Vanessa's Mass Communication degree might seem like an unlikely starting point for an incense business built on generations of manufacturing know-how. She had not walked into the family trade knowing how incense was made or sold. What she brought instead was an instinct for how a brand tells its own story, and she began putting that instinct to work on the one part of the business that had stayed untouched for decades, the way Foo Kwai Heong presented itself to anyone encountering it for the first time. Branding, storytelling, and public relations turned out to be exactly what a traditional business needed to speak to a generation that had never thought about incense as something to follow on social media.

That translation shows up in the everyday decisions of the business now, from logo and packaging choices to brand positioning, social content, and the deliberate work of building a lifestyle image around a product that had always been sold on ritual and habit rather than desirability.

During her sharing, Vanessa walked the room through the shape of that first year back. The hardest part, she said, was not the business itself but learning to work alongside her father, a relationship that demanded patience, direct communication, and mutual respect between two generations with different instincts. Social media became her way in, a tool she used to build brand awareness, reach new customers, and give S W Aroma and Foo Kwai Heong a presence beyond what traditional retail alone could offer.

Her advice to the room reflected the same lesson. Joining a family business, she said, is not simply about inheriting what came before. It is about learning the fundamentals, understanding the people and the business first, and then finding a genuine way to contribute rather than only preserve.

Being back in an academic setting carried its own weight for Vanessa, who described the interview that started it all as a proud moment.

"Being interviewed by a student was actually a very proud moment for me as an alumni. I feel that social media has made it easier for me to connect with people and, in this case, to have our family business and journey used as a case study for education and inspiration," she said. "I'm especially happy when I can share my experiences with students who are about to graduate and enter the working world. Hopefully, by sharing my own journey, the challenges I've faced and what I've learned along the way, I can give them a little inspiration or a different perspective as they start their careers."