Trevor Lui & Abby Albino | Expanding the Narrative: Identity, Belonging, and Being Asian on Our Own Terms

Trevor Lui & Abby Albino | Expanding the Narrative: Identity, Belonging, and Being Asian on Our Own Terms

Expanding the Narrative is a live AAPI Heritage Month panel recorded at STACKT’s Asian Night Market. In this special episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny Chen is joined by Trevor Lui and Abby Albino for an honest, layered, funny, and thoughtful conversation about identity, belonging, visibility, stereotypes, mental health stigma, representation, and what it means to take up space on our own terms. Trevor Lui is an entrepreneur, chef, author, and hospitality leader whose work has helped shape the cultural and culinary landscape of Toronto. As President and CEO of Highbell Hospitality Group, co-founder of Quell, and Chair of Destination Toronto, he brings a powerful lens on storytelling, community-building, and creating spaces where culture is truly valued. Abby Albino is a brand strategist, builder, and community-minded leader whose work sits at the intersection of sport, culture, and purpose. Through her leadership in brand and business strategy and her work as co-founder of Makeway, she brings a thoughtful perspective on identity, belonging, and building platforms that reflect people more honestly and fully. Together, they explore family expectations, cultural pride, the tension between fitting in and fully being yourself, and the importance of making room for fuller, more nuanced Asian stories. This is not a performative conversation. It is a real one. The kind that opens doors, widens the room, and reminds us there is no one way to be Asian. Special thanks to STACKT, Highbell Hospitality Group, Quell Now Inc., ALLNXNE Productions Inc., Isaac Bobb, Brian Tong, and MILO’s Doan Nguyen for helping bring this live recording to life.

Karen Ta | Beyond the Bamboo Ceiling: Why Intersectionality in Leadership Matters

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Karen Ta for a thoughtful conversation about intersectionality, identity, and why leadership conversations fall short when they treat women or Asian professionals as a monolith. Karen Ta is passionate about helping those who feel invisible become visible so they can break through doors and ceilings. While she is best known for her role in leading a Women in Leadership program at PwC Canada, she is also an Associate Certified Coach, a Chartered Professional Accountant, and a Certified Training and Development Professional, bringing a unique blend of active listening, strategic thinking, and creative problem-solving to the way she supports others. Together, Jenny and Karen explore why the corporate world so often groups people together in ways that erase nuance, why the “bamboo ceiling” conversation needs to evolve, and how Asian women navigate the compounded realities of race, gender, culture, and visibility in leadership. They also talk about the tension of being Canadian-born Chinese versus immigrant Chinese, the feeling of never being “Asian enough” or “Western enough,” and the need for organizations to move beyond representation counts toward real power, sponsorship, and structural change. Those themes are central to the episode outline as well, especially the call to move past numbers and simplistic diversity framing toward actual leadership transformation. This is a layered, honest conversation about identity, belonging, leadership, and what it takes to stop waiting for permission to lead.

Sarah Chamberlin | Storytelling, Stigma, and Why Discomfort Is Necessary for Change

On this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Sarah Chamberlin, communications strategist and founder of Pin Drop Communications. With a background in leading complex communications in high-impact environments, Sarah brings a grounded, real-world perspective on how organizations navigate reputation, leadership, and trust in moments that matter most. This conversation explores: * What effective communication actually looks like in high-stakes environments * The gap between intention and impact in leadership messaging * How organizations can build trust instead of just managing optics * The emotional and human side of communications work that often goes unseen * Why clarity, accountability, and courage matter more than polished messaging Sarah also shares her journey into launching her own consulting practice, and what it means to step into ownership of your voice, your work, and your impact. This is a conversation about leadership, communication, and the systems behind both, not just what we say, but how and why we say it. Learn more about Sarah and her work here: http://pindropcomms.com/ [http://pindropcomms.com/]

Christopher Tse | Reclaiming Voice: Silence, Identity, and the Asian Diaspora

For the second episode in Tune Up Your Warrior’s three-episode Season 4 opener for AAPI Heritage Month, Jenny sits down with Christopher Tse for a powerful conversation about silence, identity, diaspora, and reclaiming voice. Christopher Tse is an educator, organizer, and writer based in Whitehorse, Yukon. According to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, he has spent 15 years working alongside community leaders on decolonization, environmental justice, migrant advocacy, and structural racism. He is also a former runner-up at the Poetry Slam World Cup and teaches social work at the University of Victoria. Together, Jenny and Christopher explore how silence has functioned in Asian communities as both a survival strategy and a form of resistance, how the model minority myth has reinforced expectations of quietness and compliance, and why the Asian diaspora cannot be treated as a monolith. They also talk about art as resistance, storytelling as truth-telling, and the tension between assimilation and solidarity. We close the episode through the spirit of Eyes Open, Chris' widely shared anti-Asian racism PSA/poem written and narrated for Asian Heritage Month. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGQtaCyp8f8 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGQtaCyp8f8 ] This episode is personal, thoughtful, and deeply relevant for anyone who has ever felt the tension between belonging and authenticity, between adaptation and erasure, and between inherited silence and reclaimed voice.

Judge Albert Wong | Freedom in a Time of Rupture

This week on Tune Up Your Warrior, I sit down a second time with Judge Albert Wong [https://www.linkedin.com/in/albert-wong-35560a8/] for the final episode in our three-episode Season 4 opener, and it is a conversation that feels especially important right now. Not because it adds to the noise. But because it asks a deeper question underneath it: What does freedom actually mean? Albert brings a rare perspective to that question. After 40 years in the Canadian Armed Forces | Forces armées canadiennes [https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadianforces-forcescanada/], including work in Afghanistan and on UN peacekeeping missions, he has seen what the oppression of freedom looks like up close, especially for women. Together, we talk about freedom not just as a political concept, but as the right to exist, express yourself, and move through the world without oppression, harassment, or fear. We explore: ❤️‍🩹 Why allyship has to go beyond “I believe you” 🛑 How we address harmful behavior at its source, not just after the damage is done ⚡ What rupture in human relationships looks like right now 👿 Why patriarchy and systemic inequality still shape how power moves ♥️ And what moral courage looks like in everyday life I also share a personal reflection on how being touched inappropriately at a conference violated something fundamental: my freedom to exist, my freedom of joy, and my safety from harm.Albert and I will also both be speaking at the upcoming ACCT Foundation [https://www.linkedin.com/company/acctfoundation/] Summit in Waterloo May 15-17, we’d love to see you there. Be sure to grab your tickets: https://acctfoundation.ca/summit/https://acctfoundation.ca/summit/ [https://acctfoundation.ca/summit/] This one is thoughtful, honest, and deeply relevant.