"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life" - Conficius

I'm sure you're familiar with that quote. As a millenial I must admit that working day to day in the office is hardly a passion for many. I've worked in a total of four companies. All happened to disappoint. Not because of anything bad, thankfully I always manage to find positivity in everything. So all of my experience in the office is always great. I found networks, ideas, strategies, and obviously got paid enough to live my daily life. 

So why do i suddenly feel an office job is not for me? Maybe the fact that I like to be free and not get tied up into something. Even my best friends knows that too. I know I have a passion in something, and it's about time for me to discover it further. Thankfully today, my mind was opened again on how to make good use of my passion into something useful and hopefully make money in the end. Just like the quote I posted in the beginning, so I'll never have to work another day. "From passion to paycheck!"



I attended a seminar called Passionpreneur, created by students of Branding, Prasetya Mulya Business School. I was so lucky to have come across this seminar and workshop, because not only that it was FREE (!!), it comes at a perfect timing when i also wanted to create something (hopefully) big and useful for myself and hopefully for others too.



The speakers were a fresh familiar face (and very fresh-minded, I promise) as I've known them before and agree that they are phenomenal business owners. The speakers were Rene de Paus, a Brand & Strategic Director at Brand Union, Muhammad Assad, an author (Notes From Qatar) and CEO of Rayyan Group, and lastly the owner of the current coffee culture phenomenon, the owner of Toko Kopi Tuku, Andanu Prasetyo.

All three of them delivered such great speech about passion and entrepreneurship. Rene De Paus for example showed that without the right Branding, a business will be dull and lifeless. So it would be good that before starting a business, we conduct proper research and market studies to understand our market culture. For example, a healthy lifestyle like in the West cannot be applied here in Indonesia. Simple, because we have too many good (yet) junk food that had already been in our culture for years. So how to create branding for a healthy drink to sell in Indonesia? "It needs to compel to the correct archetype. It needs to appeal to the value of the consumers. Whether the brand is a Carer, Ruler or Creator or appeal to any of the 12 archetypes," Rene mentioned. It also need to have a unique selling point, that differs from the others. Re.juve, as Rene's client is different from any other juice sellers in the country, where we often add sugar, milk and blend it in a juicer, Re.juve became the pioneer of fresh cold-press juice here in Indonesia!



[caption id="attachment_2241" align="alignnone" width="4160"] Muhammad Assad[/caption]

Muhammad Assad also delivered his talk in a fun and laid-back way that made us paid attention. He mentioned about when starting a business, we need to have 3 Ps. Positivity, Persistence and Pray. All of these will keep us sane in the journey of our business. He also suggested that when starting a business, we need to be the first, be different and be the best. Be the first means whenever possible, we need to find ideas that are fresh and new. We want to be the pioneer of something, product or service. If being the first is too complicated, try to be different. It means that make something unique that your competitor doesn't have but your business have. Same like Rene, Assad said unique selling point is also key to growing a successful business. If those two also doesn't work out, then at least "just be the best at it," said Assad. Last but not least, Assad reminded us that a successful business and entrepreneurship comes from giving (to charity and such). It would go a long way.



The last speaker, Andanu Prasetyo was my personal favorite. Not only that he was young (prob'ly just 2 years older than me), but also because his business is the current trend in Jakarta. The fact that the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo came to his coffee shop, and yet he kept a humble being. His talk was mainly about how Toko Kopi Tuku came about, but he also gave great insights on how starting a business should start from having a passion and well thought out research. He started his first cafe (Toodz House) with very little knowledge about coffee. Yet because he really love coffee, he came to explore, research and study more about coffee when he went to Melbourne for a month. He studied the coffee culture there and thought about how he can incorporate it in Indonesia. That was how Tuku came about. He applied the "friendly neighbourhood" culture from Melbourne that he believes can be applied here in Jakarta. This is why Tuku was only built as a small coffee shop with only a Grab 'n Go system.

[caption id="attachment_2235" align="alignnone" width="3120"] Andanu Prasetyo[/caption]

Prasetyo also kept the content of his business simple. He only wanted to sell ice coffee. It is so simple that he was able to keep the quality and content perfect. He believed that great quality will overpower the market and gives you returning satisfied customers. By doing this, he was also lucky that he didn't need Key Opinion Leaders, because the product itself was able to sell through words of mouth! He also didn't take too much profit, because he want it to be affordable that customers will keep coming back to complete their daily caffeine intake.

Overall, these speakers have wonderful qualities and amazing experience in their expertise, which was based on their passion. So here are the list of what I learned and what I will take from today's experience to be a great Passionpreneur:

1. Be humble: Prasetyo is a wise character that doesn't mind mingling with people of different class. He mentioned a couple of times that he would hang out with parking attendants and securities, just for fun. Often he would get great ideas about neighborhood experience and products after talking to them. In fact, Tuku was built after he noticed a small uninhabited shop across the street when he was hanging out with his parking attendant at his other cafe!

2. Understand and believe in your brand: Prasetyo mentioned many times in his talk that people critized his coffee a lot. However he stayed true to his initial plan and educate his consumers that there are reasons behind his choices. That way, people will understand your brand's story and will believe it just as you do.

3. Manage your time and allow yourself to keep doing what you love: Assad owns a lot of different finance-related business (because he loves numbers), but in his free time he always try to continue writing. Because writing will always be his favorite thing to keep his sanity in tact.

4. Patience is key: Tuku started in 2015, but it wasn't until 2017 that people were starting to notice. Even more and more competitors emerge ever since.

5. Be Open-minded: As the digital world progress, often we will need to collaborate or adjust our business and connection. Tuku decided to work with GoJek and realize that it allowed his innovation of Grab 'n Go coffee system come to life. Assad also decided to trust digital platform as he finally created a fin-tech business to allow people to invest in gold through an app called Tamasia.



Another bonus point that I got from this event: I was able to attend a workshop by traveller and social media influencer, Catatan Backpacker. The topic was about "How to Brand Yourself on Social Media." I was really excited to meet these travelers. I got a lot of great insights from them as I will also continue to pursue my passion in traveling into what hopefully be a lot of paycheck! (aamiin)

 

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