interview Archives - Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager

My Full Interview for @theStar_Rage's Young Guns

spinzer — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:39:21 +0000

So @Kathyjah suddenly tweets me to @theStar_Rage recommending me to be one of their young CEOs for a cover story. Thinking that I might as well give my work some hard earned publicity (especially with really awesome projects running right now!) I asked myself, why not? After all, if people don’t know what you do, how far can you really go?

It’s no secret that some of the most successful companies were all spearheaded by one particular face, that one person who carries their company image everywhere they go, backed by an incredible team surpassing even that person’s intellect or skill. The Tony Fernandes’, the Mark Zuckerbergs’, the Steve Jobs’.

Whether you like it or not, it’s inspiration that people are looking for. Then comes the successor planning and expansion to make sure the company can last with or without their icon. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m sharing with you this not to show off, but rather, to try and tell you that it’s okay to be confident and to know how to sell yourself in order to be trusted, valued and sought-after.

Here are some of the questions asked, some made it to the newspaper, most did not, so this is for your reading pleasure!

1. What are the company(s)/org that you own?

SocialGrooves.com and Empowering Youth Endeavors (EYE) Project

2. How long has it been since you started your company(s)?

I started SocialGrooves on the 15th of December 2010, so it’s been one and a half years since! Just after that I started EYE Project in March 2011 together with a partner-in-crime (Reza), and that’s about a year and two months.

3. What were you doing before you started your own company(s)?

Wan Mohd Firdaus

I was working in an investment bank for 2 years after graduating from Imperial College London in Joint Mathematics & Computer Science. During the time I was there, I took part in many social initiatives, like UKEC back in the UK (a student movement to create awareness about Malaysian affairs for Malaysian students studying there) as well as co-founded Young Corporate Malaysians (both with my partner-in-crime Wan Mohd Firdaus, who was featured in the article too!) and assisted Random Alphabets in many random ways possible. It was then I realized I could combine my passion together with the skill sets & experience I learned at ECM Libra to make a living out of what I do best – building and developing communities through sexy initiatives using social media. With the help of the many mentors who supported me, both on the social media side as well as the corporate scene, Socialgrooves.com and EYE Project was formed on a separate basis, with different set of people and goals altogether.

4. Was it always your dream and desire to start this business?

Not really, as I’ve never been the one to think about earning a billion dollars, at least once upon a time. I’ve always focused on doing my best to support driven individuals who are out to make a difference in people’s lives by building a platform for them that will amplify the effects of their work, and treated earning money as a by-the-way need, at least to feed myself. However as it becomes clear that a lot of money is needed to fulfill my ever-growing dreams, and also to prove to naysayers that there’s no money to be made by doing good, I soon realized that starting a business that will do just that became my biggest desire in life.

5. What drove you to begin your own company?

@JohanRaslan

At first I was contented in just looking around for companies that will be able to do what I just mentioned above and to work in there, contributing in every way. However I soon realized that no company has the same vision as I do, and since nobody will allow me to work on my own initiatives while being with them, I decided to take the leap of faith. My mentor, @imokman, told me that “it’s time to institutionalize your services”, so that I don’t end up overworking myself with the good things I’m doing… it’s just not that sustainable.

@RoslanBZ

With his memorable words, and all my clients and partner’s faith in me, the companies started without ever having to borrow money from anyone, getting various investments from supporters who is made up of Malaysia’s movers and shakers like Dato’ Seri Johan Raslan at PwC Malaysia & Roslan B Zakaria formerly from myHarapan, and that’s something I’m proud about! Then there are the people who believe in my vision and work with me as well, my partners, my colleagues, my army… Without them, it just wouldn’t kick off.

6. What were the challenges faced in the process of starting your business?

Reza Samsani

Many challenges, especially for me who’s not really business oriented. From knowing how to place a price on the services the two company offers (nothing to compare to), to juggling between people management skills (very difficult) and even the smallest things like implementation of SOPs/processes are the few issues I faced in the creation of the company. For somebody who’s always been doing this as a good will gesture, it’s not easy to “transform” into a business owner.

@BakiZainal

You will need a certain level of toughness in decision making in order to succeed. Luckily with the help of unlikely mentors like @BakiZainal as well as my business partners in both businesses I’m able to overcome these challenges, and as of today, both businesses are profitable (though not in a large scale, yet!)

Other challenges include ability to retain talent and paying good salary, as both companies are startups and will face similar challenges to most startups. People are generally concerned about sustainability and sustainability, and while the reasons to work with us are great, social businesses are still an unknown career path which not many, especially parents of our staff, are comfortable with.

7. What are your achievements?

Too many to count. On SocialGroove.com’s side, we’ve got many celebrities and social initiatives (NGO/NPOs) who believe in what we can do and trust us to help boost their efforts by creating/serving communities that they serve. Commercial entities get intrigued with our not-very-common way of thinking up bizarre but applicable ideas and hence we got ourselves a few clients who agree to our unique proposals, thus enabling customers to experience something you don’t get to see everyday.

As for EYE Project, the achievements has far exceeded our expectations. From being supported by myHarapan at the very beginning, to getting corporate sponsors such as PwC Malaysia, MyEG as well as GTI Media to even government entities such as TalentCorp Malaysia supporting our initiatives, we are proud to say that we’ve proven to meet such high standards especially since we’re a small startup. Endorsement from the Ministry of Higher Education helps as well. Even our events, which invites Malaysian personalities to meet up with undergraduates for free in an informal setting, has gotten no rejections at all by our invited guests which includes corporate bigwig Dato’ Seri Johan Raslan, celebrity host Hannah Tan and Baki Zainal, entrepreneurs Jeol Neoh and Timothy Tiah as well as a bunch of successful others like Ahmad Izham Omar, Sajith Sivanandan and Jason Lo.

Flanked by Dato’ Seri @HishammuddinH2O and @aznilnawawiHM

Our most recent success is running the student-focused GradMalaysia Graduate Careers Fair in partnership with SEC where we managed to get Dato’ Sri Idris Jala to come officiate the event, and both him as well as Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin went on as our VIPs to meet and commend the student leaders for their project work that were exhibited at the event. Student leadership never got that much recognition here in Malaysia until today.

8. What do you think made your success today? What’s your secret to success?

One, our intentions, most definitely. You can’t fake that. Two, having a series of successful projects behind you certainly helps as well, so one should never underestimate the power of volunteerism at a young age. Three, being stubborn helps as well, but at the same time, accept criticism from people who actually want to help; it keeps things real and grounded among your untainted dreams. My secret to success? I never treat myself seriously, I never think that I can take everything by myself, and I always never forget to have fun, either by blogging about really cool events I’m invited for (at www.spinzer.us),

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eating something I can’t afford occasionally, or just giving a day to myself to rest, play games and tweet (@spinzer) all the way. That way, I try not getting burnt out whenever possible, where it’s just so much harder to bounce back up

9. What is your advice for young aspiring successful entrepreneurs today?

DS @IdrisJala_

Three simple sentences: Dream BIG, Start SMALL, Move FAST. I didn’t coin this, but when I first heard it from a friend’s mouth, I realized it was all I am. From someone who’d never dream to have a company on his own, who’d never think about the failures he could have ended up to be and never thought he would ever become a leader like the people he supports, all it really takes is for him to just do it, and make ALL sorts of preparation to make sure there’s no room for error. Sure, that’s hard work, but more importantly, it’s a journey that you’ve built for yourself, an experience none others will have. As DS Idris Jala said, it’s not important what you do with your first job, it’s what you learn from it.

From there, the world is your oyster.

Read more by theStar RAGE’s article here: http://rage.com.my/content/stories/youth-on-top/

With @TimothyTiah of @NuffnangMY & Wan Mohd Firdaus of @YCMS.

The post My Full Interview for @theStar_Rage's Young Guns appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Social Media Interview Questions

spinzer — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:51:23 +0000

Answers below in red

Christopher Tock
Technical Consultant
www.spinzer.us

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 2:19 AM, Joseph WEE Yeong Yew wrote:

Hey Christopher,

Here are the questions for the interview!

1. When did you first start using social media and what was the reason?

Well if you considered blogging as part of social media (which it is, by the way) then it would be around 2003. It was the very same year when I started at Imperial College London, purpose is such that friends of mine can find out what was going on in my life while I was overseas. Little did I know it was going to turn into a money-making, ambassador/events-magnet and food review website that it is today.

2. How would you describe your activity in the Social media scene?

Put simply, it would be to share my love and passion for the things I do, which includes eating, organizing events across multiple interests and occasional tech-related updates that will benefit my followers in Facebook, Twitter and through my blog and various websites I am a webmaster of. (view my About me section)

3. How would you describe the social media scene in Malaysia today?

Day by day we see an increase in social media utilization not only by the young generation (X and Y) but also leaning towards the elders as well. And when I say utilization, I mean actual participation in social media activities not restricted to simple ones such as commenting on a post or tweet or status updates. There are already many idle social media users, way much more compared to other countries in South East Asia. All it takes now is a little encouragement, and social media will eventually be a medium through which many companies and leaders of their respective fields engage with their friends and followers, which is exactly what is happening today.

4. How do you think things have advanced in social media?

It’s very simple; in Malaysia, everything is about the latest fad hitting town. Malaysians are a GENIUS when it comes to utilizing the web for their own personal use such as sharing about their lives, their photos and even their ambition whether it is to their family or friends. For this reason, more and more are clinging on to the social media rage especially with celebrities (both international and local) following suit, and with that, social media has been used to start fund-raising activities, network meet ups and even as far as to garner poll results among friends and followers.So how have things advanced in social media? My answer would be, even companies are willing to SPEND on utilizing social media in Malaysia. That’s how advance we’ve gotten with social media.

5. In the near future, lets say 5 years, what is your prediction of the role played by Social Media?

5 years from now, social media will be a defacto tool for engagement via several roles/entities; mainly companies to their staff, consultants to their clients, customer service to users et al. How is this possible? Through personified responses, and in Malaysia, it’s all about personalized servicing isnt it? (Malaysians are not brand loyal, IMHO)

6. Are there any restrictions in social media in Malaysia?

Yes there is, unfortunately. The government are adverse to social media as of now because they believe its power is capable of causing rumours and falsely spreading untrue facts which would discontent the public, and true to that, there has been punishments served to social media users who abuse their freedom of speech. Fortunately actions are being by certain quarters to start engaging and promoting social media as a way to receive feedbacks, and that could be a good start to lesser restrictions, though I doubt it could ever be removed completely.

7. In your opinion what are some of the more popular blogs in Malaysia?

There are a few if you split it by certain genres, for example, tech blogs, political blogs and lifestyle blogs. To make matters easy, most Malaysians are only interested in Lifestyle blogs that is usually littered with exclusive events and extraordinary personal experiences by the blogger themselves, and with that, 2 of the more popular bloggers would be Kenny Sia of www.kennysia.com and Cheesie of www.cheeserland.com. For the rest of the list, please head here: http://www.riceblogger.com/top-100-malaysian-blogs/ (please ignore political and tech bloggers whose market visitors are niche and global)

8. Is social media important to companies in Malaysia?

I believe so and evangalise this fact strongly via the Social Media Club of Kuala Lumour (www.smckl.com) whose objective is to create awareness on the benefits of using social media within and outside of the company. In fact, I have started consulting major restaurant franchises who are more than keen to venture into social media for promotions and feedbacks, a two-pronged guide to a consumer’s heart.

9. In Malaysia the government started this “1Malaysia” campaign to promote racial harmony. Part of the campagin involved the Prime Minister (Najib Razak) using blogs as a medium to communicate to the public. He also uses Facebook Any thoughts on that? Any thoughts on the effectiveness of the Malaysian government using social media?

It is good that our Prime Minister has acknowledge that he requires social media to reach out to the people, but on whether it is used effectively is another thing altogether. Majority social media users have been unimpressed with the strategy used. However I would agree to the thought on creating an effective government using social media, but only when it is done the right way and with honesty and integrity.

10. Are there commercial uses of Social Media in Malaysia that is of your interest?

Yes there is. The concept of marketing via Social Media, done right, is really powerful and also subtle to the user’s eyes. Tracking the success of these marketing tactics are also easy since it’s on a digital platform, which means it’s possible to track leads made from a single campaign, hence, perfect for commercial use.

11. How credible is Social media is in Malaysia? For example as an investment banker, do you find that social media is a credible place to look for tips or advice on investments?

It is interesting to note that you’d take that as an example, because as a matter of fact I’m responsible for the creation of a one stop financial portal called www.ecmmoney.com. Yes, we also do use Twitter to spread financial reports and Malaysian Burse Exchange news. However I’d like to mention that the credibility of a user does dictate on whether the information or source given is trustable or not. In the end it’s all about the sincerity and honest of the user that decides his or her credibility in the eyes of the public.

12. You also have a huge following on twitter with over 990 followers. Have you got any tips for a greenhorn in the social media scene like myself on how to get followers?

Unfortunately that number is far from huge, as there are some with almost 2000 followers. However I would like to add that I’d rather have 100 active followers following me than 1000 idle ones, and that being said, the right way to value how influential a person is to his followers is by the number of ReTweets he gets for one particular tweet. (Also akin to how many people will share a certain individual’s story to their friends), and I’m happy to say the relationship I have with friends and followers, and also in return, is an honest and sincere one.

With the story above, my tip for everyone out there (and yourself, of course) is just to be yourself, be honest, and above all, be sincere in making friends. Engage with your followers and friends, feel them with your heart when responding to their tweets, be it on joy, sorrow or just random rantings. And above all, share your tips and tricks to success and joy without expecting anything in return. I assure you, that is all it takes to get to where I am, no hard effort necessary

Good luck!

Thanks alot mate :)Cheers,
Joe

> On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 5:38 PM, Joseph WEE Yeong Yew wrote:

>
> > Dear Christopher,
> >
> > My name is Joe and I’m Kym Goh’s friend. He referred me to you as a person
> > who might be willing to do a video interview on the topic of social media. I
> > am an undergraduate at one of the local universities in Singapore, and the
> > research I am doing requires that I interview people in social media from a
> > certain country (Malaysia for this instance).
> >
> > The main objective of the interview is to ascertain social media landscape
> > that exists in Malaysia. Apart from questions about the social media
> > environment, probably more casual questions about your blog and then some
> > more questions about social media in general.
> >
> > Once complete, the more pertinent parts of interview will be extracted and
> > put in text on this wikiesque website which was created by my prof. My
> > professor reasons this as one of the course objectives of participating in a
> > culture of sharing and knowledge networks.” But before we post the extracts.
> > In the case that you are not comfortable with anything that was recorded
> > during the interview, I will send you the extract before uploading it on the
> > site. The site is a school site that clocks about 800 – 1000 viewers a week
> > maybe that might be of some use to you?
> >
> > Here are links of the wikiesque site created by my professor:
> > http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Malaysia%3A+Interviews<
> https://email.smu.edu.sg/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Malaysia%253A%2BInterviews

> > http://comm215.wetpaint.com/
> >
> > If you are willing to do the interview, would you be free sometime this
> > thursday (18/02/10) at your convenience to do it on skype?
> >
> > Once again, thank you very much for considering this interview, I
> > appreciate it heaps ^_^
> > and Happy Chinese New Year!
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Joe

Posted via email from spinzer’s preposterousness

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