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Interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders who’ve “made it” in Thailand. Real stories of ambition, setbacks, and strategic wins on the path to success. Built for founders and operators who want to win in Thailand.
Guests from the US, UK, Australia, and Thailand. Honest journeys and cross-cultural lessons. Inspiration for anyone building in the Thai market.
Apply to be a guest:
https://madeitinthailand.com/apply
Hosted by Scott Pressimone, a US expat based in Thailand for 13+ years and owner of Fractiond, a Thailand-based strategy consultancy.
#ThailandBusiness #ExpatSuccess #ThaiExpat
What I learned the most from my PhD,
I think it's not about chemistry,
but about I learn how to learn.
And it's actually shaped me to
be a person that I'm not afraid
to actually learn a new skill.
There is no shortcut here.
When you learn the language.
I have students that actually
started learning Thai before
they came to Thailand.
When the business partner came
in, they changed my point of view.
I need to grow, I need to learn.
To me, the funnel is the glassware
that we did in the laboratory.
So all those things about marketing
and business, I learn so much.
I don't look at myself as one person.
I look at myself as one company.
In my case, I don't aim for
money, I aim for freedom.
So I'd like to welcome
New to the podcast.
So New, thank you so much
for joining me today.
Thank you so much for
your invitation, as well.
And I'm so glad to be here and to get to
know you and your audience more as well.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
So the reason that I invited you on
is because you're well known in the
education space, But the thing that's
really interesting to me is that there's
a lot of people in the education space,
but not always really business owners.
And I think that you bridge
that gap very nicely because
you have the business mind,
you have the educator's mind.
And so that's why I thought you'd
be a fantastic guest on the podcast.
So maybe we can just kick it off
by, uh, you share a little bit about
yourself, who you are and what you do.
So I'm the founder and pretty much
mostly solo, self employer, self
employee myself for Thai Lessons by New.
So what I do is teach Thai language
to foreigners through the online
courses and also online platforms.
Excellent.
And what's the name of
your platform again?
So I am in everything but the name.
the main name is Thai Lessons by New.
Excellent.
So Thai Lessons by New, and
again, as I said, I've seen
you a lot of different places.
It seems like you're on all the socials.
What would you say is your kind of
favorite social platform nowadays?
Firstly, I like YouTube the most.
That's actually where I grew up
from and that's also the original of
the whole story of Thai Lessons By
New is actually start from YouTube.
But at the moment where I have the
most followers, would be Facebook at
the moment, so I kind of can't choose
which one I failed with the most.
Another really interesting thing about
you is that you definitely have some,
some credentials that I don't have.
Uh, you actually have a PhD.
So um, I'd love to learn a
little bit more about that.
Um, since you teach.
Is that a PhD in education?
Like what, what, what
is this, uh, PhD in?
Actually that's a secret.
You might be the first one to know that.
I don't really show that
much on social media.
Um, yes, I have a PhD.
Actually it's in chemistry.
But I think you don't want to know
into detail of what I actually studied.
Right.
I'm going to start speak some language
that you might not understand much.
But yes, it's in chemistry.
It's not about education.
However, I think it's pretty
close because eventually the most
of the people who graduated in
PhD, then they would do research
course or teach at a university.
So actually, although I didn't
graduate in education, but I have
experience in teaching training
supervised students as well.
What I learned the most from my PhD,
I think it's not about chemistry,
but about I learn how to learn.
It's actually shaped me to be
a person that I'm not afraid
to actually learn a new skill.
If I can spend three or four years
to actually be, uh, a specialist
in that area that I wrote 400 pages
of my dissertation and then get a
PhD, I spent four years doing that.
Why can't I spend another three,
four years learning a new thing and
be an expert in another new area?
So actually it's about the
feeling of you can learn and
you can relearn and then be an
expert in any area that you want.
So I think that would be the, the
benefit or the, the mindset that
I get the most when I get the PhD.
So I'm not afraid to actually
learn and relearn something.
Another thing that I feel like, I
spent 10 years of course learning
this, but that's my 10 years.
I still have 80 years, 90 years,
a hundred years to go, right?
I shouldn't let my 10 years
dictate all my whole life.
And if we have only one life
and we are going to live 70
years, 80 years, I don't know.
Why don't.
Why do I do only one job?
This is only one life
that I can do, right?
I can still have many chance,
many things to do in life.
Now, back to what I'm
doing, it's by circumstance.
So I, I enjoy my work at that time.
However, it's come to the situation
that I know that my contract was
about to end, and then COVID time
happened, I got an idea that I said
like, I want to have passive income.
Then when it come to passive
income, I was looking and it's like
I can just do, and it cannot, it
wouldn't have a ceiling or limit
my ability or limit my income.
So that's why at that time, so I chose
YouTube because you actually can reach
so many people around the world, right?
There's no ceiling.
If I do Thai language, that means
I can speak English to foreigners.
And then if I speak English,
then I can reach out to the whole
world, not just only Thai people.
Yeah.
You know, this is really interesting
because you mentioned at the beginning
that you learned how to learn, but I
think that you bring up a really good
point that communication is just one
of the, those things we all need it.
It's similar, it reminds me of how a
lot of people say they don't wanna be
a salesperson, but in reality, if you
have ever had a job, you've ever applied
to anything, uh, to a school, then
you have to have some level of sales.
So I can see now that whether
or not you were teaching Thai at
the time or not, you were, you
were learning how to communicate.
And clearly that's done well for you,
uh, as you fast forward, you know,
to, to now to where, yeah, you know,
your job might be communication,
but clearly you've been, you've
been essentially polishing that
skill and, and, and building up
that, that skill set over the years.
I can't help but think about
some business owners that I
speak with that don't wanna
put themselves behind camera.
They'll maybe get on stage or they'll
do some other things, but as soon
as it's looking into a camera, they
don't do it or they don't wanna
do it, or they're scared to do it.
What would you say to that individual
that is essentially just not clicking
the record button, not putting
their face out there more, uh,
what would you recommend to them?
Firstly, of course, um, we see the
successful person that don't show up on
the camera and they still be successful.
So actually I don't want
to limit it to that.
However, if we go to the point
of how do I tell people they're
scared of making themselves better
or improve, or in a way, I think
sometimes we think too much.
We think too much of things
that could go wrong, but it's
actually, it's not that bad.
But you scared, but it's
not the end of the world.
You scared of the camera, you
scared of the comments, you scared
of what people talk about you.
But to be honest, I, I am
on social media right now.
I get comments every single day.
And I read all of them.
I answered all of them too by myself.
And do I get bad comments?
Yes, it's, but how do I feel about it?
Of course, now I have 60 more than
nearly 70,000 followers on Facebook.
I have nearly, I have more
than 30,000 on YouTube.
So overall it's like nearly
150k over all social medias.
Think how much I am going
to get every single day.
What I think when I got bad comment.
Now ment, my mentally actually grew up
a lot, but it was the day that those
bad comment also haunted me as well.
But how did I pass those days?
First day, I think they don't
know me, they're not close to me.
And then they just
spend one second target.
Why do I have to spend my
whole day thinking about it?
It's just there one second.
They already forgot about it.
You're not important that
much in anybody's else mind.
You important in your own mind.
You forget about you already.
Why do you care about it?
What a great lesson.
I'm curious, do you think that going
through that, and I think anyone who's
been on YouTube or put themselves out
there, to your point, has some level
of negativity that come at them, right?
I mean, essentially, did it make
you a stronger person, the fact
that you've gone through them?
Because I've heard
different feedback on this.
Like some individuals would say,
never look at comments on YouTube.
Just, you know, move on.
Don't, don't let it take over.
It sounds like you found a way to say,
I'm going to read my comments, but
I'm not going to let them get me down.
Yeah.
And I'm curious if the path that
you took, do you think it's the,
was the right decision and do
you think it made you a stronger
person because you've done that.
Comments is the thing that
actually they would tell you that.
How could you do better?
How do they feel about it so that
when I actually can be better, and
that's actually true all along the
way that I come to this part, this
far, I read comments and I pick which
one is I can fix, which one I can't.
Then I improve the point that I can.
A small little thing can help.
Like some students said, oh,
you put the, was too high.
You can't see it when
it's put in Instagram.
I didn't know those thing, but I listen
to them and I change along the way.
Secondly, I delete some comment.
I don't delete bad comment.
I left it there because
it, it doesn't reflect me.
What they said bad about
me, doesn't reflect me.
Reflect themselves, how they see
the world, how negativity they are.
He doesn't talk about me at all.
Your words reflect yourself.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, when you think about the types
of individuals that do that, that go
online and say, I'm gonna leave this
mean comment and hope that almost
the person is now gonna think through
it and it's gonna ruin their day.
Think of what type of person you
have to be to be that type of person.
Uh, I wanna go back to your,
your background again, right?
Yeah.
And uh, you have quite an
academic background and you
obviously were educated through
the Thai education system, right?
Yeah.
And so I'm curious what your
thoughts are with education in
Thailand and you know, I know
there's a lot of stereotypes here
and there, and it might depend on
the different things people study.
But you know, a lot of people think
of Thailand as being a little bit more
for rote memorization, and it's not
always problem solving skills, but
everything we've been talking about to
this point has been problem solving.
It seems like you, you do not struggle
in the area of problem solving.
And so I'd love to just hear your
opinion on the Thai education system.
I mean, uh, how is it that
you did well in that system?
Um, were there strengths of it?
Were there weaknesses of it?
Um, and how did you become the
thinker that you are today?
Okay, back to Thai education system.
As Yeah, you, right.
In terms of, I spend all my
education, bachelor, master,
and PhD, all in Thailand.
When people, when they talk
about education, doesn't groom
kids or Thai kids to be able
to think or speak themselves.
I'm not sure if that just the
education that we are talking about.
Because that's also part of the culture,
that we actually listen to adults.
That we actually follow what
the, uh, uh, adults say that.
We actually afraid to be wrong.
That's also part of the culture
that's combined into education.
So everything in there.
And I was ones that kind of kids
before that I would just listen to
mom, listen to what is supposed to be.
I don't know that what else that we
actually do or think out of the box.
It was once my problems as well.
I think one thing that I want to point
out here and maybe not related directly
to the education is, um, when I grew
up, we actually group kids together.
So we, we separate kids based on
the grading, like by the score.
So if the kids that have good
score, they will be together.
If kids that have not good score,
then they're stuck together as well.
I think the thing is about Asian
culture, we encourage studying a lot.
But then we know that we have 24 hours.
If we are going to spend time studying
in a classroom a lot, we know a lot
of knowledge, but then we don't have
much time to think out of the box.
But if you don't have much of the
strong foundation, you don't study
much time in the classroom, then of
course you have lots of time to think.
So, but I don't know which
one is good, which one is bad.
You just have to, everything
have pros and cons in here.
But back to my case, I came to
this point that because, um,
although I'm in the Thai system.
But I also chose myself to be in a
position that I could reach out more.
So I chose to have a professor, my
advisor, who actually my PhD, I did in
Thailand of course, but my supervisor
actually they are from the uk.
So I go to them and then they teach me.
But then, not to necessarily
chemistry, but actually everything.
So we just speak English in.
We just speak English in the classroom.
We spoke English, everything.
Because my supervisor, they
can't, he can't speak Thai.
And then all the system, everything
we ran similar to like in the UK
and where they graduated from.
And I also learned about work
life balance from them as well.
'cause that's Thai kids, we
actually study my whole life.
I would just been going to
tutoring school and stuff.
I never known about, you have
to work, you have to live,
you have to sleep as well.
There's three things
you have to do in a day.
So I learned from them as well.
So I think wherever you are,
you have to find where you can
actually improve and grow better,
whatever situation you are in.
And that would be where you actually
can maybe be different from others.
That's incredible.
I mean, I think one thing that
I really get from that is.
When I lay out something like the
education system is a good way.
It has goods and bads.
Right.
I like that.
You've basically, every time
that we've talked about anything
up to this point mm-hmm.
It sounds like it's your personalities
that you found the good in it.
Right.
And you, and rather than saying,
oh yeah, my teachers weren't good,
it sounds like you said, oh, I
found a way to study under someone
that taught me this other thing.
Um, essentially free will, you
basically said, instead of complaining
about the system, leverage the system
you have or adapt within it or,
you know, um, it seems like you're
quite nimble in the, in the way that
you've always operated through life.
And that makes me wonder
where that came from.
So I am, you know, curious
about your upbringing.
Did you get that from your mother?
Did you, like, where did you think you
got this personality type where you
seem to have that fighter mentality
where you say, I'm gonna prove someone
wrong, or I'm gonna do it my way.
I'm gonna give this a try.
Where did that come from?
So, since 18, I pretty much left home
to study and since then my parents
never had a say in my life anymore.
So whenever I asked anything from
my mom, she would say up to you.
Up to you.
Up to you.
So that would be the point.
I stop asking her opinion because
eventually I know the answer.
That would be up to me.
Making a decision, being confident.
I think it's actually skill.
You actually have to do it a little bit.
You right and then you prove yourself,
oh, I'm right this time, let's do
it another time and right again.
And then you'll be more confident,
more in your own decision
because it's keep repeating.
Correct, correct, correct, correct.
But then since I was young, um, thanks
to my mom that she's actually really
see the importance of the education.
So I came from a small city
where I actually live now,
which is Nakhon Si Thammarat.
It's just a small city
in the south of Thailand.
When I say mom, see the importance of
the education is actually because I,
my hometown is in not the main city.
So it's from, so I am from Pak Phanang.
But then you know that all the
education and the number one
school would be in the main city.
And then every single day since
I was around 11 or 12, I have
to travel one and a half hour
to my school back and forth.
Every single day there
will be three hours a trip.
So imagine if I did that myself every
single day since I was so little.
Make a decision, come back home,
take on a bus, back on on time.
I can't miss the bus either because
then we'll have no bus to go home.
I would just ask my mom recently,
like, mom, you're never afraid
that I would make a wrong decision.
And then she said.
You make a wrong decision,
you make a wrong decision.
I also make wrong decision too.
So then, yeah, right.
Anyone can make a wrong decision.
And then I think this one, it's kind
of like she let me do it a little
bit, little bit and then make me
stronger and make me be independent
and confident in my decision.
As a single child, I feel
like I will have myself only.
Let's maybe be so sad,
but I don't feel sad.
I feel like I only have
myself to depend on.
I don't like depending on anyone,
because no one cannot be reliable.
You know yourself the most,
and you can rely on yourself.
Don't put yourself in anybody's
else hand to take care of it.
You have to be your own boss
and trust yourself and take it.
Why do you trust somebody and leave
your whole life to be on anybody
else hand to take a decision?
So I said like, I would just have to
do it, take care of myself, and then
yeah, face the consequence of it.
Hmm.
It so sounds like the true
entrepreneurship journey.
I think a lot of individuals that
realize they don't want to, uh,
report to someone else or rely on
someone else for an income, you
know, start to go down that path of
saying, I might not know how to create
something, but I'm gonna learn and
get better at it and, and not have
to depend on someone else to make
sure I have a paycheck, for instance.
And, uh, you know, so again, that
seems like a common, a common
thread of a lot of entrepreneurs.
Mm-hmm.
Now, can we turn that around
because I'm, I'm sure that you have
worked with and, uh, helped, um,
foreigners study Thai and you have
your platform where I think you're,
you're helping tons of foreigners.
And I'm just curious, do you see any
problems or challenges that a lot of
foreigners have coming into Thailand?
Do they, do they fall into that
same challenge of maybe surrounding
themselves with other foreigners and
not exposing them a lot to Thailand
or, or how do you think about that?
Firstly, I actually feel like my
student and everything who made
a decision to come to Thailand,
they did so well in my opinion.
I think that's so brave.
Like I know I have students that
actually started learning Thai
before they came to Thailand
and then moved to Thailand.
Like they planned to retire in Thailand
and then they studied the language
before and then they came to Thailand.
I think that's so brave.
I imagine myself at when I
was 30, moved to Australia.
At that time I feel like
everything was so fun.
But right now at my 40 and you
asked me go to a new country with
zero friend and start everything
from fresh, I'm scared to do it.
So anyone who did that make a decision
came to Thailand and want to settle
here, start your new life with no
background, no friend and anything.
I'm so admiring you.
You are actually so brave.
And now back to learning the language.
Um, yeah, it's important.
It's because it's not just really about
the language, actually, So language is
not just only about you, just understand
what you eat, what you buy, where to go.
But it's about connecting to people.
And when connecting to
people, it's more than just
connecting because we are human.
You can be happy with by just
talking, having, having a good
connection with someone, even a
stranger for a few conversation.
And that could actually
light up your day already.
So that's how important or how you
can communicate to people can be.
That's why people or students say
like, I changed their lives because
that's made their everyday life is
actually going better, having better
communication, having better connection
with people around them, especially
when you are in Thailand as well.
It's challenging, of course, but this
are also the charming of learning
as well, and that's no shortcut.
I can't tell you how many
hours you are going to do.
Everyone would be different.
It might be 100 hours, it might
be 200 hours, it might be 10
hours, and you stop and you
have to go back to zero again.
So everyone have different path.
But the thing is you just have
to go do it and then repeat it.
Learn from your mistake,
go out, do it again.
My experience that if I can, if
you can communicate the language
well, then you have to just
use it like you got no choice.
There are no shortcuts.
I a hundred percent agree with you,
but then I can imagine that some of
the AI and some of the technology
that's coming up is maybe making people
think there might be more shortcuts.
And I'm just curious if you have
a thought about how language
learning might change now that
AI is becoming more prominent.
I mean, I'm seeing it working its
way into certain softwares now.
Um, what is your opinion on AI?
I have to admit that in terms
of working is really helpful.
It's make me work faster, is
make me work more efficient.
It's actually maybe even stable.
I don't need anybody else
apart from me and my usual AI.
It helped me with make things like
faster, create things with 30 or
40% already, and I work on top of
that, polish it and also get it done.
So in terms of work is actually helpful.
Now back to the language learning.
I think you still need to have the
strong foundation in Thai first.
Or in anything that
you are going to learn.
That's because AI would tell you
something if you are not in a position
to be able to judge that what it say is
right or wrong is actually dangerous.
So you yourself need to
have a strong foundation.
First should be in a position
that good enough to be able
to judge the information
that AI going to feed to you.
And that would be even more critical
time that you should need your
analytical thinking to filter
which one you are going to believe.
Which one, which one you
are going to pick to use.
And now, yeah, as I said,
is critical time that you
should start thinking about.
Improving yourself.
Even more than any other time
because now you are going to not
compete with human, but you are
going to compete with AI as well.
So use it as a tool, but
don't let it control you.
Great advice.
Great advice.
What you've talked about through
this whole conversation has
been human connection, right?
You talked about how when you
can speak a language, you can
make a, a, a deeper connection.
When you have reasons to make
connections, it's forcing
you to learn more, right?
Because you know, you wanna be
able to talk to that person on
the bus or whatever it may be.
And so I tend to think that AI is,
the more you're focusing your work,
your time, your effort on the human
connection side of things, that's the
part that I think is least replaceable.
Now, who knows?
I get it.
People might have their AI girlfriends
or boyfriends in the future, but my
main thing is that seems like the
safest zone is the area in which
you're making a human connection.
But the repetitive tasks are
not a very safe place to be.
Although I said that, I don't know
what is going to be, I don't even
know if I am going to have a job
in another 3, 4, 5 years or not.
But what I tell myself that I
can still go to bed at night is
if I keep learning every day.
If I am able to adapt myself, if I
am flexible and want on and willing
to learn and relearn and adapt
myself to a situation, hopefully I
also can learn something new again.
And also as an entrepreneur,
I built everything from zero.
I think I can build
something new again too.
Now that brings me back to your
business and how you've been able to
develop a business that scales, right?
Yeah.
And, and so I'd love if you could kind
of transition from what you were doing
and how you were teaching and how you
were leveraging YouTube and social
media, but then you, you've, you've
clearly grown since there and you have a
plan behind all that you're developing.
So can you like, walk us through
those phases that you went through and
kind of where you are today and maybe
even what you plan for the future?
So what I do right now,
everything are all online.
So I teach Thai to foreigners.
The social medias, uh, all that people
can actually access to me the most.
So as you, I am everywhere, as you said,
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok.
At first it start from YouTube.
And the story would be it
start from YouTube and then
I started having student.
Not that I advertise about
it, as we said earlier, that I
actually aim for passive income.
So then I would do things that
I think that it could keep
creating me some money or revenue.
And so that's the plan.
So that's what I am still stick to.
So what I plan to do, even in the
future or whatever I add on my products,
then everything would just be stand
on the point that it should keep
making me money, not me keep working.
So if anything doesn't fit in
this, then I don't actually do it.
I don't do it.
So we have to stick on the
plan of what you want first.
In my case, I want freedom.
I don't aim for money,
I aim for freedom.
Freedom in terms of I can choose
what my life would be, where I
am going to be, when I am going
to do things or my own decision.
And it is right now, even I'm,
I'm not that financial freedom
yet, but I already have freedom
in my own life right now.
So that's freedom.
That's the thing that we aim for.
And money, which just be the
tool to get to that point.
Now, back to how that happens.
So it start from YouTube and then
I have, uh, some students reach out
to me, send me an email and say, if
they would like to be my student and
I like, provide lessons, and then
I was stop and asking myself like,
am I going to change my career?
I was a chemist, I was a researcher.
Am I going to change it?
Because I'm not the person
who actually do things just,
just for the sake of doing it.
If I do something, I would
just do it, put myself into it.
My motto, one of that is.
If you are going to play
a game, play to win.
If not, don't play it.
So whatever game I am, I've
actually planned to win in that.
Otherwise, waste your time.
Why don't you do it?
So this as well, if I am going
to change my career, then I
am going to put myself in it.
So I stop and ask myself
am I going to do it?
And then I was calculating and I was
like, yeah, why not give it a try?
I have to thank all my students as well.
Even right now, I still do one-on-one,
although with limited hours.
One reason that I still keep doing
this, that because my students are so
nice and smart and kind and successful.
Most of my students are
early retired people.
They might retire since they're 40, 60.
So they've been successful.
They were CEO, they were the, the
owner of the company and everything.
And even now they still
learn Thai with me.
That mean they keep
learning, never stop.
So I myself, I believe that
you will be similar to people
that you spend time with.
That's what I believe.
So then I like to spend time with my
student because I like to surrounded
myself with people like that.
Kind, smart, wise,
intellectual, also successful.
They have good view of the world
and they kind of, they're my
student, they pay for me, but I
learn so much from them as well.
So that's why I still keep
teaching because I want to
surround myself with them.
Second reason also, then I can see
student problems closely and that could
help me to improve my lessons in my
self-learning courses in my Patreon
for the monthly membership as well.
'cause I see clearly, closely what's
the student problems, so I know how
to help them, how to fix them, and
put those things into my lessons
that I provide courses for student.
Back to that.
Now my student helps me because they
actually like me enough to actually
kind of be my mentor in a way as well.
They said because they are student,
they're not just, they learn with me.
Right?
They learn with through many channels.
And then they also help me by,
no, why don't you try this?
Why don't you try that?
So then they introduced Patreon to
me and that's after I teach for like
a year and then they introduce it.
Patreon.
It's like Neil, give it a try.
Try Patreon.
And as I said, that I would
improve or combine new things
into me if it fit my goal, right?
My goal is to have freedom and
Patreon fit in that way, that because
it's also a channel that people can
submit to my spatial content, and I
provide spatial content regularly.
These days I do three short video,
one long video to my Patreon, and
that's the monthly subscription.
That means I kind of know already that
how much I am going to earn a month.
In a way.
It's also no ceiling.
I still do the same amount
of job, but if I have more
subscription, then I earn more.
So it also fit with my things as well.
And that's also, if I am going to
do Patreon, it should be different
from what I already have done.
So I also plan my Patreon to be
different from my YouTube and other
contents that I provide for free too.
Otherwise, we'll support people,
subscribe, subscribe to it.
So now I have the second product
that different from what I already
have and keep also generating.
No ceiling income, do the same job.
If I get more subscription,
then I earn more.
So that's fit what I need.
And then I also provide new
extra contents for my students
as well if they want to.
Apart from the YouTube and also free
social media, I want to mention a
little bit why do I keep providing
YouTube and social media for free?
People might think that
it's also because of course
you advertise yourself.
However, to me, I do this because
I want to decentralized education.
I want to make learning Thai,
be able to accessible to anyone.
Regardless of how much you earn,
you don't need to pay me for
money, but if you wash my lessons,
you definitely will learn.
Of course, if you can pay more,
if you want something special
and extra, then you can also
sign up to my Patreon as well.
After Patreon for about a year
and a half that I get quite a
number that I am happy about.
Then also then after that,
it's a good time that a new
opportunity came in my mind.
I already know that I want to
have a video courses and then.
Luckily, then I got a partner, but
then they actually reached out to
me and sending an Instagram to me.
Actually the founder of the
company, who is my business partner
right now, send me an Instagram.
I chose them that because they
already have the plan to do the
things that I already have in my mind
that I want to do, which the video
courses today just came to actually
fill in the gap that I needed.
And what they did is the
part that I don't do.
So I do my part, which is the create
courses, planning and everything.
So all the content would be my part.
Other thing else is their part.
Which is behind the scene in terms
of the finance, managing the payment
marketing websites, reach out, sending
emails, everything behind the scene that
I don't know, and I don't know for real.
I actually learned so much during
these two years that we've been
together, and we still been
together in another few years.
So I learned about cold ads.
I even Google what it means,
like what cold ads mean?
I learn about green funnel.
Ever green something?
To me, funnel is the glassware
that we did in the laboratory.
And then they talk about funnel.
I like what does it mean?
So all those things about marketing
and business, I learned so much
about this within these two years.
Now, when we talk about business
mindset, I have to admit that I actually
didn't have this kind of mindset before.
When I did at the start YouTube
teaching one-on-one, even Patreon,
it was just, okay, everything
for just have passive income.
And that's just for myself.
But when the business partner
came in, they changed my point
of view about, I need to grow.
I need to learn.
And I now by myself in terms of
I'm the whole company myself.
I don't look at myself as one person.
I look at myself as one company.
This company, what do I have to do?
I have to aim that what this
company going to hate to, what we
are going to do this year, what
we are going to do next year.
I'm not talking about with my business
partner, I'm talking about me, myself.
The whole company of Thai
Lessons by New is here.
My product one-on-one, my Patreon,
self learning courses, what else that
I am going to add in this new company.
So, and then I have to go through all
the finance, reading all the report,
checking all the numbers, and then go
to all the best, and then answering
comments, going to making a decision,
doing pictures, websites and everything.
Checking.
I also learned to communicate
with working in a team.
Like before when I was in academy, we
don't really work in a team actually.
I think 'cause I was kind of like my
own boss in a way that I make a decision
of what, like what direction of the
research we are going to and stuff.
I discussed that to my boss, but I was
still the one who made the decision.
I don't really need to communicate
in terms of what should I say to make
him happy or what, like communicate
with the employee and stuff like that.
But I learn everything like right
now and I'm still improving.
Hopefully my, my team think that
I'm good enough, better now, but
like how to tell them because I'm
actually the person go to the point.
If you message to me, I
wouldn't say, hello Scott.
Good morning.
How are you today?
I was just like.
The go to point.
But then I also learned, okay, softer,
communicate, giving a compliment,
and then maybe tell directly.
I also learned from podcasts and
everything how to communicate to the
team, how to talk to the employee.
If you are the CEO, then what you
should do, how you should spend your
time, how to make a decision in a day.
How to get enough sleep,
exercise, and then make the
good decision at the right time.
How to actually manage your time.
That which time you should do it, at
which time of the day to actually,
your brain still function, right?
So everything is actually learning and
coming, uh, during these two years.
And now I see the whole world
better as the whole market
that I can reach to, not just a
little like small little thing.
I think they came into fill in
what I didn't see before and
now make me actually could be
stronger and bigger in a way.
Yeah.
I love that, New.
Now this is actually something
that as you're sharing how you're
changing your business, how you seem
to be very good at iterating, right?
So you're adding to things, you're
improving things, you're listening
to feedback from YouTube, you're
listening to feedback from your
one-on-one sessions and you're,
you're changing these things.
But you're also talking about how
you're, you're optimizing also
for your own income and growth.
Right?
And what I love about that is I
personally see that as a very.
Beneficial thing.
I don't see that as like, oh, business
over here is like, make money.
And then over here you're trying
to keep some clients happy.
To me, they're all the same.
Now I think there are some bad people
out there that will try to do those
like quick scams sort of things, right?
They exist where people will take
advantage of the money, but to
me, I see the incentives aligned
because if you're able to provide
more value to your students.
Yeah.
You should be able to make more.
Um, it's actually a conversation.
I have a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old,
and I was just talking with my son, the
9-year-old, about, um, about business.
Like what is business?
And he said, oh dad, I think
that's like making money.
And it's like, no, I would
actually argue that business
is not about making money.
Business is about providing value, and
the result of providing value or making
something better is to make money.
It's the byproduct.
I think too many people
switch that around.
And what you're doing is you're
making a product better, you're
providing more value, right?
And as a result you absolutely
should have an increase in money.
And if you're able to optimize your,
your courses, your platform, your
Patreon, uh, you know, yeah, the,
the post that you're making, then of
course some of that should be evergreen
and should continue to grow and build
up and everyone should be winning.
And the, the great thing about that
too new is that I've unfortunately
seen the other side of that.
I've seen some very good teachers
that unfortunately I think get
caught in that whole do it myself.
Right.
I'm not saying that's
wrong for everybody.
Mm-hmm.
But the reality is sometimes you see
people, and I'm not sure if you've
seen people in this, in this, but it's
that they will build, build, build,
work on the lesson plan, work on the
thing, and they're, they're buried in
what they're doing and as a result,
they never really get to improve.
They never really get to build
and allow more students to get
the benefit and get more exposure.
Mm-hmm.
Instead, they end up helping
three people or whatever, you
know, whatever the number is.
Yeah.
And then they're just never out of that.
Uh, it's almost the rat race, right.
It's, it's almost back to the whole
what happens for a job sometimes
as you just get caught in the doing
and you never get to go bigger.
But I love about your story is how
you're always improving and you must
be providing more value, otherwise you
wouldn't have found success like this.
Right.
Yes.
I actually really agree in terms of,
I heard people say before that the
more people you help, then the more
benefit that you would get to yourself.
But actually you help more people
as much as you can and then
eventually you will get some return.
I didn't understand that before,
but once I am doing what I
am doing at the moment, and I
actually understand that even more.
It's not about making money.
I think what I love about my job
is also when I get to see comments
about how I can change their
life, how this important to them.
And that's so rewarding.
When they say, you are the best.
You help me.
You actually make me understand this.
Your courses is actually one comment.
Actually say I take a few, I think
he said he took five courses and
only my course, that actually he
find he found it the best and can
help him improve his pronunciation.
And when I see that.
Yeah, it's like this, I don't know.
This is the best job.
You get money and you get to hear this
kind of thing, and that's so rewarding.
Eventually, when it's not
about yourself anymore, it's
actually feel even a lot better.
Yeah.
And of course this kind of thing
not necessarily, necessarily
include in terms of that.
In terms of as, I always want to
improve myself when I produce courses.
Of course, I have experience
in teaching, but my course is
also my first course, right?
Mm-hmm.
My A one course is my first course.
My A two course is my first A two.
My reading course.
It's my first reading course.
I also want to hear what
people think about it as well.
Of course, I did my
best to actually do it.
But you would be the one who tell
me that if it's the best or not,
and it's good to actually hear that.
Your effort, what you put in there
is actually, yeah, they say that
yes, you did the right thing.
Right?
You're the one that's reading
the comments and clearly you
take them to heart, right?
Mm-hmm.
So you iterate based off what you're
hearing and the feedback you get.
That's fantastic.
Well, New think you've been
incredibly generous with your time.
I'm just curious, is there any,
are there any topics that you think
we should have discussed that we
actually didn't touch on yet today?
I wanna talk about time
management a little bit.
Hmm.
Please do.
So, I, I think you will hear
about this, um, that you divided
into a box of what important.
What not important.
What urgent.
What not urgent.
The Eisenhower metrics, right?
Yeah.
And that's what I believe, and that's
what I choose to do every single day.
That to do importantly, but not urgent.
So I want to, so I would
plan a day and just do what?
Important but not urgent.
Anything that's not important and
not urgent you don't do at all.
I really value the time.
So if you have, yeah, this
limited time, what you are
going to put yourself into it.
I even believe this, not just only
for work as well, this, this belief,
it actually pushed me to go out
and do exercise that, because if
I don't exercise right now, it's
going to cost me much in the future.
So I have to start doing this now
is important, but not urgent yet.
And don't make it to be
urgent until you do it.
But in terms of work that, because
I have so many things that I was
saying before that I have to do
pretty much at the moment, like
three, four things that to do.
The Thai teaching.
So in a week I would
choose to plan that.
When do I research my new contents?
When do I prepare for my Patreon?
When do I actually have to
prepare for my new courses?
When do I actually have to
do marketing for everything?
So that would come to like, I have to
set in a week at which day I am going
to do what, at which time as well.
So I have to plan that.
If I don't do research right
now, then tomorrow I don't
have content to talk about.
So that would be the thing that
I have to plan ahead and plan the
really important things to put in
the right time to actually do it.
I also, but then I also believe
that you have to balance as
well, not just work in life.
So we have health, we have
relationship, we have work.
I'm not sure what else.
But what would be three,
four things right now.
So like I spend.
Not sure if it's enough so I
be sick, my mom and spend time
with my mom 24 hours in a week.
And then go back to live by myself
doing the work and other things.
Half an hour every day doing
exercise, and then the rest,
maybe doing some work and hanging
out with friends when I need to.
I'm not when I need to, when I want to.
Everything.
Also what I feel like as well.
So I feel like we should
balance to do things and manage
time to do what important.
So if, and stick to your aim.
If you aim to be, to have freedom or
to have money, there's nothing wrong.
You aim what you want, but then
keep looking at that goal and
check yourself if you keep walking
in the right direction or not.
Yeah.
Great advice.
Be intentional, right?
And, and make sure that we're not
skipping some of these key things.
And health, I'm so glad you touched on
health, because it is sad sometimes when
people focus so much on work, they don't
realize that by not taking the breaks,
not getting outside, not seeing some
greenery, not seeing friends, right?
It, it, it hurts your mind, doesn't it?
Right.
It doesn't allow you to get as
creative and I think you have
to strike a balance, don't you?
I was actually still stick
to being super productive.
And to do that, you actually
have to have those things.
You have to, you need sleep,
you need good mentality.
And that's coming from spend time
with friend talking something
that nonsense and spend time with
someone that don't really talk
about work or anything at all.
That's also actually helped a lot.
And also, yeah, exercise,
eating healthy food.
So everything needs to balance,
but to be honest, that's come
to the point that, yeah, then I
can work super correct tomorrow.
If I don't sleep tonight, then
I can't work properly tomorrow.
So that's also important.
Yeah,
yeah.
Great advice.
Great advice.
Well, New would love if you could
share the best way that people can
get in touch with you, they can learn
more about you or learn from you.
Um, where would you recommend they go
so they can follow me
on my social media?
So if you can just search
Thai Lessons by New.
In any platform, even with Google, you
actually should be able to find me.
If it's for my courses or anything.
You can also send me an email as well.
That's p.wasineee@gmail.com.
But pretty much if you find me in
any social media, you should find me.
Yes.
Fantastic.
Well thank you so much for the time.
I will have to share that I
do the same thing that you do.
The reason that you still have
all these one-on-one lessons is
because you're learning from people,
you're learning from your students.
That's of course why I do this podcast.
I love to surround myself with
individuals like yourself 'cause I can
learn so much and I hope others that
have listened, have learned as well.
So thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and
uh, we'll catch you on the next episode.
Thank you.