GRATEFUL for the opportunity to have this podcast with Mr Ken Honda - big thanks to @arigatoinvestor for making this happen! I've always been fascinated by the power of good writing - Mr Honda gives us a glimpse into how he does it - how does he sell millions of wildly successful books? It's much simpler than I thought it would be... Hope this podcast is somehow helpful to anyone out there! :) GET HIS NEW BOOK! https://www.amazon.sg/True-Wealth-Grandfather-Happiness-Abundance/dp/1401978029 0:00 Introduction 2:42 Starting Journey as a Writer 7:48 The Power of Intuition 8:25 Writers Block 10:13 Thought Process on Writing Books 11:21 Lessons from writing books in the past decades 12:30 Common Struggles That People Face 14:09 Writing Books That You Want Vs. What People Want 15:32 Ken Honda New Book True Wealth 18:31 Failure 20:00 Advice For People in Their 20s & 30s 24:10 True Wealth vs False Wealth 24:56 Life Purpose 26:02 Ken Honda shares a story that makes him happy in his work 27:55 Tips on Proposing 29:50 Ending Questions JJ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thamjiangjun/ JJ INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/jiang_juuun/ LEARNING PODCAST SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Cou8D3IK1iLFdctQ5XeRt
Feeling immensely GRATEFUL to have had the opportunity to have a podcast with the GOAT of investing - Adam Khoo. Most people know him for his investing/finance content, I only recently discovered he was very involved in the field of self-improvement/NLP education space 10-15 years ago. Some of his books I'd recommend would be: - Master Your Mind - Design Your Destiny - Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses - Bringing Up Money Smart Kids BIG THANKS to @arigatoinvestor (Chloe) for making this opportunity possible!! Must admit I'm rusty to podcasting - always a learning journey to be better :)
BIG THANKS to Chloe for coming on this podcast! If you're in Singapore you'd probably have seen her YouTube ads from The Next Level - her journey to become what she's doing is pretty inspiring! From learning english as a teenager, hosting webinars with hundreds of people teaching options trading, to building her own private community of investors - her career journey is definitely much exciting than mine haha. Hope this brings value to anyone out there in terms of entrepreneurship, self-development and never-ending self-improvement.
Big thanks to Andy for agreeing to start this informal podcast where we talk about anything and everything in our lives; self-improvement, investing, relationship, career tips etc.
Here's 6 things we collectively wish we knew at 20! Hope its somehow useful to someone out there! :)
TRY SKILLSHARE: https://www.skillshare.com/en/r/profile/Jiang-Jun-Tham/820009?gr_tch_ref=on&gr_trp=on
INTERESTED IN INVESTING? USE INTERACTIVE BROKERS: https://ibkr.com/referral/jiangjun956 JJ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thamjiangjun/JJ
INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/jiang_juuun/
LEARNING PODCAST SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Cou8D3IK1iLFdctQ5XeRt
The #Learning Podcast is a Singaporean Podcast dedicated to learning new from guests that comes on this show! If you're interested to join me, email me at thamjiangjun@gmail.com or reach me at any of my socials!
What is worth spending your entire life savings on?
For epic entrepreneurs like Damian Chow, it was his company
Had the privilege to catch-up with him over a podcast session, where he shares his entrepreneurship journey in starting several businesses, one of which was even acquired/sold off, even eventually creating The Gym Pod, Singapore's first 24 hours automated container smart gym which gives you an undisturbed and private workout at any time of your choosing.
On a separate note, I've never seen any founders like him who managed to convince his employees to work more than a month without any pay; a true testament to exceptional EQ abilities - many crazy entrepreneurial stories in this podcast - WORTH A LISTEN!
Damn I'm inspired, BACK TO WORK!
Questions are from a study by psychologist Arthur Aron (and others) that explores if intimacy between 2 strangers can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of questions. There are a total of 36 questions in the study - this podcast only covers 12 out of the 36 questions. There may be a part II and III to this podcast series. Big thanks to Hazel for doing this podcast session with me :)
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/style/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html
Had the biggest privilege to have Jansen Ko on a podcast session! He is the co-founder of Boulder Movement, a Singapore-based rock climbing gym that currently has 3 outlets around the island.
He shares his journey during his junior college days being obsessed about rock climbing, being involved in several businesses as a franchisee, and eventually starting Boulder Movement - it is the best rock climbing gym I’ve ever been to.
Jansen strikes me as a humble individual who is dedicated to perfecting his craft of managing a business - though it’s not really part of the podcast (since he wrote it in his Medium article), my biggest takeaway is the following phrase from one of his articles; The first rule of CEO psychological meltdown is to not talk about CEO psychological meltdown.
It is crazy to think that businesses can lose tens of thousands of dollars every single month when sports facilities were recently forced to close due to COVID-restrictions. While things are getting better now, I can’t imagine how tough it is to swallow that loss of cash flow for consecutive months - this podcast gives a 0.01% peek into it is. Definitely check this podcast out!
*On a separate note, go and check on their YouTube channel! It’s awesome for anyone new to rock climbing!!
Big thanks to Xiao for sharing her experience about the sports franchise business at F45, WeChat marketing, and family in this podcast! It shares her journey of how she turned her hatred as an engineering student to being a self-taught piano tutor, doing husband-prospecting and starting a WeChat TikTok marketing agency. She also talks about how life is like being involved in the Sports Franchise Business at F45, a fitness training company.
This is no doubt one of the most refreshing podcasts I've ever done. Most guests, including myself, tend to have a filter on podcasts as it's a fairly public forum to express one's opinion; Xiao doesn't hold back and it's so refreshing to hear someone speak authentically to what she truly believes in.
She shares many crazy stories on using marketing tactics on WeChat, leveraging peculiar marketing messaging such as high divorce rates etc - I definitely took away the lesson of being more thick-skinned from her in being more upfront with what I want whether in relationships, sales or life :) If you're interested in the Sports Franchise Business, WeChat Marketing, or Sales, this podcast is definitely worth the listen!
Had the big privilege to have Rae on a podcast session - she's an entrepreneur, speaking coach, and emcee!
Mentorship and coaching are the central themes of this podcast - I've always regarded market forces to be the best forms of mentorship when it comes to one's entrepreneurial endeavors but am usually skeptical when it comes to mentorship primarily because of the uneven value-exchange between the mentor and mentee - this podcast sheds more light on that and I definitely see the value in learning from people who're much more experienced in life.
If you're ever interested to learn more about the coaching industry and perhaps engage one yourself, I'm sure this podcast will be helpful :)
Really enjoyed in conversation with Chela who's currently an undergraduate from the Nanyang Technological University Business School - was connected to her via an agency to share the impact of how important English is, on behalf of the Speak Good English Movement here in Singapore.
She shares her story on how it's like growing up in Singapore as a Korean and how she utilized social media in helping her dad's hawker business during the circuit breaker period. The hawker business is something that I don't have a clear understanding of and this conversation definitely sheds more light on the realities of how tough it is to run an F&B business.
Extremely grateful to have Puvin on this podcast session! He is currently an Associate Director (Financial Technology & Data) at Datasearch Consulting and is a headhunter/recruiter for mid-senior executives in the fin-tech space.
I've never really understood what it takes to be a headhunter & recruiter and Puvin shares a lot of how is life like as a recruiter - from sharpening one's ability to sell, identifying outstanding job candidates, and leveraging platforms like LinkedIn. He shares many holistic perspectives in the hiring process - what companies are looking out for, how should prospective employees package themselves, and common red-flags that people should avoid in any hiring process. He also shares the "dark-side" when it comes to the recruitment scene eye-opening stories on how manipulative people can be when it comes to the topic of salary and money....
This podcast is definitely useful for ANYONE looking for new opportunities in their careers, and probably EXTRA helpful for existing undergraduates. Really hope you guys find as much value in this podcast as much as I had :)
Had the BIGGEST EVER privilege to have the co-founders of The Woke Salaryman, Wei Choon, and Ruiming on this podcast session - if you aren't sure, The Woke Salaryman is Singapore's biggest personal finance webcomic with HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of followers across their social media channels.
I ask them about their journey in starting the business, lessons learned along the way, and asking other random topics such as wage slavery and life principles. There is so much more than meets the eye and they break down the nitty-gritty details they consider when putting out online content in the world of personal finance - my favorite section of this podcast was definitely on their take on wage slavery, relationship advice, and why everyone should stop using the phrase "It's easier said than done!".
Really happy to have Anson on this podcast - I met him all the way back in 2014 where we actually joined a music competition together where we actually won first prize together in the National Arts Council Chinese Instrumental Ensemble Category.
Really grateful to have Anson join me on this podcast session - he is an insanely talented yangqin musician who won several music competitions in the past few years. I first met Anson all the way back in 2014 where we joined the National Arts Council Chinese Instrumental Competition in the Ensemble Category where we won the 1st prize together!! What good memories...
I've always been fascinated by how passionate and expressive he is when it comes to music + life - and always felt like a robot when I'm talking to him because I feel relatively emotionless to him
Anson shares more about his journey in achieving the best balance between passion and profession where he currently works at Eason Music Store, a Chinese Music Instruments shop which sells music instruments and conduct lessons for Chinese instruments - his unique role as a content creator there is to spread the gospel of Chinese instruments to the world and he is obviously passionate about it.
We talk about music competitions, life as a musician, and hustling as a Malaysian in Singapore - I'm starting to think that many Singaporeans, including myself, take for granted the blessings we have being born in this country - the drive to hustle it out is something that I really respect for anyone trying to make it in Singapore :)
Extremely grateful to have Alex on this podcast :) He is a consultant and coach in the fitness, health, and wellness space. The reason why I wanted to reach out to him was because of his unusual career path, form being a P.E (Physical Education) Teacher at Temasek Junior College in the public sector, all the way to working in Thailand as a General Manager/Managing Director at klapsons Group of Hotels and Residences.
Alex shares his journey onto how he got to where he is right now spearheading his own consulting company - Aviary & Co, the lessons he learned from facing public backlash in organizing an event with over 15,000 + people (that is..a lot of people!!) as well as red flags to look out for in business partners and life partners.
I've always been fascinated about the life purpose of people I meet in life and I'd definitely say that Alex clearly articulates what his life purpose is, and how he is working towards achieving it - I'm working hard to find mine!!! Hope I'll be clearer of it real soon! :)
Had the BIGGEST privilege to have Robert Lai on this podcast - he is the founder of Kaliber Performance Marketing and has quite a peculiar background, from running nightclubs in Australia all the way to working at Google TWICE at Australia and New York respectively. Aside from that, he is a true veteran in the media industry who had invested over US$400M in digital ad spend for his clients.
We talk about his beginnings running nightclubs in Australia, the toxic truth about public media agencies and how they're the worst, nerdy talk about performance marketing (WHICH I LOVE), and general life principles and lessons for people young in their career and life :)
While there are just so many lessons from this podcast, one of my biggest takeaways was to not be fixated on how much I was earning per hour, but instead looking at everything as a learning opportunity, and how such learnings will go a long way aside from just monetary compensations - one insecurity that I've always had was about how my salary as an entry-level employee in a media agency being significantly much lesser compared to my peers who were working in big tech companies, FMCG companies, and banking firms. And while the market is the market where I'm paid based on my contributions to the company (which is marginal to the scale of the business), I definitely fell short on looking at it from a learning perspective - or for the matter, seeing every opportunity that came in life as a chance to improve and grow.
Had the privilege to have OKJ (Documentary Storyteller) or a podcast session - he is a self-taught documentary filmmaker and my senior from the NUS Business School!!
If there's one big thing I took away from this podcast, it's the importance of clarity.
I'm really envious of the clarity that he had about his life at just 18 years old, and how he consciously made calculated bets and decisions that would allow him to reach his end goal of pursuing what he wanted in life - it's something that I'm only beginning to understand and take time to prioritize right now.
The beautiful thing about having a skillset like documentary filmmaking is that it literally provides you a passport to travel around the world to make videos and uncover interesting stories to be shared with the world - his goal of going to outer space to make a documentary about it blows my mind and showed me how small my own personal goals were...!!
Hope this conversation would be useful to any potential documentary filmmakers out there in the future :)
OKJ WEBSITE: https://okjworks.com/
OKJ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/okjworks/
OKJ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/okj/
OKJ YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq6ByOjcr--6CcARUxx8cAQ
OTHER PODCAST THAT OKJ WAS ON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpDoaRy0MtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFGsvzKRGU0 JJ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thamjiangjun/JJ
INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/jiang_juuun/
A BIG THANKS to Cindy for joining me on this podcast session - she is an Enneagram Personality Coach + Corporate Trainer at Relationship Studios, and the co-founder and Chief Dating Coach at Divine Connect, a premier date coaching, and matchmaking agency.
She has already written a couple of books and is also a resident love expert on Class 95 FM!!! Relationships, be it romantic, platonic, or professional ones, is something that I've always struggled with and this conversation has definitely made me interested in utilizing frameworks such the Enneagram Personality Training to improve on developing it.
The reason why this video would change your perspective on ALL relationships forever is that it provides a lens to be empathetic to why others behave so differently from us, and more importantly, for us to look inwards and self-reflect on what we could better do to improve ourselves; I think many people, including myself, fall into the pit trap of blaming why others are a certain way when the true problem really lies within myself - we are the common denominator across all our relationships.
Cindy shares more about the story of how she got into what she does and also drops so MANY golden wisdom of nuggets when it comes to improving our relationships with loved ones, colleagues, family, friends...basically EVERYONE!
A big thanks to Huda for joining me on this podcast session
Huda is the founder of Blissful Studios, a full-fledged corporate content marketing agency. She is also the founder of Fempreneur Secrets, where its mission is to empower women to start their own businesses and create a community of economically independent women entrepreneurs globally.
She shares more about her journey in starting her companies and specifically the stories and motivations of why entrepreneurship was something that was born out of a necessity rather than a choice - one of the biggest takeaways that I had from this conversation is if there is anyone like you who had survived a great degree of adversity or tumultuous experience that you had (or worse), there is certainly no excuse that you can't succeed as well - with a computer and the internet, the possibilities of skills to acquire or career path to embark on are limitless - the stories of where she came from are really crazy and I have massive respect for her into how she carved out of career for herself into doing what she does now together with her husband.
Hope this conversation would be useful to any entrepreneurs, specifically female entrepreneurs, in wanting to start something of their own. If anyone like you has made it, then you can too :)
Big thanks to Hao Yuan for joining me on this podcast session - I knew about Hao Yuan through the NUS Overseas College Programme where both of us actually worked in the same company - Xiaomi, though in different periods and departments; I'd say that he definitely has a list of dream internship companies that many university students may want and I hope there is a gem or two in this conversation that would be useful to university/tertiary school students wanting to intern in these interesting companies - this podcast would definitely serve as a superficial compression and summary of his experiences from working in these tech giants! :)
big THANKS to Elvia for joining me on this podcast session - the theme for this podcast is about the ARTS, something that I was previously insanely active in, where all my available time was only for music rehearsals, performances and practice (i'm not exaggerating..).
Elvia's expertise is in arts management and she's currently the General Manager and Dingyi Music Company. She previously worked at the National Arts Council and graduated from the Singapore Management University - she also founded the Singapore Management University Chinese Orchestra during her undergraduate days! I feel that there's really a lot more awareness and appreciation that can be raised for arts managers because they play a very critical role into making arts happen - whether if its live performances, arts workshops or engagement programmes, no arts can survive without arts managers. This podcast is dedicated to raising that awareness, even if its just a little bit, to hopefully inspire those individuals who are interested in the arts and may not be artists themselves.
On another note, Elvia has changed my life to a certain extent as it was in my first interactions with her that I found the joy of creating - the process of creating something out of nothing and the power of making ideas happen - whether that's in the form of writing proposals to organise concerts, all the way to just making ideas realities; I've been addicted to creating things since then, but yet fall-short on the ability to sustain ideas and it's definitely an important take away that I had from this podcast. Hope this podcast will be useful to all aspiring artists and arts managers :)