Interview with Mellissa Tong - Newscaster turned Award-winning Storyteller - EP 108

Interview with Mellissa Tong - Newscaster turned Award-winning Storyteller - EP 108

Mellissa Tong

Newscaster turned Award-winning Storyteller |
Best Selling Author | International Speaker | Film & Video Director/Producer

Ms. Tong is a three-time #1 Best Selling Author on Amazon, Award- winning Storyteller, and Founder/CCO of a Creative Marketing and Content Production Company, DuckPunk Productions, Inc.

At DuckPunk, Ms. Tong works with businesses to shorten their sales cycles by way of storytelling. Her work includes branding and marketing, storytelling training, TV commercials and branded content. Her clients have seen sales increase up to 400%.

Some of her previous clients are Westin, Nissan, Verizon, Wells Fargo, CBS, California Department of Health, just to name a few. Awards she won include Clio, Addy, Telly, Best of Business in Video Production for nine consecutive years starting in 2012, and a dozen more from film festivals across the country. Celebrities she’s worked with include Shaquille O’Neal, Bryan Cranston, Keke Palmer, Arsenial Hall, to name a few.

 

Ms. Tong has over twenty-five years of both in-front-of and behind-the-camera experience on storytelling. She worked as a News Anchor/Reporter/Producer at the International Channel in Los Angeles, one of the first satellite TV stations in the US. Aside from anchoring the news, she was also producing a daily 5-min human interest segment, where she covered stories ranging from beauty, health, science, technology, to movie premieres, red carpet events, Star Trek Conventions, and more. During the four years at the station, she interviewed thousands of people from all walks of life, including Hollywood celebrities such as Anthony Hopkins, Russell Crowe, Julianne Moore, etc., and crafted over 1,200 stories. Later, she took her storytelling skills to the fiction side and worked on a primetime CBS show called Martial Law before founding DuckPunk in 2000.

Aside from running DuckPunk, Ms. Tong is also an international speaker and trainer. She was invited to speak at the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office in October 2019. She has held storytelling trainings and seminars for Westin, SoCalGas, San Diego Gas & Electric, NAWBO, e-Women Network, various chambers of commerce, and many other professional organizations. She also trains entrepreneurs and executives on “How to be a RockStar on camera,” so they can deliver their messages in a powerful and authentic way.

Ms. Tong is very passionate about women and social justice issues. In her leisure time, she sits on various non-profit boards, including NAWBO LA, CalArts, and Wells Bring Hope, a non-profit that drills wells in Niger, West Africa, so women and girls don’t have to walk miles to bring water back to their villages. Previously she was on the board at Vision of Health, a non-profit mobile mammogram program for underprivileged women.

Ms. Tong is a MFA (Master of Fine Arts) graduate from the California Institute of the Arts. She was born and raised in Hong Kong before moving to the US in 1991. She majored in Music Composition and minored in English Literature for her bachelor’s degree. Before moving to the US, she worked briefly in broadcasting at RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong.) She firmly believes in this mantra, a quote by Pablo Picasso, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”