About
My Story
“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
Hi there! I’m Celestine Chua — call me Celes, please! 
I’m a life coach, personal excellence blogger, and student of life. (Add me on Facebook and Twitter @celestinechua!)
Born and raised in Singapore, I grew up pursuing staunch academic goals with the objective of landing a great job with a good pay at the end. I was a Dean’s Lister in university (National University of Singapore), secured a highly-sought-after career of brand management in Procter & Gamble (a Fortune 100 company) two years before my scheduled graduation, and eventually graduated as the top student in my specialization of Marketing (Business Administration).
However, my passion is not branding or to rise to the top of the corporate world: it is to help others to grow and achieve their highest potential in life. So in September 2008, I quit my well-paying job to start my personal development blog and business — with zero startup capital, zero direct experience in the field, and zero knowledge about professional blogging nor coaching. And I’ve never looked back since.
Today, I’m the founder of Personal Excellence, the number one website for people passionate about achieving their highest potential in life. I’ve been running my business full-time for five years (as of 2013). While PE is my full-time career, it is more than just that to me: it is my life, blood, and purpose. This is what I plan to do till the day I die.
A quick run down about myself:
- My life purpose which I live by every day (and consequently the mission statement for Personal Excellence) is: “To help others achieve their highest potential and live their best lives” and “To achieve my highest potential and live my best life”. More on how I discovered my purpose: Two Important Things that Led to My Discovery of My Real Purpose.
- My values are: Excellence, Passion, Courage, Truth, and Authenticity. Besides being fiercely passionate about growth, I believe in standing for what’s right, being true to who you are in life, setting the highest standards for yourself and achieving them, and treating people with kindness and respect.
- Age. 29 (as of 2013). My birthday is June 25; I was born in 1984.
(I’m of the rat zodiac!) - Engaged. I got engaged to the love of my life on 25th June 2013 and we are marrying in May 2014. More on how we met (and how you can do so too): How I Met My Soulmate in Life. Check out our engagement pictures taken in Scotland: Part 1 | Part 2.
- Vegetarian/Vegan. After experimenting with a vegetarian diet in Jan 2008, I decided to stay that way for non-cruelty reasons. I also feel that being a vegetarian gives me higher mental clarity which a meat-based diet doesn’t. For the record, my diet is my choice which I don’t impose on others; I believe everyone is free to eat whatever they want.
Quick Professional Snippets
- Blogging. Personal Excellence is the leading authority platform for people who want to achieve excellence in life, with free resources such as articles, inspiring videos, inspirational quotes, manifestos, podcasts, free e-books, and more. My readers are international from over 200 countries/territories. I have been running PE since December 2008 and it is my full-time job. If you are new here, visit the welcome guide. (To learn to build a high-traffic blog in the shortest amount of time, check out my Blogging Success Program.)
- Media. I have been interviewed and quoted over 70 times in print, TV and online media, including CNN International, Cosmopolitan, Business Insider, CBS Business Network, Channel News Asia, Simply Her Magazine, Singapore Women’s Weekly, Asia One, Sun-Herald, The Sunday Age, OMY Singapore, 938 LIVE radio, Kiss92 and more. Visit the media section for a full list of my past media coverage (more constantly added).
- Business. Personal Excellence is my full-time career/business since I started out in December 2008. 95% of my business income today is passive income, coming from Google Adsense advertising and my e-products and e-courses. (To learn to build your passive income business and achieve financial freedom for the rest of your life, check out The Passive Income System.)
- Speaking. I’ve been invited to share my journey in blogging, social media, entrepreneurship, and personal development. I have spoken at Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania), Kimberly Clark, The Asia Business Forum, de Baak (leading training institute in Holland), Ministry of Defence (Singapore), JobsCentral, NUS Global Alumni Network, People’s Association, National Library, Singapore Institute of Management, and more. (Contact me for an experience sharing session.)
- Coaching. I have worked with thousands of individuals around the world to help them achieve excellence in their careers, business, life, relationships, health and personal growth. I run regular group coaching programs and seminars online at PE. I’ve been named one of the Top 30 Coaches in the World by Coaching Gurus International in 2010, alongside renowned coaches like Anthony Robbins. Visit my Coaching section for more details on my one-to-one coaching.
- Traveling. I can be somewhat regarded as a world traveler, having traveled across Asia, Europe and America. In the past two years between 2011–2013, I have spent almost 50% of my time abroad for either business or personal growth purposes. Along the way, I have met many readers and past coaching clients. (Check out past PE meetups here.) I love traveling as it exposes me to new cultures, lets me connect with new people, and lets me experience new sights.
- Corporate history. Prior to PE, I did brand management in a Fortune 100 company (P&G), managing billion-dollar brands in Asia Pacific for 2 years, before eventually quitting in 2008 to pursue my real passion to help others achieve their highest potential in life.
- Academic. I studied Business Administration (Marketing) in National University of Singapore Business School from 2003–2006 and was a Dean’s Lister every academic year. I eventually graduated as the top student (in Marketing) and was awarded as the Most Outstanding Student in the Business cohort.
My Notable Features
My interview on CNN, talking about bucket lists and things to do before we die:
On Channel News Asia, BlogTV, sharing about bucket lists (Dec 2010):
On Channel News Asia AM Live! on Dec 31, 2012, speaking about new year resolutions and how to set them:
On Channel News Asia AM Live! again on Jan 6, 2014 as a repeat guest to share new tips on how to make your new year’s resolutions stick in the new year:
On Good Morning Singapore!, sharing advice on setting new year’s resolutions. Good Morning Singapore! is a highly watched morning segment on Channel 8, one of the most popular TV channels in Singapore:
Featured on Channel New Asia’s AM Live in a cosy home interview, sharing about goal setting and vision boards. The filming was done in my room, showcasing me in my natural work environment (Dec 2012):
On Michelle Martin’s The WOW Club on 938 LIVE, an English-language radio station in Singapore (listen to my interview in the podcasts section):
With Kiss 92 morning crew Maddy, Jason, and Arnold in the morning show! (Listen to my interviews in the podcasts section.) I was the Kiss 92 personal excellence expert and was on air over a period of eight weeks talking about various topics on personal development:
On UFM 100.3 (a Singapore chinese radio station), sharing about my journey pursuing my passion and the 14-day kindness challenge which I was conducting then. With the lovely crew Wenhong, Li Mei, Myself, Xiao zhu, Yanwei Xiao Er below :
Just some of the many events/trainings I’ve spoken at before:
Panelist at the prestigious Wharton Marketing Conference 2011 to share on “Social Media: Fad or the Future of Marketing?”
Monthly career workshop I ran with JobsCentral (a learning career portal in Singapore and Malaysia) between 2010–2011. Our workshops are about achieving career excellence and ranged from how to excel in your career, how to write winning resumes, how to ace your interview, how to network with success, how to discover the right career for you, and many more.
Teaching my talented participants my best resume strategies to land their dream job
Another workshop with JobsCentral; this one is on How to Build Meaningful Relationships and Winning Connections!
Engaged by Ministry of Defence to train full-time National Service men on achieving excellence in life
Sharing my entrepreneurial story at National Library Board’s Entrepreneur Series
Conducting a workshop on EQ @ Work at Singapore Management University
Conducting a live class of Blogging Success Program
Engaged as to be the official personal development expert for Dove’s Camera Confidence Campaign in Singapore:
Answered Q&As from Dove Fans via Dove’s Facebook Fan Page throughout the campaign period (Dec 2013 – Jan 2014)
Heading the Dove Camera Confidence Workshop on Nov 30, 2013
Doing the video trailer shoot for Dove in their Camera Confidence Campaign
Dove’s final video trailer which can be seen below:
Regularly invited to share my expert advice on an array of self-help, relationship, and career topics by local media, including (but not limited to):
- Her World magazine — Singapore’s most established women’s magazine with the highest readership of 189,000. It’s the voice of authority on fashion and beauty, lifestyle trends and social issues.
- Simply Her magazine — A solutions-oriented lifestyle magazine for working women with a readership of 74,000.)
- The Singapore Women’s Weekly — A women’s magazine targeted at modern working women and mothers. It covers everything from fashion, beauty, health, self-help and relationships with a readership of 91,000.
- Lianhe Zaobao — Singapore’s largest Chinese daily with a circulation of 176,000.
- Lianhe Wanbao — Singapore’s Chinese afternoon daily with a circulation of 90,200.
(Articles not shared for copyright reasons, but you can see a full list of my past media features here.)
Invited to write an exclusive piece on productivity in Australia’s Sun Herald and The Sunday Age, popular dailies with a combined circulation of nearly two million people (full article here):
Photoshoot with Simply Her Magazine (2010):
I also host my own online video show, Celes.TV, to help others be their best self and live their best life. I do a range of videos from interviews with inspiring people, to self-help tutorials, to video lectures, to positive messages, to productivity hacks. My channel has over 1,250 subscribers today and my videos have a combined view count of over 70,000 views (as of Dec 2013).
(Subscribe at: http://youtube.com/celestinechua)
Interviewing Karl Chong, CEO of Groupon Singapore
PE Reader Meetups
Since 2011, I’ve been conducting PE reader meetups around the world:
First London PE readers meet-up, Aug 2011 (Photo album)
Second London PE readers meet-up, Oct 2011 (Photo album)
Check out this Personal Excellence shirt that London reader Dimitri got custom designed and
made for me!! What can I say—totally hard core!! (This was before PE’s domain shift, hence the old domain name celestinechua.com.) Thank YOU so much Dimitri!
New York PE readers meet-up, Dec 2011
Los Angeles PE readers meet-up, Jan 2012 (Photo album)
Singapore PE readers meet-up, Jun 2012 (Photo album)
Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia PE readers meet-up, Oct 2012 (Photo album)
Lovely PE cake that one of our Malaysian readers, Elton, got custom made!
Complete with the PE logo, title, and slogan! And—it’s vegan! Thank you Elton! :))
Singapore PE readers Halloween meet-up, Oct 2012 (Photo album)
Hong Kong PE readers meet-up, Jan 2013 (Photo album)
Johannesburg PE readers meetup (South Africa), Apr 11 2013 (Photo album)
Cape Town PE Readers Meetup (South Africa), Apr 21, 2013 (Photo album)
Lovely gift note from Barbara. She gave me a bar of healing clay, meant to be used as
a soap and said to have healing properties. Thank you so much Barbara!! :))
Singapore PE Readers Meetup (a.k.a my 29th Birthday Celebration), Jun 23, 2013. My third readers meetup in Singapore!! More to come, for sure! (Photo album)
Edinburgh PE Readers Meetup (Scotland, UK), Aug 17, 2013 (Photo album)
I plan to conduct more PE readers meetup as I visit other countries as part of my personal and business travels. Countries I plan to visit next include South America and Canada.
Articles About Me
If you want to know more about me, here are some articles you can start off with:
- How I Discovered My Purpose In Life
- How I Found My Soulmate in Life, Part 1: My Journey in Love (series)
- The Day I Was Proposed To (Thank You Ken Soh )
- How I Found Peace in My Relationship with My Parents (series)
- My History with Anger and How I Finally Decided To Let Go of It (series)
- My Journey with Emotional Eating and How I Overcame it (series)
- How I Moved On From a Heartbreak (series)
- Why I Openly Share My Life With You, The Media And The World
- How To Have More Best Friends in Life
- How I Used To Feel Inferior about My Looks and Why I No Longer Feel That Way Today
- How I Used to Be Afraid of Intimidating Men and Why It Does Not Faze Me Anymore
- The Night I Cried
- Are You Treating Dating as a “Game”?
- Why I’m Retiring at 28 and Inviting You To Do the Same (April 2013)
- Why I’m Completely Okay with Being Single (and update: I’m now attached (as of May 5, 2013) and engaged! (as of Jun 25, 2013))
- My Letter To All Of You (April 2010)
- Questions under the Ask Celes section
- Other articles under About Celes
- My Bucket List (constantly updated)
- Latest posts at the blog
Support
If any point you have found my work to have helped and positive influenced you in one way or another and you would like to give back, please support me.
Let’s Connect!
- Add me on my Facebook Page (over 11,000 likes now!)
- Add me on Twitter @celestinechua (over 6,700 followers)
- Subscribe to my Youtube channel @celestinechua for my latest videos (over 1,270 subscribers)
- Subscribe to the RSS / email for free
- Forums – Join other like-minded individuals in your journey of living your best life
- Connect with me on Google+
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