#11 Stories to Freedom

Good Day Brewers - Pang here! ☕

What an INSANE giveaway we had last week!

Nearly 100,000 impressions.

A number that is enough to fill Ohio stadium!

You Brewers are simply incredible!

Thank you so much for the support and I appreciate every one of you!

As always, I’m looking for feedback. This will allow me to craft better stories that will help you become a better Story-Brewer!  👇

Estimated reading time: 1,716 words - 7 mins 13 secs

A week ago, I met Howie for breakfast!

He reached out to me after reading one of my newsletters sharing my LOVE for McGriddles!

And so, we decided why not grab one together?

On my way there, I came across a familiar sight.

BreadTalk IHQ

“Rrrnggg!”

7.45 am. “Yawnzzz!”

Time to put it to SNOOZE for another 10 minutes.

..

..

..

What!? It’s already 8.15 am?

I’ll scramble out of bed in a “wonderous fashion”, dragging my feet across the floor as if my legs had shackles on them. I couldn't find better words to describe myself, other than being a living zombie.

I had to reach the office by 9. But here’s where the equation doesn’t check out.

It takes 40 minutes to get to my office from the moment I stepped out of my house. That leaves me with just 5 minutes.

But I had to take on two impossible missions — like how James Bond did.

Brushing my teeth. And wearing my long sleeves shirt and long pants.

I hated wearing formal attire. I wish I could go back to the 1600s and set whoever came up with this “ridiculous idea” on fire, together with all the fancy suits. I’ll end the day in my slimy, sweaty uncomfortable shirt due to how humid the weather is in Singapore.

But what made matters worse was that I find myself chasing after the bus almost every other day. It's as if the bus knew what time I'll be there and arrived 30 seconds earlier so I could do some morning workouts.

Despite all this, I’ll arrive 2 minutes early to work.

I got to be early as a “big shot”..

The office “couldn’t operate without me”.

Even as I step into the office, others simply couldn’t ignore me.

“Good Morning, DiDi!” — See what I meant? The receptionist, Zhenzhi, would smile and greet me.

(DiDi means “little brother” in Chinese)

And then she’ll add:

“You have a signing today. Jean just came. She’s seated there,” as she pointed to the short petite girl with a blue dress seating on the couch. Just behind her were shelves that displayed tens of accolades won by this locally-grown brand over two decades.

My brain was already on auto-pilot. I got to get this SHIT done.

Here’s the part where you “Give me ten seconds and I’ll explain my boring job to you”.

10 seconds..

I’ll teach you how to do my job in 8 simple steps.

Step 1: Head over to my desk.

Step 2: Grab the signing documents I’ve already prepared.

Step 3: Pick up the S shirt size and the thumbprint machine.

Step 4: Walk over to her.

Step 5: Run through 26 pages of company policies, rules, and employee benefits.

Step 6: Get her to sign.

Step 7: Head back to my desk

Step 8: Update the HR back-end system.

DONE.

Sounds boring huh? It’s as boring as it takes for you to read that — I bet you skipped through it.

The challenge?

I don’t just have one candidate.

Tom, Dick, and their best friend, Harry, will come later throughout the day. I’ve got to rinse and repeat this process at least five to six times each day.

Can you imagine repeating that for 180 days?

That’s how I felt putting myself on that hamster wheel.

But I also broke the WORLD RECORD.

13 signing. In a single day.

This could be an unlucky number to many, but somehow, it was something I’m proud of.

On days like this, the intensity and volume drive me crazy, but I’m glad I survived the onslaught.

But I still don’t know what’s worse..

A) Working on a boring mundane job and getting a stable income?

Or

B) Not having the freedom to choose when and what I wanted to do?

3 years later..

Things are different.

Today, I’ll be able to go for a run at 8 am, enjoying the fresh and crisp air of a sunny morning, listening to the birds humming in the distance, and singing a beautiful start to the morning.

Then, I’ll have a chill conversation with friends like Howie at 9 am over breakfast, where we talk about life, share stories (yes on how he met his Japanese wife), and bounce ideas.

By 12 pm, I’d have a bunch of ideas to create content to be posted on Twitter.

All I have to do is to organize these ideas and structure them into tweets.

It’s 2 pm, and I’ve already structured the flow of the newsletter you just read.

I LOVE my life right now. Being able to have the freedom to choose what I want to do — that’s truly valuable.

So what changed?

I took a leap of faith in becoming a creator.

My ex-boss FIRED me from my job.

My friends. My family members. Everyone else questioned my decision.

They made me question mine.

But I was sure I didn’t want a rigid 9-5 job. And I sure as hell don’t want to be working my ass off in exchange for money that I’ll squander away to relieve the stress I’ve accumulated from work.

I just want to lead a simple carefree life.

This made me followed my guts to go ALL IN on creating content to build a fanbase on Twitter.

When everyone else was telling me not to do this, I DID IT.

I followed my heart and got to where I am today.

But there’s still one problem..

I haven’t generated much sales from what I’m doing right now.

A measly $124 in revenue — from two giveaways.

But this isn’t even nearly enough to sustain my monthly expenses of $300.

I’m getting the freedom I want, but I haven’t achieved the financial independence that I’m seeking.

This problem still haunts me today as I struggle with building a course that will solve all problems that you’ll face growing an authentic personal brand.

— A course that will help me generate recurring revenue.

The transformational journey..

On this journey, you’re getting from point A to point B.

— A drastic change you’re having in your life.

It could be your lifestyle. Your spending habits. Your outlook on life. Your health. Or a drastic decision you made that was unpopular or frowned upon.

They’re POWERFUL.

We all love reading huge transformational stories.

However, it takes delicate skill to tell a transformational story that drives deep impact.

Here are THREE rules that NO ONE talks about for transformational stories.

#1 - Vulnerability.

Telling a transformational story shouldn’t simply be comparing a past version of yourself and the present version of yourself, as if you’re a PERFECT human being right now. This is framing the story in a way that hides the truth. The truth that builds TRUST between you and your fans.

The toughest part of sharing this story was admitting to the fact that I made just $124 in the last 4 months. That was horrible. This journey is tough and I wanted to show you that instead of putting a layer of sugarcoat just to fuel your brain with cheap dopamines thinking that this is gonna be easy.

I may have the freedom I want, but NOT the income I need to keep this going yet.

Hence, the next time you are crafting a transformational story, you might want to keep the following question in mind:

• Do you feel vulnerable sharing your transformational story?

If you don’t, you’re missing out on the MOST CRUCIAL aspect of every story.

EMOTONS. Your audience isn’t going to FEEL what you’ve been through.

#2 - Transformations are like FINE WINE.

If you’re telling a transformation story once every few days or weeks, that’s like opening a freshly made wine instead of letting it AGE in a barrel.

The value of these stories goes up with time, so frequently sharing these “stories” may not be a wise idea.

Even the story you just read — isn’t a perfect transformational story.

It’s a story that is a work in progress since I’ve only partially achieved the transformation I’m seeking. Hence, I’m gonna let it age a little longer before working on that full story!

But can you imagine me sharing this story every week? It may get all the likes and engagements but that’s just silly.

Most people don’t know how to savor great stories like they do wine.

#3 - It must BENEFIT your readers

I could keep the story simple and just talk about all the successful and beautiful parts of the story, leaving the most important truth out.

But stories are meant to be REAL. Because real builds trust.

This is why your story shouldn’t be framed to benefit yourself, but instead, benefit your readers.

(Remember what I said above about writing stories just to get ENGAGEMENTS? That is SELFISH!)

And I wanted to share that this journey is tough and you should not believe every word you read from other creators.

NEVER TRUST any creator who ONLY talks about their wins to make everything look easy.

It’s like buying an investment course from someone who only shares their wins but hides their losses.

Your brain likes it easy, but you’ll find relatable stories to be more VALUABLE. They may not give you CHEAP DOPAMINE but they’ll help you build a mindset of STEEL to succeed in life.

With that said, you shouldn’t be worried if you don’t have transformational stories to tell.

These stories take time to build and you shouldn’t have to crack your head to find one.

Just promise me not to be one of those guys who tell fake stories to win sympathy points and to show how “huge” their transformation is.

You’re gonna take a fat L to your reputation when everyone finds out the superficial details you share in your story, making you an imposter and a liar.

Your Barista,Pang

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Struggling with telling stories? Reach out to me here.