Hot & Sour Soup for the Soul: Asian American Stories

We're chatting with Andrew Chau, the co-founder and CEO of Boba Guys, a national boba brand that’s bridging cultures through deliciously disarming beverages. If you live in the Bay Area, LA, or NYC, you’ve probably passed by -- or through -- a Boba Guys store. Today, Boba Guys has 18 immaculately designed retail locations, but as with most start-up stories, it has humble beginnings. Co-founder and CEO Andrew Chau grew up in ‘80s New Jersey, in a working-class neighborhood that was home to primarily Jewish and Italian families, where his parents ran a Chinese restaurant. Outside of food, the only Asian representation he saw were in Bruce Lee action films, courtesy of VHS tapes he'd rent from a video shop in a neighboring town. This changed when he moved to California, attended UC Berkeley, and got his start in marketing at retail and CPG companies, spanning Target, Walmart, Timbuk2, and Clorox. While running a boba brand had never been a part of the 5 year plan, when Andrew met his future co-founder Bin at Timbuk2, the two got to brainstorming what they could create together while sipping boba drinks, and soon, the boba concept became inescapable. Andrew kept his corporate job for the first 3 years of Boba Guys, before cutting the cord and going all in on growing the company. That said, if you ask Andrew what business he's in, it doesn't stop at boba. Boba Guys is ultimately about bridging cultures. Even with their national retail footprint, tens of thousands of Yelp reviews, and millions of loyal customers, Andrew has stayed true to the mission. Boba Guys doesn't franchise, nor have they taken outside money. Co-founders Andrew and Bin are in it for the long haul.

We’ll talk with Andrew about his experience growing up Asian American in the ‘80s, the always worthwhile but often painful lessons he’s learned while making Boba Guys a household name, and unconventional ways for driving change in ways that feel authentic to who we are -- whether that be brazenly outspoken, stoically committed, or something in between. Stay tuned for an unfiltered conversation with one of the most forthcoming CEOs whom we’ve had the pleasure of chatting with, Andrew Chau.

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Which do you think more often about: “Me” or “We”? Historically, whether we belonged to the school of individualism or the school of collectivism had to do with the cultural context we were brought up around, whether we grew up with more Western or Eastern influence. Today however, between a global pandemic, planetary climate change, and national civic movements that are resurfacing racial disparities which many had previously thought had already been squashed, the “We” -- collective effort and collective gain -- appears to be something we’ll all need to get comfortable with. Out with the notion that individualism and collectivism are mutually exclusive. In with the power of paradox, of holding the tension between “Me” and “We” within ourselves. 

In this episode, we get into harnessing the power of not “Me” vs. “We”, but “Me” & “We”. First, we get interactive, with a few real-time tests to gauge where we currently are on that scale spanning from individualist to collectivist. Then, we talk actionable steps to building our ability to flex between the two. This is a space where the multifacetedness of & > the restriction of Or. Let’s get to tapping into the power of paradox.

Studies mentioned:

MIT undergrad. FAANG internships. Antitrust economic consulting. Stanford PhD candidacy. No question Allison Koenecke is an academic force. Beyond impressive institutional associations -- which she seldom spotlights -- what has made her a true force of nature (or shall we say, software?) is the research she's leading to address equitability in mainstream technologies. Specifically, Allison's bringing visibility to the blind spots tech companies have been operating with while training their machine learning models. For instance, did you know voice assistants (i.e. Siri, Alexa) register twice as many errors when processing African American colloquial English? Allison is a researcher who's working towards a tech future that is built on the foundation of a more diverse set of colors, creeds, and communities. Beyond chatting about her journey to and within her PhD candidacy at Stanford's Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering, we talk about parental expectations, leading teams, and quick tips to getting more done during the day.

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Today’s guest is Ruoyi Jiang, founder of Chop Suey Club, a concept store in NYC's Lower East Side that is simultaneously redefining what “Made in China" looks like and partnering with local Chinatown businesses to ensure their cultural currency for generations to come. Once upon a time, Ruoyi was a middle schooler living in China, who decided to drop out of school to pursue a professional golf career. Today, she is the founder of a frontrunner in the NYC boutique scene and beyond. Along the way, she snagged a B.F.A in Photography & Imaging from NYU and a trip to the Met Gala (you know, that annual event who's guest list is overseen by Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue).

We chat with Ruoyi about the business dynamics of Chinatown, untangling appropriation and appreciation, and navigating life’s yin & yang, all while growing the business of a brick-and-mortar in the midst of a pandemic.

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Finding freelance work. Illustrating for an international audience. Art directing at tech giants. That’s just the tip of the iceberg for today’s guest, Decue Wu. Decue was born in Shenzhen, China, where she lived and studied into adulthood, and made her way to the U.S. in 2012 to work towards her M.F.A at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Since then, she has built a career in illustration and art direction, working with clients like Louis Vuitton, Vogue, and The New York Times.

We chat with Decue about hustling as a freelancer, grabbing the attention of Art Directors, cultivating creativity when we’re running on empty, and navigating the nuances of creating content for international audiences.

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Today marks our first double digit episode! Thanks for being on this journey with us. Now, let's celebrate.

What do you do when you start feeling like you’re just going through the motions? How do you optimize around your strengths to make the biggest impact? Who are you without your day job?

Heidi Lim has been there, and in this episode, she’s sharing with us what she’s learned. Heidi is a queer Chinese American who grew up in Las Vegas (yes, that Vegas), and was a first gen college student at Harvard, where she studied environmental engineering and policy. It was there that she decided she wanted to pursue work at the nexus of sustainability and business. However, realizing that dream took a whole lot of intentionality. Between Harvard and her career today as a full time environmental technologist, Heidi worked in enterprise software as a product manager. In 2018, she left this cozy job to dedicate time to building the bridge towards working on what she sees as the world's most pressing issue, climate change. After 10 months of self-discovery, which included time living alongside monks in Thailand, she made it happen and became Chief of Staff at Opus 12, a California start-up that has developed a technology to recycle CO2 into valuable chemicals, materials, and fuels. There, she is focused on commercializing the technology, working with companies across many sectors to defossilize their supply chains and spark the move from a fossil-based economy to a CO2-based circular one.

In this episode, we get real about what people don’t tell you about the emotional journey to finding purpose in your work, how to make an outsized impact in your community, and what farming can teach us about playing the career long-game.

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From folding origami to pass time at her mom’s Chinese restaurant in Australia, to starting her eponymous clothing label, Lisa Qu was on a pure-play academic path until her parents gave her the thumbs up to pursue a career in fashion. That is, so long as she was able to get admitted into a storied design school. With Lisa’s minimal formal arts training, her parents figured this was a tall enough order. That Christmas Eve, Lisa gets the news that she’s been admitted to Parsons. You know, that design school that counts Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs among its alumni.

Since that fateful Christmas Eve, Lisa Qu has launched her namesake fashion label, tallied a quarter million dollars in revenue in her first year in business, and been named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Art & Style. Lisa’s first generation Chinese Australian, and has spent the past few years in New York City, where she is making waves with designs that combine Eastern tailoring techniques with Western silhouettes.

In this episode, Lisa talks about what she wishes she had known before starting her own fashion label, how leaning into humility has helped her propel her career, and the power she’s found in wielding silence during tough conversations. 

More Lisa:

Jesar Shah is a product manager on a mission to ensure advances in technology benefit the many and not just the few. Previously, she brought Twitter to 100 new countries with tweets spanning 70 languages, rolled out the Twitter’s first web redesign in nearly a decade, and was named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for her work in consumer tech. Today, she continues to democratize technology at CodeAcademy, where she is building products to support aspiring engineers on their journey to coding literacy. Jesar also happens to be a 1st generation Indian American who grew up in Dubai, though she’s wasted no time in catalyzing change since moving to the US.

In this episode, we chat with Jesar about how to be an intrapreneur and drive transformation within large companies, how to become an effective idea broker, and how to find home, regardless of where you find yourself.

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Amy Kuo is a film producer, founder of Animon Studios, a fervent advocate for women, LGBTQ+ and POC communities, as well as 2nd generation Taiwanese-Chinese American. Amy founded Anamon Studios to build a more inclusive future through animation. In the process, she also created a movie production bootcamp for underrepresented young professionals seeking to break into the hyper-competitive animation industry.

In this episode, we chat with Jenny Arimoto, an NYC-based comedian who spends her weekdays sending lots of email at Google. When Jenny’s not writing comedy sketches and performing improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade NY (psssst, Amy Poehler used to perform with this group! ), she's helping the world get around a little better with the Google Maps team.

Jenny is a Swiss army knife of a human who can command a meeting room as well as she can a comedy club. She also happens to be 4th generation Japanese American.

Today we chat with Jenny about her transformation from quiet wallflower to center stage comedian, how to own a room without having to be the loudest person in it, and the realities of pursuing a career in the arts.

More Jenny:

What started as an attempt to create a new normal and bring Friday night cocktail hour to the living room turned into so much more. The carrot juice that I lifted off the shelves intending to use as a cocktail mixer, wound up lifting my spirit in some unexpected ways. It’s a juice chock-full of vitamin A, a vitamin that serves to keep eyes bright and vision strong. Let that sit for a second. Aren’t we all in need of a little figurative (and possibly, literal) vitamin-A laden carrot juice in this uncertain time?

Let’s investigate - pulp and all - what a cocktail of carrots (and subsequently, strong vision), Confucius, and clarity can do to keep our eyes bright and our spirits light.

Wishing you all health and hygiene. Be well.

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In this episode, we chat with Anna Xie, financier-turned-lawyer, and all around master of hyphenated identities, about self-advocacy, the influence of familial expectation, and the process of personal reinvention. Anna is a first generation Asian American, born in Beijing and raised in the States, and currently a JD-candidate at Columbia Law School. Her journey to law is an unconventional one. It began with a career in Silicon Valley and a business degree from UC Berkeley.

Through our chat, we walk through Anna’s various transformations: in geography, in profession, and in mindset, and dive into the lessons she’s learned along the way. From self-promotion at work to working through immigrant guilt, we leave no stone unturned.

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Today’s chat is with Anya Sinha, architecture aficionado, bonafide nomad, and second generation Asian American. She calls both the rolling hills of California and the vibrant sectors of New Delhi her homes, and her early exposure to a vast landscape of urban design led her to a career in architecture. She received her Masters at UPenn and has spent time with both the firms behind the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and the Airbnb HQ office (yes, the one that replicates Airbnb’s most whimsical listings across the globe and jigsaws them together into an office space).

In this episode, we dive into the confluence of culture and design, career mentorship hacks, finding balance between assertiveness and agreeability, and last but not least, body hair. Enjoy!

Hot & Sour Soup for the Soul, the podcast, is part of the Spring/Summer 2020 collection of The Babe Brigade, a multisensory media brand.

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Hello and welcome to the party! New listeners, this primer episode will get you up to speed on the foundation for this season.

In a nutshell, Hot & Sour Soup for the Soul is a celebration of multicultural identity in America. Throughout the season, we explore the different flavors of leadership, fulfillment, and success that come with these unique personal histories. 

We're also a little different from your usual podcast. Hot & Sour Soup for the Soul is a multisensory experience, and audio is just one component of this season. Curious? We got you.

This episode will fill you in on the other sensory elements of this season, intro you to some of the stories you'll be hearing from, take you behind the scenes of the season origin, and more. Your questions, answered!

Experience more of The Babe Brigade: