Joanna Blanding, Founder & CEO of The Asian Blandings Collective Pte.

As a prominent figure in Singapore’s expat community; an entrepreneur, mother, author, fundraiser and serial volunteer, Joanna Blanding is someone that’s easy to feel ‘connected’ to, and a leader with an incredible story to share.

In 2020 she was shortlisted for the Women of the Future Awards, South East Asia. It’s easy to see why: Joanna has successfully launched multiple businesses and initiatives under The Asian Blandings Collective (The Smart Concierge: a virtual team of strategic, creative and administrative personal assistants and Giving is Social: a non-profit organisation and book connecting the global community in Asia to high-impact giving opportunities - to name just a few). She is dedicated to creating brands and communities that inspire people to pursue purpose in everything they do.

In our career conversation, we discussed the secrets to her productivity, the way that she brings ‘purpose’ to life in her work, and her unique approach to leadership, value and business.

Joanna, I’m sure there are many people out there dreaming about leaving their corporate job and starting-up on their own…How did you make the decision to become an entrepreneur and leave the corporate world?

I was getting married in 2015 and wanted to spend some time with my family back in the Philippines before our wedding. So I asked for a sabbatical leave from my boss…a request my boss declined! As it turned out, the company was retrenching; so if they had granted me a break, it would have been unfair to others. So, I bit the bullet and resigned instead! Right after the wedding, I started dabbling in entrepreneurship while running my non-profit organisation, Giving is Social, which I had already started four years prior to my resignation.

As the founder of a multi-brand business, mother, book author and charitable fundraiser, I’m curious to know - what's the secret to your productivity?

I have learned three things over the years:

1. To establish my WHYs and boundaries; and to review them regularly

2. To make decisions fast. (Knowing my WHYs and boundaries allows me to do this)

3. To delegate. While employed as a consultant, I hired a virtual personal assistant who I paid from my own pocket. The benefits I gained from it led me to start The Smart Concierge.

The brands and communities that you've created are all centred around 'inspiring people to pursue purpose in everything they do.' What does purpose mean to you? 

Our businesses are intensely focused on a four-part purpose: to create margins in the lives of our team members; to give; to create jobs; and to create exceptional value for our customers. If you ask our staff, they joined primarily because of this purpose.

Our drive for purpose is reflected in the way we manage talent and operate the business: we only require people to work 100 hours monthly and it's up to them if they'd like to work more hours (which equates to more income). We encourage our employees to have margins in their time to dedicate to their relationships or to rest.

In terms of creating value for our clients, we don't charge a management fee at The Collective or The Smart Concierge. We clock our hours for every project and our clients pay only for the hours/work that we do. We also give 20% of our net income to our chosen non-profits and we make sure that our team and clients can see where this money has gone.

Where do you find inspiration?

Because I do a lot of creative and strategic work, I read up a lot about personalities with an obsession to create – from Elon Musk to Wellie Ang Kum Siong of the famed Wellie Batik in Singapore… At the time of this interview, Mr. Ang Kum Sion is 96 years old, threads a needle without glasses and works 16 hours a day! I don't work that long, not close!

To inspire my endurance, I watch mothers with multiple kids – those with 4 or 12, and try to learn from how they magically keep things going!

How would you describe yourself as a leader?  

I am a people-focused leader. I design opportunities in the business for people, instead of matching people to the needs of the business. For example, The Smart Shopper (our personal shopping and shipping company that did so well particularly during the pandemic) came about because I had a team of five ladies who had just finished working on my book, journal and courses and had no employment prospects at the time the pandemic hit. We all brainstormed, identified everyone’s skills and interests, and came up with the business. As for The Collective, my branding and marketing agency, I hire the people first before I bring in the clients and we keep our operations costs low. Thank God it’s been easy to prospect clients in the last 2.5 years!

When you think about your career to date, what stands out? 

I’ve been working for 17 years now. Partnership, mentorship, coaching, and deliberate learning - in their varied forms - have been crucial. The periods where I feel I am flourishing are when I am very connected with the people I can learn from and labour with. I can't run my businesses alone. I've long ditched the mentality of "I am an entrepreneur because I can't work for anybody." I don’t believe that’s true. I am a servant-leader and I am an entrepreneur because I serve others.

What's next for you? 

We're launching our "Business Owners' Collective" towards the end of the year, and this will be the road we’re taking for the long term. It's a profit-sharing model that we’re offering our staff. This partnership model with our team members aims to fulfil our four-prong mission as a company: to create margins in our time and finances, to give to high-impact charities, to create jobs, and to provide extraordinary value to our clients and theirs. Taking a 5 to 10-year perspective, I would have released another book - most likely to enable women to launch their small business with social impact in mind - and I’ll have created one or two more profitable brands!

What advice do you have for people navigating change in their career?

Establish your ultimate reason for why you exist and align with it. It may sound BIG, but I believe making decisions becomes so much easier, including deciding the trajectory of our career, when we return to our ultimate WHY.

To find out more or get in touch, you can visit Joanna’s LinkedIn page. You can also follow Joanna’s moving blog #MightyMateo - a family blog about life with and without their late-son Mateo David that has become a worldwide campaign to raise funds for the International Justice Mission.