Ep 27: Freda Liu (Malaysian Business Radio-TV Host, Book Author, Emcee & Moderator)

Freda Liu is one of Malaysia’s most prominent radio-television
hosts, having worked at BFM 89.9 - Malaysia’s only business radio
station, for over 12 years. She has conducted over 5000
interviews and some prominent names include Martin Cooper, author
Stephen Covey, motivational speaker Nick Vujicic, former GE CEO
Jack Welch, the Duke of York HRH Prince Andrew to Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange.





At BFM, her show Enterprise provides the tools to help businesses
succeed covering topics with the startup scene, personal
development, technology to organizational development. While
HerVantage talks about women of leadership and influence to
showcase women representation in all strata of society from
sports, the arts & sciences to entrepreneurship. Freda has
authored 5 books called "PR Yourself" and “Shake & Spear Your
Business: The Romeo & Juliet Way, ” and "Everybody Loves Ray"
(biography) “Bursting Fixed Mindsets” and her latest “In Your
Skin”.





She also contributes to The Star, one of the leading English
newspapers. She was recently awarded the ASEAN Rice Bowl Awards
for Malaysia Startup Journalist Of The Year and a nominee for
MaGIC’s Social Enterprise journalist. Freda is a member of the
National Association of Women Entrepreneurs Malaysia (NAWEM) and
the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers (MAS). She
started her Lean In Circle called Think and the Malaysian chapter
and has over 100 members in her group.





In this STIMY interview, we cover:


3:05: Growing up in Seria, Brunei & swimming in the open
sea

4:55: Listening to the British Forces Broadcasting Services
(radio) as a child

6:30: Moving from Brunei to Kuching, Sarawak at the age of 14

9:47: Returning to Kuching after graduation to look after her
father

10:21: Having the opportunity to appear on RTM’s live
telecast, which launched her career in news reading 

12:51: Working in PR at Edelman in Kuala Lumpur

14:00: Leading the #duakerja life (i.e. working 2 jobs at the
same time)

16:41: Being headhunted to work at IBM

19:24: The Gideon test

20:57: The early days of working at a startup called BFM 89.9

22:22: Crafting BFM 89.9’s working culture of Educate,
Entertain, Enlighten

24:57: A typical day as a BFM 89.9 radio host

26:29: Whether Freda’s interview process has changed after
conducting over 5,000 interviews (which includes Julian Assange
& HRH Prince Andrew!)

27:56: How Freda finds the unique guests she brings onto her
show

28:30: Interviews she has felt she couldn’t air

29:13: How Freda got Nick Vujicic to appear on her show

31:31: Getting into book writing

33:58: Writing her book, Everybody Loves Raymond, on the life
of Raymond Chew

36:04: Writing her 6th book during COVID-19

38:25: Being better, not bitter

41:43: How COVID-19 has impacted Freda

42:58: The importance of goal setting & putting it down
in writing

43:57: What Freda would tell her 21 year old self

47:30: A new story about Freda that isn’t already covered in
the media!






Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/27