Rachel Ng, the 330th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is on her way to building an Australia-wide beauty empire.

Rachel launched her beauty group in 2017, when she opened a high-end salon, Wonderlab Beauty. At the time, Rachel had a full-time marketing job, so her sister, who had 20 years’ experience in the beauty industry, ran day-to-day operations, while Rachel managed the marketing as a side hustle.

In 2021, after quitting her corporate job, Rachel opened her second beauty business, PORES X, a skincare clinic that delivers a faster and more affordable service than Wonderlab. Earlier this year, she opened a spa in the Amora Hotel Jamison Sydney, so she could cater for customers who wanted an altogether different experience.

Over the next three years, Rachel plans to open another 10 to 20 sites throughout Australia.

Clearly, Rachel is a person of tremendous creativity and vision. But I also really like her outlook on life.

Rachel believes we should focus on self-improvement, rather than embracing the kind of hypercompetitive ethos she experienced when growing up in Hong Kong. She also believes that while physical appearance is important, it’s less important than health and inner beauty.

In other words, true validation lies internally rather than externally.