Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep99: 5 biggest moments as a career coach in 2021.

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

✅ Get My FREE '5-Day Career Growth' Guide + Training 👉 http://www.meiphing.com ✅ Grow your career in the 9-5 corporate world with clarity, confidence and opportunities! ⚡ 👋 Welcome to the Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing — corporate career coach, ex-corporate leader who has led multimillion-dollar projects across 43 countries and creator of the ultimate career course for 9-5 professionals, The Corporate Survivor™. On this podcast, you'll learn how to grow your career in the corporate world without getting stuck with Mei Phing's 3-step framework to gain career clarity, improve work confidence and attract new job opportunities. ✅ WEBSITE ⮕ https://www.meiphing.com ✅ FREE GUIDE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/5days ✅ COURSE & COACHING ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co ⚡ 📌 ABOUT MEI PHING: Mei Phing Lim is a Professional Career Coach and former Corporate Leader in the financial services and consulting industries. Mei Phing went from a shy quiet introvert to leading multimillion-dollar projects with teams from over 43 countries as the Senior Director and Head of Governance at Standard Chartered, and now teaching 9-5 professionals how to navigate the corporate world and grow their careers with her career coaching course, The Corporate Survivor™. Mei Phing has been featured as a LinkedIn Top Voice 2023, sharing expert career advice in guiding young professionals to plan, navigate and grow their careers. Mei Phing is a keynote speaker on corporate culture, work performance and career growth, and sharing perspectives on what truly takes to build a strategic and successful career without getting stuck. ✅ LEARN MORE: https://www.meiphing.com

Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Welcome to episode 99 of the Grow Your Career online and offline podcast. This is Mei Ping and today is the last day of 2021, 31st December 2021. And it feels like the year has really moved by really quickly. It was an

exciting year but also a pretty tiring year in general. But nonetheless, I really want to take this last episode which is also the last episode of season two. Can you believe that this is already episode 99? So thank you so much for your support. Okay, so in this episode, I really want to talk about the five biggest moments for me as a career coach this year. And I guess these are some of the defining moments for me, but some of it is really reflecting on the past 365 days and really think about the impact that I've made in different corporate professionals careers and across multiple areas because sometimes I feel like I am very busy every single day with coaching sessions, trainings and content, a bunch of things that there's sometimes not enough time to just really pause and just think

about the impact that I have made. So I just really want to use this episode to be able to do that. Now, this is really the second year of me being a career coach after, I guess, unofficially starting in January 2020. But if you know a little bit about my backstory, I quit my corporate job, I guess, quote-unquote, high-flying corporate job to return to Malaysia to care for my mom. And during that time, I was pretty much a caregiver,

but people were pretty curious about if I was able to give advice and so forth. And with that, in January 2020, I thought, okay, maybe I'll just sort of give it a try and we'll see. So now, this little give it a try has clearly brought me on a two-year journey as a career coach and it has definitely been an extremely rewarding one. So the first biggest moment for me in 2021 really is the overall fact that I have worked with more than 300 clients overall since I started as a career coach in day one. So I do keep a list of all my clients' lists, all the clients I've ever worked with,

particularly in one-on-one sessions and also attended a lot of my paid training. So I do keep a full list of my clients. And as I was pulling out the list the other day and looking through this entire list, I was like, whoa, that is a lot of clients. And like I said, sometimes, you know, I feel like me being busy every single day is not really something that I think about a lot. But I think just taking a pause

and really reviewing the list, I was like, okay, that is a lot of clients. And that is also a lot of happy results great achievements and really a lot of um i feel proud of my clients and i feel like they are in the right mindset and they want to fix their skill set which i think are the two most important combination for success in the corporate world so really developing self-awareness and taking action I think these two are definitely the defining qualities and looking through the list of the clients and you know I remember all my clients for sure and just reflecting on how far they have come

and what they're doing right now I think that is a very humbling feeling almost I don't know how to describe it but I feel very fulfilled I feel happy. I feel extremely satisfied to be part of their journey. And yeah, it's been amazing. And yeah, I mean, overall 300. And as I looked at it, I think this year was 200 plus. So definitely increase of a lot of clients as compared to last year. But overall, it's been good. I think the more people that you can impact on,

even if it's one person, I think it's a very fulfilling thing. And just look through the list. I mean, it was really, truly a humbling feeling. So if we have worked together before and you're listening to this episode or even watching to this episode, thank you so much for believing in me as your coach.

I am really, really, really excited for your career journey. Okay, so now let's move on to the second biggest moment for me this year. And that is really finally launching, I guess, yeah, launching my first ever online course, The Corporate Survivor on how to grow your corporate career in 90 days. So as I was saying a little bit earlier, after reflecting and the fact that I've worked with more than 300 clients this year, it kind of gave me a realization that it's great to work with so many clients, but

I feel like there is an opportunity for me to work with more people. There is an opportunity for me to share a lot of my knowledge, my knowledge, insights, and experiences with a lot more people that may not necessarily be in a one-on-one capacity or in a live training capacity. So that was when around the Thanksgiving weekend,

I started to think about, hmm, maybe I should consider an online course because after working with 300 clients, I also noticed that sometimes I tend to share the same stories or the exact same strategy with different clients, obviously in different coaching calls, right? And that kind of gave me the realization that, hmm, it seems like a lot of these situations are happening to different clients, like very

similar situations, but just happening to different clients. And I thought that, okay, so maybe I can pull in all my knowledge and really put everything into a course that is self-study and my clients are able to assess it and really get the knowledge and the quick video to get the help that they need before coming to a session with me. Or even if it's just a standalone and they can really get the tip or the advice directly through the course, through the online video. And I think that will be really, really helpful. So that was when I really started building the corporate survivor course. So what I did was just reflect on a lot of the conversations that I've had with the 300 plus clients. And like I said, I do maintain an excel tracker or a tracker of some

sort so it was quite easy for me to look back at a lot of the conversations and from there on clearly a couple of themes really popped up particularly three themes first is really problems around adapting to the corporate culture and a lot of it really comes from having the wrong mindset going to a job so corporate culture and mindset definitely was like a big, big, big thing. That second thing, I also noticed that a lot of my clients tend to have problems with people or rather creating misunderstanding. So that kind of points to a separate problem where likely the lack of self-awareness and the lack of understanding of other people, right, but not understanding personality and all those things. Then after that, the other thing I also noticed is a lot of clients who initially come to me with problems, they also tend to look at other people

and think that, you know, things are just happening to them, but not realizing that, hmm, maybe there are some things that they're doing, but they don't realize that they're causing certain problems, right? So I think the lack of self-awareness the lack of like effort to do an assessment on their skills gap those were the fundamental problems because they couldn't really move forward until they have done that assessment of their skills gap so there are these were a couple of things that I noticed and specifically there were also a lot of clients who came to me saying that they want to improve their overall work performance, but they feel like they are not networking effectively or their bosses are not recognizing them

or they don't know how to utilize LinkedIn to create opportunities. So basically, a bunch in a bundle. And I really took a lot of these teams to try to infuse it into a three-step framework that I've created and pretty much been teaching all my clients for two years already without really putting in a label on it. And basically, that's what I did. I renamed it as the three-step framework, the Grow Your Career Online Offline three-step framework, and really start infusing that in the many parts of the course. So anyway, not so much detail on the course, but the main point is I had a realization

that I want to impact more people. 300 people, amazing, great experience. But the question I had to myself was, why not 3,000? I think that would be an amazing goal to really aim towards, which is going to be extremely exciting for sure. Very scary, but also equally exciting. So this is probably something that it's like a bigger mission

that I want to have for myself to really impact and work with 3,000 people, whether it's one-on-one coaching, you know, either through my online course, but really be able to give as many corporate professionals the support that they can get beyond my free content, right? Beyond just the free, yeah, the free content, the free posts, the free blogs, the podcasts, and the videos. I feel like there are a lot of things that I could really share a lot deeper, and this is definitely

something that I'm keen to do. So the fact that I only decided since Thanksgiving, which was really about two months ago, to really start working on the course and to be able to, maybe not even two months ago, I think this was like about four or five weeks ago, and to be able to redesign everything and just to work the whole thing out, I think I must have gotten obsessed at some point so I feel like I've been working non-stop since I made the decision that I will be launching the course on 1st of January and everything's on track um tomorrow's the 1st of January so I'm really really looking excited I'm looking forward to that and I really have like um sign-ups, which I think is really exciting.

And the fact that a lot of students who kind of know me, most of them are probably from my LinkedIn, are looking forward and getting excited to learn more through the course. And for me, I think that's definitely a defining moment for me this year. Okay, so let's move on to the third defining moment for me. And that is really continuing different partnerships with organizations and brands, specifically focusing on the organizations

that I truly want to work with, rather than, you know, just doing collabs with like random teams here and there. So this year, I really narrowed down the organizations that I want to work with and build a much longer and stronger working relationship with them. So specifically with ACCA, which is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, this year, I really worked with the teams located in different, different countries. For example, for ACCA Malaysia. I did event talks for ACCA Singapore. I was the keynote speaker at their Members and Affiliates Achievement Awards this year. And I also did talks, you know, personal

branding for accountants for ACCA Western Europe. And I also did a networking talk for ACCA Cambodia, as well as a video to share more about networking strategies with ACCA affiliates globally. So a couple of interesting collabs, I think, like maybe not collabs, but a couple of really interesting projects with ACCA, which in case you don't know, or in case you guys don't know, I'm actually a chartered certified accountant. Fun fact about me, I am a qualified accountant and this was my life before career coach and before really moving into the banking industry, right, the banking and financial institutions, financial services industry. So the other partnership that I really continued this year

was with the University of Hong Kong. So I am the only Southeast Asia, I guess, online coach for the University of Hong Kong, specifically working with the master's program students. So this, to me, is a very exciting partnership that I'm continuing on for the second year already. And definitely a privilege for me to be the only Southeast Asia coach. And to me, it shows that, you know, for the University of Hong Kong, they're also really keen to get a slightly different perspective for their students, which to me shows how progressive they are in terms of thinking, which is really exciting.

But one of the best things I really love about working with the students is it kind of gives me a much deeper insight into Gen Z. Obviously, a lot of the students are probably in their early 20s. So speaking to them, i feel like i can really understand better some of their challenges and really help them prepare for the future of work obviously they're all ambitious which is the the most important quality when working with me is to know that you want better for yourself but you just don't know how great right the mindset enthusiasm having the right mindset enthusiasm and and desire is really, really the most important thing.

Okay, so in terms of the fourth defining moment, I think it's really stepping out of my comfort zone in terms of events. So in case you don't know, I guess I used to be a very highly introverted person. And I remember that when I started, rather when I decided that I'd do videos, initially it was really challenging. And I remember on 1st of January 2020, which was really like the day one that I decided that I would create content on LinkedIn. I recorded a very short video.

It was only like, I think, a one and a half minute video or something. It was so scary scary I was so awkward but I was really glad that I pushed on and I think this year was really a defining year for videos from January to April I think I did a video every single week I called it video Wednesday where it's just between I think one to three minutes of like really quick tips for corporate professionals I did a lot of that then aside from that I really challenged myself to do a bunch of live trainings which again is kind of training public speaking and you know FaceTime online and I ran so many trainings this year it's really it has been crazy and just to think back

the training sessions that I've ran I think the first ever one was in March 2020. It was during the start of the pandemic. And I thought that, okay, since everybody's really struggling, I ran a bunch of masterclasses. So they were ones on LinkedIn, and they were ones on how to prepare themselves to be future ready. They were also ones on understanding communication skills. So I ran really a bunch from March to May 2020 then after that there were a couple of people reached out to me asking me if I would run paid master classes where I could go

through in a little bit more detail on like you know all the details step by step so that was what I did in June 2020 I ran my first ever paid masterclass focused on building a strong LinkedIn profile. So I the videos, I also did two-hour workshops at the beginning of the year. Then in the middle of the year, I sort of redesigned it because I realized that two hours is just not enough for me to share what I want to share.

So in the middle of the year, I ran two separate training programs. One is on job search and the other one is on improving work performance by boosting soft skills. So those were two-week trainings around four to five hours in total. So it has been pretty intense with the training sessions. And I mean, like I said, with training, it's not that, you know,

it's like a one defining moment per se, but I think it's just the overall progression that I'm just really, really, really, really proud of. I never thought that, you know, at one point I would be doing trainings and I really think that the perseverance around the um training sessions what was what eventually inspired me to run the online course because at some point with the two-week trainings I decided that oh my god even five hours it's just not enough for me to say what I want to say, and I feel like there's just so much more that I can share, and, you know, if that could be a way where, you know, my students don't exactly have to join the live class, but they can really log in and look out for the information that they need, you know, wouldn't that be a great idea, and

that's how the, basically, the Corporate Survivor Online Course idea sort of popped in. So, yeah, so really, really proud of my trainings. And I think that the trainings really helped me to also improve my public speaking. And, yeah, you know, for an introvert, it's not really easy to step out of my comfort zone to speak very naturally. And in case you guys don't know you guys are

wondering i don't i don't have a script for any of my stuff it's just really candid and i speak what's on my mind all the time so um thank you for your patience to listen to listen to my podcast episodes without a script so thank you so much um anyway let's move on to the fifth defining moment for me. And I think this is a realization that I made this year in terms of really connecting with people who I really gel with and I really vibe with. And the people who I really vibe with, honestly,

are corporate professionals working in 9-to-5 jobs. It doesn't matter if it's a big, medium-sized or small company. But I feel like people who work in corporates are people who I understand them, they understand me. Because even though I'm a career coach right now, I can just say that I am a corporate junkie at heart. And I feel like these are the people who I can truly understand them better. And yeah, we're able to have a really great conversation. And more importantly, these are the people that I can truly understand them better and yeah we are able to have a really great conversation and more importantly these are the people that I can truly help because when I first started on LinkedIn or rather creating content obviously I've been on LinkedIn since

2012 so it's been a long time but in terms of like creating content it was something that I started doing in yeah 1st January 2020 but during that time i had about 400 connections because i had those connections when i was in corporate but i grew really really fast in the first year so somehow i think a lot of people just resonated with a lot of my sharing and i grew from 400 connections to i think about 11 000 connections at the end of the year but in terms of the connections it was just a mixed bag right so it's a jumble of corporate professionals it was business people it could also be I don't know a bunch of people a bunch of people but I found that I couldn't really have like a lot of good conversations I find of course right I mean having

a lot of connections there were a lot of like random cheers hey find. Of course, right, I mean, having a lot of connections, there were a lot of, like, random cheers, like, hey, you did a good job, you did a good job, but no real deep conversations, I felt, and that's why this year, 2021, something that I was a little bit more, I guess, cautious of was to really build connections with people who I gel with. So even though this year, I didn't really grow, I guess, as fast as last year.

I think this year, as of today, I think I have about almost 17,000 followers. And obviously, you know, I didn't grow as much as 2020, but I feel like the quality of conversations are getting better.

And I feel like, you know, as people say, your vibe, your tribe, right? Yeah, so I'm really, really happy about that. Yeah, I'm still, it's still very mind-blowing that so many people resonated with my, you know, resonate with my career insights,

my corporate experiences, and really follow my content every single day. And the past few days, I've really been sending out a lot of happy holiday, you know, and happy new year wishes to all my connections. And surprisingly, there were a lot of um silent readers and if you're a silent reader or you're a silent watcher or you're a silent

listener you'll be really really great if you could just drop me a message and tell me that you have been you know watching this podcast you've been listening to this podcast or even even reading my blogs i really really appreciate that because what I learned from sending possibly thousands of holiday wishes over the past couple of days is, hey, you guys are all silent readers because there were a lot of people who never ever commented on my post,

never ever replied to any of my messages. They came back with really, really lovely wishes and they told me that they've been following me for some time and even my free content managed to help them get a job or help them, you know, to become top performer. And there were just a lot of amazing

stories that they shared with me in the DMs, which I am really, really, really happy to hear. So if you're a silent listener or even a silent watcher, don't be, don't be. Send me a message so that I know that you really gain a lot and you learn a lot from a lot of my podcast episodes. And this is really episode 99.

Never once did I think that starting this podcast in February 2020 is something that I would really persevere on with so many episodes. So that's definitely something that i'm really proud as well so other things that didn't quite make the top five biggest moments were like i said the fact that this podcast even survived beyond the first few episodes is something that i am extremely proud of um today's episode 99 and i do have something really special for episode 100 so make sure you check out check that out which is going to be the first episode for season 3 episode 100 and i'm going to be sharing a little bit more about my personal story that a lot of my connections have been asking me but i didn't really feel comfortable

sharing up till i guess this point so keep a lookout for that one and other things that um defined my 2021 but didn't quite make the list is i moved to a new place so i'm in a new home right now which i really really love and as you can see if you're watching this on video i have a new studio which i absolutely love i think everything looks amazing and now i feel like i have a proper office space so that i can really create content i can give my clients and my students a much better experience because everything looks so beautiful everything everything is amazing everything's upgraded I upgraded a lot of stuff and yeah because I think the client and student experience really matter a lot to me the other thing that I really really

love is my new microphone so if you're listening to this right now, do you love the sound quality better than the previous one? I hope that you do because I absolutely love it. Then aside from that, yeah, aside from the other, I guess, live updates, I bought another car. I bought another Beetle. If you guys don't know i'm actually a beetle lover like the volkswagen beetle i want to collect like so many of them but anyway

that's that is a completely unrelated note but anyway um if you have stuck with me since day one of me being a career coach. I sincerely thank you. Thank you so much for supporting me. Thank you so much for reading my content. Thank you so much for listening to my podcast. Thank you so much for watching my videos. And I look forward to really helping you further in your career in the next year and hopefully set you up for success as you go on your career in the next year and hopefully set you up for success

as you go on your corporate career journey so i i can't be more thankful i feel so blessed i feel extremely grateful and like i said never did i expect that anybody would bother you know listening to me so extremely extremely blessed and thank you so much so much and let's make 2022 awesome together and i will see you in the new year cheers bye