Executive networking is more than just exchanging business cards; it’s about creating a powerful support system and a confidential space for growth. In this episode, we dive deep with Dona Amelia, co-founder of the Executive Global Network (EGN), one of the world’s largest executive networks, spanning Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Dona shares her unique journey from singer and actress to building a thriving community for nearly 1,000 senior executives. We explore the invaluable benefits of peer networking, the power of vulnerability among leaders, and how EGN provides a safe, ethical space for sharing challenges, gaining diverse perspectives, and even forging new business partnerships across countries. Join us as we uncover the secrets to effective executive networking and why it’s essential for leaders to avoid feeling “Lonely at the Top.”

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Dona Amelia – Cultivating Success Through Networking; Building Community And Connection

Dona, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me. I’m so happy to be here.

What Is The Executive Global Network?

I know that you are one of the Cofounders of EGN. It’s a very powerful executive network. Can you tell us a little bit about the network itself?

Thank you. You’re so kind. EGN stands for Executives Global Network. We are the second largest PR network in the world and I am the cofounder together with my husband and our other partner at the cofounder for EGN in Singapore, Indonesia, and in Malaysia. That’s how it is. We are indeed grateful to be able to have almost 1,000 senior executives in three countries span from a big MMCs to basically business owners and only for senior executive.

I want to dive into detail about the executive networking and all the benefits that are provided there. First, let’s talk a little bit about you to bring awareness to all our readers about how you got into the business in your journey. I know you’ve had a lot of fun in your life in the various of different environments. I know you’ve been an actress and a DJ and so forth. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Dona Amelia’s Unique Journey To Leadership Networking

I’m very grateful to have this diverse background. I was born in Indonesia and I was in Indonesia since I was fifteen. I started my career as a singer, then when I graduated from the university, I spent my career problem not only as a singer with a few albums but also doing busy presenting and acting. One of my TV program won a Panasonic Global Award for those who is not working.

Normally in Indonesia, the housewife see me every day 11:00 AM on TV go sleeping about the people because it’s for entertainment. They also see me at 6:00 PM for my movie series program. Those are my background when I was in Indonesia. Long story short, I found the love of my life and then we live overseas. When I leave overseas, I still do the singing and DJing. I’ve also been introduced to this organization EGN. I see that this is aligned with my values where I love to make people happy.

It started with I love to make my parents happy and my family happy, then ultimately, I love to make everyone happy through whatever I do in life through me singing, DJing, and acting. When I saw this organization, I said, “This is the people that I want to be part of.” All the leaders are very kind and very humble. They love to learn and help each other. I like this community. Since then, I started to join this organization while I’m still a DJ and singing and all.

We moved to Singapore in 2018. That’s when where it all seriously started with EGN. We started with only about 200 plus members. Now, our members are almost 1,000. We expand not only in Singapore, but also in Indonesia and Malaysia. We are grateful because at EGN, we give the senior executive a safe space for them to be themselves to have an aspiring partner in the safe environment because we understand most of the time when people are at the top, they are lonely.

Everybody is depending on them. Everybody puts pressure and thinking that they always and need to know the answer in no time and always need to be right, yet they’re also human. They need to have an aspiring partner. They need to have a friend to talk to in the similar level so they can understand each other. That’s what we do at EGN. We got this senior executive coming from various background and industry in one group.

 

No competitor in the room. Every second month for four hours, they will meet up and discuss about their challenges, helping each other, and discuss about certain topic. We facilitate with the professional facilitator with five great speaker and expert to enhance the communication while they are sharing knowledge. That’s what we do.

One thing you mentioned is, it is lonely at the top. It’s a very important for senior leaders to be able to share ideas with their peer network. Many leaders out there have gone through some of the same issues that certainly leaders are going through. Finding out how solutions have been done and so forth, can save leaders a lot of time in pain in working through a problem.

The challenge sometimes, the one that I heard a lot of time and time again, “I don’t have time for this. I’m too busy.” Exactly, because you are busy, you need to really know how to effort in your time smartly. At EGN, we get them together every second month for four hours. In a year, it’s six times four hours is 24 hours. Out of your one year, you will be able to discuss about your challenges and get some ideas. This going to help you a lot in terms of decision making and a problem solving.

For example, if you are in one group with me and we are in different industry, regardless in which industries. I believe the challenge will be more the same, especially managing a talent, up, and down. If I told you honestly, “Sam, I have this challenge.” Probably you’ve been there, and you can tell me immediately the dos and don’ts. I don’t need to go through all the things, maybe spending time, money, and resources. That’s the benefit of it. We learn from real case scenario.

One thing that a lot of leader fear is the concept of becoming out of touch or irrelevant perhaps. There are times where in a lot of small to medium sized businesses are growing rapidly. To be able to lead at those different levels of growth, it takes expertise and a lot of growth and human leadership yourself. Having organizations like yours, professional organizations that helped leaders develop and share ideas is critical. Can you tell us or walk us through a little bit of what issue processing looks like in one of your sessions?

Inside An EGN Meeting: Member Challenges & Advisory Boards

In those four hours, we normally start with the networking and getting to know one another in the first half an hour. After we network, the chairperson or the facilitator will open the session. Normally, we will introduce all the new members so they feel welcome because at the end of the day, it’s all about connection. It’s all about everything single member feels at home. Why? It’s because if they are feeling at home, you can feel comfortable to be vulnerable.

Ultimately, executive networking is about connection. Every member needs to feel at home, because that's when they feel comfortable being vulnerable. Share on X

If you are at home, you can drink coffee or tea with your pajamas. It’s very comfortable. You don’t need to put all the facade and so on because they are tired of that their whole life. In all situation, they need to always look good and always need to be in the know. We want them to be feeling comfortable. If there is any new member coming to the group, we need to circulate their profile to the current member.

This is all very good because everybody will know who’s coming. They can have the right to say no. Again, this is to make sure that everyone feels comfortable, everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows who is coming because this is their safe space to talk about their challenges and all. Going back to a meeting. After the half an hour of networking, the chairperson will open the session, introduce the new member, and giving the EGN updates and also immediately go to what we call Member Challenges.

Member challenges are where you can talk about your challenge and get feedback from your peers. We have two parts of this. One is what we call Wise Crowd. Another one is what we call Advisory Board. Both are the same. We help each other in our challenges. In the wise crowd, we will put our members in the small group discussion. Let’s say three of us, you, me, and one other person. We can give, for example, for 45 minutes and every single person will have fifteen minutes to talk about our challenges or ideas or anything that you want to share, then get feedback from the three of us.

Once I’m done, it’s your turn and then the other one. If let’s say I don’t have any challenge, which is not often because everyone will have challenges. We can always contribute to the discussion or we can also agree on solving only one problem. Within those 45 minutes, you can only focus on one problem so then you can go deep. Either way, that’s okay. In advisory board, they will be one member who will be presenting their challenges in front of everybody in the whole room. Not only in the small group discussion.

What’s the job of everyone? It’s the same, to try to give the best solution based on their past experience. In the advisory board, let’s say I will be the one who present. I will present my challenge for five minutes and the facilitator will facilitate everyone to ask me clarification questions because normally people are tend to jump into the solution immediately but that’s not allowed. We need to ask clarification questions so we understand the pain point and the challenge deeply. After that, everyone will go to small group discussion to discuss about my challenge.

They will discuss. Get the collective wisdom and all. I will need to be silent, listen, and observe. After that, each table will then have the representative to tell me about findings, insight or advice. You can imagine the amount of knowledge or solution inside that I will get from that advisory board. It’s amazing. I can give you one story because we care about the members as a whole. Not only professionally but of personally.

For example, we have one member who’s been with EGN for years. His happy with everything at work in Singapore, but then he got a call from the Headhunter offering him another opportunity that’s better in every way. He is in the crossroad because he’s been with the company for many years. He cannot even go to the wife to ask opinion because it will be involving the heart and soul. He’s being vulnerable. He put himself in the advisory board, then everyone challenged him and gave him some ideas, “Let’s say after the discussion, if you go to this part. This is probably what’s going to happen. If you go this part, this is what going to happen.” He got a clarity.

It’s like a team coaching but with a big shot with people who know what they talking about and maybe been there. That’s one thing. Another scenario is that in the business owner group. One member wanted to exit. Basically, wanted to pay the company, but she feels a bit like in the crossroad. She’s like, “Shall I tell it? Sheall I not?” She put herself in the advisory board. She was thinking to sell her company for S$1 million. After this discussion in the advisory board, because of the diverse member who join. One is an investor in the business owner group one and one is this and that.

It turn out that her company should worth at least double, then she got all the ammunition that she can go back to the buyer and say, “My company is worth this. This is the reason.” She’s very happy with the result. I can tell you many of all these experiences because it’s human nature to need some guidance, and many things of this advisory board. That is how we do this issue processing, as you said. It’s all about member challenges. We solve member challenge by collective wisdom and exchanging ideas among members. After that, we will happen to break.

After the break, we will go to the topic of the daily discussion. Members will choose which topic they want to talk about, and then we can facilitate. Plus, we can also invite some expert to trigger the conversation. At EGN, the most important is we understand all our members already bring wealth of knowledge. It’s all about knowledge sharing among themselves. It’s a nice touch when we have expert.

Ultimately, what we want to know is how far your company going within this digital transformation or optimizing AI, for example. That’s what we want to know. What are your challenges? How do you overcome those challenges? That’s how it looks like for the four hours. If you think about it, it’s only six times a year. Twenty-four hours is a very valuable time. As a business leader, you need to have this conversation where you can get ideas and problem solved. It’s nice when you have a consultant but that’s one perspective.

If you bring your challenge at EGN meeting, you get a lot of perspective that maybe you’ve never even thought about it. It’s like, “I didn’t think about that,” because they see from different lenses because they’re coming from different industry and background. Different industry may see things differently and also saw things differently that might be helpful for you and your organization. Those are the four hours looks like. Plus, many other things that we do at EGN on top of that.

 

It’s easy for leaders to see the value. How many minds or people are in the room at once?

The best meeting in my opinion is about 14 to 20, Maximum is 25. If it is more than that, it’s not going to be exclusive anymore because we wanted to make sure everybody feels heard and able to speak up. About 14 to 20 is the best.

EGN’s Thriving Community & Cross-Country Connections

About 14 to 20 different leaders of various industries, backgrounds, and stages of growth that share in problem solving issues of the day or the particular leaders. That sounds like exceptional, especially when you’re talking about the difference between that and the consultant. The consultant might have the expertise or specialty which you can also bring into the group as a special speaker but also seeing it from a leadership perspective and how they solve the problem is quite valuable. The other thing you mentioned is that, everybody that’s in the room, this is a very confidential environment. The people are held too that’s high standard. You mentioned, they know each other on a personal and/or professional basis. Is that correct?

They start with knowing each other in the professional basis because as mentioned, they will get the LinkedIn profile and everything. However, because they are helping each other during the meeting and all. Many members are becoming friends. Even they get a company together in Singapore because in Singapore, we are blessed to have an easy structure when we want to create a new company. On top of what we do in the peer group meeting, we also have this what we call EDN Community on WhatsApp, where we open up everybody to connect with everyone.

Not only in Singapore with Singapore members only, but throughout in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. We have EGN Singapore Community. For example, we create a WhatsApp group for EGN running group, cycling group and many groups like coffee group, then they become friends because for those who love cycling, they go cycling every Saturday and Sunday. I’m very fanatic about it because my husband is also triathlete and he loves cycling. He leads this group, for example.

This group like cherries by themselves is just already anybody who loves cycling. They will go in there. Similarly to running and just chit chat over coffee. Also, they’re becoming good friend and even create companies together. For those who are coming from a different country, we have many groups. For example, we even have a talent group. In the talent group, all members from three countries can come. The purpose of this talent group is for those members of EGN. We don’t know what future holds but should let say they need some new opportunities or their company needs any opportunity. They can put their city over there.

Trust me, during COVID, a lot of members got kicked out from the company in a bling of an eye, especially in Singapore. For example, we do have the members that got kicked out and only get three months to go out from Singapore. This is very hard and the first people that he called and asked, my husband and I. We just mentioned to him, “You’ve been with EGN for two years, this is your time to be even more vulnerable. This is your time to be out there. Talk to people. Go to the EGN talent group and tell your story honestly.” He is very worried to lost the insurance and two kids in the international school.

Within three months, he needs to go with the visa. Thanks God because we are here to help each other and all. He got the opportunity from other EGN members and until now, he’s happy and kids are still in the same school and still in Singapore. This story is a lot. I just on boarded a one member who mentioned, “Dona, Can I join your EGN talent group?” I said, “Yes. How do you know about that?” She said, “I got my new job because of that talent group. One of your EGN members from the HR leader group helped me shared my CV in your talent group.”

One of EGN members in the managing director of the recording company call her and immediately, she got the job. She’s now part of EGN. I’m so grateful and happy to see how our community is helping each other in a different level. Not only sharing knowledge, but contribute to their life. This is something. Those are the benefit of EGN that they can get cross-countries.

Another story, I just spoke with one of the chairperson. He is the chairperson for EGN in Indonesia, and then he mentioned this to me, “Dona, you need to be proud.” I said, “What happened?” I will testify. I will meet two members from EGN Malaysia and Singapore. They will meet up in Jakarta and we will sign the MOU. We’re going to make a business together. I feel like, “That’s so cool.” I said, “Don’t forget to take pictures, video. and testify on LinkedIn and everywhere.” I would take this picture and this story to the whole three countries.

That’s how beautiful it is. I can tell you many more, but maybe I’ll just give you one more example. We also have this EGN on WhatsApp. Let’s say EGN LinkedIn Accelerator or LinkedInTells Community. Everybody, regardless of their background and company, we want sales. They can join this sales community and they can talk in a real time and asking question. Imagine I have almost 60 WhatsApp group, blockchain and healthcare. Whenever you have question or challenge in a real time, you know where we can go to and you can get answers immediately. People love to help each other out. Going to this community, helps you a lot with time, money, and problem solving.

The Scale & Ethics Of The EGN Network

Having the comfort and benefits of such a large network. As you mentioned, there’s over a thousand members. How many different countries did you say?

The one that under my responsibility is three countries, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. However, EGN itself exists in fifteen countries, which almost 16,000 members across the world.

That’s quite a strong network. With the larger EGN community, is that available and does all members have access to that larger community?

We do have the app where the members can see all members across the globe in the app. That’s the beauty of EGN. This is what make them love EGN and assure to be in this platform and community is because we don’t allowed selling. That’s the beauty of it. The last thing you want as a senior executive, you come to the networking, then let’s say you exchange name card and Linkedin, then the next day, people try to sell you something and keep calling you. That’s like a big No-No at EGN.

It’s not allowed. Selling is not allowed. However, buying its allowed, meaning that we would love you to be exchange knowledge, learn from each other, helping each other, and build a deep relationship. Let’s say you become friends and all right. I know what you do and if I need a help or need something, I can buy from you. Normally EGN members will always go to EGN members first before they go to the outside of EGN but then it’s coming from me willingly and wanted to buy from you.

It’s no pushed or something like, “This is my surface. Do you need this? Use me.” Although, let’s say we have this database of members across the globe. We understand this ethic that if we are reaching out to anybody, it’s more of wanted to have some collaboration or wanted to offer some help or asking questions and all. Not to the point that you want to sell something especially in a pushy ways. The ethic is nice EGN, especially for me. All the members of Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia are all the senior executive. I believe in Denmark and all, they have so many layers and many of level that they already can become an EGN member.

The thing you mentioned is they are all held to a certain ethical standard and knowing that your part of a community of a high ethical standard allows you to ask those questions in confidentiality and also get great non-biased advice from some of those members. I imagine that business leads different things like that can come from such relationships.

Yes. I’m great to be part of it that when I can serve this leader to be a better leader. I’m just very grateful for this community.

The format of the meetings, are they all in person or is there a hybrid element to some meetings?

All the peer group meeting are all in person. However, as you may imagine during COVID, we do it hybrid and virtual, but on top of this field meeting in person, six times a year, we do have the virtual events. The cross-functional events where I am the host. It’s every week for one hour on Zoom. This is open for all members from EGN, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Not only that they can network, but also on top of the peer group meetings, they can also get another new knowledge from a speaker across the globe. We combine all this together.

You mentioned that, there are other programs. Are there other development opportunities for more junior executives or ways to get together in a conference type of setting? What are the types of activities do you offer?

For EGN Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, we only cater for the senior executive starting from director level. We don’t have, at the moment, the group for middle management and so, but it’s a work in progress. I believe in Denmark and probably some countries in Europe, they also have this group for even head of chef from 5-star hotel, let’s say. They come together and discuss about their challenges. Maybe exchange some knowledge and all.

The difference and the beauty of it probably again, every country has their own signature. What I can see is that in Europe, this is compulsory, especially in Denmark, for you to belong to this professional network. This is part of the company budget. It’s a must for those senior executives to join and the company pays for it. While in Asia, I see the trend is they see this as their own personal development. Thanks God, in Singapore, they can claim towards their tax. Those are some of the differences within Europe and also in Asia.

Future Trends & Flexibility In Executive Networking

Looking forward, what are some of the emerging trends that you see in executive networking such as this?

For topic wise?

As far as GCs, are other types of activities that you might be offering in the future for your executive network?

One is that we will still do the peer group meeting because that is our core product. We believe sthe members with their busy schedule can allocate the six time per year. Also, I want to mention that the good news about EGN, we have the dates one year in advance already because we know you are busy. You can stick it on your calendar and hopefully, you can work around it. However, because you are busy, you try to make it but things happen, especially in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, “I got called from my headquarter. I need to fly.”

We have this flexibility for them to join in any other groups as they wish. For example, if I am part of executive leadership as the managing director, but I love to learn more about sustainability then I can join the sustainability group. Let’s say, I want to learn more about finance. I can join finance leader group and so on and so forth. We also open up this opportunity, not only within the country, but also within another country.

For example, as EGN Singapore member, if I am traveling to Indonesia, Jakarta, or Malaysia, I can also join the meeting over there. Similarly to the members in Indonesia and also Malaysia. They can also join maybe moving forward. We might also have this maybe one day conference like a retreat for all these three countries come together. However, it’s not that easy because of their busy travel together. With this flexibility of them coming to this three country and join the meeting, that’s already for them like a tremendous help and excitement at the same time because they can network and learn from the topic that they are discussing and all listening to others and broaden their network itself.

Key Takeaways For Executive Leaders: Vulnerability & Growth

Thank you, Dona. As we wrap up this discussion, what are the key things that you want our executive leaders to be understanding from this conversation being important such as executive network?

Probably the first one is the understanding, although, you are busy as the senior executive, the more you are busy, the more you need to be able to be smart in spending your time and where you wanted to be part of. It’s very important for any senior executive to belong to professional network where they can feel safe. It’s a safe space for you to able to discuss about their challenges or just simply to fend because we are human being. We need to be able to speak to someone that can listen with empathy and all.

 

To the point that, if that person can relate and give you some suggestion or solution based on their past experience, is even better. However, if you don’t have this professional network, probably you can have let’s say, senior executive can hire a coach. The bottom line is, you need to be able to have someone to talk to that you can trust. This is a safe space for you to be yourself to talk about your challenge because this is helpful to avoid burnout and to maximize your time to able to make a great decision and sharing knowledge and gain a certain leadership skill. If you’re already good by yourself, you will not grow.

We’re seeing everyone else from different industry talking with other leaders. You can always learn something new as well. That is the first thing that is very important. Second is, understanding that as the senior executive, you’re also human and you should be able to be vulnerable. Another challenge that I can see in every meeting is that everybody able to be as open as possible because sometimes as a leader, you don’t want to be seen as weak or unable to do things when you talk about your challenges.

As the senior executive, understand that you are also human and you should be able to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is a strength. Share on X

Understanding that we can be vulnerable and being vulnerable is a strength. That’s very important. Choose how and where you can be vulnerable. That’s very important. Having the professional network where it’s safe and confidential will help you with that, or as mentioned, you might be able to talk to some coach, mentor or probably friends or anybody who can understand your pain point. The last thing is, understanding that as a leader you need to be able to keep growing mentally and be able to decide thing and get some great perspective. Having a professional network is very important.

If let’s say you’re not having professional network, as a senior executive, you still need to network either way because you need to have someone to talk, discuss about your challenges, or as simple as making friends because you are busy. Sometimes you forget that you are human and you need all those fun-stuff. Probably, if let’s say this is not professional network that only discuss about challenges, have friends or new friends or something like that. That’s what I want to say.

Thank you so much, Dona. I can tell that the network is highly invaluable and I know that your membership has benefited greatly for being a part of it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us and the important of being a part of the executive network.

Thank you for having me. It’s so grateful to be here with you.

For our readers out there, join us in the next episode. You all take care.

 

Important Links

• Dona Amelia on LinkedIn
• Dona Amelia on Instagram
• EGN (Executives’ Global Network)

 

About Dona Amelia

Dona Amelia is a dynamic and inspiring leader, speaker, coach, and trainer with a remarkable journey from poverty in a small village in Indonesia to becoming an influential force in leadership and personal development. As the Co-Founder & Head of Member Service at EGN (Executives’ Global Network), she builds vibrant communities where senior executives across Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia collaborate, grow, and thrive.

Dona’s background is rooted in the creative arts, having worked as an award-winning TV Presenter, Actress, Singer, and DJ. Her multi-faceted career has allowed her to connect with audiences in powerful and authentic ways. Dona has been recognized for her ability to inspire, having been awarded LinkedIn’s Community Top Voices twice and the Asia Empowerment Connector Award 2024.

With a passion for leadership, Dona created the D.O.N.A. Framework (Dream, Opportunity, Never Give Up, Action), which she uses to empower others to overcome adversity and pursue their boldest dreams. As a speaker, she inspires audiences with her unique story and actionable insights. As a coach and trainer, she empowers leaders to build emotional resilience, unlock their potential, and drive success in both their personal and professional lives.

Dona’s expertise spans leadership coaching, public speaking, team-building, and networking, and she is passionate about helping others navigate challenges, achieve their goals, and create high-performance teams. Whether you’re seeking a speaker to motivate your team, a coach to unlock your potential, or a trainer to build effective teams, Dona is dedicated to helping you succeed.