The power of the generalist with Ee Ting Choo

Michele Ong

Systems thinking allows you to see both the pain points and the potential of every situation. It's a skill that you can cultivate in yourself and that you can help to bring out in others. The key is to approach with curiosity and a mindset prepared to connect people and ideas. Ee Ting Choo is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at ConnectingDNA. Join us as Ee Ting shares her journey of technology transfer and entrepreneurship, and viewing health through a whole system lens. I'm Michele Ong, and this is STEAM Powered.

Good afternoon, Ee Ting. Thank you so much for joining me today on STEAM Powered. I'm really looking forward to speaking with you about your journey.

Ee Ting Choo

Thank you, Michele. Thank you for your invitation. I hope I can share more about my journey and help more women in their career choices.

Michele Ong

Absolutely. Like, everybody's perspective contributes something to somebody and, you know, this is why these conversations are really important to have.

Ee Ting's medical aspirations before chemical engineering

So getting started with your journey, when you first entered STEM and STEAM, you started in chemical engineering. But, you know, what motivated you to study that field?

Ee Ting Choo

What motivated me? Okay. This is really funny. So initially, I had health issues so I wanted to get into the health area so I actually wanted to be a doctor, wanted to study medicine. But soon I gave up on that because I realised that I am scared of the smell of blood, so then the next best course, right, to go to will be chemical engineering because of the, like, prestige of the name. So then without really knowing what it was, I entered chemical engineering in university.

Michele Ong

Not related to health, though.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah. Exactly. Because I wanted medicine, but I just was very afraid, so I gave up on it. Yeah.

Michele Ong

Yeah, that's fair. I mean, lot of people find that, you know, it's, it's also about, you know, not knowing what you are into or not into until you start trying to explore it.

The perceived prestige of chemical engineering

Yeah. What about chemical engineering, has that level of prestige that you, you know, perceived when you first started looking into these courses?

Ee Ting Choo

Okay, so in Singapore it's a lot about scoring so after junior college will be university. So only the top students go into medicine, then the next best will be chemical engineering. So since I didn't want to do, I mean I could qualify, but I didn't want to do medicine so I just went into chemical engineering not really knowing what it was but because it had that prestige related to it. So I just did it. Yeah. But when I went in, I thought it's really nice because I actually like chemistry a lot. So yeah, I started and I studied a lot of things.

The health benefits of semiconductors when you have respiratory issues

Michele Ong

Yeah. So after that, you, you know, you started your graduate career in semiconductors and even process development roles. So how did you go from chemical engineer to semiconductors? Because some people wouldn't necessarily understand the connection between those two because one's about electronics. You think it'd be more electrical engineering. Yeah. How did chemical lend to that?

Ee Ting Choo

So I was studying chemical engineering and there were a lot of those like flow tanks and all the reactors, all the calculation and I got really irritated with it. Then one day when I took one course called air pollution control then I realised that if I go into oil and gas, which is the default path for chemical engineers, there'll be too much particulates that's not good for my airway you know. Yeah and because by default I actually have respiratory related issues, yeah, I always get sensitive nose, allergies, and all that, so I decided that okay I'm going to go a different path. Then in the final year when we were given, like, choices to choose the specialisation then I realised that semiconductor, right, they work in a clean room so with chemical engineering we actually could specialise to the chemicals related to creating the semiconductor chips. Yeah, so I was actually in the photolithography department doing a lot of experiments on— for them to know how can we print even smaller dimensions. Yeah, so that's where I focused my final year project and therefore started my career in semiconductor in the photolithography, which is very, very chemical based department.

Michele Ong

Oh, that's fascinating. Because, for a lot of people, it's like you wouldn't necessarily have that immediate association between chemicals and the circuitry. Tthat makes sense. Makes perfect sense.

The art of technology transfer

So in your role there, it's called process development. What does that mean?

Ee Ting Choo

So we need to print the wafers, you know, the semiconductor wafers, so there's a certain process to it, like you need to first, actually it's been fifteen years, I forgot the name but you need to put that film on, then after that we need to print, then after that we need to develop just like a camera, you know. Then after that the whole semiconductor thing will be there because of chemistry. There's no like drilling and all that, it's really all chemistry. So every little process we need to optimise it. So although my title is process development, my main role actually since the start of my career is technology transfer. So in my first company in semiconductor, I actually flew to Milan to transfer the technology because my company was STMicroelectronics. So they were actually in France and Italy. So I was in Italy quite a bit and then I brought the technology back to the Singapore plant. And then we expanded that new technology in Singapore and started the whole production.

Michele Ong

That's fascinating. So what sort of skill set is needed for technology transfer?

Ee Ting Choo

Oh, okay. So when I was a young engineer, all I did was just do what the senior engineers told me to do. Like they said, learn this, I'll learn this and I'll just bring back everything. But after that, later in my career, when I led projects and all that, actually it's really having a keen eye for details. Even details down to what sort of lamp, what watt, like for example the material in, for example, my next job in Illumina, we were actually in USA San Diego, the humidity was really very low. But Singapore, we know the humidity is very high, like 70%. So I realised that details as important as the material like the metal, whether is it coated with aluminium that means to prevent rust and all that. It becomes so important during the transfer process. We even had a case, not semiconductor but Illumina, that the fridge in USA because they already knew that some certain wavelengths will destroy the DNA right so they already removed the bulb in the fridge but we didn't know we just copied the same model of the fridge and we came to Singapore to buy but we didn't know about the bulb so naturally every fridge comes with a bulb right and when you open it, you light up and that killed the DNA strands and then we had zero yield in Singapore when we first started the DNA plant in Singapore. So that's why I think keen for details is very important. The second thing that is very important is actually the willingness to go down to work to the lowest level. So when I did transfers right, I literally started from being an operator. Yeah, where I did every single action with them so that I can know where are the pain points and I can think of solutions so that we can increase the throughput. Yeah, that's what we actually need. So I think these are really the mindset and the kind of like skill sets. Not really skill set, I think really mindset that you are willing to go all the way down to start and then look at every single details and then after that when I led projects it's really the big picture. Are we meeting the budgets? Are we meeting the timeline? Are we improving the processes, throughputs? Yeah. It's very important skill sets.

Michele Ong

It is. And it's basically whole system thinking. Because when it's transfer, it's not just knowledge transfer. It's also about geographic, environmental, the entire system, how it translates from one environment to another environment and in a different context. So that that's absolutely fascinating because often when we do our work, it's as you say, you know, we do what we're told to do. We're very focused in that very narrow operational kind of task, but we lose sight of the big picture and the way that our work interacts with the work of the people in the system with us doing other things. So, yeah, that that's a it's such an incredibly important skill set, and it's not just applicable to, you know, process and plant management. It's whenever you're working with anyone doing anything.

The importance of EQ in management

Ee Ting Choo

Yep. Yep. I think later in my career, right, when I started to lead transfer projects in Illumina, I think not only technical skills is important, EQ is very important because when I was leading the whole plant setup project, I literally need to talk to every department, know like sideways every department, not only the processes but also the logistics, the IT, other departments. And then because I lead the project, need to talk to management, I also need to talk to operators so that they can do what I need them to do within the very tight timeline. So I think yeah, EQ becomes one important part. How we talk to different people is so important.

Michele Ong

Yeah and it's the communication at all different levels because the operators will need different information, expect information, have different domain language to the people you wanna talk to in management or partners and other vendors. Like, all of that has a different language that they use to be able to communicate what they do. Yes. Very important.

Be good to your people, be good to your vendors

Ee Ting Choo

When I was young, I mean, young engineer, I thought that we need to be fierce to vendors, for example, because that's what the seniors, they do. But later in life I realised that that's nonsense yeah everybody treated with respect you know that even if you're paying them they are our vendors you need to like be able to negotiate certain things in a very amicable yet assertive and how say respectful way. Yeah.

Michele Ong

Yeah. It's funny that you mentioned about that because it's such a strange kind of psychology, the way that people treat people within an organisation to people partnering or external to the organisation. It's like, you're working with these people. They deserve the same level of respect that you'd communicate within your organisation and between the levels as outside because you need each other. It's a working relationship, and you need to treat it that way.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah. The the best part is that because the industry is so small, today they can be your vendors, you can scold them. But if you leave the corporate, you leave your title, sorry, that's it, you are just yourself, know? You're just a nobody. So maybe you will need their help in the end. So, yeah, there's no reason to be harsh on different people.

Michele Ong

And absolutely. And even, like, even with Asian culture, like the guanxi, the reciprocal relationship thing, you think that that would carry a little bit more because you're not always going to be in the same position that you are now. And it's about properly relationship building for long term development of relationships.

Ee Ting Choo

Yes. Yeah. Industry is small.

Michele Ong

It is. It's not worth the risk to be a jerk.

Ee Ting Choo

Exactly. Yeah. Yep.

The marathon interview for Illumina

Michele Ong

So from semiconductors, you got into genomics and genetic analysis. And, again, like, it it feels like a very disconnected leap from one of these industries to another. So I'd love to hear about how that transition occurred.

Ee Ting Choo

How that transition occurred? So what happened was I was actually in the lab, yeah, for five years then I was hearing my friends say that you gotta job hop, know, for your salary to jump. Okay so then I put my resume out there. So one day when I was still in the clean room right in semiconductor I received a call to say that they saw my resume and would I like to go for interview? Then I was like what company? They said it's a very new company not in Singapore yet. Then I'm like, okay so I went. I can tell you the interview was really difficult. The first one was a phone call. Last time there's no Zoom. Yeah so there was a phone call and there were like so many people different people talking and I was like okay I think I might fail the interview but who knows the next day I got a call to say that okay I got to round two. Okay round two was really difficult this time it was a video camera interview and it was three hours and there was a whiteboard there So I didn't really know what I signed myself up to so I just went there and it was three hours every thirty minutes different department will interview me. So the first one was actually the biology side, the second one was more genomics, the third one was more mathematics and statistics and the then next one I can't remember the sequence but there was one talking about IT and another one talking in general about like processes and all that so oh and our chemical structure I still remember I had to draw on the board all the chemical structure and all that so when I came out after three hours right the headhunter called me and asked me how do you think it went? I said I know it's terrible I've never done such an interview before okay but the next day right she called me and she said hey you're actually shortlisted when can you sign the contract? I was like what? Then he told me what salary you want so I just like you know because I thought I'm gonna fail so I just gave a like large jump in my salary and surprisingly they said yes But okay now hindsight I finally realised why because in Singapore we are paying Singapore dollar, Illumina is a US company they pay in US dollar so at that time about fifteen, twenty years ago the exchange rate was pretty good so they actually thought that the jump I requested for was a reasonable amount for their engineers paid there so they just agreed immediately so everybody was so okay I didn't really ask what the job scope was I just thought that they saw my resume and then it's gonna be similar and so I joined. Yeah but when I joined I was like oh this is totally different.

Michele Ong

Yeah. That's fascinating because the rigour of that interview process I mean, for that time, that was quite common in big tech and emerging tech. It it was often it felt like a marathon for a lot of people having to go through all of these, you know, multiple waves of testing, multiple questions. But the breadth of your scope of interviews, that would have been absolutely exhausting.

Ee Ting Choo

It is.

Michele Ong

Yeah. And even not knowing what the job was that you were actually interviewing for in terms of what you were going to do. Yeah. So, you know, it's an interesting leap of faith in, you know, saying, I have no idea what this is, but, you know, why not? Let's give it a shot, see what happens.

Ee Ting Choo

And you know, there's no manufacturing plant, no presence in Singapore at the time when I did the interview. The my first day of employment, I was on Singapore Airlines to San Diego. And, yeah, I I don't know what gave me that courage. I think it was the pay rise.

Michele Ong

That's a good motivator. I mean, we have to be practical about these things.

Thriving as a generalist

Yeah. So what did your role end up being once you figured out the lay of the land?

Ee Ting Choo

Technology transfer. Yeah. So basically yeah. I look everything in the US manufacturing plant, and then I have to learn every single thing down to, like, what the operators did, or what the IT people did, and then what the facilities people are, what with them. Like for example, we need to push cargo to the warehouse and then get it shipped out. I even had to like crate things and then after when the crate arrived in Singapore, had to climb up the crate to uncrate stuff. Yeah so really really everything from the smallest thing that I need to buy a dustbin yeah I also had to do that. So that's the yeah I think that's what I didn't know what I signed up for but when I brought the technology back to Singapore I thought that was really the most fun thing that I did. I did like programming also but because this job requires us to do a lot of data analysis for large data sets for DNA data, right? I did a lot of programming and I spent a lot of nights figuring out how to do it and at that time there wasn't ChatGPT and Google was just like just starting at a time. Yeah, so I really had to read a lot of like help books and then search help websites, yeah, for those.

Michele Ong

And it's it's quite interesting because it's so uncommon these days for people to be able to take a look at someone and their skills and their abilities, but not in terms of their training, but in terms of those inherent abilities that you can develop over time. And take that chance on you and say, I think you are capable of being able to expand your knowledge and your skill set to be able to encompass an entirely new field, an entirely new domain, and a different way of approaching and applying your skill set to these other areas?

Ee Ting Choo

I think it was really my the love of fun. Yeah. I just like to try a lot of new things. So when this thing came onto my plate and I was in US, I was actually alone, I was actually the first employee from Singapore. So I just like worked and played. So every time I changed to a new department, I mean I hop around. It's really fun. Yeah.

Michele Ong

Yeah. And I guess it's such a rare opportunity because you are the first employee. It did give you that flexibility and that freedom to be able to explore and try things out and, you know, experiment to be able to figure out what needs to happen and what goes where. And if you're of the personality where you do, like, the puzzle of being able to figure that kind of stuff out, it it's really a place where you can thrive because there are no there are no boundaries for you to limit the way that you think and the way that you do things.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah. So in hindsight, right, I mean, maybe because my fun loving and my willingness to try all the different things, so I guess that was why I got chosen. Yeah, now as I mean like in my role in ConnectingDNA, I look back right, if I want to hire my staff, I actually look for more soft skills, more mindset rather than their technical skills. I mean that's important, but that's not the top priority for me when I look for to hire. So I guess that's what my bosses at that time thought of as well.

Michele Ong

Yes. And, yeah, it's it is actually a form of risk taking because when a lot of people, you know, they they look at something, they go, I need a one to one match because I can guarantee return on investment because I understand how this works, and it's a pattern which I can follow that is reliable and recognised and known. But you can't innovate without taking that risk. You can't see the opportunity for growth or for other perspectives without having that sense of risk taking. And it's calculated risk. It's not just anyhow. You're not just randomly choosing to do things risky on purpose. These are calculated risk taking measures to be able to expand on what you have and, yeah, keeping an open mind about the potential that it could have as well.

Ee Ting Choo

Exactly. I think a lot of people think that if they don't take a certain path, they are shortchanging themselves. For example, in my semiconductor, right, a lot of my colleagues, they choose to specialise in the most advanced machine. Yeah, I mean I could have done that, I also thought about doing that but for some reason I do not know why my boss like to rotate me in different roles. We are still under the same department lithography but we have different processes so one day I focus on this, the next period I'm there and then I even do like what people will think that is undesired job like defect monitoring and all that but I just didn't care I just felt like really fun that I can learn different stuff. I guess that is really the thing that helped me to get the job as the first employee because my bosses at that time would have thought that a generalist and the willingness to learn and openness like that means not rejecting certain path is what they are looking for because they wouldn't know I mean, as a first employee, I could develop myself into any area probably that's what they also thought that they would want me to grow in different areas. That's why coming in with an open mind and willingness to learn and I don't really complain, I just do whatever they tell me. Maybe that that really helped a lot. Yeah.

Fulfilment looks different for everyone

Michele Ong

Yeah. And that's also a fine line because, you know, again, like from someone looking from a different perspective, especially like, I mean, let's let's be clear, there is no there's nothing wrong with choosing to specialise. There's nothing wrong with choosing to generalise. It's the path that's suitable for the individual, for that person at the time. But, you know, for other people looking at the way that you approach that, that you're even a willing to take on the undesirable work, you know, it can be viewed as exploitation, but it's up to the individual to decide what their boundaries are and, you know, what to them gives them fulfillment and the ability to thrive and being able to do, you know, whole system access and explore all of that. That was the way that you thrived and that's how you were able to grow as well in your career as a journalist.

Ee Ting Choo

Yes. Yes. Yeah. So I guess that helped because now I look back right as co founder of ConnectingDNA, generalist really helped me a lot. Yeah I had to be good at

Michele Ong

tech. Everything.

Ee Ting Choo

I mean not in-depth but I'm able to understand but I can't code yeah and then I need to know sales although I am not good again I'm not good at sales because I was an engineer but I had to do sales yeah so I had to like I mean be able to mean generally yeah adapt yeah I think that's the correct word.

Michele Ong

Yeah.

Ee Ting Choo

Find solutions. Yeah, I think that's the that's another thing that's important.

Michele Ong

Absolutely. Like, it's you're able to be flexible in order to achieve the outcome that's desired. And, you know, you can't can't do that with rigid thinking. You have to be able to think outside the box. You have to be prepared to get your hands dirty to be able to do that sort of thing.

Ee Ting Choo

Yes. Yeah.

Leaving a secure career for entrepreneurship

Michele Ong

So moving on from that. So from Illumina, you you know, from our previous conversation, you took what I thought a lot of people would consider a risky kind of decision in leaving a secure role. So can you tell me more of or tell us more about what happens there that led you to explore this entirely different nontraditional path?

Ee Ting Choo

So I've been with Illumina for fifteen years. Yeah. And during my time there, I did a lot of different transfers from USA to Singapore, from to Europe and then I also explored China plant the Illumina Shanghai plant. It was great the company is great the whole fun stuff was great learning new things doing different things but deep down in my heart there's this inkling feeling kind of like a little voice in my head that I really want to do business. Initially I didn't know why but now that I look back I think it's really because of my mom. When I was young I mean before she passed away she was actually doing business and she's really really good at it. She would always like during the bed side, I mean before I slept, she would stories and all that, like difficulties about how she overcome it. So I probably because of that, I felt that it's something that I want to do and at a time when I was thinking about leaving I was already in my like late 30s and 40s yeah I felt that if I don't do it now then when will it be? There'll be more inertia, more financial burden and your kids and all that so one day I just made a decision to yeah let go of something that I really like to do a lot which is Luna and the technology transfer and just yeah left without a backup plan.

Michele Ong

Yeah. And that's it's such an incredibly frightening and terrifying move to make because, you know, we're so used to this idea of job security and financial security. And, you know, even this economy or otherwise, it's a big risk to take to be able to move somewhere without having a safety net.

Overcoming the fear of the unknown

So how did you prepare yourself for that leap?

Ee Ting Choo

I think the first thing is really the mindset. So when I first got this inkling feeling, I actually spoke to a lot of people. Actually the people that I spoke to, they are all employees. You see, so I didn't really get very far. So there was one turning point right where I actually spoke to this guy, he's actually my friend's brother. He's been in business for like decades. And then one day when I spoke to him about like my inkling feeling and all that, he told me why don't you just take the leap of faith? I mean you can definitely prepare. Of course he told me I need to prepare financially. Be practical. I did that but he said that if you really have this inkling feeling and you feel that you do not want to look back one day and regret that not trying this, then just go for it. And I asked him why, I always remember I asked him why. He said that because if this is what you really want to do, you'll be driven by an internal force yeah to find a road to success. So I think that this was the turning point and then I also realised that the people I spoke to were all employees and this guy was the first one that's a business owner so therefore moving forward I went I tried like networking. You know it's really scary that you were always like in the lab and all that speaking to people you're familiar with now you just like throw yourself into a networking and you do not know who you're speaking to but I did try that and I thought that that's fun. And then I spoke to more business owners and they shared to me like how their business are running. Of course they will always share the bright side and all that but the more I get to know certain people they will share with me their challenges and I thought like I don't know maybe overconfident yeah so that would happen to me you know those guys yeah actually that's nonsense okay it happens to everyone so Yes exactly so, so I like suddenly had that confidence. Yeah so I think that when we do business, people always ask me like should they be a founder and all that. I always say that, for first thing, when you're old and you look back, will you regret not doing business? That's the first. Second thing is, do you have the sudden urge, be it a push factor or pull factor that you want to leave? If that feeling, that sudden urge comes, do it. If not, you will never do it. Yeah. That's what I I usually tell people when they ask me.

Michele Ong

Yeah. Absolutely. Like, if it's such an important thing. If you look back and regret not taking the opportunity, whether it's entrepreneurship or a job that, you know, is completely outside of your normal, you know, scope of skills and experience. Now if the opportunity comes along and you look back in time, how will you feel about not having done it? And that's, you know, it's a strong motivating factor because so many times they talk to people who are, you know, close to end of life or, you know, in retiring or leaving or, you know, they're closing chapters and they talk about regrets. Yes. And it's one of the things that's the most common because it's human. It's such a human thing to have regrets.

Ee Ting Choo

Yes.

Michele Ong

So, yeah, looking at that motivation to see, you know, do I have enough of a push to try this new thing that's unexplored? But, you know, also, as you said, if you're talking to other employees and you're trying to leave an employee environment, they're not gonna give you the perspectives that you need that will allow you to think broadly about what the opportunities are going to be. Right. So you need to talk to people in a range of different environments, a range of different situations, not just the one you want to go to, not just the one that you've just come from, so that you have enough information to put together a plan for yourself and understand what the risks and the rewards are going to be. You're doing a little SWOT analysis.

Ee Ting Choo

Exactly. I think that it is important to speak to a wide variety of people like age, demographics, different career, because they give you different perspectives. And then it's about us sorting out what aligns with our purpose in life.

Michele Ong

And it it is about purpose and belief and your values and what matters to you.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah. I believe that every person that we speak to, they will I mean, trusted people. They will give their best opinion to you. They will not harm you, they will give you their best opinion but just that maybe they themselves are, for example, employees, their best opinion is just in the employee field. Yep. This is something

Michele Ong

their experience. You're drawing from their experience And that's what that's what's limiting as well as enhancing because you're getting these very specific views, and you'll be able to, you know, create this bigger picture of what things look like in from different angles. So not only did you take the leap to, you know, start entrepreneurship, but you also didn't have an idea of what sort of entrepreneurship you were looking for. Or did you have an idea of what you wanted to create?

Ee Ting Choo

I thought of doing nutrition. In fact, I studied quite a bit into nutrition before I left Illumina. Yeah, because of my like health issues when I was young. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that I do what I like, yeah, you know, be paid to do what I like, right, yeah, to have your passion. So I studied nutrition, specifically one of the science called nutritional immunology, that means nutrition for our immune system and then I tried like giving talks which actually gave to many corporates and then that's where I gained my confidence. I thought that was enough and so with that like how say that bag of confidence I carry with me, and then I went ahead, I left the company.

Building ConnectingDNA for holistic health solutions

Michele Ong

That's incredible. So how did you get from genetic analysis and then nutrition now to, I guess, DNA analysis for holistic view of health?

Ee Ting Choo

So genetics came from my time with Illumina because they are a DNA company, so I heard a lot of stories, good and bad, both of it. Then after that because of my own health related issues, I went to study nutrition. Then as I was coaching people on nutrition, like what they should eat for their health, I realised that nutrition is just one part. Actually, it's our holistic lifestyle. That means our sleep, our exercise, our nutrition, and also emotional health, stress and all that. All these must come together. So I needed a holistic solution because I was doing the nutrition business. I didn't know how to grow business because I'm not a business person. Yeah, after being an engineer for many years. So my friend told me I should like join a business community, a networking community, which I did. And over there, I knew that I wanted a holistic solution. So I went round to talk to like different business owners like they were therapists, they had their own therapy company. I also spoke to like fitness company, the trainers and all that. So I like formed collaborations and all that. So then after that I got to know my business partner, my current business partner who is the solo founder of ConnectingDNA. Then I thought ConnectingDNA being a wellness platform and also genetics is really the holistic solution that I'm looking for to help more people age gracefully, have more effective prevention in a holistic way. So then I spoke to him in-depth really a long time and we started working together where I supported his company in terms of like helping to build his platform, bringing like clients to him and then we worked together so that I can offer people holistic solutions. But I think the more I worked with him, I think he also saw that my addition to the company could help ConnectingDNA grow. So we worked out an agreement. So then he invited me to join as a co founder to ConnectingDNA. So that's how I moved from Illumina pure genetics to my own interest nutrition to knowing that I want a holistic solution and I got to meet my current business partner and then that's where we grew ConnectingDNA together.

Michele Ong

At this point, when you look back at your path, it's you can see how one thing led to the other and the way that the skills developed to allow you to take the next step. And all the way through, it's about technology transfer. And it's about, yeah, being able to create those connections, to be able to adapt the technologies, to be able to also facilitate your own health in the way that, you know, few people would be able to say my work to directly help to support my goals for health and my well-being.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah, so I mean, when I look at the hindsight, it looks like a straightforward path of one led to another. But during the time that I was stressed

Michele Ong

It was not.

Ee Ting Choo

It's so scary, you know, I literally tried everything. And at that time if I had known like the right mentor to reach out to things would have been easier it wasn't it was really a lot of like trying to figure your way out in a dark cave you see some light but you're not sure whether you drop into some puddles or some pitfalls and all that. So that period of transition was scary yet is very essential for every journey. Yeah. Yeah, that's worthwhile walking.

Michele Ong

Absolutely. Like, I can't imagine having walked the path that you did in terms of your career and not being terrified at every single transition. Like, that would have been I again, I agree. It would have been so exciting, but each one is a frightening transition

Ee Ting Choo

Mhmm.

Michele Ong

That leads to this incredible growth.

Ee Ting Choo

Mhmm.

Michele Ong

But it only feels better when you look back on it as opposed to when you're living it.

Ee Ting Choo

Exactly. So that's why I always like to share my stories with people around me because it was really not easy. So I hope that whatever I can share with them, they shorten their the path of trial and error.

Michele Ong

Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, you brought up an incredible kind of point about that as well, like making it less terrifying Mhmm. Would have been to talk to other people or find mentors and, you know, broaden your experience with what other people are doing in the area or even adjacent to the area so that you have a better understanding of where you fit amongst where all of the other things fit. And that probably would have provided a bit more security.

Ee Ting Choo

Exactly. I think the most scary part is you don't know what you don't know. Yeah, that's very, very scary. So talking to more people, they share their stories, and you will know that, oh, this could be a potential pitfall. Okay, let me try to navigate it.

Michele Ong

Yeah. But again, of course, as you said, like all these, know, you go and say, oh, I know it's gonna come. I'll make sure it doesn't happen to me. Something else will happen. And then you just have to work it out.

Ee Ting Choo

Yes. Yes. That's why solution driven and positive mindset, I think. Yeah.

Michele Ong

Yep. As long as you're always looking for a way to solve the problem, it's not going to be as frightening as going in completely unprepared.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah. I guess it's this period of time that I really read a lot of books because you really at the wit's end, you know, because, like, you talk to people, they're not bringing you anywhere but when you read books, of course now there's Chechibity. In the past, I read books. Yeah. So I have a different perspective of what I should do next. Yeah.

Michele Ong

And it's just piecing all the peep all the little extra bits of knowledge that you gather together to be able to, you know, create that strategy as loose as it might be. Yep.

Ee Ting's personal health transformation through lifestyle changes

So on that journey, have you actually solved or at least worked towards solving your health and immunology problems?

Ee Ting Choo

Oh, did. I did.

Michele Ong

I did. That's amazing. So can you share that? That would be awesome.

Ee Ting Choo

So when I was young, had a lot of problems. I had like sensitive nose, I had eczema, skin related problems, and I have gastric. Yeah, these are like like my friends, they are always you know just like my shadow, these are like my friends, they are always with me. It's it's not life threatening but it's really very irritating. Like you always have to like make sure, for example eczema, always have to bring along your lotion, if you don't bring along, it feels as if you didn't bring along your cell phone, you know, kind of feeling.

Michele Ong

It's a lot of baggage literally to carry with you. Yeah.

Ee Ting Choo

Exactly. So how I eventually solved my problem wasn't through the medical way because I tried almost everything, all the medical solutions. How I solved it was primarily really lifestyle. Yeah, I did nutrition total change. Yeah, knew what I needed to eat more, what I needed to eat less, and I just ate according to what my body needs. Then after that, when I knew DNA, then I did a DNA test that was more definitive. Like, my body needed more iron because it couldn't absorb it well, so I had to take more food that is high in iron. So I did all these deliberate things for, like a couple of years, two years at least. And yeah, it was really beneficial because at the end when I go for my health checkup, wow, suddenly first time in my life, it was all green, no more red. Yeah. So yeah I also felt really really very how say no more lethargic no more feeling cold you know people low in iron the finger and toes feel very cold.

Michele Ong

Circulatory and yeah everything's just not quite right for that, yeah.

Ee Ting Choo

Correct so when I finally like came out of that right it really felt like I was a new person yeah I didn't have to like feel cold I didn't have to lug around all the creams and all the whatever sprays that you talk about it was just Yeah, I live a new life, you know, so I was like really happy and I knew that this is the way to go. And I needed to let more people know that how they should eat properly. And then they can use DNA test as a guideline.

Michele Ong

It's being able to keep yourself more informed about your health and wellness because as you said earlier, it's all connected between, you know, your mind, body, and spirit. All of that is connected to create what it is that is your health. And you can't just fix one and let the other bits go because everything's still out of balance. So giving yourself as much knowledge as possible to be able to make the right choices for you is so important, like not just for your career, not just for life as we've been talking about with your journey, but in terms of being able to make choices for your whole health being.

Ee Ting Choo

Exactly. Yeah. And going in-depth to learn actually helped me to understand, like in the past right I would think that certain diets are bad like pure carnivore diet is bad you know keto is bad. I mean that was in the past, but now I see in a different light where you really need to know your body—

Michele Ong

Your physiology and your type, yeah.

Ee Ting Choo

Right yeah Maybe if keto will be suitable for one person but not suitable for the other. So we just need to choose the right approach for ourselves. So not only for nutrition, also for fitness. And ever since I worked in I mean ConnectingDNA, I met so many different therapists, psychotherapists, physiotherapists, hypnotherapists, all the different coaches. Then I realised that even in the therapy world, you need to know what's suitable for your own body, your own spiritual, your own yeah. Then you can really unlock your potential.

Michele Ong

And this is this is really what personalisation of health is. It's being able to understand your own body dynamics, your own body chemistry, and, you know, what your individual person needs to be able to be healthy and to thrive. And none of these solutions out there will be a one size fits all just because we're all different human beings and we're all, you know, different environments, different everything, and we need to be able to remember to tailor that to ourselves.

Ee Ting Choo

Yep. So because of this experience, now ConnectingDNA platform is built to be a very personalised wellness buddy. We we want people to be able to find solutions that are really for them, so that they can really design the life that they want, the whole family will be happy. I think that the most precious thing in life is actually the laughter, the happiness, and the peace in your heart. Yeah.

Michele Ong

Absolutely. And, you know, you can only have that by knowing what options you have and what choices you have and being able to make those on your own. Mhmm. But supported with information, but the choice is still ultimately yours. The way that you shape those decisions is, you know, entirely up to you. And you have complete freedom of will to do that.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah. Design the life that you want. Yeah.

Michele Ong

Amazing. So but, yeah, I think that's an incredible, you know, view into your journey and the way that, you know, you've been able to, even though it wasn't clear at the time, shape your life to be able to create an environment where, you know, you're able to not only feed your personal well-being, but you're also able to feed your mind and keep yourself, thriving and learning and growing with all the skills that you've been able to pull with you through your life. That's absolutely incredible.

Ee Ting Choo

Yeah. I guess for a lot of us, we all have the same goal that we want to make the best out of this lifetime. Just that sometimes we just need a bit of guide. Whether is it a data driven guide, it's a mentor, human type of guide. Solutions are out there, we just need to be open enough to find the solutions. We're ConnectingDNA, we try to put wellness solutions together but really is the client whether they want to

Michele Ong

Yeah, the onus is on the individual to be able to choose what they want to bring into their life and how they want to incorporate it.

Ee Ting Choo

Mhmm.

Michele Ong

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Eating, for speaking with me today about your journey. I've loved learning about more about your path. And, you know, one of my favorite things is learning about indirect paths through life because they're fun, they're exciting, they allow you to grow and innovate in ways that are unexpected and surprising.

Finding out more about Ee Ting and ConnectingDNA

So if people would like to know more about what you do and ConnectingDNA, where can they go?

Ee Ting Choo

They can go to my LinkedIn. Yeah. Where the link, yeah, will be there. You can click on my LinkedIn to, like, read stories or you can just go to connectingdna.com.

Michele Ong

Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Ee Ting, for speaking with me today. I have really looked forward to this, and I look forward to, you know, hearing more about your own journey as we go along.

Ee Ting Choo

Thank you, Michele.

Michele Ong

Thank you so much, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your afternoon.

Ee Ting Choo

Same to you.

Michele Ong

If you enjoyed this conversation, please let me know. Subscribe to this show, leave us a rating, and share this with your geeky or geek-curious friends. You can also support STEAM Powered on Patreon under @steampoweredshow, the link for which also be in the show notes. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.