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The Amazing Authorities Podcast
Discipline, Data, and Legacy: Vince Tan on Speaking Mastery, Mentorship, and Building a Global Ecosystem
00:47:37
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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to the Amazing Authorities podcast, where game changers, visionaries and category leaders share how they built their brands, platforms and global influence. Your host is Mitch Carson, international speaker, media strategist, and creator of the Instant Authority system. If you're ready to learn from those who've done it and want to become the go to expert in your space, you're in the right place. Vince Tan is in the house. Now, he has got a common surname, but he's a very uncommon man and you're going to learn that about him today. He is on the Amazing Authorities podcast, hailing from Malaysia, but the man is truly international. Vince, welcome to the show.
- [00:49]
B
Hey, Mitch. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.
- [00:52]
A
Yeah, we saw each other just. What was that a month ago or a few. Was it about a month ago in Chiang Mai? We got to reconnect after our last, I think we had a lunch in Malaysia when I was doing a TEDx speech at the IMU International Medical University. And then we darted off and then the pandemic, and here we are, full circle. And I believe the possibilities are great. And you, you offer an incredible service for our listeners. And I want to dig into that in a second, but you've got a breadth of experience. I remember when we chatted about that initially and. Why don't you share a little bit about that?
- [01:32]
B
Okay, well, I mean, the. I was, I was born a geek, to be. To be honest, in the first place. I mean, like, you know, I was.
- [01:41]
A
Gonna leave that out, but. Okay.
- [01:45]
B
So, yeah, I mean, like, you know, I was born at a wrong year where, you know, being a geek and nerd wasn't exactly very popular back then. And being made fun of, I mean, I was being made fun of and bullied in school. It wasn't that fun. Okay, but, but, you know, I've, you know, the first book that I actually read was actually the bibliography about Bill Gates. And, and so that was how I was exposed to the words like, oh, being a millionaire before 30, you know, and stuff like that. Like, so I had an early exposure to. To words like this. And, and a very quick embarrassing story was that I thought that printing name cuts was. Would mean that I become a CEO. So I printed cards when I was in my primary school, which is like, what, age 10 and stuff like that, and put my name and the word CEO on it kind of thing. So, you know, I did, like, silly stuff like that. But at a very early age, I enjoy making my own money. I figure out how to make money, you know, doing school days and you know, when I learn about HTML 0.9. So I was a very early adopters actually. I, I had Internet access by the age of nine before anyone in my country has it. I have to make call to the US to get Internet access actually. So.
- [02:59]
A
Wow. Well, I want to, I want to stop right there because you brought up something. This is nugget number one. I'm going to call in the Vince column you created at the young age after bullying and teasing and all this business cards that said Vince Tan CEO.
- [03:17]
B
Yeah.
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A
How important is it to see the future, perceive it, conceive it, realize it?
- [03:23]
B
I mean, I didn't, I didn't know better back then. You know, it was like, you know, I was just reading the book and it says that, oh yeah, you know, being a CEO means you're gonna become successful and all that. So you, you could say it was an early adoption of like wow, future pacing. Now that we know the words like, you know, manifestation and stuff like that. Sure, sure, maybe it worked. You know, again I'm trying to say.
- [03:46]
A
But I'm wondering, I mean that at 9 years old, that's great programming.
- [03:51]
B
Yeah. And then I was like, I figured out there's something called the Internet back then which I didn't knew better that, I mean, there wasn't any Internet in my country. So I called to the US to get Internet access, but long distance call was very expensive back then. So I created a circuit bot to trick the local telco back then so I can call to the US for free of charge. So I was pretty naughty a bit, you know, so my parents didn't know how naughty I was back then doing all these things. So yeah, I was three, I believe I was about three years ahead in a sense that three years later, only then Internet officially came into my country in around 1993. So it was a lot of fun there. Early exposure to Internet, being a geek. And then that leads me to doing a lot of funny things at an early age. I'm not even sure if this is suitable for the podcast, but if it's not just censored with a tooth for the next five minutes or whatever. So I actually end up. What happened was I learned about how to reluctantly have to say the word, spamming the search engine with content that doesn't make sense and making money from the ads and stuff like that. So you know, being young, right, you didn't know better and you just find that hey, this is interesting, this is opportunities. And so I was a very early black hat spammer. I Mean, you know, creating all the websites. At one point in time, I had like25,000 dot com. I was the single largest domain name holder in the world, I believe, back then on a record.
- [05:34]
A
Gemini, wow. That's entrepreneurship, but it's fine.
- [05:40]
B
So if you're thinking like, how the hell do you register 25,000 domain names? We don't do it by hand. So what we do is we take dictionary, two words combined together at the dot com, as long as it's available, automatically register for it. So I was a software engineer myself.
- [05:53]
A
Okay, that's your background, all right. Yeah, hence the geek title.
- [05:58]
B
Correct, correct, correct. So I was spamming like crazy for actually almost three years. It was like a professional career in a way. I think at a peak, we generated over 5 billion pages of rubbish on the Internet. Yeah. And it was all done automatically. And one fine day, Google found out about it. And Google took about 12 hours to pull down all my 25,000 sites.
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A
Oh my gosh. How are you monetizing at that point? Do you care to share?
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B
It was just Adsense.
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A
Okay.
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B
So you create a content and then, you know, people just click on the ads. But I went one step further because I discovered that Google actually donated all the search terms that ever key in by anyone in the world in Google into a set of seven DVDs to a university. I've forgotten the name now. I found out about that. I find a way to get hold of the seven DVDs to actually extract out all the keywords that's being searched for and use that with a bit of AI to actually combine it together to make meaningful content. Because my assumption is when people do a search, they tend to type proper words and proper sentence. So that was an early, you know. Yeah, correct. It's pretty geek out. Okay. I was doing all these things, so, yeah, so it was a lot of fun. But that shutdown was the thing that just kind of stopped me from, you know, I mean, like going from start to go from a dark side to the bright side kind of thing.
- [07:34]
A
Sure, sure.
- [07:37]
B
And then eventually I. I mean, even until today, whatever I just told you, I think my parents have no clue about it because my. I mean, my dad is a mechanic. You know, he repair cars, my mom is a housewife. I mean, they just have no clue that they have this kid at a garage doing funny stuff like that. And then after that, I attended events like World Internet Summit, which I'm pretty sure you're familiar with it. Oh, yeah, it's one of those events back then Right. You know, all the different Internet marketers and stuff like that. So when I go through that, I remember attending World Internet Summit back in my country, Malaysia and I, you know, somebody was saying about, you know, you could make money by putting your knowledge into an ebook. Right. Ebook was still a big thing back then. We're talking about 1990s. So that's where I created my first ebook called AdSense Black Hat Edition. Basically teaching other people to create even more rubbish on the Internet. And, and that's where I got my first like almost 10,000 US dollar sales in selling ebooks. So that was a big, like big revenue.
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A
And this was the 90s, is this.
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B
Yeah, in the early 90s, yeah. Okay.
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A
So information products.
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B
Yeah. So I was like, wow, I didn't know people buy this. Right. Because you know it's a false belief. Right. You know, we think that who the heck wants to buy a digital product kind of thing. So from there leads to World Internet Summit second time, which is the mega version in Singapore. I think you could have been there, I'm not sure. In Singapore, the mega huge one, 5,000 people was there. Mike Fusing was there and I signed up for his program.
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A
Okay, so butterfly marketing you had back then.
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B
Yes, yes. So I signed up for the program. Two of my friends followed me to Singapore, you know, a bit fomo and they signed up for it as well after they saw me signing up. Three of us signed up for the same program then didn't know better what to do. And then we decided to learn everything we could and we came up with a product launch because we wanted to go to the US to meet Mike Fusing. So we came up with send ustous.com oh wow. And that's where we did about US$69,000 in sales and we did go to the US and we did get crazy in Las Vegas as well. We did bought the first iPhone as well. So it's kind of like around, I think so 16 years ago because now it's like iPhone 16. Right. So from that point onwards I became pretty good at product launch, the strategy and stuff. Like so did that for some time. And then that's how I accidentally became a speaker actually, because Success Resources, which was a seminar.
- [10:29]
A
Richard Tan's company. Another Tan. Oh boy.
- [10:31]
B
Yeah. Initially everybody thought like, are you his son? Right. So, but anyway, so I was invited to speak in a multi speaker event. There was 10 speaker. I was the youngest. I don't know what the heck is going on. I don't even know what's Stage closing and stuff like that. So I just kind of look at what people do and I just try to duplicate and probably just.
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A
That's the smart way to do it. You just make it till you make it, don't you?
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B
So I remember very clearly one thing I did, which I asked organizer, I said, can you tell me the one thing, in your opinion that works extremely well among all the speakers you have seen so far? Because I wanted just one final tip. So they gave me that one tip. They said, okay, towards the end, you do this when you put down the price. One last thing you do is that in the next two minutes, you get an extra 500 bucks discount. That's it. I said, okay, so I'm going to do that. So I did that. It was my first gig and I actually had a table rush and I was the top sales in my first geek speaking.
- [11:38]
A
Let me, let me interject here for people who aren't professional closers, because what you're talking about is not a keynote speech. Vince had to sell from the stage, which is the hardest skill in speaking by far. It's not even close to being a keynote when you live for applause. He was living for dollars. Probably ring it back then if it was in kale, which is their monetary system in Malaysia.
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B
Yep.
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A
It is unbelievable that you had a table rush your first time out, because most people fall flat on their face.
- [12:10]
B
Yeah, flat on their face.
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A
Hardest craft. Because my first time selling from the stage, I have a horror story to share. Nothing like yours. So you obviously got it fast.
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B
Yeah, I mean, Richard just walked past me and have no clue who I was because I was nobody.
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A
Right.
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B
But once I got the table rush, when I walked down, he was the first to greet me. And. And the funny story is this. Okay, so the truth is he came to me and he said, hey, Vince, you did well. This time is better than the last time.
- [12:44]
A
Oh, gosh, that's funny.
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B
It was my first time. So. So, so, so end up, end up, of course, being, you know, you become their best friend. Right. Because, you know, of course, you. You brought them numbers, so they immediately just straight away bring me that same year straight away, like gone around the world to do like, you know, the GIS thing and those stuff. So, so, so, yeah, it was like three years plus was. Was actively doing that.
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A
How many, how many events did you do roughly?
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B
Wow. I think that three years, I think, is probably every year. We're talking about maybe 30 countries per.
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A
Year, so about 100 countries, roughly.
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B
Yeah, 100.
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A
100 events. 100 events.
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B
100 events.100 events.
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A
Guys, that is a lot. Especially in the world of selling. It's different if you're a keynote, but a hundred events, selling from the stage, you get your knees bruised, you get your. Yeah. And yeah, tell us about your biggest mess up. Let's just call it failure or learning experience. Doesn't matter how you reframe it because you had success right out of the gate. And that's great. Most people don't deny, as you know, you were. You're a rare individual. So.
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B
No, no, no, no, no. I have my fair share. I mean, like, you know, I, I just give you the best part now. Now I'm going to give you.
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A
That was the first. Okay. When did you, when did you not meet your expectations and what did you do to correct it?
- [14:17]
B
Oh, okay. I have a perfect one here. So I was doing for three and a half years every different country. Great. Everything was good. And then my parents call me up and then they're like, they're like, my dad is a typical Asian father and you know what's coming. They're going to say, dude, you've been flying around the world every single week in a different country. I'm not even seeing you. Okay. You should probably settle down, you know, make some babies and get married and stuff like that. Sorry, get married and have some babies. I mean, sickness is very important in Asia. So.
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A
Sure, yeah, do that one first.
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B
Which actually, I mean, I listened to my parents, respectful. I was happy to do it, but I got more than what I bargained for because my wife ended up delivering triplets, which means that's it. I'm done with my speaking career. Settled down back in my country.
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A
Three daughters, I might add. Right? Three daughters.
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B
Three daughters.
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A
Oh, my gosh.
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B
So. So my life has never been the same again. So I have to tell Richard that, you know, I can't speak anymore. I mean, they were heartbroken because, you know, I was, at that point I was, I became like kind of, you know, that, that boy that.
- [15:33]
A
The poster child.
- [15:34]
B
Yeah, yeah. Correct, correct, correct. At one point in time. So actually after that I decided to introduce Peng Joon to them. I said, don't take me on anymore. So I pushed Peng Joon up on stage. So I took a step back for almost seven years. The industry was like wondering what the heck is going on with Vince. He was doing so well. So I took seven years off, did a couple of businesses pretty well. And after seven years, I mean, success, resources keep asking me to speak again and again. So after Seven years, I really love. Actually, I really enjoy speaking. So after seven years, I decided, you know what? I guess I could give it a shot again. All right. And they immediately put me on a huge stage NAC, you know, National Keepers Conference. Yeah, it's like 3,000 people generally around there, so. And they put me just before the keynote speaker, and you know what that means, right? So they. It was Chris Gardner. So they obviously want me to have the most audience, and they think that I'm going to do my magic again. I was very pressured, of course, excited, feel blessed to be given this. And after seven years, obviously, shit happens. All right. I blew it. In my opinion. I blew it. There was like, maybe seven, eight sales speakers. I was probably number three or number four in terms of sales. So I feel pretty embarrassed, to be honest with you.
- [17:05]
A
Sure.
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B
It happens.
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A
I've got my stories too, bud. You're not alone. Yeah.
- [17:09]
B
Yeah. So after that, I mean, of course, I mean, you know, everybody's going to be polite. It's like, oh, yeah, it's okay, blah, blah, blah. But you know, that, I mean, I know how organizers feel, and I don't feel that there's anything wrong with them if they feel pissed off at my performance because it is our duty and responsibility to do our best and because they put up the event and cost so much of money. Right. So I told them, I said, okay, let's hold off. Let's not do any more for now. And then what I did was actually I went and contacted small organizers, the smaller ones, and we did, like, 20 packs, 30 packs, 40 packs, even, like the smaller ones, you know, because I knew I have to sharpen my skill again because I was teaching a new topic called entrepreneurship. Before that, I was teaching product launch. So entrepreneurship was not very sexy. And, you know, actually it performed not so good, to the point that even organizers were saying, vince, why don't you just teach people how to make money online? I say, for me, I will not change my topic just for the sake of conversion. I got to teach something that I really believe in.
- [18:17]
A
And, you know.
- [18:20]
B
So I wouldn't do a presentation just for the sake of conversion. I want to be able to stay true to my. Myself, and I still can have high conversion. I know there's always a way to do it. It's just a matter of sharpening and practicing. So what I really did was after that nac, I took six months and I did small events almost like four nights in a week, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Twenty people. Twenty people. Twenty people. 20 people in KL, in KL, around KL, around Malaysia. And I will have a camera that I bought that is a bit like a GoPro. And the back of the event hall record every single movement of the people. And every night after I present, I'll go back and transcribe word by word and I will go through the video and I calculate how many people walk out the door, walk to the order table and stuff like that. I have the spreadsheet even until today. I have every single video even until today. So I did that for 160 times. And I tracked about our lunch.
- [19:20]
A
That's what I remember about our lunch in kl. Talking about that. That is what it takes to be successful analysis.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So look at the data.
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B
So it was so painful, but I went from like something like 5% conversion to 55% in a span of six months.
- [19:41]
A
So you had to sharpen your ax once again. The same ax didn't hit the tree, chop it down like you did seven years before. You sharpen the axe and understood how to sharpen that ax. Yes.
- [19:54]
B
So it's, it's like I treat it like a professional athlete. Like, you know, you kick the same boring kick like a thousand times a day for like years, you know, so, so, so, so in fact, that one presentation became quite a legend because that one presentation survived the test of time for about eight years, you know, and, and I think multiple eight figures kind of thing. So. But what I'm trying to say is that I think that's something that a lot of people don't see. They think that, oh yeah, you just go up and wing it. I'm like, no, man, no. Like, no, no.
- [20:27]
A
Prep, prep. Actors don't wing it. They practice their lines beforehand. Why? Why are speakers any different? I agree with you. 100. You can't wing it. Could you wing it today? Could I wing it with 40 years on the platform and so forth? But most cannot. And I wouldn't be wise to do it. Could I get by and wouldn't do it? You could do it today also, but you have to put in the reps to get the big biceps. And the reps are important.
- [21:00]
B
I think it's important we don't take opportunity for granted. You know, we should do our very best. Right. So, so after I did that, finally I get the conversion to that level, which I think is considered really high. 50%.
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A
Extremely high.
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B
Extremely high on a $6,000 product, on a 90 minute presentation. Because of that success, Resources was willing to work with six other organizers so one organizer takes Monday, one takes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And they were all willing to advertise at the same time because they knew that I was so consistent to the point that I was the one that sent performance report to the organizer. Actually, I think I'm the only speaker that do that. But I think what I'm trying to demonstrate is that when we do really well in what we do, I think that gives us a lot of leverage. Not to say that we want to leverage in a bad way, but when you're so consistent, if the organizers see the conversion drop, they know that they got to blame themselves and not me anymore. And to me, I think that's what we call as professional. Right. That we do it so consistent. In fact, my consistency, when we saw the recording on a live presentation, physical presentation, my margin of error for a 90 minute presentation was approximately, about less than 15 second difference. So it was very almost word to word with about 15 seconds of difference only across board. So that's the kind of level of precise.
- [22:42]
A
Yeah, it's called precise.
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B
I mean, I'm proud of it and I like to share that is because when I train other speakers, I show them the whole folder and the Google sheets, I say, so don't tell me you're tired. Right? I mean, like there's no reason and no excuse for them. You get what I'm trying to say? Yeah. So I think this is like this, like what we mean by lead by example. Right. So.
- [23:04]
A
Well, let me go back to something because I want to point out another really big nugget. You were successful with success, resources right out of the gate for a period of time, three and a half years. Yeah. Then you took a break, you sold a different product, assuming this is where the mistake is, assuming you would have the same results that you had before, after your hiatus, let's call it. And the lesson for people is never assume it's a new audience, new product, you got to sharpen your axe all over again.
- [23:41]
B
Yep, yep, yep. I mean, like, I, I thought I could make it, but no, I couldn't, so. So it was a very humbling experience.
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A
That's a key. Be humble and be teachable and learn again. And if you were to go out on the road, how would you approach it today? No, I'm not doing these small events. I know you're the mentor of a lot of these niche operators, which I want to talk about next. But if you were to go out and hit the road today, and the Bench show is once again, here he is he's back. He's grayer now, but he's here.
- [24:15]
B
No, I think, I guess we just really cannot take it for granted. I think we should really test that presentation on a smaller audience first. Don't put our ego so high thinking that oh yeah, I'm this big ass speaker and then don't ever put me on a small room or whatever it's putting you on a small room for a new presentation does not dictate the value who you are. It's just a matter of why would you want to take a risk on a big crowd, on an unproven presentation? Because it just doesn't make sense. Right. You're just wasting the opportunity at all day. So I think that was a mistake. I should have, if I was smarter back then, should I have gone to the small, small quickly get some small organizers and say, hey, can you do a 20 people event for me? Tested it well. And then on that 3000 packs I would have, wow, you know, like you.
- [25:10]
A
Would have had some intelligence.
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B
That would have been crazy. And then success, resources will fall in love with me again. I would have get even more opportunity. I'm trying to say. So. So that was a big, big no, no. So, so, so for any, any even new speaker when I, when I was helping them out and stuff like that, it's important to just give them 20, 30 people. 20, 30 people, you know, and then until it's proven, then you do it on a big one. You know, sometimes, sometimes I think a lot of speakers just the ego just takes a lot over them too much. And sometimes when it doesn't work out, they will say that, oh, it's all the audience fault and it's this fault and that fault. I always say anything goes wrong, it's always your fault. You got to blame it on yourself first before you blame it on anything else. Don't blame on the ads, don't blame on the audience. If the audience was sitting down in the zoom or sitting down on a chair, they have given you the opportunity, you didn't make it happen. At the end of the day you could say that, you know, yeah, it's not so targeted and stuff like that. Maybe it could be partially right, but still, nonetheless, you should always try to blame on yourself so that you can, you can control yourself, you can control the other side. Right? So yeah.
- [26:21]
A
Let's go to today you made a shift. At some point, one of our mutual friends or your business partner, Roy Fay has been a client of mine. He's obviously a business partner. View with his business, very successful. What did you do with him? Because he raves about your mentorship and helping him go from where he was to where he is today. And that's where we ran into each other with his great event at the Shangri La in Chiang Mai. I recommended that venue to him. I've run some events myself there, and it worked out. He. He delivered a fantastic event with seemingly very content attendees. So what did you do with him? How did you come in? Top level, or let's just say from high, high view, you know, looking down and then tweak them.
- [27:10]
B
It was move this way. Yeah. Actually just to rewind back a little bit was actually. It was just accidental. Okay. That, that. Because I mean, so far you hear about, oh, Vince is the speaker, Vince do speaking, blah, blah, blah and stuff like that. So it was always Vince, right? And then right before COVID was the peak of my comeback. At that point in time, I did about almost 170 flights in a year and I think about 200 days of events. And then once the COVID hit, everything has to go online. Thankfully, because I came from the online world, it wasn't that hard for me to transition, but it was not so easy for many other speakers out there. So what happened was that I was being introduced to different speakers during COVID They were telling me that, hey, Vince, can you help this guy out? Can you help this guy out? Can you help this guy out? And stuff like that. So I started with one, you know, that was introduced to me. You know, he could teach anyone to speak Mandarin within three days, even if you've never spoken single Mandarin word in your life. So checking in, out, making sure it's legit, like if it's true and all that, because I know Mandarin is tough to learn and stuff, stuff like that. So it was true. He teach, you know, the international airport in our country, 300 of them, blah, blah, blah, Nike, Adidas and all that. So I was like, okay, I guess, I guess that's not bad. Like if I could help him out and he could help a lot of people to add one more language, I think that's a. That's life changing, right? So I pass him. All my knowledge, all my skills invested in him.
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A
So.
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B
So when I do a deal, I was like, okay. I said, okay, let's. Let's set up a company. I'll invest in you, I'll put in the money and ads and everything. You just need to do what you need to do. As long as you have the right heart and right Intention, we can make this work. So it worked out well, and then from one lead to another. So over the last few years, I think by now we have about 30 speakers that I've invested and grew to bring to the market, and Roy happens to be one of them as well. So Roy was introduced to me by another speaker that I've already helped success successfully and saying that, hey, can you help Roy out? So I was having a zoom conversation with him. I think within less than an hour, I said, okay, let's do it. So for me, I think for me, I have a very clear criteria. I think for me, as long as the person's intention is right, he has the right heart. I'm not worried about the business side of things because I know I can make that work. But I cannot help somebody if that person don't have the right heart and intention in the first place. Because that's the hardest part, right? So I don't spend time trying to correct someone's heart and intention. I need that to be right.
- [29:58]
A
Integrity is the word, I think, defined. Yeah.
- [30:02]
B
I mean, like, if they tell me, oh, yeah, I want to be a speaker because I see people are making money and I want to make money, I say, I think for me, that's going to be tough to work for. All right, so Roy is one of them. So when they come in, I'll figure out whether they've already got something going on. If not, then I'll start sitting down with them to start crafting their webinar, their workshop, go through their slide together with them, see how much help they need. I think the goal and primary objective for me, in my head at the time, is I need them to get to the point that within six months, that business itself, sustained by itself, that means they will have the right workshop, the right webinar, the right offer. They probably even will have the right people or the people that they hire. They will probably do a knowledge transfer with the hq, which is like, so I try to mirror everything I could to them so that they can have it sustainable, up and running and treat it like a proper business. So that's been a process that, you know, we've been going on, and now I think we are probably at generation number three or number four. So eventually what happened is that every generation, because, I mean, my time is limited, right? So sometimes the other speakers who are already very successful will then try to help me out, to help some of the speakers. So eventually we build up a pretty good culture, I would say, and a pretty good ecosystem. And from what is considered as an accident, which I never thought I was going to do this, but it turns out that actually, that is actually really even more fulfilling because how much can I teach as an individual? But when I pass this to others and the others do it to the rest, then I think we could make more impact to the society. So now we are. So now we build up all the support system as much as I could even like the sales closing, the marketing, the tech, the operation, the finance. And now we are going to our last mile of getting the whole thing to do our corporate exercise, which we already got the mandate from our investment bank to help us with that. So ultimately, to do all this, like, if you ask me, Vince, why sounds like a lot of work. Vince, why you go all the way to the point of even wanting to build a public company for the speakers? To me, I think it's very simple and straightforward. I think a lot of speakers and trainers generally do not have a very long term vision. And it's not any of their fault. It is how human beings are, right? And then very often they just like, oh yeah, today I do a launch or today I do webinar, I make 20 grand, great, tomorrow I can spend it. That's usually the situation half the time.
- [33:03]
A
100% agree. I've been around this decades. And you're absolutely correct. And then they'll shift with the wind.
- [33:10]
B
Yeah. And a lot of people do crazy stuff. You know, I preach to all my speakers that, you know, we are in this for long term, do the right thing. None of my speakers do funny things like suddenly become an AI expert, suddenly become a bitcoin expert. No, everybody sticks to what they do and they do very well in it for the last five, six years. So ultimately, when, if I can get it to the point of it's a public company and every one of them own a part of the company, you know, at certain point in time, whether they choose to retire or not, the value does not diminish. Because right now every speaker, you know, let's be really honest about it. After, if they choose to stop or if they choose not to stop, but they have to stop, guess what happens? You know, everything stops, right? The values don't continue anymore, which is such a shame, right? Why should the knowledge and the skills that you have and the value that you have should stop just because you stop teaching or just because you stop or not capable of doing webinars or workshops anymore, Right? There should be a continuity, there should be a succession planning. So I'm introducing all these things in place so that at certain point in time I don't want my speaker to teach until they are 78 years old. I mean, at certain point in time they can pass it on to someone else or it can be, you know, there's legacy planning and stuff like that. So I'm introducing all this long term view of the business to the speakers by doing all these things. So I think ultimately, I think by 2032, I think if everything goes as planned, we should have maybe. I think our projection is probably about a thousand trainers and speakers around the world and we probably will be able to serve about almost 100 million students. That's our big audacious goal.
- [35:00]
A
That's your goal.
- [35:01]
B
Okay, good.
- [35:02]
A
And how many do you have under your umbrella? Or let's just say mentorship right now.
- [35:08]
B
Last year we have 30. This year we are on track to get another 30. So we will do 60 this year and then by next year we should pitch 100. And then every year after that we should be doubling up to hit our thousand by 2032.
- [35:23]
A
Well, are you looking for a number or are you looking for a certain type of speaker that meets the criteria you're looking for?
- [35:31]
B
So we are quite specific generally on what we are looking for. That means we do not necessarily need that person to be like a superstar, all right? It's a bonus if this person is a superstar. All right. But if he's a local hero, that means to say he's great in his country. I mean, good in like, you know, like some players in our market, our space, they look for rock stars, superstars, international stars. For me, I actually go after local heroes like, oh, Vincent is not well known around the world, but he's quite okay in Malaysia and maybe Singapore, so something like that. So we would go after this kind of trainers, I think, for a few reasons. Number one, I think being locally connected and closely connected to close proximity in terms of reaching geographical region has its own strength. Number two, I think they tend to be a little bit more humble, I guess, you know, before they become superstars. And I think that's where the culture is also easier to mow. All right. Because I think a lot of people are very surprised that, hey, Vince, how do you even have, you know, 30 speakers willing to like comply and listen and follow your culture and your rule? Because I mean, dealing with speakers are like, you know, it's a very. It's not simple. All right.
- [37:06]
A
Herding cats.
- [37:06]
B
Herding cats, yeah. So, so, so, so, so I think that last Four or five years. For me, the emphasis has always been the culture. And, and you know, I, I, I, I do run it with a little bit of an iron phase, but I think it was necessary because at the end of the day, I think all the speakers have to have the right mentality to willing to work with each other and not afraid to share with each other. Have the abundance mentality that it's okay to share all our deepest secrets to each other because, you know, rising tides raise all boats right at the end of the day.
- [37:42]
A
Sure.
- [37:42]
B
So that was the very important mentality that we cultivated. So I think that was the reason why we could all grow pretty fast. And I think out of all the speakers, I think, I think, what, 60% doing seven figure a year, and the rest are just on the way to making seven figure a year. So if you recall. Right. Like some of the previous business model, the challenge is that they always say that, oh, you know, it's so hard to find speakers that can sell well, can convert well. You know, I think the reason is because the approach was different for me, is that when I invested in the speaker, I put in all the money. The speakers are still the majority shareholder of that company, but I was willing to give every single skills and knowledge that I have. And I'm not afraid of the speakers running away, because the mentality to me is that if you choose to be an asshole, you can. Sorry. If you choose.
- [38:42]
A
No, I get it. That's a good word.
- [38:44]
B
Yeah. So this isn't G rated.
- [38:46]
A
Yeah.
- [38:47]
B
So if you choose to be an ass, fine. To me, I was ready to lose, I was ready to lose that money. But if the people end up being a good person, they would appreciate it and we could walk this road much further.
- [39:02]
A
Well, it's also an engender's loyalty and partnership.
- [39:06]
B
Yeah.
- [39:06]
A
It's a marriage, isn't it?
- [39:08]
B
So I never had any paper sign I was happy to put in the money run, you know, and, and maybe I guess I'm just lucky. 95% of it sticks until today. For the last five, six years. Yeah.
- [39:23]
A
Now, don't you have an annual retreat that you run for all the people in your group? I don't know what you cover in that, but Roy said it was great. He attended my speaking Mastery program.
- [39:33]
B
Yeah.
- [39:33]
A
Because it was. And he's been a great supporter. And you know what he said?
- [39:38]
B
Yeah.
- [39:39]
A
More similarities than dissimilarities. I mean, I've been, I've been on stages around the world for years. I don't have necessarily the best system. But I think what happens is if you've been on stages and you've lasted, if you've lasted, if you've gone through the troughs of defeat and failure and you've lasted, you come up with almost the same result of here's what works and here doesn't.
- [40:06]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [40:07]
A
What I've. That's just my observation of doing this a long time. And he said very similar of what I was teaching, and I don't teach that course anymore because I'm doing more. Like, I want to sit on my rump more focused on podcasting and writing books and publicity. But when I was running those, you know, it takes a lot out of you to run those speakers. Oh, a lot. And I said, okay, I'm. I'm kind of done. But he. He said the quality of your event was five star plus. And I have to respect what he said.
- [40:40]
B
Yeah. I mean, it wasn't a commercial retreat. It was actually a. It was a small, secret meeting among.
- [40:48]
A
That's what I meant.
- [40:49]
B
Yeah.
- [40:49]
A
Private event for your people. Yeah, yeah.
- [40:51]
B
Correct. Correct. And all of them must reveal everything that was done throughout the whole year and what worked and what didn't work and open up all the spreadsheet. There must be no secret at all. And if there's anyone found to have kept any secret to themselves, they will be removed from the group no matter how much money they made for the group.
- [41:09]
A
Total transparency.
- [41:10]
B
Wow. Yeah. So it was a total transparency. So I think if I charge for that mastermind, I think it would have been 100 grand. I guess it was really just to get everybody to share all the stuff that worked and didn't work and stuff like that. I think. I think the hardest part was having, I guess, having that guts to really build that kind of trust. That means, like, you know, we as a leader have to demonstrate that we trust them like 2000% and then makes them feel so guilty to the point that they want to also do the same thing back for us and for everyone else. So for me, I am a big believer in servant leadership. That means my interpretation of it is that I want to serve you so much and so well, to the point of borderline guilty that you feel so guilty that you want to do the same for others kind of thing. And so I do my very best. I try to do my very best to do that because I know that if I do that to the speakers, the speakers will do that to their student, and the student is going to do that to the rest. So even Our culture and community goes down from my organization to my community to my trainers, speakers. And the speakers are using the same culture to their community and all that. So it's always been like this and I think that after five, six years it has created a bit of a magic where I think students just felt different when they experienced it with whatever mastermind or master class that they came to any of our trainers. I think the heart I guess was the. To me, I told all the speakers, I said anyone, any speakers out there can copy what we do, our ads and stuff like that, but they cannot copy our heart. And if you ask me, that is the competitive edge that I try to build as much as possible.
- [43:10]
A
No, that's great. And to get a hold of you, they have to go to Vince Tan dot com.
- [43:17]
B
Yes, they can go to Vincent dot com. There's ways to get. Hold on me.
- [43:21]
A
So who are you looking for in terms of. Do you have a criteria that in order to be met to, to work with you, Vince? Because I know you just can't say, hey, I want to be a speaker. And they've never done anything. I'm a toastmaster. I. I want to be part of you. Vince, mentor me, please give me food.
- [43:38]
B
That doesn't qualify.
- [43:40]
A
Where are they at in the, in the journey?
- [43:44]
B
I think so there's a few things. Number one, very primarily has to have the right heart and right intention. I think that goes without saying. I think if this one doesn't pass, I think we cannot even speak in the first place. They have to genuinely really believe that what they know and what they're good at could really help people and they really would love to help people. And number two, you know, obviously then it comes to their know how, you know, they are their know how, whatever it could be. I am not very specific about certain topics. If the topic has synergy with us, it's just a bonus slightly better. Even if it's not, I could make it happen as well. But the most important thing is that whatever that they know they genuinely good in their stuff and they have at least, I don't know, five to 10 or 20 people has learned from them somehow, directly or indirectly. And, and the proof of concept outcome, you know.
- [44:43]
A
Proof of concept.
- [44:44]
B
Yeah, that's all I need, you know, I mean I don't need you to be rich. I don't need you to be super educated. You have this criteria. I'm happy to talk.
- [44:55]
A
Okay. I have lots of people that I can refer you to or refer to you rather. I would put them into your.
- [45:07]
B
Yeah, we can definitely work it out. And I'm pretty sure if you pass your criteria, that would be like an express pass, you know, because you have such a high standards as well. So I guess that's important because I think we both have common enemies, which is like, you know, we really want to work with good people and you know, people who are truthful and all that because unfortunately this industry is just.
- [45:35]
A
It'S, it's, it's this big. It's this big. And if you are in it for more than, let's just say two years, I'm going to set the bar at two years. If you've survived two years as a speaker out on the circuit, per se. We all know each other.
- [45:50]
B
Yeah.
- [45:51]
A
And we all earn our reputations. We all earn it because of our actions, you know, and I'm sure we could discuss which we won't do publicly. A lot of people that are, most people are great. And then there are those few that I, I'm not going to even have a meal with, you know, and that's, that's part of our life choices that we have. Vince, you've been a fantastic guest. Fantastic, great nuggets. I can't wait to have the summary so we can highlight some of those huge nuggets that you shared with the group today. VinceTan.com is where they can learn more. If you've met what he listed out as soft category, have your heart in the right place, which boils down to be a person of good moral fiber, have integrity, have a mission and show some proof of people that you've worked with and the results that you helped assist and guide. And then you guys can have a conversation.
- [46:48]
B
Yep, that's right. And if they come to me directly, they must tell me that they have heard from you, Mitch.
- [46:54]
A
Oh, well, that's fine.
- [46:57]
B
And then we know where they came from, then they get a slightly more brownie point because they came from you.
- [47:01]
A
That's great. Thank you so much for your time today.
- [47:04]
B
I'm going to have to thank you. Thank you.
- [47:07]
A
Thanks for tuning in to the amazing Authorities podcast. If today's episode inspired you to take a moment to subscribe, rate and leave a review. It helps more experts like you rise to the top for behind the scenes access and free resources to boost your authority. Head to MitchCarson.com until next time, stay amazing.