James Hsu

The freelance life

At the end of 2022, I ended my startup journey and went back to a corporate role.

At the end of 2023, I ended my corporate tenure.

It just wasn’t the right fit for me. Or at least, the gig wasn’t the right fit. I would dread going into the office most weeks. While I was technically good at what I did — building product and leading a product team — the culture in that place was all kinds of wrong.

Sometimes you can be good at something and still not enjoy it. Plus, the cloud of opportunity cost hung over me. So I had to change my situation.

All-in on YouTube?

Ever since December, I’ve been exploring new avenues of being involved in projects and finding myself. The first thing I did was seriously consider going all-in on YouTube and my Humans of Magic project.

That momentary obsession ran its course over about two months. For those two months, I grinded YouTube and thought about all the different ways I could make it grow. I released 2-3 videos every week. In many ways, I’m glad to have gotten that “YouTuber spark” out of my system.

There were a few problems with this approach: (1) there aren’t that many interesting guests to interview for Humans of Magic — I couldn’t interview a superstar every week; (2) the show is driven by guest “hits”; (3) working on more epic documentary and storytelling features — which is what I REALLY want to do — would take on a lot of time and energy with unknown payoff.

I also went through an interesting exercise with my friend AJ. We sat down and tried to work out what the “best case scenario” for my YouTube channel would look like, if I NAILED IT and 10-20x’d my audience…

And it still wasn’t a great living.

For now, I just don’t think the economics and type of content I would be making would be congruent with the energy and passion I’d need to put in.

I also want to shout out my friend Will for brainstorming with me the different ways that sponsorships and sponsored content could potentially sustain my full-time YouTube endeavor. That was an incredibly helpful way to look at things.

Never say never, and I’m still doing YouTube as a hobby. But in terms of building my long-term future, this takes me to…

Executive coaching, consulting/advising, corporate training

A new and exciting domain, at least for now.

I sat down and thought about the intersection of (what I’m good at) x (what I’m excited by) x (what I can make a living in).

And something that’s always stood out as my superpowers are:

(1) Gaining trust and rapport quickly with people

(2) Active listening

(3) Empathy

(4) Self-awareness

I’ve come a long way from that awkward 20-something James who could barely communicate with his co-workers. By the way, kids these days are amazing; I’m always joking to the new generation that “you’re making video essays now? I could barely speak when I was your age!”

All of these qualities are combined with curiosity, which is why I’ve done shows like Humans of Magic and The Why over the years.

Over the past few months, I started talking to a bunch of executive and life coaches. Last month, I began my certification journey with a coach training program in Shanghai. It’s already been a lot of fun and I’ve gotten to know some absolutely amazing people.

Apparently, coaches with my type of background — corporate leader/manager, startup entrepreneur, male — are less common in the industry. I’d like to eventually combine coaching competencies with corporate training and advisory, so that I can lean into my experience a bit more than the average coach. So while it’s still early for me, I’m hoping that my master plan (bwahahahaha!) will eventually pay dividends.

I’m also aware that ultimately, a certification is a piece of paper. You don’t go to business school to learn how to start a business; you don’t go to coaching school to “become” a coach. You learn frameworks and refinement, sure, but it all starts from doing and being in the right mindset.

I’m a doer. That’s clear from the way I’ve started things, built things, and lived my life. I don’t ask others for permission or sign-off.

So while I’m in coach training, I’ve already started coaching folks in different walks of life — professional, personal, creative. I’m coaching newer content creators and YouTubers; that’s been super fun and rewarding to do. And I make sure to explain to them what I do and don’t do.

If coaching is something you want to have a conversation about, even to find out what the heck “coaching” is, feel free to reach out. Or follow this newsletter/blog, I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it over time 🙂

Making stuff on Chinese social media

There’s a reason why I haven’t written one of these newsletters in awhile.

I’ve been making a lot of short videos in 2024, so much so that they’ve largely replaced writing such as this. Talking-head videos are essentially pieces of writing with a video component, although I don’t heavily script them. I just let the camera roll, speak into the camera, and then edit liberally.

I think that’s one of the advantages I have, refined over years and years of making content, podcasting, and public speaking. I have zero qualms with speaking into the void, or in many cases, a camera with no audience. I also really, really love making and editing videos. I’m truly one of those introverted content folks who could make videos all day, and then some.

These videos are largely invisible on “Western” social media because I’ve chosen to post them on Chinese social media: WeChat and Xiaohongshu a.k.a. Little Red Book. L.R.B. is like the love child of YouTube and Instagram, and it’s a great place for the type of content I’m making now — corporate skills, entrepreneurship, multicultural reflections from someone who’s lived in Mainland China for 12 years.

What’s interesting is that many of the skills and mindset I’ve developed through Western social media port over well to the Chinese side. Telling a story, finding a hook, making thumbnails and copy — those skills definitely carry over.

My growth on Chinese social media has been tremendous; much faster than I’ve ever experienced on YouTube or Twitter. I think it has a lot to do with me finally leaning into my advantages and background — being between cultures, having interesting things to say about startups and corporate life, and observations about new trends.

I strongly believe that there is no such thing as overnight success, and the little bit of traction I’ve gained this year on Chinese social came through years of refinement elsewhere.

Although I’m still making videos in English with Chinese subs, I’m much more fluent in Mandarin than I was a decade ago. I’ve even conducted livestreams in Mandarin, and have plans to do more of that in the future.

I think this speaks to leaning into one’s unique advantages. If I’m a multicultural corporate-leader-turned-entrepreneur, I may as well harness my lived experience on social.

Going back to the philosophy I had about NOT going all-in on YouTube — I think of my Chinese social media work as top-of-the-funnel to get leads for coaching and training clientele. Therefore, I’m not as focused on absolute numbers and vanity metrics. That sort of strategic congruency and vision in making content has made the endeavor a lot more fun.

It truly is about finding my tribe of high-quality folks who could be in a position to benefit from my lived experience. That said, I love making videos, so I sometimes find myself going above and beyond what makes sense. But I’ll find my balance over time; I always do.

Turning 42

I turned 42 last month, and the best part of turning 42 is not feeling like you’re 42.

Over the past 6-7 months, I’ve immersed myself much more deeply in the world of long-distance running. I ran my second marathon 3 days before my birthday, and have felt great about the overall recovery process.

My legs are strong and largely injury-free. I’m down to 74 kilograms (from 77 a few months ago), which was a conscious effort to eat, drink, and sleep better. I also wanted to carry less weight for races, and while I’m not sure how much of a REAL difference it made, the psychological edge has been HUGE.

In terms of mileage, I’m averaging about 200-220 kilometers per month. Last month was a “career high” of 275 km, and I’m damn proud of that.

I find running solo incredibly fun and stimulating, especially with a podcast or audiobook, and will keep doing it for the foreseeable future. The goal is to run a marathon roughly once every 3 months, and work towards improving my finish times. I just broke 5 hours on my last marathon, so the current goal is to do a 4-hour, 30-minute marathon.

Wrapping things up

Running aside, I’m feeling grateful for where I am today. Taking a break from the corporate grind has given me a fresh perspective on life; I’m much happier as a result. I’m currently enjoying the process of self-learning and discovery, and there’s still a lot to do (and hopefully achieve!) in 2024.

Thanks for reading, and take care of yourself.

James