Interview with Online Marketer and Consultant, Wayne Liew
Last week I had the good fortune to interview Wayne Liew, a young blogger and online marketing consultant. He has owned an online business since the beginning of 2009 and is now starting to make 4-figurers in consulting.
Interview with Wayne Liew:
Wayne, you’ve interviewed quite a few people on your own blog, www.wayneliew.com and have quite a following on Twitter. But for those who don’t know you would you please tell us a little bit about your yourself and how you got started? What led up to you starting on the Internet?
I am Wayne Liew, an online marketing consultant, online marketer and blogger focusing on entrepreneurship, small business and marketing. I got started in 2006 when I discovered blogging as a great way to publish and broadcast information and my opinion over the Internet. At that time, my blog was just a journal or diary (just that it was public :p ).
While I was searching for design and coding solutions on blogging communities, I realized that a lot of people are actually monetizing their blogs. I started reading veraciously and applied the methods learned to my blog. In a short amount of time, I started posting blogging tips onto my blog and I was shocked at how many people were interested in them. Maybe blogging was still something new.
A couple of years gone by and in 2009, I realized the blogosphere is filled with blogs about blogging and it will be very hard for me to differentiate myself. As I am also starting to help small businesses out with online marketing, I then decided to start blogging about small business as well as marketing in general.
On the side, I also create content sites on various topics and promote related products to site visitors.
I can say in my own life there has been a few people who have given me the urge make a decision to take a different path. Looking back, these people have planted in me the desire to search deeper in the study of success and life’s purpose. Are there any such people like this is your life? And I’m sure there are, but would you share with us how these people have pushed/pulled you or inspired you to do what you’re doing? These can be people in your personal life or professional.
Well, I have to say that I am very grateful that I met Nicholas Ho. Nicholas is one of my best friends who is very into Internet marketing and the whole business stuffs. In fact, he got started in Internet marketing way before me. It’s funny that because he was one of the few entrepreneurial friends that I have back then, he “was forced” to listen to my whines and boasts. Haha…
Of course, tons of people that I have read about in books, met in real life or on the Internet has inspired me on various aspects of life and business. Every article, every tweets, every video and every email affects me in some ways. 
Goal setting is important and I’m a firm believer in, “if you don’t know where you want to go you’ll always get there.” What are some goals you’ve accomplished in your business career and what are goals you’re working on right now?
Goals that I have accomplished revolves around the number of visitors that I get for my blog and other sites that I have. As an accounting student, I also believe in the dollars. Not too long ago, my revenue from consulting and online marketing grew into 4 figures and I think that’s a big breakthrough for myself.
Currently, I have a few projects in my “Ideas Dump” and my goal is to start one of them in 2010. Also, I am looking forward to free myself from Internet marketing by building a team and outsourcing most of the work. Scaling my business will be key in 2010 as I might enter the corporate world.
How do you see yourself growing over the few years you’ve been an entrepreneur? Are there some specific challenges you have had to face? And in addition to that, what are some common challenges that hold most entrepreneurs back and how do they overcome these obstacles? Whether it be fear of losing money or a massive goal that seems just out of reach.
I’ve gained a lot of marketing knowledge throughout my path as a blogger and Internet marketer although I don’t have a marketing degree. I’ve also developed the skills of thinking through things that come by before making my decisions. When you decide to start something as an entrepreneur, you will learn new things about business, guaranteed!
Age was a big challenge for me, especially for a conservative business environment over here in Malaysia. Apart from the fact that people tend to have second thoughts about what I have to say, I was once worried that people listen to me just because I am young, not because of what I have to offer.
Most entrepreneurs don’t know when to quit. This is because as entrepreneurs, we always have a deep belief in our ideas. To overcome this, they should go out and communicate their ideas to other entrepreneurs. The best will be to go to investors because these people are those that give you hard positive criticisms, not false motivation.
Entrepreneurs like to work long hours, they seem to be always pushing the limits, stretching time in whatever way they can. Brian Tracy says that most people who accomplish anything great usually work at least 10 hours a day. Now while this may not hold true for everyone, I find that to get anything done in one day and remain focused is to put in at least 10 hours a day. Is this true for you? How many hours a day do you typically work towards goals? how do you get the most out of your time.
Yes, I am a firm believer of working long hours and hustling for success. Most successful people that I read or follow, such as Gary Vaynerchuk and Nicholas Chan, work long hours. I spend most of my time working after my studies, classes and sleep.
I read a lot on productivity and getting things done too. Blogs like LifeHack and Zen Habits helped me a lot in getting more done in lesser time. Like what I mentioned earlier, I look forward to delegating and outsource more of my tasks next year.
Online businesses, as we like to call them, make it extremely simple for startups to generate a lot of business. Of course it isn’t always easy. But I have to say that it is a lot easier than starting up a traditional company. Am I right?
Yes, I have to agree with you completely. With an online business, you don’t have to worry about office maintenance and rental, manufacturing processes, machines, licenses, etc. Starting an online business is hard but that’s 10 years ago. Now, you can start a site with $15 or less, which is pretty easy.
What really motivates you to get out of bed each morning and do what you do? What are your motivators?
The fun and the people that I get to connect with. That’s one of the reasons why I am so active on social media. I enjoy what I do and I am passionate about the Internet.
One important motivators that I look forward everyday is the emails from my readers, saying that what I recommended resonated well with them or worked well for their business. There’s no feeling better than that.
I read something on the web a while back about how Gen-Y, because of the Internet, have become poor at reading non-verbal cues and body language. Things like blogs and social networking have made it too easy to communicate by just words. Often times we misunderstand each other when on chats, Twitter etc. which causes a lot of confusion and often arguments. However when you delve deeper into communication you see that words are only roughly 7% of our communication, the 50% is body language and the rest is voice tonality. I’ve personally decided to become a master at reading people as well as communication. Do you see this a fault of Generation Y? How important is it to constantly renew and improve on things like phone skills, public speaking skills and other “real life” related skills.
I wouldn’t say that this is the fault of Gen Y. I would rather say that technology has made it too easy for communication. Yes, basic ideas and messages can be communicated through a tweet and a rather elaborated one can be passed on through emails. However, like what you’ve said, facial expressions and body language is something that is hard to get through in online communications.
Entrepreneurs should always make it an effort to meet someone face-to-face, whether it’s done at a trade conference or a mini meetup. Imagine Twitter shuts down one day or your followers are getting inactive on the platform. If you have made physical connections with them by then, your loss will be much lesser than those who depended entirely on it for networking.
Most entrepreneurs are clueless about business when they first start. Things like reading books, attending seminars, working with the right people and mentors and hard core experience is also a major help in creating businessperson. As some advice for young entrepreneurs, what three things would you do differently if you could start all over again?
The following will be the things that I would do differently if I can start all over again.
- Pick who to listen from. The Internet and the boom of the self publishing industry has made it so easy for people so publish information and help each other out. Unfortunately, these information or help are sometimes nothing but junk and bad advice. You need to learn from someone who is actually doing what they preach because your time as an entrepreneur is precious and you don’t want to waste it doing something that is not contributing positively to your business.
- Take action. This is actually a serious crime committed by a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. Ideas don’t become businesses unless action is being taken. Ideas can seem to be perfect but real problems will only come up after you have taken action. In the past, I have spent a lot of time overanalyzing ideas and I think I would have achieved much more if I had taken action much earlier.
- Get serious about money. I always have this thought in my mind, “If I have not spent my money on these crap, I would have a lot more money to start something that I wanted to start now.” We’re all guilty of spending money on toys or collectibles that we just keep them somewhere out of sight now. Right? Haha…
It was a pleasure having you on my blog. What are you working on next and how can we get involved/take a look at it?
Thanks Clinton, it was my pleasure to do this interview with you too.
For now, it’s all about scaling my Internet business so that I can have more time to focus on other things like meeting and connecting with people offline and focus on other projects.
One of the upcoming ventures will be a resource and membership site with the participation of experts in different aspects of small business and entrepreneurship from all around the world.
All of you can participate in my journey as an entrepreneur over at my blog. Post comments and send questions to me. All of these will help in my upcoming ventures.
Visit Wayne’s blog at Wayne Liew Dot Com or follow him on Twitter at @WayneLiew.
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Hey Clinton, thanks for giving me this opportunity and you have asked some good questions which got me thinking. I hope your readers will enjoy this.
Love the three tips that wayne gave!
Choose who you listen to, take action and manage your money wisely.
Sound advice!
Thanks Clinton and Wayne!
David
Affiliate Crunch…
Making money with this article is easier than I thought….