217. What No One Tells You About Succeeding as a Creator (Ainul Md Razib)

When Ainul Md Razib  first started posting about tech careers on TikTok, almost no one in Singapore was doing it. While most of the platform was filled with dance trends and food reviews, she chose to talk about coding and professional growth - becoming one of the first local career-focused creators. Today, Ainul is a Cybersecurity Engineer at IBM, known online as AinLovesCode. She’s been named to the Singapore 100 Women in Tech 2025 list, and her work continues to champion diversity and inclusion in the industry. In this episode, we explore Ainul’s journey - the pressures of visibility, the boundaries she’s had to set, and the internal work that’s kept her creating through viral highs and quiet seasons.   In this episode, we cover:    (00:00) Introduction (01:21) Being taken seriously  (04:39) Creator pressures  (07:50) Complexities as a Muslim creator (13:35) Setting parameters  (17:36) Doubting your own work (20:35) Reviewing Ainul’s past content  (24:33) Balancing a full time job with content creation (29:37) Chasing external validation  (32:32) Misconceptions about you (35:51) Why do you do what you do? (39:52) Actionable takeaways  Connect with Ainul Md Razib   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ainlovescode/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ainlovescode  Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5UvDywqpB6Gzv428oNUbAI  Website: https://www.ainlovescode.com/  Connect with Cheryl Lau   Website: https://cheryllau.com  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cheryltheory  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheryltheory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryllau ANNOTATIONS - The Newsletter    The edits that got cut from the podcast. Every interview on EDIT HISTORY runs about 60 minutes. But less than 40 minutes makes it into the final cut. This newsletter is where the rest live. ANNOTATIONS is where I share the 33% I left behind — and the insights that came after we stopped recording. Subscribe at: https://cheryllau.com/email  Contact Please email hello@cheryllau.com for business inquiries.