Episode 48: The Expat Tool Kit: PrimeTime: Build your Community of Professional Women in Singapore

Rachel: [00:00:00] Welcome to Truly Expat Podcast. I'm Rachel and my lovely co host Paula are interviewing Esther Benshop and President and Soumya Pandey, Marketing Director of PrimeTime, a professional and business women's association based in Singapore. They'll discuss their mission, the challenges they encounter, and the work they're doing to support women in business.

Rachel: Let's dive in. Welcome ladies. So happy for you to join us today.

Paula: So excited to have you here, because we've been, I mean, it's been a long time coming. Because, uh, we've wanted to have you on the podcast for a while, so we're really happy for you guys to be here.

Paula: So tell us all about you, we want to start from the beginning. Tell us a little bit about yourselves, and then we'll talk about what Primetime is.

Esther: Thank you. So shall I start? 

Rachel: Yes, please. Um, Well, 

Esther: Well, I'm esther, and I'm living in Singapore now for three years. [00:01:00] And, uh, when I here, I thought, okay, let's proceed with my career. We came here for the work of my husband, kids at school, husband at work.

Esther: And I thought, okay, here I this is singapore was waiting for.

Esther: And then I found out, ooh, it's not that easy to get an employment pass here and to proceed my career in a marketing and communication field.

Esther: So I thought, okay, I have to do something differently and I have to change. find a network, build up a

Esther: community to meet other professional,

Esther: uh, professionals, and that's why, uh, where, where Primetime, uh, came on my path.

Esther: Uh, I started, uh, to become a member, uh, attended, uh, uh, certain, uh, events at Primetime, and I also followed, uh, their leadership program, and then, uh, I came so enthusiastic about this community that I, uh, became a volunteer, and I stepped into the board. So here I am now. 

Paula: Wow. And you?

Saumya: Yeah, [00:02:00] for me, so I'm Somya. I came to Singapore a decade

Saumya: ago. timer. Yeah, and for primetime, um, so I moved in here ten years ago. Much easier

Saumya: to employment at point I I believe. So it wasn't that difficult to get into the job,

Saumya: But then, for me, it getting monotonous in the same life. cycle, meeting the same set of people

Saumya: every in and out. So I stepped into primetime about five to six 

Saumya: years ago, introduced by a friend who was very enthusiastic in the going for networking events. like, what are these events where you're always looking forward to? then I joined one.

Saumya: I loved the energy flowing in the room, the passion people had to support each other. And right followed by that evening, the conversations we had, um, wanted me to be a member immediately. Okay. But then the second best thing happened, and I knew about, and I heard from somebody about volunteering with PrimeTime. that was a pull factor, and [00:03:00] I immediately signed 

Saumya: Yeah. The first day I signed up, I already signed a form

Saumya: of volunteering as well. I started with partnerships and the marketing team, and within the end of that year, I took a board so so for me, this is my third term as the marketing and Communications Director Primetime.

Paula: so let's get started. What is PrimeTime? I'm, I'm, I'm excited to get to delve, delve into what it actually is.

Paula: Cause you talk about volunteering, you talk about, um, um, well, we haven't talked about yet. So what do you offer? And what is it?

Esther: let's start talking about PRIMETIME

Saumya: Yes! Um, 

Esther: exists already a very long time. Uh, it has been founded by, uh, juanita woodward already more than 27 years ago. Oh, wow. Yes, I

Rachel: she's still a member.

Esther: member? She's still an active

Rachel: member She's still here in singapore.

Saumya: Absolutely Very active

Esther: member, like you'll see her in most of our events as well.

Rachel: Yeah

Esther: So that, that's amazing. And uh, we can always [00:04:00] reach out to her for advice and, uh, her, uh,

Esther: Broad network. it's amazing. Uh, and first of all, we were a part of the American women's Association. And in 1997, we became a nonprofit organization registered on the RLS.

Esther: error s.

Esther: So we became, uh, yeah, uh, a non profit

Esther: organization, percent led volunteers.

Esther: And what also is special about PRIMETIME is that we are part of the Singapore Council of Women Organizations.

Paula: Oh, I didn't know that. Yes,

Esther: so so we are the international, yeah, part of the SCWO. Okay. Yes, and, uh, it's really good to, to collaborate with other women, uh, organizations here in Singapore. So in our focus is on, uh,

Esther: international women to Singapore and who are, uh, business and professionals and trying to find a tribe here. Um, find other, other women, [00:05:00] uh, not only, uh, in their office, but also outside, uh, from other sectors, other, uh, career stages, uh, and other cultures. I think we are, uh, yeah, extremely diverse.

Esther: community. We cover more than 40 nationalities.

Paula: Oh, wow.

Esther: Yeah, so I think we cover the whole world with our community. And, um, yeah, we, we help them with, um, their professional, uh, development, offering, uh, network events and, uh, professional events with keynote speakers from, yeah, uh, topics, topics. Yeah, very diverse topics like career focus or we just had a sustainability event that also it's yeah, it's attract very many, um, yeah, uh, guests also. Um, so yeah, be a member to be a guest or do you just get experts within industries and talk for [00:06:00] yeah, yeah. We have, uh, we, we ask, uh, experts to, to, to talk at our events and you are allowed to attend, uh, two events as a non member, as a guest to, to find out what Primetime has to offer. And, uh, yeah, hopefully after that you, uh, you become a member.

Saumya: Yeah.

Rachel: What are some of the like key programs, that you offer in development courses? 

Saumya: Right, so we offer a wide variety of programs. I will start with programs. We do have leadership program. We have mentoring program. Actually, we're giving platform to women to mingle, to talk to other women and learn from them and be a part of that community. Are you going to share more about the second Thursdays and the SIGs that we have? 

Esther: Yes, so we uh, we are organized like, uh, with different, communities. We them interest groups. and the chairs of these communities are also organizing events in their field. So we [00:07:00] have a special group about career. We also have a book club, and we have a mothers connect to

Esther: uh, gather uh, Yeah, mothers who are trying to combine motherhood and and business and their work. Yeah, yeah, challenging. it's good to share your experience and to learn from each other. Um, so that's pretty much it. Uh, there are special interest groups and, uh, we also have our flagship events, uh, every month. We call them the second Thursday events. So obviously we hold that on the second Thursday. That's why. we call it like that. we, it's easy to to Yeah. at uh, agenda and just, uh, yeah, it's easy to, uh, to show up then. And, uh, there we would like to discuss, yeah, topics. What's, what's up. um, uh, yeah. On people's mind. So talk about sustainability. Uh, next month we will have a tech [00:08:00]related event. uh, but also focus on your career, to develop, how to prepare yourself for the next step in your career, and it's very diverse.

Paula: What do you expect from those nights?

Paula: Is it a speaker, a few speakers at talk, or is it just everyone in that industry? How does it work?

Esther: Yeah, think repeating myself because that is also very diverse. 

Esther: Okay. 

Paula: Okay.

Esther: Sometimes we have a, a one keynote speaker. Um, in August we had Michela martin. She's a very famous radio, uh, host here in Singapore. So she so inspiring. it amazing to have her on stage. But we also have, uh, often panel discussions or few experts on a certain topic. So, um, it differs from the topic, how many people, uh, the speakers we find. Um, yes. So it's every it's a what you get.

Paula: And how do you find out about the events that's on your website?

Esther: Yeah, we promote it on our website. [00:09:00] We also have, of course, a vibrant 

Esther: uh, instagram account

Esther: and other social media Facebook and LinkedIn. And we have a very community

Paula: uh,

Esther: site as well to keep each other to date what's happening, what's going on um, in PrimeTime and also, uh, from our members self. They can post what they are uh, or what's happening.

Saumya: Yeah, to add on this, most new people who come in as non come in either as somebody brought them in, like a member referring them, they seen a post somewhere digitally. So, 

Saumya: It's great to see that are already a of the community are and bringing in folks.

Paula: That's good. So then they've already got insight into what to expect.

Saumya: and

Saumya: Absolutely.

Paula: So if I was thinking about starting a business or thinking about getting back into my, my career. Can I come [00:10:00] along or do I have to already be established?

Saumya: Oh, absolutely you can. I mean, anyone and everyone is welcome. we do have people from

Saumya: diverse backgrounds. There are people who Want to start something. There are people who have established careers There are also people juggling in their professional work and coming here a part of their, like, second work or just a network

Saumya: Okay.

Saumya: So anyone and everyone all women.

Saumya: Yeah

Paula: Um, and

Rachel: help people, so if somebody wanted to start a business, would you be able to point them in the right direction, give them that support to, to start the business and, um, yeah. 

Saumya: We're not professionally training be, to start up their business, but supporting them with the ideas, like we're getting them mingle who are like minded, who have set up their own business and can guide them through. We do events on off, which might be sharing about the new rules and regulations that will help them in establishing the business, and success stories them, the [00:11:00] learnings from can definitely them and encourage them because to a business, you need to have the support. you have So I think looking at so many like minded people who are doing the same, the same are growing, they want themselves in a few years really gives that motivation.

Rachel: I love that. I think that's really fantastic. It's really hard to To, to begin that and then just like, especially if you've never done it before and you come here and that's your only option, um, uh, You know, to, to get, to start working and things like that. So, that's wonderful. Yeah, so,

Esther: that's also how I start my own business. So attended an event PrimeTime what is possible in the employment field. And they were talking about possibilities to start your own business, starting LLC. So after that, I was, I felt confident enough to that Yeah. So it It's difficult, it is [00:12:00] possible. So we

Rachel: very daunting.

Rachel: Yeah.

Esther: yeah. So we will offer them, um, insights about what is possible. So how can follow your, your, your dream and to it, to make it happen.

Paula: What kind of volunteers are you after? Like you said you volunteered straight away. What did you volunteer in?

Saumya: So for me, I, uh, I come from and a business development uh, background for my career. So I joined the partnerships team and the marketing team, because marketing was a part of my role throughout. So it was mostly somebody in my team working on the marketing activities, but on and familiar with what what they do. So joining Primetime's marketing gave me on experience, so, and the happiness as well when I see. Wow, I am managing these digital channels, and when people come the events saying, saw your post and I really wanted to come, I'm doing a It's not just me, it's like the team. That's At a great, I would say on a high note, we were 10 folks in the [00:13:00] team. We've also, we've also worked with two people running the show. So it's been challenging and it's been like, overwhelming.

Paula: Yeah.

Saumya: because it's voluntary work and not everyone is available at all times. Yeah. So it's more of wherever you can contribute. I could contribute in the partnerships part, bringing in a couple of more partners who can work together with Being a non we do depend on partners as well. Some can offer their venues to us, some can have their speakers. So a lot of things that we can work And apart from these two, which I have already worked, and share more, people are very good in conducting events. people good for marketing, people are already affiliated with some other experiences like they do have interest in, uh, pottery club some related thing. So they can come in SIG leads, the special interest groups. 

Paula: Ah OK

Saumya: So all [00:14:00] us, like, all of us as board members, the SIG leaders,

Saumya: everyone here is a volunteer.

Paula: Okay. 

Paula: Okay How interesting.

Rachel: Yeah. No, that's a big dedication of your life right to do that. That's fantastic

Esther: Yeah, maybe it's also good to mention that you don't have to be already well skilled in the marketing area.

Paula: That was my

Esther: question. Yeah. So it, it's also, yeah, you are also more

Esther: than if you want to develop these

Paula: Yeah.

Esther: And, uh,

Esther: Yeah, we can help each other.

Paula: Yeah. That's the the,

Esther: the idea also So let's help each other to develop yourself. Let's

Esther: let's empower women.

Paula: I like that. I like that. Fixing each other's crown.

Rachel: so hard to get, like, Skilled or like you can, you can take a hundred courses. Um, but how do you get the experience? Much better to try this in real. Yeah, for sure. That's really, really lovely. Yeah, I like that. That's cool. It's a

Saumya: mission to support and empower women. Yeah. [00:15:00] And as we I've seen like all the community members, they're so warm, they're so friendly. Everybody encourages each other to join in, to learn. And everybody is happy to offer help.

Rachel: Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Yeah.

Paula: have you have like a major event one year, like per year, like an annual event, or it's just monthly, not just, that's a lot of work.

Esther: Well at this moment we are working on our year end party. And will be on the 5th of December.

Esther: We do this especially the 5th December because international day. So we really would, uh, uh, give appreciate, uh, give appreciation to our volunteers, uh, what they all did and just celebrate, uh, the sisterhood. Yeah,

Paula: that's nice.

Rachel: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's fantastic. And, um, so You must have seen so many people come into the association and then like bloom. [00:16:00] Um, can you get, can you share a story of one or two of those people that, that, that happen to?

Esther: Yeah, think, yeah, one, one stories woman, she came here, it's, you know, I can, it's quite similar, uh, with my experience. But she also thought, okay, here is Singapore. So, uh, wanted to proceed with her career in the HR field. Uh, but it's, yeah, she also faces difficulties with getting an employment pass and, uh, uh, finding her way as a non singaporean. And, um, yeah, because of, uh, some we organized, um, HR related, related, uh, she find, uh, uh, she could build

Esther: her network in, uh, with, with other people in the HR, hR uh, who are active in the HR and fire them. She found a job. Wow. So it's also, I think here in Singapore, it's a lot of worth of mouth,

Esther: right?

Esther: Yeah. So if you just, uh, apply for a job via LinkedIn, it's really hard to, uh, to get [00:17:00] into a, uh,

Esther: a corporate, uh, but fire, fire, it really, that's

Rachel: excited.

Esther: I 

Paula: It's so, it's, it's so, um, inspirational.

Esther: Yeah, and it's also, it's not a guarantee, but it helps to know people, to out to others. That's also what we're trying to do with our membership program. So we have a community people from,

Esther: uh, it's very international, but they also work in very different sectors. if you interested

Esther: in working more in a retail related organization, we can match each That's what you, you can have a coffee with someone, uh, who's working retail organization. we can match that's, that's a

Paula: I mean, network's key here, right?

Esther: Yes. That's how it works.

Paula: Yeah, I think it does all over the world, but Singapore especially seems to be,

Saumya: seems to

Paula: know, if you know somebody, it just seems, I think anything, right?

Paula: If you, you can make something more personal, if you've [00:18:00] met someone, it's easier than just handing them a piece of paper with all your

Esther: Absolutely.

Paula: So are there any other stories that you can come to light? 

Saumya: Inspiring story of a member is, uh, that always comes to my mind is, uh, of a lady who moved to Singapore as her third assignment, like her husband's third assignment. She came as a trailing spouse within ten years. So she was a stay at home, like a full time mom from the past ten years. Wanted to go back to work, but was not sure, losing confidence, not too sure if she really can fit in even after a

Paula: Yeah.

Saumya: And is when she came to one of our events. She told me she's like, just tagging along with a school mom, and I'm like, that's great. I mean, it's good that you see each other when you're coming here. That conversation turned into a long, long conversation we spoke for multiple times after and when she realized she can still join in without. being able to contribute much and also to gain her confidence. She came [00:19:00] in with the spirit of learning digital marketing. I said, welcome to the team. We are a people, like we are five people here, happy to help, happy to help you take those baby steps. She'd recently done a course and, not have any practice, so was not confident, confident enough. But, uh, working with us for almost a year, she was able to independently the coaching program. So that's one of the major program that we run almost every year. She taking charge of all the marketing activities for that program. She got so interested in it and realized this is what she wanted to do. So do. of like like finding a call here. And today, as I speak, she is an ICF certified coach doing pretty well career. And whenever we meet, she's like, you know what? I am so grateful because i, it came to that event, I joined the network and whenever I

Saumya: I do something, whenever I hear something, I always want encourage people [00:20:00] to your boundaries go,

Saumya: push your boundaries.

Rachel: I got goosebumps

Rachel: that 

Esther: go

Rachel: story. I was like, wow, that's so awesome.

Saumya: get them whenever I share about like these, these experiences and hence

Saumya: Esther and I just talking before coming We have many stories to say, we many experiences. people who came in with just expecting is it? It's just a networking event. Will I get something? And now are in life? Yeah, I think we are as well. Like sitting here today.

Saumya: Meeting Two lovely ladies. Like, wow, it's so good to see you and be and represent

Rachel: today. No, we love having you here. That's great. And your lovely stories as well.

Rachel: I'm so excited about it. Gosh. Yeah.

Paula: I'm really glad because I know that we've had a couple of people on the podcast who have mentioned. um, you, which is where we got the information from. So

Paula: definitely like 

Rachel: Mangla.

Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And so there, and that's a testament of what you guys

Esther: That's how right? It's 

Paula: It's 

Esther: [00:21:00] goes by a word of mouth.

Saumya: Yes. 

Paula: Which is very cool. And I know that Rachel will put everything in the show notes, some how to contact you and,

Saumya: your

Rachel: social media, the website, everything, so.

Esther: yeah. So that's what we would love to, to see. Encourage your listeners to do show just join one of our events So we have two times a month a Coffee Connect, for example on a Wednesday and also for people who work full time on a Saturday. And you just have a coffee with each other. and that should be a two hour coffee I think yesterday you stayed there for four hours 

Saumya: yeah, we should definitely mention that uh, did have a coffee connect yesterday started at 10, and it was almost 2 m., were like, Alright, really hungry, shall we Shall we dine in here? Like, Oh yeah, it's two o'clock. I got to pick up my son, I was

Paula: going to say it's, it's a school run almost.

Saumya: run, almost. So it was amazing, the energy comes in. also highlight, uh, we had a group of 16 [00:22:00] 16 folks who joined in and those 16 people, eight were new to PrimeTime. Like were new women who were first time for a Coffee 

Rachel: connect. Yeah. Nice. 

Saumya: by the, by the time we were all leaving, like, how do we join? Can you just share details now? Like, yes, absolutely. We would love to do that. And we would love to have amazing energy flowing in the room with all of them.

Rachel: Yeah. So it's.

Saumya: it's, it's always great going to those events and seeing people so excited to join in. 

Rachel: Yeah. No, that is awesome. Yeah, sounds good. Really good.

Paula: you come to Singapore, there is so many things that you don't know. Do you know what I mean? Like this sort of program or this sort of, um, uh, events that you, you have allows, especially newbies to come in and go, okay, what can I do? Cause there's so many, especially as a, um, accompanying partner who can't work, where are my avenues?

Paula: Where do I go? [00:23:00] And primetime seems to tick all the boxes.

Rachel: Yeah,

Rachel: yeah, for sure. Yeah,

Paula: even people like me who've been here for a while. I'm still happy to come up because I didn't even know that there was this type of networking. And it's not that, um, I think that the, there's other networks, networking organizations that allow men to come along as well and so I just think there's something special about a whole lot of women backing each other.

Esther: Yeah. It gives, special vibe, yeah, to help each other. It's really positive energy

Paula: I do find a lot of times when it's long term, not long term, say 10 years that you've been out of work and you come back, you have that imposter syndrome, syndrome, know, and then you've got other women going, it's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's alright, we've all done it. You know, like it's that, I don't know, it's, it's a bit, I'm getting all teary now. It's a bit

Saumya: Like, if it's that support, we can get somebody's confidence

Saumya: back. We can that happiness and that trust in themselves. It was an amazing feeling. Yeah. And,

Saumya: uh, it's not, uh, [00:24:00] like primeTime, as we say, we definitely a lot of women who coming. for the first time in Singapore, settling in here. But we also have a very strong base who have been here for years, for decades. We a lot of local who are in our network as well. Okay. And, uh, it's, it's a community with, as, as I mentioned, like we have 40 different nationalities. Yeah. And people from all

Saumya: walks of life, even all ages, I mean a wide age group 

Esther: from graduated to retired women. Yeah, so yeah, it's also good to help each other in your different, uh, age. range. The stages

Paula: as well, right?

Paula: Yeah, stages of

Saumya: teachers, the courier stages,

Rachel: Children's stages. Yeah. Yeah.

Paula: Because a lot of times trying to find your identity again, whether it means that because you're changing your career path or you can't work here or your children moved out of home.

Esther: Yeah.

Paula: Who are you? Where are you? Where can you go? And this seems to be a great

Esther: of you can do via, uh, head meeting with like minded women. Uh, but we also [00:25:00] offer

Esther: coaching programs for our members. You can also make use of that to out what makes you happy and uh, what, what can be your here in singapore?

Paula: I like that. Okay, I'm joining. You've sold me already and I haven't even been

Rachel: know, me too.

Esther: More than welcome.

Paula: love that.

Rachel: My husband's like, Oh, you belong to so many different associations. When do you have time to go to all of the events? And I'm like going, if I could, I could be out every night. You know what I mean? Like just meeting

Esther: want to go out with me? Yeah,

Paula: yeah, yeah. When

Rachel: Yeah, they do do that. He does do that. What

Esther: What I also want, want to try to, want to mention is that we're

Esther: talking a lot about, um, who come here with their children, but also, uh, offers a place for women without children. what are you doing when come home from work, uh, the in the evening? You sit alone with your [00:26:00]husband. Yeah. It's also good to, to go out and to my, to, to meet other women and to talk about topics. Then you talking about all day at your work. Mm, yeah. Um, and so, um,

Esther: yeah, most of our events are, we also have a, a dinner. We offer a dinner. So it's just having a great evening with other. So our events like though it's professional events 

Saumya: we do. Yeah. We also do events like mindfulness. also do events like, uh, prime lunches.

Paula: Yeah. Oh, okay.

Saumya: So there are, there's a variety of events we do. We do different, uh, like the programs that we do, they are like mini workshops. So these workshops are training to you to be leaders. These are training you to get a coaching from somebody who is an established person in the industry. industry Okay. And, uh, similar, like do have mentoring where it's, uh, mostly two way mentoring or you are getting to interact with the person you want to be in the industry.

Paula: Yeah. [00:27:00] So. First hand, right? So you can't get any closer than an expert in the industry. an expert in the industry. It's good, it's so what would you, um, what advice would you give any woman looking to maximize their, um, personal or professional development

Rachel: I want to say, join, yeah,

Esther: Yeah, I should, yeah, I want to say take advantage of all the opportunities that available in Singapore. And join professional groups and attend workshops and network activities. And uh, don't be afraid to seek out mentorship and seek advice from others who have

Esther: navigated similar paths. Um, yeah, that's it. What primetime can offer. So, uh, yeah, we would love to encourage you to join of our and, uh, to find out what works best for you.

Paula: Yeah.

Esther: I always see Singapore as a, yeah, it's a huge playground. There is so much possible here, to find your way and find, uh, what works for [00:28:00] yourself.

Rachel: best.

Rachel: Yeah, for sure. And I always say, never say no.

Saumya: Give it a try. Give it a try. Network. Step out of your comfort zone. Yeah,

Rachel: exactly. Yeah. Do you have anything to add to that?

Saumya: Yeah, like networking uh, like go out, network, step out of this comfort zone. You never know what are the possibilities and who you get to hold your hand and like move

Saumya: you across. So.

Rachel: And

Rachel: You never know who you're going to meet, right? Yeah. You just never know. You might find your new next best friend, you know? Yeah,

Esther: Yeah. 

Esther: next 

Esther: Or your next job

Saumya: I mean mean, if I remember my past five years that I'm here, I have so many and those are like my dear friends now we've worked together, we've volunteered together. we have, uh, and there were was some, we've not even volunteered. It just, we met at a party and we just mashed. you click with that person, you know can be and there's so much I can talk about. And along with that

Saumya: we do have met at our events, had [00:29:00] a similar mindset, co founded a company together. Wow,

Rachel: that is cool, yeah, yeah.

Saumya: So personal and professional, both, uh, both angles we're catering to.

Rachel: Yeah, no, that's cool. It

Paula: It can happen. Rachel and I met drinking wine. Oh, really? At an event, you know. We were wine tasting. That sounded really weird then. But yeah, we were wine tasting and that's how we met.

Rachel: Yeah. Yeah. And we had it all straight away.

Rachel: That's how it goes, right?

Esther: go out and meet other people, new people, and yeah, see where it

Esther: goes to, right?

Rachel: Thank you so so much, ladies, we really enjoyed your company and all of this advice and the goosebumps. Yes. I loved of those stories. Yeah, they're really fantastic. You really inspired us to join now. So, um, yeah, again for

Rachel: coming. Yeah.

Esther: Thank you so much having us and we look forward having your part of primetime. 

Paula: see

Paula: you soon. Yeah. Let

Paula: PrimeTime: [00:30:00] Building a Community for Professional Women in Singapore