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Desmond's Blog Posts

A new journey

Published May 24, 2022

It has been six years since Ai and I moved to Okinawa in January 2016. We came here with two backpacks and now we have an apartment full of stuff plus two kids.

COVID and the new opportunity with the Kadena BX had me grounded on Okinawa for almost three years. In May 2022, we took the boys to Tokyo Disney for the first time. They loved it. We stayed in the Disney resort hotel for two nights. It cost $500 per night to say there, breakfast not included. But it was worth it. 12 years ago, Ai took me to Tokyo Disney for the first time. That was my first Disney land experience. We were still dating at the time and I was making $50,000 a year before tax. While trying to keep my hotel budget under $80 a night in Tokyo, spending $500 a night at the Disney resort was a dream far from reach. Ai and I walked into the lobby, everything looked amazing. I told her the next time we come back to Disney, we will stay in this resort. We did it, as husband and wife, and the parents of our children.

While we were in Tokyo, we went to Costco. Pretty much the same deal as Costco in the US, but we were shocked to find out we can buy imported fresh fruits for a much lower price than domestic alternatives on Okinawa. We ended up buying over $100 of fresh mangos, blueberry, grapes, kiwi and ate most of them while we stayed in Tokyo. We also went to a fancy shopping mall in Ginza. Showered by the buzz and the lights of the city, we felt overwhelmed but also very excited to be in the city again.

Souta is turning five. We need to decide where to send him to pre-school and elementary school. He had spent the last three years with GMA. If we want him to continue attending International school, the options are limited to international schools in Naha or Urasoe, or the religious schools near our area.

We come to realize the purpose of us coming to Okinawa has been fulfilled, which was to escape from corporate America and took a long vacation by the beautiful tropical ocean. In the past five years, I have learned the skills to stand on my own feet, enjoyed the beautiful island life, and double the size of our family. It is time to move on. It is time to take the boys back to the city where the options and the opportunities are.

Here is to a new journey, from Okinawa to Tokyo.

The 1%+1% rule of social media marketing

Published May 1, 2021

Say you have 200 followers on social media. Will the social media platform (Facebook, Instagram, etc) deliver your update to all 200 followers, meaning all 200 followers will see everyone one of your posts on their timeline? Not really.

The truth is no one knows the truth about how many of your followers will your update on social media. If you are an admin of a Facebook page, you get a number on how many people your post has reached. But that doesn’t mean these people see and understand the message in your post. Instagram does a better job with the heart button. When you receive a heart from someone, that means that someone on the receiving end stops looking at your post and then decides to take a small action, which sends a signal that he or she sees your post.

So what should we expect from social media? When you post something on social media and hope people who see your post take action, what is the outcome you should expect?

I use the 1% + 1% rule.

The first 1% is the percentage of your followers who will see, on just receive, but they will see and understand what action you want them to take.

The other 1% is out of the first 1% – the followers who understand your intention, the percentage of people who will take the action you desire.

If you have 10,000 followers on Facebook, for example. You publish a post about your latest product, and you want your followers to click the link in the post to transact with you. 1% of your followers will see and understand what you want them to do, that is 1% of 10,000 = 100. And then 1% of the 1%, which is 1% of 100, would eventually choose to transact with you.

As you already know, the actual result depends on other aspects, but that is how I set the expectation for my social media campaigns.

“That is not enough,” you may say.

Well, it depends. If you have 1 million followers and apply the 1%+1% rule, that is 100 people that will transact with you. If each one pays you $1,000 every time to post something for them to buy, for most creators, that is probably more than enough.

“What if I only have 1,000 fans, or 100 fans, or even less?”

The 1%+1% rule still applies, but you can change it. I will talk about how in another post.

Time Management Is Overrated

Published April 10, 2021

My most creative time in the day is in the morning, so I draw or write in the morning. I can’t achieve the same level of productivity at night no matter how much time I spend working.

Time Management is overrated. It has little effect on my personal GDB. I have done time management practices but they end up being distractions. Instead of managing my time, I manage my energy. Energy management has two steps:

  1. Be aware of how my energy level changes during the day. For example, my energy level usually peaks at 10:00 AM followed by a slow decline until I go to bed at round mid night.
  2. Priorities the most important tasks of the day when my energy level is high.

No saying time management is not important. It is overrated and not as effective as energy management. My schedule changes as there are many unexpected events everyday in my business. I can not control the unexpected, but I am fully aware of my energy level and know what is important in moving my business forward.

What is art and when does art becomes a business

Published April 10, 2021

Art is communication, just like talking or making a movie. Art is a way for an artist to send a message to the audience. When people say “I don’t understand the art”. That is the same as not getting the joke, though the joke is there.

Art becomes a business when the artist or someone who works with the artist deliberately produces the art in scale. That is step one. Once the art has been produced in scale, then the artist sells the art. After the art is sold, the profit is reinvested to create more new art or increase productivity. Once this cycle is formed and for as long as it continues, making art becomes a business.