YOU WEREN’T ALWAYS A CONTENT CREATOR, RIGHT?
After graduating from NUS, I spent two years in retail banking as a relationship manager, followed by three years in private banking, and then a short stint at a blockchain company. But I was also creating content since university.

When I left corporate work, I told myself I was taking a career break. That break somehow became a very long one and content creation became my full-time career!

Those years in banking have come in useful to what I do today. I’ve grown to become more disciplined and carried what I learnt into dealing with clients when it comes to content creation.

YOU WERE BORN IN INDONESIA AND GREW UP IN SINGAPORE. WHICH DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MORE?
I was born in Makassar, South Sulawesi, and moved to Singapore when I was nine. When I started Primary 3 here, I couldn’t speak English or Mandarin, so I remember having to adapt very quickly, not just to a new school, but to a completely different environment and culture. That experience taught me to be adaptable and independent from quite a young age.

Singapore is where I grew up, studied, built my career and forged bonds with
some of my closest friends while Indonesia will always be where my roots and family are.
I like that I can speak Bahasa Indonesia, but Singapore is also very much home to me. I don’t really see the two as competing identities and I feel fortunate that both cultures have shaped different parts of who I am today.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED PLAYING GOLF?
I started during the pandemic after reconnecting with a high school friend who was learning golf. At the time, golf was also one of the few ways we could spend a few hours outdoors and socialise with friends. I got completely hooked.

What keeps me playing now is the pursuit of getting better. Golf has this slightly cruel way of making you think you’ve figured it out, and then humbling you at the very next hole. But that challenge is probably why it is so addictive.

There is always something to work on, and every once in a while you hit that one perfect shot that makes you forget all the terrible ones before it.

BEYOND GOLF, WHAT OTHER SPORTS DO YOU PLAY?
I’ve become a bit of a serial sports hobbyist! I play pickleball, and have been learning tennis for about three years.

Recently, I’ve become addicted to padel. I run and strength train regularly as well. I also did a yoga teacher training course and am doing a Pilates reformer training course.

Fitness definitely wasn’t a passion growing up and I struggled with ball sense when I started racquet sports. It only really became part of my life after I started working.

Initially, exercise was something I had to consciously make time for, but over the years it has become a habit, and something I look forward to. Now I actually feel strange when I go too long without working out.

WHAT’S YOUR WORKOUT SCHEDULE LIKE?
It changes depending on my work and travel schedule, but in a normal week I’ll golf two to three times, strength train twice, play padel once or twice, and run about twice a week.

Seeing that written down makes me realise I probably have a problem! They all give me a different kind of pleasure.

Running probably gives me the most consistent happiness. there’s the endorphin rush, but I also love setting a pace or distance goal and having that sense of satisfaction when I achieve it.

Golf is almost the opposite. It probably gives me the most frustration, but also the biggest highs. You can have a terrible round and then make one birdie and suddenly all is forgiven. Padel is the social one for me — it’s competitive, fast and fun, but you’re also laughing and interacting the whole time.

ARE YOU AN ATHLETE FIRST, OR AN INFLUENCER FIRST?
It happened quite accidentally. During university I posted a lot of photos of my outfits, places I visited, everyday life and somehow people started following along.

I think initially it was probably the energy and lifestyle aspect that drew people in. There was never a moment where I decided, “I’m going to become an influencer.”

I was definitely an influencer before I was remotely athletic. I barely exercised when I was younger It was only when I started working in Shanghai and gained quite a bit of weight from all the good food that I started running and working out.

One of the things I love about the way sport has evolved in recent years is how social it has become.

Golf, running clubs, padel and pickleball all create communities. You exercise, compete, meet people and spend time with friends at the same time. At this point, posting about it is really just documenting something I would already be doing.

WHAT DOES THE “INFLUENCER” WORLD MEAN TO YOU?
I see “influencer” as a description of what I do, rather than who I am.

Social media has given me opportunities I never imagined when I first started posting photos in university. I’ve travelled to incredible places, met people from completely different walks of life, worked with brands I grew up loving, and discovered interests including golf and sport that have become genuine parts of my life.

But I don’t want my identity to be determined by follower numbers, views or engagement. Those things can change overnight. What matters more to me is what I’ve built and learnt along the way such as relationships, businesses, experiences, skills and hopefully a community that has grown with me.

The nicest thing about having a platform is that you get to share your curiosity with people.

I’m not trying to present myself as an expert at everything I do. Quite often I’m learning in public, whether that’s golf, tennis, running or something completely new.

If watching me being bad at something, stick with it and slowly improve encourages someone else to try something new too, I think that’s a pretty meaningful kind of influence.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PITFALLS OF BEING AN INFLUENCER?

One of the biggest realities of having a public platform is that you’re being watched even when you don’t necessarily feel like you are. Something you post casually in a few seconds can travel far beyond the audience or context
you originally imagined.

The controversy earlier this year was a difficult but important lesson for
me. I made a joke based on wordplay around a very serious geopolitical
situation. Regardless of what I intended, I understood afterwards why people found it insensitive.

Intention doesn’t erase impact, especially when you’re communicating to a large and diverse audience.

My biggest takeaway was that having a platform comes with responsibility. The bigger your audience becomes, the more aware you have to be that the people
seeing your content come from different countries, cultures and lived experiences.

Something that feels like a throwaway joke to you can touch on something very
painful and real for someone else.

At the same time, I think growth means being able to acknowledge when you’ve exercised poor judgment without allowing one mistake to define you forever. I apologised, reflected on it and became much more thoughtful about what I put
out.

Social media moves incredibly quickly, but some lessons are worth carrying with you long after the news cycle has moved on.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR MOST MEMORABLE GOLF EXPERIENCES?
Pebble Beach this year is definitely one that will stay with me. It’s one of those places you’ve seen so many times in golf that actually standing there and playing it feels surreal.

Marina Bay Golf Course is memorable to me for a completely
different reason because it was part of how I fell in love with golf in the
first place.

I have so many memories there from when I was still relatively new to the game, so I was genuinely sad to see it close.

And attending LIV Golf in Singapore has also been a highlight. Being able to experience professional golf up close and seeing the atmosphere around the sport beyond simply playing it myself gave me a completely different appreciation for the game.

AS A CONTENT CREATOR, DO THE BRANDS YOU TAKE ON MATTER?
The first question I ask myself is whether this is something I would genuinely use, wear or recommend. I also understand that every partnership is also an endorsement.

I look at whether the brand fits naturally into my lifestyle, whether I believe in the product, the reputation and values of the company, and whether I can create something around it that still feels like me.

A good partnership should make sense to my audience without requiring a lengthy explanation for why I’m suddenly talking about it.

Long-term relationships, like with adidas, are especially meaningful to me because when a brand chooses to work with you repeatedly, there’s mutual trust and you become more than just an advertising space.

WHAT ELSE DPO YOU DO OTHER THAN CREATE CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
I run Heylens, a coloured contact lens business I co-founded with my friends, and I founded Club NV, where I designed functional clothing.

Entrepreneurship has always interested me. I don’t think anybody really
knows the lifespan of an influencer because the industry is still quite young.

Platforms will change, algorithms are constantly changing and the way people consume content will definitely change. The goal is to keep evolving.

My platform is something that can open doors, but what you build behind those doors matters more. For me, that means businesses, relationships, skills
and experiences that exist beyond social media.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU LIKE TO DO?
I’m actually quite a homebody when I’m not travelling or doing
something active. I genuinely enjoy tidying and reorganising my room just because it’s strangely therapeutic and probably my way
of resetting when life gets hectic.

I also enjoy reading, travelling and discovering new places to eat. Travel is probably my favourite way to switch off because I love being somewhere unfamiliar, walking around without much of a plan and discovering a city as I go.

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE TO ALL ASPIRING INFLUENCERS?
Don’t focus too much on becoming an influencer. Focus on becoming someone worth following. Find things you’re genuinely interested in, develop a point of view and share them consistently. Trends can help you grow, but if your entire identity is built around whatever is trending, it’s very difficult to build a community that stays with you.

And don’t wait until you’re an expert.

Some of the most interesting content comes from the process of learning,
failing and improving. I’ve shared plenty of bad golf swings, failed attempts and sports I’m still very average at!

Ultimately, I think authenticity isn’t about sharing every part of your life. It’s about making sure the parts you do choose to share actually feel like you. Numbers fluctuate, platforms change and trends disappear, but having your own voice is what I guess gives you longevity.