Podcast

Carol’s restaurant Mean Noodles

In our third episode, Caroline talks about her restaurant business Mean Noodles with her husband Kevin. Anne and Caroline discuss how the restaurant business is doing, and what their signature dishes are, and what new products they have.

Topics Covered:

00:19 – Anne’s introduction and about her co-host Carol’s restaurant in Hong Kong.

00:41 – Caroline shares about her restaurant business Mean Noodles, in addition to her design practice.

1:09 – Caroline talks about how they operate two businesses.

1:46 – Caroline introduces her husband Kevin and his background.

2:07 – Anne and Caroline discuss why they decided to open a restaurant, which is very different than their interior design business.

2:40 – Caroline shares about the advantages and disadvantages of running two businesses, and how it helps her as a designer, and Kevin’s background in culinary.

4:22 – Caroline talks about the whole design and renovation process, as the designer and the restaurant owner.

5:07 – Anne and Caroline discuss Mean Noodle’s signature dishes, which has been voted best Laksa in Hong Kong.

5:38 – Caroline shares about using their creative background to their advantage, including logo and menu designs.

6:13 – Caroline shares about Kevin’s market adventures on Instagram lives. Follow Kevin to the market on instagram @meannoodles.

7:05 – Anne and Caroline discuss the dine-in restriction with COVID19 challenges, and what’s been happening for the last few months at Mean Noodles.

8:03 – Caroline shares about the launch of their new product InstaLaksa.

Next week’s topic is about how Anne ended up in Chicago and how she’s building her career in real estate.

Follow us on Instagram @meannoodles and Facebook http://facebook.com/meannoodles, to watch Kevin livestream his shopping adventures.

Connect with Anne
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annefan
http://fanofluxury.com
Email: anne@fanofluxury.com

Connect with Caroline
https://hk.linkedin.com/in/cchou
https://openuu.com
Email: hello@openuu.com

Carol’s work as an architect and designer

In the second episode, Caroline talks about her work as an architect/interior design in Hong Kong. Anne and Caroline discuss how her interior design business is adapting to COVID-19 challenges.

Topics Covered:

00:19 – Anne’s introduction and her co-host Caroline.

1:17 – Caroline talks about her 2-year-old daughter, and her zoom classes. Anne and Caroline discuss the new normal of online schooling and private tutors.

3:52 – Caroline talks about her work as an architect/interior designer in Hong Kong for 8 years, and her practice with her husband Kevin. They manage a small team of designers, and work with clients with interior renovation needs, mainly focusing on hotels, restaurants, and retail spaces.

4:58 – Caroline talks about how COVID-19 has affected their company and their clients. She talks about the current on-going hotel project, but businesses are slow to start new projects, because of the hotel and restaurant industries.

5:31 – Caroline and Anne discuss the dining restrictions and safety measures and dine-in restrictions in Hong Kong vs Chicago. 7:05 – Anne asked about how COVID-19 impacted Caroline’s business operations. Caroline talks about how OPENUU adapted to work from home.

8:12 Caroline discussed how client meetings changed from face-to-face meetings to online calls. 10:02 – Caroline and Anne discuss the process of material selection. 11:00 – Next week’s topic is about Caroline’s restaurant Mean Noodles, and how they pivoted during COVID-19.

11:13 – Sign up at openuu.com to download a free copy of a budgeting worksheet.

Connect with Anne
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annefan
http://fanofluxury.com
Email: anne@fanofluxury.com

Connect with Caroline
https://hk.linkedin.com/in/cchou
https://openuu.com
Email: hello@openuu.com

Anne’s work as a real estate agent

Topics Covered:

00:27 – Caroline’s introduction and Anne tells her story about her current situation in Chicago. She spends more time now enjoying her home office whereas before she was out a lot and didn’t cook at home much. Now she enjoys taking her coffee at home.

1:36 – Anne talks about her role at Compass where she leads a small team. They help people find income-generating rental properties and full-time residences.

2:20 – Anne explains what “income-generating” properties are. These are rental properties that have really good rental potential, where an owner can easily find a tenant for their units. Homeowners can get healthy returns on their investments.

3:09 – Anne narrates how COVID has affected real estate in general not only in their firm but the whole realty business in Chicago.

5:09 – But she explains the difference of their property amongst other real estates which is much more beneficial for their tenants because of the location and feature that is important during the quarantine.

6:36 – Caroline asked if there are still people buying properties during COVID. Anne answered, yes. The explanation entails, take advantage of buying these income-generating properties while the interest rates are low.

7:47 – Caroline asked, what are the safety measures in place during house tours since people are afraid to go out due to the pandemic.

8:05 – Anne and her firm introduced Virtual tours. Also, there are lots of showings using Lockboxes which are master lock key boxes that can hang on doorknobs or fences so the renter’s agent can access the key and unit themselves. They are also offering Virtual Open houses as well as some in-person open houses with masks, shoe covers, and gloves. They Limit the showings in tenant-occupied units for safety and protection measures. But what is great is that interest rates are very low so new homeowners and investors are taking advantage. And we all know once COVID passes these properties will increase the value.

Connect with Anne
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annefan
http://fanofluxury.com
Email: anne@fanofluxury.com

Connect with Caroline
https://hk.linkedin.com/in/cchou
https://openuu.com
Email: hello@openuu.com