YT22 | A journey from monasteries to sharing the voices of Asian movers and shakers

Meet Yana. She is a coach, a speaker and a mentor for successful and conscious people, who are making a dent. In this episode Anita Kapoor takes over as the host and interviews Yana Fry, the founder of YanaTV. We delve into the origins and vision of the show, exploring the concept of “movers and shakers” in Asia. 

Yana shares her journey of building a diverse guest list and the importance of inclusivity. The episode unfolds with personal stories, reflections on Yana’s spiritual journey, and her plans for expanding YanaTV in 2024, aiming to create a community around meaningful conversations. Join us for a deep and insightful chat that goes beyond cultural boundaries!

Discussion Topics: A journey from monasteries to sharing the voices of Asian movers and shakers

• Introducing Yana Fry: Today’s guest for YanaTV
• Yana’s Love for New Year and YanaTV’s Impact
• YanaTV’s Vision: Showcasing diverse voices from Asia, sharing stories of movers and shakers
• Diversity in Guest Selection: Reflecting the uniqueness of Singapore’s multiculturalism
• Yana’s Connection with Singapore: A love story with ups and downs
• Yana’s Approach to YanaTV’s Conversations: Approaching each guest with love
• Learning from Hosting YanaTV: The physical and metaphysical aspects of the journey
• Yana’s Spiritual Journey and Time in Monasteries: Seeking healing, and sharing her learnings with the world
• YanaTV’s Future Plans for 2024
• Closing Remarks

Transcript: A journey from monasteries to sharing the voices of Asian movers and shakers

Anita Kapoor: Welcome to another episode of YanaTV. Today, the tables, or should I say the seats, have turned because I am your host today, Anita Kapoor. I am interviewing if not the founder of YanaTV? Yana Fry! 

Yana Fry: It was quite an introduction. I can learn from this.

Anita Kapoor: I learned from the best. I was there the last time, so It was an amazing conversation.

Yana Fry: I love that. It really was. By the way, guys, you want to make sure to go and listen to this on this channel. If you haven’t yet, this is my pitch for Anita, but so thank you for being with us.

Anita Kapoor: Okay, so here we are, on the cusp of a new year. It’s been six months since YanaTV aired and came into our consciousness and we all sit wrapped with attention every time an episode comes out to see who has got, what is happening. How does it feel for you right now?

Yana Fry: First of all I love New Year’s, it’s probably my favourite holiday of the year. So I do feel very magical every New Year. I think this particular one feels even more magical because YanaTV just brings So much positivity and inspiration. Not only in other people’s life, but in my life, I get to talk to amazing people like yourself and others and I really get to know them and learn so much and then also share that with the audience. So it’s almost, it feels like I’m doing what they love and benefiting other people. So it feels just very fulfilling.

Anita Kapoor: It’s like conversations with friends.

Yana Fry: Exactly. It’s but it’s like, It’s a very deep, meaningful conversation.

Anita Kapoor: That kind of leads me very nicely to the next question I want to ask you, actually, is because you have a little bit of a tagline, and that is inspiring conversations with the movers and shakers of Asia who are changing the world. My question is, How did you actually conceive of the need for the show and how do you define a mover and shaker? What was the vision?

Yana Fry: I love it. I love it. First of all, my vision is Asia, so that’s the most important part. I just love Asians. I came here 15 years ago and I feel that in my heart I am actually very Asian, even though I look very Western.

So I definitely have this deep connection with Asia and I find that, in Asia people have this. It’s a very subtle, unspoken quality, which is hard to describe with words, especially for the Western mind, but there are many things which are not set or many things that are not tangible, but they are there, and that’s how society is built.

And I really admire this. Because I have been living here and working just for so many years, I notice that Asian people of different cultures, from different countries, there are differences in mentality, how they perceive information, how they communicate, how they make decisions, and how they relate.

Let’s say compared to the Western culture, I saw this huge gap. We could say this because Asia is also very closed in itself. And there are so many people here. Why would I care? So I understand but it’s hard to understand for the rest of the world and so a big part of this is through the form of education because we don’t really want to lecture anyone, everyone is an adult.

But just to bring stories of those people that we call movers and shakers in Asia, because their voices are not usually seen on a global scale. My vision, would be for YanaTV to be that place where people in Asia and outside of Asia go when they want to hear amazing stories and get to know what is actually happening in Asia from those movers and shakers.

Anita Kapoor: I have noticed that your guest list is extremely diverse. It’s very multicultural. It’s extremely Tell me a little bit about how you actually decide who’s going to turn up on YanaTV.

Yana Fry: That’s another great question. To me, it actually reflects a little bit of what Singapore is about because we are in Singapore. What I love about Singapore the most is actually the diversity . I’m a person all over the world and I have travelled all over the world.

I have never felt as much at home as I feel in Singapore because of the cultural inclusion. So to me, it’s really important. And I believe the world needs even more inclusion. So when we select the guests, I’m trying my best to just include as many people as we can in terms of your background, religion, skin colour, belief system, how you relate to the world and pretty much anything else.

So when I say that we want to showcase the voices of Asian movies and shakers, I want this to be a variety. So that people that are watching, they’re hearing actually from people of different perspectives. But all around Asia, right? So maybe to answer your question, how to choose, largely based on instinct.

And then I know that the interviews look very spontaneous and casual. I can tell you a secret. We prepare. We actually prepare for the interview guests. In terms of we don’t have prepared questions. But for me, it’s important to meet each guest before the show. So we have either calls or meetings when I see them, in real life.

Anita Kapoor: And I think that’s the secret or the magic of looking effortless is that there’s a lot of preparation. I really like what you said just now about how the guest list should really have an accurate representation of where you are. Because I think there’s lots of different types of podcasts and talk shows and things like that that are very interesting to listen to. But A place like Singapore is, as you said, deeply multicultural, And it should definitely show up in your guests.

Yana Fry: Yes, that’s exactly what we are doing. Because sometimes, there are some brilliant shows and podcasts and the content is amazing, but then when I look at them, who are like a particular culture or a particular language, then it doesn’t show me the variety. I want to see the variety.

Anita Kapoor: I want to see, I want to hear, I want to learn from a variety of thoughts and ideas and cultures and backgrounds. How did you actually get to know Singapore that And how did you allow it, how did you allow Singapore to get to you? 

Yana Fry: Ah, this is 15 years, I think I  came here in 2008, So we are honest right here. I didn’t want to come to Singapore. You say in a way life dragged me here and I was, like those puppies that don’t want to go and you try to pull them. This was me. I really didn’t want to go here and I have never even been to Asia when I moved to Singapore at that time. So my entire sort of journey was Europe, the US, and Latin America.

So Asia was something, it was like a different planet and so to me it’s interesting how life just insists if you’re meant to be in a particular You are going. You are going, exactly. I had to come here for family reasons and I didn’t want to stay.

And I tried to leave every year for the first five years and they couldn’t, because something would happen. And there was another reason to stay. So Singapore was just keeping me and keeping me and it’s like one of those love stories when it was not love from the first

So it took some time to get to know each other. I struggled with heat, food, with people also at the beginning because many things are very different and I have to get used to certain things. And then I just surrendered,

After being here for five years, I wanted to move to Australia because I still thought that I’m very Western. So I wanted to go to Western culture because I felt I would be better understood there or accepted or something else.

And I wanted to move to Australia and again, life redirected and for all other sets of said you are thinking Singapore. And that’s when my journey started when I actually started Singapore to get to know me. So that’s, just to answer your question.

And it’s a lot. Maybe that’s why now I’m doing the show. It is talking with people, spending time with people, working with people. And I found people to be Just incredible. Very genuinely curious and very open, like very friendly towards foreigners because at the time I still thought of myself as a foreigner in Asia. So now I just think I’m just white Asian. And, yes, I’m a white Asian. So maybe it was like an Indian arranged marriage, Singapore where you meet, you don’t know each other, and now you’ve got to get to know each other.

And then maybe you fight at the beginning and then you accept and you get to know each other and you actually realise how much you love each other then this love deepens, year after year, and then you build wonderful relationships just keeps going and it just keeps going.

Anita Kapoor: So okay, talking about the relationship that you created with the country and how the country has also opened its arms and created a relationship I feel what you bring into your conversations with all of your guests think everything every time someone’s sitting on your couch, there is this sense of connectivity that comes quite fast, actually.

Yana Fry: There’s also a very personal and very intimate feel as well. To function in this kind of way, though, is not something that you can just pretend to do.

Anita Kapoor: know that, it calls upon parts of us that are deeper, actually. What is being accessed when you are sitting there? When you’re sitting in this lovely yellow chair that I’m sitting in today and enjoying it. What’s being accessed here? Is it values? Is it spirituality? What’s this expansiveness you draw from?

Yana Fry: I love the question and the word that comes to my mind is shared humanity. This is a field that is being accessed and that’s why we connect with people. It doesn’t matter what culture they’re from or their background. It’s like a heart to heart, human to human level, and this is how I see guests when I look at them.

I don’t see what their status is, which country they’re from, or how they grew up. I see a human being, and I’m interested in the human being. And I’m coming with this deep, it’s like a decision I make before they show up. I’m just deciding I’m going to love them. It’s why I’m in this chair. I loved them before they even said anything.

Anita Kapoor: That is beautiful. I’ve decided that I’m going to love you. God, she loved me guys. Let’s bring it then to where we are now. What are you actually learning in the process of writing directing and hosting?

Yana Fry: Wow great question. First, I love doing that, and it’s interesting also to receive this feedback from people around me, everyone tells me this is exactly what I should be doing and all my friends and family have been very supportive from the very beginning, so it seems like it brings out really important qualities in me and I feel it’s also the same with my guests.

I’m trying to bring out the best in each person who shows up and sits on this chair. You can’t call it a business, but it is a startup in a way because there is a studio and there are people and there is post production and you have to arrange processes.

So it has been a very interesting journey also just to learn, so we are like a startup. So we have a product and we are delivering it to society. So we’re delivering something meaningful, but we still have to figure out how to monetize it. What do you do with those things? How do you cover the cost? How do you profit from expanding even more? So it was an interesting journey, the physical and metaphysical world together.

Anita Kapoor: Remember you telling me a really interesting story about your journey before YanaTV? I think YanaTV was always inside you somewhere, the processes that you went through in your life to get to where you are and think how you do right here. You spent a lot of time in monasteries. I have. So this is a little known story and it’s a great story and I’m going to let you tell it.

Yana Fry: I think it’s important to say that I was born into a mystical family. I think it’s a big part of that. My mom was more than a mystic. So she definitely influence my curiosity about spirituality and consciousness and particularly Asia in terms of cultures, Indian culture, Tibetan culture, like all of those mystical aspects.

Then I think people turn to spirituality for a variety of reasons, but the most common one probably would be pain. And I was not an exception. So we, like, when nothing else is helping in this world, then you think, god must help. then whatever you’re different, they’re going to be somebody who will heal me.

And whatever your definition of God, I am not coming from a religious family. I’m coming more from a spiritual family. Even though I was born as orthodox, we didn’t really follow a particular God. And so in my eyes it was, there is something there that I want to understand.

And I think it was like I was in my very late twenties and I just had really bad experiences in life. Like I had a difficult childhood, difficult years. I had a very difficult first marriage and was just in my twenties. There was a lot of drama and almost PTSD, after that. And I didn’t know how to heal myself.

So I actually turned to spirituality more looking for healing. And so with all the monasteries and yogis, I spent maybe about 12 years and it is a very interesting story because most of the time when I would show up somewhere at the monastery, they would largely be either in India or Bhutan um, China also.

I would be the only white person and I would be definitely the only white woman showing up there. So I clearly have some kind of karmic connection probably with the cultures, it’s all life. And so I did a lot of practice. because I was trying to understand my mind. I was trying to understand my body. I was trying to heal again, right? And then once the healing takes place, then of course, when you progress with your practice, you want to go maybe to higher states of consciousness, and that’s where you feel more love.

Your heart opens up see interconnectivity between everything and everyone and you used to see past religions and skin colours and everything else because everything is connected, and everything is vibrating. So that’s what you start accessing.

So after all those years of starting pretty much And I was a good student, I was like very dedicated if they tell me you’re gonna say repeat I don’t know hundred thousand times mantra, I’m gonna do that like very and then one day Sort of monks and particularly at the time my teacher one of the llamas He just called me up and he said look I think it’s time for you to go. And I still remember, I’m like, can you say it again? I’m not sure. Just repeat the sentence. I’m not sure I understood what you just said. And he was, I think you should leave. And my first reaction of course, did I do something wrong? Do you need me to, I don’t know, wipe the floors or do something? What have I done? Exactly.

Basically, what have I done that you’re kicking me out from the monastery? And he said you’re ready. I was like, ready for what? And he was like, you’re ready to go back to a society that’s where you belong. In my mind, it was, but I belong here. I want to be here. And to his credit, he was very wise. You see all those people here, monks, nuns, yogis, yoginis, who are doing it for life.

And this is their destiny. They are born into this culture. This is their contribution. You are a person who was born in a society, and you come from the western culture, right?

Probably this way. So you have an entirely different upbringing, and you also have different skills, connection, communication, and relatability. So everything that you learned here, go into the world and find a way to share it, the practices, the way how they are done in traditional school, but the values.

And share them with the people and inspire people, and it’s going to be your practice. Practise at home, when, I don’t know, when your family upsets you. Or when something else happens. Real world things. Exactly,

Anita Kapoor: real world It’s very easy I think to be at our spiritual best and our highest vibration when we are away from everyday life. 

Yana Fry: So simple. Yes. So here I am, practising my spiritual practice.

Anita Kapoor: So what’s next? What happens in 2024 is like a round corner.

Yana Fry: I feel it’s time to expand in various areas of my life including Kiana TV. So to me, 2024, it’s also the year of the dragon, right? I know this part of the world, it’s very mystical and very auspicious.

And so to me, it feels that this year comes just with a lot of power. So I think that it’s going to be a lot of booms, like something, like in a good way. And so for YanaTV, I just would like to scale it as much as we can this year and to reach more people with the content that is really important for them. And then, probably my biggest vision, and we’re already step by step doing that, I would love to create a community around it. So right now I think I’m conceptualising how to do it. For example, already among YanaTV guests we are starting doing this in events, or when people meet each other.

But I also would love for our audience to participate and join us, because, again, I feel that there is something very magical in human connection, when we come together in a physical space, maybe more events, maybe there will be a YanaTV event next year.

Touched by YanaTV. So building a community and integrating. So like here we have these people who have so much at their fingertips. They are leaders, They are business people. They are politicians. They are activists. They’re doing things in life. So it would be also nice to channel it even more back into the community and like support courses and support initiatives. I would like to do that.

Anita Kapoor: I’m so looking forward to it. It was fabulous to sit in the Yana yellow chair. And to be able to sit here and just hear from you and to feel you and to feel that kind of energy that you actually have. Push out around another person. You’re doing it again to me here where I’m just listening and getting pulled into it.

So before I get pulled in any further, I’m going to say goodbye to all of you guys because it has been fabulous to sit here and to be a guest host and to interview Yana and you heard it here first. She’s powering through firing through into the year of the dragon building communities. We’re going to see so much more of Yana and YanaTV so watch this space.