Hi, we’re Ruiming and Wei Choon, the co-founders of The Woke Salaryman. We’re a web-comic with over 400k followers across our Instagram & Facebook platforms where we talk about personal finance, investments, career things and more. Follow us on Instagram (@thewokesalaryman) or check out our articles at www.thewokesalaryman.com
Timestamps:
1:59 World events and our reaction
9:12 Just stay calm and boring
12:23 Recent travels
19:19 Thrifting
23:01 Japanese quality as a double-edged sword
27:08 Anti-aspirational consumption
32:19 I'm glad I didn't YOLO in my 20s
37:31 Gen Zs have it hard right now
We had a chat with our friend Dan Wong. Dan is a super creative and unique visual storyteller that has somehow managed to carve out a professional career for himself whilst staying true to his wild, uncensored artistic expression.We talk about how he does this, as well as the struggles of young artists today amidst Gen AI and much more.0:00 Intro2:14 Dan Wong, A Good Citizen10:16 Has being edgy hurt business?22:51 Drawing NSFW art for $$$ in uni31:14 Dan and WC's previous work together34:53 Young Singapore artist woes41:00 Studio Ghibli ChatGPT saga49:15 Being a moderate advocate54:23 Why don't TWS just use AI fully?1:05:02 We don't love drawing1:13:20 OutroCheck out Dan's works:A Good Citizen:https://www.agoodcitizenobeys.com/fine-art.htmlA Good Citizen's Insta:https://www.instagram.com/agoodcitizen/Dan Wong's Insta:https://www.instagram.com/danwongzijian/Websitehttps://www.agoodcitizenobeys.com
Our interview with the man who is kicking up a storm in the Singapore real estate industry.
Patrick Chee is a serial entrepreneur who is a straight shooter, and we had a great time chatting with him. He speaks forcefully but authentically, and what you see is what you get.
We chat about HDB prices, real estate agency in Singapore, serial entrepreneurship, and finding success without a degree.
Homeseller SG:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC47OfrxHXc6Fd-PqfAyYfnA
TIkTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@homesellersg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeseller_sg/
Website: https://homeseller.sg/
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:18 The industry model vs $1999
8:05 What ACTUALLY sells a house
11:18 Is the 2% model justified?
23:45 Homeseller SG's philosophy on real estate agency
33:18 High agent fees doesn't = better price
35:04 Homeseller's business model and ops
44:18 Is Homeseller truly motivated to sell if their fees are lower?
53:25 The case for a higher fee model
56:37 "Difficult" units CAN be sold, but...
1:02:47 HDBs are still DIRT CHEAP
1:09:38 Patrick's thoughts on Sell 1 Buy 2
1:15:58 Patrick's entrepreneurial adventure
1:23:55 Advice for new real estate agents
Hello, this is another tea time video where we talk about something for fun. This week, we talk about why we struggle with our respective side-hustles/passion projects. Hope y'all enjoy. Let us know if you similarly find it hard to start on these things, and if you have any tips for sparking these sessions yourself.
0:00 Intro
3:25 The topic
8:50 It's hard to do things without external motivation
15:00 Other productive things as an excuse/distraction to not do the creative project
19:25 Taste grows faster than skill, which sucks
25:37 What if your creative project is not monetizable?
34:25 It can feel nice to be productive
39:31 Doing your passion project full-time is an extraordinary outcome
44:40 What if your work is never acknowledged?
49:01 Creating as a way of being
53:04 Summary, and creative resolutions for 2025
1:03:33 Conclusion
We recorded this chat when we visited Ruiming's house in Japan. Hope y'all enjoy.
0:00 Intro 1:20 Why are we here? 2:28 Why did RM get a house in rural Japan? 7:28 How do we like rural Japan? 12:18 The rural Japan dream 21:28 City vs village spirit 29:04 The Singapore obsession with Japan 32:21 What Singapore can learn from Japan CREDITS: Check out Ryunohara experiences: https://www.ryunohara.com/ Music by Kevin McLeod/incompetech Sound effects by otologic.jp
Hi everyone, this is a casual chat we had over tea time. We hope you will enjoy chilling with us. We talk about fresh grads feeling lost and depressed after experiencing work for the first time and discuss whether work is "supposed to suck". Then we meander all over the place. Chapters so you can decide if the meandering will be worth your time:
0:00 Which came first? Mew or Mewtwo 6:16 Young people disliking first job 15:25 Why do we become more conservative with age 21:30 Socialising with people who disagree with you 27:00 COVID was a weird time and set weird expectations 29:32 Fresh grads expecting WFH as a norm 34:03 Business and management experience will change your perspective
*THIS PODCAST EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY UOB* We sit down with Bernard Tay from Jinjja Chicken and Paul Kan from UOB to talk about the challenges facing SMEs and FnBs post-COVID. Specifically, about inflation, digitalization, and overseas expansion! The insights discussed in this video can be found in greatest detail in the UOB Business Outlook Study 2024, which you can check out here: https://go.uob.com/3TT7si8 0:00 Intro 2:48 Life after COVID, not all smooth sailing 4:21 Inflation! 7:03 Hiring Singaporeans for F&B 11:07 Digitalisation for SMEs! 18:52 Difficulties in digitalisation 22:25 Costs of NOT digitalising 26:44 Overseas expansion! 28:54 Unique challenges of Southeast Asia 35:00 Advice for SME operators
We've been away for a while travelling Southeast Asia promoting our books. 0:00 Intro 3:36 Traffic in Jakarta, KL VS Singapore 8:45 City planning is tough 15:13 Vietnam's growth since the 80s 17:43 Would we migrate somewhere else in SEA? 20:14 Retirement village business overseas? 26:05 Book recommendation: Public subsidy, private accumulation 29:33 Book recommendation: Blue Period 31:55 OUR BOOK More on our book and where to get it: https://readtws.com/book
We talk about the trade-offs for the creative soul who wants to run a creative business.
0:00 Intro 0:50 More about our business and me 1:36 Creative VS Business owner 4:15 Delegate to people who like it more, or are better than you 6:42 Consider input, not just output 10:10 Being creative is good for business 11:36 Take creative risks as a part of business 13:21 Unproductivity is part of productivity 16:25 Mistakes are part of the plan 17:47 Give yourself due credit
Juliana Chan is a scientist and scholar turned business owner. Today, she runs Wildtype Media Group, managing a 20-member team — based in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and India — with 30 to 40 regular freelancers around the world. In this episode, we talk to her about how she took her company remote, and the impact it has had on morale and productivity. 0:00 Intro: The road to 100% remote 5:00 Productivity will suffer 14:14 The types of employees that are suitable for remote work 18:58 How do you know everyone is working? 27:26 What about hiring locals and protecting local jobs? 31:36 Where in the world are her colleagues working from? 35:55 What's the competitive advantage of someone from Singapore? 41:37 Singapore's a great place to start a business 46:00 How you can keep Gen Zs 51:14 Concluding plugs
Is overtime ever justified? Why do good employees leave? Do you have to worry about your own job being irrelevant?
This episode, we get the whole TWS team to have an open conversation on these hard topics. We hope you enjoy it.
Also, this is our first sponsored podcast - a shoutout to Workforce Singapore for sponsoring this conversation. To find out more about what grants and tools are available to kickstart your company’s job redesign initiatives, visit https://go.gov.sg/tws-jobredesign
Featuring (from left to right):
Wei Choon (Co-founder)
Ruiming (Co-founder)
Vivienne (Account Manager)
Wen Xin (Artist)
0:00 Intro 2:08 Why do good employees leave? 3:51 What is a good employee? 7:45 What is job redesign? 14:18 Have you had a job redesign? 20:58 Do all jobs need to be redesigned for relevance? 29:35 Should all employers job redesign? 38:15 Approaching job redesign with limited resources? 47:41 Who should initiate job redesign? 52:27 Is it fair to have employees OT for job redesign? 59:10 Job redesign VS find new job