Navigating the Rise, Author at Navigating the Rise

21Oct 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1][E20][P2/3] Stereotyped Misconceptions of Asians in the West at Work w/ George Wu and Jatin Anand

Culture

In this episode, we evaluated how Asians work and perceived in the professional environment both from the US and from the UK. Initially, I spoke with Jatin Anand from the Asian Professional Facebook Group in the UK, and he noticed these couple of things among the professional Asians in the workplace. Asians do not take initiatives at workspace -> perceived lack of leadership skills The Asian culture can describe the perceived lack of taking initiatives in not trying to disrupt harmony in a group setting. By taking actions, it creates conflicts. Asians, for most, are known to be some of the most passive-aggressive people in the world. For example, they would be super friendly to you, but once you leave, they would start to complain about you to their close…

14Oct 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1][E20][P1/3] Top 10 Asian Cities to Challenge Your World w/ Girik Sehgal & George Wu

Culture

This episode is a bit different as I taken the top 10 things that people have experienced and put it down into a sequential story. Girik Sehgal from Subtle Asian Travel gave us a brief breakdown in the top 10 cities that people should visit to better understand the cultural phenomenon within Asia. In the first part, we explore where are the best cities that give a good representation of the top cities. The main purpose is for those who are interested in exploring those cities to better understand Asian cultures. We recommend the following cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Busan, Seoul, and Manila. Why not other cities? Well, actually there are. But, they give you an easy way to interact in a safe…

01Oct 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [E19] How to Choose to Be Happy When Life Continuously to Stomp You w/ William Hung, Professional Optimist

Spiritual

This week, I had the opportunity to speak to William Hung, the viral American Idol who looks adversity in the face and charges through with unwavering conviction. After his American Idol audition, William Hung’s rendition of “She Bangs” became famous for all the wrong reasons. Despite the harsh criticism he endured, William persevered—having gone on to attract a cult following, release three albums, and even perform live with Ricky Martin in Las Vegas. A strategic storyteller and professional optimist, William is proof that the underdog can succeed when you rise above the haters and choose to be happy. William has appeared on media outlets like FOX, ABC, CNN, and NBC and in such publications as Rolling Stone, TIME, and USA Today. He was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and…

18Sep 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [S18] Why Social Media Marketing is Better than the Old Ways w/ Chirag Sagar, Co-Founder of Money Matters Top Tips

Business

This week, I had the opportunity to speak to Chirag Sagar, the Co-founder of Money Matters Top Tips, a media, entertainment, and book-publishing company. The company dedicated to the needs of business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives. Chirag is also the Co-Founder of Digital Luxury Agency. The agency has collectively worked with over 3000 small and large companies, Fortune 500s, governments, non-profits, and investment firms. Their roster of clients includes Richard Branson and Virgin, the country of Panama, SBE Group, Bank of America, Cadillac, and Qatar Airways. Before that, he served as the COO of Destination Luxury. It was a luxury lifestyle media outlet that reaches over 5 million people every month through their various channels. He spearheaded the team that built the website presence to reach 500,000 monthly unique visitors.…

28Aug 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [E17] What’s It Like and How to Be an Asian Influencer w/ Jerry Liu, Digital Content Creator @ Jerry Liu Films

Business, Culture

This week we have the opportunity to speak with Jerry Liu. Jerry is a full-time digital content creator and currently has more than 130K subscribers on YouTube, 181k subscribers on Facebook. Having spent time in journalism, PR, and more than 10,000 hours in the digital media space, Jerry carries unique communications experience in traditional and digital media and offers a unique blend of passion, energy, and focus to his works and to clients and employers. Jerry started his first YouTube channel (called JerryLiuFilms) for fun, but it developed into multiple brands. Since 2011, He gained more than 30 Million views and partnered with Multi-Channel Networks like Fullscreen and BBTV. Besides YouTube, he also experimented with other digital media platforms. He also put videos on YouKu and Bilibili, two of China's…

15Aug 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [S16] How to Use Fundamentals of Influencing Principles Across the World w/ Heather Havenwood, One of 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs (Huffington Post)

Business, Culture

This week we explored with Heather Havenwood on how to to be a successful influencer. We talked about the foundation of what it takes to be an influencer as well as how to leverage that foundation and tie that to Asian culture and upbringings. She explored how growing up as a Baptist, she faced many limitations in terms of self-promotion. That was not how she was brought up. That is similar to the Asian culture of being in harmony with the group where self-promotion is not passively accepted. We explored the steps needed from taking a skill to using that skill to being an influencer. However, that is not enough. We explored the missing steps in-between having the right skillset and being a successful influencer. One of the core pieces…

29Jul 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [E15] How to Change Your Mindset to Be an Entrepreneur w/ Rick Nguyen, Co-Founder of Spot Trender

Business, Tech

This week we have the opportunity to speak with Ricky Nguyen, who is the Co-founder of Spot Trender. As Co-founder at Spot Trender, Rick creates and refines enterprise solutions for professional advertisers to win hearts and minds. He built Spot Trender from scratch to profitability. In his spare time, Rick enjoys various projects to promote STEM education and advanced science in the United States. Background Rick appreciates his situation as an immigrant from Vietnam. For him, he believes that because he immigrated, he had the perspective of Vietnamese as well as incorporating the perspective of Americans. Also, Rick attributes much of his success as being able to combine the two different aspects and happy to have immigrated here. Because of the upbringing within America, Rick had a paradigm shift. He…

15Jul 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [E14] Who Am I and What is My Identity w/ Dan Matthews, Partner/Lead Producer at International Secret Agents

Culture

This week we have the opportunity to speak with Dan Matthews. Dan is an alternative rap artist from Los Angeles, CA. His high energy performance is mirrored with lyrics about self-reflection, addiction, and identity. He draws on electic inspiration from the likes of Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park to the Neighborhoud to Odeza. He's also a Korean Adoptee and works to speak voices to that community. He’s produced documentaries about the Adoptee and Asian experience including his journey back to Korea in meeting his biological family including an identical twin brother he never knew about. His work has been recognized around the world including the BBC, NPR. Growing Up We spoke about his tribulations on what that is like growing up in a white family as a Korean adoptee. Dan…

29Jun 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [E13] How You Look at Life When Your Company Is at $100 Million w/ Harrison Tang, CEO of Spokeo

Business, Tech

This week we have the opportunity to speak with Harrison Tang, who is now the CEO and Co-founder of Spokeo. According to an article from Hyperlush, the company has achieved significant milestones to be where they are now. Harrison gave us many insights on how his upbringing helped him where he is now. He attributed much of the success to the support of his family and words of wisdom. However, what he said made a significant mark on his life was when he immigrated here from Taiwan. He went from the top of his class to the bottom of the class due to the language barrier. His father also told him that going back to Taiwan is not an option. Even if the job is washing dishes, Harrison's father said…

14Jun 2019 by Navigating the Rise

[S1] [E12] Why Asians Want to Be Engineers w/ George Lu, the Data Engineer at Figure

Tech

George Lu - Data Eng. This week I have the opportunity to interview George (not me) since his last name is Lu. We give a load down on what it is like to be an engineer in today's world. Right now being in tech is as crazy as it was to be in finance about 10+ years ago. Given the added pressure from Asian parents to be an engineer, we explored what it takes to be an engineer. We went through all the tribulations of studying and training needed to be an engineer, as well as a software engineer in modern times. Some significant points we touched upon include the transition of traditional software engineering to data engineering because of the rise of AI technologies. No longer will engineers be…

Author: Navigating the Rise