From Shy To Icon | Ha-Anh Vu | Sean's Learning Adventure

I sat down with Ha Anh, a Vietnamese model, TV host, author, and confidence coach, and this conversation completely shifted how I think about communication.

We talked about why some people command a room the second they walk in while others fade into the background, and Ha Anh broke down the difference between confidence you're born with and confidence you build through repetition. 

She shared how being an introvert never stopped her from becoming one of Vietnam's most recognized public figures, and why she believes real communication starts with something as simple as saying hello. 

We got into posture, nerves before public speaking, the myth that perfect English equals good communication, and why listening matters more than talking. 

What's one small thing you do to build your confidence before a big moment? Let me know in the comments.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And what I encourage people to do is to look like to look out and beyond a little bit more. Like try, right? In instead of criticize something, maybe read a little bit about something else or watch a little bit of something else, open your horizon. And once you do, you realize that there's a lot of uh similarities within cultures, there's a lot of similar struct uh struggles within people, and so and so. And so with that, I always remind the people who I coach or people I talk to or people who I want to inspire. Everybody's the same. And that is why when I when I uh host MC host with David Beckham or uh the royals of um Dutch or any anyone or prime minister, it's people important like that. To me, the most important thing for me is to remember that everyone is the same and we're just doing our job. It doesn't matter if he's an international superstar or he's way richer than any of us can combine, he's still a bag, uh husband, uh person. And he has his own struggle with his own life. So I think that for people who sort of like struggle with identity or um a bit of you know confidence because they don't speak the language, or maybe they don't think that they dress the right way, or just just you know, just go for things because that's what I really admire about certain people. It's just go for things, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

All right, welcome everybody back to Sean's Learning Adventure, and I have an awesome guest with me today. Can you tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Hi, Sean. Um, my name is Haang. Uh well, where do I start with what I do? You do a lot of things, correct? A lot of things, a little bit of everything. So I um I started out as a model. I went to the UK, I uh I went to uh university there, and I became a model shortly after. Um coming back to Vietnam, I introduced myself as a model at first. And then I went into TV, I wrote books, um, I worked with a lot of charities. I also tried for some time sing a little bit. And now I basically I do a lot of coaching, uh, judging on television shows for beauty pageant, for talent shows, but mainly what I'm I'm working on to build uh for myself is actually um coaching people on confidence and etiquette and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Which is amazing because one of the things is that when I do research on everyone and I've known you for a long time, but yeah, when I was looking at what you've been doing lately, I've been seeing a lot of coaching. You know, and I I want to ask you this, but like for coaching and for a lot of the things, how important is communication? How important is communication as well in your success as well?

SPEAKER_00 3:21

It is the most important thing. It is the most important thing because I think like looking back on my career, uh when I first started out as a model, especially coming back to Vietnam, communication was everything. Communication is everything. How do I build myself as a newbie coming back to the market? How do I market myself? How do I communicate with brands, with people, with audience, and grow my fans, my fan base, and also followers and people who are interested, is all about communication. Now that's the mass uh communication that's TV, uh media, etc. But communication on a one-to-one basis is very important. It's how you introduce yourself, how you represent yourself in front of the very real public in front of you. So to me, it is one of the most important things because, as you know, coming back to Vietnam, I didn't have any knowledge of showbiz in Vietnam, didn't have the the, I don't know, the team, the necessary, you know, like the team and support and money, so to say, to support myself. So all communication has to to to for me is from me. You know, how do I network with people? How do I introduce and getting different opportunities? And how do I come across as a as a personal, you know, as a new talent, also as a businesswoman to um to basically market myself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Because we're not just one of the things that my wife and I deal with with our daughter is that people try to put her in a box already. She's 10, she's tall, and they're like, she could be this or this or this.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

And today I was talking to Eilani, and I said, You can be anything, but you have to figure out what it is that you want to be and project that, you know, and so like you can be a painter, but if you want to be a successful painter, you need to know how to market yourself. You need to know how to build yourself. And one of the questions I had is because you're working with people. I I got to study acting with one of the most amazing teachers that's ever taught acting. Her name's Ivana Chubik, and she teaches you how to command a scene, how to command a room. And for me, when I walk in and I do public speaking in places, I have to, the second I walk in, I have to figure out how to capture that room. But you know where I learned this? I learned this from teaching kids English for many, many years. Walking into a room of 20 to 38-year-olds, you have to figure out how to stand down. You know?

SPEAKER_00 6:01

That doesn't mean you're right. But I'm sometimes that's more like more difficult than actually walking in in front of like thousands of people, actually.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Right. You know, those eight-year-olds, man, they will be like, Give yeah, hey, I remember one kid came up to me one day and he's like, Teacher Sean, I said, Yes, what's up? And he's like, This lesson that you're doing right here, it's horrible. And I was just like, Okay, let's change.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

But one of one of the things that I wanted to ask you, because I saw you in one of your videos online doing this. And I know that as a model, as a business person, doesn't matter which of your roles, you stand out. And why do some people naturally stand out when they walk into a room while others seem to just disappear?

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Right. Um, I think first of all, the heights help, obviously, because you know, people can't ignore you. But what the the thing that is more important, I think, is your confidence of when you walk into a room. A lot of our people, of course, everyone gets nervous, right? Walking in front of, like going inside a big crowd or people you don't know, or someone that you somewhat think, oh maybe what they think about me. But what people stand out, the people that stand out is the people who know how to take their time walking into a space, right? You don't rush in, you don't like, you know, walk in with attitude like your own everything. But you you do kind of like know your space and your presence. You have to have a presence. Meaning, to me, it is about knowing yourself from deep within, like what you represent, what is your value. And you walk in there with the confidence of I know who I am. And that is a very good quality to have because once you know what you represent, you walk in there with dignity, with pride, with confidence, with humility. Um, and you are eager to connect to people, and that's that's uh the energy that can come from your eyes, your body language, you sort of like being open with your language and with your face. Like you can see now, like I'm open talking to you, right? I'm not like looking away, I'm not, you know, I'm I'm right here. I'm ready to talk to you. So when people have that kind of presence, it is very attractive. It is also very open, and people are sort of like gearing towards this kind of energy. And so that's why I think this there's certain people that come in as like, who is that? Like, even though they're not famous or they may dress simple but nice, but that confidence is something that intrigued people, I think. You know, so I think everyone should try and learn to have this kind of presence, this kind of respectfully own your space and claim your space in every every room.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

I remember that early in my career, making video and doing content for people, um, I actually was making videos for actors, but also UFC fighters. And one of the most interesting things is when you watch uh the face-off between two fighters. Two fighters will walk into a room and they stare at each other. And there was this thing that I saw people doing, and they were looking at posture about how the two people stood next to each other. And one person, the person that was standing up and straight, often always beat the person with the question mark posture. The person question mark posture was like a little bit down, and they were just you could see in the posture of the two people, the lack of confidence, the lack of of the fear, the trepidation. And it's one of the things that I think is really interesting because it's one of the things that we can work on. You know, we can't work on our personality.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, posture, definitely. And that's why I said I made a joke at the beginning about, you know, being tall help. But you don't have to be tall. You can stand tall. It doesn't matter what your height is, right? And you look at like international celebrity, look at Tom Cruise, look at all of the movie stars, right? They don't have to be super tall, but when you stand tall with confidence, you look like the tallest person, you know, you stand out and you're comfortable with yourself. So posture is definitely something you can train and learn to have for yourself. So you can be in any public, you can, you know, be nicely, you can talk to people with confidence and with comfort.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah. I want to ask you this, but around confidence, because do you think confidence is something you were born with or something that you can build?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Uh both. You you can you can be born with confidence, some more than others, but also confidence can be encouraged and confidence can be learned. Um, so for example, when, like for me, for example, I am a people, some people don't believe this, but I'm actually a very introvert person, right? It's not my comfort, comfortable place to be in the crowd or in like five, ten people. But through time and through knowing this is what I have to do, I train my mind and myself to have the skill of if I have to go, I have to talk to people, this is me. So it's definitely something you can be learned. Um, with the right encouragement from parents or from your teacher or mentor or friends, you kind of like slowly opening up to situations where you're not necessarily comfortable with. So for example, you were talking about Alana and myself, my daughter Mila. Uh, when they go into public or they have to perform something, maybe it's a recital or it's uh talking in front of people, right? Yeah at the beginning, of course, it's a natural thing to be nervous. Like, who is not nervous? I am nervous, right? In like even talking, like opening up a conversation with you, because I don't really know you, know you, right? What is thinking, right? But one other thing is that if we encourage our um children or friends to conquer this fear of this, slowly, step by step, when you go into one circumstance, two different situations, you realize it's not so bad.

unknown 12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

You realize it's not so bad, and you realize that, okay, actually, Sean is also a little bit nervous, so I'm okay. So after you break the ice after a while, it becomes normal, right? It becomes more comfortable and you started to talk and you joke about things. And you know, in any situation, it's like that, or job interviews, or anything. So the more you do it, the more you sort of like break out of your comfort zone and you push boundaries, the more you feel it's okay to be in different situations and you get used to it, like anything. Like you practice a piano or you do anything. Once you do it often enough, it becomes you, and you don't even have to think about that, right? So, yeah, it's definitely something you can you can be born with, meaning you can have a bubbly sort of like personality naturally as a kid. But then if you don't encourage that, if you don't been put in situation, then you know it's not blossomed to the maximum ability you have what you can. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

But you have to get out there and have the opportunities to to practice, you know. And that's one of the things I as um as an actor. I remember the first time my wife still makes fun of me. And which is interesting too. My wife is also a huge introvert. Like she goes up on stage, she sings out loud, but she is a personality.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Boom. I am big.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

I'm on stage, and then two seconds later, she's like, let's go home. I want to go home. Let's go home to my space. That's me. Yeah. Feel comfortable. And so it's interesting. But, you know, as an actor, I remember the first time that I was working on a big movie set. Um, and I got to work with the amazing director, Ron Howard, and working on one of his big movies, Angels and Demons. And when I was onset, I'm standing there, and I'm in this room that they built on a soundstage. It looked like the Vatican. It was huge. There were hundreds of people standing around watching. The crew was massive, like just a ton of people. And then the main actors walked out and they just were cool as ice. And I got a chance to ask them today. I was like, what do you do? How do you do this? And he's like, Sean, I've done this hundreds of times now. It's practice. It's practice. And if if someone isn't confident today, what's the first step they should take?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

If someone is not confident, um I think it's of course it's easy to tell people like, you know, go out more and do this kind of thing more. I think one of the first steps, like my students, my mentees who came to me on my class, I would congratulate them first because they actually actively looking for a solution. Right. Yes. If you know already that, you know, I'm a little bit shy, or I have difficulties in, you know, uh making friends with people, or when I speak in front of people, I get nervous. That's the first thing. That's that is self-awareness. If you know this about yourself, it's already halfway halfway through, you know, to your wanting to be better, right? Yes. And then you can go either go to uh a coaching class if you have the means to, or you can sort of like, oh, you know, encourage yourself to go out and meet more people. It can be just like uh going to have a coffee with somebody, with a friend that you haven't met in a long time. So I always um advise my student to try a little bit of a time. Try to be a little bit uncomfortable, just so you realize it's not so bad. So, for example, if you go into a coffee place, Starbucks, and you order your drink, try to strike a little conversation with someone who works there. Right? For me, it will always be like, you know, is it busy today? Or just do a little bit small talk with people, and then you can see that they happily respond to that. And then something sort of move boosts your confidence a little bit, knowing that, okay, that's a nice conversation. Or if you were there, like I would turn around, like, how's your day shine? Like, or if I don't know you, so that you can say something, anything, right? You can say, um, wow, you order a lot of like that. That's a strong drink, for example, right? Just anything to strike a conversation. Or you just like lift your head up and you say hello to the person that walked past you. That is already something big to me. It has to be, it has to be a progress that is continuous and it it came from something very small. To me, confidence is not just about going in front of like a big crowd and talk or talk big and say, I am confident, you can do it, I can do it, so can you. Like, I don't think that that's the height of it, but I don't think if anyone has to go through that. It is just about lifting your your head up and smile and having eye contact with people, firstly. To me, that that is the most important thing. And then things go from there.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

I a hundred percent love that. One of the most confident people I've ever met was also the quietest. Uh, in university, uh, there was a guy who at my school, uh, his name was Paul, Paul Kim. And he would walk around and he just really quiet, but just this confidence that was just like, you're like, wow. And it just it flowed off of him. And I was just like, what is up with this guy? What the one of my friends was talking to me, and you're like, hey, you know, Paul, that guy. I said, Yeah, Paul's so interesting. She's like, he's the national champion in HapQdal, like this Korean martial art. Yeah. And and I was like, wow, really? And you know, I was being in the martial arts and I sparred him. He whooped my butt in like three seconds. He was so good, but he was the kindest and just most gentle person. But what was wild was that you would never, never know it because he just had this quiet confidence that came off of him. And he seemed so soft, he seems so gentle, but there was confidence that was part of it, you know? And I want to ask you this what do you think is the biggest myth about confidence?

SPEAKER_00 18:54

I think the one that I I just said, because I know it's a it's a trend in Vietnam now that people are teaching kids and people to be confident in ways that is to me quite personal, quite over the top. Um you know, like and and you sort of like, of course, of course, we we want to teach our kid, like you can be anything you want to be, but uh the core that build up to that is is inside you. So I often speak um with kids. Recently I did a TED talk uh with BIS International School, and I talk about confidence also, the power of confidence. But in the end, when I talked to the kids, which is very interesting for me because you can talk about anything, right? Yes. But the thing that is most important to me, the confidence came from your root about who you are, about kindness, knowing your core value. And that is when you can be confident, just being who you are. Just be who you are and comfortable with being who you are, with your core value, knowing you're kind, knowing that you have values. Be be what whatever, right? You don't have to be rich to be confident. No. You can just doing like doing what you love or being in a humble job. And that is what I love about Ollie, my husband. And, you know, yourself. You have your own value in what you do. It's not the presumptions of show business about, oh, you know, I have to be a super rich businessman or um successful, have power to have that confidence. No, you can be anyone, you can do whatever things that you want to, but if you have that core values, what you believe in your heart, you can be confident, you can be who you are. So to me, being confident is just being comfortable, living life with your own values and happy to project that to people.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

I love that. And I think that that's something that we talk to in my financial podcast. I have a podcast about money, and I talked to some of the biggest financial experts in the US, people that help people get money. And one of the things that they said is stop equating wealth with money. Wealth and money are not the same things. Like you can be wealthy and have a medium amount of money, and you can be poor and have all the money in the world. And it's the same thing. Like, you have to try to reframe things. For me, I have all of my podcasts and they serve the same purpose. I love teaching. I love teaching, but I can't reach enough people in one classroom. So I decided to create a larger classroom with all of my podcasts to teach people about money, to teach people about confidence, to teach people about communication. Because for me, at the core of it is I want to be able to make a difference. And I think that that's what you're alluding to with the values. But like, and I wanted to talk about Vietnam a little bit because right Now, I hear a lot of Vietnamese people, you say, my English isn't good enough. I I don't have the skills, you know, or I can't communicate, or I just am not good with words, whether it be in Vietnamese or English. What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 22:14

I think it's easy. Like I see that a lot, even in what people would think, right? In in show business, is people also think too little of themselves, or then then try to sort of build this whole thing, his whole person about themselves. I I I do I do understand where people come from, right? If you if you come into a room with international business, with international people, you don't necessarily understand um people's culture or you know who they are or who you are. It is very difficult to have that confidence. But what I would like to say is be interested, right? I have this conversation with with kids, with people that are my fans or not even not my fan, even my anti-fan, and they would argue with my um with with certain opinions of mine. And what I encourage people to do is to to look like to look out and beyond a little bit more, like try, right? Instead of criticize something, maybe read a little bit about something else or watch a little bit of something else, open your horizon. And once you do, you realize that there's a lot of uh similarities within cultures, it's a lot of similar structur uh struggles within people, and so and so. And so with that, I always remind the people who I coach or people I talk to or people who I want to inspire. Everybody's the same. And that is why when I when I uh host MC host with David Beckham or uh the royals of um Dutch or any anyone or prime minister, it's people important like that. To me, the most important thing for me is to remember that everyone is the same and we're just doing our job.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

It doesn't matter if he's an international superstar or he's way richer than any of us can combined, he's still a father, a husband, a person. And he has his own struggle with his own life. So I think that for people who sort of like struggle with identity or um a l a bit of you know confidence because they don't speak the language, or maybe they don't think that they dress the right way, or just just you know, just go for things. Because that's what I really admire about certain people. It's just go for things, right? Just try out, just speak to somebody. That is something the freedom of of just try to do something different or just you know, uh open a different point of view or talk to someone new is to me is very powerful. Yes. You see, you you travel a lot, like you go to Sapa, you see girls, you know, selling stuff on the street. They speak in perfect English. Why? Because they didn't have any fear. Like they go and they talk and then they learn, right? They just do it. Well, we often we sit in one place and like so worry about things, like, oh my god, what what is he gonna think, right? And then you you end up not doing anything because you are so much in your shell, right? So I think the most important thing is just to sometimes be fearless and just go for things.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

There was um right now trending around the world is this kid from Japan. And he was at the game where Japan got beat by Brazil. And he booked, he's a streamer from Japan, and he booked, he's got this funny blue hair, and he booked a ticket in the ja in the Brazilian section. So like he's sitting there and the Brazilians are cracking, he's streaming the whole time. Right. And then afterwards, he streamed being heartbroken and just like crying, and then it's a they they interviewed him on Brazilian TV, and it was probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It was just hilarious. Like Brazilian fans were walking up, drying his tears with the Brazilian flag, and he's like, Oh, stop! His in but he was doing the interview in English, and his English was horrible. But he did it with passion. He spoke with passion, he spoke from his heart. Even Mr. Beast followed him yesterday, and he was like doing he's like doing a react video. He's like, Mr. Beast is following me. Because he did what he did with confidence. We did what he did with passion, and it the rest of it didn't matter. The rest of it was secondary because he came in and he came in and he projected confidence. Now, I want to ask you that. Have you ever met people with like average English who were still great communicators? And what made them so effective?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Uh my my makeup artist, for example, bless him. He he he he didn't go to uh high education or you know, is very, you you might say, you know, well educated because he came from a lesser um uh background family, so he didn't get the chance to, right? But he's very good at doing my makeup. We we might know him. Um he doesn't speak so like well, you know, he he didn't how do I act uh like I I don't really know, but whenever he would see uh my husband coming in, he would be like, hi Ollie. Or he would work with like he worked with a lot of like businesswomen and men, sometimes comes from brand who came from all over the world. He's just like happy. He's just happy and he just does it and said, Oh, it's beautiful, it's beautiful, like stuff like that, right? It is not even a proper sentence, but everyone loves him because he has this niceness about him. He's like he's genuinely just like be there doing his job and he just like people. So I think that's the most important thing that you you you are able, like you said, maybe like the Japanese spam, like you just said, he was able to show that passion or this niceness or this genuine behavior with people. And so I think, yeah, I think definitely it's a stigma in Vietnam about people's ability to speak English, right? And they would crucify even our conversation now, I'm sure people will like crucify what I say, what mistake that she made, like, oh my God. But at the end of the day, it's a tool of communication. It is not meant to be like, oh, I'm better than you because my English is better than you, or you know, I'm stupid, therefore I make mistakes. It is like if you if we can communicate, you know, in a in a way that is nice and it's a conversation long-lasting, you remember something about me, it means something, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah. One of the things that I think, and I think that if there's a trend in Vietnam and a lot of countries right now, and I think it's ridiculous, and I'm not gonna throw the whole test under the bus, but I think anybody who starts posting your IELTS score, I've met people with crazy high IELTS scores who couldn't who couldn't have a conversation with me.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Like they were tactic, it's a it's a tactic um uh qualification. Like you do this, so there is a minimum standard for you to get into university. For me, people are like, uh, what is your I get it. Like, people is proud that they can achieve something on higher standard, which is great, but like I said, it's not everything, is it? Unless you go to university.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

And I think that what you should be more focused on is can you communicate with someone? And one of the things like when I when I used to teach, and people were like, uh, they would want to be trained for the IELTS exam. And the problem is with the IELTS exam, you have to try to use all these fancy words. And I said, Yeah actually, as a great communicator, you're doing the opposite. You're using the very simple words that have very a lot of power, and those words are more powerful. I like you look at in in even in great writers. Uh, if you take someone like, if you go back to like 1900s, Wuthering Heights, Charlotte, uh, the Bronte sisters, or things like that. I have a hard time reading those books because there's so many words that are fancy. But you know, give me someone like Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway is just simple, straight to the point. And it's very I I think that when you're working in communication, you have to find that. But I want to ask you this what's one simple thing that someone can do to become a better speaker and a better communicator today?

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Uh, okay, so I know I know this because I uh people comment a lot when I go onto a reality show, being a judge, people usually often like what I have to say or in my debating, or you know, about arguing my point. They like it. Because I think the most important thing about communication is to answer the right question. I feel I feel like people don't listen enough. Like people can read something and then they are so emotional about one point and then they start talking about that, where the whole situ the whole gist of the writing or the conversation is not about that. It's not the main point. So if you you can say whatever you say, you can talk a lot, but you don't get to the point. To me, it doesn't mean much. So to me, if you want to be an effective communicator, you have to listen. You have to have to use your logical mind to try and understand. So, what is it that they ask of me so you can answer that to the point, right? And then able to elaborate that a little bit so people have more information. So that's what I teach people, right? So what uh what did you have for lunch today? Be like, oh, just rice. That's it, there's nothing else. So you need to be able to embellish a little bit, maybe like, oh yeah, I really enjoy my lunch. I had rice today. It's not what I usually eat, but I try that today. So it's something more information for you to have a conversation back and forth with me, right? So to me, it's a very simple thing. First of all, listen, listen and you know, talk to the point, embellish a little bit, and then try to go back and forth, try to ask people questions also. It's not just about you, right? Uh of course, the interview, maybe you ask me more, but I'm also interested in what you have to say.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

I um had, first of all, that is spot on. I recently had on one of on this podcast, I had on one of the world experts in communication. And he came in and told me something completely different than I thought he would. I thought he was gonna come on and talk about confidence and how to say the right things. And he said the most important thing for communication is listening. He said, You have to slow down. And, you know, if I go back to your example back there, you were talking about eating rice. And with him, he might have slowed down and go, why is rice different for you? Like, what do you normally eat? Because suddenly he's anchoring into what was actually being said. There was this great hostage negotiator that worked for the FBI for years. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

All of these inspection shows and so interesting.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

But the guy was saying one of the techniques that they use is mirroring back the last three words of what someone says. So the last three words. So you begin your sentence with the last three words that the other person said because they're just like, this person hears me. They are listening. But you're right. Are you answering the right question? Because they might ask five of them, but really what the one they want answered was number six, that they were only partially saying, you know, but you have to pay attention to get there.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Definitely. And also what I I uh always try to teach uh my mentees sometimes when you are in conversation, and at the beginning, when you haven't got the confidence to contribute to the conversation, firstly, you need to learn how to listen and to look interested.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

A lot of kids nowadays will like, you know, be on their phone and look elsewhere or looking down. Like, no, I I I told them, I said, look at the person, like have a little light in your eyes, a little bit smiling, listened with anticipation. That's when people know that you are interested in the conversation. Don't look away. Um, just make people how people will like you is that they they want to be listened to, right? If you show that you are distracted or you you don't look them in the eyes, then you're not communicating. You're communicating the moment that you you look at people.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

I was talking to my daughter, and she will have a a teacher that comes to the house that helps her with piano or art or something. And I told her, every time you talk to someone, you look them in the face. Yeah, uh, do you have a good day? Yeah, teacher. I said, no, no, no, no, no. You look her in the face. You look her straight in the face, and you talk to her in her face. Because if that person showed here, if they came here and they took the time to come teach you, you take the time to talk to them directly. It is respect and it is good communication. I want to ask you this though. Do you still get nervous before public speaking? And what do you how do you handle it?

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yes, and it is a good thing. It I think it's a good thing being nervous, you know, because you care. I totally believe that. Because if you don't care, then you just become this thing, right? You just just have script and you just talk without emotion. You need to have emotion in whatever you go into. So I think for me, being nervous is not a bad thing, right? Um, and I I always say to people, I I got nervous like talking in front of the when I went to this TED talk because my audience were different. They were like from schools. They are not people in show business, they you know, you don't know what they think, or if do they know who I am? Like, you know, are they interested? So you gotta be trying to be interested, interesting for these people. So yeah, you do get nervous. And one of the things that I I um I always tell myself is just to take, it's very simple, just take a deep breath. And then you exhale slowly. That's when you, you know, as you know, in in your acting, it will slow your heart rate down and you start it to go into with more ease, right? But I don't think it's a bad thing. Even if you're nervous, just go through with it, just do it. And um, like I said, slowly practice, right? If you don't do that often enough, of course you will get nervous that can I still do it? But a lot of practice will help you. For example, I now I don't do a lot of fashion shows anymore. Um, but now I'm being asked to do a fashion show in August and I am nervous about it, right? Like I haven't done that for a long time. Like, am I still be able to bring it? Like, you know, am I fit enough, like physically, so that I can persuade people that I'm still good doing this. So I have to then try and uh have a better diet, you know, exercise, and then soon enough, I will have to practice a lot on heels again because with my kids, I don't wear a lot of heels now, right? And I will ask for the clothes so that I can bring back home and I will practice, practice, practice so that I don't make mistakes. So I think that's one of the things you can do. Like just do a lot of practice. Just don't think that you can go in there and just wing it. Doesn't matter how big or small. A lot of people say, oh, you know, I'm sure with V, she can't just go on stage and just like, oh, I see how I feel and I sing how I feel. No, it's a lot of practice. Yeah. A lot. And then and then even when you practice like a thousand times, there will still be like something that is not right there at that moment that you couldn't anticipate. So I say to people, if you practice 10, maybe you get on stage and you get to seven, eight. You're lucky to get a nine. And then if you don't practice at all, you got a two and a three. And then you you don't know. So you just have to practice. Don't think that anything is too small. You just have to do it.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

My wife practices so much. And she goes back to classes and works with singing coaches and people because she realizes that she can never be ready enough. You know, you have to constantly be putting in the energy, constantly be. I I got to talk to some Navy SEALs who are awesome guys, and they're they have they talk about sharpening the sword. You have to keep your sword sharp. You know, you have to be out there being ready. Just because, oh, I'm uh I'm a top of what I do, you doesn't mean that it's always gonna be there. You have to kind of keep it up, you know.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Definitely, definitely. And also, right, when you think that you're in the top of your profession is when you can be a bit of, you know, comfortable or cocky, which I was there too, right? When you're like, oh, you know, people just accept my thing, right? Whatever it is. But how you came on stage, it's fine. She makes a little mistake, it's fine. And then I would go outside, I would do like a hosting MC host in LA or in London. I'm like, oh my gosh, like I can't, like, I have to be careful, I have to practice because these people, they are not like a the Vietnamese audience who already know who I am and who loves me and forgives me. No, you have to constantly bring up the standard for your craft. And that is why you can you you can be better and better, you know, or at least maintain to a certain level, because you you gotta have pride in what you do. So yeah, you have to practice.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

I love it. One last question. If you could give one communication lesson to every young person in Vietnam or the world, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 40:37

One lesson.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

One one piece of advice.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

One piece of advice. Um, first of all, I think that people need to understand that real communication is very important. A lot of people, mm, a lot of kids now may not think so, right? Yeah. Because they communicate a lot on social media and they go on there, they equate the number of likes to communication or yeah, so so you kind of lose touch with reality, you lose touch with communication otherwise. So I'm just starting from the basic, the bottom here, which I think is important to every kid, is to be able to say hello. Right? Just to be able to say hello to people when you walk out of the door, acknowledge people, the taxi driver, whoever that it is helping you. That communication between human and human is the base to the base to communication, and it's the base to kindness and humanity. That's something that you can just simple that you can just do is to basically say, hello, how's your day? Or thank you very much. Because that is something that I feel that a lot of not just kids, like adults too, forget. You you do forget, right? Because you don't you don't think about it. A lot of models, for example, come into the room and just like look, like not acknowledge, not saying hello, not connect. And I always say to them, why? I'm here, like why don't you come and say hello to me? Like ask me a question or do something, you know? Like, why are you in your corner looking nervous? Like maybe you're nervous. Maybe I see, I know if I'm kind enough, if I I'm trying to be understanding enough, I might think, oh, maybe she's nervous, he's nervous, he doesn't know how to approach me. But if I'm mean, I can think like, I know, like, you're no good like this. You just like get stuck up and just sit in the your own corner and not talk to people. So I think, I think, yeah, I think it's basic. I think it's basic just to lift your head up. Because sometimes I do go into my mood, my introverted mood, where I just want to put my cap down, not looking at people, just go on about my day. It is very easy for you to be in that pattern of a busy life and whatnot. But it's important to be able to remind yourself to just look at people, say hello, smile, say thank you to people. And that is the base of everything.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Yes. I think one of the things that is so important for me is to just remember, like you said earlier, we're all human. Yeah. When I got to work in Hollywood, one of the things that I realized about the most famous people in the world, they're just like you and me. They are just like you and me.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

They love and nice. The more famous the people are, the nicer that they are. Like they they don't have to be somebody, like then you don't have to show, they don't have to show their importance. They're just themselves, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

So it's just nice, it's just who they are. So that's why I said it's the basic of humanity is to connect to each other on a very basic level of kindness and niceness and be interested.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Yes, 100%. 100%. Where can people go to find out more about you and you what you do? I uh people want to learn and be coached by you. Where can they go and look up your coaching services?

SPEAKER_00 44:22

So, okay, it's it's interesting because uh at the moment I'm trying out. So it's not as regular that you know, I haven't set it up to be uh people can just take class whenever they want to. I do it every uh one and a half a month in Ho Chi Ming and Hanoi rotating. So it's best if people can go on my page and and contact me because sometimes I gather a group and then I do that. I I at the moment I try to put together a curriculum so that it's most suitable for a certain age group or certain types of professions. So I do that sometimes. And um, yeah, looking forward to sort of expand a bit more so people have more access to it.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

That's awesome.