Welcome to Episode 51 of our podcast, Courageous Conversations, hosted by Leanne Pilkington.
In this episode, our guest is Vinh Giang, entrepreneur, keynote speaker and magician. Vinh talks about how he transitioned from being a magician to a professional speaker, building his brand in the USA, the power of learning improv on one’s confidence, life lessons from his family, how COVID impacted his business and how he plans to future-proof his career.
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00:30 – How Leanne came to know about Vinh
01:30 – Vinh’s role as a magician and the two ingredients behind being one: technical sleight of hand and showmanship
02:00 – Taking the showmanship element of magic and focusing on this to become a speaker
03:00 – As a magician in Adelaide, Vinh established an educational platform for others to learn magic (with 50,000 users) and won an award for South Australia Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
03:30 – Vinh’s first speaking gig and how disaster led to learning from mistakes
04:30 – Once you become very good at something, we tend to forget the beginner’s mindset.
06:30 – It’s important to like how you sound/look on the road to improvement (e.g. watch or listen to yourself back in a video or audio recording)
07:00 – The powerful impact of improv classes i.e. a place of “play”
08:00 – Improv is another skill that can be taught. It helps to boost confidence and improve your discomfort tolerance.
10:00 – “You worry less about what people think of you when they realise how seldom they do.”
11:00 – “We’ve groomed you to fly. Why don’t you take these wings for a test?” Vinh’s advice from his mother and the reason he moved to the US.
12:00 – Vinh’s strategy for building his business from scratch in another country
14:30 – COVID’s impact on his speaking career, the panic that eventually settled and how he overcame it
16:30 – The process behind conducting his online classes. “The price of being good is crap.”
17:30 – Engagement during times of change and resilience.
18:30 – Fitting the square into a triangle VS making a triangle to fit into the triangle
19:30 – Comparing the energy of the audience; speaking virtually VS speaking within the physical presence of your audience
20:30 – Pandemic-proofing; where Vinh plans to take his business moving forward and focusing on working to live.
22:30 – “A king that knows the limits to his desires will rule a lifetime.”
23:45 – The healing power of nature on Vinh
24:30 – When doing too much of something, it stops being enjoyable.
26:00 – Vinh’s plans to podcast with his best friend, the topic being a deep dive into some of their favourite books
28:00 – For more information on how you can take part in his classes, visit stageworkshop.live or look for @AskVinh on social media.