Daniel Tsang, founder of Reframe Paneling Group, shares how a rumor in grad school taught him to be his own advocate. He says without adaptability you're dead weight, and that happiness means noticing good moments even in hard years. His advice: trust your gut over supervisors who dismiss it.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. I have Daniel Sang with us. He's the founder of the Reframe Paneling Group. So welcome to the show, Daniel.
Thank you, welcome for having me. Of course. Thank you for having me.
Thanks for joining us. We'll dive in. I know you're very excited for this first question, and it is: What's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Um, the best story of my life, I would say it was while I was in grad school. I went to graduate school for school counseling, and it was my last semester. I walk in the class feeling good, only a few months left, then I have a master's degree. And one of my friends pulled me aside and informed me that one of my fellow cohort mates was giving a little talk about me at a function that I didn't end up attending because I was like out of town at the moment. So, and she was going around and basically propagandizing that I was the weakest in the cohort and just talking a lot of smack.
Yeah.
And Hearing about that, I always had my suspicions that my cohort was just nothing more than a group of people in classes together, because it was always promoted as, you guys will form bonds and be professionals and together for the rest of your life. But hearing that, and then from the friend I had, and my trusted friend, she had no reason to tell me otherwise or lie. Yeah. So I believed her, and then I went to confront, and then I went and talked to a professor and asked their opinion, the director of the program. They expressed shock, like, oh, that's so shocking, you know, we're all counselors, you know, we shouldn't be talking about people. I'm like, yeah, it doesn't matter. The point is, I was told it happened at an event, I just want you to be aware. And time passes, eventually said person came and apologized to me. And I feigned ignorance, and what I learned and took from that was just, I am my strongest advocate and no one else will look out for me like I will.
Yes, got it. And the next question I have for you is, what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Sorry, you fell out for a second.
No, no, it's okay. What's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
The most valuable piece of information. I would say that without adaptability, you're nothing more than dead weight.
Yeah, well, they say success, you got to be able to adapt, so I can agree with that. What's the best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific, maybe it's the same. Would you say the same?
The best piece of overall business advice I've ever gotten, I would say, find where you fit, not where you foresee. Because you could think a million different things, but if you don't fit in there, you're never going to be successful. And fit into the niche that they need, fit into where you're happy. Just the word fit is key for sure.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
That your suspicions were always right and that just go with the gut and don't listen to other people, even if they are supervisors.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
Or superior.
And in your— what's the key to happiness, in your opinion?
I think the key to happiness is to be open to it. No matter how hard your situation is, there's always at least something that can be seen as, well, at least this good thing happened. And I see this a lot at the end of the year. Every New Year's Eve, people are always posting online about, oh, thank God this year's over because it was the worst year of my life. And every year I've learned through Facebook memories, I see, I make a counter post saying your entire year cannot be bad. Name at least one thing that was good. And I actually, the most recently in 2017 New Year's Eve, I actually had a whole thread going of people that said, Yeah, 2017 was really hard, but I gave birth to my kid, but I graduated, and just a whole list. And I was like, that was really powerful. And that really showed me that the key to happiness is just to be open and looking for it. Yeah.
And what's the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?
The best book I ever read, I would say, is New Moon by Midori Snyder. And I read it. It was published in 1989. It was republished in 2005. It's out of print right now, so it's on Amazon. But if you like scouring old bookstores, go look for it. But—
oh, yeah.
Sorry.
No, no, you're good. Yeah.
And the number one thing I learned from it was you cannot escape who you are, but that also means that no one knows you better than yourself.
True, yeah, I like that. And I think from a marketing perspective, like, that's a big thing with your brand, you know, like who you are, that's what you got to go after. And what's your favorite quote and why?
I actually have a tie of two favorite quotes.
Hit me one.
Alright, "Because if we the storytellers don't do this, then the bad people will win," by Christiane Amanpour. And that one I really love because it's all about advocacy and your truth and living life the way you want it and just your perspective and just knowing that you have power in yourself. It doesn't matter how big or how little, it's just don't let other people win. And then the second one I would say is, I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best, by Frida Kahlo.
Very nice. Thank you so much for sharing those and coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
My email, actually.
Okay.
So, or on Facebook, if you look up Reframe Cons, I'm on there too. That's my group that we mentioned earlier. I'm a founder of it. We do panels at various conventions throughout the East Coast, although we're willing to travel, and our panel's topics include media literacy, diversity, inclusion, just a lot of thought process about mentality, mindfulness, all a bunch of fun things. But the best way, easiest way to directly reach out to me is my email, which is de-tsang@gmail.com. So D, Daniel, Sang, my last name, 9910@gmail.com. Perfect.
Thanks again for coming on, man. We appreciate it.
Thank you for having me.
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