Linda Du is the founder of Moola Money, a FinTech startup providing financial guidance for millennials. A British-Chinese first-generation immigrant with an engineering degree from Cambridge and MBA from Yale, Linda spent 4.5 years at McKinsey advising global banks before leaving to build her own ventures. Her international journey spans London, Dubai, Berlin, and Silicon Valley, bringing a unique global perspective to democratizing financial literacy. She also runs Okta Investment, applying over a decade of retail investing experience.

Episode Summary

Linda shares her journey from McKinsey consultant to FinTech founder, driven by an embrace of chaos and the "outsider advantage." We explore how being perpetually foreign shaped her ability to navigate uncertainty, why Germany's Industry 2.0 mindset struggles in today's volatile world, and how undiagnosed ADHD led to burnout but ultimately revealed her entrepreneurial superpowers. Linda reveals why even high-earning professionals struggle with personal finance and how transparency—not complexity—is the key to financial empowerment.

Key Takeaways

1. The Outsider Advantage: Being perpetually foreign gives you permission to shape your own identity and break cultural norms—a superpower for founders
2. Chaos Over Control: In a world of infinite unknowns, the ability to navigate chaos beats trying to control outcomes
3. De-risking vs Control: Instead of trying to control everything, focus on reducing risk while maintaining flexibility
4. Purpose + Lifestyle: Sustainable work comes from both caring about what you do AND designing a lifestyle that supports your neurodivergence
5. Financial Transparency: People's finances are often better than they imagine—they just need clarity, not more complexity

Memorable Quotes

"I embraced the fact that I would always be an outsider. And there's actually a lot of incredible power in that because people can't really expect you to fit into cultural norms."

"Risk equals reward, but it's about how do you be smart in taking that risk?"

"I see so much opportunity for international collaboration... but I feel like we're going in another direction where countries and states are starting to say, let's do things our way."

"If you didn't have to work for a living, what would you do with your time?"

Resources Mentioned

• Pierre Bourdieu's forms of capital (economic, cultural, social)
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• China Plus One investment strategy
• Stanford investor education program
• Moola Money: [Website link]
• Gravitas - 1:1 accelerator for biz owners stepping into their founder era
• The Curiosity Lab - Strategy sessions for leaders by Chedva
• You’re Gonna Want to Sit Down for This - bi-weekly email packed with lessons and free tools
• Chedva's newsletter - Weekly musings and questions

Reflection Questions

1. How might being an "outsider" in your industry actually be your biggest advantage?
2. Where in your life are you trying to control outcomes instead of de-risking?
3. What would you do with your time if money wasn't a factor?

Yewande Faloyin is the founder of Otito Leadership and a certified executive coach specializing in energy leadership and performance optimization. With a unique background spanning software development at IBM and Morgan Stanley, management consulting at McKinsey, and hedge fund advisory, Yewande brings a holistic approach to leadership development. After experiencing severe burnout, she discovered coaching and became certified in energy leadership, helping leaders move from burnout cycles to sustainable peak performance.

In this powerful conversation, Yewande shares her unconventional journey from tech to leadership coaching, driven by a pattern of boredom that led to continuous evolution. We explore the dangerous myth of "pushing through" in high-achievement cultures and why traditional resilience might be keeping us stuck. Yewande introduces her revolutionary framework that moves beyond burnout recovery to true performance optimization - where rest becomes a strategic tool and integration of mind, body, and spirit drives sustainable success.

1. Boredom as a Compass: What seems like restlessness might actually be your internal guidance system pointing you toward your next evolution
2. The Performance Paradox: True high performance isn't about pushing harder - it's about mastery orientation over outcome orientation
3. Integration Over Separation: The greatest transformations happen when we stop compartmentalizing and start integrating all aspects of ourselves - technical and creative, strategic and intuitive
4. Quality Over Compliance: Going through the motions of self-care (yoga, sleep, nutrition) means nothing if the energy behind them is angry or resentful
5. Rest as Performance Enhancement: Athletes rest 75% of the time - why do knowledge workers think they can perform while running on empty?

"If it's your calling, it'll keep calling."

"I often say that rest is your only legal performance enhancer."

"You could choose to rest, I could choose to rest, and yours could be effective and mine might not be because of the how."

"No one else's answer makes any difference whatsoever. It's all about you and what's important to you. And that's okay to switch it every single day."

• Energy Leadership certification (IPEC)
• Website: [Otito Leadership website]
• Yewande on LinkedIn
• Gravitas - 1:1 accelerator for biz owners stepping into their founder era
• The Curiosity Lab - Strategy sessions for leaders by Chedva
• You’re Gonna Want to Sit Down for This - bi-weekly email packed with lessons and free tools
• Chedva's newsletter - Weekly musings and questions

1. Where in your life are you "ticking boxes" without addressing the quality or energy behind your actions?
2. What would change if you viewed rest as a performance tool rather than a weakness?
3. How might boredom be guiding you toward your next evolution?

In this transformative conversation, Palveshey Tariq—founder of Alternative Coaching Methods—shares her journey from quantum physics and AI research to guiding others through plant medicine ceremonies. After collecting all the accolades in STEM but feeling empty inside, a suic*de attempt led to a two-year journey of meditating 4-8 hours daily and completely rewiring her relationship with herself. What started as reaching for psilocybin mushrooms as an escape became five hours of taking ownership of her role in her own suffering. The conversation explores how we trade our authentic selves for conditional love starting in childhood, why observing our behavior (internally and externally) changes everything, and how fear drives most of our achievements until we learn to operate from integrity instead. Palveshey reveals her morning routine, why "discipline is the highest form of self-respect," and how asking "How do you know it's true?" can dismantle an entire belief system.

Key Topics:

• From quantum physics to consciousness: the observer effect applied internally
• Why high achievement doesn't equal high performance (vitality and balance)
• Trading authenticity for love: "I am who I think you think I am"
• A psilocybin ceremony that wasn't an escape but a mirror
• The body screaming what the mind ignores: menstrual pain as communication
• Morning routine as self-respect: meditation, walking, yoga, reading, then clients

Notable Quotes:

• "Plant medicines shed light on all the dark areas and assign you homework, but you still have to go home and do the work."
• "There's a fine line between owning your shit and being full of it."
• "In order to become a graceful master, we need to look like a foolish beginner."
• "In order for a spiritual awakening to happen, there has to be a mental breakdown."
• "Creation and contribution are the antidotes for comparison and criticism".

Palveshey's Powerful Question: "How do you know it's true?"—And the crucial follow-up: "What's truer?"

Key Lessons:

• Our subconscious starts believing love is conditional around age 2-3
• The difference between religion and spirituality/devotion
• Integration is the most important part of plant medicine work
• Your body whispers before it screams—listen early
• Four motivators: fear, desire, duty, or love—know which drives you
• Turn "why me?" into "watch me"
• Right and wrong are illusions—feel what's right in the moment

Resources Mentioned:

• Alternative Coaching Methods
• The Diamond Cutter (and other books mentioned on this season - affiliate links)
• No Bullshit Spirituality newsletter - one hard truth, one simple turnaround
• LinkedIn for Palveshey's writings
• Gravitas - 1:1 accelertaors for biz owners stepping into their founder era
• The Curiosity Lab - Strategy sessions for leaders by Chedva
• You’re Gonna Want to Sit Down for This - bi-weekly email packed with lessons and free tools
• Chedva's newsletter - Weekly musings and questions