Passion Struck with John R. Miles - David Dang On The Secret to Building a Magnetic Brand EP 4

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

In today’s show, we interview Digital Marketing Specialist and Instagram Expert David Dang, who shares his distilled wisdom on the secret to building a magnetic brand.  You will learn how he discovered his superpower, which has helped him evolve into one of the most sought-after Instagram experts today. In 2006, when David moved to Canada from Vietnam, he did not speak a single English word. Over the years, he overcame this handicap by listening to audiobooks. This is what stoked his passion for personal development and business.   David was quick to realize that he was not cut out of corporate America. And while he was keen on starting his business, he had to find something that did not require a huge capital investment. And this is when he stumbled onto online business. When David graduated with his marketing degree, he already had a flourishing eCommerce business. However, he did not monetize his Instagram for the first two years.  In this period, David shared helpful and valuable content that made him magnetic to his ideal clients.  You will learn the importance of discovering your WHY and picking your career path for the right reasons.  If you view your career as a means to an end, you will find yourself low on drive and passion sooner or later. However, if you have the right mindset and are enjoying every minute of it, you will surely find the success that you rightly deserve. Tune in for some golden nuggets! Questions that I Ask in Today’s Show How did you first get interested in your personal development? Which are some of the books that influenced your career path? What was your first job outside the university? How did you build up a massive following on Instagram even though you took an atypical path different from all other influencers? How did you manage to monetize your 2m+ following on Instagram? What tips do you have about goal-setting? How do you prioritize your different goals? How has your life changed compared to what it was when you began your journey What advice do you have for people to help them face their fears and lead a purpose-driven life? And so much more... What You Will Learn In This Show How I created a magnetic brand on Instagram Why creating helpful and valuable content is the only way to build up your Instagram following. Mindset strategies to “get your head right.” Overcoming skepticism and finding the courage to follow your own path  The power of discovering your WHY And so much more… Resources How to Win Friends and Influence People Rich Dad, Poor Dad David’s Website Follow John R. Miles Here: Website - https://passionstruck.com/​ ​​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_str​uck_life ​​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr ​​​Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles ​ ​John's Website: https://johnrmiles.com/​ - John's New eBook - The Passion Struck Framework https://passionstruck.com/coaching/ ​Follow Passion Struck on Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/iampassions​truck      

I think the hardest is always when you first started, because there's so many uncertainties when you first started, right? Because you don't know if you're going to get to the goal that you set out for yourself to be or not, and that's specifically for your passion, for inquiry aspect. You don't know if you're going to be financially stable or not, you don't know if you're going to make enough money to sustain yourself and you don't know you're gonna get anywhere with that whatever you take your passion is Welcome to the PassionStruck podcast. My name is John Miles, a former combat veteran and

multi-industry CEO, turned entrepreneur and human performance expert. Each week we showcase an inspirational person and message that helps you unlock your hidden potential and unleash your creativity and leadership abilities. Thank you for spending time with me today and let's get igniting! Music Welcome to the PassionStruck podcast.

I am so excited today to have David Ding here from Winnipeg, Canada for the show. David is the creator of Entrepreneur Facts. He started by creating an Instagram page for his own personal growth. And now listen to this, sharing it to over 2 million followers. He runs a marketing agency that helps entrepreneurs and businesses who want to build an audience on Instagram, establish authority and build leads. He considers that his superpower is to impact the world by helping entrepreneurs get their message out to those whose lives will be changed by it. Oh my gosh, I am so excited about this episode today with David.

And there is so much here to unpack. He goes through his personal story, encourage, about the unlock, his own passion journey. What it is that is his superpower and what made it his superpower. He gives his number one secret out on how you can increase your own following on Instagram and so much more. There is so much to listen here for you to apply in your own life. Tony Robbins said success is doing what you want to do when you want it, where you want

it, and with whom you want, as much as you want. And I thought this was a great backdrop for our guest today. I'm thrilled today to have David Deng, who is passion struck about helping entrepreneurs deliver their messages to those lives they will impact. I first met David through Instagram and was really taken aback by his quotes in inspiration that he shared.

The more I got to see his posts, the more I thought he would be a great guest. David, thank you so much for joining us today. Hi, yeah, my pleasure. Well, David, the purpose of our show is to help others understand how to unlock their hidden potential at a night and prioritize their passion journeys. And as I was reading your background,

I saw that you first got interested in personal development in your teenage years. Can you tell me how? Yeah, it started pretty spontaneous, random, I suppose. I think it all started around when was 16, 17 years old. So that's about a day to go. And back then, that's when I first got my iPod Touch in back then I had trouble sleeping when I sleep, I prefer to listen to some audio, have some sound, some noise in the background

and then I usually have the TV on in the background, but then one day some reason I decided okay, let's not, why not subscribe, some book. And that's when we got my first iPod touch. We downloaded an audio book on my iPod. And yeah, I look through the catalog of audio books, available audio books. And I see the section, self-help. And as it goes through there, through there, I take a look at a couple of books. And I remember one of the book, one of the first books I listened to was from Tony Robbins. It's unlimited. Unlocked. Unlimited power.

I had unlimited power, awakened the giant within. I don't want to know. So I don't remember exactly which one. And then yeah, that's pretty much how I started to get into personal development, self-help, just by listening to audio work in the background before I go to bed. That's kind of sparked my interest in it. And then from there on, I just started reading more books, find out more about the self-help word, and, yeah, start educating myself from there. So, back, you know, going back to your teenage years,

what were you interested in back then? I was a really normal kiss, to be honest. Like I like video game back then, 10 years ago, like I used to, like all, most kids nowadays, I would play video games all day, literally, easily 10 hours a day, easily. So I was like hardcore gamer. But then for some reason, like any normal kid I play sport, I go to school and hang out

with friends as well. But the funny thing is that once I started to get into self-help, for some reason I completely stopped playing video games. At one point I just suddenly realized, why do I waste all my time playing all these video games? I get nothing at the end of the day. In the game, I could be really good, very successful in the game interior, but then in real life, it does nothing to me.

And yeah, just one day I just decided, okay, I'm done video game. I don't want to play anymore. And I just stopped playing like at that moment. Like I stopped playing video game. I don't want to play anymore and I just stop playing like like at that moment Like I stopped playing video game Almost completely like now I don't play that small game on my phone the couple minutes here And there's a in my three times is to relax and stuff, but like I just stop Playing video game completely once I realize that like I'm like, okay, it's sort of of like what's my time I don't get any value from it some reason is that helped me so yeah

that that was the type of kid I used to be back in my teenager years yeah I know you're in Winnipeg now is that where you grew up? no I actually immigrated to Canada in 2006 so I was about 12 years old back then I immigrated to Canada in 2006. So I was about 12 years old back then. I immigrated from Vietnam. And when I moved here, I didn't speak any English at all. I'm sure we can probably tell by its accent and the way how I speak.

Yeah, I didn't speak a single word of English. It's been a long journey for me. I see when I look back at it. It's been a long journey. So I I see when I look back at it. It's been a long journey Yeah, so I moved to Canada when I was 12 years old and it's been yeah a long time now And so when you were listening to those self-help books were you doing it in Vietnamese? Are you doing it in English? Yeah, when it first started actually it was in Vietnamese. Yeah, so My first couple actually most of them was in Vietnamese. I started

listening to English audio book, I guess, two or three years after when I started university where I guess that's when I started to listen to more English audio books. And if anything, I say audio books completely changed my life because as a kid, I most get in a Zanay, I hated reading. I don't read books at all. So yeah, audiobooks really got me into it. That's what really changed everything for me. And then later on when I see the value of reading books, I started to be more interested in physical books. And you can see I have a small book set which is a couple of books, not a lot, but yeah, that's my story.

Well, I like the story because I wrote with a learning deficiency myself. And so I have a hard time learning by seeing things. And so for me, auditory learning is the way that my mind works and so for me whether it's a podcast or an audiobook or or something like that I can see the visual things but the audio really helps the back it up so I'm a believer in and that as well. So do you still use the audiobooks? And I'm sure. Yeah, I have an audio book now. And I go and get an audiobook every month. And yeah, sometimes if it would take me an unnavigable, it's about, I guess, eight to 10 hours. But if I were to read a physical book,

it would take me at least twice as much, 20 hours to finish that same book in the physical form. But sometimes when I listen to an audio book, if I really, really like the book, I was at the physical book and then reread it again in the physical form. So that's something I do. I don't know. It helped me to, I guess, internalize the knowledge in the book better by reading, actually reading it, but listen to it will help me consume it faster. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you.

I do a similar technique. I will listen to it. And oftentimes, I'll buy the physical book as well. And I like to get out my highlighter, and if I hear a part, I'll go to the physical book and well. And I like to get out my highlighter, and if I hear a part, I'll go to the physical book and I'll highlight it. And then for me, I like to go back to the book and look at those specific segments.

Yes, that's the main part. For me, the main part of physical book is to go back into a certain section that I remember. I say every book like maybe years ago, and then as a neat, I remember a concept of the book that I need for my said, I read books like maybe years ago and then as it need, I remember a concept of the book that I need for my business or whatever I'm doing at that particular moment. Okay, I need to go back.

But all the work is a bit harder for you to pinpoint that is sec location and then go to that section and then just to listen to the part you want to listen, right? So it's a bit harder that way. So a physical book, you have the book there. You can just flip through pages and find that section and then read that section. It's just easier that way. Okay, and did that, did any of those books inspire

your direction in college? I think you went and you got a marketing degree if I'm correct. Yes, I graduated from the University of Manitoba with a marketing and entrepreneurship degree. And definitely, yeah, the books, those books definitely picked the major for me. One of the books, I guess, I think the two biggest books that influenced my decision to go into business was of how to win friends and influence people and reached out to that. So the first one was from Dale Kanichi. I, it's one of the first book I, I think,

I think I actually read that one. Like, I read the e-book. Now, I didn't listen to the audiobook on that. I actually read the e-book of that one. And because of the audit, most of the sample in the book were business related. So I can then what it got me thinking, okay, yeah, I actually kind of like business, the examples in the book kind of is kind of interesting and cool.

So it got that thinking in me, okay, business seemed interesting and back then at that age, everyone we all thinking, okay, what kind of career should we pick, right? And it kind of implant the seat in me to become a business person. Also, the second book is Rich Dad Pull That, I'm sure is the past. A lot of people have read it. Yeah, let's talk about financial freedom, investing, and then of course,

a lot of our business as well. So that's the second book that got me thinking, okay, I kind of want to be a businessman. But actually in my first year of university, I actually went into psychology because I guess how to win friends and influence people has talked a lot. It's more about psychology than business. So I'm like, okay, I like psychology. It's going to that. But after the first year, I switched into business because I realized, okay, I like psychology. It's going to that. But after the first year, I switched into business because I realized, okay, I prefer to do business better. And yeah, that's how I picked my major. That was how I picked my major. Yeah.

So when you when you started and interestingly enough, I've got a 22 year old son and he's got a he just graduated with a business degree but a specialization in marketing. And it was interesting to watch his journey to getting his first job, which is at a digital agency. What was your first job outside of the university? Yeah, so during the years in university, I actually had different type of jobs.

I've done door-to-door sales, I work in retails, I work like a bunch of different type of job. And one of those was to work in a corporate environment in the Tbilicalp. I was working for the government here of my city and it was for actually a year and a half. Then I spent there both full time in the summer, part time during the year. The job was great, people were great, but I couldn't help but hated it for some reason. As it can stand the feeling of sitting in a cubicle every day, doing the same thing over and over again. And then stick with a routine. I have to wake up early, and then take the bus, go to work, and then sit there until 430, and then go home. The routine is really tedious for me. And then I just know that,

okay. And also with all the influence of the books I was reading, especially Rich Gapro, there. If after you read that book, I think nobody really wanted to work a job anymore. So it's kind of, in me, like, embrace, I was already embracing the idea of being my own boss, start my own business. So I knew by then that, okay, I do not want to job after school.

Like, that's would be my last, my plan B, my last case near, if I could not figure out what to do after that, then the worst case near, okay, I'll get a job, work for a couple of years, and then pick out my own way to start my own business later. So, having a job was definitely not like a good plan for me. Then in my, that's also why I started entrepreneurship

as well with the whole, the point of that I was to start my own business later, right? So and then in my last year of university, before I graduate, okay, I knew that, okay, next year, I'm graduating next year, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna start my business or get a job? And of course, I don't like, I didn't like the idea of getting my job.

So I need to figure out a business. What kind of business will I start? And back then, I didn't feel like I was ready to start an actual business on my own. Because well, as a student, they have much experience in time of starting a startup or starting a business where it would be the one who's running it, put my own money in potentially risk losing it. So I thought, okay, at one year left to figure

out something that would be safe enough for me to take the risk on before I have to get a job. So like most kids nowadays, I went online, I went on Google, the first thing I searched was how to start a business online. And as it went along, you know, with the flow, it looked through a bunch of pages, reading a bunch of stuff, listened to podcasts, and it's funny that one of the podcasts, I listened to a podcast where the guy, one of the guests, he was, he started a business making multiple sick figures completely off Instagram and It hit me. Okay. That's sound very interesting. Why don't I try that and back then I didn't even have an Instagram account It was my first time ever create. I started to create an Instagram account on that day and

years later So by the by the so a year later by the time I actually, I didn't even even monetize that into account. It was entrepreneurship facts. It's still running now has two million followers. But when it first started, the first two years or so. So say that again, you said, how many followers does it have? Two million over two million followers right now. So and one of the things I just want to pause there, because one of the things that grabbed me when I started, you know, understanding more about your background is,

you're not the typical influencer that I'm accustomed to seeing on Instagram. And I don't mean to put it into a full shake, but a lot of times it's, you know, people that are pushing products whether it's clothing or you know different types of items it's those types of things and you took a completely different path which I think which really I thought was was unique. Thank you. So what made you decide to take that that approach and what was your specific goal at the time? Well, I guess this is a quickly summarized my story. So yeah, by the time I got to university then I was already making more than a full-time income, doing my e-commerce stuff.

I was doing a bit of eat, drop shipping, e-commerce and a bunch of other online business, online stuff that making me money, that was a little more than a full-time income. So by then, I didn't need to get a job because if I were to get a job with my marketing degree, because I don't know if you could really get a job with entrepreneurship degree, but with marketing, I would be making less than what I was making back then. So I'm like, okay, I'm good now. I don't need to get a job.

My goal succeeded. I accomplished my goal for myself. I don't need to get a job. And then how did that feel like? What were you thinking about at that point? Were you like? Of course, it feel great because that was the goal that I set for myself, right?

So yeah, it's, if you're great, but then of course, as human, we always want to strive forward, set higher goal for ourselves. We, it doesn't matter what you do, by the time you achieve your whatever you think that is your ultimate goal when you got it, you will want something else higher. So pretty quickly, I get over that and then I set higher goal for myself. And what was the question you asked of my approach to how I monetized my... Well, no, what, you know, why did you finally, you know, how did you come up with this approach

and what was it that made you finally give this approach a try? Honestly, it was mainly because I didn't know how to monetize it, to be honest. And part of the reason why I pay was of course to eventually be a business around it afterwards. But when it first started, I created a content with intent that because I only create shared content that I'm interested that I feel that that is valuable to me. It's like I like self-help. I like motivation. I like

inspirational calls and interesting facts about business and entrepreneurship. So I just share those things on their account. And is it took off from there? People start following. And I just didn't know what to do. How to monetize it. And then, yeah, that's mainly why I didn't monetize it. In my first two years of starting that town. I think that's also how attracted people to stop following me. Yeah, that was that's how it came up with the approach.

Well, it's interesting because, you know, as I've written my book and then you start going to the publishers, you get into this chicken in the egg scenario because they want you to have a large following before you publish the book, but in order to get the large publishing or the large following, sometimes you want the book so you can use it to get the followers to join. Yes, I absolutely, but I don't think it's necessary either way words is this which approach you want.

So if you want to get the following first before you get your book published, there's a way to do it without requiring a book. It's not. And if you want to do the other way, it's just different approach, depending on which would say you, which approach you pick right so each of them has different methods to accomplish that goal. Yeah and you know with your marketing background I you know with the clients we work with one of the hardest things that a lot of them have to go through is how to you know some, some of them have light up a successful career before, some of them were like at your point where they're just starting out. And it's, you know, one of the biggest things is how do

you create your personal brand? You know, how, you know, what were some of the steps that you took at that point to get yourself out there? Because you said it took about two years. Yeah. So, I mean, it took me two years to build the entrepreneurship fact page and it wasn't a personal brand. I was behind that count. I says create content, share the content, collect the content,

curate content and share it on that account and then people if they like it, they follow the account to to see more of content. And I guess your question is how do you get more people to follow you? Right? By writing a personal brand, how to get people to know you and follow you? Really, the only... Here's the secret, the big secret to get people to follow you. Not on Instagram, but any type of social media platform. The only secret, the number one secret is to have content that people want to see

and want to see more of it. That's it. If people like your content and they want to see more of it, of course, they're going to follow you to see more of it, right? That's really the only secret. So now from when you know that, then I guess one of the good, I don't remember where I learned this one, but one of the secrets to success is to ask yourself the right question. So when you ask yourself the right question, you will be able to unlock all the secrets to success.

So the first, so now let's say, how do you create, how do you get more followers, how to get people to follow your social media, right? So I'm going to tell you ask yourself the question, why should people follow you? Well, when you can answer that, then you know how to get people to follow you. Give people a reason to follow you through your content. What can you do to your target audience that will get them to be interested in following your account? What do they get out of it?

Think of it this way. I like to think of it as creating content is like a business transaction what you're selling is your content and What your what your target audience pay you is not with money, but they pay you attention that's the currency So you still your content in a chain for their attention. That's that's really the business that you're in right? So what kind of content do they want to see right now? What kind of content that is searching for?

What kind of content, if it scroll through Instagram, Facebook, or whatever social media platform that you want to grow in, as they scroll through, what will stop them and be like, okay, hey, I have this problem right now. This person is delivering the content that's helping me with that problem. Whether I'm just more really bored at home, I have nothing to do and then the content is really funny and entertaining. You're solving a problem for that person and then they're going to pay you, not money, but they pay you attention. And then if your content is good, they want to see more of that

content in the future. They're going to follow you. That's really it. There's no secret. see more of that content in the future, they're gonna follow you. That's really it. There's no secret. Okay, so how's that answer you question? So when you asked yourself that question, what answer did you come up with? What was the content?

What would make people want to follow you? Okay, so what make people follow me is because they guess they want inspiration, because for me, I believe the key to success is the mindset. Once you have the right mindset, everything else will take care of itself. I guess some people will say, okay,

yeah, you can spend all your time on a mindset stop, but if you don't take action, nothing gonna manifest or actualize itself in the real world. Sure, action is important, but I would argue that if you have the right mindset, you will start taking action. The reason why you're not taking action is because, but I would argue that if you have the right mindset, you will start taking action. The reason why you're not taking action is because you don't have the right mindset, yeah. Because as human, we don't want to do anything that's meaningless to us.

Like, have you ever been in, like, if you're hungry, are you just gonna sit there and not do anything, not find food? Because if you're hungry, you're to go and take action, right? Because we will take action. However, we need a reason. We need a reason, a purpose, some meaning to take that action. Because we don't want to do anything meaningless. That doesn't give us any value without any reason. So if the reason you're not taking action is because you don't really

understand what you're doing, why you're not taking action is because you don't really understand what you're doing, why you're doing that, what is for yet. If you really have the right mindset and there's perspective, whatever that is, you're trying to accomplish, you will start taking action. So whatever you're liking, I truly believe, is star success truly begins with the mindset. If you have the right mindset, you'll start taking action. You know what to do. You know the right question to ask yourself and figure out what step was to do next.

And then you will be very excited, motivated, inspired to take the action. You don't need anybody to push you to take the action. If you have the right mindset and the right perspective at the problem that you're trying to solve, I take it on the side track of your question, but... No, I think it was great. And it's, you know, in the methodology I use, it's the first step. You know, I think the hardest thing to do to get yourself on your, you know, your momentum journey

is you've got to start. And that's the hardest thing for some people to do and I kind of liken it to you know think of yourself in a car and you imagine you don't have social media and you get stuck in this car and it's only you on the road I mean you've got really two options either you can decide you're gonna wait for someone however long that's gonna take to come by and hope they're gonna help you and so you're you're kind of then dependent on that person and not yourself, or you can get out of the car and you can start taking action. And that action maybe you start pushing it and at first it's really hard, but eventually you'll get your momentum going. And then, you know, it may feel like you're on an uphill at first and then it becomes a flat road and eventually

you know as you keep getting momentum going and you're pursuing it kind of like you said then it gets easier and easier with time but that those at starting point of getting yourself out of the mindset you're in and Getting into the mindset where it needs to be takes action and it takes commitment. So with all those things about finding the audience, now you had this audience, but you weren't making money off of that audience, what was that trigger point where you started to figure out how to monetize? Oh, I was, I mean, I just didn't make much money

with the Instagram cam, but I was really making money with my auto stuff because I guess I did some or e-commerce stuff, drop shipping, and then yeah, an Amazon selling products on Amazon. So I was making money with my auto businesses. So I didn't care much about Instagram. So I didn't, so the Instagram. So I didn't, sort of, first two years, I just didn't bother to just really spend much time

figure out how to monetize it. But then when I started, I think the breaking point was about, I got to 100,000 followers. I thought, okay, I have quite a substantial audience now. Let's figure out how to monetize this thing. Let's figure out what I can do with it. So yeah, that's what's the point where, that's what's about two years in, took me two years to get to that 100,000 followers. And that's when I start focusing on,

on, okay, let's turn this into a business. And also because I didn't only much of a passion or purpose for the e-commerce stuff, because essentially, as it buy product and resale to all people at high price, I didn't feel any meaning in doing that. Sure, I make some money. Not a lot. Just, I mean, enough for me to be financially independent, but I wasn't making mail or anything. Even not in safe figures, put those business back there.

So I didn't feel motivated on those business. I'm like, okay, I'm really like this Instagram account. I get to inspire people, share some sort of knowledge, not some of my noise, but mostly other people's noise. I curated and share share with my audience. So I find more of a meaning in doing it. So I put a focus into it about two years, about two, three years ago. Yeah, that was the point where I put a focus into it about two years, about two, three years ago. Yeah, that was the point where I put my focus on monetizing my audience. Did you know that Forbes Magazine recently cited that over 70% of individuals who did

personal development courses, masterminds, or one-on-one coaching, benefited from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. Here at PassionStruck, we are obsessed with self-development, coaching, and mentorship. That is why we've created a free resource to help you unlock your hidden potential because people doing great things in business and life are just like you.

They have just gotten some coaching along the way. And we have got you covered so you can too. Let us show you the systems and frameworks that we teach, growth-minded individuals, to help them to unlock their purpose and live and build a passion-struck life that gets predictable results and gives you the freedom that you actually want. Go to passionstruck.com slash coaching right now to get started. Okay, and so how did you go about finding your superpower? Because your superpower, the way I read it, is really helping others reach an audience that wants to consume what they're selling.

Maybe I'm saying it the wrong way, but that's my interpretation. reach an audience that wants to consume what they're selling. Maybe I'm saying it the wrong way, but that's my interpretation. I guess it was quite apparent to me that it's not that I'm sitting around. So the superpower, it didn't happen to me as I sit around and think, okay, yeah, I want to be, help people share their message on social media. I didn't just sit and think, okay, and then is it hit me? No, it didn't happen that way.

It happened because first, I was in university, I just want to explore with all my businesses and then all my marketing and then I just start, okay, it was kind of cool to start on Instagram account to build an audience. I was interested and I'm interested in that, in those activities, right, to be an audience of so and I do it because simply because I had fun doing it. I enjoyed it. It was in my

interest in doing it. I didn't need to be paid. I started the Instagram account, seemed, okay, I like business. I like the idea of eventually be a business around it, but I didn't care whether or not it will succeed or not. I have been fun sharing motivational content and business content on Instagram. It was fun for me. I start doing it and then people start following me. They like the content and then when I buy, okay, I have this skill set, I have this ability, I have this audience that do something with it. It's very clear to me. My superpower is to be an audience, to help people build a personal brand, to be an audience, to spread their message. So, I guess I would phrase it as, it's quite obvious to me that's my superpower by then. I didn't sit around and think about what

my superpower is. Is there, is built, developed over time based on my curiosity and my interest. And then it just happened, okay, this is my silver power. I hope you make that. Yeah, so I think it's an important point because, you know, whether it's Simon Sennick or some or other people that are out there, there are lots of people who talk about, you know, the importance of finding your why. But you, you know, what you just went through, I think, is a, is a very realistic and important lesson. And that is, it doesn't happen overnight. For some, it could take decades for others, it could take years. But for you, it was like a number

of things had aligned, but they were aligning because of the work that you've been doing before that. And so it reached a point for you that it just became very apparent. Yes. So if anything, and it is my life purpose, is this something I'm gonna do forever? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. Like I'm still learning new things every day. Like the way how I'm posting is that I would never, because I guess I'm still learning new things every day. The way how I approach things is that I would never, because I guess I'm quite, I enjoy philosophy a lot. So it seemed like

a lot of people we do, almost all of us, we do everything. The more we grow older, the more we do things based on, we do things as a mean to achieve certain ends. Like, I'm gonna start business because I want to be rich to have lots of money. So the end is to be rich. The mean is to start business. But then they don't even like starting a business. They don't even like running a business. They don't even like the aspects, the tasks, the daily tasks of running a business. They only want the money. So they get themselves into something that they don't even enjoy doing so that they can get something

that they think they want. And they premise and set themselves up for failure. Because think about it. Just start, just start something. You don't even enjoy doing because you want something, right? But if you don't enjoy it, you're not going to get to the end point. If you don't enjoy the process. So how I approach thing is instead of thinking of the end point, to me, the end point is that bonuses, the end point to me is the thing I'm going to do by itself. So the end point is with my Instagram account was not to make a lot of money. The end point was I was curious and learning about building an audience, about marketing, about personal branding. And then I was just curious about the possibility of studying an online business. I enjoyed that process. That endpoint. By me starting doing it, I already achieved my goal. I have get to my endpoint by doing those things because I enjoyed it.

I follow my curiosity, my interest, that my interest, and I was doing it because it's fun. I already got my endpoint. And then anything afterwards is just bonuses on top of my enjoyment of doing the things already. So what was the question again? Sorry, I was kind of... No, no, no, no. I want to stick on this point just for a sec, because I think you're picking up something great. I am in my book, I have a chapter on this, it's called Being Turtle Effect. And I wrote about Elon Musk and some of the times I've gotten to meet him. And I think he's one of the best at perfecting what you're saying, because he will, the difference between a being a turtle is a turtle is very methodical

about what they're doing and they're really looking at the long-term output, like you're saying. And the B is very much all about the daily inputs that it's taking to achieve their goal. And I think what you need to do is figure out how you achieve them both with a mixture. And Elon Musk has been great at it because his long-term goal, saving humanity from itself, but he is developing all these companies that are each creating different outputs. But the way he breaks it down is he really thinks about what do we need to get done in a day, you know, in a week in a month to move forward on that path. And that's, and I think what you're saying is exactly right. People put these ultimatums out. I want to be rich. I want to be, I want to, I want to lose 40 pounds. I want to do this. I want to do that. And they don't really think about the daily inputs

that you have to take along that way. And I think what you said is a great one. Just by starting, you would succeed it in achieving a goal. Yeah. And that's what I think you got to do. Yeah, because we all have different goals. We have a lot of goals. Sure, we wanted to make lots of money,

but we also want to have the freedom to work wherever you want. We also want to, I don't know, do things that we enjoy, create the creative, artistic. We also want to, I don't know, we want a lot of things. So instead of like, okay, I want this one thing that you have a bunch of things that I don't even enjoy doing to hopefully get that one thing, that's sure, that's one approach of doing it.

And the approach I like to take is, why not let you a bunch of things that I already want to do now, that I can do now. And then, align that with the thing that I also want, but require more effort that is require more work, longer, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger than I want, that cannot be done right away. Because if you want to

make awesome money it's not going to happen overnight. It's a kind right or if you want to get sick pack apps it's not going to happen overnight you can not just get it now it's a big go that in the future so instead of doing a bunch of things to hate align all the things that you already want to do that can't happen right now easily align Align that to the thing that you want that require more work. So you would say one thing, you pretty much a tip all your goals in didn't say one thing. Yeah, I mean, you know, once you have all those things out there, you're really going to start prioritizing them because you can't do all of them at one time. Of course, you cannot do all at one time. So what I'm saying is that instead of

instead of want to make a lot of money with the exist to make a lot of money, I will align that. Okay, I also like online marketing. I also like running businesses. I also like learning about businesses. Just learning about businesses. Then I align that with make lots of money.

I achieve all those goals. I aligned that into one straight line. Does it make sense? I like to say, you want to work out, like, want to get sick pack apps for example. Maybe you don't like to work out the process, the work out working out itself. Okay, but you like to hang out with your friend, hang out with your buddy. Why don't you align that? Okay, I can work out with my buddy. I got that hang out things with my buddy down. Just by working out, I already achieved my goal. And then getting a sick pack app, that's the big goal that requires more work. But then by by meeting my ones up hanging out with my friend, I will get to that sick fat ass girl as well. Does it make sense? Yep, the totaling makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it, you might as well play to your strengths and do the things you enjoy because... Exactly. That's what you're going to do anyways. Exactly. You're going to do it anyway. So is it

aligned with your, would you end up going with a bigger goal? Yeah, I mean, that's like for me, if you put me in a job where you want me to be in a accountant and work on spreadsheets every single day, for me, I'm not going to be excited about that. Exactly. And so you can always hire that out for someone else to do, or, you know, for me, I just never pursued that as a career path. Well, I have to ask you this. So you're early into your career, you discovered the superpower. And I think you brought up another good point. And that is so much about our self-identities

made up by the things around us, be it social media accounts, friends, family, that anyone trying to scourge you from continuing at this point. At this point, no, but when I first started, I think the hardest is always when you first started because there's so many uncertainties when you first started, right? Because you don't know if you're gonna get to the goal that you set out for yourself to be or not. And that's specifically for your passion, for inquiry aspect.

You don't know if you're gonna be financially stable or not. You don't know if you're gonna make enough money to sustain yourself and you don't know if you're gonna get anywhere with that, whatever you think your passion is. And of course, people would discourage you. And why do, so from my case, when I first graduated from university, the people around me, including my parents, the people who are closest to me, my parents, my uncle,

and even some of my friends as well around me, but why don't you go get a job? And there's a different understanding. Like, to the outsider,? And like, they just didn't understand it. Like, to the outsideer, it seemed like I'm just sitting at home doing nothing. And then it's like, doesn't even make money. So of course, it will affect you in your thinking. Like, okay, am I doing this the right thing?

Like, it will make you feel insecure. You don't know if your decision is right or not, right? Of course, it will happen. And but really, if you truly believe what you want, like if you have to write mindset to it, because I had quite a strong foundation of my mindset back then already, because I read all the books, self-help books, to help me build a very solid mindset.

I really know what I want to do. And I was willing to look back in their eyes for the first year or so, so that I cannot cheat to my goal. So yeah, I was able to get through it because I really understand what I want. And also because I was doing it because I was having fun.

I enjoy it anyway. It would be much harder if you're doing something you hate. Like, yeah, I'm gonna start this business. I have no interest in. I hate it every time you do something, you feel it's like a chore, you don't even enjoy it. But then the only reason you're doing it because all of people online told you

that you would make a lot of money. And then the people around you were like, are you doing like start to be skeptical about the things you do? It'd be much harder. Like, why do I spend my day today doing the things that I don't even enjoy doing? And then everyone around me is just asking me questions, be skeptical. They look there on me or whatever. It'd be much harder. But if you do something that you really enjoy doing, you, like, then you would treat like, hey, I'm just doing this.

In my free time, I was rather to this than watching Netflix or play video games. This is something I would do for fun in my free time anyway. So it would be much easier for you to get through that if you're doing something that you enjoy already. Exactly. My son, it's interesting because he's, he happens to be a gamer like he used to be. And he also likes to play music and do other things.

And, you know, we were having, it's been great to having him now be in the workforce because he's asking me questions that I can relate, help him with. And, you know, one of them he said is, it was kind of funny. It was, he came from his, his, his work job. And he said, you know, I'm not finding the time to do the things that I'm passionate about. And I'm like, I'm like, listen to what you just, you just said to me, you know, because what you are passionate

about is what you should be spending your time doing. Yes. Exactly. So it for me, it was just, it was a great learning opportunity because it got him to start thinking about things differently. I'm like if, you know, playing your piano and writing songs is where you have passion, you know, time is malleable. And we spend it on what is most important, but if that is important to you, then you know, make that the priority of booking that time in. Yes. Because yeah, I just freshened to me that how some people, if given, they have the opportunity

to do so. Like, why would people spend time doing the thing that they hate they don't like doing, just so that they could have the weekends? Well, I guess some, of course, it's hard. Some people they have built to pay, they have mortgage, of course. So, I guess to those people, I guess the only suggestion I have should work your job, enough to pay the bill, and then in your free time instead of watching Netflix, sitting around do nothing, spend the time to do the things that you enjoy doing, but figure out a way to align that with your big goal with financial stability as well. How can you do the thing that you enjoy doing so that you could replace your job. But some people,

they don't need to do that. Some people, if you enjoy your job, you're okay with your job. Sure, do that. And then on a weekend, do whatever that you want to enjoy. But if you absolutely hate your job, you cannot stand it. You don't want to do it. An option is, sure, work that job to get your build pace. Then in your free time, spend that due to things you enjoyed to do, and then learn how you can want to typeize it. Yeah, and I, and he really does enjoy his job and he's having fun with it, but I think it was the life lesson of when, you know, we all have so much time, and it's how you apply that time, that matters, and what you do with's how you apply that time that matters and what you do with it. And that's that was the lesson I was trying to give them. So, so you you've accomplished

all all these things you've gotten the business going, what was that that event like how did you know you'd finally succeeded and what was that moment like for you? You find this superpower and then you employ it. How did you know that it was working? It was working I mean working because result right I got the people stuff fallingly on social media both my business account and my personal account So clearly I I can, I have the result to say that, hey, I have this skill set, I have this super power. So that's how I know. But really, you say succeed, succeed. My goal is very modest, to be honest. My goal, my initial goal was to cross like a hundred million a year then I'd be happy. That's it. I don't need to make

millions to be happy. And that's like yeah that's really that's all the goal I had. The main goal for me to me I did I did my success at being able to do the thing that I enjoyed doing and have the time to do it. Like to do the things I want to do when I want to do it. So that means just do whatever that I want to do on daily basis, because I don't, I could make more, way more money than what I'm making right now. But if I don't like the task,

the day task that I have to do to get there, then what's the point of making more money? Because if to make more money is to do the thing that I want to do, but I'm doing the thing that I don't want to do, to make more money, then what's the... Sure, I could spend that money down the road, save money, down the road, to do the thing that I enjoy later, but I'm like, well, I as a prefer to do the thing that I enjoy doing.

So, yes, I'm making quite comfortable, but not as much to my full potential. I know I could make more, but as it rather spend the time to do that I enjoy doing more at this stage in my life, I just prefer to spend more time learning reading books about philosophy, business, marketing, and then, yes, to me, that's how I define success, being able to do the things that I want to do at this point in my life. Gotcha. I have something that I want to do right now.

And that's how I know that I'm successful, in that sense. OK, yeah, I'd add, you know, one, and it was interesting. A couple of years ago, I got to hear Sarah Blakely speak the founder of Spanx. And she was kind of going on this linear path similar to you. And it reached an inflection point where she was, she found that her day had been, was getting consumed not by doing the things that she loved,

which was like the branding and the design, but by all these other things. And, you know, she was in this huge rut, she was feeling depressed, and she was like, at that moment, I realized the most important thing I got to do is find someone who can take care of things I hate to do. Yes. And so she ended up hiring like a COO who, you know, a partner who helped her with that,

and then, you know, the rest of the history kind of, it kind of took off. But I definitely get with what you're saying. Well, so what is your life, you know, so you've, you know, you've got these millions of followers, you've got this successful business, you know, going back to that, quote, I mentioned at the at the beginning, you know, Tony Robbins says, success is what you want to do when you want, where you want and with whom you want, et cetera. And what's your life and lies around you like now compared to what it was like before you began your journey?

I don't think it must have changed because I'm a big deliver in passion, following your curiosity and passion. So every day, as is when I wake up, I've started thinking, what do I want today? What do I want to do today? What am I interested in? What am I curious about? And I go learn about those things and yeah, if I feel like I was going hiking, or skiing, then I would go do that. So that's, and not much different have changed.

Years ago, before I had a getting success, I have always been like that. Like, I love learning. It's one thing that I really enjoyed, learning new, absorbing new knowledge. So yeah, back then, I just spent a lot of time reading, learning, and it's pretty like normal. I'm pretty normal, like any other average person. So my life is pretty normal.

I don't think there's anything special. I just do whatever I feel like doing on a day-to-day basis. And of course, I set law. I set high goal for myself every day. And then it's the bigger goal that I say, okay, I want to get my business level. And then, yeah, I said bigger goals as well. But then I make sure that the thing the past that I do to get to those goals are the things that I want to do that I'm passionate about. That curious me, that get me interested and excited. If I don't feel excited, then I either chain my goal, change the paths at end to get to that goal. So, yeah, that's, I guess, that's my daily life. Okay. Well, yeah, so, so that's, that's great. One of the the things you keep bringing up reminds me of one of my favorite podcast host, Tom Billy

and I if he hasn't said it one time he said it probably a million times about so often people are stuck with where they are at because they don't think they have the skill sets to get to where they need to go. And you brought something up a second ago that I think speaks to that. And that is, you're trying to constantly learn. You're trying to constantly grow. And one of the things I always say is, I call them, I'm trying to inspire the underdogs

because you don't have to have the greatest education. You don't have to come from the greatest background. You don't have to come from the greatest background. You don't have to, we put so many self limiting backs around us. And I just go back to, back in my career, when I was at Lowe's, I got the task that I had to build a Tier 4 data center. And it wasn't a small data center. It was like, building was 200,000 square feet. The data center floor was know, and it wasn't a small data center. It was like, building was 200,000

square feet, the data center floor was 100,000 square feet. How much did I know about that when when I started? I'd done things smaller, but like that much. So, so you could either be so afraid to take on the task, or you do like you're suggesting and you immerse yourself into learning. And we are so blessed because there's so many outlets to learn that are right at our fingertips. So with, you know, what kind of like with that is a backdrop, you know, if you could give advice to anyone else else out there dealing with facing their fears and living their purpose, what advice would you give them? I mean the biggest advice I honestly, the one that changed my life is really a passion for learning.

I think that's really the key to, for me, I mean I don't consider myself as being successful. I'm pretty average, so, but really, the key thing that got me to where I am today is really my passion for learning. And some people might say, what if I don't like reading a hey reading, or I don't like all your book, I just don't like learning at all.

Like, I think it's a real, a limiting belief that you're imposing on yourself, I don't believe that it's true. Because if you don't like learning, it's because you haven't found the thing that you're interested in learning. Because we are all learning every single day. We are all learning something new. Like if you like video games, guess what?

By playing that video games, or you're playing something new, you're learning about the video games. You're like, hey, how do I achieve this thing in this video game? You're going to go online, you're going to search how to, like, figure out how to get whatever achievement in the video game or whatever that is. Or if you're watching movies, you spend time learning about movies every day. You research about a movie that you want to watch, or the TV show, whatever that is.

You are learning your absorbing information every single day. If you also show me that you're messaging learning, you browse through your Instagram, free.your Facebook feed, there are the calls that you read every day, that is learning, that's your absorbing information. So the difference is now you just have to be strategic about it. So figure out what you like. Just pay attention to what you're interested in. And then just build that, build a passion,

build an interest in learning, and then follow your interest, follow your, whatever that's curious to you that get you excited to learn about. When you can build that passion for learning, then I think everything else will eventually take care of itself because when you start learning, the more knowledge you have, the more the more the higher skill you will be, the more things you know, like when things happen, you know what to do with the knowledge and then you can apply it better. And this is this, everything was important to place on there.

So the first thing I think you need to do is develop that passion for learning. Yeah, that would be my biggest advice. Okay, that's a great one. I think it's very important to have routines. For instance, I follow up a pretty standard morning routine every day. Do you do you employ any routines as part of your daily habits or you're sporadic? I'm pretty random. No, actually, if anything, I hate routine. And we have to depend like, well,

anything has pro and cons and I guess it depends on how you apply it, right? But I don't really have any sort of routine to be honest. I said, wake up. I'd usually stay in bed for half an hour, check in my phone and do some light work, reading the news, do some posts on Instagram. So yeah, I guess if it is, I just spend the morning sort of like think okay

What do I want today? What do I want to do today? What kind of things that I need to get to be done today? And then I just do it. I don't I don't think I have any routine Okay, yeah So I always like to ask, yes, this question. If there's anyone you could meet, whether they're alive today or deceased, who would it be and why? If anyone I would like to meet,

I think I would like to meet the ancient philosophers, Astrochatee, like the ancient philosophers from 2000, 3000 years, from a long time ago, I like to pick their brain. Yeah, because I like philosophy and that's the main reason why I just to pick their brain to see why. Because a lot of the concept, a lot of the philosophical concept that they came up back then, a long, long time ago, still applied to the modern word. And the thing is, and a lot of the question, the funny thing is that a lot of the same question, the same problems that they have back then, even with thousand new haters,

we still haven't had the answer, we still haven't be able to figure out, to give, have a concrete answer. Like, what's the meaning of life? Why do we do what we do? What is all purpose? What is, what is all life purpose? Those are the things that we are still, each of us do trying to answer far south,

we're trying to figure out the answer far south, right? Right. Yeah, I mean, that's, I would like us to have an intellectual conversation with those people. Okay. So I wanted to ask if the listeners of the PassionStrike podcast wanted to reach out and find you work and they do that. I have my two-in-sadam account, that's where I most active on.

The first one is my personal one called I Am David Tang. So as I am David, my last name, D-A-E-M-G, I am David Tang. That's the first outlet that people can get to know more about me. That's my personal account where I share my own thoughts, my own perspective of the world. And then my business account is entrepreneurship facts. That's where I share my general motivational calls, inspiring calls, business related stuff,

entrepreneurship stuff. Though you can also follow me there as well. So those are the two main points that you can get able to reach out to me. But follow my personal account. That's all your personal account. Okay, great. And you know, one of the things that you try to help people with is how do you go from zero to a hundred thousand followers in two to three months. Correct? Yeah, so that's one of my main business right now to help entrepreneurs build a personal brand, build a following, which I briefly talk about.

Really, don't see good is to have good content and then if people see it, they like it, they follow you. Yeah, that's the business, the main thing that I'm doing right now, yeah. Okay. Well, David, thank you so much for being a part of the show today, and you shared so much wisdom on, you know, a myriad of topics from, you know, how did you find your

superpower to deploying your superpower to, you know, the one most important thing that you would, use of advice that you would give. So, you know, so much here for our listeners. Thank you so much for being here today. Yeah, my pleasure. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for having me on the show. It was a really fun talk. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome. What a great interview that was with David Deng. So much information he shared is pertinent to you in your life. His journey is so similar to that of many great achievers. And there's so many nuggets in there that you can unpack

as you listen to this and listen to it again. I'm so thankful for him joining the podcast and thankful for you for listening. I always like to close these out by saying, make a choice, work every day. Step into the sharp edges, do something that scares you and ignite your hem, and I always like to close these shows by saying, make a choice, work every day, step into the sharp edges, do something that scares you, and ultimately ignite your passion journey. Thank you again. Thank you so much for joining us. A purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral.

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