After 31 years navigating male-dominated consulting in Vietnam, Ha Do's conclusion will surprise you: being a woman isn't the obstacle — it's the edge.

Ha Do started her career applying for a secretarial job at PwC. She had no industry connections, came from a poor family, and had no idea what Big Four meant. Over the next three decades — turning down a UK secondment when her son was one year old, naming the cultural barriers senior women are trained to stay silent about, and working through years of self-doubt — she arrived at a conviction most people would never expect from a Big Four partner: womanhood itself, with all its emotional intelligence and resilience, is a structural advantage. This episode is the story of how she got there — and the principles she's been passing on to every young woman who's sat across from her since.

What You'll Learn

• Why self-doubt — not external barriers — is the real obstacle holding women back in leadership, according to Ha Do's 31 years of observation

• How Ha Do made barriers become invisible: the self-love mechanism she built slowly over her career, and what it actually means in practice

• The difference between sacrifice under pressure and sacrifice by choice — and why only one of them will break you

• The two mistakes Ha Do still sees women of every age repeating, and the reframe that cuts through both of them

• Why "you can have both" isn't wishful thinking — Ha Do's career and family life as a lived proof point, not a motivational poster

Chapters

00:00 | Intro: Working Hard and Staying Humble Isn't Enough

01:02 | The Achievement That Outranks a 31-Year Career

02:14 | Turning Down the UK Secondment — and Never Regretting It

07:14 | From Secretary to Partner — The Career Nobody Planned

10:35 | "The Answer Is a Big Fat Yes" — Naming Hidden Barriers

13:31 | Self-Doubt to Self-Love — How Barriers Become Invisible

15:36 | Leading with Warmth Without Losing Authority

17:35 | Two Mistakes Young Women Keep Repeating

21:17 | Women Are Powerful — The Only Thing Stopping Us Is Us

25:12 | You Can Do Both — Being Woman Is a Privilege

Ha Do | KPMG, Vietnam

Ha leads the Government and Public Sector, and International Development Advisory Services practice for KPMG Asia Pacific. She serves as a board director of Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC), an international business association that promotes cross-border trades. She also sits in the Asia Pacific Advisory Council for Global Infrastructure Project Financing Association (IPFA), a global organization for the infrastructure and energy financing industry.

https://kpmg.com/xx/en/contacts/d/do-ha.html

Ritu Mehrish | Founder and Author | ReWrite The Rules

Ritu Gupta Mehrish is a speaker, executive coach and author, with 20 years of corporate experience working in companies such as P&G, GE Capital and GE spin-off Genpact. In her last role, Ritu ran a multimillion-dollar business vertical with 1000 people across eight countries and five continents. Throughout her extensive career, Ritu has had the opportunity to work, coach and converse with leaders across the globe from diverse industries. Her business and leadership experience has enabled her to bring in a pragmatic approach to leadership development. Her client list of Google, PayPal, Swiss Re, JP Morgan, Applied Materials, Intel, Knight Frank, Johnson & Johnson, AIA, Medtronic, Wharton Executive Education highlights the level of expertise she brings to the leadership topic.

https://www.letsrewritetherules.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritugmehrish/

https://www.ritumehrish.com/

#HaDo #RewriteTheRules #RituMehrish #WomenInLeadership #WomenInBusiness #KPMG #BigFour #WomenEmpowerment #AsianWomenLead #CareerAndFamily #SelfLove #LeadershipAdvice #WomenMentor #VietnamBusiness #MindsetShift

In this episode, I sit down with Kanchana Gupta, from climbing the corporate ladder to founding a global mentorship platform for women, her journey is anything but linear. We get into how she found the courage to redefine success, why surviving breast cancer taught her the true meaning of resilience, and what it takes to break access barriers for women.

She breaks down why female leaders struggle with executive sponsorship and brand building and why asking for help is the ultimate career superpower.

This one goes beyond the highlight reel. Real insights on reinvention, mentorship, and navigating change.

IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 | Breaking the Access Barrier for Women

00:35 | Introduction: Meet Kanchana Gupta

01:48 | Embracing a "Squiggly" Career Path

03:26 | Finding Common Ground Across Ecosystems

04:21 | Leaving the Corporate Rulebook Behind at 33

06:59 | Art School, Failure, and Finding Her Voice

09:09 | Redefining Success: Who Are You Without Your Title?

11:36 | True Resilience: Navigating a Cancer Diagnosis

13:52 | The Birth of vLookUp During Chemotherapy

19:19 | How vLookUp Democratizes Mentorship

21:46 | Why vLookUp Will Always be Free

24:31 | Sponsorship & Branding: What Women Leaders Need Now

29:12 | Unlearning the "Waiting for Permission" Trap

30:46 | The "Five Meters" Rule for Navigating Change

32:00 | Episode Wrap-Up & Takeaways

32:27 | Gift Segment

Kanchana Gupta | Founder and CEO of vLookUp.ai

Kanchana Gupta is the Founder and CEO of vLookUp.ai, a global mentoring platform built to break access barriers for women through technology. With over two decades of cross-functional corporate experience, she has led teams across geographies before intentionally stepping off a traditional career path to explore entrepreneurship, art, and new ways of working. A multidisciplinary visual artist, mentor, and investor, her journey spans corporate leadership, creative reinvention, and community building. Today, she brings these parallel experiences together to champion more inclusive career pathways – enabling women to navigate non-linear journeys with greater clarity, confidence, and access to the right guidance.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanchana-gupta

Ritu Mehrish | Founder and Author | ReWrite The Rules

Ritu Gupta Mehrish is a speaker, executive coach and author, with 20 years of corporate experience working in companies such as P&G, GE Capital and GE spin-off Genpact. In her last role, Ritu ran a multimillion-dollar business vertical with 1000 people across eight countries and five continents. Throughout her extensive career, Ritu has had the opportunity to work, coach and converse with leaders across the globe from diverse industries. Her business and leadership experience has enabled her to bring in a pragmatic approach to leadership development. Her client list of Google, PayPal, Swiss Re, JP Morgan, Applied Materials, Intel, Knight Frank, Johnson & Johnson, AIA, Medtronic, Wharton Executive Education highlights the level of expertise she brings to the leadership topic.

https://www.letsrewritetherules.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritugmehrish/

https://www.ritumehrish.com/

She was building AI before the world even knew what it was.

In this episode, I sit down with Ayesha Khanna—from coding complex financial models on Wall Street to founding a leading AI company in Asia, her journey is anything but typical. We get into how she spotted the artificial intelligence wave early, why most companies still struggle with AI adoption, and what it really takes to build AI-powered businesses today.

She breaks down how leaders can use generative AI, automation, and machine learning to drive productivity—and why AI won’t replace leadership, but will redefine it.

This one goes beyond the hype—real insights on AI tools, future of work, and building a career in AI.

IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 | Will AI replace your job—or make you more powerful?

02:44 | Simple ways to use AI in your daily work

05:48 | How she built a career in AI before it was a trend

07:18 | What AI companies actually do (and why it matters)

08:18 | Biggest AI myths that are holding you back

09:31 | Why people resist AI—and how to get ahead anyway

11:19 | How AI can unlock your creativity and time

14:44 | AI tools that can 2x your productivity

16:58 | How women leaders can win in the AI era

19:39 | Where to find AI tools that actually help you

21:57 | The human skills AI still can’t replace

24:30 | Should you use AI for content or not?

27:35 | Should your kids be using AI already?

29:34 | The real risks of AI nobody talks about

34:32 | The skills you need to stay relevant in AI

37:01 | The AI question that actually matters for your career

39:28 | Mid-career? How to stay relevant (and get ahead) with AI

40:29 | Final takeaway: what to do next with AI today

Ayesha Khanna

Dr. Ayesha Khanna is a globally recognized AI expert, entrepreneur, and CEO of Addo, helping businesses leverage AI for growth. With 20+ years in digital transformation, she advises Fortune 500 CEOs and serves on global boards, including Johnson Controls and NEOM Tonomus. A graduate of Harvard, Columbia, and the London School of Economics, she spent a decade on Wall Street advising on information analytics.

A thought leader in AI, Dr. Khanna has been recognized as a groundbreaking entrepreneur by Forbes, named to Edelman’s Top 50 AI Creators (2025), featured in Salesforce’s 16 AI Influencers to Know (2024), recognized by Reuters as one of the Trailblazing Women in Enterprise AI (2026), and named among LinkedIn’s Top 10 Female Founders in Singapore.

Committed to diversity in tech, she founded the charity 21C Girls, which taught thousands of students the basics of AI and coding in Singapore, and currently provides scholarships for mid-career women through her education company Amplify.

Ritu Mehrish | Founder and Author | ReWrite The Rules

Ritu Gupta Mehrish is a speaker, executive coach and author, with 20 years of corporate experience working in companies such as P&G, GE Capital and GE spin-off Genpact. In her last role, Ritu ran a multimillion-dollar business vertical with 1000 people across eight countries and five continents. Throughout her extensive career, Ritu has had the opportunity to work, coach and converse with leaders across the globe from diverse industries. Her business and leadership experience has enabled her to bring in a pragmatic approach to leadership development. Her client list of Google, PayPal, Swiss Re, JP Morgan, Applied Materials, Intel, Knight Frank, Johnson & Johnson, AIA, Medtronic, Wharton Executive Education highlights the level of expertise she brings to the leadership topic.

https://www.letsrewritetherules.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritugmehrish/

https://www.ritumehrish.com/