In this episode of The NexGen Show, we speak with brand marketer Cherry Foo about a journey many young professionals quietly experience but rarely talk about.
Cherry talks about starting her career with excitement and a strong passion for brand marketing. “At the very beginning, I really enjoyed the hustle,” she shares, drawn to the energy and speed of FMCG and the opportunity to bring ideas to life.
But soon, reality caught up. Like many young professionals, she found herself in what she calls a “90-day crash cycle” pushing hard, saying yes to everything, and slowly burning out without realising it.
A turning point came when she was compared to someone with 10 years of experience. She recalls:
“Hey Cherry, how long have you been in this industry? … I said 3 months… and he said, how long has the other person been working? 10 years.”
“That was when it hit me,” she says. “I was comparing myself to someone who had 10 years of experience, while I only had 3 months. Back in uni, everyone started at the same time, so comparison felt fair. But in the working world, it’s not.”
The breaking point came when her manager noticed her exhaustion and asked, “Cherry, are you really okay?” That moment led her to admit she didn’t feel “good enough” and had been silently struggling.
From there, Cherry began to shift. She learned that rest is not laziness, and slowing down doesn’t mean falling behind. Instead, she started giving herself permission to breathe, reset, and create without pressure.
“I started finding my cadence,” she reflects, a personal rhythm that allows her to grow without burnout.
By the end of her journey, Cherry didn’t lose her ambition. She refined it. She found balance, clarity, and a way to move forward at her own pace, one that finally felt like hers.
Listen to her story on The NexGen Show, a podcast hosted by Malaysian advertising veteran Prof. Harmandar Singh that shines the spotlight on rising talent in advertising, marketing, and media.
New episodes every Sunday, 7PM on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
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