and job related-conversations to have taken this long, but the 4 months and the many conversations involved to make sure we make a decision that we can both celebrate, has been so worth it. For me personally, it has given me the opportunity to get to know the people I will be working with and experience how they think and roll. For LIVEsciences, it also gave them a chance to get to know me, to figure out what value I can bring and if I’m a good fit for the culture, and consider all things that will make them happy to offer me the position. For 7 weeks, before I said yes, we had the chance to work together in a volunteer capacity to make Teal Around the World happen. Why is this important to mention? Because an employment contract is a relationship, and any good, sustainable relationship requires mutual consent and understanding. This unconventional approach gave us an environment to be fully ourselves, to take off our masks and with full transparency, observe how we collaborate. Having the power to decide for myself if this is the right environment for me to flourish, was not only refreshing, but it was also a completely new and positive experience that I would take with me as I take on this new season — knowing full well that I “get to do things” because I chose and have been chosen to be here.

We had a straightforward, no-frills hiring process, and a safe space to seal the deal. Throughout my conversations with my hiring panel, I experienced nothing but openness, transparency, and a diversity of perspectives to help ground myself and calm my apprehensions. I had several 1:1 conversations specific to my questions and it felt safe and authentic. Coming from a corporate job that has been quite rewarding both professionally and financially, the decision to move was probably the last thing on my list of priorities at that time, especially in the light of this covid crazy world. But the call for purpose and growth was too strong to put aside. Having the space for these personal conversations in a way that is not only reflective but also mutually enriching, has been such a welcome breath of fresh air for me, and may have been one of the many reasons I decided to take this leap of faith.

My first day felt like a welcome home party. The best part about joining the team after doing a crazy volunteer project with some of them is this – you don’t have that awkward first-day-of-work vibe. We had a casual lunch with a few people, right in the heart of the city. In light of covid restrictions at that time, we were lucky to still have that opportunity to meet in-person in the cafes. This human connection, as opposed to my fully virtual hiring process, made it feel like an official stake in the ground, with a personal touch and I‘m grateful to have had that experience.

My onboarding journey clearly embodied the values of wholeness and self-management. Walking the talk is so important to me. In a truly self-management setup, you own and drive your own onboarding. This is my ideal world and I am pleased to have experienced exactly this approach. I‘ve always been a free-spirit when it comes to driving my own objectives, having my own pace, but also appreciate having a buddy and a little compass to help me navigate my new terrain. This level of guidance and empowerment is exactly the right balance of structure and freedom that works for me. It allowed for wholeness to emerge and gave me the opportunity to make the journey my own. (A word of caution: This may not be for everybody!)

The start of my entrepreneurial journey has lifted the proverbial glass ceiling. Having embraced and celebrated my introverted personality for a long time, I somehow forgot how much I enjoy talking to people. This shift to a culture of entrepreneurship reminded me of this. Bringing this new spin to everything I do continues to be a challenge, and yet I find myself surprisingly having a lot of fun and inspiration out of it. It taught me to listen to the different needs out there, it gave me the opportunity to be inspired by amazing authors and thought leaders, it brought back my zest and interest to get to know people more, and it opened my world to a much bigger space to learn, to connect and to foster personal growth.

Bringing old-world experience into new adventures meant taking some of my skills from the shelf and into practice. Bringing wholeness into this new journey meant taking my full experience along for the ride, including the parts that no longer take center stage in my life. As a newcomer to the team, I had the opportunity to activate my old-world digital marketing experience to help elevate the way we are connecting and telling our story, bringing our pitches, and introducing ourselves to others. Drawing inspiration, wisdom, and direction from the skills I’ve learned in my past roles and using them to make a meaningful impact, has been a validation of how some of my little detours in the past, are actually meant to serve a future purpose and for this, I am truly grateful.

The joys of unlearning is a tough road to navigate but a great push for self-discovery and creativity. If there‘s anything I found most challenging, it would have to be the art of unlearning. Coming from traditional corporate into a self-managing, autonomous setup, the level of empowerment and decision-making can be quite intimidating. As I was just getting to know the culture of my new company and new colleagues, there were times when I would second-guess myself and seek advice for the silliest of things. This was a rollercoaster of confidence, but with a buddy system and ever-supportive thinking partner(s) and mentor(s), I learned to unshackle myself from the bonds of structure, rules, and top-down push advice and started to learn to dance and adapt with what comes around, confidently and intentionally making decisions that I see are fair and befitting our common culture and interests.

Responding to the whispers from the market with LIVEforward Institute may have been the highlight of my journey so far. A lot of things changed with COVID, both for organizations and individuals alike. With that, the support to cope with the changing landscape is becoming more important than ever. LIVEsciences has always been at the heart of this dynamic and rapidly changing terrain, and with our partnership with Semco Style Institute, we envision to bring a response to this need, at scale. Digging deeper into the value proposition, the business model, shaping the roles, setting up the website, getting our teams trained, and bringing the LIVEforward Institute to life in a span of 2 months was no small feat, but with an amazing team working together, we were able to pull off something that could potentially be the groundswell for new adventures in the future.

Needless to say, I‘ve had an amazing 100 days and I‘m looking forward to the next 365 days of 2021 with LIVEsciences – there is much, much more to learn, a lot more fun and crazy ideas to unleash… and certainly a lot more relationships to nurture. As for myself, I’m really curious to discover pieces of me emerging in this new adventure.

If you enjoyed reading this, watch this space and give it a follow! You are also welcome to drop me a message on LinkedIn or via e-mail rhea.ongyiu@livesciences.com and I’d be happy to connect!

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Rhea Ong Yiu

Aimless Wanderer. Soul Searcher. Purpose Enabler. Creative Storyteller.