Deli Aroma LLC: Indications from Childhood that Foreshadowed Becoming a Business Leader
In my culture, I was just a follower in my childhood experience. To respect the authority meant not to deviate from what they were telling you to do or what they were saying. You might be able to have your ideas or followers when you reach a certain position in a company hierarchy. I think for my generation, change was not a word welcomed by authority. The company culture was you just needed to follow your predecessors and let no mistakes happen. The only thing that you could have changed was that when the company was in trouble you were forced to initiate a change.
However, I found that a leader is born – When I was in the US in the beginning, I wrote on an entertainment website in Hong Kong that became a landslide victory and people followed my way. From that time onwards, I noticed that when chances come, your leadership qualities will be explicitly exemplified and people will see that you are a leader/pioneer. It is too easy to break the rules without knowing the full picture of what the circumstances are, so all these years, I learned to be a follower at the beginning to make sure I understood the rules before I broke them and had my own. This creates competitive advantages, as when the shaking up is unique and up to the point, you can monopolize the market for a certain period, and your impact is more impressive and can be more long-lasting.
The Idea Behind the Company and Starting the Business
I am a creative person and I am inventive too. As a thought leader, I do not lack ideas to make changes. The only thing is I need to make sure that the change that I am making or going to make yields a positive result on what I am doing. Moreover, all changes involve money to make them happen, I have to calculate the return of my investment to make it profitable or worthy to carry out. This is so true in this economic environment that I need to be more cautious than I used to be in the past to decide on that.
I started my business in 2014, I had been taking courses on alternative health such as nutrition, aromatherapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Bodywork, herbalism, etc… I focused on aromatherapy because some educators had a good curriculum to study and you can even be a teacher to teach… and the aromatherapy associations had a good classification of memberships for you to make a difference and be recognized. For example, AIA aromatherapy associations had a category of clinical members at that time that very few people could get into and I was one of them. Thus, it was very easy for me to get the social status and develop my business faster and deeper in my community.
I mentioned in many interviews that I started my business because I wanted to be financially independent… when I was involved more, I found that I should hire women who were homemakers so that they could make more money and pursue their own business with financial freedom too.
Then chances came that I started to write for some academic journals and be recognized by the medical society for what I am doing. This is a surprise to me but anyway, I did take some courses on pharmacology, genetics, functional medicines, and so on, so that I can understand their language and mentality so that I can better communicate and understand what conventional medicine is doing.
Scaling Up Productivity: Schedules and Strategies
People are more productive when they have a good mood, it is easier to plan and carry out your thoughts. To do this, you need to have sufficient serotonin. To boost it, you can have passive exercises through technology-assisted settings, or you do active exercises or take supplements, through diet, or even take shots/do IV drips, etc…
I exercise through technology-assisted settings like employing the technology of infrared sauna, red light therapy, cryotherapy… and occasionally doing some IV drips, etc… I then found that I am in a happier mood, more productive, and more optimistic. A coin has two sides, while this boosts my productivity and optimism, I think this can make me less alert of the bad things coming… and get more prepared. This actually can be improved when stress sets in, you will be more realistic and grounded again.
Tiring Challenges Faced and Lessons Learned
The most tiring challenge I have faced is the time that I have to write up a manuscript to submit to a journal. They have some protocols to follow, and you need to have a minimum number of references, how many graphs/diagrams/tables you need to minimally have to be considered scientific. This is very stressful. I pioneer the work that it is just the innovative thinking that needs to be tested and retested… and this should not be done by the same person… while what they are asking is more in tune with what the following works should be doing… and frankly, I need to explain and make my common sense scientific, that is so time-consuming and it really hinders my creative but grounded thinking… hopefully one day, they can grant me some relief on not to follow the disciplines completely.
As far as I know, Einstein didn’t do much work except for a few… perhaps the world gave him too much pressure and work to explain his common sense that he gave up doing more, (joking).
Solving Customer Problems and Creating a Niche Product
My merchandise tries to give people therapeutics that they can self-care for themselves. To be a niche product, it has to fit into a specific group of consumers. For example, products that target improving sleep quality regarding hot flashes are a typical example of niche product marketing. Another would be targeting people with migraines in hopes of improving sleep quality can is another niche.
Research and Development in Products and Services
I funded my research with my product sales income and I only focused on focus groups in structuring my R&D, with timely reviews from them. As I said, I am a thought leader and I pioneered the research for collaborative efforts. This is teamwork and I only do the inventive part while they help in detailing and developing the fine lines.
Influence of Technology on the Business
Technology is so widely used by the general public now that we have to take into account how this incorporation into self-care can affect the therapeutic results when a person seeks treatment. In the past, when a person sought treatment, they just relied on the medications that a doctor provided, sometimes with an adjustment of diet or supplements to reduce the side effects. Nowadays, as many technologies introduced are very anti-inflammatory and the whole US likes to be less inflamed in everything there might be too much anti-inflammatory work done. So, in prescribing a medication, should a doctor still follow the past protocol? Another thing that should be considered is that the more anti-inflammation you do, there will be reduction of immunity activities… in the end, do you want your immunity to heal your body or anti-inflammation to temporarily suppress the issue?!
Mentors and Coaches
Surely, I have a mentor… I learned so much from my acupuncturist on how to coach and mentor a patient to finish the cycle of treatment. Very often, the failure to complete the cycle makes the whole protocol ineffective. That said, people give up too early before they can see the result. She worked in the ER as an MD in China so she was very strict in the hygiene of the office, and each step of the protocols. As I used her room to carry out my study, I needed to follow suit. She had exceptional talent in study and she had sharp observations… she went to medical school when she was 15 years old and graduated the second of her faculty. In our conversations, she had some insightful ideas that were worth noting.
I learned some practical TCM from her, but I modified it to what I put into my published papers. After moving to Austin, she is my only mentor. I feel lucky that I met her and I learned that as a therapist, except for providing the technicalities for the client it is our responsibility to encourage him/her to finish the treatment cycle and regular maintenance.
Team Size and Ensuring Equal Growth Opportunities
I just like to work by myself and I do not want others to disturb my thoughts and what I am doing. My husband does the editing of my work to make it look more scientific and have no contradictory thoughts. With him, my work became a “masterpiece” and he helped me get the award for the best article of the year. However, every time I read what he edited, I found that my original work got altered… anyway, it fits what the world requires. This is a serious question: Shall I continue my leadership style by pioneering or shall I conform? Only God knows.
Leading by Example: Core Leadership Qualities
To a certain extent, I believe in leading by example. In a corporate setting, I think the CEO has to be a good example, but the big boss can do what he/she wants to do unless he/she wants to be exemplified.
Challenges Hindering Female Leaders in Business
My leadership style qualities can be concluded with carefree within the boundaries.
Interest in Ventures with a Higher Cause or Positive Social Impact
Yes, I also arrange some community education programs like Japanese Floral Arrangements, and Health and Wellness Programs from Industry Expert to uplevel people’s knowledge and cross-cultural experience. In the coming future, there will be more programs involving lifestyle, business marketing in a tough time, cross-culture collaborations, tapping the clientele in a resourceful way, etc.
Biggest Achievements So Far
I think one of them is, my mother-in-law, who has had Alzheimer’s Disease can be normal I think more than 80% most of the time. I wrote her case in a drug designing journal. Through taking care of her, I discovered that nano ketone through inhalation can help people with cognitive issues to improve. The only factor is how much and how long you have to use it. Another achievement is to discover infrared sauna with aerobic activity can be dissected into a spectrum containing mitochondrial recharging, anti-inflammation, and heat in designing therapeutic programs for some health issues. This makes the study of energy more precise, and this breakthrough awarded me the best article of the year 2023 in a Biochemistry and Analytical Biochemistry Journal.
Goals and Opportunities for the Next Five Years
I have a wish: I think it would be good if there was a museum to collect all the rewards Christians contributed to show how God accompanies us to accomplish our life missions. In the past, Abraham had to count the stars in the sky to be sure of the future, but now we can see with our own eyes how God accomplished all these… hopefully, that would be done within 5 years. I am a lazy person I want to be a nun in the temple for my life… this thought stemmed from my childhood.
In the coming future, I think will be the study of HIV/AIDS with more advancements that hopefully, I will be contributing to.
Tips for Women Starting Their Businesses
The commercial or business world is very fragmented now, it is hard to shine and rise in a short time. It takes much longer to be successful nowadays, and you might need more funding to invest in your endeavors before these can be harvested as profitable enterprises.
