Michelle Toh is every Asian parents' dream child.

She's ambitious.
Has a strong sense of self.
And will do whatever it takes to succeed - including cold pitching South China Morning Post & landing an internship in her teens!

Her initial dream was to be in fashion (she's worked at/for Elite Model Management, Hearst Magazines & HuffPost too).

Then she pivoted and ended up becoming:

😮 the Hong Kong Editor of Fortune; and

😮 writer & reporter at CNN Business

Where she has:

🔥 hunted down super yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs

🔥 covered some of the world's biggest IPOs - e.g. Grab, DiDi, Coupang & Kuaishou Technology

🔥 conducted interviews with:

Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel
Netflix COO Greg Peters
Grab Co-Founder Hooi Ling Tan
A16Z partner Connie Chan
Impossible Foods President Dennis Woodside

And did I mention that Michelle is a Malaysian too?!

So:

How did Michelle go from studying with royalty (she saw her classmate being fetched by helicopter to attend state events!) to working with the top journalists in the world?
What is it like, really, to work at CNN?
How does CNN handle "fake news"?
How does she gain trust?
And how important is personal branding (+ LinkedIn) for a journalist like Michelle?

You'll have to listen to Episode 107 of the So This Is My Why Podcast to find out. 😉

Highlights:

2:36 Having a strong sense of self
4:52 Where Michelle’s drive came from
7:04 Sense of inferiority
7:56 Working at South China Morning Post, Elite Model & a law firm
9:23 Cold emailing for internships!
9:54 The secret to cold emails
10:50 “I hope this finds you well”
12:38 Going from Harper’s Bazaar to boring old news?!
17:24 Going from Fortune to CNN
19:09 The Morning Show
20:32 The behind-the-scenes of working at CNN
23:49 Asian discrimination
27:11 Deciding on which stories get shared
28:40 Fake news! How did you spot them?
32:23 Hunting down a superyacht worth USD 500 million!
36:21 Public image
38:24 Building a personal brand
41:30 Why LinkedIn
42:30 How do you craft a story?
44:21 Mentors
46:20 Do you need a journalism degree?
38:23 Hallmarks of star journalists
50:42 How Michelle gains trust
52:07 How listeners can help Michelle

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/107

💌 Weekly Newsletter that deconstructs how you can find success & purpose on your own terms: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

Official Bio

Michelle Toh is an award-winning writer and reporter for CNN Business, based at the network's Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. She covers business and tech across APAC, writing breaking news, features and analysis about companies, startups and banks in the region.

Toh has covered some of the top stories in global business, including the disruption and inequality caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the corporate response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the crackdown in China on private enterprise, the Evergrande crisis, the US-China trade war, the fallout from the Hong Kong protests, and Huawei's battle in the United States. She has also covered the recent historic market turbulence and some of the world's biggest public offerings, including those of Grab, Didi, Kuaishou, and Coupang.

Toh has interviewed leaders of some of the world's top companies, including Tiffany CEO Alessandro Bogliolo, Galaxy Entertainment's billionaire Chairman Lui Che Woo, Netflix COO Greg Peters, Grab Co-Founder Tan Hooi Ling, Tinder CEO Elie Seidman, Yum China CEO Joey Wat, ex-Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, and Impossible Foods President Dennis Woodside. Her reporting frequently appears across CNN's digital and television platforms, and she often contributes to the network's "Meanwhile in China" newsletter.

In 2021, she led a team across six CNN bureaus on an interactive project about workplace discrimination of Asians around the world, which won an Award of Excellence from the Society of News Design.

Prior to joining CNN, Toh was the Hong Kong editor of Fortune Magazine, where she led a breaking news team, reported on business trends, and researched fundraising deals for its "Term Sheet" newsletter. Her work has also featured in publications including TIME, USA Today, the South China Morning Post and HuffPost. She has moderated and covered panels at major international conferences, such as CES in Las Vegas and Shanghai, Most Powerful Women in Laguna Niguel, California, and RISE in Hong Kong.

Ep 107: The Story Behind the Story - How a CNN Reporter Built Her Career | Michelle Toh (Writer & Reporter, CNN)

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