Chris Yong is the CEO & Co-Founder at Local Threads, the largest ethical fashion marketplace with Australia’s best independent brands, and IndeeFactor, a world-leading source of trusted Indie brand ratings, articles and expertise on ethical and sustainable fashion.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I’m a marketer and retailer at heart, and spent 16 years in the IT industry leading marketing teams at Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. I’ve also successfully led a business turnaround for a national retail chain store in electronics and furniture with 1500 staff. After spending 22 years, largely in management, in the corporate sector, I started and ran my own retail skincare brand for seven years. And 1½ years ago, I started the journey in our Australian fashion eCommerce start-up venture with my business partner. Today we have 6000 products from 150 Australian owned brands on our marketplace fashion website.
2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
My role as CEO & Co-Founder of Local Threads is to scale-up the business in the fastest possible way with the optimal level of resources. A big part of that is to ensure the number of orders each day rapidly increases, and to ensure we build the small team we have in a way which is able to support the demands of the business and customers. So I do spend a lot of time managing people, recruiting, and sourcing for smarter ways to run the business effectively. It’s largely being able to multi-task and to be extremely agile and flexible at the same time. Being able to think laterally is really key.
3) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
Anyone who’s been an entrepreneur knows that running your own business demands nothing less than all of you. Scaling up rapidly demands even more than that. Because it’s a marathon, I need to ensure my mind is clear when challenges are abound. That my decision making is precise and timely, without getting muddled up by the environment. To do that, I spend a fair amount of time reflecting on life decisions and ultimately being able to acknowledge that there must be a higher being who holds everything together, that it just doesn’t just depend on me to do so.
4) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
I’ve made it a point to create time to run and bike at least three times a week. I really need to train to improve my stamina and hope to climb the highest peak in South East Asia, Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia soon! Giving back to my alma mater, by mentoring other alumni members and students at Monash University, has also been something I enjoy and grow in the process.
5) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E Frankl is a profound book for those asking if there’s more to life than just chasing dreams.
6) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
The New Testament on the life of Jesus in the Bible.
7) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
To question how the world defines success, and not just accept how it defines it.
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