Welcome to Students Incorporated. I'm your host, Mr. Jason. Join me weekly as my team
and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun, and uplifting. This podcast
is created and produced with the help of students from the International Community School of
Bangkok. In today's episode, we are joined by a husband-wife duo, special guests Sang
and Siri, and we'll be discussing the important topic of business and purpose along with personal
growth and leadership. Also, a big shout out to this episode's sponsor, The Voice for
the Voiceless Club of ICS. Their mission is to spread awareness and raise funds for people-related
causes that aren't talked about, essentially bringing a voice to the voiceless. So, a big
thank you to the active advocates at ICS for sponsoring this episode. Okay, moving on,
and before we jump into our first segment, let's hear our quote of the day and get some
headline news.
Our quote of the day comes from the one and only Dalai Lama. Our prime purpose in this
life is to help others, and if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them. I believe
this quote to be very versatile because it applies to companies and people. While you
live out there for the rest of your lives, both you and I could try to live it out while
trying to either do good or do no harm to others. Companies could make it their way
of operating, and most companies would not thrive if their sole purpose was to harm others.
So be nice and don't be mean. I mean, it's up to you. And that's our quote of the day.
Now onto some headline news with Mia.
Thank you for our quote of the day, Frank. Now for today, let me introduce some companies
that adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals presented to you by medium.com.
Our first SDG is focused on hunger, or quote unquote, working towards Sustainable Development
Goal Zero Hunger. Avant Meats is the first cultivated fish company in Asia with operations
in Singapore and Hong Kong. Thanks to Avant's technology, which uses state-of-the-art cultivation
processes that are both sustainable and scalable, they will be able to create fish meat without
killing fish. Their cultivated fish products are more nutritious than conventionally produced
fish, GMO-free and pollutant-free. The product focus is fish and seafood tailored for the
food culture of consumers in China and Asia. The next SDG goal would be clean water and
sanitation. The UN estimates that 1.8 billion people will experience water scarcity by 2025.
Since 2017, Mahik Water has deployed projects in Kenya, South Africa and India, providing
sustainable water solutions for Fortune 500 corporations and pairing with community impact
projects, deploying 20,000 liters of drinking water per month to drought-stricken regions.
The current system, which captures water from the air and converts it into drinking water,
uses solar technology that can generate up to 10 liters of filtered water per day. The
team is working to increase that to 100 liters per day and to reduce the cost to produce.
And finally, the last SDG is quality education. New Tech Kids is a technology education academy
in Amsterdam that is dedicated to igniting the problem-solving capabilities and innovative
spirit of children. Their programs teach primary school children, computational thinking and
the fundamental concepts which power technology, programming and information in the digital
age. Gadgets, applications, software and hardware change continuously, but the core concepts
don't. And that concludes our headline news for this episode.
Thank you for the quote in the headline news. We welcome Sang and Siri to the studio and
we're excited to hear a little bit about their journey as people on purpose and what that
looks like on a practical level. Mia will start us off with our first question.
Hi, Mr. Sang and Ms. Siri. It's a pleasure to have you both here in the studio with us.
So for starters, could you both please introduce yourselves and share us your connection to
the school? Hi, my name is Sang. I currently serve on
the ICS board of directors in the role of the chairperson. I've had the joy to serve
in this role for 11 consecutive years out of 13 years of service.
Hi, my name is Siri. Yes, just like the iPhone Siri, but S-I-R-W-E. I'm a mom here, have
three kids in senior year, junior year, and also seventh grade. Happy to be here.
All right. Thank you. And now as a follow up, and this is a question for both of you,
could you tell us about the different businesses that you're both involved in?
So we do have a few different businesses. Today we're going to focus on the coaching
business, but I do have a skincare business as well that focuses on natural skincare,
organic products that's really just healthier for your skin as an alternative for the mainstream
products. But today we're going to really focus on the fulfill purpose coaching business,
which involves the pickleball business as well. Really excited to share about that.
With so many businesses you guys have, we'd love to hear some of the back stories that
you guys about your business. So can you tell us what inspired you to do these things and
what did that personal journey look like? Yeah, well, it's actually a really long story,
but I want to make sure it's just succinct for the purpose of this podcast. But for me,
as a health coach and I really care about people, physical and internal, emotional things
as well. So the skincare is really about the physical aspects of things. I want people
to use health as a resource. As a health coach, we need to really recognize and acknowledge
that our health is really one of the most important resources we can use to do things,
to serve, to live, to go to school, to just do things in life to achieve success. So with
health as a good resource, skincare is one of those things where people, you know, I
myself had the problem where I was spending a lot of money on my skin, my skin. So I wanted
a solution to offer affordable and natural skin care. And now with the coaching business,
that's just a passion for me in terms of leadership coaching. This has been ingrained in me since
I was very young, doing different sorts of leadership roles and seeing that there's really
a need for people to learn this what you might call a soft skill. But it's a very important
sort of soft skill. And as my mentor, John Maxwell says, everything rises and fall leadership.
So whether the organization succeeds or fail, the leadership at the helm, whether it's one
person or a team or the board, really dictates that in the way they live out their leadership
values. So that's how I got into leadership. As a leadership coach, I focus on the executives.
So the leaders of the organizations. It's not that other positions are as important,
but leadership, especially at the top end is very lonely. And they have very unique
challenges. And so as an executive coach, that's my forte. I come alongside, I support
and I journey with them, whether it be six weeks is the shortest engagement to multiple
years.
Yeah, for sure. And Mrs. Siri, on the topic of coaching, we'd love to hear more about
your insight into the coaching initiative. So could you please explain to us a little
bit about what fulfilled purpose coaching is?
Great question. Thank you. So I'd love to share that. So basically, when we started
this business, it was about eight years ago, and coaching was very new to Thailand. And
actually, the first people who came as life coaches in Thailand, they kind of took it
in a different way, which isn't really coaching. So what coaching is, is more than just teaching.
So you know, everybody knows what teaching and training is. In Thailand, we have a quite
saturated market for teaching and training in terms of business skills, English, team
coaching, team training, things like that, we have a really big market here. So what
training does is you send your employees to a seminar, to a workshop, they get trained
in a certain skill, and then they go back to do whatever they're doing, hopefully they
would apply those skills. But there's this kind of like disconnect, because some people
may really take that and apply it. But most of the time, they don't always apply what
they learn on a regular basis. So if you're learning about leadership skills, you learn
about communication, communicating in a way that people can actually receive that message
and continue to apply it. Say if you're learning business English skills, right, for example,
something very specific, you learn in the class, but then when you go back to your daily
routine of work, you end up doing, you go back to your old habits, you forget what you
learned. So now coaching comes in when, for example, if a technical employee wants to
step into a managerial role, they need another set of skills, right? What we say is that
what got you here might not get you there, right? So coaching helps walk alongside that
person to be able to apply new skills, leadership skills, soft skills, that allows them to work
better in that new role and responsibility they've been assigned. So then I was introduced
to coaching actually by somebody at my church. And so it was really eye opening to me because
it's like really interesting how powerful questions make such an important impact. In
training and teaching, you're like one way, you're feeding them information, feeding information,
they may take a test and assessment and see if they pass. With coaching, you're having
a conversation, right? So you actually allow that coachee to lead the conversation. So
you may start off, okay, so what's on top of your mind? What would you like to work
on today? So they may say, okay, as a women leader, so I work a lot with women leaders
who are trying to step into leadership roles. And so, okay, I'm struggling with this because
I've been assigned this role to also coach somebody who's a male. And this is a real
dynamic that happens in the workplace. When a women leader steps up in Asian context,
sometimes it's a little harder. And if you're younger, you're female, you're trying to
supervise a male, maybe a technician, they may not respect you and they may need some
passive aggressive behavior. So she may say, well, I'm struggling with this context. This
happened last week. What do I do? Do I give them the solution as a coach? No, I don't
have to know exactly what they need to do for their job. But all I just need to know
is how to ask them the right questions. So they have this kind of idea of where to tackle.
Because the more they talk, the more you ask questions and where they share their ideas,
they're going to eventually land on like, imagine you're on a big balloon, right? You're
going up, the coaching conversation begins with a very big topic. So you're kind of up
here seeing the landscape from above. And by the end of the coaching conversation, after
45 minutes, you want to be able to land somewhere, or are they able to take two or three action
steps within the next two weeks. So that's why I felt it was really powerful. I don't
have to be an expert in any of the areas my coaches are, if they're a pilot, if they're
an astronaut, we could coach astronauts, we can coach anybody where we don't have our
expertise. But because we're able to ask these questions, not prescribe any answers, not
judging them in terms of their answers and allowing them to land somewhere where they
able to take action steps. So we saw this really powerful transformation in different
people and their growth in leadership. And that for me was just very satisfying.
I think sharing from experience, some of the unique things about coaching has been those
light bulb moments that happen. It's often that leaders don't have the time to reflect,
or have the bandwidth to reflect because they're just busy trying to get things done. But asking
even a simple succession of say, a five whys, that's a system. Five whys, you basically
peel back layers of an issue. You ask why is this particular thing happening? And then
as you dig in with another level of why, there's additional clarity. You might ask why, but
now pinpointing it to a particular person or situation or a timeframe. And then by the
time you get dig five layers deep, it's typically at the very root cause of something that they
didn't realize. So these powerful coaching questions and techniques allows a person to
basically explore from multiple angles, multiple dimensions. And typically the issue of time
is something that's often overlooked. And so it's very profound.
Definitely now with coaching, that's going to be some leadership and growth with the
customer. So could you talk about how leadership and growth look like on professional and personal
level?
So it's all about growth. It's all about this posture of humility and willing to learn,
being coachable. So when we engage with the company, the HR may have a list of people
they want us to coach. Now we may do a first kind of preliminary conversation with the
person because not everybody wants to be coached and not everybody understands who is this
person coming to tell me how to do my job. And we have to kind of dispel a lot of those
misunderstandings. Like I shared just now that we're not there to prescribe them solutions.
We believe that you know how to do your job better than us. Obviously, you know the best
way to deal with your job. And there are certain criteria where if this person also is on the
way out of the company, they're kind of giving them this last shot. Okay, we're going to
give some coaching. If this works out, we'll keep them. If this doesn't work, we're going
to let them go. We don't coach those individuals because we don't see potential for growth
in the company. So we coach those who have potential for growth in leadership and management.
Like very often it's a technical skill moving up to a managerial position. So those are
the people we would have those conversations. If they're coachable, we would help them coach
into their growth into managerial skills. Yeah. And this process could be six months.
This process could be six weeks depending on when the budget of the organization, depending
on the timeline and things like that. And Coach Sang has a great case study. One of
our clients is the Leprosy Mission. So they have a great, maybe Sang, you can share a
little bit about that project. For the Leprosy Mission, they're a global organization and
they have a footprint in probably 40 different countries worldwide. It's assumed that Leprosy,
because it's not often talked about, it's a done deal. That Leprosy no longer exists,
but that's not actually the case. So there's a diverse group of both supporting countries
that are fundraising as well as implementing countries, which are actually doing the work
of reaching out to actually help people determine whether or not they have Leprosy. And then
there are medical doctors and teams that actually help them do the surgeries and provide medication
for them to alleviate their pain. The important thing about Leprosy Mission is that they are
very aware that their leadership, in order for them to reach their vision and their goals,
they need to be equipped with the right tools, the right mindset, and in a holistic way that
the entire leadership team is on board. So they begin with the vision that's very clear.
They begin with the mission that's very clear. And as everyone is also aligned with the values,
it allows them to support one another, come with the same foundation. And for myself,
the past couple of years, I've coached 21 global leaders at the national levels for
them to be able to not just impact their current teams, but also how they interact with other
supporting teams in other countries. And so it's been a true joy.
I just want to add to that, because I overhear some of the coaching conversations that he
has, and it's just amazing that Coach Sang is so patient. Because when you're coaching,
you're entering this conversation where you really don't know where the coach is going
to take you. And it's your role to kind of bring them down, right? Have them get a safe
landing after that big conversation. They can go in different directions. But Coach
Sang's role is really to guide them to come down safely in a way. And it takes a lot of
patience. This is really powerful, because it's not just a time for them to just vent
and just say anything. But really, it's a productive time where you need to, after this,
you have things you have to do and then come back, keep the person accountable to continue
their growth in different ways. And each person's growth is very different, right? You'll see
some are more coachable than others. You'll see some people are a little bit kind of forgetful
as well. So the coach's role is really to continue to connect with them and remind them
to stay on track. Yeah, for sure. I feel like posture of learning,
having that lifelong learning attitude, or even helping people reach their goals, their
mission and their visions. And also getting on the same page. Like, is it hard to not
offer your own opinion and offer a service during the coaching sessions? That's just
so hard. Yeah. That's why he's a better coach than me. Because for me, like, I want to solve
your problem. Just let me teach you how to do this. But Sang, you'll be like, yeah, so
much more patient. Well, I think that I'm very intentional in
explaining that this is primarily a coaching relationship. So I will be asking most of
the questions. But in certain situations that we become stuck, or it's like, I have no idea.
I've tried x, y, z, nothing seems to work. I will intentionally ask, can I take off my
coach hat and put on an advisor hat? I asked for permission. And when they do give me permission,
then I give them ideas. And then I switch out that hat. And I think that's that's to
remain to, yeah, conserve the integrity of me as a coach, and respect them as a leader
that has unique problems that no doubt they've tried to problem solve it. But they sometimes
don't know any other way, just because they're either young in the in their roles, or, yeah,
no one's mentored them before. All right, thank you. Thank you for that answer. And
now we'll be moving away from the coaching topic a little bit. And we'd actually like
to hear more about personality assessments and what benefits or insights these tests
can provide. Yeah, absolutely. I love personality assessments. I'm just fascinated by people
and personality because God really made us so unique. And he uses this in different ways.
And there's no negative personality. There's like, no bad personality in terms in the context
of work. Now, it's just in the context of professional development, we can have get
the mistake where we're telling a monkey to go swim or telling a fish to climb a tree.
Right. So sometimes the frustrations of different managers come when I keep telling this person
what to do, I give you them all the resources, I tell them excitedly what to do. But why
are they still not succeeding or meeting my expectations. So sometimes we go back, okay,
so who is this person? Is this a monkey or is this a fish? You know, just like figuratively.
So when you dig deeper, we have different tools that we can use like disk is very popular.
Our favorite one at FPC for field purpose coaching is actually Hogan, because it doesn't
label people as a certain number or a certain letter, but it basically sees them on a spectrum
of different things. So in terms of we talk about the light side, the bright side of the
person, the dark side of the person, and their values, what makes them tick. So the bright
side is like what you see their positives or strengths, you know, the things that they
bring to work most of the time, that's why they're hired for, you know, their strengths.
The dark side are things that don't come out unless they're very stressed. So these things
you may not see initially in a person at work, but if they're really stressed or really press
the corner, these things will come out. And these can derail them from stepping up into
that new promotion, that next promotion. And then values, what is important to that person
to make them tick, what motivates them to get up every day to do something, what is
meaningful for them. And each person will be very different. And this spectrum will
tell us the purpose is to either to hire, HR departments can use this tool, Hogan assessments
to hire people for a certain job. They can also use this tool for promotion, promoting
within the company. And also they can also hire this to just as a team dynamic. So we're
sitting here, five people sitting here at a table, we will look at our Hogan results
and see, okay, where are some dysfunctions here? Where are some issues? Like it really
digs deep, deep into like why are certain things happening that we just can't really
put our finger on? So as a team workshop with these Hogan assessments out, we're able to
share safely, this is my result, this is my dark side, and really be honest with each
other, honest with yourself, acknowledging it. And before we do the team dynamic session,
we do it private first. So when I give the assessments, which I love to do to interpret
the results, to tell them, okay, this is what I see, this is what you see, do you agree?
What are your some comments? So we see again, we're not prescribing, okay, this is who you
are, you have to be like this. But if statistically, it is quite accurate to the person, but we
obviously allow them to share their feedback to their own results. And that's very powerful
because, oh, that's why, you know, this is why in this context, I'm like this, it's all
context, context based, in terms of their specific role. And so we're very fascinated
by using Hogan. And that is usually recommended before doing a coaching assignment with a
coach that way the coach understands them and they understand what is my derailer that
is really keeping me from stepping up to that next level. It's great data to have.
For me, this is an area of challenge. I visualize it as the matrix, all those green Japanese
characters that are falling like rain. Siri sees it as pictures, I still see them as green
dots. But I think what's fascinating is the detail that Siri is able to bring to unpack
and visualize as to what that data means. It's an ability that if you are able to understand
after interaction with the person, it brings this whole wealth of background knowledge
that you wouldn't otherwise typically talk about. It provides insights into their own
personalities that they might be shy to let others become aware. Yeah, so it's a very,
very powerful tool. But it has to be done with the understanding like Siri mentioned
before. It's statistically very accurate. But when I do a debrief, I will often say,
when you read through, have some highlighters in hand. Greens are the things that when you
read it, you're like, this is absolutely something that I agree with, as well as a red highlighter
to say this is something I absolutely disagree with. Why? Because maybe those are their blind
spots. Right? And if they're the first person to identify it, then may also will likely
be the person to say, I'd like to understand why this in this result is completely opposite
of what my belief is. And then we can explore from there. So it's very interesting. Yeah,
definitely. The idea of a spectrum for personalities is a good assessment tool. Is this similar
to like a continuum type concept? A person's personality is more nuanced than just being
stuck into one category. Absolutely. And as a follow up and final question for segment
one, how does the idea of having a purpose with goals play into a person's professional
and personal life? Yeah, absolutely. It's very, very important. Now, the question, what's
my purpose in life? It's a huge question that we don't try to help anybody answer the question,
you know. So like what I tell my clients and even my kids, you know, what is your purpose
in this season? Let's just look at this quarter. You know, it just break it down because your
purpose changes. I mean, just as a testimony of myself, I went to, I wanted to go to art
school. And then my dad said, you know, art doesn't make any money. You can't go to art
school. So I went to business school. I did accounting and then followed by economics.
So I went to business school just like he wanted me to. And that was my purpose to finish
well, you know, as a good student, as a good daughter, then went to work for the private
sector and well, nonprofit first and then private. And then eventually, what did I do?
I ended up doing graphics anyway, started my own company doing graphic design, because
that was me, you know, inside. So each purpose, I feel my purpose right now is no longer in
that area because it's changed. It's didn't become health coaching and pickleball, which
we'll talk about next. So as you have these big goals, I like to help people break them
down in terms of the time, you know, have a time bound within this quarter was what is
your purpose in this quarter, because we got allow ourselves that room to change, to grow.
And you never know how you'll surprise yourself as you grow into your 20s, 30s, 40s. Life
is an adventure. All right. Thank you. And that concludes our first segment. And I'd
love to hear more about the graphic design part of your background. So all right, we'll
be right back after this short PSA announcement. Let joy arise pickleball tournament EP three
and festival is coming to ICS this November 29 to 30. It falls on a Friday to Saturday.
It has 24 events ranging from 14 you all the way up to 60 plus categories, both in the
advanced and open, which means that you not only have to be high level players, but you
can also be beginners and intermediates and still have an opportunity to compete. We are
looking for a variety of different positions to help us make this event a success and the
ICS community and students and volunteers have been integral and have allowed for this
let joy arise pickleball tournament to be a resounding success the past two times, both
last November, as well as this past March, we invite you to join us and sign up online
or in front of Mr. Mike's office for the link and information. And as a special just for
ICS students, we are giving the registrations for free whether you apply for the 14 you
or 18 you categories. So long as you're applying as an ICS student to compete, we will waive
your fees. So come join and compete. And we're back with our segment segment and we still
have saying in Syria in the studio. We're on the topic of purpose, leadership and growth.
Mia, go ahead and get us started again. All right. Thank you so much for the PSA and for
spearheading the pickleball sport here in Thailand. So could you start by telling us
about what inspired you to start pickleball? Well, this is totally sang's idea. I think
my strength is turning hobbies into businesses. So I was saying told me what this saying you
got to do this, but let's figure out a business way to do it. But you got to share what got
you into pickleball. Well, I have a lot of time on the road. And so I love to listen
to podcasts, you know, expanding my repertoire of knowledge. All right. And in one of these
podcasts I came to learn about pickleball and that is how it's growing explosively
abroad. But what really tickled my mind was how the reasons why pickleball is growing.
It's not just because it's a new sport. It's actually an old sport, but the way it integrates
both cross genders, cross ages and people that have very low competency or have for sports
or reduced athleticism, whether it be from injuries, whether it be from age, they're
still able to play pickleball and play at not just a high level, but play it with joy.
And from that, yeah, we were just intrigued that where do we play pickleball? And we found
it very hard to find places and buy equipment. But what were problems as Siri says, we could
see this as a hobby or we can actually do this as a professional business. So let me
segue to Siri. Yeah, so we definitely saw it as a business opportunity, but our play
was pretty full already. Now, my background was in multimedia, e commerce, graphics, right?
It's like, if you really want to do this on the side, we can probably just start an online
store and see how that takes off. And it literally took off. So like, by April, May last year,
we were like, okay, this is taking over so much of our time. Let's see how we can really
explore this to be make it a really sustainable business. So that's how we got into the business
side of things. But now there's also the ministry side of things because we work with bond guy
youth center, which is in the club, the bond guy slum area around there, if you're familiar.
So we kind of want to go, we've been doing this over 10 years, just trying to be adults
and mentors in this community where kids are basically raising kids. So it's not a slum
community per se, it's a low income community, where the parents work really hard daily all
the time. So the kids are with each other a lot. Now there's this youth center there,
there's a basketball court, football court on like just cement ping pong equipment, things
like that, that we've been donating, sending volunteers to play with the kids. And then
when we saw pickle balls, like, wow, this is great. This is like a game that even girls
can play because you know, basketball, soccer is mostly male dominated, mostly boys. So
this is a sport that girls can pick up older adults can pick up. Because while it was called
the youth center, now it's recreational center, because there's actually older adults who
are doing dancing, Tai Chi ballroom dancing there as well. So pickle ball would be a perfect
addition. So that's where we're like, okay, we got to kind of inject pickle ball in this
community to bring more joy. And that's one of the projects we initiated this past year
called arise and share the pickle ball joy. And we had a brand launch at M Corte 19 September
last year, right in the waterfall area there, we launched this charity project launch our
brand. So a lot of support from sponsors really aligned with our vision. And actually just
this past Saturday, we went out to lowbury and we gave the equipment to public school,
which would be the eighth location we've given free equipment to. And we didn't do this alone.
They're like a pickleball community that meets in the mornings that had this connection to
this community. So she was one who initiated this project. And so we just come alongside
with a lot of people who have like minded heart and passion to share the pickleball
joy.
It's obvious that pickleball fits into the topic of wellness. And it's cool to hear how
this can be used to reach out to all people and in a way, build a community. So moving
on with the topic of wellness, what role does wellness play in your work? And how would
you describe the wellness focused business you have?
Yeah, so really interesting story. So the term arise didn't start with pickleball. It
was my health studios name. I started this in November 2019, right before COVID. So arise
health studio, we started a studio in lopini tower. And so I had to close the studio in
March 2020. So the name arise was always there to arise health, have people more energy,
you know, help restore people and things like that. So I'm a personal trainer and fitness
nutritionist and health coach by training as well. And so when Sang introduced me to
pickleball, I was like, wow, this is really fun. Because your burning calories, having
fun is very social. So it really addresses the physical aspect of health, the social
aspect of health, emotional health, just people being really lonely after COVID and during
COVID. And so when you know, you're as a health coach, you try to get people to walk, okay,
walking is really important walk, run, do some cardio. If you even dread walking, they
don't like walking. It's like it's so simple, just go walk, but they just, you know, but
when you introduce pickleball, people are actually exercising at the same time. Yesterday,
I mean, on my watch an hour and a half, I burned 600 some calories, an hour and a half.
So you know, that's really effective. And you're having fun, you're laughing, you're
meeting new friends. So pickleball is so important in terms of that's why we're really passionate
about it to introduce pickleball to so many people to get exercise. But obviously, you
have to have that nutrition aspect too, because sometimes you get really hungry and you end
up drinking and eating a lot more afterwards.
Can you share a little bit about the mental health aspect?
Yeah, so people are super lonely. And we know that it's hard to make new friends as adults,
you know, so enjoy your time in high school and college, it's easier to make friends.
But as adults, it's a lot harder to make friends. But we have just been so amazed at how many
connections we made over this past year, I think we've made at least 200 new friends
or acquaintances, you know, on different levels of depth, but people just connect, right,
all sorts of demographics, professions, ages, and they the common factor is pickleball.
And what I've seen testimonies, multiple testimonies, people that were depressed and lonely, when
they have a reason to leave their homes in order to play with others to enjoy and experience
together, and just the satisfaction from hitting a small ball inside a court. And you know,
sometimes you get smashed at, but sometimes you get to smash at others as well. It's deeply
gratifying, as simple as that sounds. But it's something that's competitive, yet friendly.
And so I think that it strikes this really unique balance as being one of the main reasons
as to why pickleball has been so successful. And the other thing, Apple Watch, that's what
the most popular watch or a sold watch in the world. It tracks all this data. And the
people that have been playing pickleball, especially the older generations, it's been
statistically proven that it's helped to delay onset of Alzheimer's because that pickleball
is both a slow and a fast game. So it requires you to be both strategic as well as power,
if you want to. And so using all aspects of your brain really helps with this mental health
aspect. And that's, for me, amazing.
Yeah, that's so good to hear how a simple sport like pickleball, it can connect and
be so engaging with other people. Like you said, like the 60 plus category in the Arise
Pickleball Tournament. I think like no matter how old you are, playing games with other
can also be enjoyable and fun. And also, like just personally, on a side note, I really
like how your businesses are super successful, but you're also keeping the businesses in
line with wellness, purpose, faith. So I think that's really great. And now that we're actually
on the topic of faith, how does your own faith influence the purpose behind your businesses
and your approach to serving others?
My faith definitely affects everything that we do in terms of seeing people more than
just the surface level, because we see that God made each person for a very specific purpose.
And each purpose, you know, you got to respect that, that maybe you might expect them to
be a certain way. But in the end, you got to let God have the room to see how they grow
in different aspects. And this is in the context of coaching, in the context of bringing pickleball
to youth in the Bunkai community, because these kids are believing in karma. You know,
they believe they're stuck in this situation. I'm poor, I don't have anything. My parents
are here with me because of something bad I did in my last life. And our message has
always been that is not true. You know, you have control of your life to a certain extent,
and we want them to feel empowered. We want them to feel seen that God loves you, God
sees you, you have potential. And this is where we want to build kids up in a way outside
the school using pickleball as sports as a tool, so that they can feel good about themselves.
Because when kids are able to accomplish something, they're able to hit a goal, kick a goal, and
they're able to shoot the basketball in the hoop, they're able to play pickleball and
they feel good about themselves. And that is self-efficacy, helping them feel empowered.
And that way, that is a bridge for them to know that they were created with a unique
purpose, that they are special, they are loved, and they can grow out of this situation that
they're born in. You know, these things are out of their control. But there are certain
things you can control, the effort you put in into a certain sport, the effort you put
into school, the effort you put into relationships. And that's where we come in, where we want
to be those adults in these relationships, where if they ever need anybody to talk with,
if they ever need anybody to listen to them and just be there to have fun, we can be there.
We're not there to bash Bibles on their heads. We believe it's all about relationship because
we do this with love. Because without the love, what's the point? You know, what's the
point if we go and we teach all sorts of things and the kids may learn, they may not learn,
but then we're doing it on some religious duty? I don't think that's going to bear fruit
the way that God desires because we need to depend on Him to share His love. And this
love, the giving that we give to each of these communities, whether it's these schools and
youth centers, is not giving out of fear. And actually our values for a company is in
the acronym GIFT, G-I-F-T. So giving generosity, not just because it feels good to give, not
because we're doing this to get merit. We're generous for impact. So that's the I. G-I-F-T,
be generous for impact. So that actually impacts a person. There has to be some kind of fruit
that we pray will come out from what we do. And then faith, they'll always do with faith,
not making decisions out of fear. Because in business, sometimes we are afraid of the
bottom line. It's just a reality. But as long as we are aligning things with what God wants
us to do, we're making decisions on faith, not fear. We're able to give out of a spirit
of joy. And then we want to be true to mission. Our mission is not about paddles, in terms
of Rise to Biggaball, it's about the people. It's always about equipping people, empowering
people. And that's why we sponsor athletes. So one day in eight years, 12 years, if Biggaball
gets into the Olympics, SEA Games, Asian Games, we will have a Thai national team where we
had a little part in investing in these athletes to sponsor them with the best equipment possible.
To play their game the best so that they can be elevated to the national level. So all
this is really undergirded by our faith, knowing that people are created for a purpose. And
we want to come alongside people as coaches, as equipers to help them have the resources
in their hands to do their best, be their best and fulfill their purpose.
Definitely, definitely. So our next question now has to do with the habits. And this question
is also for both of you. We know that you've led the Habits Workshop. So could you share
some of your insights on cultivating healthy habits, both personally and professionally?
Yeah, it's definitely very more habits. You know, behavior will build habits and habits
build character. And so the opportunity to sow into high schoolers, ICS is so important.
If you have bad habits now, it's going to be really hard to break habits in the future.
So we believe that as long as you're able to identify positive habits, negative habits
that would derail you, and are able to implement habits consistently in a way that's realistic,
it can really be a powerful tool for you to propel yourself towards whatever goal you
have. And again, within the context of time, within this quarter. So in our Habits Workshop,
we work on habits that are meaningful to you. You know, so if sometimes it's kind of tricky
because people think habits and activities or goals and activities are the same thing,
but it's not. So for example, if your goal is to wake up at 6am every day, that's not
necessarily a meaningful goal. I would dig a little deeper. Like, so why is that important
to you? You know, so sometimes it's really interesting, right? Because when the Habits
Workshop, we just dig and the kids ask you a little bit more, ask you a little bit more
to we get, okay, that's the goal. Because I want to be able to have my parents proud
of me or things like that, you know, but that again, it's also not a very clear goal. So
we dig a little deeper into that. So but habits, as long as you have these practical things
you're able to do now, you can apply them in the next stages of your life in college
and beyond. All right, thank you for that answer. And now just as a follow up question,
what are some practical ways a person can integrate purpose, faith and wellness into
both of their professional and personal lives? The thing is about knowing yourself being
somewhat self aware, knowing what you like, knowing what you should say no to knowing
what you should say yes to in certain seasons, and knowing what you believe God has called
you to do in this particular season, right? So we have goals, we have ideas of our life
that we want to do. But for us, just an example, we have three kids very busy season, right?
Namkeeng and Bonam, senior and junior, they're more independent, they're doing their own
things. But yeah, we want to really spend this last year with Namkeeng because she's
about to leave for college. So but then we have our business that we could go further
faster right now, but then we will be sacrificing time with our kids. So again, it comes down
to values. What do I want to say yes to say no to so that I don't regret 2024? Right?
So I have to say no to certain things. And then I have to be able to also know where
I'm self sabotaging a little bit, because honestly, I'm an introvert, right? So like
being in front of people, things like that is really hard. And I dread it. But then after
I do it, I'm like, okay, I'm glad I did that. Right? So those things were like, okay, this
is an opportunity. God wants me to take this platform, even though I don't want to take
the platform. And then after I do, I was like, okay, God, thank you for allowing me to do
that. Just a very simple example. We know a lot of people in the pickleball, you know,
and then most of them are different, you know, worldviews, things like that. Right? So they
had a Halloween party, which we don't celebrate Halloween. There's like a black and white
and not what's on neon, right? glow in the dark pickleball party. And we're like, we
don't really want to be a part of that. Because, you know, we, we don't associate ourselves
with Halloween and dark things like that. But I really felt God telling us to go and
be a part of this to build relationships. So we went and there was there were so many
meaningful religious conversations at that party. And just because we feel like black
and white, oh, Halloween, no, right, but then you pray a little bit more and seek God for
what is important to him, which is the people we're not going for the Halloween party, we're
going for the people to make those connections and have those conversations. So that really
drives you in terms of, you know, the decisions you make. And time for yourself rest is important
because I'm a recovering a workaholic. I used to sleep at three and when I was doing graphics,
I was like a slave to my clients. So again, that's just realigning my mind. I'm not a
slave to my work. I'm doing this because it adds value, but I'm also going to be able
to have to say no and retreat and just rest as well because I can't be pouring out from
emptiness running to be filled to do that with joy.
Definitely. Now, looking ahead, are there any new projects or initiatives you've been
on the horizon? We believe in partnerships and we believe that synergies will allow for
big ideas to come about in a much better way, in a quicker way. And it also reduces risk
because if everyone's bringing their own interests and their own strengths to whatever project,
whatever initiative, it almost guarantees that whether fast or slow, it will succeed.
And same thing, we've taken the same principles to the business of pickleball. Looking at
the sponsorships that we've been able to approach and receive, the holistic approach
of partnerships is the backbone of why it's successful. We are inviting companies such
as Tiger Plast that does bandages to a pickleball tournament because people will get injured.
Why not bring them to get preventative care such as bandages or wristbands or elbow bands
or whatever the rest. And what about hotels? Well, if hotels is a place where people go
to rest and have fun, can they also not partner with a pickleball tournament? Well, there'll
be some venues that are coming to support our event as well too.
Sikumitsui 56 is just on the horizon and we've been given the green light to be able to share
this. So Sikumitsui 56 is going to have two designated premium covered pickleball courts.
And it's a very quaint soy, but it's a very athletic side street because there is a fitness
gym just down the road. There's a tennis court already there, plus a pickleball basketball
court as well too. Plus these two upcoming pickleball courts. And it's going to be, for
lack of a better word, player-centric pickleball court, meaning that the courts will actually
have enough room that you're able to play safely. It's not squeezed into a small area
with just enough room to swing your paddle and then bump into the back wall, but it's
actually going to be player-centric. So very, very excited.
And just as a follow-up question, do you think it would be possible to have a pickleball
court here at ICS? ICS has 12 courts that we're going to be using for our pickleball
tournament because it uses the same lines, outside lines, as a badminton. And so that's
why it's able to grow so fast because all you need to do is buy the right net. You have
some paddles, you have a ball, you're at it. You just have to re-tape one line, which is
called the non-ball is owner, the kitchen line. And it's legit. So it's so easy.
That's great. That's great. Okay. All right. So like you said, Mr. Sang, partnerships are
definitely really important and it will be interesting to follow the growth of the new
pickleball-focused facility. And finally, now that we are on the final question of this
episode, we like to end our guest segments by asking you guys for advice. So what advice
would you give to someone or anyone who wants to create something meaningful and purpose-driven
business or otherwise?
Well, I believe, I've seriously touched on this before, that God has uniquely equipped
each person with passions and interests and giftings. I would encourage them to explore
it, go for it. No regrets. I think that at the end of your life or when you bump into
significant hurdles, regrets are oftentimes the biggest things to process. So without
regrets, whether you succeed or fail, it's likely that you will have learned and you
would have grown. And so that would be my last words.
And for me, just don't be afraid to make mistakes. Don't take yourself too seriously, you know,
because there is grace to be had. And as long as you are trusting God in everything you're
doing, even when you make those mistakes, you have the safety net and His grace. And
as long as you're learning something from that, you know, you're going to keep growing.
And yeah, as a high school student, college student, you have so many opportunities to
learn so many things. And so really take that opportunity to learn. Lifelong learner, ICS
values, right? Keep doing that. And yeah, I think because life lesson for me is don't
be afraid of mistakes.
All right. Thank you very much for that advice. And so important to think about not being
afraid to fail. And when we do make mistakes, we can get up from that and keep moving forward.
So purpose is important, especially when starting something new. Know why you're doing it and
tell others the purpose as well. Get out there and try, but know your purpose first.
As we end this episode, it's good to reflect on why we do things. Our actions and activities
are what we do. Our methods and strategies are how we do it. And most importantly, the
purpose and reason is why we do it. Stay tuned for our next episode as we talk to a panel
of college reps who have some insider advice and experience on higher education. And as
always, this podcast will not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
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