Reflecting on 2021: A Year of Change and Transformation

If you have read my posts on LinkedIn, you’d understand one thing about me. I am introspective as much as I am growth-oriented. I love reflecting on and learning from my experiences, triumphs and mistakes. I then use these learnings to grow in my life and career.

I am grateful that 2021 offered me a wealth of learnings in that view. And I’d love to recap them for you. Because, if you are like me, you do not just grow from learning from your own life experiences, but from others’ experiences as well.

My year started off uncertain, just like it did for many of you. We were all reeling from the tornado-pandemic year of 2020. Work-wise, I headed into the new year managing the business side of things. I had just started to grow our Creative Production team which was just ten people strong at the time. We then expanded our team “one superhero at a time”. To be precise, our team grew 700% last year, with most hired while 100% of the team worked from home. Including RELX team (based in Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia) – Senior Account Managers Ish Reyes, Vanessa Isabella and Senior Account Director Elaine Giam.

2021 was also a year of hitting my stride as a thought-leader in my space. These achievements were a personal triumph for me and a little internal “huzzah” for the hard work I’ve put in over the years.

In May, I was invited to my 1st Glints Webinar, “Brand Storytelling: Telling stories that matter to your audience”, and then in July to the biggest audience webinar I’ve done (with more than 300 participants) for Glints Career Week, “How to make your mark in creative agencies”. I was also invited to speak for M.A.D. School by Chatsworth Medi@rt Academy on “Being a Women in a Mad Men’s World” in October. The same month I did more webinars with Glints, and becoming a regular with them and speaking on “The love-hate relationship with UI/UX & storytelling”.

2021 also saw me opening up about my journey and sharing my learnings on LinkedIn. In July, I embarked on my #FElosophy and #FEunlimited journey and relaunched my Youtube Channel Unapologetically Fe in August. I was heartened to receive many messages from young women who found my stories helpful and inspiring. Mission accomplished!

Many work-wins made my 2021 a high-impact one. For starters, our team pulled off shooting a KODAK Lens Global TV commercial (with Sophia Seddarassan, gilang jati, Ferysha Malik, C. Jessy Christina, Olivia) in June during the pandemic! We also launched two content hubs: Beautyhub.ph and Allthingshealth.com. In September, I celebrated my third work anniversary at Green Park Content and was promoted to Group Partner. What a great birthday gift that was.

In October, we launched our monthly GPC Lunch & Learn, our Rise Up Mentorship programme (with facilitators Ninda Aldila, Chonx Tibajia Valentina Limbong, mentor Ayie Austria, and my mentees Sasha Lim Uy Mariposa, Sharmila Devi) and our wellness programme Fit O Clock (with Matt Yu, Louisse David). We also hired some stellar senior talents and promoted some of our stars. I am so glad we now have our talented Head of Design Matt Yu and Copy Lead Trina Enriquez (and previously Natalla Dionisio)! Que R. from my team has been instrumental in our growth and was promoted to Global Social Media Lead. Alongside our Motion Graphic Lead gilang jati, Head of Production C. Jessy Christina, Olivia; and our incredible team then raked in some pretty excellent awards that month.

Talking about awards, I was honoured to be acknowledged for pretty dope awards myself in 2021. In June, I was recognised as a Campaign Asia-Pacific Women Leading Change of the Year Finalist. In September, I was also featured in the Women to Watch 2021 list, highlighting 40 powerhouse women in Asia, including women from mega agencies (thanks to Lesley Renton).

We clearly pushed through 2021 with great power, but we didn’t forget to have fun in the process! Although 100% of our team worked remotely, we pulled off some fantastic team events. Our Halloween event was one for the books (thanks to Suk Voon Tan). How can I forget winning best dressed and performing in a music video (with gilang jati, Herling Majid, Haiqal Azim) for GPC Got Talent? What fun it was. We ended our year with a Superhero-themed Christmas party that spanned four markets – where I was named Wonder Woman of the Year by the Leadership team and People’s Choice Captain Marvel Award.

I ended my year reflecting on all these fantastic memories and feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude to my team and the people I am surrounded by. They bring in their 200% even when times are trying.

I step into 2022 optimistic, hopeful and ready to crush it. Bring it on, I say!