Priscilla, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm very excited to talk about the many things that you're involved with. First off, I always like to talk about people's life experiences and in an attempt to potentially motivate anyone to do the same.
We talk about a bit of travel on this podcast as well, specifically how those experiences have shaped people, such as yourself. Seeing as you've sailed across the Atlantic and considering that's super cool and something that I've wanted to do, sailing around the world for some time now. Can you tell us about that experience and maybe explain if it is, or isn't a good idea to just attempt.
Yeah, thanks you for having me. I'm really excited to be here and I'm happy to share. It's really tough. It's mentally even more tough than physical. So it's more like always that's the challenge. I want to do it. I want to show myself that I can do it. That was the way I was approaching it. It's I think if you want to have nice sailing and so on, it's better to island hopping, like in Greece, you have more than 200 islands. That's super nice. And then you can just. Yeah, one day I go to a marina one day, I want to snorkel.
So I think , we have a way of seeing it in a romantic way as traveling around the world, sailing around the world, sailing across the Atlantic, and across the Atlantic, the weather was so tough that we were on the boat. We were three people in total and there was no day during the crossing where we were able to swim. So we were stuck on this boat, it was like super, super hot during the day. We actually, sometimes, pulled up a bucket of water to put a feet inside and we have to ration everything like the food, the water. So we have defined shifts where, because you can't stop on the ocean. So you have to sail 24/7 and divided by three people, so we try different shift systems and you sleep little, you get sun strokes and just like it's.
Sounds like a blast!
No, so really and at the end, we all thought never, ever again.
Who were the three people that you were with?
So one person was a friend of mine that owns a boat. So, he sailed across the Atlantic multiple times. The other one was my boyfriend at that time. You need to be careful who you're going with.
Yeah. Was it a big boat or really small cause sailing, that must have taken-
It was a bigger boat, 18 meters and it was a really good boat. It was luxurious in the way that such a boat for three people crossing as I'd like to guess. Okay. Because if people charter boats, they will make the boat completely full. What happens is sometimes they have just half the cabins because you have to there's two shifts.
So basically you have like one bed for two people. Hell of the time, one person sleeping in it as a half, say as a person. We even though it's we had situations where we really annoyed each other so badly that it's like, you can feel like pushing the person overboard. Imagine three weeks, it's like nearly, like we took 17 days, 10 hours, 50 minutes, and you're stuck on this boat. A lot of times the weather's so bad that you cannot really do something. So you really have to be okay with yourself, otherwise you're in trouble.
You started to lose it a bit, I assume. So island hopping is the way to go. I can't imagine if you did go around the world., the pacific is another animal in and of itself, I couldn't imagine.
There are different challenges. One is going across the Atlantic and then you are officially allowed to wear a red trousers, officially. But the thing is, if you sail from Europe to the Caribbean, that's okay-ish, it can be dangerous, but if you go the other way around, then you sometimes have icebergs and stuff. So the weather is much more dangerous. Then you have another routes that's actually very popular and it's around the Cape Horn. If you do that as a rule, that if you are, for example, with the queen, you're officially allowed to put your shoes on the table. So yeah, that’s some of the key challenges to go for.
Wow. I didn't know that there are so many rules involved with sailing. That's funny. I appreciate you taking the time and walking us through that. I really wanted to talk about this company that you're forming, networks . It's an AI platform that if I'm correct matches individuals and clubs together. Can you elaborate on the purpose of this platform and the moment that made you aware to fill the specific need?
Yeah. Basically I bring young people into old clubs. So I won my first management award was 19 and I was awarded by one of the best management clubs in Germany. Then I traveled around the world for my work and joined different clubs. I was always the youngest and always also one of the few females. I thought I got so much by being at these clubs. I learned by spending time with these people, how's they make decisions, I found mentors, I found jobs, I got ideas, it's incredible.
It's so many opportunities. I started talking to people and figured that most of them did not hear of many of the clubs. So there's no transparency. What are the criteria to get in? And most of the times you need references. That's how was the clubs ensure the quality and on the other hand, many clubs are over aging, so they are looking for young people. And so there's a mismatch and I tried to connect it.
I tried to enable people that are really innovative and want to make changes for the better have an impact. I want to provide them with the networks they need to make them come true. On the other hand, I mean, that's the legacy. I want to bring them into the future and they actually massively contribute to economic growth to international relations. So there are studies on that that say massively, impact stability, freedom, safety, security.
Cool. So who can qualify to become part of this network?
There’s one stage where I decide who gets on networkx, on the platform. Obviously, I want to have people that want and are willing to make an impact. I don't look just on grades and which amazing universities and so on, but I also look on personality and visions, and goals, I like good people. I like kindhearted people. Honestly, I don't want to get people in there that are basically, one to think about the next Porsche, but think about how they can make the life of other people or like the world generally better.
As an entrepreneur and in the process of building this platform networkx, can you walk us through or tell us some of the challenges, maybe the biggest one that has just been stressing you out from this venture?
There are a lot of challenges and you need to see all the times that you don't freak out. I think the biggest thing is you really need to work on your mindset. You need to work on your willingness to grow and learn because you have to do that literally every day. There were multiple challenges.
I can give some advice I learned until now. The first thing is you don't need to have an idea to be a founder. There are platforms like one of the best is Y Combinator. There are people that are founders that have amazing ideas and they are looking for co-founders.
So I think I could have gone, or I would have gone much earlier into entrepreneurship if I would have known. I thought I have to wait for that idea and that's bullshit, so that's the first thing I learned. Then if you have an idea, and you're not a technical person, you're sitting there, you have this amazing idea and have no technical co-founder and no money to basically have some or building your product. You have a lot of chicken and egg situations. I solved it for me in a really funny way. People taught me, Priscilla, you don't have an MVP, a minimum viable product, like a prototype, and you don't have co-founders.
Usually this disqualifies you already to get accelerators or to get to get funding. So, people told me you need to find a co-founder and like you need to have a technical co-founder or you need to get money. I thought, what do I do? So, what I did is that I read a lot of books and one was the one about Netflix, a company culture, no rules. It's about having the maximum talent density. Then also another person told me, yeah, you should have an advisory board.
I did not have any co-owners no prototype, no nothing. I started gatherings the best people I know and form an advisory board. I have a specialist in every area, like people that are like super great people, but also very successful, so good on paper, but when good, in reality as well. That has enabled me to attract co-founders, so I have a technical co-founder. Our MVP is ready next week. We have one week delay actually. Now we are looking for investment. You just need to find solutions-
Really quickly I didn't quite catch what was that platform in which connects people who are looking for founders and co-founders, cause we'll throw it in the show notes for anyone who's interested.
One of the best ones is Y Combinator co-founder matching, and Y Combinator is really famous. Basically investors and accelerators that really create trends by their investments, and you have things like Elon Musk, Google, KKR, and Y Combinator. So, what they love is the tomorrow, you know.
Okay. I know that you've told me one of the areas in which you're trying to reach out or are having actual interest from arising out of Africa. For whatever reason, that surprised me quite a bit, who specifically is interested in your product in Africa and then do you see much growth as a region in general from that area?
We are having our prototype really ready and we have pilot clubs and we have partners. Then one of the partners is the startup, a startup launch Africa. So these are entrepreneurs in Africa and if you look at the club cultures, there are actually a lot of also wealthy people and Africa and there are also clubs.
It’s not that companies are developing countries where there are no clubs or no networks, so we plan to be global and we will definitely also cover Africa. I have a personal interest in it because my mentor is from there, from Nigeria and she is really amazing very successful and a great role model.
Yeah. I just, it was a surprise to me because typically, you know, one to have a club over there specifically, but as like an entrepreneurial club. I was actually just interviewing a guy a few weeks ago, who, they're having in east Africa and Uganda, these orphanages where these kids just don't have much. Is that something that you guys are connecting with people in that regard or not really, I guess it's something long-term.
Two things. The first thing is about entrepreneurship, we have a trend on scaling and that's due to computers, smartphones, AI, so everyone can build a startup in his or her garage. It doesn't matter if the garage is in Africa or in Germany or in Spain, and that's why location, I think generally gets less important. I think we'll take big chunks away from large companies because we are going more instead of building one big product, and push it and we go to customize solutions and that's possible with AI now. And that's why you have more and more like small start ups that serve certain niche. Regarding what we try to do, what did you mention as an example?
I was just specifically asking the entrepreneurial, outlook in Africa and how there was a gentleman who was working with an orphanage over in Africa talking about how they didn't even have energy over there.
Yeah, so we work with service clubs as well and clubs that are focused on international relations and a lot of these push philanthropic projects, so in that way we support that.
Okay. I know obviously you're based in Europe, but you have intentions of US being a large part of your business. For all the listeners over there. How do they reach out and become a part of this product? Obviously the MVP is about to be released, and then on top of that are you partnering with universities and finding in the process of building. Can you elaborate on all that for us?
Yeah. So we partner, for example, with universities, incubators, accelerators, or also organizations that give away scholarships. These are our primary focus of the people that we actually take on networks. So basically you can sign up on the website or contact me on LinkedIn or there's a contact form on the website.
Cool. Well, we'll post that in the show notes, obviously for anyone in the US who's interested. So one thing that a lot of people in the US definitely don't have to consider is the language barrier that kind of exists over here in Europe. How are you dealing with that with such a platform that you're building.
The language barrier?
I guess it's not really a barrier. I'm still getting used to it, being an American living in Barcelona, but I guess, how do you deal with, if you have a really good applicant in Spain who speaks Spanish primarily and only.
How do you deal with that? If you have people of interest in Barcelona or you specifically creating, networks in all of Spain and then using that to promote within specifically Spain, how do you deal cross border?
So the thing is maybe to just quickly tell you as a pro process, like you import, for example, your LinkedIn fill in a few question, and if you get accepted, you can choose the categories of clubs you're interested in as the location.
Okay.
Then you get just the clubs. You can just see the clubs where you feel fulfills the criteria. You don't have to look at every club and see, do I even fill the criteria? And then in these ones, descriptions so you can see how international are they. So if you, for example, are looking for a club then in Barcelona, you would probably choose someone that's more international focus, maybe has diplomats in it. So actually what is that there are a lot of clubs especially in like the like the main cities where you have consulates, for example, or you have embassies. There a clubs actually, for example, Americans Spanish or here in Frankfurt, we have American German business club or American German society. So they have a lot of these ones. Yeah. You're surprised because you don't know. And there are a lot of these and no one knows like a few people and I tried to solve that problem.
I was literally thinking about filling that need over here in Barcelona. Cause I was like, how does this not exist? There needs to be some kind of collaboration on that, but that's good. So I'm assuming that exists over here in Barcelona, in Spain as well. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, I can show you the just for you, I can show you an overview over the Barcelona clubs.
Let's do that. So speaking of Europe, obviously there's a lot of potential growth in certain, maybe underdeveloped areas in Europe for different states in the U S it's quite simple to cross border transact and just do business in general. Can you tell us more about the startup system in Europe, specifically?
Yes, I can actually. There’s some shifts as well, due to Brexit. So actually one of the favorite locations in Europe was the UK because it's a place still where you can found a company, a limited company with really little cost.
Now with Brexit, it's basically if you are sitting in the UK, you then have to do double accounting and they are like additional restrictions. I think it's getting less and less. In Germany, for example, it's a free version, but the investors don't like it, so they don't invest. So you have to switch it into another legal form. And then for example, Germany's 25,000 euros then, or in Switzerland.
25,000 euros to form a company?
Yeah, in Germany or in Switzerland it’s 30,000, and then you have obviously lawyer cost and so on. And if that's, so that's why people are basically looking for alternatives. For example, I think it's Estonia is now like a new one and that's how countries compete a bit, or like this kind of, slightly less developed European countries tried to compete and gets to innovation and gets steal some from the entrepreneurial scene, of other countries.
Absolutely well, that, that actually leads me up to my next question. Speaking of Estonia, being that more tech focus hub and trying to rebrand themselves, I think Barcelona is attempting to do the same as these Latin and Eastern European countries attempt to do those things. Are there any specific regions within the EU that you see a new or growing markets that didn't exist 10 or even five years ago?
I think there's a general shift right now. I think we will see more and more entrepreneurs and that's why it's not necessarily that one spot disappears and another one grows, but what you see are salaries, the development of the housing or rental prices and our generation is high.Most people I know they have like a pre-midlife crisis or the generations after you see they make a completely different goal setting.
It's because people realize like just even if you have a really amazing career, you will not be able to afford what our parents were able to. I'm not talking about big mansions, but just having a house, having a car paying your children's education and that's leads to more and more people, like me thinking like, why should I go into this hamster wheel? And it's not safety to be employed anymore. It's like they can kick you out any time. They will anyways do it when you get older. So why not, going all in, if you have an idea or even if you don't have an idea, you can join another company and create something meaningful.
Ideally, at some point you make an exit and earn at least a decent amount of money. So, you're rewarded for your work. I think that's happening more and more. That's why I think all these startup hubs in the different countries will be growing. Also, due to the virus, you have another phenomenon that, you know, this working from the office, working from one place and it is not that standard anymore. You have more and more digital nomads. That, I think you will see in summer or like when the weather nice people go to all this places in southern Europe or wherever to buy and work from there or in the winter, Wednesday, like skiing's they work from Austria. I think that we'll get more and more like the normal, status.
Yeah, absolutely. So speaking of, that startup atmosphere, in what ways is venture capital different compared to that of the US.
Oh, that's what I'm saying. I don't like about Europe, especially about Germany. Like people are really risk averse. If you like, and let's imagine it's like you tell people here an idea, they will tell you like all the many reasons why it can't work. While in the US people find reasons why it could work and that also reflected in the evaluations of the startups, so valuations are much higher. I'm doing fundraisers for the first time now, and I actually prefer to get US investors. So in case we have any contacts because why should I stay here, and get so much lower valuation and give a much bigger chunk of my company for less money. And US is anyways, one of the biggest markets, US is like amazing for clubs. And there was a lot of start up's at evaluations like, it's like you could start crying.
You're like not a chance. Do you see that changing in the future because of the attitudes such as yourself that saying, screw this, I'm going to go somewhere else.
The valuations are slowly getting higher. Yes. That's the case. Also, you have some US investors or foreign investors. They have offices here or they like invest in startups, like in German or Swiss startups and so on. Otherwise, I think cultural change takes time. So what they try to do is for example, in Germany or Switzerland, from the government, you have initiatives that, supports angel investing or support startups.
However, I must say, especially Germany is so bureaucratic, and you have so many taxes, so even if you're smart I think it's just providing work for all the lawyers and texts consultants. Like you yourself will not be able to grasp everything. And it takes a lot of way of if you, for example, get grants or get any support from the government, you have so much administration that there are a lot of startups that say I'm not sure if it's worth it or they move their startups as soon as they can to some other country. Because it's all time you spend to do this or money, and the taxes, are super high. Delaware is nice or Switzerland.
Really? Spain, is a joke. I think it's 40% VAT and just like straight across the board. Oh, I could go into a rant there, but I'll just bite my tongue. But yeah. Speaking of bureaucracy, I guess I didn't know that it was so slow in Germany, but over here in Spain. Oh, it's something else completely. I'm just like, for any of the US listeners out there, you think it's bad back home, but come over to Spain for a bit, or I guess Germany.
What are the biggest differences to the U S from what I told you, where do you feel as the biggest?
Difference? In meaning like bureaucracy?
Bureaucracy and like startups and VC.
Oh, for VC, it's quite easy, especially if you have a network of anyone. If you have a good idea, you're going to get money thrown at you. Depending on where you're at places over in like Arkansas or, depending on what you're trying to do, you're not going to have as much success as you would over in like Texas, maybe Florida, the big hubs where there's a lot of capital flowing.
In regards to bureaucracy, for one example, I'm still trying to get my visa over here and I've been working with a lawyer and like it's in the process, but everything is just inefficient. And like, when I was over in Australia for a few years, the second I walked in there, I'd done it all beforehand, which is also an issue. The EU is a bit different, but I just walked in Australia and I was good. Done. It was fantastic. I could get a job,. I got a job in three days and it was great. Then over here, it's just, hell, but beautiful. I'm really enjoying it over here. It’s funny that you said a bureaucracy is an issue over there because. I was actually having a conversation with my partner and saying, maybe we should think about going up to Sweden or Germany or something, because its got to be better, but no, not quite?
Switzerland is a good place to be. Both taxes, they are very supportive and a lot of if you have a startup or something, there are a lot of things you can negotiate between the different counties in Switzerland. So they will compete for you, which is a nice position too be in.
Yeah. I know. I've heard have you're familiar with Andorra? I've heard that's a good place and it's no taxes or anything there, right?
Yeah, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Delaware, they are all similar.
It's crazy, cause you don't even hear about them in the US, I guess, unless, you study Europe specifically, but you guys have all these just tiny cutouts of these tax hubs, and they're just like come here! It's great.
I'm really curious what you learn in school about Europe.
Next to nothing. It's mostly just US, US. There was a war at some point, and then there was another at some point. We learned like early European history. I mean, we learned European history.
I love history. And we learn a lot, but I guess that, just places like that you've mentioned, you'll hear it maybe, but we just don't study much about it or what the purpose of their of what they are is, like I heard of the Vatican, but I didn't even know the Vatican was its own state until I came over to Italy and they're like, no, it's still a thing. It's, this little itty-bitty wall around this tiny area okay, cool.
There was a really nice interview. I had once with an advisor of the pope.
Really?
A really cool guy.
Yeah, that's incredible. I know you have quite a vast background, so I wanted to talk about some of the other things you do.
I know you recently finished your final review for your PhD in Disaster and Crisis Management and Supply Chain Management and something you emphasize is about economic issues and scarcity of resources. Can you tell us some of your findings and how we maybe, as a society need to prepare better for disaster impacts in the future?
Yes, actually, my data was from the New York stock exchange. What I saw really hit me. I looked so originally I got a full scholarship for project was a United nations, and then I had to switch my topic and then I was studying the impact of disasters on companies.
The thing is usually you talk about disasters as being Black Swan events, right? So Black Swan events, let's define it, is some things that if you're unlucky happens once in 10 years. The data I looked at was five years. I looked okay, how many companies have damaged due to disasters? Then I drilled down also to hurricanes and I was really surprised.
Within this five years, 35% of the companies were affected by at least one disasters, five years, 35%. That's. Yeah. And in total, like if you look at all the companies 30% had damage due to hurricanes, and of this 30% percent, half of them were hit by at least one of a hurricane.1, 2, 3, some of the companies were hit within five years by four hurricanes. The biggest emphasis I want to make, natural disasters are not Black Swan events anymore because Black Swan events means you don't need to prepare for it. They're some things that you have no influence, if it happens, you're unlucky.
No, it's that nowadays it's a regular thing is due to global warming and due to globalization. And that means like you can't hope and pray. It will not help you. You need to prepare. I think that's the biggest statement I want to make here that for governments, for private people, because they are always there is a single person is always also affected. There are a lot of studies about, what do you do with companies and preventive closures of facilities, but there are all those individuals that are affected as well and that's another thing, like how do you protect your family? How do you protect your homes?
In my doctorate, I was focused on companies, but I felt that the individuals are neglected. So, I started an Instagram account, giving advice on the effects of different disaster types, how to protect yourself, how to behave during an incident what to consider afterwards. I think it's really important. Actually, my dream would be to create a computer game or a simulation thing where people can train for it because you get all, these are circumstances that. It's a shock situation, so you need to do it automatically. And you can just do that if you train. I think that would be cool.
Wow. That's a really good implementation for augmented, or virtual reality, one of the two.
This is getting into opinion just based on what you said. Is there any thoughts, because I've had a few thoughts about this before. Not to be rude to anyone down in New Orleans, who's, you know, hurricane city down there. Why continue to spend millions if it is every few years or billions in these areas. Does that seem like a waste of resources or is it, how would you go about approaching that?
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Actually, that's what it’s like. We had a really bad flooding here in Germany, probably, even as a USA they saw it in the news. And these are areas that like where people built very close to the river. And then if the water level rises, then basically you get wet feet, or you drown, depends on how bad it is. So I believe it's, especially nowadays when it gets more regular and we can see that it's happens again, that it's safer and better for the people, to not rebuild it, but relocate. Yeah. But the thing is the reason why people, I think are not doing it is because the compensations, for example, from governments and insurances and so on are not really set up for it.
So I think we need to change regulations and insurances, and so on that we enable people that are in this areas to basically make it easier for them to go somewhere else. What do you also can see if you are, for example, in a hurricane region then at some point it gets it's nearly impossible to get an insurance.
That doesn't seem like it would be that difficult of an issue to, instead of having, the billions that we just spent in relief via the government or the millions to billions, that insurance spins every few years to just implement that in a different area.
No, that's why what I said before is so important. Nowadays, it's like in the news , "oh my God, something incredible, unbelievable happened. How could we have known about it?
Yeah, you could have known about it because of supposition. That's what, there needs to be a shift in mindset that we say we are not like surprised every time, something like that happens and spend money in when the damage is done, but really focused more on prevention and tackling that topic strategically.
Yeah, absolutely. My mind just floated off, cause where I come from, I'm from Kansas city in the middle of the US and we have tornadoes, but those things like, how would you, cause there are some areas which are pretty bad, but I don't know. It's the same. How do you predict hurricanes?
That's one thing. The way people so if you compare the damage from a storm here in Europe that has hurricane strengths, and then like impact of the hurricanes in the US you have a lot of times, much more damage, and that's because of the way you build houses. I'm not sure where you live now, but like here you have really solid stone houses, or so it's probably if you're unlucky a bit of your roof lives away, maybe also like things that are on, on, on top.
But otherwise, like the houses are most of the times, fine. Maybe you have damage to, to like trees that fall. You know that, but in the U S if you especially look at the wooden houses and so on it's like they're gone.
They just get blown away. I remember after a huge, one of the worst tornadoes in a long time, was in Joplin. I actually have family there, they were fine, fortunately. But I was lucky enough, well I guess lucky is one way to put it, to have a plane fly over and see the damage that the tornado caused. You could just see the path of these, just nothing and it was like obvious. Like there, you can see where houses used to be, they just took this wood and everything and just took it away.
If you want to continue to build in New Orleans or in places like Joplin, Missouri or tornado alley or places where it burns over in Australia or California, just build properly, understand it, build proper infrastructure and don't just continue to do something, that's going to get upended, a year later.
I think, to summarize, you need to see where you built, and then also dependent on the risk of different disaster types, how you build, and also for certain occasions, you have also equipment and techniques, how you can protect your home. So there are a lot of companies that do create stuff for individual houses and that you also have a plan what to do in this case, you need to train your family. You need to ensure that, if something like that happens, where do you meet? How do you communicate and all these things. So it's about preparation.
Yeah. So I also know that one of the many hats you wear moving on to a different topic, maybe a bit more upbeat that of a moderator. What is that like and how did you come about landing such a unique career?
I was hoping it would get like a career, like a full-time career because I was super excited about it when I got to that, and that was not that long ago. Basically, I am doing a lot of voluntary work since I am a small, and I was asked by a foundation during covid, like they had to cancel all the onsite events and they asked me, "Hey, do you want to, moderate help us moderate digital event?" And then I thought okay, how hard can it be? I have these women in mind in the TV shows that are looking pretty and not saying much.
Actually, I found out that moderation is quite a tough job, so it's really, it's not easy. I mean, you know it as a podcast host, and then I thought like the first events were cool and I directly had really nice guests. I had a member of European parliament and this kind of level. People said, oh, you're good. You must continue. I got within like short time interview series, and it just took me half a year to be like, to really establish myself. Moderating like amazing events and interviewing like super cool people. So, the secret to that was that I realized after the first month we were. People are now surprised because they have literally zero expectation, right? But now if you want to continue operating on that level, you don't have the surprise effect anymore. You need to scale, like you need to scale up very fast and you need to have professional equipment.
I did at that speaking training, moderation training, I have a moderation, master group. I had a coach. I have I have like super sophisticated properties, like some also best equipment you can have as a normal person for podcasts, or also for videos and I have a studio here.
I see the green screen back behind you.
I was too lazy to put something, usually I have like nice pictures, but, also I talked to journalists, basically what questions do they ask? How do they structure? And I try to get feedback every time, and that's basically how I got to a decent stage quite fast.
One of the things I love about this podcast, we were talking about this before is I really get to see considering I'm not on any form of social media, which social media is a great tool, I'm not saying follow my lead because it's not easy, but it really gives me a chance to see how people will give that first impression of maybe speaking with individuals who they don't know and potentially might not benefit from and seeing if they still have that kind of level of respect. For example, I know some of the corporate elite in the US view themselves as wolves, like you would on wall street and the political elite or something even more fierce.
Do you ever come across people who aren't, the nicest during your moderation and how do you deal with scenarios in which people might not be the most respectful or is that not something that ever happened?
Yeah. Generally, as saying it's, your mindset is important. People feel what you're thinking, and I generally believe in the best in people. I rarely have, I really rarely have that people don't treat me nicely nowadays. If they do, usually if you meet people, the first couple months you're looking at do you trust the person? People usually trust me.
The second one, do they respect you? And yes, that sometimes can happen as a woman and you're young and so on, and then if I feel that people want to make you feel small. Then I can get really big, and then I can also really get, I can't get the, I can get though as well, if I'm have to.
Then you just need two be bold and you really need to, tell them off. Then you can be nice again and they will respect you, but you can't like if you allow them at the beginning, for example with playing pool at the beginning of hospital tests you, how far they can go and people do the same.
If you allow them to overstep your boundaries and treat your shitty, they will continue doing that. You need to really make it clear at the beginning.
As soon as something happens, like no way, that's not the way to go. It's and generally my best advice for people. I don't do business, I don't have any anything to do in my private life was people that I don't consider a good person with like values and like genuine interest in other people, because it doesn't matter how successful they are, they will cause you more trouble and more pain than anything else.
Speaking with so many EU officials and politicians. I know you have a great understanding of the political environment, not only in the EU, but places around the world like Singapore and considering you've lived there yourself. Can you elaborate on your experience of living in a Singapore.
Yeah well, the thing is the political system, or like generally I think Singapore works a bit differently than, as in Germany or Europe in the way that you have much more rules and to as much more respect for the government and even people are partially, also scared also government because they have really strict and as a punishments are quite hard. I think the biggest thing I feared was that people would put drugs in my bags when I was traveling, because you have death penalty for that.
Wait, people put drugs in people's bags?
Yeah, because it's obviously too dangerous to smuggle it yourself because of punishments are so high.You really need to be careful with that, or like generally, there are a lot of rules and the people are really nice. You barely have anything gets stolen or like people don't behave bad, but it's also because there's a lot of control and they really execute punishments.
On the one hand, it's good. A lot of things work, a lot of things are really efficient taxes, are low. On the other hand, for example, what I was missing there was like the insurance for example, is in Europe if you get, you lose your job, if you get sick, you are covered. In Singapore, you have rental contracts of an average of two years, your probation period, or like your notice period, it's like basically you can lose your job within a really short time. You need to have some money set up that you can pay to rent for the next two years ago and lucky. Also, usually your health insurance is tied to your work contract. So basically, if you lose your job, you lose your health insurance.
The thing is, getting sick or getting older in places like Singapore, eh, I think people are really scared and people save a lot of money or need to rely on family. What I like about Singapore and the politicians is, or what I dislike about politicians here. The politicians I met, they all have other jobs and like good jobs. Clinical or director or something like that. That helps in the ways that these people are not, they don't have to rely on their political career. I feel more comfortable that they make decisions that are good for the people. That's one of the biggest problems I have, for example, in Germany with politicians. I think everybody like politician shouldn't be a job.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think basically you need to ensure that everyone that goes into politics, can't be some law students that thought, oh, I want to be famous, but that everyone has to have a normal job and they need to go back to it and you need to restrict things to periods people can't be elected for. To basically put it to life that you don't get this career politicians. It's not necessarily a flaw that people have just, it's a poor system, because if you put people in that situation.
Where their livelihood depends on it. Yeah.
Yeah, they will save their own ass.
A hundred percent and honestly, can you really blame it? Obviously, on the outside you're like, “Hey, stop screwing over what we want” but then it's their livelihood. I've thought about that many a times. It's almost, to that point where you have an X amount of years where it's almost a volunteer basis, you give back to help your country. From your successful career, you have enough, so then you shouldn’t get paid, if anything, and you just volunteer because that's going to yield the best results. But, I don't know, that’s just my opinion. We definitely have the same issues over in the US in regard to our politicians.
I wouldn't have thought.
Oh, no way. It's great over there.
It's honestly, like sometimes your political matters are like therefore entertainment because we'll get it in the news all the time and it's like the Kardashian family and-
It's crazy because since I've been traveling abroad, I see almost more news on the US than I do in any of the countries that I'm visiting or living in. Obviously, that's not a hundred percent accurate, but it's crazy how much emphasis there is on our circus back home. I'm going to wrap it up there. Priscilla, thank you so much for taking the time. I do always ask one question of all my guests. If you could take all the experiences in your life and impart your knowledge from those experiences into one piece of advice, what would that piece of advice be?
Okay. My piece of advice is, and I said it before, everything is possible. What we create, what happens around us is already created in our mind. So, I think the biggest thing to focus on, to reduce boundaries and limitations in our own head. Because literally we can do everything. We can achieve everything. We change everything. But as long as we sit here and complain how awful the world is, and being at this victim stage. I would really love for everyone that listens to it, to go out.
Everything you need is in your life is inside of you and you just have to believe in it. And that's also what I try to do was my surrounding or like with any of you, if I can be of any help. Support each other and help each other to make your dream come true. And I hope I can contribute to that also with my startup networks and yeah.
Amazing. Wonderful. Yeah. I agree. Intentions are extremely powerful. So, Cool. Before we get off, where can people find you if they want to get in contact?
The best way to reach out to me is your LinkedIn, I try to respond quite fast.
I'll chuck that in the show notes. Priscilla, thank you so much for joining us and I appreciate your time.
Thank you a lot Hugh, for having me. It was really fun and very interesting.
Cheers!
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