Ep 14: Joey Law - Former Senior Inspector of the Hong Kong Police Force & Mother to 15-Year-Old CEO, Hillary Yip

Joey Law is the mother of 15-year-old Founder & CEO of
MinorMynas, Hillary Yip, who was our STIMY Episode 13 guest!





Joey & Hillary are STIMY’s very first mother-daughter pairing
and I’m so honoured to have them on board. This episode is
particularly dear to my heart because even before I’d launched
STIMY, I knew that I wanted to feature inspiring mothers like
Joey on the podcast. 





I really want STIMY to be a place that features the amazing,
life-changing, self-sacrificing work that mothers are doing every
day, behind-the-scenes, and put them on the exact same platform
as people society would typically consider to be “successful”.
Because while they might not be featured on the front page of The
Economist, their work is no less important and
amazing.  





Who is Joey Law?


Joey came from a humble background. A time where her parents were
busy with work and she had to fend for herself.





But she was also adventurous and brave, and we talked about what
it was like selecting her own school for her education (despite a
gruelling 1.5 hour ride to school every day!), and her motivation
for eventually joining the Hong Kong police force! 





Senior Inspector of Police, Hong Kong Police
Force


Some of the things we discussed about her career with the Hong
Kong police force included:





The different ranks within the Hong Kong police force;

What it was like working in the force, and rising to become a
Senior Inspector of Police as a woman;

Her biggest lesson from being a bomb disposal officer (which
can be applied to our own lives!); and

Why she quit the force after 12 years.






Life After the Force


Joey is not a person to raise on her laurels. 





Soon after she quit the force, she started an online children’s
bookstore & she shared her WHY behind that move, and also
some of the big challenges she faced with this new online
endeavour. 





Being a Mother


But running her children’s online bookstore and blog was
ancillary to being a mother, and we dive deep into her
experiences. 





Something you might not know (and probably won’t have detected
from Hillary’s episode) - which we discussed at length - is the
intense bullying that Hillary faced in school at the age of 8.
Joey shared how she discovered what was happening, her advice to
other young parents on detecting potential bullying in school and
things she might’ve done differently if she was to face the same
issue again. 





While bullying isn’t something typically covered on STIMY, I felt
that it was important to do so here because these things do
happen. And perhaps a little awareness can go a long way in
preventing the same situation from arising in another child’s
life.





Apart from bullying, we also discussed:


The realities of schooling in Hong Kong (for certain schools,
you have to start filling out application forms before your child
is even born!); 

Why Joey opted for homeschooling for both Hillary and Alexis
(her second child); 

How she ensures that her children have a well-balanced
education covering not just the academics but also socially and
physically;

What it’s like being the mother to a teenager CEO - quite a
different perspective to the one Hillary gave!; and

So much more. 






This is a very different and special STIMY episode and I hope you
love it as much as I did!





Show notes: http://www.sothisismywhy.com/14