Social Media Isn't Just For America...

All right, we are live on the Howdy Podcast with Terence Wong. How you doing, Terence?

I'm good. Yeah, I mean, you spoke to me, uh, you know, just at the right time when work is all settled. But I mean, because if you were to ask me to be on a podcast last month, I, I, I might not be able to make that time.

Yeah, yeah, for sure, man. Well, appreciate you taking the time to hop on. Uh, I wish you could— I wish we could have flown you in, man. You're— where are you at right now?

I'm on my bedroom, man.

Well, I'm talking about in the world, Terence, in the world.

I mean, I'm in Malaysia. Malaysia. So this is— I mean, to put it in context for, for our viewers, Malaysia is like kind of 14 hours time difference.

So 14 hours, what time is it for you right now? It's 10:43 AM.

Yeah, Texas time, it's 11:43. It's like 15 minutes to midnight in my place. So yeah, the other part of the world.

Dang, you're a party animal, Terence, staying up so late.

I'm just a I work better at night when everything dies out because I, I don't know, I just, I'm just not a morning person.

Yeah, so to give everybody a little bit of background on how I even know Terence, Terence went to Hardin-Simmons University. Um, what years were you there?

I was there from 2021, uh, all the way to the end. 2022.

Okay, cool. Yeah, so we ended up being roommates in an apartment together. Terence moved in, we got to know each other a little bit. Super cool guy. Um, yeah, so you mentioned work a while ago, kind of. What do you, what do you do for a living over there in Malaysia?

Uh, so for the moment I'm working in an agribusiness company, so it's kind of like the Kargil Buhn, uh, ADM. Yeah, Archer Daniels Midland. So it's kind of like those agriculture trading companies. So we do poultry trading and stuff, but I'm in charge of the investor relations. So I deal a lot with fund managers and the press. So it's a lot of writing.

So you do a lot of writing Um, now what was your degree in from Hardin-Simmons?

Uh, economics and management.

So have you used much of those skills? Like, do you find yourself writing more than doing more number stuff?

Um, yeah, dealing— I'm still dealing a lot with numbers, but sad to say, I probably, probably only using like 20% or 30% kind of like the stuff that we learned. So I, I, I threw— like, I remember we, we took a class with Professor Gao on, on exchange rate and stuff. I think I threw that out of the window already. It's kind of— I, I can't even remember a thing from the class now.

Yeah, sometimes that, that's the case. And especially, I mean, I got a finance degree, so we took a lot of the same classes, but I decided to open up a business and I didn't really know what I was doing. So I've been learning along the way and I've learned a lot and I learned a lot at Hardin-Simmons too. But if I was going to be a banker or something, that's, I mean, it would have helped me way more, but I didn't really want to do that. So here I am, man, talking to Terence Wong in Malaysia at 10:46 AM Central Standard Time.

Yeah, but it's cool stuff, man. Darren, I, I really appreciate your courage, and, and I, I, I hit up, heads up on your effort, man. It's like, I think it takes a lot of effort to kind of like, you know, jump, you know, to be different from the ordinary. It's like every, everyone just take that route where, you know, it's just every day, you know, it's like just business as usual, you know, after graduating. Just go into a job and stuff. But oh man, Devin, you, you're doing cool stuff.

Thanks, man. I always see you posting and like, or commenting and liking on all my stuff, so I appreciate it. Yeah, I was like, man, I need to have that guy on.

Yeah, imagine 10 years from now you'll be like that million, million subscriber podcaster, and I'm, I would be like, I'm glad I, I came, I was part of this game You know, part of this program.

Heck yeah, dude. Well, hopefully we hit 1 million one day, but we'll see. We shall see. I think I heard a stat the other day. It's like only the top 1% hit 20 episodes of their podcast. Oh, like, oh, like 99% of everybody else stops before they hit 20 episodes. And I think that's like the biggest difference. But do you listen to podcasts a lot?

Uh, yeah, quite a bit, because, uh, the church that I attend to, so one of the, uh, worship leaders does a podcast with his dad who happens to be a, a corporate guy. So he shares a lot of those wisdom and stuff. So yeah, I'm quite on quite a bit of podcasts. And then of course the podcast that you had with, with Jackson and all of our friends, man. I mean, I know, imagine, I, it's a bit, it's a bit surreal. It's like seeing all our friends on the podcast and then it's just so funny seeing them sometimes being a bit awkward. Yeah, yeah.

And that's kind of how I started the episodes at first, was to kind of be like awkwardly funny, but I don't know, I feel like it's called the Howdy Podcast, which doesn't make it like one route that I can go. Like, I can pretty much do it over like an episode over anything. So I've done episodes over like social media, I've done episodes over interviewing coffee truck Espresso, shout out Espresso. Yeah, a barber, like, it's just cool. And now you, like, I don't even know, I had no plans to talk about anything specific, but I just wanted to see what you're up to, man. I know a lot of cool people, and, uh, yeah, it's been a while since we got to talk.

Yeah, and I, I mean, that's good effort, man. I mean, I, I like podcasts that, you know, it's like, it's all kind of varieties. It's not just business focus or, you know, sports focus. It's It's everywhere. So we, yeah, we get, we get to see like different shades of everything, and that's, that's cool.

Yeah, exactly. So are you pretty involved with the church you were talking about?

Uh, kind of, like I go there for Sunday services and stuff. So yeah, but, uh, I mean, because of work commitments and also I didn't really sign up to serve on, on anything just yet. Got it.

Yeah, got it. Yeah, Terence is a great drummer, um, if you didn't know. If you don't know who Terence is, yeah, he's a drummer, kills it.

Still have a lot to learn.

Have you done much drumming since you moved back to Malaysia?

Uh, yeah, unfortunately no. So I've been doing a bit of kahon here and there. Oh yeah, yeah, but drums It kind of depends on the platform. So, so far I haven't get on any platform where I'm, I'm able to kind of practice the drums and stuff. But yeah, I, I— so shout out to Darren as a one of the best MDs that I ever had. Yeah, because I, I remember myself as the guy that always goes off click. That's bad.

Oh my gosh. We didn't get to play together a ton.

Yeah, it's only that one semester that we really played quite a bit, and then I think the other semester you, you kind of— I think you took a break, right, from the worship team?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My last semester I took a job at our church and I started working there. Um, yes, and I'm still working there, um, part-time. But I do this as another fun thing to do.

Yeah, it's like a side hustle.

Oh yeah, you were there. Were you there whenever we bought the first drone?

Oh yeah, uh, I think it took some time for the drone to arrive because I remember Tiffany was like saying the drone got stuck in, in the, in the port or something, or some cargo in Europe.

There's that too. Yes, I was thinking of whenever we got— me and Braden ordered that drone that flies.

Oh, okay, the drone. Yeah, yeah, I was there.

Do you remember that? Yeah, Terrence was watching the very, very beginnings of this whole thing unfold. We just ordered a camera— ordered— no, we didn't even order. We found a drone on Facebook Marketplace and, uh, I remember you walking in, you're like, hey, that's a nice camera. I was like, yeah, just spent my whole life savings on it and went into debt.

So, man, I didn't expect that to go so far. Good job, man.

Thanks, man.

Thanks.

Yeah, I still have that camera. I still use it all the time. I have more cameras now, but well, that, that little, that one camera and that one drone allowed me to kind of get everything started. So have you ever flown any drones or anything? Is that a big thing in Malaysia?

Oh yeah, we, we have quite a bit of hobbies. Like, people use drones here for many, many functions. Like, uh, my friend— so I have a friend from church that I know that, uh, does, uh, he does, uh, he works as wedding photographer full-time. Yeah, that's kind of his full-time passion and profession. So he, he, he, he invested in a drone as well. So it's very cool because, you know, you get to do like those aerial shots and then the zoom in and zoom out stuff. So wow. Yeah, then, oh yeah, of course we have like— I, I subscribed to a property realtor like YouTuber and stuff, so they, they do use drones for all these kind of shots on, yeah, on, on the property that they are selling and stuff. So it's very cool.

Heck yeah, dude. Yeah, that's, that's a lot of what we do. We started in real estate, um, we're hopefully fixing to venture off into like oil and gas industry doing inspections with like thermal cameras and LiDAR sensors and all that, but, and wind turbines too. We're— we're— I'm wanting to get into the wind turbine industry, doing inspections for those. But there's tons of things you can— if, if you don't have a drone license and you're listening to this and you've been thinking about it, just do it.

Yeah, you know, you know, bro, you, you kind of inspired me as well because I'm, I'm also— I mean, to put it in context, I'm, I'm also— I just recently took up a realtor's license.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, I'm doing that as a side hustle now, as a part-time real estate agent. So my goal is also to save up. I mean, I, I kind of like, uh, make a fun pledge with my friend. Like, once we get our first commission or something, we're going to invest in the drone.

Yeah, dude.

Yeah, because having a drone is just so cool. There's a lot of stuff that you could do with that.

Yeah. And I don't know the rules in Malaysia, but it's not crazy hard to get it in America. Um, it took me 2 weeks, and that's why I was in school still. So I've had friends who did it in a day. Like, it's not crazy hard, you just got to take the test, know how to read all the maps and stuff. But oh yeah, but yeah, man, uh, we use drones a lot, especially for social media stuff. Do y'all How is social media? Because you, you lived in America for a couple years. Um, yeah, do you, do you say Malaysia uses social media more or about the same?

I think— I'm not sure if you have seen the stats on Google or somewhere, but I think Malaysia is kind of like the top 10 in the world. So when you say top 10, is that like you face Facebook, uh, Instagram, uh, TikTok, you name it. Yeah, we use it. Like, people here is, it's crazy.

Yeah, so like the number of users, yeah. Okay, yeah. Do you have all the social media channels?

I am hooked on TikTok quite recently. It's just so addictive. It's just you know, like views after views after videos. And then sometimes, like, you get good stuff on it, like podcasts and stuff. And then, yeah, Christian podcasts and stuff. So I wouldn't say that it's just all, you know, mindless stuff on TikTok, but yeah, there are good stuff there.

Yeah, yeah. So what kind of stuff pops up on your feed most of the time?

Uh, quite a bit of sometimes like those meme videos. And, and then sometimes we have like, uh, business stuff because I, I think it's kind of like the algorithm that they, they, they call up on me. So, so sometimes if I stop a lot on business stuff, or like recently I do a lot of like, I stop a lot on like sermons and stuff. So, so like it kind of like, it will, it will kind of, the algorithm will work in a way that it kind of pops up a lot of similar stuff for me to view.

So yeah, yeah, the algorithm has, has you figured out pretty good.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's one thing we have to research all the time, um, is the algorithm and how to catch people's attention. And so seems like it's the same exact situation no matter where you're at in the world. It's like People want to be entertained, people want to learn, um, and that's why they get on social media. So, uh, do you watch a lot of YouTube?

YouTube, uh, yes, but I think lately not so much because YouTube is kind of long. Yeah, so, so sometimes, um, I'm a kind of person where I think if I want to watch YouTube, like let's say for a 1-hour-long business interview or sermon and stuff, I need to really like sit down and devote that time to do it. Because whereas TikTok, I could just do it anywhere, like, like even in my office. So sometimes if I excuse myself to the toilet for to do my stuff, so yeah, yeah. So actually just grow Yeah.

So do you get on TikTok a lot at work, Terence?

Uh, not really.

Okay, good answer, good answer.

Yeah, I need to be safe just in case my boss is on TikTok or Instagram.

Yeah, that's— we had that podcast with Jackson like probably a couple months ago, honestly, at this point. And he knew it was going online. He knew we were posting it, but he said some stuff and he's like, man, I don't know, maybe I need to take it down so my boss doesn't see it because he works in a school with elementary students.

Oh, wow. Okay.

So yeah, fun times. But yeah. So do you do any tutoring anymore? I remember you used to do that while you were here.

Oh yes, I do, but I cut it down quite a bit because I think corporate job is just not so easy like studying HSU anymore. So it's kind of like, it's very exhausting. So I kind of like, I want my weekends to be chill, so I only take on one tutoring job on, on a Sunday afternoon. So that's about it.

Got it. Okay, so kind of, what do you teach?

Uh, mainly, so primarily STEM, STEM subjects. Okay, I, I taught them. So like the current kid that I'm tutoring, I do math and a little bit of science with him.

Okay, yeah. Is that a pretty good paying gig, tutoring?

Yeah, it's kind of cool. Like I get paid good.

I mean, if I convert it, you don't have to say how much, but you don't have to say how much, but it's pretty good. Good.

Yeah, it's decent. It's decent side hustle.

So yeah, yeah, I know that's— I could never do it, but I know some people who do tutoring and they make a good amount here. So, okay. Okay, man. So what does like a regular week look like for you? Like, I know you go to work. Like, what, what time do you go to work? 8 o'clock to 4 o'clock, or how does that work?

Uh, 9 to 6. So, uh, yeah, 9 to 6. So it's a typical 9 to 5 job. So, uh, I clock in at about 9 to 6. Yeah. And then I get off about at 6. But, but, uh, you know, the, the thing that I really, uh, appreciate most is that, uh, my boss allowed us— because we are a small team, so investor relations, there's only like 3 to 4 of us. So, uh, recently, like beginning of like last month, uh, my boss allowed us to be flexible. So now we adopt like a 3-day work week. So Monday to Wednesday, I mean, for me it's kind of— it's subject to change. So Monday to Wednesday I'll be in office, and Thursday and Friday I can choose to work from home. Got it.

It's like a hybrid thing.

Yeah.

And is that happening a lot over there?

I think it's still taking a bit of mindset shift, but I would see that a lot of companies are starting to kind of adopt that because I mean, we have a lot of Gen Zs and Gen Ys. I mean, if they don't do that, people are not going to kind of like be motivated to apply to the company. So yeah, I think they are kind of like, yeah, they're kind of like, okay, we kind of need to start adopting this, you know, work habit or work, work, you know, mindset shift in workplace for the bosses as well. So because if they don't do that, then people are not coming in. Yeah, because we behind kind of having a— I, I mean, I heard from friends who are, who are bosses, they kind of having a hiring crunch as well. I mean, because it's hard to hire people, uh, that, uh, I mean, fresh grads and all, because they have so many options nowadays. Like, they could— a lot of people in my country also wants to be an influencer. So people kind of like start their own podcast, YouTuber. Yeah, there's a lot of gigs that they could do.

Yeah, the influencer market, like the influencer marketing, um, economic factor, it's like growing by billions every year. And so I get it why people want to do it, but at the same time, it's like, it's really not as easy as people think. And I, I'm not an influencer by any means, but I try to post at least once a day. And the amount of work that goes into that is like crazy, especially if you want it to be good stuff. Podcasts definitely help, which is one of the reasons I started the studio is because podcasts, you can sit down. For example, if we sit down for an hour, like you straight up, you can put, put this link to this video. Into an AI editor and get like 30 clips of good reels that you can use for content for like the next month or whatever, the next couple weeks. And so by doing this one podcast, we have a long-form piece of content as well as like 20 short-form pieces of content. So that's really why I started podcasting and I became a fan was because there's nothing else that you can film that has that much, like, return as far as your time goes. So we're sitting down for an hour and we'll get like tons of content, even just out of one conversation like this. So do y'all do a lot of— I guess, is there a lot of, uh, is there any digital marketing agencies close to where you live? Or is it?

Oh yeah, yeah, there's tons, there's tons. I think, I think it's catching on fire. And I mean, like Darren, you said that podcast is something that is, is the return is huge. And I mean, I think it's kind of like a revelation to me as well because I've seen a lot of YouTubers that I know in my country, they, they are moving into this podcast scene as well. Yeah, and I kind of love it because I think podcast allows us to be authentic and real. It's like there's no fluff. It's like, you know, what you see is what you get. And I really—

straight up. Yeah, so you can have an hour-long conversation, you feel like you get to know those people, the host or the guest, whatever. You also get exposed to other people's audience whenever you go on their show. So like everybody who sees my stuff, they're gonna know who you are now. And what are the odds of after listening to you talk for an hour that they're going to go follow you? They're way higher than just seeing a 5-second clip of like, yeah. Anyways, long form builds that trust. It has more of an authentic feel, like you said, and it lets them get to know you because it takes like, I think it's like 7 hours of somebody watching you online before they trust you enough to buy something from you. So like for For example, if I had a course or something and they watched 7 of my podcasts, it, it'd probably take them about 7 episodes before they're like, okay, I'm willing to spend money because this guy sounds like he knows what he is talking about. So that's, that's like a huge thing, especially whenever you're starting a business with some sort of service or product. It's just like building that trust and long-form content is definitely the way to do that the quickest. And, and also that retention— YouTube feeds that, like, if you have good retention on your videos and good watch time, they'll push your videos even more because it's like, okay, people are watching all the way through, this must be really good. So they'll keep pushing it to the recommended section and like for you stuff. So it's just good all the way around. It's way it's way more time efficient and, um, builds way more trust than just regular short-form content. So that's why I'm a fan.

Yeah, gotta agree with it, man. I mean, because podcast is also— I, I recently get hooked to quite a bit of podcasts as well because I feel that, uh, it's refreshing. I mean, it's— people are more authentic and it's, you know, it's just not like the those YouTube videos where people are just all out doing all kinds of stuff to generate attention. So it doesn't feel real.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So at your company, and you don't have to like name your company or anything, but do you see a lot of use of social media for y'all and y'all's like sales or getting new clients or anything?

Unfortunately, it's a bit more, uh, do you all even need to?

Because some companies are already well established and they don't really need to push hard in social media.

I, I think because of the nature of the business that we are in, it's a bit more traditional. So we, we directly deal with B2B, so we sell to hypermarkets like, like, you know, like Tesco and, and kind of like similar Walmart similar kind of—

got it—

supermarket. So, but, um, I know that the, uh, a subsidiary of my, my, the company that I'm working in now that does bakery stuff, so they are on TikTok. And, um, I think it's like, it just so happened that one of the videos that a TikToker kind of like promoted our bakery, and I, I think it caught on fire or something, and then it kind of like increased the sales. I mean, that was a surprise for my boss as well because we, we didn't expect like the, the power of social media to be that crazy.

Oh yeah, yeah. There's an example of a company here in town actually, um, they make a protein drink Um, but yeah, they said there was an influencer at, at one of the, uh, big nutrition, like, bodybuilding conferences, and they said, yeah, he has like a million followers probably on TikTok and Instagram, and he just posted one video of like, hey, y'all have got to try this drink, it's amazing. And they said their sales like went up by 1,000% in like 12 hours, and they had like a record-breaking day just from one video. They didn't know he was posting it. They didn't pay him to post it. He just enjoyed the product, posted it.

Wow, 1,000%, that's crazy. That's insane.

It was honestly probably— yeah, and it wasn't—

and it wasn't sponsored content, right? It was just random Like, the guy just exactly enjoyed the drink, and it's like, okay, I figured, like, I think I want to share this with the rest of the world.

Exactly. And he just so happened to have lots of following, and, and they got tons of orders that night. They came back to the office that next day, they were like, holy moly, we have like lots of orders we got to fulfill. So it's huge, man, and that's why I'm such an advocate of it, and that's why we help people, like, especially local businesses who, like, don't have massive budgets to hire, like, an internal marketing person or something. I think this is the greatest alternative you could ask for.

So yeah, and I think it's kind of like, I think it's the cheapest as well. I mean, if you get the matrix right, and yeah, product is real good.

Yeah. And so the reason we can do that, the reason we can do that is because we're not confined to one company. Like we can work with multiple clients, build up a clientele, build up a team, and we're able to scale in that way instead of being like, okay, I'm just a marketing person for one company. They need to pay me $8,000 to $10,000 a month to be the marketing person. Whenever you could work with us, pay anywhere from $500 to $3,000 a month and get just as good, if not better, content. We have access to like cameras, equipment, the studio. Now, one of the things we offer to our clients now is access to the studio. They can come and use it basically whenever they want, um, just how we're using it. If they want to do a podcast here, they can come do a podcast here. They can do lots of things. We filmed a bunch of YouTube videos Last week we filmed like 10 YouTube videos in like one day. Like it was— now we got to go edit it and we distribute it for them. So it's a lot of work on our end, but it's easy for them. So it's been cool. Yeah, it looks a little different than, than ever when we first started, whenever you saw it, because we got the drone and the camera specifically to do real estate stuff because, I mean, we still do real estate stuff. But there's lots of other avenues and branches that we've started because I don't want to be— it's just like investing and, you know, this, like taking the investing classes, like you don't want to put your eggs, all your eggs in one basket.

Yeah, it's kind of evolved since then. You kind of, you kind of like diversify.

Exactly. And so, like, if, if we have multiple clients in different areas of the business, if one of the areas of the business goes down, we still have two other areas that can hold us up for a little bit. So yeah, anyways, cool stuff, man. Good stuff.

What would you love? What you're doing.

So thanks, man. Are you coming back to the States anytime soon?

Um, hopefully. I mean, my plan is to within probably one or two years I'm still not sure how things are going on, but I, I really want to come back for postgraduate, maybe a master's or PhD. But yeah, I need scholarships, man.

Dude, I feel that.

Yeah, I, I, I'm not sure, I— but I mean, I talked to friends who, who does postgrad in the US that people are telling me like, you know, like, nah, no, nobody's gonna pay for PhD in the US. I mean if you, you apply and you are good enough, you should get sponsored. Yeah, yeah. So I'm looking, I'm working towards that.

So are there any post-grad programs where you're at?

Uh, I mean, you mean any, anything that is I'm looking at or aiming for?

Yeah, just like in Malaysia, is there an option for you to get a post-grad degree? Oh, where you're at?

Yeah, yeah, there's master's, uh, in, in the field that I wanted to, to, to, to study in. But I'm looking at the idea of— I mean, at the end of the day, my, my desire or my end game is I still wanted to end back up in the States again for PhD.

So, so do you want to stay here long term, or are you just coming for school and wanting to go back to Malaysia? Because I know you got family over there.

This time around, probably I'm, I'm trying for the long shot. I mean, if I could get a PhD and become a professor, why not?

Hey, there you go. Hey, there's lots of universities in Abilene, man.

And Texas is a beautiful town, uh, beautiful state. And I mean, like, even in Abilene, it's beautiful, man.

Yeah, yeah, that's, uh, it is, it is pretty out here. And I grew up like further west and it's just dirt, which is not that pretty. But, and then did you ever— I guess you got to hang out in DFW area, right? Dallas-Fort Worth?

Yeah, uh, DFW is kind of like I like the vibe, but it's, it's kind of downtown.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very city.

I think it's very different. I mean, every, every town has, has its good and bad, but I, I— it's just so different from where I am now.

How many people live where you're at?

Uh, so my town has like— I think it has grown since then, but I, I knew it's about 5 million.

5 million.

Yeah, it's a lot.

You are in the city, my friend.

Oh yeah, this, this is like the downtown. It's that the town that I'm living in now is kind of like the, the Metroplex. It's just huge.

Yeah. So are you in like a suburb or are you downtown?

Like, yeah, uh, I mean like the So I'm in like the satellite town of the capital. So it's kind of like the— I would put it, I would say like this is like the Arlington or Fort Worth. It's not really like the Dallas yet. Yeah, so it's kind of like a— it's in town, but we are not really in, in the town itself.

Got it.

Okay.

Yeah, dang, man. Yeah, it's been a while since you've been here.

Yeah.

Well, where can people find you at on social media? I always like to shout my guests out. Do you even want them to follow you?

Sure, I mean, I'm on Instagram as well. I, uh, you could just hit me up at Terry LOK, so that would be T-E-R-R-Y-L-O-K-7. Oh yeah, so you could hit me up.

Terry Lok, is that what it is?

Yeah, so that's my username on Instagram.

Okay, so what is Lok? Is that like part of your middle name?

That's part of my Chinese name. What is that last name? Um, it's just a Chinese name, but I mean, literal translation into Mandarin In Chinese, it means happiness.

Hey, how do you, how do you say it?

Uh, so in Mandarin, it's le, you pronounce it as, uh, kawaii. So kawaii means happiness.

Got it. Yeah, thank you, dude. Yeah, you blew my mind one night whenever you started translating Mandarin into English, like right there on the spot. Do you remember that?

I mean, did we have like this conversation about Mandarin in English? I remember I had— we had something like similar of that nature with Jackson, and I knew he was blown away.

Yeah, I was there with y'all, and we gave Terence like— I don't even remember, it's this article in Mandarin and we're like, can you translate this?

Oh yeah, and you started— you were reading it and translating.

Yeah, you were reading it in Mandarin and saying it in English. I was like, whoa. Which obviously I don't— I only know English, so it's gonna blow my mind.

But yeah, dang, I remember it now. I mean, I remember it was a session at the couch or something, and then I— yeah, I think I translating stuff and, and, and, and you were blowing our minds off with, with, uh, with a John Mayer solo or something.

That's not near as cool, Terence. I'm telling you right now, it does not take near as long to learn a John Mayer riff as it does to learn Mandarin.

And but you, you did it on, on that, on that pad. I remember, was it a Helio pad or something?

Oh, Helix. Yep.

Yeah, that was so cool. I love that pad.

How many language How many languages can you speak?

Um, so in, in my part of the world, we have something called a dialect. So dialect is like, it's eccentric to your kind of like your race or something like that. Yeah, yeah, it's like the, the area that you belong to, like. So because like Chinese, like, for us, we, we kind of like, we are migrants too. That came from China, China to Malaysia. So, so different parts of China, they have their own kind of like local language.

So, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how like the German language is too. There's like High German, Low German.

Yeah, like probably if you hear Texas or Texans speaking English, it's kind of different from maybe people in Montana or South Dakota.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So for, for me, I, uh, I could speak like— so there's English, there's Malay, Chinese, Cantonese, Hokkien. I speak like 5. And, uh, yeah, 5 languages. Yeah.

And how did you learn all of them?

I think it's just naturally, like picking with— because living there, yeah, kind of living there and then just picking up along the way. But, um, I would have to admit, my, my, my, my mother tongue, like, like the local language, like the Hakka, the Cantonese, or even the Hokkien, like this, this tree, like kind of like not my native tongue, uh, languages, I'm not that good at it. I, I could understand what people are speaking and I could speak kind of a little bit, but mainly I only use that when I really need to.

Yeah. Do you, do you speak a lot of English while you're over there in Malaysia, or, or—

oh yeah, yeah, English is my first language.

Got it.

Technically.

Is that, is that the main language of Malaysia, or what's, what's the main language?

Uh, our main language is Bahasa. So we have like a national language, kind of like Mexico with Mexican language and Spain with Spanish.

But yeah, yeah, heck yeah, dude. Well, are you going to sleep anytime soon? I know it's like, what is it, almost 1 AM over there?

Uh, it's kind of— it's 12:30 now.

Sheesh, man.

Sheesh.

So what do you, what do you do when you stay up? You just hang out, listen to music, or what?

Uh, do all kinds. Like, I, I sometimes I catch up with a bit of work, like my side hustle stuff, you know. Yeah, yeah. And then, uh, just do a bit of reading and stuff.

And yeah, but do you ever do any like, um, stock trading or anything? Or like, have you bought any Bitcoin or crypto?

No, not at the moment, because I, I— when I start looking at Bitcoin, it's kind of like very, very expensive now.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And you don't really know what's gonna happen.

Yeah, I've kind of like missed the boat, man. I mean, when I look at it, I'm like, geez, it's like 60 grand. For Bitcoin.

So are you more like a, uh, a safe investment guy, or like you like to make risky investments?

I think I'm, I'm a bit of both. So I, I'm, I, I would take calculated risk. So, uh, as long as I'm okay with it, like, because I kind of judge by if, if I take a risk that that would put me into multiple sleepless nights or something, then I, I wouldn't take that risk.

Got it. Yeah, heck yeah, man. Well, sweet. Well, I think we can wrap it up here. We're about 41 minutes in. Um, Terence, thanks for joining the Howdy Podcast. It was good talking to you. Hopefully somebody kind of learned something today. That's, that's my main goal, is to have somebody learn something every time they watch. So yeah, be watching for this. I think this episode's going to come out either tomorrow or Wednesday, um, so which will be— yeah, if you're watching this, that we're talking about in the past. So, but yeah, man, you have any, any last words or advice to give to the audience before we get off the call?

Uh, thanks for having me, man. Darren, I really—

yeah, no problem.

Yeah, and, um, I think it's last word advice. I would— I think I probably just want to shout out to everyone to like, you know, just, just pursue your dreams. I mean, just do like what Darren is doing, you know. I mean, yeah, it's like, I think it's— this man has just so much of courage. I'm like kind of like I wish I had that courage to do, to do what he's doing. So I mean, because I think life is all about just taking chances sometimes. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you fail, what, but you know, if you never try, it's definitely 100% it will not happen. Yeah, so sometimes just, just take the plunge, man.

Take the plunge, take a leap of faith, be Be obedient to the Lord. You'll be good, dude.

Yeah. And, and just don't be disheartened if you fail. I think it's just— I think everything happens for a reason. And if you— if, if, if, if it fails, just reflect upon it and, you know, just pick it up from there. Yeah.

Amen, dude. You're gonna be a great dad. Are you having kids anytime soon?

No.

You have a woman over there?

No, still single, man. Dang.

Well, I'll be on the lookout. I'll be on the lookout for you over here if you ever move back. Heck yeah, man. Well, sounds good. Well, you go, I guess, hang out, get some rest for your— do you have work tomorrow?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Heck yeah, man. Go get some rest. Appreciate you being on the call. Um, yeah, you have a good one, Terence.

Yeah, thanks, Devin. I'm looking forward to be back in the States, man. Maybe next time around when I'm back from post-grad, I would— yeah, I would figure a way out to go up whenever you're back.

Whenever you're back, we'll have a second round. Well, second round right here in the studio, right where I'm sitting, bro. Yeah, you'll be good. All right, man, you have a good one.

All right.