Navigating Data-Driven Dreams
Based on an episode with Soo Tang Yuk 🇻🇮🇹🇹🇦🇼🇨🇳
Welcome to Latinx in Power, a podcast aiming to help to demystify tech, the way we do that is by interviewing Latinx leaders all over the world to hear their perspective and insights.
We talked with Soo Tang Yuk (she/her) is an entrepreneur, co-founder of a global tech consultancy, and Women in Tech evangelist. With a background in IT and a passion for mentoring, community building, and also as a podcast producer, she drives innovation and leads strategic initiatives.
In this episode, Soo Tang Yuk shared more about her Caribbean identity, career evolution from IT to entrepreneurship, passion for data, global travel influences, and impactful moments from the Analytics on Fire podcast.
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What does it mean to be a Caribbean person to you?
For me, it means a lot because my family is from Trinidad. My dad is from Trinidad, my mom is from Aruba, but my dad is half Chinese from Trinidad. I was born in the Virgin Islands in St. Croix. So for me, it’s a melting pot of cultures, diversity, languages, you name it. We grew up very heavily in both cultures, and as I’m getting older, I’m understanding more and more how each one of those cultures has impacted me.
It’s interesting to see, as I develop more, especially with my daughter, how things that I say and do, I start to recognize which culture it’s from. My mom speaks Dutch, Spanish, Papiamento, and English. Growing up, there were certain words in English that I didn’t realize until I got to the US, like I would speak in and out of those languages and not realize until I got here that it’s not an English word. Even though you’re speaking English, you’re speaking a whole different language. It’s been a very interesting upbringing, and I wouldn’t exchange it for the world. I love being from the Caribbean. I love being Caribbean, and my passion is the Caribbean. I’m definitely excited about everything in the Caribbean.
It was crazy because a lot of my friends are Puerto Rican. Because of that, it’s weird because it’s almost like I don’t know any one language fully. I’ll go in and speak some nice Spanish or speak Papiamento and add Spanish words in there. I speak Spanish and add Papiamento words, and then I always tell people that my Spanish is horrible. I do better at writing Spanish or understanding it versus speaking because of that. I’m always shy when speaking Spanish because I have to intentionally speak it, afraid I might say something in Papiamento because it’s so close to Spanish. It was a very interesting upbringing. My father and his side of the family only speak English, but they speak it with a twang as well. It’s a very interesting concept of having so many different languages.
I totally understand, trust me. When I went to Spain a few years back, I had to completely switch my mind into Spanish because you’re there and you’re reading stuff, and I’m like, I know this word and I know what it means, but I forgot because I don’t have as many friends around me that speak Spanish anymore. I’m not remembering those simple words. I told myself the same thing, that I have to come back and get back into learning conversational Spanish and how to speak it. It’s been an interesting journey with that.
That was actually a good idea. I didn’t think about it like that, but maybe I will do the same because my aunt speaks Spanish fluently. I’m the only one kind of dwindling in the wind. I’m definitely going to look into doing it because I like to travel. I appreciate languages because of my upbringing.
Can you give us an overview of your life and career?
One thing a lot of people don’t know about me is that I started university at just 15 years old, in Minnesota. I went up there to finish my last two years of high school. There was this new program, and I was part of the pilot for it. Because of my testing scores, they sent me to the University of Minnesota, all paid.
I was taking college classes and living on campus. I was 15 years old, in this big, big world that I didn’t really understand. It was a very interesting time for me because it was the first time I really experienced the US like that. Even though I had been there before, I was much younger. But, yeah, I was on the University of Minnesota’s campus, studying, going to school full-time, and working part-time.
My passion has always been in tech and computers. It’s interesting because my mom started that. She brought home a DOS IBM computer when we were probably like ten or eleven years old for her job. I quickly started to play with it and learn how to start it up, boot it up, and use the word processor. That was where she kind of opened up my imagination to what a computer was and how to use it. From there, I’ve always been into tech. I’m a geek; I love anything that’s tech. I originally went to school to study information technology. But as I got out, I felt like I didn’t want to code or do programming. I felt like that wasn’t my thing, even though I learned how to do it early on.
I got the opportunity to work with a company that did eBay ads and a lot of marketing. I was hired as an assistant to the CTO, but when I got there, I was given a chance to learn some of their eBay tactics. That kind of jump-started my career in marketing. From there, I moved up to Atlanta. My sister and I have always been very entrepreneurial. Even in Miami, we had several businesses. We did e-commerce, selling on Amazon and eBay. We would go to companies and people’s houses to sell stuff for them. We had a website business; my sister is a computer engineer, so we built websites. We had a company for a few years, and I used to be the program manager, managing projects for that company.
When we moved to Atlanta, we started a blog. It doesn’t exist now, but it was for software named Excelsius. We started the blog, and that’s how we blossomed into having a company. We never had a website, a formal introduction, or an office. We started a blog, and from that blog, we got inquiries from Disney and McKesson, which started our career in consulting and training on that software. That’s how it all began for us. When I tell people about the blog, they are shocked. We were shocked too by how it just blossomed.
I never studied business or anything. A lot of it I learned along the way or by reading books and studying on my own. At one point, I tried to do an MBA, but it was too much to manage while running a company. I took what I got from it and just jumped into being an entrepreneur. I wouldn’t say it was a mistake because I think that’s part of your journey in life; you end up where you’re supposed to end up. But it wasn’t something I had planned to do at all in my lifetime.
How was the experience of being in college at 15 years old?
It was crazy because I was in a big city. I’m from a very small island, accustomed to very small island things, and being placed in that situation forced me to grow up really quickly. The thing is, though, I’ve always been a mature person because I am the oldest, in terms of my sister, for my mom.
I always carried a lot of responsibility, and I also grew up with my grandparents. Therefore, I had mature people around me. When I went there, people would be like, “Oh, come on, let’s go out.” As an immigrant coming from another country to the US, you come with a different mindset. You come here to get business done. You don’t come here to necessarily party and be out because you can’t fail and go back home. You can’t tell your mom, after she sacrificed to send you here, that you flunked out of school because you were partying too much. I couldn’t do that.
I was very focused on getting good grades. I was working part-time most of the time, or even full-time, but I did it. I had a full load of classes my first year, and I had a 3.0 GPA. Everyone was like, “Wow, you did better than we expected you to do,” because, again, it was a pilot program. My aunt and I were two of the few people they were tracking during that time.
They even had us in the pamphlet about the program and our success. I wish I had kept that stuff back then; I guess I was too young to really understand the impact of it. I don’t really talk about it much, but it was a very interesting time for me. Being on campus, learning, meeting people, and dealing with being in college or university was incredible.
Can you share more about your journey from being an IT professional to becoming an entrepreneur and co-founding a global tech consultancy & training firm?
First of all, I always tell my daughter, one of the things I learned quickly is no matter what I’m doing, always learn. Everything I did up until the point where we started this blog, even working for that eBay company, impacted me later on in life. I’m a lifelong learner, so I don’t see any opportunity, whether big or small, as insignificant. I focus on it and learn something from it.
What lesson am I getting from this? Every experience in my life prepared me for what I’m doing now. I feel very blessed to have learned so much. For example, my mom was a paralegal, so from her, I learned very young. I used to help her type up many agreements and documents. For our business, when we started, we were literally a two-woman crew. I learned quickly how to read our agreements. Some of our agreements never went to a lawyer. I could read, understand, send back, and recommend updates or edits, which they would accept. That’s all because I learned those skills when I was ten or eleven years old. Back then, I never knew how that experience would impact me later in life.
So, everything you learn, no matter how small or big, learn from your experiences. Even if it’s a small thing, the discipline you develop might not apply now or even ten years from now, but somewhere along your path, it will be important to you. Starting as an entrepreneur is not an easy task, but it has been worth it because you learn so much. The thing about having your own business is that you get to make mistakes without the fear of getting fired. You can learn from those mistakes.
My advice is to learn fast, learn quickly, and then pivot. You can’t let mistakes bog you down. If you feel like you don’t have a lot of time, you have to prioritize. Know what’s important versus what’s a priority and know when to bring someone else on to help you. Your time is valuable. If you’re doing small admin tasks that someone else could handle, hire them. This way, you’re not trading your valuable time for tasks that could be done by someone else, and you can focus on growing your business.
Another important lesson is knowing the difference between working in your business and in your business. Working in your business involves tasks you could hire someone else to do. Working on your business involves thinking about expansion, new products, and strategy. When you have a small business or a startup, you can quickly get bogged down in working in the business because you have to wear many hats. But if you don’t grow the business, work on your strategy, and understand your market and customers, you’ll never expand. These are some of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way that are very important to me.
Can you elaborate on your passion for data and business process optimization? How do these elements contribute to your work?
They’re very important because, you know, when you’re in a startup, you have to have documentation. You have to be able to do a lot with not a lot, you know, with the least. So having your business optimized and your processes documented helps you bring someone else that can help you and pivot quickly. Not only that, documentation helps you see where you can make changes and streamline processes. To me, that’s very important, especially when you’re in a startup. You have few hands, but you still have to get stuff done.
What was mind-blowing to me is that we were dealing with customers like Shell, FedEx, Disney, and McKesson — all these big customers. We had to be a big consulting firm because, when you deal with these companies, they are accustomed to dealing with the giants of the industry like IBM and McKinsey. So when they come to you, you have to put on that type of show and face for them. They can’t know that you’re just three or four people in the back. We had to learn to do that as well.
I’m blessed because many of those people became our mentors when they realized how small we were. They helped us a lot in bidding on bigger contracts, and we were able to win those contracts with their help. I’m very appreciative of that. Having business processes and the ability to streamline helped us maintain a remote business for a very long time. We didn’t have an office, but we had 5 to 10 consultants globally. We had clients like Qatar Gas, for whom we had three or four consultants working.
Having those processes in place helped us execute our tasks and manage those consultants and client projects effectively. It’s very, very important, and it does take time to build those things out. However, if you make the time while you’re building, it becomes easier. You don’t want to have to go back later and try to think about every step of the way. Do it while you’re building because it saves you a lot of time and energy in the long run, especially when your business gets bigger and you need to bring people on to help.
As someone who enjoys traveling globally, especially to the Caribbean, how has exposure to different cultures influenced your approach to business and community building?
I think that’s like the root of it comes from my background. So, you know, when I travel, I don’t, like, discriminate, but I don’t say, “Well, I can’t go here, I can’t go there.” I love to just go places, you understand? My sister and I just love to say, “You know what? We’re just going to travel here.”
My sister is even more of a traveler than I am, but we’ve been literally across the globe because of our business. A lot of the countries we’ve been to, plans have brought us out, conferences have brought us out, and I’ve been blessed to be able to do so much of my travel when I was younger. Having a diverse background, I love to try new things, new foods, and I’m not shy about that. I love to learn new languages and be around different cultures. It’s just because of my background; I’ve never shied away from that at all.
When I was younger, I always told people, “Your words have power, and you don’t realize how important that is.” I remember my sister and I were in Miami, and we saw a video with Danica Patrick in Monaco, driving this fast car. She was filming a video racing a car. I told my sister, “One day, we’re going to drive that. We’re going to go to Monaco and do that.” And we did it. We went to a conference in France and decided to visit Monte Carlo for the day. We ended up missing the train back, so we got a hotel in Monaco. We drove down the same road she was on. I asked my sister, “Remember us being in Miami? I was young, in my early twenties, saying one day we’d do that. And here we are.” Saying things is very important.
Travel expands your ability to look at life differently. Instead of being judgmental, you understand people are different. We’re all different. In the Caribbean, at least for me growing up, we didn’t have that. I have too many people from different cultures in my family. I love meeting different people, learning from them, and understanding them better. There’s never a color barrier for me because of my diverse background. My grandmother on my father’s side is Creole — French and African. My father is Chinese. There’s so much mixed into that. On my mom’s side, they’re Dutch and Jewish. I have diverse friends, and traveling helps me deal with them better and understand their mannerisms.
If you can, get out and travel. Go and experience it. It opens your mind and helps in global business. For me, being so young coming to the US, I appreciate where I’m from even more. We’re home on the beaches all the time, eating certain foods — it’s so normalized. When you’ve been up here for a long time, you think back and realize, “I grew up really rich.” I had beach life, going whenever I wanted. Now I have to plan a vacation to the beach. I always tell people, appreciate those little things because they matter, especially when you get older and think back on your childhood.
The Analytics on Fire podcast and community focuses on innovation. Can you share some memorable moments or insights from the podcast that have resonated with you and your audience?
The podcast has been a journey for us. We started Analytics on Fire ten years ago, and we’re now on our eighth season, with some breaks along the way due to life and business getting busy. It’s been an eye-opener for us, opening doors to global opportunities we never imagined. We’ve seen listeners from all corners of the world — Timbuktu, Madagascar. It’s surreal to realize people worldwide tune in to our podcast. I would never have expected such a reach.
Our focus on analytics makes us niche, yet we’ve connected with people from diverse backgrounds who find inspiration in our content. The leaders and guests we interview inspire in ways beyond tech, touching immigrants and others from various walks of life. It’s encouraged me to tell others, if you have a voice and something to share, go for it. Podcasting isn’t easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding and inspiring.
Personally, producing the podcast allows me to slow down, listen, and appreciate the journeys and challenges our guests share. It’s fascinating how their experiences shape their lives. The podcast has not only been enriching but also lucrative, opening doors to keynote speeches and customer training around the world for my sister and me.
It’s been a platform where we’ve showcased our clients and students initially, highlighting their career growth and achievements through our training programs. Their success stories are incredibly motivating and reshape my perspectives constantly. Despite its tech and data focus, our podcast unveils numerous inspiring narratives that influence and challenge my thinking. I feel truly blessed to be part of this journey and look forward to what lies ahead.
Which resource helped you in your journey?
It’s challenging to pinpoint just one resource because I’m an avid reader, constantly diving into tech magazines, blogs, and books. When it comes to marketing data and analytics, I’ve absorbed insights from various sources, including YouTube, which has been invaluable in my self-taught journey into marketing.
One book that stands out for me is “The Four-Day Workweek.” It significantly improved how I organize and plan my days as an entrepreneur. Running a global business means constantly adapting to different time zones and client needs, and this book helped me streamline my approach to task management and prioritize effectively.
Beyond business books, I’m passionate about history and enjoy learning from diverse genres. Reading and listening to audiobooks, especially on platforms like Audible, have become essential for me. Podcasts have also played a crucial role in my personal and professional growth. They’ve connected me with inspiring stories and perspectives, including those shared by fellow immigrants and entrepreneurs, which resonate deeply with me. They’ve broadened my horizons and reinforced the importance of exposure and learning in shaping one’s ambitions and opportunities.
Final thoughts:
I’m across various platforms online — LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Reflecting on my journey, I owe much to my mom for instilling in me a strong drive for life. Her encouragement pushed me to discover my resilience, something I believe we all possess, often discovering it only when challenged.
It’s crucial to persevere daily, to self-motivate, and to embrace continuous learning. I firmly believe in the power of an open mind, embracing diverse cultures and perspectives. As you rightly noted, there’s no universal right or wrong; there’s simply our beautiful diversity.
Above all, I encourage everyone to dream big and never limit their aspirations. Let your dreams soar, because our potential is limitless when we persist with determination and an open heart.
I hope you enjoyed the podcast. We will have more interviews with amazing Latinx and Caribbean leaders the first Tuesday of every month. Check out our website Latinx In Power to hear more. Don’t forget to share comments and feedback, always with kindness. See you soon.
✨Exciting news! Latinx In Power is now part of the HubSpot Podcast Network, the go-to audio hub for business professionals. Headsup: We receive a commission when you purchase. To learn more, click here: https://lnkd.in/grRP-WNP
Additional Reading Mentioned in the Interview
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