Q&A with Karmen Tang, founder of another startup story

another startup story is a business coaching platform and consultancy. They offer marketing and content services to start-ups, alongside serving as a daily source of inspiration and education for creatives, entrepreneurs and freelancers through workshops, events, storytelling, a podcast series and mentorship.

Karmen, their founder, is a business coach and consultant focusing on the growth of modern brands. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant who gave up her corporate career to make more of an impact. With a focus on the holistic wellness and sustainability industry, Karmen has helped many new-age entrepreneurs to get started, grow their business and cement themselves to help make change happen.

Her strong personality is what has helped her elevate her career from being a speaker and podcaster as well as a model. The another startup story podcast is ranked number 5 in the area of entrepreneurship in South East Asia. Here she delves deep into the stories of how the community’s successful brands started out. An inspirational listen for those wanting to follow their passion using entrepreneurship as a tool.

With an impressive network and industry knowledge, Karmen continues to expand another startup story into the leading platform of inspiration for the next generation of wave-makers.  

What was your reason for starting another startup story?

I wanted to scratch my own creative itch. I was working as a Financial controller at an advertising agency and I saw all this creativity happening around me. But what really caught my eye was the birthing stages of a start-up. I loved the grittiness, dynamism and excitement of starting a business.  

I also had this deeper sense of purpose. I wanted to use what I had learnt to make an impact and so I utilised my accountancy qualification and business acumen to help up-skill creatives through coaching. The combination of the two sparked the drive in me to create something to elevate others to do the same through innovations and expansive personal development.

As a business coach, what’s the most common question you’re asked by your clients?

How to get validation from your target market. Most people don’t validate their ideas by running it past real people and it’s easy to fall into a small business bubble, where we believe we know the problems and frustrations our customers face. But if we don’t validate these early on, we can spend money and time creating a solution to a problem that no one really cares about.

It’s important to invest the time in in-depth user interviews and working with focus groups to ask the right questions including the 5 W’s (Who, What, When Where and Why).

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced since launching?

The feeling of always being on. When you have your own company, there’s ALWAYS something to do.

Also knowing that success doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a huge difference between knowing this and being patient with yourself because you know this. It’s so important to remember that everyone started as a beginner. So before you beat yourself up about the comparison trap, or fear of failure, or all your limiting beliefs, remember that we’ve all been there (even if people don’t always say so when they’re sharing their success). The entrepreneurial journey is always going to be filled with worry, not knowing, client/customer rejection and feeling like giving up. It can be overwhelming when self-doubt creeps in and thinking you should be “further ahead.”

Now I know that it’s normal and it comes with the whole entrepreneurial journey, so I’ve learnt to ask for help when needed and to not be so hard on myself.

What other women do you draw inspiration from?

Women that are not afraid to try different things and stand for something. I love Natalie Kelley, who is an actress but also an environmentalist and supportive of indigenous rights. I have so much respect for those who use their platform to shape the narrative around a certain cause to help educate, inspire or empower humanity.

You also have the another startup story Podcast, tell us a little bit about that.

another startup story is a global community of creative entrepreneurs, business and thought-leaders, influencers and successful personalities that have made a positive impact.

The podcast shares stories of how successful start-ups and brands started out, I like to shed light and delve deep into each person’s struggles, challenges and fears and how they overcame these. The content takes a more holistic approach focusing on personal development and a mindful approach to entrepreneurship through a spiritual lens.

What was your motivation for starting the podcast and most importantly how can we listen to it?

I was really interested in why some people achieve so much more than others and wanted to discover the secret to their success. I’m also just generally really interested in people. The podcast is available on Spotify and Apple iTunes.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

I love the principle of ‘compound interest’. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them consistently. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the years can be enormous.

What’s your favourite thing to do to unwind after a long day’s work?

A hot Hatha class and a delicious wholesome meal.  

What have you got planned for 2021? Anything we should look out for?

The pandemic has sparked a wave of innovation and created a new generation of entrepreneurs. As consumer behaviour is transforming in the age of COVID-19, many brands are taking advantage of these new opportunities and some I’m excited to work with these new-age entrepreneurs.

I’m currently working with a new femtech startup called Fig, focused on modernising outdated systems in the area of reproductive health. It’s a D2C female hormone test that women can order online and take in the comfort of their own homes.