In a rapidly transforming virtual world, Dr. Wendy Liew, Director & Founder, The Image Creator, is a growth partner carving the path for success. She is the woman with multiple hats- Certified Image & Brand Management Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Author, and an award-winning entrepreneur. Wendy is also recognized as a Trailblazer of AsiaBizToday, Inspiring Women of Malaysia by Malaysian Business Magazine under the class of 2019 MB’s Notable & Successful Women, accredited as one of the personalities in the First Edition of Human Encyclopedia (Britishpedia) titled “Successful People in Malaysia” by British Publishing House Ltd and featured in the 3rd Edition coffee table book titled “50 Influential Women of the World”. Furthermore, Wendy Liew has been listed as one of the LinkedIn Icons & Influencers in the article “Power of Persuasion” on Social Media Influencer by “TheSunDaily”.
While sharing her business journey, Wendy Liew apprised, “I’m running 4 different companies, from Image & Brand Management in Education & Training, Branding & Marketing content development to IT & infrastructure and lastly into Trust & Integrity building for businesses. With TIC, we started on conducting personal branding in the areas of image, colours & style workshops a decade ago and it slowly moved into mostly conducting corporate training to Multinational companies, Government Link companies and Fortune 500 companies.”
More about the Company
TIC is one of Asia’s Best Brands 2019 and Malaysia’s leading training providers of image and skills consulting services, specializing in helping clients develop a strong impression, desired perception, and brand identity, through image and brand management, communication, etiquette, and protocol skills.
Almost 90% of TIC’s clients are corporate companies that include MNCs, GLCs & the Fortune 500 companies. To date, it has trained more than hundreds of companies and over 70, 000 corporate people ranging from lower-level all the way to the C-Suites level and the VVIPs in the areas of Professional Image Branding, Protocol & Business Etiquette.
Hurdles on the Way
The toughest time so far was last year when the pandemic started where everything was put to a halt. As it dragged on for months and months with low business, Wendy Liew said, she struggled a lot in sustaining the business and maintaining all employees. They are trying their best not to reduce their salary and to retain all employees with the company. Fortunately, she made it happen.
However, Wendy Liew believes, everything that happened is like the flip of the coin. The impact of the pandemic isn’t that bad after all. Instead of moving downhill, they are maintaining and what’s most precious to us is that they see clarity, they feel the unity and they manage the urgency in pivoting.
What Helped You along the Way?
“Being a trainer/educator, I believe strongly in continuous education regardless of the level or position that we are in. When we stop learning, we stop growing”, shared Wendy Liew.
“I set aside a fund for at least 2 new courses every year overseas. This helped me tremendously in my journey in building my business. It’s so important to learn from the people or industry that is totally out of our own industry and finding relevancy on how to bring our existing offering from different perspectives and to different levels. In each of the courses, we can see what have we done well here in our country, and what are the things that work in other countries, and how to close the gap in solving current challenges with the new input that we learn from the new learning and the other countries”, she further added.
Creating a more Balanced and Equal Industry
In the goals of achieving diversity in having a greater proportion of women and ethnically/culturally diverse individuals) especially in the leadership of large companies and financial outperformance, some of these contributions and efforts What can companies do in order to achieve a more balanced and equal industry:
- Commit and cascade from top-down to convey the importance of I&D as part of the company culture and values, especially during onboarding.
- Link I&D as a part of the growth strategy. The I&D priorities must be explicitly defined based on what will drive the business growth strategy.
- Craft an initiative journey or roadmap in pursuit of the I&D goals. Companies should go for programmes and training to build the culture of I&D.
- Tailor for impact. I&D initiatives should be tailored to the relevant business area or geographic region context to maximize local buy-in and impact. There are no one-size-fits!
A Day in Wendy Liew’s Life
Here is Wendy’s schedule after Covid-19:
- 7.00 am: Wake up
- 7.30 am – 8.30am: Physical Activity
- 9.00 am: Salad breakfast with hubby
- 9.30 am: To-do list (meetings, coaching, training, speaking, and meeting clients)
- 12.00pm: Lunch
- 1.00pm: continue working
- 5.30 pm: Family leisure time
- 7.00pm: Dinner
- 8.00 pm: Will continue to work if it’s urgent, else, that will spend with family
- 10.00 pm: Supper time
- 11.00 pm: Reading/ preparing on tomorrow’s schedule/to check with any unfinished work or catching up with backlogs if any.
- 12.00am/1.00am: Sleep
Favourite Book
“How Women Rise” – Marshall Goldsmith & Sally Helgesen
Future Roadmap
Dr. Liew is pivoting her business needs to integrate the essential touch of humanization with the full fledge of digitalization that eventually promotes a sustainable future!
Her whole team is super excited and looking forward to the whole completion of their digital ecosystem that can be fully automated from e-learning in training & education to Image Gamification system, 100% Online Certification Programmes, Sales & Marketing Vault Funnelling system, Image Apps and finally to an award giving platform. Meanwhile, they are in the midst of coming out with a few implementation programmes for SMEs/start-ups that will eventually also be converted into digital/automated systems.
Jewels in the Crown
- Award Recipient of “Malaysia Most Fabulous Training & Development Leaders 2020” – World Federation of HR Professionals
- Award Recipient of “Women Super Achiever 2020 & 2019” – Women Leadership Congress Award
- Award Recipient of “Content Developer of The Year” under the category of Asia Training & Development Excellence Award 2019
- Award Recipient of “Malaysia Women Leaders 2019”
- Award Recipient of “101 Top Global Training & Development Minds 2019”
- Award Recipient of “Distinguished Trainer 2019”
- Award Recipient of “Coaching & Development Leadership 2019”
- Award Recipient of “Asia Best Brand 2019” – CMO Asia Singapore
- Award Recipient of “Women Icons Malaysia 2018”
- Award Recipient of “The 100 Most Influential Young Entrepreneur 2017”
Advice for Female Entrepreneurs
- There’s nothing wrong to be ambitious as ambition is for everyone, not just for men.
- Never short-change yourself as a woman.
- Demand for your value as you know what’s the value that you can bring to the table.
- It’s okay to be vulnerable and seek support. The support system is your strength.
Favourite Quote
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from. The ability to triumph begins with you, always! – Oprah Winfrey