Leona's Philosophy

You may wonder - why start your own agency when there are already so many companies offering PR consultancy services?  Why compete with the "Big Boys"?

Here's the story: I did not embark on my career with the intention to become a public relations consultant.  In fact, I started my career with no ambition.  I grabbed the first job I was offered - and it wasn't the best job in the world.  I had the credentials, but the many global players I applied to did not give me the chance.  Perhaps it was because I had a sex change operation, but discrimination is hard to prove.  No one will willingly admit to discriminating against you on the basis of your gender identity - they will just say "there were too many good candidates."  Really?  From what I know, many PSC scholars do not get a First at York.  Of course, the degree is not everything (although in Singapore, it is everything), but I also had strong testimonials from my supervisors and lecturers at York.  I was hardly a sleeping student.  On the contrary, I represented the international students on the Board of Studies of the Department of English and Related Literature, and I also won the York Trust Settlement prize for raising gender awareness in my final year.  Some scholars I know holed themselves up in their tiny rooms only to emerge with a 2:1.  So I learnt the hard way that your credentials don't matter if you are a transsexual - "they" just don't want you. 

I stumbled into the healthcare industry by chance.  I did not enjoy working as an administrative executive for a hospital, so when the opportunity to further my studies materialised in the form of a scholarship at my alma mater, I grabbed it without a second thought.  Yet, upon graduating with a Masters in Qualitative Research Methods, the first job I applied for was that of the Public Affairs Manager of the Health Promotion Board (HPB), a statutory board in Singapore under the Ministry of Health.  I had no prior experience in public relations, but I picked up the ropes and built my network of media contacts quickly.  Little did I know that this would mark the beginning of a career in healthcare communications for me.

I left HPB after one-and-a-half years because I felt there was no more room for me to grow.  My departure coincided with the publication of the coffeetable book My Sisters, Their Stories, which I authored.  That was when the news about my past broke in Singapore and globally.  Overnight, I became Leona Lo, the transsexual activist.  Never before in Singapore had a transsexual woman open up about her past so publicly  - with a photograph to boot!  My superiors at HPB were extremely supportive - and until today I remain indebted to them for their support and encouragement.  But it was time for me to move on.

I started MaialeGatto, an editorial consultancy.  I had the odd writing jobs, barely enough to make ends meet.  It wasn't long before I had to look for a more stable job.  That was when I joined a brandname PR agency.  On my first day at work, I was awed by the well-oiled machinery of agency life.  It looked like the job was too big for me.  Most of my colleagues carried themselves with an inflated sense of self and some even cautioned me that life in an agency would be too tough for me.  Tough or not, I worked my way up to the position of Senior Consultant within a year.  I saw the backstabbing, the bickering, the bitch slapping over accounts won and lost - you name it, I witnessed it.  It was a way of life that I could not extricate myself from, the deeper I immersed in it.  I myself was guilty of machiavellian schemes.  Above all, I could not bear to spend my precious hours toiling for an obscure HQ in the US that took a cut of our profits each month.  Their staff not only did not know that I existed; they did not contribute to my strategies - so why was I, and my olleagues, paying a monthly "tribute" to them?

Once again, I left my job after 1.5 years - or less.  I decided I would start my company again.  With nothing.  I had been diagnosed with a benign brain tumour the year before and I felt I had nothing to lose (it helps that the tumour has now disappeared).  I had to give my company a proper name.  One day, as I was jogging along East Coast Park, the name came to me in a flash - Talk Sense.  Of course, that was what I would call my company.  Throughout my career, I have seen bright-eyed bushy haired women and tall, dark men with striking good looks winning accounts with impeccable presentations that lack the most crucial factor - substance, and I often wondered, during the long and rambling discourse, what if, what if I started a company that talked sense?  Would I be able to win accounts on sound strategies alone - or would I have to do the song and dance to please my clients? 

Suffices to say I haven't had to do any song and dance so far.  Neither have I bagged any fancy consumer accounts - yet.  Talk Sense has come a long way since it was started more than two years ago.  We started out as a healthcare communications agency.  Today, we act as strategic consultants to not only the only Malay Muslim women's organisation in Singapore, but also a growing number of Small, Medium businesses seeking out strategies that make sense.

My aim is to grow Talk Sense into a global company, with a HR department that hires individuals based on merit and not sexual orientation or gender identity.  You can visualise our recruitment ads already!  And whatever we do, we will always deliver strategies that make sense, with tangible deliverables. 

As Principal Consultant, I use my motivational talks to raise awareness of the tremendous heights of greatness that each of us can reach, and which I myself have yet to reach, if only we could embrace our inner beauty with compassion and kindness.

Talk Sense may not be the same size and shape in the future as it is now, but we will always stay true to our principle of making sense. 

As Paul Coelho's Warriors of Light, once we make a public statement of intent, we can only rise to it.  I've also burnt the proverbial bridges as advised by Napoleon Hill, so there's no turning back.

I know not many of you are comfortable with me identifying as a transsexual woman - "why not accept yourself as a woman and move on?"  But if you have led my kind of life, and been exposed to all sorts of indignities and discrimination in childhood and adulthood, then what we used to be ashamed of becomes a badge of honour, and a compass in the darkest moments.  I don't wish the same experiences on you, because that would not make the world a better place.  I only hope you can see that I am indebted to my past experiences for the creativity and commitment that I bring to my profession and Talk Sense today.  That Leona Lo is who she is today, with a second shot at growing a global company, because she honours her past.

Leona Lo