190. Quit Story: “No More Bosses” – How to Make Solopreneurship Work for You (Adrian Tan)

What do you do if an interviewer expresses concern over your personal brand on LinkedIn?

This was the final nudge Adrian Tan needed to big farewell to the corporate world.

In Adrian’s words: “After spending a decade running my own businesses, I realised I’d become virtually unemployable.”

That is a taste of the conversation we had with Adrian Tan on Episode 190 of The Thought Leader Club Podcast as part of the “Quit Story” series.

In This Episode:

Topics we touch on include:

What does it mean to be “unemployable”? How does someone know if solopreneurship is the right path for them?
Building a personal brand on LinkedIn and practical tips on positioning yourself on LinkedIn
The honest reality of being your own boss: Adrian’s highs and lows with self-employment

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Any Player

How to make solopreneurship work for you and building a personal brand on LinkedIn

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What does it mean to be “unemployable”? How does someone know if solopreneurship is the right path for them?

Cheryl:

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Thought Leader Club Podcast.

Today we are going to speak with Adrian, who is the author of No More Bosses, the journey to sustainable self employment. For those of you watching the video of this episode, you’ll see that I’m holding his book right here, and I am delighted to talk more about not just the book, but really also about Adrian’s perspectives on quitting traditional forms of employment.

I really want to dive into his actual realities that he’s gone through his experiences of quitting the traditional career path to pursue his own path, on top of supporting his family and other personal responsibilities. And also what might be Adrian’s best advice to those of you who want to make sustainable employment, self employment work for you.

This episode is part of a series on this show called the Quit Stories, where we interview awesome individuals from all walks of life, all of whom have a quit story.

Now, as a reminder, the common themes among the stories that you will hear on this series include defining your own version of success instead of doing what you are supposed to do or who you’re supposed to be, choosing courage over fear, especially in times of uncertainty or difficulty, and making decisions based on your own values and choosing what matters most to you now.

To kick us off, let’s have Adrian introduce himself.

Adrian, please, could you introduce yourself and tell us who you are and what you do?

Adrian:

Hi everyone.

Before that. Cheryl, thank you so much for making this happen. I really love your show. I enjoy many different episodes of it, especially the monologues. High production value. It really kicks ass.

For myself, I’m currently a fractional CMO. I do marketing for a very specific type of company, which is in the HR Tech Space. I also do my own podcast. I dabble in YouTube as much as I can. It’s more of a hobby thing. And of course, I’m an author of this new book, which I’ve launched, No More Bosses.

My journey into where I am right now actually started more than 20 years ago. I started a recruitment business, that’s where I ended up marketing and selling to HR departments. Did that for about 11 years before bouncing around. Joined other businesses in outplacement, in HR certifications.

But the common theme here is I always deal with the HR departments of different companies, which is why I decided to maintain this niche. And over the years, people also told me, “Hey, you know, marketing seems to be a superpower.” So I thought, we can combine that together and come up with something. And here I am.

Cheryl:

Okay. So to kick us off, I think the burning question on people’s minds is, okay, Adrian, your book is called No More Bosses, which is like a bold statement.

But Adrian, would you ever consider going back to a nine to five job? Because you have this book called No More Bosses. How’s that gonna work?

Adrian:

Technically, what I’m doing right now as someone independent is actually my fifth attempt, so I’ve done it a few times. Of course, as I shared in between, I’ve been in jobs, but I think I’ve been in jobs long enough to know that I’m quite unemployable.

So it’s really tough for me to constrain or to conform myself to the corporate structure of an organization. I always tend to fixate on the bullshit of an organization that makes it really hard for one to perform well in their job.

So if I can, I would never go back to any corporate job again. Because to me, it just feels so stifling. I really enjoy the independence that I have right now. I cannot imagine myself picking up all these side gigs here and there if I’m still gainfully employed.

Because every time you have to go to corporate comms, every time you have to go to your boss. To be honest, all this, some of the side gigs are not even something that you get paid a lot for. Some of them are even pro bono.

I guess in the big scheme of things, and always bearing in mind that you only live once, you really want to experience different stuff and to do so, I guess you just want to be in that mode where you can just okay, I want to take that on without asking for permission.

Cheryl:

The key word that jumped out at me was “I’m unemployable.” That’s such an interesting way of phrasing it. I think, for the listeners right now, they’re like, “Am I unemployable too?” This will probably apply to those who currently feel like their job is just not serving them or it’s not for them.

To dive a little bit more into this, Adrian, how would someone know if they are unemployable and have what it takes to pursue self-employment?

Adrian:

If you constantly have to question your value and your fit into the organization, that’s a good first step.

Every single one of us has our personal core values. It could be empathy, honesty, etc. Organizations may say the same thing.

You usually see a lot of wall art when you walk into any office building, but that’s what they are, wall art. Nobody actually pays much attention to them.

Over time, you realize the behavior of the organization at large, typically led by the leaders, shows what the true core values of the organization are.

For instance, I worked in a company before, during the early days, and one of the things on the wall art was “open communication.” But you often see the first thing that the CEO does after he arrives at the office is to shut his door. The only two times you get to see him are when he goes for lunch or to the loo. That’s it. So it just doesn’t gel with what is written on the wall.

Then you have to ask yourself, “Okay, but I really embrace open communication. I want to work in an environment where I can talk to anyone. There’s no hierarchy, unlike the military.” That will make it very hard for you to function over a long period of time within the organization.

This is just one example.

There are many other examples within a company. Most of them are profit-oriented. If you want to go all out to make money, then you may have an issue against your current core value, where you want to really apply honesty. You want to be true to your consumer because you see consumers as people you want to be with, because you’re also part of the consumer space. These are telltale signs for you to think about and ponder if that is your true north star.

Now, having said that, there are, of course, legitimate companies that have those core values and practice them. It’s something like dating. You have to go through many dates with many different people before you find the right one. As Steve Job said, “Keep finding. Don’t settle.”

Cheryl:

This isn’t your first rodeo, this venture into self-employment. It’s not your first time doing it.

At what age did you first try self-employment? How was that first experience different from now, years later? What has changed? How have you matured over the years? Tell us more.

Adrian:

Oh, the first attempt was horrendous. I did that after my 11 years running the recruitment agency, and towards the tail end, I actually wrote a career guidebook. That became a calling card for me and my co-author to pursue related gigs, whether it was career coaching, career training, etc.

He went back to corporate, so I decided to continue the path as a solopreneur. This was back in 2014-2015, so it was a very different time. There weren’t a lot of things you could leverage to help you automate stuff. There was no ChatGPT to make use of, and also, no Zoom. When I had to screen prospects or do a consultation, it had to be in person, which took up a lot of time and cost.

The business model wise is just tough to get off the ground, even in today’s context, because in Singapore, the government provides free career coaches for the general public. So I was actually competing against that space. Only people who see a certain value would want to pay for it.

Financially, I just wasn’t ready. I was overspending, had a heavy mortgage, bought a fancy car, and my third kid was on the way.

While trying to get my business off the ground, all these different liabilities started to weigh on my shoulders. It was very distracting, and it’s easy to make quick decisions for a quick buck that don’t make sense for the long term, and I kept making those.

Ultimately, I decided, okay, this isn’t working out. I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel just to put food on the table. So eventually, I called it quits.

Cheryl:

So now in 2024 and going forward, how is your current experience with being your own boss, doing your own thing. How is it different from the first rodeo?

Adrian:

So I’m actually very surprised that this current rodeo turned out to be so much better. I started this quite accidentally. In my last job, in a fit of anger, I said “I quit” to my boss, which I actually mentioned in the book. I did that because I was really angry at that point in time, and the next day, I was like, “Oh no, what now? What did I say yesterday?” But the toothpaste was already out of the tube, so I couldn’t put it back in.

After deciding that I wanted to go solo, I put out a LinkedIn post saying that I’m going independent. If there’s any collaboration or engagement, feel free to reach out to me. At that point, I already had two adjunct teaching assignments, and three different companies reached out to me for different assignments and retainers.

All in all, I actually had five different assignments at the same time, and I even doubled my income compared to my last job. That made me wonder, “Is this sustainable?” So I just continued from there. Of course, assignments came and left, new assignments came on board, but I was able to see that this is much more sustainable.

I guess the key difference is that the business I’m working on right now is more of a B2B kind of thing, whereas when I was doing career coaching, it was B2C. I had to literally go to different individuals and ask, “Hey, do you want to be coached by me for an hour for $150-$250?”

It was very tough because there were just so many of them. But when it comes to dealing with businesses, I can only take on maybe two customers right now, and each of them will be paying me a high premium retainer, and that’s good enough for me.

Importantly, I’m not optimizing for money. I find it silly for anyone who wants to pursue solopreneurship to optimize for money. You might as well just stay in the corporate structure; it’s much easier, actually.

I’m optimizing for freedom and flexibility. I try to limit my working hours to around 30 hours a week, which is why I can only take on two assignments.

And of course, with all the automation and AI available now, work is much easier. That’s the key differentiation that I can sense. So far, it is going well, and I hope it will continue for as long as possible.

Cheryl:

I think what was really amazing is how quickly you were able to get support and clients this time when you went on your own path. That speaks volumes about the reputation you’ve built over the years. You’re very active on LinkedIn, and even in the book, you have a wealth of practical, actionable advice on building your personal brand.

But the question I wanted to ask is for the listener who may be younger, more inexperienced, and doesn’t have much professional experience yet, but is enamored by the title “No More Bosses”.

How young is too young to pursue your own form of employment?

Do you have any benchmarks or criteria you would recommend someone consider before deciding if it’s too early to try to be self-employed?

Adrian:

The realm of self-employment is actually very wide right now. TikTokers, Instagram influencers, and YouTubers can also technically be classified as self-employed.

My kids and I were just talking about YouTube creators yesterday, and we discussed this guy, I think his channel is Ryan something. Basically, it’s this kid who reviews toys, and he’s been doing it since he was, I don’t know, five or six years old. Now he’s 14, and his channel, which is managed by his parents, if I remember correctly, brings in like $25 million a year just from reviewing toys. Honestly, that guy doesn’t have to go to school. He can continue to review toys until he’s a hundred.

To your question, I think any age is possible. You just, of course, have to find what is interesting for you because the key thing here is sustainability. How long can you do it? A lot of battles are won not because someone is good, but because someone refused to give up.

Finding that interest that can really be sustained over a period of time is very important, and there’s really no hard and fast rule about how to find that.

If you were to ask yourself the question, I can guarantee you won’t be able to get an answer for a very long time. In fact, maybe never. But what you can try first is to ask yourself, “What do you dislike doing?” That will help you eliminate the noise.

You won’t be able to know the true destination, but at least you’ll be able to know the right direction to head towards and just continue to put one foot after the other in that direction. So that’s one thing.

For anyone out there who may be keen to try it out, I guess you just have to put yourself out there and start tinkling with stuff. When I exited the recruitment business, I actually wanted to get a job in any HR technology company for a very silly reason.

In the recruitment business, you often deal with a lot of sales-people, and sales-people are usually prima donnas. I reached a stage where I didn’t want to deal with people anymore. Please, let me just deal with technology.

I interviewed at LinkedIn and a company that’s no longer around, I think it was hire.com. I didn’t get a job, but I still had this itch I wanted to scratch. This was back in 2015, so blogging was a thing. I started to write about HR tech and HR tech only.

It continued to build and accumulate, and it really snowballed when I decided to roll out this HR tech market map that covered Singapore. It went viral, at least within the B2B space. People started to see me as the go-to expert for all things HR tech, despite the fact that I’d never worked in HR tech before.

If you’re able to take things from a content expert angle, I think that is still a way for you to work around the fact that you may be lacking in those skill sets.

The happy ending to this story is because of my writing. When I was in India for a trade show as a visitor, a rep from a company recognized me. We had a conversation at the booth, and I went to their office. They were opening up an office in Singapore.

They’re asking me for my help, and long story short, I became their employee number one in Singapore.

Cheryl:

All because you had built, essentially, a brand, a body of work, and a reputation through LinkedIn.

Just to clarify, is LinkedIn your primary platform right now?

Adrian:

I will have to say, unfortunately, yes, because nobody goes to websites anymore. As much as I still try to repurpose whatever I have on my website, the traffic on my website is nothing compared to what LinkedIn is drawing in right now.

Building a personal brand on LinkedIn and practical tips on positioning yourself on LinkedIn

Cheryl:

I see, I see.

Why don’t we segue into the conversation around LinkedIn? This book, again, has a lot of really practical advice on branding, LinkedIn, positioning, things like that.

So definitely listeners, this is a book that I believe you can get on Amazon. Is that correct? It’s an Amazon bestseller. If I’m not wrong.

Adrian:

I’m not sure if it still is. The ranking. Keep going.

Cheryl:

I see, but it was fantastic at one point. To kick off this conversation around LinkedIn, Adrian, I’m really curious about something.

What if I have a ‘small’ audience on LinkedIn, like, let’s say, 500 connections/followers? I know you’re in the thousands, around 40,000, I believe.

If someone is just starting to dabble with the idea that LinkedIn is going to be a key factor in helping them pursue a path in solopreneurship and self-employment, what are the first three things they should do on LinkedIn?

Adrian:

I think the first thing you need to do is establish positioning. For example, if you want to talk about HR Tech, then you should do that. One thing to understand is whether your audience might be on that platform. Your audience likely would be if you’re in the B2B space.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be about selling stuff. It could be more about building up your profile because you want to be the employee of choice.

Still, you have to be known for something, and you have to be willing to put your thoughts out there. This is what people call thought leadership.

When you talk about thought leadership, you have to accept that some people will not agree with you, and they may flame you for whatever you say. I’ve been at the receiving end of that.

In fact, the first time I received this, it came back-to-back within the same post. I was so distraught by the entire experience. I spent my entire day thinking about the perfect retort, which never materialized, and I wasted the entire day.

Those are the things you have to be prepared for, and ultimately, you need to start putting content out there. I must admit that the LinkedIn game is a bit different now from when I first started. I started when LinkedIn probably just had an office in Singapore with 20 people. Now, I don’t know, maybe 500 people over three stories at MBFC or something. It’s crazy.

But there are signs and clues, like what Tony Robbins always says, ‘Success leaves clues.’ You should look at similar influencers or people who are nailing it on LinkedIn within your space. If you are, say, an executive coach, you may want to draw reference from someone like Eric Partaker, who is a CEO coach. I think he has 80,000 to 100,000 followers. His content is nailing it. Look at what he’s doing and try to repurpose that or apply something similar to your local audience.

There are also many other influencers out there trying to teach you how to do things, and they seem to be at the forefront of knowing what the new algorithm requires.

For example, if you go to the LinkedIn app right now, you may notice videos in your stream. You may be thinking, ‘Hey, I thought I went into LinkedIn. Why am I seeing Instagram?” But no, you’re not seeing Instagram. LinkedIn is starting to prioritize video content. If you know that and want to ride on the train, the next thing you should do is start producing more videos because LinkedIn is going to pick that up.

Many years ago, or maybe months ago, they were prioritizing certain topics and hashtags. So, you have to keep your ears on the ground. There is a page, I think it’s called LinkedIn Creator Network or something. I highly recommend everyone follow that page because when there are new things they want to cover, they promote it. You can draw references from that channel and start working that into your content.

Ultimately, it’s about quantity. I’m not saying you need to post 10 times a day, that’s not practical for most of us with day jobs. But you want some form of regularity. I’m currently posting once a day on weekdays, and I think that’s sufficient. LinkedIn is also prioritizing interaction. They don’t want it to be just a one-sided thing. When you post, and people interact, they expect you to interact back. This proves to the algorithm that you’re a real person and not a bot, and it drives engagement on the platform.

Ultimately, all social media platforms behave the same way. They want retention and increased usage of the app or platform for as long as possible. They want to create that stickiness. So if you’re able to help them with their stickiness, they would love you.

Cheryl:

Quick question. I’m very nosy about this.

You mentioned how platforms like LinkedIn love for users to engage with one another, but we cannot deny that some folks engage just to get more engagement on their own content.

I want to hear your thoughts on this. What if someone thinks, ‘Okay, I get it. I should be engaging with other people’s content, and maybe that’ll help boost me in the algorithm, but I don’t want to.’ What would you say to that? What are your thoughts?

Adrian:

I think there’s still room for you to apply that in a higher ROI kind of way.

For instance, if you want to present yourself as an employee of choice for a pharmaceutical company, be very selective about whose posts you observe and monitor, likely your future potential hiring managers in those companies. See what they say, and if it interests you, come up with something intelligent to reply to. Over time, people will notice you and realize, ‘Hey, this person actually has something intelligent to say.’ That’s one possible way.

But yes, you’re right. Some people are gaming the system right now. Comments, interactions, and reposts, reposts being the highest lift, signs to LinkedIn that a post is performing well. I’ve seen this and shared it with a close friend. Occasionally, I see a person’s post that’s just a selfie shot with a mediocre caption, but it gets over 300 likes and interactions. I wondered why that was the case because the content didn’t seem that interesting.

Then something told me to check the reposts. I found that the posts were reposted maybe seven or eight times by different profiles and pages. It’s very obvious those are not real profiles or pages, likely bots created by someone. If you look at the stream of those bot pages, it’s just reposts of this person’s post and nothing else.

There are things like that, but I wouldn’t suggest anyone go that route. Those are easy, quick wins, but ultimately, they are like the dark head. It will come back to hit you one day, I feel.

Cheryl:

Yes, I agree with that. For me, I’m someone who’s very stubborn, and in my head, I’m like, I refuse to engage with other people’s stuff just for the sake of the algorithm. That’s my stubborn thought.

But I do see that when I go on my LinkedIn feed, there are many times when people’s comments on other people’s stuff are actually interesting and thoughtful, and they are trying to engage in a dialog. So, I think there are definitely examples of engagement and LinkedIn best practices done very well.

One thing I want to ask is, going back to your point about the first thing you should do is positioning. In the book, there are actual examples of how to do so. But right now, if you were to share with the audience one tip related to positioning yourself on LinkedIn, what would it be?

Adrian:

I suggest finding a niche that is so narrow that, by virtue of you showing up, you’ll be the number one.

For example, if I were to tell people I’m a fractional CMO or fractional head of marketing, the fractional space is quite congested. I’m in a couple of WhatsApp groups with literally more than 200 or 300 fractional CMOs. It’s very hard to stand out in that sea of similarity.

But if I tell people I’m a fractional CMO for HR tech, everyone is like, ‘Huh, okay,’ and that naturally propels me to be number one in that category. In fact, probably the only one in the category.

You want to find a space that is so narrow that you simply become the number one just by showing up.

Cheryl:

That’s making me think, ‘Huh, what could I position myself as the only one in?’ Anyways, conversation for later, but let me think on that for myself. Thank you for sharing that tip.

Earlier you mentioned there were instances where you were flamed in your comments or what not. One thing that came to my mind was, “Oh, wow, if my loved one or close friend was getting flamed by trolls and people with disagreeing viewpoints, I would be so sad and want to encourage them to not do this anymore.”

One thing I would love to know is, whenever you get comments or very strong disagreeing viewpoints that get to you, how do your close ones, your loved ones around you react? Do they try to encourage you to stop being on LinkedIn? What’s their reaction?

Adrian:

I personally never get a chance to see that. I’m someone who spends a lot of time in my head, especially during bad times. I usually keep things to myself, so they never had a chance to see that.

But if I knew my kids were being flamed by trolls, I feel the best way to handle it is to confront them, but not in a threatening manner, more for a conversation.

I’ve seen this happen with someone who used to be an NCMP in Singapore, Kelvin Chang. He is quite vocal on Facebook and often invites a lot of disagreement. I’ve seen one step he took, which I thought was very gentlemanly of him.

He said, “We really have this very long to and fro in the comment section. Why don’t we meet up and talk it out?” When you meet someone to talk it out, it’s very different.

Many of us are much ruder and more extreme behind a screen and keyboard. Can you imagine people who flame you behaving the same way in person? That would be crazy.

I don’t think that would happen most of the time. If you can get the person to meet with you, have a meeting of minds, and have a discussion, you can agree to disagree. Not only can you manage the situation well, but you could even make a friend out of it.

I have a friend who did that as well. He was flamed for something he said on LinkedIn. He extended an invite, but the other party never accepted. It shows that my friend was the one who extended the olive branch, but the other party refused to accept.

If this were a competition, my friend would win.

The honest reality of being your own boss: Adrian’s highs and lows with self-employment

Cheryl:

That’s such a great example or viewpoint because it reminds me of how, even in non-LinkedIn disagreement situations, like when my partner and I have an argument, I’m always much angrier on WhatsApp. I sound furious, like a keyboard warrior, but when we actually meet and talk it out, I’m much calmer and more mellow. That’s such a great example actually.

Speaking of disagreements, one thing I’m personally curious about is, every single time you’ve pursued self-employment so far, did people around you disagree with your decision?

Adrian:

When I started my first business, my mom never gave her blessing, which is typical for Asian parents of that generation. They just want their kids to study hard and become civil servants.

When I started my future endeavors, I got comments from my wife asking me, ‘When are you going to get a real job?’ But she has asked enough to be ignored, and eventually, she stopped asking altogether.

I understand her point of view. Ultimately, one has to sustain the cost of living, especially with a big family like mine. So, I put a time limit on how long I should continue with certain ventures. This is why, from my initial exit in 2014 until now, I took other jobs. Those were periods when I needed a reset in self-employment or my business space. When things didn’t work out, I had to retreat, reconfigure, and refinance through other corporate assignments.

The lack of support can be very troubling because any form of business is a roller coaster. You have the highs, but you also have the lows. When you’re down and out, the last thing you want is for someone to pour cold water on you.

Securing support from the very beginning is crucial, so you have one less worry as you navigate and make sense of your self-employment.

Cheryl:

That is such a real, lived experience. More likely than not, most people pursuing solopreneurship or starting their own business, especially if it’s their full-time pursuit, will have to navigate this at some point.

For those listeners who have already started a side business or are thinking about jumping into their own business full-time, but face opposition from people around them like, super anti their decision.

What encouraging words or different perspectives can you offer to the listener who’s in that situation?

Adrian:

You know, one of the quotes that comes to mind. I’m a huge quote collector and have a library of quotes in one of my Notion pages: ‘You only have one thing to do in life, and that is to disappoint as many people as you can around you, so you don’t have to disappoint yourself.’

If your calling is to do something, it may be the wrong thing for you to do, and it may not work out at all, but at least it is your decision. The last thing you want is to look back 10 years later and regret not taking that path.

I mentioned this in chapter two of my book. A friend of mine started an HR tech business after leaving a cushy job as a regional director at a consultancy. He had three young daughters and told me one of the key reasons he made the change was Jeff Bezos, regret minimization framework. I’m sure the listeners can Google and find out more about it. He didn’t want to look back 10 years later or near retirement and regret not taking that path.

The thing about these paths is that they don’t have to be permanent. You could do it for a couple of years or five years and then go back to what you were doing. It’s perfectly fine. Don’t see it as a permanent thing; see it as a tour of duty.

Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, has a great book on this concept. If you can frame it that way, it might help you get more support along the way.

Ultimately, it is your life to lead. If you need to disappoint a hundred people in your life so that you wouldn’t disappoint yourself. I feel you should do so.

Cheryl:

Yeah, and in the book, there are multiple case studies of people you’ve worked with or come across, and your own case study as well, that really illustrate that exact sentiment.

There are times when your brain will give you a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t even try, but there are endless case studies in this book that demonstrate that if you do try, if you give yourself at least a fighting chance, you can succeed.

One thing I was dying to ask you is, are there any stories or things you wanted to include in the book but didn’t make the cut for whatever reason? What would that be?

Adrian:

Oh, yes, there was supposed to be a sixth story that didn’t make the cut. Right now, you see five different stories. The sixth story was about a person who is no longer self-employed.

She tried, but it didn’t work out, so she went back to corporate and is doing very well now. I wanted to tell the audience that if it doesn’t work out, it’s okay. You can always go back to corporate. Here’s an example of someone who did it, which was in case study number six. But the publisher wanted the book to be more linear, focusing on encouraging people to see self-employment as a key possibility.

My life story in the book is a strong reference point that if it doesn’t work the first time, you can regroup and try again. It’s naive to think your first attempt will always be your last and most successful attempt. Some people, like Mr. Beast, succeed on their first try, but we should be cautious about survivor bias.

Recently, I posted on LinkedIn about the incoming CEO at Nike, who joined as an intern and has been with the company for over 30 years. People celebrated this as proof that staying in a company long enough can lead to success.

However, I pointed out that while success is great to celebrate, survivor bias remains undefeated.

Many others get stuck at the intern level and never continue. We need to balance things and see both sides, asking ourselves if we’re willing to accept the difficulties that come with the path we choose.

Cheryl:

I really resonated with your sharing about how there might be times when you have to pivot and go back to a job, and that’s not a problem at all. I really appreciate you for sharing that.

Actually, I’m curious to know, when you did go back to a job in the past years, were you like, ‘Oh, grumble, grumble. I don’t want to do this’?

What was your personal, emotional response to the thought of, ‘You know what, I think I should go back to a job for now’? What was your emotional reaction or experience?

Adrian:

To be honest, two jobs ago, I was much more appreciative of having a job. When I had to take those jobs, it was always due to financial reasons. When I took on a job and had a stable income, one burden was lifted off my chest. I knew I could start financing things and put food on the table, which was one less worry.

When you’re running your own business, you have to do everything. When I was running my recruitment business, I was the one cleaning the toilet. It’s not fun, but someone has to do it.

You have to deal with the office lease, make sure the internet is working, keep the area clean, and take out the trash. It’s nice that when you get a job, all these things are taken care of. You just have to sit and watch people do those tasks for you. “Oh, you mean, I don’t have to return my cups myself. Okay? That’s great.”

When I took on my job two jobs ago, we were in a WeWork, so everything was well taken care of, and we were given all the necessary tools. All those things were much appreciated. But of course, that is until the bureaucracy creeps in and disagreements start seeping in.

The initial days are always good, the honeymoon period. Even for my last job, although I quit in anger, it was nice to be in an environment where you get to know and meet people.

The journey of a solopreneur is very lonely, even for someone like me who is so accustomed to singing in my own head, even I would go crazy sometimes. I need someone to speak with.

I realized that during the peak of Covid, when we were all locked down, I realized my best days were when I was on this platform called Lunch Club. Lunch Club connected random people for conversations.

Of course, before that, you can pre-define, you know who you want to speak with, in which country, interest, topic of interest, etc. My best days were when I got to speak with someone.

As much as I’m introverted and like to spend time in my own head, speaking with people and getting to know them is great, which is something I get to do now as part of my assignment. Those are the good things that I look forward to.

As with all things, there’s always the bad stuff in life. It’s just how you frame it and look at things. Ultimately, you have to choose the kind of bad stuff you are willing to accept because everything comes with that stuff.

Cheryl:

I appreciate the candidness you’ve been sharing. The real experiences you’ve gone through and what people can expect if they choose to pursue this path.

Yes, there will be loneliness, financial uncertainties, having to do a lot of things, and a lot of pressure on yourself, including doing the dirty work you don’t want to do. It’s part of the growth, and you’re signing up for this, right?

The main takeaway I’m getting from this conversation is to give yourself a fighting chance. If you know this is something you want to try, give yourself the chance to at least try it and give it your best.

As we near the end of the conversation for today, I want to spend more time on the book itself.

For those who are curious, who would you say this book is best for? And who might this book not be a good fit for?

Adrian:

That’s a great question. One part of the subtitle was taken out. The original subtitle was supposed to be ‘This Journey to Sustainable Mid-Career Self-Employment.’ The reason is that I’m mid-career, I’m 45 this year, and I can only write from my perspective. I feel my perspective would be most relevant for people around the same age as I am.

But the publisher decided to take that out to appeal to a wider audience. Still, the essence of this book is geared towards people in my age group, particularly in Singapore, who have liabilities and obligations. They may have kids, marriage, mortgage, and elder care responsibilities.

If you still want to pursue self employment, you have to look at high margin stuff. You have to look at the high premium. If you don’t have money to even buy inventory, you have to look at services. What are services that could give you or allow you to command high prices? Things like that. Those are more prevalent. But of course, if you were to look past all that, I think conceptually, it will still apply very much to folks, any folks who are keen to look at self employment.

One thing that helped me succeed on my journey is putting a lot of time into thought leadership and content marketing. Content marketing does not have a quick ROI, it takes a long time. I’ve written at least 1,000 blog posts, which naturally brings you stuff. For me, it would be at one point in time, very regular commentary on Channel News Asia, and that also helped me gain my gig at CNA, Work It podcast.

Those are stuff that will come about when you do content marketing, but you really have to put in the reps. You cannot just, oh, I’m going to write this one lengthy post, and it’s going to nail it. It’s not going to happen.

So if you don’t have the patience, if you just want to go for quick stuff, maybe instead of spending the money on my book, put that into crypto. That might work out better for you.

Cheryl:

I really resonate with that. It’s like this journey, not just content and thought leadership and being on LinkedIn, but the whole pursuit, this career, this lifestyle, these aspirations. It’s going to take time, commitment, and a lot of repetitions.

If you’re willing to put in the repetitions and do it for as long as it takes, with pivots here and there and problem-solving when needed, you’re probably a great fit, not just for the book, but for this journey ahead as well.

Adrian, any last words for our audience? Also, where can people get the book?

Adrian:

Due to the length of this podcast, it may seem I’m just jumping from one thing to another successfully, but I do have to point out that there are a lot more stories in between those transitions. It’s not every time my venture did not work out, I managed to easily find employment, that is never the case.

In fact, the first time was so hard I had to drive Uber for a period of time just to make ends meet. So those are things that you have to ask yourself: Are you willing to bear the brunt when things really get so bad?

Ultimately, if you keep putting one foot after another over a period of time, I’m very certain you will be able to excel in anything that you put your mind to.

You can get this book on Amazon, at Kinokuniya. I’ve seen it at a popular bookshop. I’ve been asking my friends who have taken pictures of them at different bookshops to help me put them on a higher shelf for visibility purposes.

Major bookshops, you can get it anywhere, though not at airport bookshops, unfortunately. I hope it will be there very soon.

Cheryl:

We’ll smuggle it in somehow to figure it out. I don’t know how, but we’ll figure it out.

Adrian:

People are smuggling things out into the country and we’re smuggling things into the airport.

Cheryl:

Adrian, thank you so so so much for your time and your perspectives.

The final question is, how can people connect with you? Where can they find you? How can they work with you?

Adrian:

People can find me on LinkedIn, just search for Adrian Tan, I realize it seems to be a bit harder to find me nowadays. I’m not sure why. But yeah, I’m on LinkedIn.

You can also go to my website, adriantan.com.sg, if you want to work with me or collect with me, just reach out to me on my Contact Me page, or you could just drop me a DM on LinkedIn.

Cheryl:

Perfect! Links will be in the show notes below. You can definitely find Adrian easily with the show notes, the links will be there.

To everyone who is listening, thank you so, so, so, so much as always, for tuning in.

Adrian, thank you as well for being here, and I’ll see you all in the next one. Bye everyone!

Listen to the Episode

About Adrian

Adrian Tan is the author of the Amazon SG Bestseller No More Bosses—The Journey to Sustainable Self-Employment. A father of four and owner of two dogs, he is also a prominent HR Key Opinion Leader and B2B marketing expert with over 20 years of experience.

Adrian is the founder and Chief Market Strategist of Marketing Sumo, a B2B marketing agency focused on serving HR tech companies. He previously co-hosted the “Work It” podcast by CNA, a popular career-focused show. Currently, he hosts “The Adrian Tan Show,” a podcast where he interviews people shaping the future of work. Through his website, adriantan.com.sg, he shares insights on self-employment and how to navigate modern work.

Connect with Adrian:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriantanck/

📖 No More Bosses: https://amzn.asia/d/bWBjfYH

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2db5aN9xKxaTEFQDibzwNm?si=RyEixbmxRQCCUvPvcQGFrA

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adriantan18

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanadrian18/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adtan/

Marketing Sumo: https://marketingsumo.co/