I’m not a famous or egoistical person; why a biography?
See About.
Who are you? (What skills do you have and why should I trust you with my story and to do a good job writing it)?
My day job is a ship software salesperson. I reach out, talk to potential customers and run discovery calls to figure out their needs using a design thinking and lean startup approach. I then craft a point-of-view based on these findings to explain how our product features could help them reach a shared vision. I write outreach messages, LinkedIn posts and the occasional newsletter for our team.
I have also written a grand total of 24 posts (as of May 2026) on my personal blog since 2019 – a rate of fewer than four per year which is not super amazing; but that is where you can find real, raw samples of my writing. Not every post is good but I leave them up for people to judge and hopefully resonate with.
In my schooling days (quite a number of years ago now), I was a: (1) Peer mentor whose role was to support peers experiencing intra- or interpersonal struggles; and (2) peer-assisted learning leader who helped juniors learn statistics and research methods better. Obviously I was not a trained psychologist or educator, but active listening, empathy and expressing that empathy were skills that I practiced over and again.
I could just narrate this to a GenAI tool and have my story in a matter of seconds. What could you do better?
Depth, intuition and style. We can choose to go deep in areas and skim over others, depending on the narrative we are crafting. A GenAI tool is responding to your words based on pattern prediction. Your words are broken into smaller units (tokens) and mapped, with related words closer to each other. The tool tries identifying which of these units matter more and predicts new units to continue the pattern. Not the best technical explanation, but what I’m trying to say is that there is no real understanding. You can shape the output either through changing your prompts or editing it directly, but the relief from being understood through human intuition is what we are going after.
Well, then, do you use GenAI?
Yes, I use ChatGPT when I forget a word or want to use a different sentence structure. It is similar to how I use(d) Thesaurus.com and search engines. I don’t upload the transcripts and notes, then present the output as the final product. Doing that removes the human intuition that I’m banging on about and also takes away the joy of writing.
What would the finished product look like?
It can be a single or few chapters up to 10,000 words in PDF, published book or even a personal website. We can discuss options.
What is the process?
You and I meet for a coffee / video call for 30 minutes to iron out what you’re looking for – subject, target audience and style.
If you like the wares and we’re a good fit, we kick off this project. We schedule three (in-person, preferably) interviews for a start and can add more along if there is a need to. By the second session we would review a sample chapter so you can be sure that we’re on the right track. We’ll aim for two revisions.
One project should span four to five months, barring unexpected events such as schedule conflicts. If there are special circumstances (e.g. illnesses), we can discuss how to make a shorter timeline possible.
How much does this cost?
Pricing varies according to length and depth but here’s a starting package for reference:
- Basic package: SGD1,200 (stage-gated)
- Three recorded interviews
- Up to 10,000 words
- Two revisions
- Delivered in four months
Beyond this, there can be longer or shorter story formats; feel free to reach out and we can explore what fits.
From May 2026, I am offering a 25% discount for five storytellers in exchange for feedback and testimonials.
Can I do this with my partner/friend?
Definitely! In fact, there is research showing that couples remember more collectively – using a shared memory system, or ‘transactive memory’ (attributed to social psychologist Daniel Wegner). This could be a fun and nostalgic exercise with somebody who has spent a great deal of time with you.
Sounds interesting but I’m still not too sure…
Let’s have a non-committal call to find out more about what interested you in the first place. There’s no need to make a decision just yet.
Vin-Writer 