“Beyond oxygen and water relationship and money, are two necessities that we cannot live without start with building great strong relationships, meaningful long-term relationships, the money will come.”

According to today’s guest mentor Alice Tang, who also helps us deconstruct on the #sitn podcast:

• The importance of letting people be themselves
• The significance of trust in personal and business relationships to build prosperity for all
• How to practically start building trust and nurturing your network
• What is the 50:50 Initiative and how we can build on the success of its 20:20 forerunner

Check out http://sitnshow.com/ for detailed time stamped show notes, transcripts, links to resources and more guest mentor episodes and Monday Memos.

#financementor
#Relationships

Our Guest Mentor:

ALICE TANG is a Vice President and Partner at a full-service multi-generational financial planning firm in Oregon. She started her financial advising career in 2000 as an immigrant to the United States who knew no one. In her first year, she earned $2,000 in commission income by cold calling. She made a radical change from cold calling to nurturing her network and has successfully built her business by expanding her network, taking care of her relationships, and creating a system to manage her interactions. Her deepened relationships with her network have helped her exponentially grow her network and generate income. Today, Alice is a Top of the Table Qualifier at Million Dollar Round Table.

She is a strong advocate for female and next-generation professionals and co-founded WIFS (Women Insurance and Financial Services) Portland Chapter and LEAP (Leaders and Executives Across Professions). She is a Professional Member of the National Speakers Association. Alice shared her insights as a speaker for the 2020 annual conference of the Million Dollar Round Table, with 9000 participants from 70 countries. Today, she will share a bit about her story, her process, and how you too can find success by focusing on the relationships within your life.

Alice holds a Chartered Financial Consultant designation as well as a Master’s in International Management. She is based out of Oregon, United States of America.

Key Quotes from the Episode:

[On why we must let people be themselves] “Because everyone has untapped potential. Even when we die today, if you can see that person the way they want to be seen, you automatically liberating their potential without doing anything.” [08:28]

[On building trust] “So you got to know somebody before you like them. You got to like them before you trust them. So that means that it takes a lot of time to do that. It’s not overnight. It’s a repeat demonstration. You are trustworthy. You’re honouring your promise over time. So don’t mess up, and if you do apologize and find a way to repair and heal that.” [13:33]

[On how to nurture your personal and professional relationships] “Trust. Likeability. Know. Get people to like you. If you remember things and most people would not remember, good.” [26:19]

[On parting thoughts] “Beyond oxygen and water relationship and money, are two necessities that we cannot live without start with building great strong relationships, meaningful long-term relationships, the money will come. You’ve got this. Whatever you want to do, do not let fear steal it. You’ve got this. Just go. When you made up your mind, your resource will line up for you” [33:37]

Key Points from the Episode:

·       The importance of letting people be themselves

·       The significance of trust in personal and business relationships to build prosperity for all

·       How to practically start building trust and nurturing your network

·       What is the 50:50 Initiative and how we can build on the success of its 20:20 forerunner

Stamped Show Notes

[03:28] Alice delves into her family background, friends and her journey before ending up in the States.

[07:30] Alice talks about the lessons she has learned from her friends.

[08:28] Alice explains why we must let people be themselves.

[09:33] Alice shares what is good about America that makes her want to stay.

[11:44] Alice tells us why she believes trust is key.

[13:10] Alice talks about her favourite book, The Go-Giver, and what she has learned from it.

[14:47] Where to look to start building trust.

[15:18] Alice shares how little promises and follow-through can build your success.

[19:14] Alice elaborates on how her network is prosperity in the world of financial planning

[21:55] How to use time effectively.

[23:09] Concrete ways to nurturing your relationships and network

[24:51] Alice talks about the 50:50 Initiative and 2020 Women on Boards

[30:25] Alice shares the best bit of advice she’s ever received.

[33:08] Alice mentions her website.

[33:37] Alice shares her parting thoughts to the audience.

Resources Mentioned:

The Go-Giver, Expanded Edition: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea (Go-Giver, Book 1), October 20, 2015 by Bob Burg (Author), John David Mann (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Go-Giver-Little-Story-Powerful-Business-ebook/dp/B0010O922C

Connect with today’s guest:

If you’d like to learn more about Alice Tang, please visit her website https://www.askalicetang.com and connect with her on LinkedIn. As a special gift for our guests today, Alice has released her networking tips and TANG Process in her downloadable guide, “Your Network is Your Prosperity,” and you can get your free copy by visiting https://www.askalicetang.com/networking.

LinkedIn:       https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicetang2010/

Website:      https://www.askalicetang.com

————- Disclosures ——————–

Tel: (503) 654-7676 | Fax: (503) 653-7575 | www.bpgnetwork.com | 12901 SE 97th Avenue, Suite 240 Clackamas, OR 97015.

Securities and advisory services offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. (RAA), member FINRA/SIPC. RAA is separately owned and other entities and/ or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of RAA.

Complete transcript:

[00:00:30]Andrew: [00:00:30] Hi everyone. And welcome to this week, strength in the numbers. Now, when it comes to building deep relationships

[00:00:36]with the people around us, whether it be in work and our finance work, accounting work, or outside of all of that,  most people believe that  it takes a lot of work or time.

[00:00:48]our guest mentor today is a vice-president and partner at a full service multi-generational financial planning firm in Oregon, United States of America. And she started her financial advising career in 2000. As an immigrant into the U S who knew no one in her first year, she earned $2,000 in commission income by cold calling.

[00:01:15]And from that point, she made a radical. Pivot from cold calling to nurturing her network. And since then had successfully built her business by expanding her network, taking care of her relationships. I’m creating a system to manage her interactions.

[00:01:34]And as a result of her deepened relationships this has helped to exponentially grow her network and generate income. And today our guest mentor, Alice Tang is a top of the table qualifier at the million dollar round table. Alice is also a strong advocate for female next generation professionals.

[00:01:54] She’s co-founded the WIFS so that’s the woman in insurance and financial services, Portland chapter. She’s part of LEAP the leaders and executives across professions. She’s a professional member of the national speakers association.

[00:02:08]And on the back of her success, Alice has also shared her insights as a speaker for the 20, 20 annual conference of the million dollar round table. So for those of you, not that familiar with it, In finance, it has about 9,000 participants from 70 countries. And it’s absolutely awesome to have Alice on our show today.

[00:02:30] We’ll share a bit about her story, her process, particularly around building and nurturing those relationships and how we can practically do this and ultimately how you too can find success by focusing on those relationships within your life.

[00:02:44] So hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it together with Alice, and if you did, please remember to share it with your friends and colleagues, you can subscribe to

[00:02:54]# sitn show and all the major platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify.

[00:03:00] I think that’s enough for me. So without further ado, over to Alice and the show.  So, Alice, welcome to the show.

[00:03:11]Alice: [00:03:11] Thank you for having me, Andrew.

[00:03:13] Andrew: [00:03:13] Hey, it’s our pleasure. Really delighted to share you with our audience. And I know we spoken previously, so we got to know each other a bit.

[00:03:19]Some of our audience may not be as familiar with you and your background and your journey. So would you mind maybe delving into that for us a bit, please.

[00:03:26]Alice: [00:03:26] Yes. So I was born to middle class hardworking workers. Neither of them have any inheritance from their ancestors senior generation. So they got to work hard. My dad didn’t graduate from junior high school because he had to work, start working because grandfather passed away. My grandmother was raising five kids and is semi illiterate. So she can’t really do a lot and she should mind the home business.

[00:03:54]My mom, on the other hand, was born in a small suburb or village in Hong Kong, originally from Hong Kong. And she is the first woman who graduated from high school and she holds the first certificate of nursing. So she, although is four feet today, I don’t know how tall she is, four feet nine, when I still here two years ago before the pandemic. She has been really proud of herself because first woman,  small but mighty. My mum had high expectations for me. She sent me to an all girls school. Very good one in Hong Kong. We call it band one. Very good. One is good. Two is good. Three, four. Okay. So she has high expectation for me. I was not a band one student so I struggled academically. I didn’t like athletic exercise at all so I tried to hide away in my PE lesson, physical training, and I didn’t really have a lot of talent.

[00:05:00] So this school is band one girls. They all compete to go to the best school. So I felt like I was a wallflower and not happy at all but I thought that was life. Phew. The junior high exam going to senior high school. My exam of course was bad. I couldn’t get back into the band one school. I was kicking and screaming because it’s just like in a relationship. If you’re going to pack and go, do grieve. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go. But they said, “No. Alice, your result does not meet the criteria. Please go. There’s many schools out there.”

[00:05:39] So there, I find another all-girls school and is it’s in this school. I have three girl friends that has extensive, long friendship to do, and I’m writing a blog about them. They see me a way that I am authentically. They invite me to their home. They didn’t always study. They had fun. So at times we’ll go to one of the girls home to play makeup using her mom’s makeup when her mom’s is not there. We’ll also cook lunch and dinner together. Very simple. We’d also draw a picture. The picture, at that time, we didn’t even age. The picture has flat four rooms. It’s a house. It’s called old lady’s house. So we decided to live together and be friends forever. We’ll die in that home.

[00:06:26]Andrew: [00:06:26] But at some point I’m guessing you must have decided you as friends stay in contact obviously, but go your own way. And you ended up in the States somehow, right?

[00:06:35]Alice: [00:06:35] The other one landed in New York, also in the States. East coast. The third one in Calgary. The fourth one is a dentist in Australia. We meet frequently every few years. We’ll have women’s time. Good friends time. Drop the husband. Drop the kids.

[00:06:53] Andrew: [00:06:53] Yeah,  it’s funny how you started with that part of your journey. Now I’d have to say my closest friends go back to around a similar time as well. And I suppose with the pandemic, we don’t see as much of each other as what we would like, but those friendships they really do stand the test of the time.  It’s just nice knowing you’ve got that, that back behind you, people have got your back and they got those trusted relationships. And I know that’s something that you found in your career. That’s very important. It’s this idea of trust.

[00:07:19]But I suppose before we jump onto that, how did you settle on a career in financial and wealth advisory?

[00:07:28]Alice: [00:07:28] Wow. Before I go there, I just like to pay one more comment about my three other friends because they see me the way I am. They let me be myself. So that’s lesson one. Letting people be themselves. Don’t try to exchange them using your own criteria.  They thrive even more.

[00:07:49]Andrew: [00:07:49] It’s actually funny you mentioned that word. It’s funny because someone only said this to me through the week, which was in counseling, like when you’re counseling people. They train you not to project yourself onto your clients’ backgrounds. I was like trying to relate to it. And that’s what we want to do when we talk with each other. We want to find commonalities and relate and projecting yourself onto them your expectations, and so on. So what you’re actually saying is actually really good like advice in regards to let people be them best selves. Don’t try and project yourself onto them so that way their authentic selves come through.

[00:08:21] And I’m like, why would you advise our audience to do that, Alice?

[00:08:25]Alice: [00:08:25] Because everyone have untapped potential. Even when we die today, if you can see that person the way they want to be seen, you automatically liberating their potential without doing anything.

[00:08:39]Andrew: [00:08:39] I’m just I think that’s really important. I think a lot of us are looking for opportunities to add value.  And do meaningful work in this world. Is it you feel that they’re perhaps not reaching potential because some of us are just not letting them be themselves?

[00:08:54]Alice: [00:08:54] There is so many things in our society that, you should do this. You should to do that. You should to do this. If you’re a woman, you should to stand like this, you should dress, you should make up. And of course we would dress minimum, but makeup or not, it really depends. I think everybody want to look at somebody who’s tidy in a business world. You’re tidy. You’re tidy, you look very.

[00:09:15]Andrew: [00:09:15] Astute.

[00:09:16]Alice: [00:09:16] But a lot of makeup or very little makeup, just put lipsticks, it doesn’t matter to me.

[00:09:21] Andrew: [00:09:21] Yeah, but I wonder if people put those shelves on though in the corporate world so that they could get by, but.

[00:09:30] Alice: [00:09:30] Yeah. That could be, I’ll tell you this. I have been talking about this for a long time, and we haven’t talked about this. Somebody 10 years ago or 15 years ago having dinner at my home. Okay. My husband and I here, we invited a couple. They asked me, ” What is good about America that you want to stay here?” I still remember my answer.

[00:09:50]Andrew: [00:09:50] I’m curious. I’m intrigued.

[00:09:52]Alice: [00:09:52] I can be myself. In the Asian world, there is this group, things you need to conform with the group. It’s hard to be showing up the way you are. I have the freedom to talk. I have the freedom to choose. I probably would not put my business if I’m in Hong Kong. I probably is one of the busy bee W-2 or employee of a company because I had wanted to conform and I do have senior generation who would say, “Who take that risk other than your dad, but he’s successful?” He’s lucky he’s successful in Japan. People would not do that.

[00:10:30]Andrew: [00:10:30] Yeah. No. I. Yeah, but you see like as a parent myself, I suppose I’ve tried to stop myself like I can now see where my parents are coming from when they were saying, choose a career, get it, get a good profession, a stable pensionable job. Accountants would probably be required in some shape or form to understand the numbers or inform the technology that’s going to be doing it or whatever.

[00:10:51] So it’s a relatively good profession to get into, but I suppose it wasn’t really something that I thought of myself as doing.  I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the US Navy. And that was my dream job growing up, but it never happened obviously. There’s still time,  but I suppose, yeah, maybe we are limiting people’s potential, but as I say I’m trying to stop that myself wanting the best for my children and setting them, you know, on courses that are low risk when perhaps they really should just be trying to experiment and figure out their own path. Obviously supported so that they can enjoy what they’re doing.  Have fun, have good memories and really have a good life. Isn’t that what we should all want?

[00:11:30] Alice: [00:11:30] Yes, happy life. I got to define not you.

[00:11:34]Andrew: [00:11:34] Yeah but a key part of this is what we’ve talked about previously is come back to that point of trust.  Why in your mind, I have my own views on this, but why in your mind is trust so key?

[00:11:42]Alice: [00:11:42] I’m a person of faith. That’s number one. So you trust, but the other thing is you trust things is going to work out, especially when bad things happen. You trust that bad things would continue to happen. I would never take myself out. Guess what? You will never take yourself out. Period.

[00:12:00] Andrew: [00:12:00] Just to prove yourself.

[00:12:01] Alice: [00:12:01] Exactly. Exactly. If you think you can, if you think you can, if you think you cannot.

[00:12:06] So I think trusting yourself, for those who just believe in the universe, trusting the universe wanted you to be successful. Only if you want it. Trust people. And sometimes people say, “Alice, you’re so gullible.” I said well, until somebody is a repeat offender, this deserve a chance, especially first time. Why am I not going to trust him or her?

[00:12:29]Andrew: [00:12:29] Yeah. So it’s an interesting one because I suppose my personal relationships, I see our trust is so important and even in business, actually. If you think about it, trust reduces the sort of uncertainty costs or what they call transaction costs, as well, of doing business so you don’t have to do as much due diligence if you’ve got that trust.

[00:12:45] And so you don’t have to do as much due diligence into things or whatever, but I’m with you.  Give people the benefit of the doubt and if they prove wrong then you put in guardrails. But I suppose there’s gotta be some sort of guard rails there already, just as a minimum threshold, that’s someone’s of good character and they’ve, like you don’t know them, you need to get it.

[00:13:03] So maybe the challenge is getting to know people for who they really are. That’s the challenge.

[00:13:07] Alice: [00:13:07] Absolutely. You started relationships. One of my favorite book is The Go-Giver. G O G I V E R by author Bob Burg. B U R G is his last name. His favorite quote is all things equal. People would like to do business with and refer business to the people they like, they know, and they trust. So you got to know somebody before you like them. You got to like them before you trust them. So that means that it takes a lot of time to do that. It’s not overnight. It’s a repeat demonstration. You are trustworthy. You’re honoring your promise over time. So we talked about before this show, don’t mess up, and if you do apologize and find a way to repair and heal that.

[00:14:01]Andrew: [00:14:01] Yeah, actually that’s so key because I think you recognize the importance.   There’s generally good intent. No one sets out to mess up on purpose. Trust is key and sometimes you can lose it. I’ve done it myself. I’ve walked into so many situations, Alice. You probably have as well well-intended. Heart’s in the right place. And as we say, here, you put your foot in it,  you just said something you shouldn’t have and trust gone.

[00:14:24]So I really liked how you called that out because I do agree with you. It’s just a sincere apology and demonstrate that you’re looking to make it up over time. But I suppose when it’s starting with building trust, are there any good tips where would you would start either from your work, in your business or personally, where would you look to start building trust?

[00:14:43]Alice: [00:14:43] In my business, I meet a lot of new people. Maybe cause we are in the financial planning world, we meet a lot of new people, whether they’re prospects or clients. But trust, again, is not built in one day. So the quickest way to build trust is to own a small promise. Okay?

[00:14:59] So let’s say we just met. Andrew and I, we had a good time and then we gone through a meeting in 30 minutes. Great. Thank you for the coffee. Let’s move on. But in this meeting we have probably talked about bunch of things. So one of the things that I asked Andrew is, I was wondering why people got a pinch if they don’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. Okay? So Andrew’s casually said, I’m going to find out. I don’t know really, but my kids did it to me so I thought it was a custom. But good question. I’ll find out. Guess what Andrew did after our last conversation.  He came back with, Hey, I find out from my kid. Here is why.

[00:15:43] It doesn’t make more money for me or you, it doesn’t move that huge refrigerator for me because I’m five feet tall, nobody helped me, but he promised that he’s gonna find out and he did.

[00:15:58]So the speed of building relationship is in your conversation with new people, especially for those you’re curious about, or you want to engage more, plan the seed to set up a few little promise. Let’s say, I’m going to send a link of The Go-Giver to you from Amazon. How easy it is. Go to Amazon after the meeting. Click right. Control C on the bar. Control V in the email. Here you go, Andrew. Andrew, didn’t notice it, but over time, if you plan the seed, guess what? Trust.

[00:16:37] Andrew: [00:16:37] Yeah, I love you start with the small promises that are easy to achieve. And again, I think it’s an appreciation with something that happens over time. It’s just not one event.  I think our subconscious is craving building trusting meaningful relationships so it’s looking out for those moments of trust. I suppose that’s ingrained in me now, Alice, when I made that point, as I wrote that down and I’ve got this list  where all my commitments that I’ve made, I’ve listed out.

[00:17:01] So I know I need to do them because they matter. I see the importance of it and they matter a lot to me. And when I do them, I put a green line through them and are done, but it’s important to honor them, even if they’re small. But one thing I’ve noticed because I work a lot with salespeople is when it comes to their forecasts for sales, what they tend to do is  what we call a sandbag, right? Which is they tend to under promise and over deliver. And then their manager does the same thing and their director does the same thing. And the VP does the same thing. So their president has got a load of forecasts that have people the promising, and then they overdeliver and lose all the credibility.

[00:17:37]I’m wondering if that doesn’t impact their ability of trust or whatever, but I think that’s an important point as well, isn’t it?  We should try and avoid, I’d say overdelivering too much with this under promising, so be realistic as well. Is that fair to say?

[00:17:50] Alice: [00:17:50] It’s fair to say. And again deliver and under promise is really key to success. When I quote like on my, talking a little bit about my world here, so when we talk about insurance. Let’s say we talk.  So you never know how healthy Andrew is. He’s sitting in front of me. I don’t know. You look healthy.

[00:18:09] Andrew: [00:18:09] Thanks.

[00:18:09] Alice: [00:18:09] Even I ask. Okay. Do you take any medications, any big things that happened to you that you need to go to the hospital?  All these you know. Personally, I will never quote  the super preferred rate which is the most inexpensive rate for a client, because you never know in underwriting what is being found in the blood, in the medical records, all these. Quoting reasonably. Of course, you look healthy. I wouldn’t quote you like, three times the rate that you should have, but I would just position.  Here is the standard rate or here’s a periphery for you, but it’s really up to subject to underwriting. I can say for sure.

[00:18:46] Andrew: [00:18:46] Which I suppose it just shows you’re trying to have the other person’s interests at heart as well, isn’t it? best for the other person?

[00:18:53] And actually, there’s another quote.  I hope I captured this.  I think, what you said is, your network is your prosperity.  I feel like that sort of makes sense to me. That’s, I’m guessing, built up on trust and it’s just doing that trust, but more and more people. Is that where you’re aiming at or did you have a slightly different take on it?

[00:19:10]Alice: [00:19:10] Okay, so let’s go to the prosperity. So what is prosperity? Prosperity for me is different prosperity for you. It’s the same thing. What makes me happy? What makes you happy? What’s your end game of happiness, right? So first I think we need to know what we want. If you don’t know, never complain why you wandering around in circle. The second.

[00:19:34]Andrew: [00:19:34] Sorry. many people that do that. Yeah, definitely. That’s something to stop doing.  If you don’t know what you want, don’t complain.

[00:19:41] Alice: [00:19:41] And dare to know what you want. Dare. Dare to go there. That’s your potential. It hasn’t been done. I can do it. It hasn’t been done later on. If we have time, we can talk about that story, but your network is prosperity. So after two decades of working in the financial planning world, and every day we wanted to meet new prospects, at least in my first 10 years. Todays, we are more selective. Right match.

[00:20:10]You have to screen a lot of people. And who is introducing these people to  you? And come back to the people who know you, like you, trust you. And more importantly, they need to know what you want and what you do. Again, just say randomly, Oh, my cousin is a good person. Maybe.

[00:20:30] Andrew: [00:20:31] So this is what I never quite appreciated earlier in my career, Alice, is that if you have a clear understanding of what you want and you share it with people, and then you build those trusting relationships, those people will look out for you and they will bring to you opportunities that will help you get near to what you want.

[00:20:47]And there’s very little at all in it for them other than knowing that they’ve helped and I  think feeling good, but it just rises everyone’s prosperity. People get closer to that happiness you mentioned, right? And it works for everyone. So this idea of knowing what you want is sharing it with others and understanding what they want and sharing that with others.

[00:21:06] That’s a great way, not just growing our own prosperity, but it comes back to the fundamental principle of this podcast, which is growing our community for the betterment of society via finance, via numbers and so on and sharing our knowledge around that, so I think it’s a really good concept.

[00:21:21]Alice: [00:21:21] Yes. Yes. So allow me to share more. So of course in every one of us, if you go to LinkedIn we’ll have the average person has five hundred people linked to them. Okay. Do you know all 500 people?  It’s hard to touch everybody.

[00:21:36] Andrew: [00:21:36] Oh, god.

[00:21:37] Alice: [00:21:37] It’s really hard. And some of them, they didn’t even remember. Do I know this person? Do I know him or do I know her?

[00:21:44]So what I want to do is talking about the most important currency in our life is time.

[00:21:49]Andrew: [00:21:49] Without a doubt.

[00:21:51] Alice: [00:21:51] Yes. So how do you use time effectively? So every year I have my top 10 center of influence that I focus on. So target 10. So these people, how do you choose these people? These people helped me in the past year or two or three or 10 years.

[00:22:12] They’ve always been there, not only business. Sometimes they want their people who are mentor. They want them to see me succeed. And every single thing they do, they saw the reward that I’m getting better. They just loved that. So it’s a combination of business and personal growth. 10 people maximum. Every Tuesday in my calendar, I was scheduled 30 minutes to think about what I can do for them. So think about minutes and its 40 hour work week. Assume I reach also work 40 hours.  It’s about 1.25% of your week. Okay? Can you afford 1.25% sometimes mindlessly scrolling your phone?

[00:22:54]Andrew: [00:22:54] I know. Yeah.

[00:22:58] There’s someone who’s already thinking, Oh my God, seriously? Yeah. Am I really doing that with my time? Yeah. Let’s be mindful with time. Yeah.

[00:23:05] Alice: [00:23:05] Yeah. Talking to people. Allocate time. It doesn’t need to be Tuesday. For me, it’s Tuesday, first thing in the morning. And then think of the variety of how you can nurture the relationship, what you can give to them. If somebody is in business, you have a referral for them,  that’s the best gift, isn’t it?

[00:23:24] But that best gift does not happen every week. We talk about weekly. Maybe three times in a year. So what else can you do? If you were in social media, if they have a good thing to post, like them and make some comment if you have time to read through that blog or listen to the podcast of Andrew. Comment. Like is like I see you. Comment is I really am interested about the topic you’re sharing. Different. And how about some handwritten cards. I don’t know if you like your handwriting or not. I’m obsessive about my handwriting. Later on, send me your address. Seriously, email me your Irish address. I will send you a card.

[00:24:06]Andrew: [00:24:06] Yeah. Way to put my handwriting to shame, Alice.  My handwriting is awful, but I did read somewhere the power of a handwritten note nowadays, because distinctive. It’s a great opportunity to make someone’s day. I know one thing they actually did in Ireland during the pandemic was at the post office or the postal network here sent out postcards for free.  You could collect them or they’d send them out to the households and you could handwrite obviously a postcard to someone you wanted and post it free of charge. And it was a great way of just building up a bit of spirit around the place. But it’s amazing, the appreciation people had for those hundred notes. Amazing, right?

[00:24:46] Alice: [00:24:46] Amazing. So this is what I’ve done pandemic. So in the front, it says, thinking about you. At the back it says, “Despite of distancing, let’s stay connected.” This would go to you as soon as I got.

[00:25:00] Andrew: [00:25:00] Hey, I look forward to that.  So that’s a lovely idea. I’d never anything like that before, Alice. That’s a really wonderful point. And I actually also think it’s not just in personal life, but again, in professional life as well. We do these things called interlocks.

[00:25:12]So I put time in, forces myself to go and to meet with people that I really want to see do well. One understand her to go in through and do that regularly. So I do that again with the podcast. I do with my professional network, I do at my personal network as well. It’s just important to put the time into it. It’s most precious thing we can invest on this planet. So that’s still the things that we enjoy doing with people.

[00:25:32] Alice: [00:25:32] Absolutely. Absolutely. In my process to meet, you talk about meeting people. So I’ll meet with my top ten center of influence four times a year, every quarter. So we meet for an hour. Now it’s virtual. Previously, it’s over coffee and maybe for the brand name Starbucks. We’d ask Starbucks.

[00:25:52]Andrew: [00:25:52] Plugged out yet?

[00:25:54] Alice: [00:25:54] Yes. So taking a lot of notes actually help because who the heck can remember what happened in the last meeting? What they say. I’m in my late fifties. I don’t remember things. But I am a very good note taker. So before that meeting, I review the notes. Oh, Andrew just bought a new chicken for St. Patrick’s day and that chicken is called Sam. Okay. Let me ask about how Sam is. Trust. Likeability. So we talk about know, get people to like you. If you remember things and most people would not remember, good. So it’s really handwritten notes. So quarterly we meet.

[00:26:30]Andrew: [00:26:30] Yeah,  that’s a great suggestion. Actually, I love about the chickens.  We got some hens. My elder son brought us a load of hens for my other three kids. And talking of names, one of them was called Kasian. They still is cause they’re still alive. The other one’s KFC. The other one’s Carnation. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just, I think it’s my kids’ strange sense of humor, but I think, I’d add another one to that as well. Just make sure it’s fun. It’s humor. It’s fun. As we say here in Ireland, having the craic with people, enjoying time with people, having a bit of a laugh. So no, I like your principles there, Alice. There is another thing I do want to get into, because again, I want to be respectful of your time. Because I know you and me, we both can chat. We could stay on this for ages, but it’s addition that I think’s really important and I wasn’t aware of it until you mentioned it to me, which is shame on me.

[00:27:17] It’s this 50 50 initiative. So would you mind maybe going into that and the work you’re doing around that with our audience, please?

[00:27:23] Alice: [00:27:23] Sure. So about 10 years ago two wonderful women in America look at the paid board population and find that the women on board, regardless of their color, is in a single digit range. So they want to make a difference. So they said, why don’t we just set something up by year 2020, the amount of percentage on board will be 20%.

[00:27:50] So 20% year 2020. So call it 2020 Women on Board. That’s the initiative. So every year they will host a annual meeting. So in Portland, Oregon I sponsored the last two, which is the only two in Portland. They have never come to Portland. So pretty interesting, but in the year 2019 actually, we gone above 20% for the paid boards, for members who participate in this.

[00:28:17] So there are companies, bigger companies listed company wants. We did, they had to have 20%, more than 20%. So this year as we’re going through the zoom meeting, some of the ladies said that, that why don’t we have 50?  So by year 2050, we want to have 50% of women on board. So that’s the initiative. It’s not only in America. It’s in United States. It’s in Hong Kong. I think it’s in a place in Europe.  I think it’s United Kingdom rather than Ireland, but I could be mistaken.

[00:28:46]Andrew: [00:28:46] We’re close enough. Normally they come up with good ideas and we’ll copy them, eventually. Let them do all the hard work and we just take the good bits.

[00:28:54] Alice: [00:28:54] That’s really good. That’s really good. So if you are a woman or you are somebody who is support a woman to achieve more, to tap into that potential, as we spoke at the beginning of this show, I asked you to check this out. So I don’t think they have change their website yet.  If you type ‘2020 Women on Boards’ in your Google bar, you will find them.

[00:29:18]Andrew: [00:29:18] Fantastic. And what I will do is I’ll make sure we add the links there to the show notes as well, just so people can see how they can get involved and just makes it a bit easier as well. I think it’s a fantastic initiative. And as I said I think I’d heard of the 2020. I never knew that what the final result was so thanks for clarifying that one, Alice, cause until you said, Oh, that’s great. Made it. So that’s good for the 50/50. I like that. And that’s another thing we try and do with our audience as well. Let’s have a 50% representation treatment of male or female, and then across the globe as well.

[00:29:48] I think it’s great to see people moving. I remember having a guest mentor on the show and we were talking about the makeup of finance teams, let alone boards, but the finance teams and we were happy to things were moving a bit better balanced in that way, but still in the senior roles, it’s predominantly more male over female at the moment. And I think, by 2050, I’d like to think that we’re a bit more along the way. There’s a bit more positive change there. So let’s see. Let’s drive towards it. So Alice you’ve given us some fantastic advice. I’d love to know though, what’s been the best bit of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:30:21]Alice: [00:30:21] There are many, but my all time wonderful mentor is my dad. Do I have to pick one of the two? So I’ll tell you the first.

[00:30:29] Andrew: [00:30:29] Or you can go with two. You’re the guest mentor. It’d be rude not to let pick.

[00:30:33]Alice: [00:30:33] All right. So two piece of advice that is really important and change my life. The first one is if money can fix it, it’s not a problem. That’s from my dad. If money can fix it, it’s not a problem. Okay. Think about the last desire, last wish, last plan you have in your head. Does it involve money? Oh, do you want to walk over and kiss your wife? It doesn’t involve. Okay? But if you want to send your kids to college,  when the pandemic is done, we want to go to America and have some fun in Disneyland.

[00:31:06] Let’s pretend that is.

[00:31:07] Andrew: [00:31:07] Yeah. Yeah. A good example.

[00:31:08] Alice: [00:31:08] It costs money. So I am bold to say that 80 to 90% of the things that we want to do for ourselves and for our loved ones and for the world, it costs money.

[00:31:19]Andrew: [00:31:19] Yeah, but yes. Yes. But where I would challenge though is I think it costs money, but I actually get the same cause if it’s not a problem, because I’d like to believe more in our innate resourcefulness. I always believe there’s no such thing as a lack of resources, just a lack of resourcefulness so figure out the solution. And if it’s worthwhile pursuing a solution, we’ll find a way. We always do. So actually I do get, it actually is really good advice.

[00:31:47] Alice: [00:31:47] Allow me to finish the second part of this. So if we do need to have good resource and one of the resource is the money, right? If we have issues, problems that we can fix using this or dream wishes, we can focus our very limited asset, which is time in our life, to focus on the things that probably money cannot directly fix.

[00:32:14] Let’s say today, Alice is not healthy. I’m dealing, I’m healthy now, but let’s pretend I’m sick. I can pay for the rest of the things to be done and focus on healing. I don’t need to worry about my bills. Isn’t that amazing, if you have money. If you don’t, I need to go to work. It’s not, I need to stay at work until five. The other thing is relationship. Money cannot directly fix those, but with time and the time you repeat honoring the relationship and building trust, you might be able to move the needle. It takes time.

[00:32:49]Andrew: [00:32:49] That’s great advice. Well I like that and delighted, you shared that with us, Alice. Actually, that’s really good. You know you did mention a nice resource earlier or book, but I suppose if our audience wish to continue the conversation with you, where’s the best place to connect with you at?

[00:33:04]Alice: [00:33:04] Connect with me and my website. I’m a public speaker too. So it’s askalicetang.com. So ask, first name, last name, dot com.

[00:33:16]Andrew: [00:33:16] Yep. We’ll put that one into the show notes as well. And Alice, I suppose that we covered a range of topics there and thoughts and again really appreciate you coming on in and investing your time in the show today. But before we see you go, I wish you goodbye. Would you have any maybe parting thoughts to share with our audience?

[00:33:33]Alice: [00:33:33] The most important for me is,  beyond oxygen and water relationship and money, are two necessities that we can not live without start with building great strong relationships, meaningful long-term relationships, the money will come. You’ve got this. What ever you want to do, do not let fear steal it. You’ve got this. Just go. When you made up your mind, your resource will lined up for you.

[00:34:04]Andrew: [00:34:04] Yeah, for someone who’s been on a similar journey like that myself, I completely understand what you’re saying. If any of our audience are yet to discover that parting thought, reach out to us and we’ll help you find some ideas because it’s very important. What a great parting thought to end on. Alice, thanks for coming on and being such a great guest mentor in Strength In The Numbers today.

[00:34:25]Alice: [00:34:25] Thank you so much for having me. I’m having a lot of fun. It’s not planned. It’s fun.

[00:34:30]