The Forever Rebel with Jacalin Ding, Social Entrepreneur & Design Thinking Expert
“I have learned to say NO to opportunities that don’t serve my vision. It’s through removing what no longer serves me, in order to achieve freedom and happiness. ”
Jacalin Ding is a multi-disciplinary creative problem solver, a business designer, an educator, a mentor, and a social entrepreneur. She thinks like a business person with the heart of a designer. Her superpower is the ability to create and communicate across the lifecycle of a product, utilising Design Thinking methodology.
With more than 15 years as a design strategist, Jacalin’s assisted start-ups, enterprises, media, and digital product agencies to turn their biggest, wildest ideas into long-term viable products. She’s worked with companies from New York, Vancouver, Tokyo, Singapore and back home in Australia.
Jac’s now using her talents to contribute to others as a lead instructor at General Assembly and the Founder for sustainable fashion label The Rushing Hour.
Download today’s episode of The Uncharted Leader as Jac share’s about her story having confronted death and her passion for building brands and using her superpower in Design Thinking methodology to impact cultural change. With more than 15 years as a design strategist, Jacalin has worked with start-ups, enterprises, media, and digital product agencies to turn their biggest, wildest ideas into long-term viable products. She’s worked with companies from New York, Vancouver, Tokyo, Singapore and back home in Australia.
What is the most memorable moment in your journey as a leader and what were some of the most valuable lessons learnt?
The last nine months have been unforgettable and unimaginable - I manifested a dream house in my favourite suburb and now I'm living in one. I started investing and despite the crisis, it's green!
The biggest shift career-wise, just when I pinned down a TedX talk on my vision board, I got a call from General Assembly (GA) Sydney offering a UX instructor role.
For someone like me who always wanted to nail public speaking but found it hard to break through the "shy Asian girl sits at the back" stereotype, that opportunity couldn't come at a better time. But wait, teach brand new students in the industry everything about UX in a week? Is that crazy?
Not only I was shit scared about how intense that course sounds like, but what freaks me out is speaking in front of students all day for 6 long days. My fears started to fly in from all directions:
How the hell am I going to nail this in an engaging way?
How to work with all sorts of personalities?
The course isn't cheap. I can't fuck it up.
They are going to get so sick of hearing me talk
The only thing I taught before was EFL English in Japan.
Wait, do I know everything about UX?! (oh the self-doubt)
Fast forward 6 months and I've taught more courses and guided more than 100 students for various topics. After my last cohort, I stepped out of my comfort zone and proposed a new format and to my surprise they let me "prototype" it and the results were beyond AMAZING!
Together with my assistant teacher we received one of the highest scores in General Assembly - 90%.
"I really appreciated the expertise in the field Jac shared and the way she conveys helped me learnt something new from her comfortably. A real energetic trainer."
"Jac's personality definitely kept the classes more entertaining and engaging."
"Jac was amazing. Always went out of her way to make the classes fun and engaging for everyone, and made sure we understood everything as we went through. Made sure she gave the opportunity to focus on certain topics if it needed further explanation"
I thought “holy shit, maybe I can nail this public speaking thing” (thinking my TedX talk topic already) and I finally realized “I have the ability to lead”.
What did I learn?
The most difficult part is to get over our own fear and really step into being a leader of our own life - that's when blessings start to flow.
Had I not trusted myself and initiated the prototype, this result would never have been achieved. I chose not to follow "That's the way things are done".
Lead the change. Trust your own judgment. A good manager would always support you and create that space for you to do what you do best.
After working with lots of different personalities I noticed that an extremely high percentage of people have a lot of desire to achieve more in their life and career and a lot of great ideas to share, but they hold it to themselves. And guess what? Nothing happens. Nil. Nada. Nothing. The passion marinates in our head, it gets soggy in the brain and it never goes anywhere.
The difference between success and failure is those who actually step up and own their destiny, speak up in order to lead their lives, to inspire others because you never know how many lives you are about to impact. I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to lead, to discover my true passion is to uplift others.
What’s one of your greatest accomplishments to date and what impact did it have on you, others, society or the world?
My greatest accomplishment is my recovery story after being hit by a bus - yes, that’s right, a bus - that’s not a typo.
At the age of 24 I was hit by a bus. By the time I was sent to ICU my heart had stopped, I wasn’t breathing. Thanks to the efforts of the doctors on duty that day a miracle happened - my heart started beating again.
After only 3 weeks I was back on my feet and, despite the horrific condition from the start, I was a walking miracle. The secret? I didn’t remember my pain and that experience at all. I was blessed to wake up with zero recollection of what happened that night.
I lost my right eyesight due to optic nerve damage - that was it! How lucky am I! We humans are amazing creatures, my other eye picks up at least 95% vision. Since that experience I have learned to love fully, listen with my heart and give without expecting anything in return. But most importantly, always remember self-care, to share and inspire others by sharing my passion. I survived for a reason.
What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve experienced and/or overcame in your journey as a leader?
My biggest challenge has always been learning to prioritise. I am a self confessed multi-passionate person. I love making lots of different things and I always believe I can do anything. So the challenge is when to do what? 7 years ago I chose a self-employed lifestyle - which allows me to pursue my priorities of self-care, family first and freedom (Money/Time/Creative/Passion)
To pursue this lifestyle I had to fight against my own fear of being “unemployed”. The universe listens when your heart believes. I am pleased to say my freedom is serving my purpose very well - it allows me the ultimate freedom and time to create and to uplift others.
I had learned to say NO to opportunities that don't serve my vision. It’s through removing what no longer serves me, in order to achieve freedom and happiness.
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