Hey STIMIES! Welcome back to Part 2 of the So This Is My Why Podcast with Loh Lik Peng - CEO & Founder of Unlisted Collection. In Part 1, we covered Lik Peng’s journey from wanting to become a doctor (just like his parents) to becoming a commercial litigator and purchasing his first hotel property: Hotel 1929. The property that kickstarted his crazy career pivot. But the F&B industry is a tough place to be. You need a good dose of hard work, luck and… a talent for spotting F&B talent (which Lik Peng has!). In this episode, we dive into the intricacies of his international hospitality business, tackling questions like: Why does he give equity to his chefs? How does he identify and convince culinary talents like Rishi Naleendra to come on board? How does he work together with the chefs to ensure that they have everything they need to build a thriving business? How attaining a Michelin star flipped a switch within the chefs he works with What are his thoughts on brand building? When is it time to pull the plug? (His most painful failure was with One Leicester Square in London) His big passion with museums; and So much more If you haven’t heard Lik Peng’s origin story, listen to the previous STIMY Ep 140 Part 1 episode first. And if you have, then stick around for Part 2! Are you ready? Let’s go. Highlights: 2:52 Lik Peng’s hands off approach 4:20 Discovering Rishi Naleendra & being a good spotter of F&B talent 5:51 Did Lik Peng conduct any due diligence on his potential talents? 6:56 Building the infrastructure for an F&B business 8:20 “I didn’t understand what P&L was before. If I knew, I would’ve never said yes.” 9:06 Keep an eye on the numbers! 10:12 Winning a Michelin star flipped a star switch… 11:18 When are chefs ready to strike out on their own? 12:05 Brand building 13:30 Overcoming moments of blind panic 14:46 When do you let go? 15:33 Biggest failure 17:57 Passion for museums 21:30 Do you still identify as a lawyer? 21:43 Which pivot was the easiest and why? 24:01 Finding your second & third act in your career 25:14 What book are you reading now? 25:14 Art of finding the right talent 27:00 Any non-compete clause? 27:38 Three key things that you’d attribute your success to 30:14 One COVID casualty 31:23 Luck 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/140 🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/w22CAJupO48 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442