The Promo Playbook by Cubic Promote
Welcome to The Promo Playbook, your backstage pass to the world of promotional marketing. Brought to you by Cubic Promote (https://www.cubicpromote.com.au/) Australia’s award-winning supplier of branded merchandise, this podcast is your go-to guide for making marketing and promo products work harder for your business. In each episode, we unpack real campaigns, talk to industry insiders, and share practical strategies to help you boost brand visibility, engage customers, and stand out. From trade shows to onboarding kits, we cover it all — with no fluff, just real insights that convert.
The Promo Playbook by Cubic Promote
From CPA to Poet: Dr. Amy Lee's Journey Through Finance and Academia
The path to authentic leadership requires balancing ambition with legacy-building—something Dr. Amy Lee has mastered throughout her remarkable career journey. From her early days as an accountant to becoming a CFO, and now transitioning into academia and creative writing, Amy shares how accountability and integrity have remained her North Star.
"I think I'm in my sunset career now," Amy reflects, explaining her shift toward teaching and publishing poetry after 30 years in finance leadership. This thoughtful pivot reveals a profound understanding that true success extends beyond climbing corporate ladders to building meaningful legacies. Her self-published work, "Amy's Journal," showcases how even the most analytical minds can find creative expression.
What makes this conversation particularly valuable is Amy's perspective on Australia's business relationships across the Asia-Pacific region. She articulates the "identity crisis" many Australian companies face—geographically positioned to partner with Asian neighbors while politically aligned with Western allies. This tension creates unique challenges for entrepreneurs looking to expand regionally, with trust emerging as the critical currency. "How do you build that trust?" she asks, highlighting the paradox entrepreneurs face: "How do you show results when you have no money to show results?"
For listeners navigating today's rapidly changing business landscape, Amy offers a refreshingly grounded view of technology. Comparing AI to the invention of calculators and microwaves, she emphasizes that while tools change, critical thinking remains essential. Her advice to maintain balance—"the yin and yang is so true"—provides a powerful framework for decision-making amid chaos. Whether you're an aspiring CFO, entrepreneur, or leader seeking greater purpose, this conversation offers both practical wisdom and inspirational guidance for creating a career that matters.
Find out more and visit our website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au/
Hello guys, welcome to the Qubit Promote podcast. Today I'm joined by Dr Amy Lee. She's an accomplished executive with more than 15 years of leadership experience across finance governance and entrepreneurship in Asian Pacific region. So tell me more about you Okay.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, I'm Amy. It's a pleasure to be on the QubB Promote podcast. Just a little bit about myself. I am an accountant by trade, a CPA qualified. I'm a CPA for 30 years now, of which 15 years were fellowship. That's the highest rank in the CPA membership. A few or five years ago I kind of converted into an academic. So I got a doctorate in business administration with Geneva Business School over in Switzerland. Yeah, impressive, Is that good? They just got another accreditation in Switzerland. I'm proud to be their alumni. Yeah, so I'm a lecturer now. I'm teaching MBA senior lecturer.
Speaker 1:Amazing, yes. So when you look back at your early years, is there a clue you would sit one day at an intersection of finance governance and entrepreneurship?
Speaker 2:CFO as a role is always my goal, like ever since when I was in year 10, I want to be a very good accountant and when I did some research, cfo is always the ultimate side being a partner of a firm, but that's public practice, so my path is mainly in the internal accounting. So you rise up the rank from a management accountant, finance manager, financial controller, director of finance, which I have been and then CFO is the kind of like the last step when you reach the pinnacle of your career.
Speaker 1:Great, amazing. What's one personal value that's guided you through every role you've taken?
Speaker 2:I think it's accountability, yeah, and being an accountant, we are trained to have integrity, accountability and governance. I think I'm very transparent, very honest, and I think these are the traits that have been with me all along, yeah, and I think these are the traits that have been with me all along.
Speaker 1:Amazing. You've been a CFO, a founder, a board member, a lecturer. Which of these roles have shaped you the most, and why?
Speaker 2:Well, now it's really much about teaching and passing on my knowledge to the next generation or whoever wants my knowledge and my wisdom. I think I'm in my sunset career now. I'm in my 50s and I thought why don't I leave something behind and I'm building my legacy? And so this is shaping into why I'm doing what I'm doing writing books, writing poetry and, yeah, just going to that academia, literature kind of arena. So being a poet, is that your way of being creative? Yes, just going to that academia, literature kind of arena.
Speaker 1:So being a poet, is that your way of being creative?
Speaker 2:Yes, I used to be an artist many years ago and I used to do sketching. So now that I've become academic and I have always been a poet ever since I don't know when I learned English and I just found it's like a puzzle. And you don't need to worry about grammar and I'm terrible at grammar. So writing poems is just my way of distressing and, you know, kind of like give my opinion on the world and the news and current affairs around me. And so I self-published it on Aker as well, slowly, but I sold a few. It's called Amy's Journal. Yeah, so check it out guys, amy's Journal from the library of Dr Amy KW Lee. Just doing a bit of effort.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So, from finance to teaching, advising entrepreneurs, do you see a common thread tying it all together?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the art of practicing the leadership is very important. We all know how to manage, like managing resources, and we train managers, so that's given. But what makes them different or how they differentiate themselves in a career, is really really in the leadership. There's many types of leadership. I mean you can be charismatic, you can be transformative and of course, you know the traditional types of leadership. I mean you can be charismatic, you can be transformative and of course, you know the traditional type of leadership.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, you helped companies to expand to Asia and to Asia.
Speaker 2:What I tell my students is that you've got to develop that and whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you are, should we be part of the Asia Pacific in C-suite role or go into that role, like you know, with alignment with Singapore, hong Kong or even China, or even day-to-day life, you've got to learn how to make the right decision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally makes sense. So industry insights what's the biggest misconception Australians have about doing business in that region?
Speaker 2:I think Australia has a kind of like identity crisis. Just the culture? Or should we say no, no, no, we are Pacific, we are the Pacific Oceanic, whereby we align with New Zealand, us and the UK. So geographically it's more sensible to align with the Asian country, it's just sensible. But politically we have to align with the US and the UK. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it's just sensible, you know. So that's historic, so it's really hard, it's a bit of a….
Speaker 1:So many entrepreneurs struggle with financial discipline.
Speaker 2:I think Australia is going through an identity crisis in terms of business politics and we are moving towards multiculturalism and diversity and inclusion, which is good. But yeah, we've got to have better alignment alliance.
Speaker 1:Yes, A little bit more of a concept.
Speaker 2:Yes, Based on geography, it will be a wise move. I'm so wise. It makes sense if you work with the Asian country.
Speaker 1:Yes, totally so. What's one of the blind spots you see again and again? Trust you have to build trust.
Speaker 2:It's really hard to get people to give money to you and let alone have that reassurance that you know your money is not going to go into a black hole, like you know, science, technology but how do you build that trust? So you've got to show result. But how do you show result when you have no money to show result? So that's the challenge in entrepreneurship, or in any, whether the business is already established or not, you have to show your credentials and you need time. Obviously you still need to develop that mindset and resources, but at the end of the day, it's trust.
Speaker 1:Totally makes sense Not play with AI.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's the how not the?
Speaker 1:And with AI and automation, changing finance and strategy, what skills do you think future leader? You can't if you use this as a tool.
Speaker 2:really needs to succeed. Well, a lot of people was talking about stem, educate, um and all the other acronym that deal with it. But I don't know. I think um, I mean it plays a role, like science, mathematics, technology and engineering all plays a role. It's still technology, but, um, I think you still need that critical thinking, um, critical thinking, and I think people need to teach the next generation how to use ai, what or the why, and not rely completely. This is no different to invention of a calculator. Yeah, true.
Speaker 2:But except that this one is bigger, broader and more faster. But it's the same concept really. It's the same concept as the invention of microwaves. Comparison yeah, still technology, right? So you don't? I mean, yeah, the microwave would place certain meals, but at the end of the day, it's to enhance your lifestyle. Yeah, and we need to see that. Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we should definitely, yeah, get more education on how to use all these tools, and with DBA, there's so much hurdles. So what's been the toughest professional challenge you've faced and how did you pull through it?
Speaker 2:Oh, the hardest is during the DBA and the MBA the education side to complement your career, I know, yeah. So what a story. Another story, another podcast. Yes, you get to a point when you realise that you need to do more education to go further. I am ambitious, so I do go further, and the way to get me there really is education. Well, I think for me it's education. It's rewarding at the end, but it's a lot of work, a lot of work.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I bet it is. Some people are more street smart than me. I'm a book smart, so I just play my strength. But study is not easy, especially when you're working full-time. You get home, you're tired and you still have to bring out a book or you have to write a 20 000 30 000 word essay. It's not easy. I have my paper been stolen. It's sitting in a university in kenya at the moment. Oh really, yeah, has already got some review, and the review all have a common theme is that it's come from my yeah, so I had to rewrite again 40 000 words and you get a lot of challenges. But on the other hand, is that you learn a lot. You have different mindset, yeah, um, you have that blue ocean thinking, so yeah, If I ask your students or clients to describe you in three words what do you think they would say?
Speaker 2:They say I'll be authentic. They know I'm passionate in the things that I do, whether it's teaching, accounting or business in general.
Speaker 1:If a young entrepreneur or professional is listening to this.
Speaker 2:Honesty, integrity is something that they will comment. My book, actually Amy's Journal it's come from my soul and that honesty, that authenticity, yeah, it's there. And I thought, wow, I didn't expect to see that kind of reflection from people who were reading my journal. It's a really good feedback, I guess. Yeah, I just didn't expect them to say, oh, it means really really like heart to heart, so it's user heart Really good, because over time I started using my brain a lot and I was like a little teen man in the office with the boss, but now I think I've learned to have a heart, so I'm using my heart in my business. Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1:So anything and once you follow a path, like one piece of advice you would give them.
Speaker 2:Balance. I think I'll give them a word, which is, rather than a sentence, is balance. Keep everything the chaos that will inflict on you in balance. The yin and the yang is so true. The Zen thinking is very, very applicable, especially when you're in the middle of a chaos. That in itself, in such a volatile world that we are in, we have to anchor something. Think about that. We have to anchor ourselves so that we're not swept away from all the chaos around us, and the best way to do that is to keep a balance in everything in life, in perspective, in power and the way you make a decision what's the advantages?
Speaker 1:what's the disadvantages?
Speaker 2:Many, many years when I was the president of the Hong Kong Australian Business Association. Charles has been a long-time supporter of our organization and they are doing a great job at printing my books at the moment. Amazing. So what happened is I won a hard copy and no such printer, and it's a good one too, very good one. They have been very supportive.
Speaker 2:I know nothing about publishing, I know nothing about printing. I know nothing about printing, and that's how I met him and he does all the merchandising for us and we are grateful for his support and his patronage. And Charles, as a businessman and as a friend, I learned a lot from him and he has a very unique perspective in business and a self-made, successful man, a businessman, and something that I still need to learn from him. And, yeah, so he has been great and he's very supportive. And then I just nipped from the Amazon book and I said this is what he looks like. And then they did their magic, so it's been fantastic. Going back to my English journal, he introduced me to a printer. Yeah, it's been good, yeah, and they loved it they loved it amazing, he's very resourceful yeah, very good.
Speaker 1:What exactly do you print with? Um, oh, I print my hard copy of book, my book, what's the most thoughtful brand gift you ever received and one that really stuck with you. Available in Australia.
Speaker 2:And I asked Charles and I said to Charles, do you know any printer? And he said, yeah, I've got you one when I left HSBC and they have been the backbone.
Speaker 1:Really great. And what kind of merchandise are you doing with Cupid Promote? I?
Speaker 2:just got the cap. I just ordered some caps from them very quick. It was very nice. I got it as a gift from one of my friends who also wrote a book and a podcast I'm a promoter here too. It's called Epic Execution by David Keeney, and I got him an orange cap with a rocket, and your designing team has been fantastic because it was a surprise gift. Yeah, I really appreciate that. So and so, yeah, so always, tiffany from then on has always stuck in my heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I don't have the artwork, other than a powerpoint, maybe christmas present yeah, anyway, thank you so much for being with me and um answering all my questions yeah this was dr amy lee, and, um, yeah, we're, and we are coming to the end of the podcast and thank you for listening guys. So, um, I have one extra question okay, brand gift.
Speaker 2:Uh, it will be my tiffany keering. When I left my graduate job at hsbc um, it was many years ago, almost like 30 years ago. I know it's a long time, but Tiffany just arrived from New York and they were Chifley Tower. No one knew that brand except the Asian, of course and the team knew that I love Tiffany because I've been going to Tiffany and they bought me a key ring with a little plate and the plate saying that if you found these on the street, return back to New York and we'll go back to the founder. So it's their way of saying that, amy, we don't want to let you go. If you lost, come back to us. So that was very momentous. Such a nice gift. Yeah, it's very momentous. She has a lot of appreciation, beautiful.
Speaker 1:Nice gift. I haven't received a. Yeah, it's very momentous, just a lot of appreciation. Beautiful, yeah, that's good. Yeah, I haven't received a gift like that.
Speaker 2:Oh well, you're not leaving chippewa for a long time, so otherwise I'll hint at charles, all right, and yeah, thank you so much. See you later. Bye.
