Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Thanh Pham. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Thanh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

After dropping out of college, I was in a period of transition. I knew school wasn’t for me but I also didn’t know what I wanted to do next. Luckily, I had some money saved up for at least 18 months of living expenses so I decided to travel the world.

One question I often got from my friends and family was I was so productive. They always saw me getting stuff done faster than others, being quick responding to emails, and always being on top of everything that needed to be done while still living a life full of adventure.

These questions kept coming up over and over again. Instead of copy&pasting emails, I started a blog for my friends and family where I answer commonly asked questions. I made a commitment to write something once a week. This was purely a passion project and done for fun.

Every Saturday, I would sit down with my laptop and write a blog post. It would take me about an hour or two to write it. I kept doing this every week. About six months later, big publications like the New York Times, Forbes, and FastCompany started linking to my work which brought people outside of my network to my blog.

Every week new people started to discover my website and emails kept coming in with more questions. Now I started to answer questions of people I didn’t know on my blog.

About a year in, I started to get dozens of emails a week asking if I could coach them or teach a course on what I knew. For the longest time, I refused to do it. It was always a passion project and never meant to be a business.

The emails kept coming in. A few months later, after talking to a few friends about it, I realized this could perhaps be a viable business. More emails kept coming in and that gave me the confidence to eventually launch an online course where I showed people my unique productivity method.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My parents are boat refugees from Vietnam. They met at a refugee camp in the Philippines, got married there, and then had me. We emigrated to the Netherlands when I was six months old. All we had was a suitcase, a diaper bag, and a briefcase with less than $500 in it.

Growing up, I had no advantages in life. We didn’t have much and we started from the bottom. My parents had multiple jobs throughout my upbringing and I would rarely see them. This forced me to grow up quickly and it taught me how to be self sufficient at an early age.

One of my favorite activities was to go to the local library and read the various encyclopedias of the world. This reading habit has always stuck with me since. At 11, I started to read lots of personal development and computer programming books. I taught myself how to code and I was already figuring out ways to build habits and routines in my life as a young teenager.

Even though I never finished school, I never stopped learning. When I started my blog Asian Efficiency, it was another example of me learning about productivity except this time I was also publicly documenting what I was learning.

It was never meant to be a business. It accidentally became one. Through our online programs and in-person workshops we help people become more productive at work and in life. We have a unique method called the 25X Productivity System that teaches you the skills and habits to master productivity. Anyone can be more productive when they have the right skills and habits in place.

Since 2011, we have helped tens of thousands of clients from all over the world. We also have the #1 productivity podcast in the world called The Productivity Show that has surpassed over 13 million downloads in 2022. Every week we release a new episode with productivity tips and strategies that you can use right away.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I launched our first product it turned out to be a complete flop. It was an audiobook on how to optimize your sleep. I’ve spent hours doing research and I found a lot of people were struggling with this problem. However, what I failed to do was researching what my readers and followers needed.

Plenty of people on the Internet had sleep challenges but my readers didn’t. That was a rookie mistake to not survey my own readers. I just went off what problems I could solve researching on the Internet.

After the flop, I started to interview and survey my readers what they needed help with. The book Lean Startup was a helpful guide to use throughout this process so I knew what to ask and how to build a product that they wanted.

I spent hundreds of hours researching, interviewing and studying my own audience. Eventually, I launched a product that they wanted which was a todo list course. When I launched it, it sold hundreds of copies and it allowed me to go full-time in the business.

The big lesson was to always survey my own audience first and to build a solution that they need.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Since 2011, I’ve released a piece of content every week. Whether it’s a blog post, podcast, email newsletter or social media post…I’ve never missed this. By being consistent and always delivering value week after week, I’ve built a lot of trust in my industry.

Our programs are also of a high standard which leads to a lot of word of mouth marketing. People enjoy them so much that they always tell their friends and coworkers about it which helps a lot too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.asianefficiency.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealthanh/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thanhpham7/

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