In this episode of Before We Get There, host Nicholas Braman welcomes Kyson Xu, a passionate marketer and prolific LinkedIn content creator. Kyson shares his journey from his beginnings in business development to discovering his passion for marketing, while also building a strong personal brand on LinkedIn. He opens up about imposter syndrome, balancing work with family life, and his unique insights from working across industries and within diverse teams. Kyson also reflects on defining success beyond traditional measures and how his role as a father and husband shapes his personal and professional goals.
Topics Discussed:
- LinkedIn Growth: How Kyson grew his audience on LinkedIn through authenticity, consistent engagement, and strategic content creation.
- Career Transition: Moving from business development to marketing and the insights he gained working in sales that he applies to marketing today.
- Navigating Imposter Syndrome: Dealing with self-doubt as a young content creator and finding purpose in building a personal brand.
- Work-Life Balance: The importance of family and health, finding time for his wife and son, and why success goes beyond the corporate ladder.
- Defining Success: How Kyson’s perspective on success has shifted from financial metrics to work-life integration, team empowerment, and personal fulfillment.
- Parenting in Singapore: Balancing traditional expectations with a modern approach, and how Kyson wants to support his son in choosing his own path.
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Nicholas Braman: Welcome to Before We Get There, the podcast where we explore people’s journeys, how they got to where they are. What keeps them moving forward and where they want to get to. I’m your host, Nicholas Braman. And today I’m joined by Kyson Xu, a B2B tech marketer with over 10 years of experience across APAC.
He’s also a LinkedIn influencer, sharing insights on marketing, leadership, and personal development. In this discussion, we talked about content creation, B2B marketing, coming back from difficult challenges. Work life balance, and more. Enjoy the show.
Listen, thanks so much for being with me today. So I wanted to start this conversation out because you’ve been very prolific on LinkedIn. And I see a lot of your posts. So how, maybe you want to share how you started that and what kind of content you share. Yeah,
Kyson Xu: absolutely. Thanks for having me here. On your podcast Nicholas, I think it’s a pleasure to be on this platform to share a little bit about my story and hopefully it helps inspire others in one way or another.
So, that’s a great question. I think Lincoln has always Thanks. The LinkedIn that we used to know has always been a glorified job application portal, a social media, whatever you call it. But in recent years, we’ve seen the shift whereby more and more individuals are using this platform to touch up on their personal brand, share their expertise and experiences, and also to, and for many of these great content creators, they are using it also as an, an opportunity to, to, to do a side hustle.
For me, I think generally. I first got exposed to LinkedIn there about a year ago, right? So previously, like many others, we were just using it just for, um, hunting jobs and stuff like that. So I read up a lot about, um, personal brands, how you position yourselves and how you can also share your expertise and help others on this platform.
So I decided to give it a try and started sharing more about these, uh, personal experiences and marketing insights. In a way, uh, on one end, hoping to engage with a broader professional community and at the same time, uh, hoping to build up my personal brand and share some lessons learned from diverse career in marketing.
And by doing so, I feel it not only helps me to connect with, uh, like minded professionals, but also at the same time to learn and demonstrate my expertise to potential employees. Thank you.
Nicholas Braman: Yes, one thing I noticed about your posts is that you get really high engagement. A lot of your posts have tons of comments, people going back and forth, which I think is, obviously it’s great, but it’s quite unusual and exceptional.
How do you cultivate that kind of engagement?
Kyson Xu: I think first thing that we all push towards is definitely to focus on being as authentic. as you are. I know authentic has been a really huge buzzword at almost every other person’s talking about it. But being authentic, it just helps you to be more comfortable in the zone.
And then you wouldn’t find it too hard to share your thoughts and your points across. So being, that being said, I think it also helps you to attract the right crowd. People that resonates with who you are, what your voice is, the points that you share across and such, right? So. So what I’ll usually do is I’ll engage with, with other creators in my network, responding to comments and interacting with the other, other creators posts.
They’re about 20 minutes before and after my, my post goes live. A reason being, of course, it helps amp up the organic reach of your post. At the same time, um, bumps your posts up on the personal feeds of other creators. And I think besides this two point, I think being consistent in posting schedules other than focusing on quality contents.
I think that helps you trust and to build up a lawyer following as well.
Nicholas Braman: So you mentioned the rise in popularity of LinkedIn. The influencer platform. You see a lot of people nowadays promoting themselves. And I think there’s even like a subreddit dedicated to two crazy things. How people say on LinkedIn, LinkedIn, and it attacks.
And then of course you always have the case where people are trying to sell you things and just using it as a way. So as a consumer of LinkedIn content, and as a creator of LinkedIn content, how do you judge whether or not you’re coming across as spammy, or how do you balance trying to put yourself out there and post, but not annoy people?
Kyson Xu: That’s a great thing. I think LinkedIn is always an interesting platform for marketers like you and myself, right? Because the LinkedIn before, before, a year ago as as it’s totally it’s so much different than what we have now you have the the top voice badges that people are abusing right now and then you also have uh the video content that’s been uprising the video formats that’s also catching up just like the other social media platforms and also you see now linkin games as well so for me it’s it’s very interesting how linking is evolving at the same time it also Puts me off a little bit as, as a consumer because it’s getting further and further away from the, the linking platform that I sell on love with, whereby you consume content as relevant to your, to your interests and network and such.
So I think that is the first benchmark that I set myself across the. Um, all of this content that’s appearing on my feed that’s shifting away from what I’m after. I do not engage with them. That helps you in the long run. The algorithm will help determine what other contents that, that, that, that, that interests you and appear more regularly on your feed, right?
Just like any other platform, right? TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, you name it, right? And on to your second question, whereby we talk about how do I, that I don’t end up in, in, in the other side of the fence, right? So I think I’m very fortunate to be in a network of friends and fellow creators, right? So we gut check one another.
So in any case, if any of this contents are appearing a little bit off off track, then we would provide one another some honest feedbacks on these things.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah, that’s definitely helpful to have peers that you can bounce ideas off of or get a reality check from. Have you ever had any comments from colleagues or friends about your posting on
Kyson Xu: LinkedIn?
That’s a really interesting question because when I first joined my company did some of my colleagues were actually quite quite amazed and surprised because rarely in the local context, I think in our network, you rarely see people being that active on LinkedIn, right? LinkedIn has always been more so a harsh kind of social media platform.
Like we said earlier, it’s always been seen as just purely a job hunting portal, a glorified job hunting portal, right? Right. So they’re very surprised of how I’m sharing my business, um, stories, lessons I’ve learned so openly on this network. So that is the first reaction that a lot of these people, uh, bring up.
Nicholas Braman: And as a marketer, starting your personal brand, thinking about creating content, what are the differences that you find between when you’re developing a LinkedIn post for your company or developing some content, a blog post, e book? for your job versus when you’re doing it for your personal brand.
Kyson Xu: Great question.
I think it all boils down to knowing who your target audience is. And that would very much determine the type of content, your tone of voice, how you bring across certain messages and such. Answering your, to answer your question, I think generally, for my personal posts, I tend to go for a more, a more casual tone.
In terms of the contents and the way I craft the copies is very different. Bye. Like to go for the more visually appealing sentence and line breaks. And I think that’s something that’s very different from if you were to write a blog post or even a linking post on your company page.
Nicholas Braman: So when you’re posting on LinkedIn and you’re coming up with ideas for content, as you said, you focus a lot on marketing, B2B marketing, on careers, personal development.
And there’s a lot of people on LinkedIn that create content in those areas. And some have been. Having careers that span 30 years to the heads of big marketing agencies, the heads of HR, or I don’t know, CEO, executive coaches, and this sort of thing. Do you ever have doubts when you go to create a content about whether it’s good enough or whether it’s worth posting.
Kyson Xu: Absolutely. I think always that level of doubt and the way we imposter syndrome, right? Feeling that you’re not good enough or your contents are not relevant enough. You’re just a copy and paste of someone else’s work. Yeah, definitely. I think, especially when you see, I think the other flip side of LinkedIn or any other social media, right?
So the metrics, the vanity metrics that we call it, right? Number of engagements, the number of, of, Likes, comments, reposts. In a way, as marketers, we know that our orders are secondary. It’s not things that, that would determine the quality of your content, right? But, but nevertheless, in one way or another, when you see, Hey, why is this post not doing as well as, Uh, the one I did last week or, or why is it performing, uh, much paler in comparison with, with your peers, um, content and such.
So definitely, you start doubting yourself whether these contents are relevant and such. So, I think that is all part of, of the journey. It’s always important for us to, to step back a little bit, right? Try and understand, What is the purpose you’re here on, on LinkedIn, right? Is this platform something that you’re building up in the long run to, to craft your side hustle?
Are you offering any other professional services? Or you’re just here enjoying creating contents and, and such and building up your network? So it all boils down to understanding what your purpose here is. For me, it’s straightforward. It’s clear. Aren’t you just? To enjoy my time creating content, engaging with peers and learning from one another and such.
So that’s, that’s definitely the first checkpoint that all of us should have when we face imposter syndromes like that.
Nicholas Braman: That’s, yeah, that’s really interesting to, to keep in mind what you’re trying to get out of it. And that will not only affect what and how you post, but also your level of enjoyment and satisfaction with engaging with the platform.
Going back to the marketing side of things, I recall that you actually didn’t start off your career in marketing. Is that right?
Kyson Xu: Yeah, absolutely. So my first part of my career was as a business developer in, in, in a local free school education business. So that was my first, my first venture into my professional career.
Nicholas Braman: That’s interesting because we often as marketers, Our goal about the challenge and experience, experience the challenges of working with salespeople. Sometimes our perspectives aren’t the same and we can complain about each other, but has starting off as on that BDR side changed or affected how you see things maybe compared to other marketers?
Kyson Xu: Absolutely. I think it helped me appreciate the sales experience speaking with prospects and customers, trying to understand about what they are looking for. In this case, right, it’s the, it’s the young parents that’s looking for a suitable preschool. What are they actually looking for when choosing a preschool?
Is it location? Is it the curriculum? What are some of the things that they actually place more emphasis on? So from there on, that’s where I gained some real time experience and I was very fortunate on that job because, uh, besides serving the, the BD, Due to this, I’m also involved in terms of building up marketing campaigns, create digital ads, or even in person open house events.
Nicholas Braman: I never thought of a PDF for preschools before. You could have some pretty awkward conversations like, oh, you have a target of 12 kids this quarter. Yeah,
Kyson Xu: how many? Yeah, so that’s always interesting. And I think back then it was a struggle because I was just 24, 23, 24 ish. Still a young adult, not really into, or not really, not really understanding the needs or the perspectives of a parent, right?
So, that was quite interesting. And on the other hand, yes, absolutely right. So, yeah. Uh, number of signups you get to your events, um, how, how many of them actually converted into an inquiry thereafter and stuff like that. Definitely interesting.
Nicholas Braman: So you’ve got some marketing experience there and then after that you decided to make the jump into full time marketing?
Kyson Xu: Absolutely. So then thereafter I joined a management trainee program at Dr. Wolf. Dr. Wolf. Back then it was a really interesting experience because they were setting foot into the Asian market and they were setting Singapore as the headquarters. So I was one of the first few hires to join the team. Uh, worked very closely with the head of marketing to craft the original marketing strategies, product launches.
So basically all aspects of the marketing spectrum above the line, below the line. And on the other hand, I work also very closely with my GM in terms of the offtakes from the, uh, monthly, weekly and monthly sales.
Nicholas Braman: That was one very important thing that happened to me early in my career as well. I spent three plus years reporting to a sales leader for Southeast Asia region and not reporting into the marketing organization, reporting into the sales organization was.
I think very beneficial. First of all, she was a great leader and a great businesswoman, uh, a great boss, but just that different perspective, again, that salespeople have and not, like you said, talking about vanity metrics, not doing flashy things just for the sake of doing them, but being numbers driven on a quarter by quarter basis, I think has, it really helped me develop early in my career, that kind of outlook and aspect of, you know, Um, not being, not doing marketing for marketing sake, but actually driving revenue and growing the business.
So what was that experience like jumping into, I guess, what’s your second role after graduating and you decide you want to change paths or move into the marketing side, what kind of was that thought process like, were you concerned that you were doing, making the right move, doing the right thing? Or was it pretty easy for you to make that job?
Kyson Xu: Yeah, absolutely. I think that was an easy decision because I think back then, I asked myself, what’s the one thing in my, in my job that I enjoyed? So I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve been exposed to two sides of the business. Arms, right? The marketing and the sales. And I just find myself more motivated and more inclined towards marketing for handling messaging, the lead nurturing tactics, the activities that you do, the campaigns that you run.
Above and below the line, so on and so forth. So that, that was an easy decision for me, whereby I, I told myself, look, we was, I was still young, right? It’s 24, 25. So you’re still young. You’re younger than me anyway. Yeah. So yeah, so that was an easy decision. And on a light hearted note, it was also something that’s more seen, uh, for me to, to go ahead with, because after all I was, I was studying marketing.
So it was easier for me to justify to my parents afterwards. Hey, mom, dad, I’m going to switch to marketing, right? Because that’s what I’m passionate about. And that’s what I, that’s what you did me for in my studies.
Nicholas Braman: So going back from that, how did you choose marketing as your major in the first place?
Kyson Xu: That’s an interesting question, right? So it’s, it was actually one of the, one of the toughest periods in my, in my earlier part of my career. adulting years, right. Back then, secondary school, primary schools, I was really passionate about studying, right. So, I paid a lot of attention and such into acing my studies, working really hard and stuff like that.
I think the turning point 16, whereby, um, I was questioning myself. So, what is in it for me, the subjects that I studied for, right. Math, chemistry, the math history topics. Yes, I’m acing these topics, but what is the outcome So that’s one of the questions I asked myself and I struggled to find an answer.
And that’s when I lost track a little bit in terms of my, in terms of my education and I flung my A levels afterwards. And that was the, that was one of the breaking points for me personally. Because once you flung your A’s, what else, I mean Singapore then, what are the other paths that you need to undertake?
It’s going back to. the polytechnics finding a course that you’re passionate about and stuff like that. It was a difficult decision. I, I thought through it really tirelessly during my army days and, right, so back then I made the, make, make a sane choice whereby when I went to look for some courses in, in SIM, trying to understand which is the fastest path towards getting a diploma and then a degree afterwards in the course of three years.
Accounting wasn’t for me because I. Although I’m fairly good at numbers, but I just don’t enjoy them. And the other courses available was marketing and psychology. Marketing was then the soundest choice for me to make. It wasn’t really a deja vu moment where you look, Oh, yes, I’m really passionate about marketing.
This is it for me. But rather, it was one of those decisions I made growing up while trying to figure out what my path towards adulthood would look like. What about yourself? Have you always been inclined towards marketing as a career and in your education?
Nicholas Braman: I did not go to school for marketing. My degree is international studies, actually Asian studies.
So I had traveled a lot by the time I finished my degree or went back to school to finish my degree. I’d lived in China for a year, traveled around Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and my end goal was to eventually move back to China. Frankly, I’ve shared before also, it wasn’t the smartest decision knowing what I know now about careers, paths, and liberal arts degrees.
But it was what I was most interested in, very dense courses. On the history of the communist party from 1930 to 1990, or he’s like really into spending a whole semester on that three months, four months, just on reading 10 books on those topics, hearing a lecture every week or every twice a week on those topics.
And I can’t say it has any direct value on my career. Or the work that I do day in and day out, but I think it’s in general, the broad, just the background knowledge of how the world works, at least from certain perspectives and how the world came to be the way it is. Marketing has a lot of elements of psychology and again, once, once you’re at a certain point in your career, there’s a lot more than just the technical abilities to do the job.
You need to be creative, you need to. Be collaborative, be successful at working across teams, working with other people, understanding people from different cultures, understanding customers and prospects from other cultures. And again, I don’t think it’s a drag in that, oh, I took this course and now I know how to understand Chinese consumers.
It’s not that simple, but I don’t, now at this point in time, I don’t regret the degree I got. Probably a couple of. Um, times early in my career when I was in the middle of an interview that when people were asking me why you chose that degree, I regretted it at that time. Um, but overall I basically fell into marketing near the beginning of my career and I discovered that I really enjoy it.
I’m not a person who enjoys talking to new people all the time. So I never wanted to be in sales. I never felt comfortable with that, even though, yes, we’re all selling ourselves all the time. And marketing, I like that it’s varied, you have some number crunching, you have some creativity, you have some technology that you need to be competent in a lot of different areas.
And so I found that I took to it quite well and my career has followed that path. Certainly enjoying what I’m doing today and the roles that I have, but going back to that, going through the process of getting your diploma and then getting your degree. And then starting off in your career, at what point did you realize that you really enjoyed marketing and were good at
Kyson Xu: it?
I think going back to the topic of education and such, I think if there’s anything that I would tell myself or any other person in that stage of life, I think education, the jobs that you take on at the start of your careers and whatnot, I think all, sometimes you just really need to zoom out and look at As part of the journey, if, if you were to ask me, has there been any point of my life where I regret not doing something better, I think not really.
Because I think all these are part of the parcels of shaping up who you are as a person, right, and crafting your values and such. And I think through this, through these episodes and throughout learning, echoing what you said, I think this is where we’ve discovered more strengths and weaknesses of, of ourselves and we’re trying to work towards them.
And I find myself generally more inclined towards being a generalist rather than a specialist, right? So I thrive in environments whereby I handle the full aspects of the marketing spectrum, right? Just like in projects, right? You end in school, you have multiple topics. You need to manage them all at one go, I think.
That’s where I find myself strong in, and I think the overall dynamics also help to shape me into who I am as a person.
Nicholas Braman: And so along that journey, have there been any turning points or reflecting back any moments that you didn’t realize how important a decision you’re making would be, or challenges that leapt up along the way?
Kyson Xu: I think it comes, I think the gap widens up, especially in towards the second half of my career whereby I was asking myself, look, so the way most people see it, we, you should specialize or build up your portfolio in terms of, in terms of a, an industry. So I’ve been hopping between industries from education to FMCG, and then later on to the stationery.
business and afterwards into tech. So how does, I ask myself, how does that actually affect me in terms of a marketer? And that’s how I ended up working in the tech industry, because as we know, in the tech industry, everything is very fast paced. Things are more moving, moving at a faster speed, right? You get, you work mostly in smaller teams, but at the same time, everyone is all in this together.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah, so those factors actually sound like they’re also not only pointing to tech, but also to more of a startup company rather than a big MNC.
Kyson Xu: Yeah, absolutely. That’s true. In a startup environment, and that’s in my later half of my career, whereby I was working with larger MNCs before, and I find that things don’t move as fast as I would like it to be.
Uh, and then I think that plays a part whereby. I find myself excelling more in, in a startup environment, in a high growth environment, as they used to call it, right? So this is where I eventually found, uh, my footings and this is where I am now. And I think that’s something that I would foresee myself in the coming years.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah, that’s interesting. It was similar to me, although not consciously. I spent four years at a MNC in technology, tens of thousands of employees. Yeah. And then moved to a very small startup that was, I believe, 200 plus when I joined. I was the only marketer in the region. Then my last role, there were seven of us and currently three.
And my current role and yeah, I completely agree with what you said about having to wear a lot of hats, uh, needing to be agile. And I think it also fosters more collaboration. You feel like you’re in it together when you’re with a small team, it helps with that relationship with sales and with other functions.
And then it’s also, I think the sweet spot. My last two companies have basically been thousand, a thousand plus globally headcount when I joined them. And I think that it shows that there’s a, the product is real. There’s a product market fit. You have customers already. It’s not a brand new idea starting from nothing, but there’s still a lot of potential, a lot of room for growth, a lot of velocity, hopefully, and if it’s the right company.
And so that, that has been a sweet spot for me as well. Thank you. So more on the EQ side of things, as someone who works with companies that are headquartered in the U. S. or in Europe, and sometimes there’s stereotypes of Asians not being, speaking up for themselves enough, being a little bit too reserved.
Like you mentioned about you posting on LinkedIn and colleagues were surprised. I’m sure you’ve seen it in others. Have you addressed that directly with yourself? Or have you seen behaviors that you want to make sure you’re seen and heard and unboxed into this stereotype when you’re talking to somebody?
That’s not innovation.
Kyson Xu: Definitely. So I think it’s thing B. With time zone differences and such, it’s always important to set in a regular weekly check in with your peers or even your direct reporting. In my case, my direct reporting is sitting in the U. S. So be very transparent about the challenges that you face, the progress that you’ve made, the good and the bad.
Communicate them and just bring up problems, but rather, yes, we are facing this X, Y, Z, here’s what I propose.
Nicholas Braman: So you’ve got all this going on, working, covering a big region, wearing all those hats, you’re creating content, posting on LinkedIn. How do you deal with work life balance? What kind of activities do you do to keep yourself sane and productive outside of work?
Kyson Xu: Yeah, I think. That’s always, I think that’s always a journey for all of us to navigate, right, through peak periods, allow periods, and you’ve got to find yourself pockets of time. And for me, that, that activity that helps me hit the equilibrium is two things, mostly. It’s a, it’s a spending time with my family, my wife and my son, and also exercising.
I, I enjoy hitting the gym and playing football with my friends. I think it’s always about making sure. or understanding why you’re working. You’re not leaving to work, but you’re working to leave, right? You wanna work to, you gotta work to sustain your lifestyle, to fulfill your duties and such, and that’s, it’s always a tough topic, right?
Because, at the end of the day, at our, at our junction of our career, we are thinking about, okay, look, 35, or 40, you know, what’s in it for me for the next 10 years. But what a lot of us struggle to appreciate is that our value lies beyond work. It’s not just about your, um, your progression in the corporate ladder, but who you are in your personal life.
You’re still a father, you’re still a husband, you’re still a son, you’re still a friend. And how do we fulfill these duties? And for me, I think that’s where spending time with my loved ones is most important. It’s really important and at the same time, it keeps me in equilibrium and exercising. I always firmly believe that a healthy body, a healthy mind, vice versa.
So exercising helps me to push the limit. Hitting gym helps me push the limit both physically and mentally. I think that’s where it all helps put things into equilibrium.
Nicholas Braman: That time that you spend with your family, what does it look like? Is it more structured, scheduled for you, or is it just like free, just Whatever we decide to do, let’s go do, hang out, go to a cafe, go on a walk.
Kyson Xu: Yeah. Yeah. With my, my kid is five, six years old now. So weekends are mostly for him and his curriculum activities. And then, I think, I think at this juncture, it’s about providing a, a stabilized environment, helping the kid to, to grow both intellectually and personally, right? That’s why we believe that some of this curriculum activities, right, though, though it burns a hole in the pocket, but it’s, it’s always good to expose him to.
different activities, um, making sure, of course, that he enjoys them. You just can’t force your son to go, I don’t know, play violin or, or something just because you think that’s going to benefit him. Understand what’s his interest in and such. And then, yeah, so I have more or less a structured approach. For me, it’s always, there’s always beauty in, in, in being spontaneous.
We still allocate some time of the, of the weekend. Or during weekdays, right? Just spending time with our son and understand, hey look, what do you want to do today? You want to hit the McDonald’s? Get some fries? Let’s go. Or you want, just have a good time at the playground? Let’s do it. So, it’s about balancing out as, as cliche as it is, but I strongly believe that there still needs to be a structure to go about with these things.
Nicholas Braman: So, From the perspective of not growing up in Singapore and moving here when I was 30. Yeah, almost 30. One thing that I’ve observed is it seems like there can be a fairly cookie cutter path for Singaporeans. You know, you grew up, you start primary school, you go to your PSLE, you go through, you Uh, study in secondary school, you go to your NS, you come back, you study some more, you get a job, settle down with your girlfriend, apply for BTO, get married, and then start having kids and move up forward through your career.
So having been to that yourself and having a son that, potentially is going to have a very similar path. Is that an accurate thing to say? And how do you feel about it personally? And what would you want your son to feel about it as well?
Kyson Xu: Right. That’s a great question. I think on, I think that’s where the balance comes in between my wife and myself.
Of course, myself, I’m, I’m, If I call it that way, I’m the black horse that didn’t make it through the conventional paths. Halfway through, I backed out and discovered my purpose elsewhere and not the conventional paths. And then my wife went through the said path that you mentioned, right? So I think that’s where it helps us to put out a balanced perspective, right?
Let’s face it, right? So at the end of the day, in a metropolitan city like Singapore country, right? You still need qualifications to get things going and stuff like that. But personally, I see the shift moving away from there. But at the end of the day, it’s always about, I think for me, what I appreciated about the conventional path is that if there’s one thing that, that I can take away, it’s, it builds up your resilience.
Helps you put things better into perspective, right? Things. that you have to do things that you’re not good at, how you’re going to overcome it and such. And at the same time, I, having been through what I went through, I want to make sure that my son, he gets to choose what he wants, what he needs. And I think our role as a father is to help to facilitate and build up the exposure for him so that when the time comes with this, what’s the age again?
16, right? So, he’s like an 84. Everybody’s got to choose a path. Is he going to the polytechnic to pursue diplomas in XYZ 40 or whatever you call it? Or does he want to pursue his studies better in junior colleges? What is that interest? I think that’s something that, that we as parents have to help them navigate.
And hopefully when the time comes, we are able to do that for him.
Nicholas Braman: So if you are going to go back and talk to your younger self at that period in time, When you had some feelings of failure, you weren’t sure the path forward or what were you going to do, looking back, uh, 15, 20 years later, what would you tell yourself
Kyson Xu: from then?
I think I would tell myself not to back down, not to fear the spite, despair, uh, after, after, after facing some setbacks. I think that’s what I struggled with. Very much, when I first flung my A Levels, I thought wow, the world’s crashing on me. There was a period of time I was like, I just didn’t know what to do and what else.
And, along the way, slowly but surely, you, you figure things out. And, if there’s one biggest thing that I’ll tell myself, just don’t give up. You would fall, definitely along the way. No one’s 100 percent perfect. But what’s always important is how you pick yourself up, every time. Um, as the saying goes, you fall down seven, you get up eight.
Right, so. This period that I think all of us should have, regardless of whatever environments we grew up in, it’s always about moving forward, learning from your setbacks, understanding what worked, what didn’t work, why didn’t it work, how can we do better, it’s always about moving forward. At the day, life is never, never a race, right?
It’s always a marathon. You got to know when to take your breaks, you got to know what’s your limits, and you got to know Even before going through this marathon, you gotta know how you’re gonna ramp up. And it’s all part of the journey to discover. And more, more so than never, right? You, we learn best through this mystics, you call it.
Nicholas Braman: So going through that experience and now having Overcome it and feeling confident at this point in your career. Do you think it, that experience affects affected your personality, the way you approach work in life, does it have lingering effects on until now?
Kyson Xu: Absolutely, I think it helps change my perspective nowadays.
For instance, if, um, if a certain campaign is running late, I wouldn’t, uh, despair about it. I wouldn’t go, oh, shit, what are we going to do now? And stuff like that. I would work towards getting things done, right? And, uh, even before that, even before allowing this to happen, right? It’s always, there’s always those preemptive measures that you got to take, right?
Got to plan early. You’ve got to be clear and to your stakeholders, what’s expected of them, how they’re going to contribute. And then at the end of the day, Murphy’s Law, right? So whatever could go wrong will go wrong. It’s always about how you’re going to help the team to move forward together, right?
Let’s overcome this together. What is the thing that we can do better next time?
Nicholas Braman: So looking forward in, in your life, being a father, being a husband, and you. Being a marketer, looking forward to your career, content creator, what does success look like for you in the future? What plans do you have next?
Where are you going? What goals do you have?
Kyson Xu: I think, for me, my definition of success, before, Before all this thing, maybe in the earlier, earlier start of my career, it’s always about, um, numerical things, right? How much money you earn, right? What’s your position? What’s the lifestyle you can afford? And, and stuff like that.
But having been a spouse, a parent, and further down in my career now, I’ve learned to appreciate, I think, success is defined as it embraces life work balance, I call it, right? Because why life work? Because life is always larger than work. That’s something that I think all of us should appreciate. One that, that, that believes in personal well being and fulfillment.
I think that’s essential to true success because you can’t go on if you’re empty. The car, the car can’t travel any further if it’s out of gas, right? So that’s something that, that’s first and foremost. I think secondly, someone that’s successful is someone that empowers the team. It leads with integrity, right?
Be the leader as they call it, right? Not just a manager. You got your team, be it at work or your family, right? Mentor them, support them. And at the end of the day, I think, um, someone that is successful is also someone that’s kind, right? So approach all the challenges with kindness, right? Ensure that everyone on the team feels appreciated and feels empowered.
And I think that’s where, and that’s what I envision as someone that is successful. On a, on a more metrical. Output is what I want to achieve in my career. I hopefully, um, in due time, I get to, uh, I, I’ll work towards being the head of marketing for my region, have a team to lead on my work, and then I get to put this skill set and perspectives into place and to work.
Nicholas Braman: I think by that first definition, you can define yourself as successful already today. So thank you again for joining us. It was great to have this discussion with you. And I’ll see you next time. Thank you for listening to Before We Get There with your host, Nicholas Braman. Please like and subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platforms like Spotify, And Apple podcasts.
You can also find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook at Before We Get There Podcast. New episodes are released every Thursday morning. See you next time.