Ep 14: Joey Law - Former Senior Inspector of the Hong Kong Police Force&Mother to 15-Year-Old CEO, Hillary Yip - a podcast by Ling Yah

Joey Law is the mother of 15-year-old Founder & CEO of MinorMynas, Hillary Yip, who was our STIMY Episode 13 guest!

Joey & Hillary are STIMY’s very first mother-daughter pairing and I’m so honoured to have them on board. This episode is particularly dear to my heart because even before I’d launched STIMY, I knew that I wanted to feature inspiring mothers like Joey on the podcast. 

I really want STIMY to be a place that features the amazing, life-changing, self-sacrificing work that mothers are doing every day, behind-the-scenes, and put them on the exact same platform as people society would typically consider to be “successful”. Because while they might not be featured on the front page of The Economist, their work is no less important and amazing.  

Who is Joey Law?

Joey came from a humble background. A time where her parents were busy with work and she had to fend for herself.

But she was also adventurous and brave, and we talked about what it was like selecting her own school for her education (despite a gruelling 1.5 hour ride to school every day!), and her motivation for eventually joining the Hong Kong police force! 

Senior Inspector of Police, Hong Kong Police Force

Some of the things we discussed about her career with the Hong Kong police force included:

• The different ranks within the Hong Kong police force;
• What it was like working in the force, and rising to become a Senior Inspector of Police as a woman;
• Her biggest lesson from being a bomb disposal officer (which can be applied to our own lives!); and
• Why she quit the force after 12 years.

Life After the Force

Joey is not a person to raise on her laurels. 

Soon after she quit the force, she started an online children’s bookstore & she shared her WHY behind that move, and also some of the big challenges she faced with this new online endeavour. 

Being a Mother

But running her children’s online bookstore and blog was ancillary to being a mother, and we dive deep into her experiences. 

Something you might not know (and probably won’t have detected from Hillary’s episode) - which we discussed at length - is the intense bullying that Hillary faced in school at the age of 8. Joey shared how she discovered what was happening, her advice to other young parents on detecting potential bullying in school and things she might’ve done differently if she was to face the same issue again. 

While bullying isn’t something typically covered on STIMY, I felt that it was important to do so here because these things do happen. And perhaps a little awareness can go a long way in preventing the same situation from arising in another child’s life.

Apart from bullying, we also discussed:

• The realities of schooling in Hong Kong (for certain schools, you have to start filling out application forms before your child is even born!); 
• Why Joey opted for homeschooling for both Hillary and Alexis (her second child); 
• How she ensures that her children have a well-balanced education covering not just the academics but also socially and physically;
• What it’s like being the mother to a teenager CEO - quite a different perspective to the one Hillary gave!; and
• So much more. 

This is a very different and special STIMY episode and I hope you love it as much as I did!

Show notes: http://www.sothisismywhy.com/14 

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