The Woke Salaryman Podcast

A long chat with film director Cheng Chai Hong about the closure of The Projector, the loss of third spaces in Singapore, the homogenisation of experiences, cultural maturity, government intervention and support for the arts, and much more.More about his feature-length movie debut: https://www.instagram.com/wecansavetheworld.movie/Chai Hong's IG: https://www.instagram.com/chchchchaihong/0:00 Trailer6:28 The Projector's closed!14:30 Is the public to blame?19:15 Film makers' need to attract audiences too37:23 What if I just want to be an artist?42:10 Are landlords being too greedy?50:37 Should the government do more?1:03:16 Storytelling as a national resource1:16:25 Big players and the homogenisation of stories1:21:56 Chai Hong's upcoming local feature film

Timestamps:1:59 World events and our reaction9:12 Just stay calm and boring12:23 Recent travels19:19 Thrifting23:01 Japanese quality as a double-edged sword27:08 Anti-aspirational consumption32:19 I'm glad I didn't YOLO in my 20s37:31 Gen Zs have it hard right now

We had a chat with our friend Dan Wong. Dan is a super creative and unique visual storyteller that has somehow managed to carve out a professional career for himself whilst staying true to his wild, uncensored artistic expression.We talk about how he does this, as well as the struggles of young artists today amidst Gen AI and much more.0:00 Intro2:14 Dan Wong, A Good Citizen10:16 Has being edgy hurt business?22:51 Drawing NSFW art for $$$ in uni31:14 Dan and WC's previous work together34:53 Young Singapore artist woes41:00 Studio Ghibli ChatGPT saga49:15 Being a moderate advocate54:23 Why don't TWS just use AI fully?1:05:02 We don't love drawing1:13:20 OutroCheck out Dan's works:A Good Citizen:https://www.agoodcitizenobeys.com/fine-art.htmlA Good Citizen's Insta:https://www.instagram.com/agoodcitizen/Dan Wong's Insta:https://www.instagram.com/danwongzijian/Websitehttps://www.agoodcitizenobeys.com

Our interview with the man who is kicking up a storm in the Singapore real estate industry.Patrick Chee is a serial entrepreneur who is a straight shooter, and we had a great time chatting with him. He speaks forcefully but authentically, and what you see is what you get.We chat about HDB prices, real estate agency in Singapore, serial entrepreneurship, and finding success without a degree.Homeseller SG:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC47OfrxHXc6Fd-PqfAyYfnATIkTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@homesellersgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeseller_sg/Website: https://homeseller.sg/Timestamps:0:00 Intro2:18 The industry model vs $19998:05 What ACTUALLY sells a house11:18 Is the 2% model justified?23:45 Homeseller SG's philosophy on real estate agency33:18 High agent fees doesn't = better price35:04 Homeseller's business model and ops44:18 Is Homeseller truly motivated to sell if their fees are lower?53:25 The case for a higher fee model56:37 "Difficult" units CAN be sold, but...1:02:47 HDBs are still DIRT CHEAP1:09:38 Patrick's thoughts on Sell 1 Buy 21:15:58 Patrick's entrepreneurial adventure1:23:55 Advice for new real estate agents

Hello, this is another tea time video where we talk about something for fun. This week, we talk about why we struggle with our respective side-hustles/passion projects. Hope y'all enjoy. Let us know if you similarly find it hard to start on these things, and if you have any tips for sparking these sessions yourself. 0:00 Intro 3:25 The topic 8:50 It's hard to do things without external motivation 15:00 Other productive things as an excuse/distraction to not do the creative project 19:25 Taste grows faster than skill, which sucks 25:37 What if your creative project is not monetizable? 34:25 It can feel nice to be productive 39:31 Doing your passion project full-time is an extraordinary outcome 44:40 What if your work is never acknowledged? 49:01 Creating as a way of being 53:04 Summary, and creative resolutions for 2025 1:03:33 Conclusion

We recorded this chat when we visited Ruiming's house in Japan. Hope y'all enjoy. 0:00 Intro 1:20 Why are we here? 2:28 Why did RM get a house in rural Japan? 7:28 How do we like rural Japan? 12:18 The rural Japan dream 21:28 City vs village spirit 29:04 The Singapore obsession with Japan 32:21 What Singapore can learn from Japan CREDITS: Check out Ryunohara experiences: https://www.ryunohara.com/ Music by Kevin McLeod/incompetech Sound effects by otologic.jp

Hi everyone, this is a casual chat we had over tea time. We hope you will enjoy chilling with us. We talk about fresh grads feeling lost and depressed after experiencing work for the first time and discuss whether work is "supposed to suck". Then we meander all over the place. Chapters so you can decide if the meandering will be worth your time: 0:00 Which came first? Mew or Mewtwo 6:16 Young people disliking first job 15:25 Why do we become more conservative with age 21:30 Socialising with people who disagree with you 27:00 COVID was a weird time and set weird expectations 29:32 Fresh grads expecting WFH as a norm 34:03 Business and management experience will change your perspective

*THIS PODCAST EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY UOB* We sit down with Bernard Tay from Jinjja Chicken and Paul Kan from UOB to talk about the challenges facing SMEs and FnBs post-COVID. Specifically, about inflation, digitalization, and overseas expansion! The insights discussed in this video can be found in greatest detail in the UOB Business Outlook Study 2024, which you can check out here: https://go.uob.com/3TT7si8 0:00 Intro 2:48 Life after COVID, not all smooth sailing 4:21 Inflation! 7:03 Hiring Singaporeans for F&B 11:07 Digitalisation for SMEs! 18:52 Difficulties in digitalisation 22:25 Costs of NOT digitalising 26:44 Overseas expansion! 28:54 Unique challenges of Southeast Asia 35:00 Advice for SME operators

We've been away for a while travelling Southeast Asia promoting our books. 0:00 Intro 3:36 Traffic in Jakarta, KL VS Singapore 8:45 City planning is tough 15:13 Vietnam's growth since the 80s 17:43 Would we migrate somewhere else in SEA? 20:14 Retirement village business overseas? 26:05 Book recommendation: Public subsidy, private accumulation 29:33 Book recommendation: Blue Period 31:55 OUR BOOK More on our book and where to get it: https://readtws.com/book

We talk about the trade-offs for the creative soul who wants to run a creative business. 0:00 Intro 0:50 More about our business and me 1:36 Creative VS Business owner 4:15 Delegate to people who like it more, or are better than you 6:42 Consider input, not just output 10:10 Being creative is good for business 11:36 Take creative risks as a part of business 13:21 Unproductivity is part of productivity 16:25 Mistakes are part of the plan 17:47 Give yourself due credit

Juliana Chan is a scientist and scholar turned business owner. Today, she runs Wildtype Media Group, managing a 20-member team — based in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and India — with 30 to 40 regular freelancers around the world. In this episode, we talk to her about how she took her company remote, and the impact it has had on morale and productivity. 0:00 Intro: The road to 100% remote 5:00 Productivity will suffer 14:14 The types of employees that are suitable for remote work 18:58 How do you know everyone is working? 27:26 What about hiring locals and protecting local jobs? 31:36 Where in the world are her colleagues working from? 35:55 What's the competitive advantage of someone from Singapore? 41:37 Singapore's a great place to start a business 46:00 How you can keep Gen Zs 51:14 Concluding plugs

Is overtime ever justified? Why do good employees leave? Do you have to worry about your own job being irrelevant?  This episode, we get the whole TWS team to have an open conversation on these hard topics. We hope you enjoy it.  Also, this is our first sponsored podcast - a shoutout to Workforce Singapore for sponsoring this conversation. To find out more about what grants and tools are available to kickstart your company’s job redesign initiatives, visit https://go.gov.sg/tws-jobredesign  Featuring (from left to right): Wei Choon (Co-founder) Ruiming (Co-founder) Vivienne (Account Manager) Wen Xin (Artist) 0:00 Intro 2:08 Why do good employees leave? 3:51 What is a good employee? 7:45 What is job redesign? 14:18 Have you had a job redesign? 20:58 Do all jobs need to be redesigned for relevance? 29:35 Should all employers job redesign? 38:15 Approaching job redesign with limited resources? 47:41 Who should initiate job redesign? 52:27 Is it fair to have employees OT for job redesign? 59:10 Job redesign VS find new job

This episode, we talk to the founders of The Black Hole Group; a collective of lifestyle and F&B concepts. They started out in 2012 with a backpacker's hostel, and now they own about 13 F&B and lifestyle concepts and are still going strong. More importantly, they are friends who started a business together, and we are super excited to talk to them because The Woke Salaryman was also started by two friends who met in school. They met in JC; while we met in Poly, so we have so many things to ask. We will ask them about what it's like starting a business with a close friend, how to maintain or balance being friends and business partners, and their journey from plucky 26-year-olds running around putting our fires in a backpackers hostel to essentially, F & B moguls. 0:00 Intro 1:16 Why are they called The Black Hole Group 10:05 Starting a hostel in their 20s 15:17 The margins of running a hostel 21:08 Scaling the business 24:02 Do you hang out as friends now? 28:58 Working together as friends/cofounders 37:15 Growing a business = compounding learning 41:00 COVID as a wake-up call 48:20 Co-founders with different lifestyles 54:21 Would you recommend starting a business with a close friend

Jeremy Tan is a professional magician who does a lot of work on cruise ships! We talk to him about the pros and cons of working in such a unique job, what it takes to succeed as a magician, balancing artistry and corporate crowd pleaser, adapting to COVID, and more. 0:00 Intro 1:23 How he started magicking 7:19 Becoming a cruise ship magician 15:31 Adapting to COVID 22:17 Revealing magic tricks to the public 33:50 Crowd pleasers OR artistry

We respond to some spicy comments on Reddit about the fact that we have sponsors, and talk about how we approach sponsored content, what we say no to, and whether we think we've sold out, and whether we can sleep at night. The Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/askSingapore/comments/15c2suy/is_the_wokesalaryman_just_sponsored_nonsense/ READ OUR COMICS: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewokesalaryman/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewokesalaryman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thewokesalaryman/posts/ Our website: https://thewokesalaryman.com/ Timestamps: 0:48 Is TWS sponsored nonsense? 4:38 When we reject clients 9:52 Do sponsors make content bad? 13:06 Fluffy centrist content VS taking a stand 15:18 Have we run out of topics? 18:14 Choosing tone, raw vs empathic 23:02 We make readers feel unambitious :( 24:17 Limitations of content formats 27:26 TWS is self-righteous 32:00 OP elaborated more 35:03 Bye bye :(

Watch this to understand how your financial agent is actually being paid, and what your options are.We also talk about parenthood and why Asian parents find it so hard to be emotionally vulnerable with their kids.⁠0:00⁠ Intro⁠1:24⁠ Convo starts⁠12:06⁠ Flashy agents and flashy wealth⁠20:56⁠ Chris' childhood⁠25:39⁠ Being caught in the wealth trap⁠30:14⁠ Working hard VS Time with family⁠38:00⁠ Asian parents and affection⁠43:22⁠ Fresh grads, do this now⁠46:50⁠ What are rich people like?⁠50:27⁠ Financial freedom as a MINDSET Providend's Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z3FcQx5rHHFx8Fd2gLhOl?si=98960dbb5db54a2c

Meet Vivienne, she's the first person we hired since we went full-time with The Woke Salaryman. 2.5 years ago, Viv left an amazing job at a very esteemed bank to join our humble little rickety company. 2.5 years on, our company is still rickety; but she has become indispensable. We interview Viv in this podcast about what it's like to go from a huge, highly regarded MNC to a tiny SME, whether she has any regrets, and what we do well and not so well.

At The Woke Salaryman, we create content by writing and drawing. A.I. solutions for these 2 functions are getting really really good. Are we at risk? In this podcast, we discuss specific short and long-term worries we have about A.I. We also talk about what we'll do if we are fresh grads entering the market now.

Hawker culture is very important to Singapore culture. Central to the definition of HAWKER is the idea that hawker food should be CHEAP and GOOD; but are hawkers still financially sustainable in a world with aggressive inflation? Can hawker prices keep up with inflation and still satisfy customer expectations of low prices? We talk about this and more with Faye Sai, one of the three siblings that run Coffee Break: a third-generation hawker store at Amoy Street Food Center. They took over the stall from their father, and they serve traditional-style coffee in a hawker setting.

We talk about this infographic that compares the cost of retiring around the world. Singapore is the most expensive country apparently. We discuss why this is so and what Singaporeans can do. Source: https://theindependent.sg/singapore-allegedly-the-most-expensive-country-for-americans-to-comfortably-retire-in/ Original source: https://www.netcredit.com/blog/cost-of-retirement/ (The link to the original source article doesn't seem to be working anymore but you can still find the infographic if you google 'Netcredit cost of retiring around the world'.) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 2:18 Reasons why Singapore is the most expensive country to retire in 2:24 Singapore's unique position as a city-state 3:22 Retiring in Malaysia? 6:16 Retiring in Australia? 9:09 Retiring in Japan? 11:14 Prices of retiring at different countries 11:49 Pros and cons of retiring overseas 11:56 The value of the Singapore dollar 13:24 Size of the country where you retire 14:36 Pace of life 17:10 Leaving your relationships 18:42 Giving up local identity 20:01 Learning new language nd culture 20:43 Raising kids 24:14 Giving up safety 24:50 Economic mobility 28:00 is it wrong to leave your country of birth to retire? 32:00 Looking at Southeast Asia as a whole 34:34 Does the productivity of residents matter to governments? 36:52 Attestupa 39:17 Elderly people retiring 42:13 Should Singaporeans consider retiring overseas?