Reinventing the journey
Howie Chan is a marketer who left the science lab to build brands and build people up.
Howie is somewhat of a mad scientist. He’s not conducting dangerous experiments (although, there was one time, more on that soon), but he is perpetually and deeply curious, constantly combining ideas, and even setbacks, into something entirely new.
“I wanted to go to med school in Singapore. So my life has been fraught with failures and disappointments, which turned out to be reinvention, a new journey and path. That’s what I do, I reinvent and do new things. I wanted to be in med school in Singapore and didn’t get in. So I came [to the United States] and studied biomedical engineering.”
After college, Howie worked as a stem cell scientist for three years before an undeniable epiphany that the day-to-day work of science was not for him.
“After a few years, I realized I’m not cut out to be in the lab. I could do it, but it’s just not my thing. I could never joke or have a fun conversation with other scientists. I was really not in my element.”
Next Howie worked as a medical device engineer, traveling to demonstrate life-saving devices to physicians—and literally bringing people back to life from, say, the induced state of a heart attack. Far more exciting than working in a lab, but constant travel took its toll. That’s when the opportunity to work in what would become Howie’s dream industry, presented itself. Along with some friction.
“My parents were really unhappy. ‘You went to school for science, why’d you go do something different?’ And we had such a big fallout. I remember vividly terrible conversations for an entire day with my dad. He was so upset. He was like, ‘You’re flushing all this money down the drain.’ I did it anyway. And I fell in love with marketing and brand.”
Successful experiments
Experiment 1: Growing curiosity
Growing up, Howie’s father stoked his curiosity. Howie recalls one slightly dangerous, albeit successful, experiment their dad guided Howie and his brother through one afternoon.
“I’m a very, very curious person. I was born and grew up in Singapore, and one day in the eighties my dad brought home a few tubs of chemicals and said, ‘All right, kids, we’re going to make gunpowder today.’ I was maybe eight. It was almost an assembly line. My brother was, I think, measuring out chemicals. I was crumbling charcoal into powder. [My dad] was reading from an encyclopedia, and we made gunpowder, and we started blowing things up. We didn’t have a yard, we were on a patio or something like that. Just burning things.”
Howie’s mom provided the counterbalance to Howie’s dad’s consistent brand of wild fun. She played the role of quiet listener, nurturer. Together Howie’s parents instilled confidence in him and his brother, along with a steadfast sense of independence.
Experiment 2: Building love
After the medical device gig, Howie moved to San Francisco and found, in his own words, his dream job—in brand strategy.
For eight and a half years, Howie drove strategy alongside various teams and clients, and fell in love with the work. This love was a significant outcome. It would propel Howie into his next, most ambitious experiment yet: Self-employment.
In spring of 2022, nearly a decade into his dream job, Howie and 60 colleagues were let go.
“I remember that day I had contractors painting my house. I had a lot going on and after that call I felt embarrassed, like, did the painters hear? Were they worried I wouldn’t be able to pay them? My wife had been contracting too, and suffered a concussion the year before. I was not in a good mental space. I felt shame because my entire existence was tied to my job. And of course there was anxiety with two young kids. How do we afford healthcare?”
Experiment 3: Following the love
“It was a dream job, granted it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. You’re working for an agency, working your ass off. But I love the work. I love the work. So the first question in my mind, after the dust settled was, how can I do more of that work? Instead of finding a new agency, maybe not getting chosen again, I chose me. I chose to go do that work.”
Howie had always wanted to build his own thing. His wife was super supportive and encouraged Howie that his timing was perfect.
“Ted Lasso said in his series, ‘It’s curiosity, be curious, not judgmental.’ That has a lot to do with my work as a brand strategist, as well as how I run my business and how, frankly, I live my life. Moving from things that I don’t like to things I like. It’s always been a ‘what if’ instead of a closed door. Being curious has always been the way forward for me.”
Testing Independence
Today, from St. Paul, Minnesota, Howie runs Healthy Brand Consulting, a brand and business design consultancy working with companies that impact human lives.
Howie also creates a weekly newsletter and a podcast. His newsletter, Legend Letters, is about “helping people become legendary in their own way.” Howie’s podcast is an act of self-care. A forever extrovert and people-lover, podcasting is Howie’s way of intentionally connecting with others to counterbalance days and weeks of mostly solo work.
“It’s hard. I’m not going to lie. Working by yourself. My podcast is called Healthy Brand, and I interview people. Even though nobody pays me, it’s an investment in my energy. It helps me with other parts of my work and my job.”
In many ways, connections are currency. As with most solopreneurs, if not all, Howie relied on his network to get started.
“Whatever limitations, whatever fears you have, they’ve all been overcome before by other people. If you want to do it, there’s absolutely a way to do it. There’s so many people that have done it—find them. Find people who have walked the path you want to walk and connect with them. You’ll be so surprised how many people are willing to help you and want you to succeed.”
Inspired by science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin, Howie believes it’s best to embody both sides of life—science, and art. Data, and poetry. Rationality, and irrationality, even. He believes life is not just one thing, and both sides are beautiful. Howie sees two sides to self-employment, too:
“Being self-employed is liberation, and anxiety.”
When we asked Howie if he imagines ever going back to the corporate world or being self-employed forever, he answered quickly, “Forever. There’s no turning back. Once you understand that you can make it on your own, why would you ever go back to a place where you have to build somebody else’s dream? Build your own dream.”
And don’t be afraid to reinvent along the way.
“One thing I’ve learned that I wish I knew 20 or 30 years ago is whatever you’re doing at the moment, run toward it. Pour it on, give it all you’ve got. Because if you love it, you’ll be ecstatic. But if you hate it, you’ll know immediately. Run towards what you’re doing. I think that’s important.”
