Thank you Charis for joining us, let us hear out what Charis have to say!
Adele: Hi Charis
Charis Ow: Hi, My name is Charis. I am a content creator and entrepreneur. Besides, I own a mother and children’s clothing brand called NIKO & CLARE. I also sing occasionally on the side, I host, I am a ‘Rojak’.
Adele: How has married life been? I think like your whole wedding and like the whole, I remember the whole audio and like now it’s all done.
Charis Ow: It’s been great! This is because this wedding has been a long time coming. We were supposed to have it in 2020, but corona right so shout out to all corona brides out there. Hence, we pulled through after 2 years and we finally had a reception for our dream wedding, so super happy that happened.
Although we had to scale down on the guests, we had to scale down on our budget, but things have to happen right? We have to adapt to the pandemic, so at the end of the day it’s the marriage that counts. We got to focus on the marriage, instead of you know, an event. Thus, it’s been great, I have a roommate for life I guess.
Adele: Yeah and of course, we know one of your videos went viral with hundreds of hundreds of millions of views. I mean that is like crazy. How does that make me feel or you know in another word, you are a content creator right？
Charis Ow: Yes, yes
Adele: I think that is kind of an achievement but how does that make you feel?
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Charis Ow: I can finally say that I’m viral, but it was very unexpected. I have to be very honest with you. I didn’t think much about it when I posted because throughout the night, I had a girl who helped me, Megan. Hence, throughout the night, she was just taking videos of me, photos of me and the next day when I checked my phone, I found this short clip and oh, I was cute, let’s just post it for fun and it just kept going. Then, it was great!
Adele: I think this is that thing about content. You’re just rolling and you think this is cute. Therefore, that’s why people always say things that go viral, and we don’t really understand why. It’s been such a long time creating content, all kinds of content. Travel, fashion and beauty, what does being a content creator mean to you?
Charis Ow: I think I’m very blessed, because it was something that I stumbled upon. After university, I loved creating content from the get go, even before Instagram happened. It was just YouTube, I gotta do what I love to do and just be myself. Thus, this whole TikTok and Instagram reel blew up, it really humbled me in a way.
It kind of reminded me that although you can plan for things, you can hire videographers, you can book a location the best location in the world but at the same time, it might not reach that kind of audience that you aspire to reach. When you look back at that simple video, it was just me being me, me loving food.
Adele: Yeah and I think like over the years, you have really evolved from YouTube, content creating and hosting. Now you are running our own brand NIKO & CLARE. Hence, tell us something that we don’t see you know online, because I know running a brand it’s hard especially, people like to say, wow, Charis is an influencer, and you got followers easily. Share with us, maybe just one behind the scene story that we don’t know.
Charis Ow: This is because we started the brand at the end of 2020, but we only launched in 2021 and that time it was another lockdown, and 2021 it was just full on lockdown. Thus, we thought that if it’s not now, when? We have to launch it because we already got everything in place, it was definitely a leap of faith.
I remember sorting out my inventory in my guest bedroom, I remember counting the stocks. This is because my partner couldn’t be here with me. I have to say even until today, after one year plus of launching the brand, I have so much to learn, and I sometimes feel stupid. When I talk to other people, other entrepreneurs or other founders of clothing brands, I feel like I’m such a small peanut. So at the end of the day, it’s just a very steep learning curve for me. You can always create a brand, but maintaining a brand is very difficult.
Adele: This is a million people always asking questions like how do you juggle, are there any you know productivity hack that you do in your life that you want to share with all of us?
Charis Ow: I think learning how to prioritize things that matter to you, I think put it in a to do list, and just categorize things according to its urgency or how much prioritize this thing. I believe we can do anything, but not everything as well. So getting help is definitely something we should consider, because a lot of the time we take on things ourselves and we don’t delegate to people who have the strength to do certain tasks. Thus, I think being able to let go is also another thing that can help you be more productive.
Adele: One thing I always like to tell my team or even my friends is that when you are saying YES to something technically you’re saying NO to another, you know sometimes as people pleaser, I can be quite a people pleaser sometimes because I don’t want people to be upset right?
Especially if people say Adele, can you help me with this? Sometimes instantly I would just say that sure, it’s just like a 5 switch off mindset, when it comes to productivity is super important, so like now I kind of tell myself that I need to say NO. Let’s just talk a little bit about Daryll, he has been with you for so many years. Tell us some juice you know like what are some of the most frustrating things?
Charis Ow: One thing about Daryll and I, we were brought up very differently. Although we have the same beliefs, the same values but very different backgrounds. Hence, I would definitely recommend going for premarital counselling to those who are in a relationship or about to get married that helped us a lot. We did premarital counselling for 2 to 3 years, so a lot of things, the expectations part was difficult. This is because we both had different expectations of each other, so I can be quite messy and he’s the clean freak but we had to really adapt to one another.
When we started living together, after getting married, when we lived together, there are a lot of compromises and I went into marriage with both my eyes open so I know he was a clean freak from the get go. Even before I lived with him, I mean I go to his house, and I see how he does things, so it wasn’t a surprise but experiencing it was very different but at the end of the day, I love this new roommate of mine, and I call him my new roommate.
Adele: It’s been a great experience being married to your best friend you know. What are some of the things that you’re most grateful for?
Charis Ow: One thing about Daryll that I really admire is he has never raised his voice at me and he never talked down to me. He respects me, fully supports me, even through our two miscarriages that we had he never blamed me, he encouraged me to even go to therapy to talk about it because at the end of the day, if we need that mental help, you should always get it.
Adele: You are so open to share about your miscarriages on online and I just want to take this chance to really ask you, how are you, the whole process of grieving?
It is not easy, because I lost my mom and my grandma within the span of like three years and I took like a long time to grieve. Especially my mother, the doctor said she had like minimum 2 years or maximum 5 years, but my mom was gone in less than 6 months. Obviously, I wouldn’t say I understand what you go through, but I understood like the grieving process has been for you.
Charis Ow: For the first one I took my time and I really had a good first few months to process the whole thing. I think the difference is the first one I did a DNC, so it was removed from viral surgery but my second one, not a lot of people know unless they talked to me about it. It was natural and it was very painful. Basically, I was actually on the floor, on that day when contractions started to happen I was pale and that was when Daryll looked at me and said I think we have to go to the emergency room. I’ve heard mixed carriages happening effortlessly like you could just beyond the toilet and it will just come out naturally, and you don’t feel anything for me. It was very very painful and I had to rush to the ER.
They put me on drips, things like that, so I had a preview of that and physically I’m quite traumatized by that experience. That happened in June and my wedding was in July. We even planned for a whole gender reveal during the wedding, so that had to be called off and after the wedding we went on to our honeymoons. Henceforth, I think I kind of put that experience in the back of my head. I didn’t really sit down like my first one and the process it’s going to be an ongoing process but I’m still quite hopeful at the end of the day, because I have a very good support system around me.
Adele: I’m a mom myself, I cannot imagine the mental stress and the physical pain that you had to go through, but I really admire how you’re so generous with your sharing. This is because I’ve had friends that has miscarriages, but they are just not comfortable to even tell their circle.
Charis Ow: Of course, everybody is different and I think for me I want to be that voice to be there for other women who experience miscarriages to not let them feel like they’re alone. It can be a very lonely journey, if you keep it to yourself, if you don’t process it, if you don’t grief about it, and if you sweep it under the carpet which is what sometimes Asian people will do.
Adele: I think this year has just been insane for you to share with us. You know having gone through, and you know the highest high and the lowest low. What are some of the valuable lessons that you’ve learned? Maybe just from the support system around you or even just for your whole experience.
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Charis Ow: I’ve learned so many things throughout 2022 though because I’ve also gone through that whole legal aspect with the medical practitioner that I also mentioned in one of my videos. I think the takeaway is to celebrate the tiny win. I know a lot of people, they have high expectations for themselves. They would just be like it’s just a pop up store or I just you know score a B or A minus but I think being able to celebrate the tiny wins, it’s a blessing anyway. Always be grateful for the little things that happen in your life even at dinner with a friend, I think it’s worth celebrating. The time that you have with your loved ones, I think is just being mindful and grateful for the good things that happen in your life.
Adele: There are different people watching this right now and like anything at all that you want to share with them?
Charis Ow: In terms of content creation just keep creating, I know sometimes you will be demotivated but don’t let that get you down and for mothers out there, just have hope keep trying and keep creating as well.
Adele: Yeah, don’t give up! Thank you so much Charis for your time. If you like what you see, be sure to share this out and give Charis a follow. I’ll see you guys in the next one. Bye Charis.
Charis Ow: Bye, thanks for having me.
If you wish to check out the entire podcast in video form, watch it below!
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