Guerrilla Business Intensive in Singapore

Hey, it’s another long overdue blog post!

It’s been months since I last visited Singapore, especially since I had moved to Petaling Jaya back in May.

So what brought me over the causeway this time? Guerrilla Business Intensive. ๐Ÿ™‚

Back at the Millionaire Mind Intensive seminar, Elle and I signed up for GBI. So the big 5 days were drawing near, and we bunked over at Foo‘s place for several nights! (thanks Foo!)

Hotel rates in SG are insane. Even if the bills were to be split in between the two of us, it wouldn’t be worth it. Probably because I’ve been so accustomed to paying for anything in Malaysian Ringgits. ๐Ÿ˜›

Coincidentally, Foo relocated to Kallang (no longer Redhill) so Elle and I bunked over at his place, thus we saved on the expensive hotel rates! ๐Ÿ˜€ The HDB flat in Kallang is a mirror of the Redhill place where Foo used to stay though. To the dot!

Meeting the Singaporean Internet Marketers

It’s been a year since I last met Calvin Woon and his girlfriend Patricia Lin in person. Jonathan Teng, their IM Buzz Partner from Maritius, happened to be in town.

That’s us at the Dim Sum place in China Town. L-R: Elle, Patricia, Calvin, Edmund (me)! ๐Ÿ™‚

Later we played some board games at Settler’s. Damn, Calvin kept trashing us. But then, those games are supposed to be ‘no-brainer’ so I think it means something about Calvin’s mental behavior. ๐Ÿ˜›

Jhong Ren swung by albeit for a short while to play a few round of board games with us too. ๐Ÿ™‚

Calvin and Pat challenged me to a dare… which turned out to be riding the sling shot! (And that’s after eating lots of Dim Sums!) I rode one back in my Bali trip last year – yes it was scary. But I was pleased to find out this sling shot model is half the height I rode back in Bali.

Still needed a companion though, so I convinced Jonathan to ride with me!

That’s me looking nervous, while Jon seemed somewhat “over” confident. ๐Ÿ˜›

Strapping ourselves for a blast-off! Better check for our passports, LOL

That’s me… after completing the sling shot! Couldn’t help smiling ear to ear – conquered my fear of flying up! Haha! ๐Ÿ˜€

Guerrilla Business Intensive

The 5 days we’ve been looking forward to is finally here! And man, it sure lived up to its name! The next 5 days were grueling and intensive… 9AM to 10-11 PM every day!

We met up with familiar faces Melvin Ng and Sunny Tan ๐Ÿ™‚ Of course not forgetting some of the Success Resources crew whom I had the pleasure to meet back in GIS Penang.

I learned a wealth of new things from this crash course business school “the street smart” way ๐Ÿ™‚ Art of negotiating, selling, outsourcing, copywriting, finding customers, networking… all packed into the notes I’ve been writing away these 5 days.

T Harv Eker is one of the better speakers I’ve seen on stage in a while!

Of course, there were other guest speakers too like Kireon Sweeney, Alex Mandossian, and Joel Roberts.

Yes, that’s Elle riding the tricycle. ๐Ÿ˜›

The last day was concluded with everyone (700 people in the room) given a ‘business template’ that is re-usable for every business model! We got broken up into groups of 4, and ran through the business vision and the template itself. This was what set the course for Elle and me doing the 7-DAY PLR SALE (just ended as I’m writing this).

Hanging Out with Fuu Fuu and Friends

As soon as the last of GBI concluded, we rejoined Foo and his friends!

L-R: Foo, Gerardine Tan, Elle, me ๐Ÿ˜›

After getting acquainted with Foo’s buddies, who are at large Malaysians working in Singapore like himself, the three of us decided to catch a late night movie and watched Inglorious Basterdz. (the show was too long IMO but I agree with most other people… Christopher Waltz 0wns!)

The show would be on in an hour, so we entertained ourselves at the arcade. ๐Ÿ™‚

Btw… Foo and even Elle handed my ass to me in Daytona. ๐Ÿ™

Elle also 0wn3d Foo in (I don’t know the name of that game). Shame on Foo! ๐Ÿ˜›

But hey, when it comes to shooting – I RULE!!! ๐Ÿ˜€

So it was…

15th September – meet Calvin & friends
16th – 20th September – GBI
20th – 21st September – hang loose!

Great adventure in Singapore this trip around! ๐Ÿ™‚ Wonder when I’ll visit again. It won’t be as frequent as when I was staying in JB since I’m now in PJ for most of the time.

Until then!

The IM Weekend Workshop!

First solid blog post in a while! I organized a 2-day workshop on Internet Marketing with my friend and partner, Elle Wong. It was on demand by friends, so for a big part of the (small) crowd we pulled in were my high school friends. ๐Ÿ™‚

As you can probably tell, in spite of my status as a co-author for Secrets of Millionaire Students – which I’m proud to announce it’s now on the bestseller’s list in Singapore and Malaysia – speaking engagement is not my cup of tea.

Although it’s a whole lot more profitable selling stuff online (duh), we did this to boost up our local credibility. And also, to make our ABOUT ME page look more gorgeous. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Here are some of the photos we took of the class in action on 5 & 6 September 2009:

The IM Weekend Workshop booklet!

That’s me – your one and only main speaker and trainer for the workshop! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Edmund Loh

Teaching the class on basics of Internet Marketing…

Edmund Loh speaking

Okay, that’s Elle my guest trainer. ๐Ÿ™‚

Elle Wong

Class on break…

Class

The students were also thrown into various activities – the copywriting challenge being the highlight!

Hey… poser!! ;-P

Peace!



Thanks for coming to the workshop everyone!
๐Ÿ™‚

Business and Leisure in Penang

It’s been 3 years since I last visited Penang.

I had been invited to speak at the Global Internet Summit and this was going to be the first time GIS is presented in Penang. I had prepared my presentation a few days before the big day and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at all; this was also going to be my first speaking engagement as a main speaker.

And to top that, I was also going to be the first speaker to climb the stage to kick start the event!


At Senai Airport

One day before the big day, I caught a flight to Penang and checked into the Evergreen Laurel Hotel at Persiaran Gurney. While I was looking forward to having more fun and going around Penang, the presentation occupied my mind most of the time. Couldn’t wait for it to end.


Inside the 5-star Evergreen Laurel Hotel - sea view!

Walking outside the hotel at Persiaran Gurney

Thankfully, the Success Resources team had arrived earlier and since I was going to be the first main speaker to start the event – I wouldn’t have the luxury of observing and learning from other speakers before my turn – I rehearsed my presentation in the empty room. I rarely spoke in front of large crowds and I had to learn almost everything I could from “Great Public Speaking in 10 Days”… in 2 days.


Rehearsing in front of the empty room

My biggest worry was whether I would exceed my allotted time of 1.5 hours. So I spent whatever available time I can rehearsing my presentation (though I paid little attention to the details in the final 15 minutes i.e. selling).

Other speakers arrived shortly and I met up with them for dinner to get acquainted, especially Benjamin Teo and Andy Hun since I’ve not met them before.

We ate at Gurney Drive and yep, Penang is well known for its food! Here’s Andy Hun (right) and Feebie, Benjamin Teo’s girlfriend. Andy’s from Johor Bahru, to my surprise (just when I thought I’m the Sultan of Johor).

I don’t have a profiled picture of Feebie but she looks really, really familiar. I was certain I saw someone who looked like her back in Sydney (and maybe true since she and Ben Teo came from Sydney!)… and she looked like an ex-classmate of mine.

“Common face,” said Ben.


Feebie (Ben Teoโ€™s gf) and Andy Hun

Oh yeah, here’s Alvin Phang too. His first time in Penang. Since I won 2nd place in his Atoming Blogging 3.0 contest, should’ve asked him to hand me my prizes while in person. ๐Ÿ˜›


Alvin Phang

Of course, Benjamin Teo himself. He may speak in a monotone voice but hey, he’s THE social media expert. He was from Malaysia (surprise, surprise) and then moved to Australia at an early age. He’s got like… what? 36,000 followers on Twitter? Follow him on Twitter: @upicks


Benjamin Teo - the social media expert

And of course, here’s the star and the hero himself. What’s this blog without THE MAN? ๐Ÿ˜‰


Edmund Loh

Global Internet Summit


View from the stage

The long awaited 1.5 hours of presentation finally came… and go! ๐Ÿ™‚

I think I did pretty well for a first timer, considering many of the audience didn’t quite believe this was my first time speaking on stage, my fear of exceeding the 1.5 hours of given time was un-found (I finished on time), and I sold some of my back-end programs too at an acceptable ratio for a crowd that I heard was hard to please.

To add to that, my hairstyle was at its best. ๐Ÿ˜› I can’t think of anything I’ve goofed up badly and I must say I did well. ๐Ÿ™‚

I haven’t got the photos of me speaking on stage so when I get them I’ll post them here. But I want to show you the photos of some of the people I’ve met at the GIS.


With Kelly Lai

with Tiong Wei

with Low Kok Seng

with Soo Cheng Guan

with Alvin Ooi

with Dawn Tan

with Anna Tan

UPDATED 16th April

Thanks to Jaz Lai and Edmund Toh for the pics! Here they are…


First up on stage!

Edmund Loh on stage

At speakerโ€™s panel

Answering in a Q&A

Answering Q&A

Okay now that the business trip is covered, let’s talk about leisure for the rest of the blog post!

Red Box Karaoke


Red Box

In no sequence, let me show what we’ve been doing when we’re not speaking for the GIS. ๐Ÿ™‚ Hope this convinces some people that we’re totally nerds behind the comps – or that we spend the rest of our free time at the cyber cafe. lol


Jaz Lai, Edmund Toh and Khai Siung signing up at Red Box

This is the third time I’ve gone to a karaoke session and though I’m not good at singing (actually, the extreme opposite) I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’m beginning to like it too. ๐Ÿ™‚ Look forward to go to more of these Red Box outings next time when I’m in KL. Khai Siung is a MUST in the group, really.


โ€œTakes me one step closer to the edgeโ€ฆ and Iโ€™m about to break!โ€

I didn’t know Jaz Lai could sing, though.


Jaz Lai

And even Edmund Toh. I suspect we came from the same factory that produced us.


Edmund Toh

And hey, it’s our guest and friend from India, Alok Jain!


Alok Jain

Finally… me. ๐Ÿ™‚


I can sing, ok?

Yes, I really canโ€ฆ

Kenko Fish Spa

It’s been everyday that I go to Gurney Plaza while I was in Penang but I’m most fond of the Kenko Fish Spa while I’m there.

I’ve seen people blog about their experience at the fish spa and I think it would be sad if I didn’t try it out at least once in my lifetime. Now I’m certain I would do it once in a while. ๐Ÿ™‚


Chewing off my feetโ€ฆ

Jaz, Edmund, Edmund

Feeding his hands away

Letโ€™s see if you can find our card at Kenkoโ€™s Guest Wall!

Trying to maximize my value for money by dipping both my hands into the pool and still get away with paying for only foot massage fees.


Becoming fish food

Here’s York Min whom we’ve briefly got acquainted with. I’ve also tried out the full body massage at Kenko’s the next day since the massage service at the hotel left a lot to be desired.


with York Min

Dinner and Food!

What’s Penang without all the amazing food and friends right? ๐Ÿ™‚


Lunch at Coffee Island

Now with me inside the photo

We also had Speaker’s Dinner on the last evening of the GIS. Here’s me and Vince Tan – damn he sold many seats too many for his back-end program, well done!


Me and Vince Tan

L-R: Vince, me, Alok, Andy


Vince, Edmund, Alok, Andy

Thanks to Success Resources for helping me out with my first speaking engagement!


Me with the SR Team

Some moreโ€ฆ

Group photo

with Yan Ang since she had been missing from the rest of the group photos!

Special credits to: Jessie, Yan Ang, Henry Chee, Henry Wong, Purple Chin (and of course, the rest of the SR team!)

Last Day – Going Around Penang

I was the last speaker to leave the island (Patric Chan doesn’t count since he’s a native here!) so I checked out Bukit Bendera and the Kek Lok Si temple.


At Bukit Bendera

Bukit Bendera

View from the top of Bukit Bendera

At the Kek Lok Si Temple

Year of the Tiger

Also caught a movie at Gurney Plaza’s GSC – Shinjuku Incident starring Jackie Chan. Even though it’s like what Jackie himself said in an interview, “1% action 99% drama” I think this is one of Jackie Chan’s best films. The premise of the show is that in the early 1990’s – based on a true incident that really happened – Jackie plays the character “Steel Head” and was one of the many of the illegal immigrants from China who settled in Shinjuku, Japan… illegally, of course.

Steel Head would go on to find that his former lover is now married with a kid to a Yakuza leader called Eguchi. From here on, Jackie went from doing odd jobs to starting multiple illegal businesses like selling fake phone cards and tampering with the jackpot machines until he seizes substantial power within the ranks of the Yakuza semi-legitimate organization and controls a pure Chinese territory for his Chinese ‘brothers’. There are a lot of heart wrenching moments when you can see how good people turn bad, and yet how some things don’t really change – and the racial issues between the Japanese and the Chinese.

I can see why this show is banned in China because of how it portrays the Chinese people. Nonetheless, I’d say put it in your “must watch” list.


Shopping for stuff the last minute!

Okay, this is it. I’m sorry if I didn’t mention some of you in my blog post and I’m still waiting for new photos to add here. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading and it’s been a pleasure to meet new people while I was in Penang! Talk soon and until the next time!

Meeting of the Minds, KL

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I last updated my Personal Blog. I had been busy with launching PLRGold: Videos and later wrapping it up, even though the Early Bird special ended in just 4 days.

My partner, Stephen Luc and I thank all the Joint Venture partners and affiliates who have contributed to the success of the launch – YOU ROCK!

After wrapping up the launch and minimizing the support issues from our customers, I decided to call a couple of days off to party a little bit in KL and take this opportunity to meet up with some people. ๐Ÿ™‚

The “Meet Edmund Loh” 2nd Anniversary

At least, that was what Khai called it.

On November 9th 2 years ago, I met Khai Siung for the first time through his younger brother, Khai Lee. In Khai Siung’s own words, I came full circle with his family when I finally met him since I knew 2 of his other brothers back in high school years earlier.

Long story short, Khai Siung had just came out fresh from several years of experience with Network Marketing or MLM and I introduced him to the world of Internet Marketing. Admittedly, I was not in the business of coaching people 1-on-1 (and I still haven’t yet so far, at this time of writing) so I advised him to invest in a couple of books from the nearest book store on the same topic, that I believed would really, really help him.

Khai Siung and his then girlfriend, Yuenn (now wife) started everything from there, and I have every reason to believe they shouldn’t be looking back ever since. In fact, I’ll let Khai tell you in his own words here.

Since I was in PJ, I thought might as well catch up with both Khai and his wife again and for nostalgia appreciation, why not have dinner at… guess where? ๐Ÿ™‚ A&W!

On a side note, it wasn’t safe that night we went out – the roads were blocked by several police officers, armed with guns, batons and shields. And we also saw a lot of people wearing the shirts with quotes like “NO to ISA” “I’m with RPK” “No holds barred” etc. probably marching to a group protest against the government. (Or had the crowd already dispersed?)

Dinner at Starhill Gallery, Bukit Bintang

Mindvalley was hosting a dinner for all of the SMART Seminar speakers and entrepreneurs from a variety of other fields at Feast Village, and I’m glad I could make it on the short notice. It was great catching up with a few folks as well as getting acquainted with new leaders and enthusiastic entrepreneurs over a scrumptious meal. ๐Ÿ˜›

Bukit Bintang

An interesting encounter before I arrived: I was taking the KL Monorail to Bukit Bintang when I noticed one of the Monorail doors was out of commission.

The Spoiled Door in the KL Monorail

Even though the sign was clearly displayed on the door in both Malay and English, it surprised me how long a reaction it took people to realize the door was spoiled at every station stop! And I mean, they actually wait – as in more than 10 seconds – for the door to open even though the sign was clearly pasted in front of them in both languages! Either people’s reaction in general are growing less sharp or there are still a lot of illiterates in our society?

The train ride wouldn’t be half as fun without mentioning how a group of young Malay boys played a hilarious prank just before they finally got off: they stood behind the spoiled door as if it was still working, thus fooling the incoming passengers to expect that the door would naturally open! ๐Ÿ™‚

Okay it’s picture time from here on…


Tarbush

With Vince Tan

Gobala Krishnan

Mike Reining & Patrick Grove

L- R: Gobala, Ewen, Vince, Edmund Loh

Drinks at Luna Bar

The conversations and socializing resumed in Luna Bar, just near the KL Tower. View was breath taking! My second time here… ๐Ÿ™‚

View from Luna Bar

I could sense a “shift in the gear” when talking to these seemingly ordinary individuals, for what’s backing them is extraordinary achievements. There was absolutely no room for small talks, and in spite of their massive success in their respective fields, I am more impressed by how humble many of them actually are. If I had to pick out only one most important lesson I learned that night, this is the one.

Edmund with Brian Wong

Meet Brian Wong. He alone is proof that the world is truly connected; Brian knows some of the people I personally work with! And to give him some praise, he looks younger than he is. ๐Ÿ˜‰

He had also put up a set of photos on his own blog here.

Kenneth Yu and Kuda Laura

Haven’t seen Kenneth Yu and the rest of his Mindvalley gang in ages – in fact the faces I saw that night were like 90% different from the last year I saw them at the same place. I’m happy to tell you that Kenneth had seen exponential growth in his copywriting business and ventured on to become an expert with Twitter as well. ๐Ÿ™‚

Lisa Zahran

Here’s Lisa Zahran, Kenneth’s apprentice and upcoming online copywriter too! She hails from Penang.

With Vishen Lakhiani

The head and co-owner of Mindvalley, Vishen. I’ve met him for the first time 2 years ago and this is the first time I’ve taken a picture with him. Finally! Thanks for the wonderful dinner and the brilliant idea on organizing the Meeting of the Minds, Vishen!

Mark Joyner!

Hey, what do you know? It’s Mark Joyner! While Mark needs no introduction, a brief 5 minute conversation with him convinced me that he’s not only a more-than-highly-successful figure in the Internet Marketing and Self Improvement arena, he’s also very down to earth and there was no air of aloofness.

Oh boy, Edmund, you’ve got TONS more to learn from these big guys…!

Patric Chan

Patric Chan who hails from Penang. (his wife Emily was there too) I’ve seen him spoke on stage a few times and had reason to believe he’s a very serious individual… until I got to know him informally. LOL there are many facets to a person! ๐Ÿ™‚

Stuart Tan, Matt, Mark Joyner

L-R: Stuart Tan, Matt Harty, Mark Joyner
Stuart originally invited me to this dinner, thanks! ๐Ÿ™‚ Will be seeing him again in Singapore in a few days from now to attend the SMART Seminar event at Expo Hall.

Jacklyn Ker

Jacklyn Ker, flanked by both me and Vince Tan. ๐Ÿ™‚

The Group

L-R: Vince Tan, Gobala Krishnan, me, Vishen

More photos on my FaceBook photo album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48910&id=753058206