Hui Hui is a coach, a course creator, and the Founder, and CEO of Impact University and Inner World Training. She is the creator of the Mission To Movement 10-Day Course Creation Challenge through which she helps new entrepreneurs and coaches create digital courses and coaching programs.
Who is Hui Hui and what is your backstory?
I was born and raised in Singapore, but I’m Chinese. Growing up, I was a very shy and introverted child. And because I’m the youngest child, most of the time I played alone at home and at times with my mom. Ever since I was young, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So after my first job, which was book editor, I decided that I didn’t want to just work for other people anymore. I wanted to start my own business. So I started my entrepreneurial journey. I have to say it has been good. I’ve been an entrepreneur for about 19 years now. However, the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey was challenging; being introverted, it was very difficult for me to speak publicly.
Just before the pandemic, I had a retail business, which I had run for 12 years. Every moment with my customers would make me nervous and at times the situation would get out of hand and I would run and hide. But eventually, after 12 years of experience as a retailer, I honed my public speaking skills.
However, when the pandemic came, it wiped out 80% of my retail business. Since I was doing events, – event sales, and retail, I wasn’t able to run my retail business anymore. And at the time, I was just weighing my options and I realized that there were not many options for me. A moment came when I was attending a webinar, in which I wanted to understand more about online marketing and digital marketing. I watched this guru on stage, and he suddenly just triggered this dream that I had many, many years ago, 14 years ago to be exact, which is to become a speaker, a trainer, and a coach. And after that webinar, I was so inspired by what he said about the impact that he was making on the lives of his students. Then I cried uncontrollably for 30 minutes. And from then on, I started to think about what I really wanted to do.
But fast forward a few months later, I was in a Zoom session with a six-figure coach in Singapore, and I was trying to seek her advice because she seemed to be very experienced. I told her about my dream to become a speaker, trainer, and coach. I asked her if she thought I could make it because back then I was a nobody. I wasn’t a coach. I didn’t know how to become a coach. She just looked at me and said “Hui Hui you don’t speak well. You’re so shy and introverted. You don’t even have a social media following to become a coach.” She poured cold water on me and on my dream. I’m sure many of you have experienced that before. It was like a needle had pierced through my heart. And because of what she said I just gave up. I gave up on that dream. It was only several months later when I attended a Tony Robbins event that that dream was reignited. I heard him say it’s okay for me to become a coach, even if I’m just one chapter in. He told me I didn’t have to be perfect. I could improve along the way. That’s how I started, with one of my first clients, after she took a few free classes with me. By then I had 10 people in my Facebook group and I was giving out free classes. This lady came to me after two weeks and said Hui Hui, can you become my coach. I was so touched when she told me her story. She told me that she wanted to quit her full-time job. She wasn’t feeling fulfilled. And she really wanted to help women after menopause. After she told me her dream, I said to myself, “This is someone that I really want to help”. At the time, I had no idea how to be a coach but I said yes anyway.
I realized that when someone places their dreams on you, you could impact their life by helping them fulfill their dream. How wonderful is that? And that’s how Impact University started. That’s how I started inner world training and that’s how I started my coaching business.
I sought out many different mentors to become good at what I do. I had three different mentors. I just set my goal to do 100k in 100 days in my coaching business, and I actually hit that in 70 days. Then I made a second goal, which was to hit a quarter million. I hit that in the next three months, and then I set the next goal, which was to hit a million in about 12 months. And I did! (in about 10 months). I wanted to pave the way for my clients. I wanted to be a role model for them. So I tried hard to become good at what I do so that eventually, I can teach them to become who they want to be. This is what I’ve been doing for the past 18 months.
So as a thriving woman, what are your ideal stellar woman attributes?
I think a stellar woman is someone who is strong and independent. Someone who truly believes in herself and trusts her own instincts and is grounded, and is not afraid to speak up and go for her dreams. One of the things that I believe a woman should have is the financial means to look after herself as well as the people around her.
You are one of the only 1% seven-figure coaches. Congratulations on that. What does that mean to you?
Well, it means that I get to impact lives for a living. My retail business wasn’t fulfilling. But this is a business where we get to help people fulfill their dreams so that they can live life on their own terms. When they are able to reach the first six figures and then eventually seven figures, that’s when their lives change. I find it very gratifying to see when money is no longer a problem in my clients’ lives. As we can see, the economic times that are coming up might be unstable. However, if we can equip ourselves with a skill set that enables us to make money regardless of the economy and do it online in a world where there’re no boundaries, where you can do business on your own terms, in your own space wherever you choose to be, that’s when it truly becomes a life of meaning and freedom. I’m very grateful that every single day I get to do this for a living. To make a great income and be fulfilled; makes this one of the greatest careers that you can have ever in this world!
As a CEO, let us know how important decision-making is.
It is really important. Successful people usually make their decisions very fast and they keep their word after they have made the decision. One of the key things when it comes to making decisions is trusting your instincts, trusting that you’ve got what it takes. Trusting when your gut says, “hell yes!” or, “hell no!”. And if it’s a hell no, just hold on to that decision, and see if something else emerges for you. And if it’s a hell yes, then just go all in and do whatever it takes for you to achieve the outcome that you want. That’s what I’ve always done. It’s very important for me that I trust my gut. Whatever comes your way was meant to be. When an opportunity comes, we women need to seize it, regardless of any self-doubt. We must train ourselves to be able to welcome opportunities and trust that they are meant for us. That’s when things will start to change in our lives. I believe that when we can start with this level of decision-making in our lives, that’s how our lives begin to change. Our lives are simply made up of different decisions that we make every single day. So we just need to trust that we’ve got all it takes within us. We don’t know what we have within us until the situation arises. Just like when I stepped into coaching, I realized that all my years in the chaos and drama club had prepared me for it. When I was a book editor, I didn’t know my writing skills were going to help me with copywriting my content. I didn’t know that in my first photography business, within those two years, I was developing a very keen eye for detail. Everything that happened to us in the past is just setting us up for success in the future.
What key lessons could you share from your experience with other women coaches, entrepreneurs, and professionals that could help them succeed and grow?
In my course, I teach the concept that our wealth zone lies outside our comfort zone. In order for us to grow wealthy, we need to be able to step out of our comfort zone because what we have done in the past is bringing us to where we are right now. Thus in order for you to reach the next level of yourself, you have to be able to challenge yourself. Don’t be afraid to think about the goals you truly want to accomplish. Who do you need to be to achieve your goals? And once you have a very clear idea of who you need to be, then you can work backward.
What habits do you need to discard? What habits do you need to install? What actions do you need to take? What plans do you need to make? And then after that, take action. However, it all starts with having a very clear idea of who you want to be. What do you want to be known for? Who do you want to be remembered as? What is the legacy that we want to be able to leave behind? That’s how I like to see it.
And the theme for this issue is striving for excellence, an aspect you talk about. I realized that this means something to you. So when you talk about ‘striving for excellence, what does it mean to you? Is it something you strive for in your professional and personal life?
Absolutely. I think excellence is a standard. It’s something that I grew up with. I was raised with such high standards. My parents are very hardworking people. I would observe them when I was a child, and they always tried to give their customers the best they could. Naturally, they wanted to give us the best schools, the best life and the best house. That is how I learned the importance of embracing excellence. I’m not trying to boast or anything, I’m just saying we all need to strive for excellence. It is about daily progress, and trying to become a better version of ourselves each day. To me, even 1% of progress is amazing. I always set high standards for myself, whether it is with my career, family, friends, or education. I remember my mentor saying; how you do anything is how you do everything. It’s also important to remember, if we strive for excellence in one area of our lives, we can do it in any other. Above all, we should never settle for anything sub-standard.
As a founder and CEO, it is important to align your team to aim for excellence. How are you able to lead your team to act consistently to support the notion of excellence?
That’s a very good question. I believe that first and foremost, the team must be aligned with all of our values and our mission. We talk about kindness. We talk about being supportive. We talk about serving our clients. It’s really important to be able to see how we can serve them to the best of our ability so that they can get the results that they want. This is what my team is always thinking about; how can we support our clients better? And how can we give them the maximum resources that they need? Our mission is transforming lives. Our mission is to be able to help clients to be able to realize their dreams. We’ll think about how we can have the systems and processes in place so that we can effectively do all of that to be able to support the company’s mission. I have a great team of very, very kind, and supportive people. I really love my team, because every single day, they’re always thinking about how to help our clients become better at what they do.
And what are the obstacles to achieving excellence at both inner world training and impact University?
Like every company, we have growing pains, especially now that our business is growing very fast. We have continuous questions like: how can we keep up with the success that we have? How can we juggle between marketing and selling? How can we deliver client results? For a coaching business, we aren’t about only achieving sales, we want to be able to help our clients achieve success and get results. It is not as easy as it seems to be able to do that. When I started out, I was working on my own. After that, I got team members, I then got a head coach, and I then grew my team to a bigger team. My challenge initially was, how to install systems and processes so that it’s no longer just me who’s taking all of the work. Subsequently, it was about how do I grow my team. Then it evolved to how do I help them be more effective at what they do as well as what can they do to make me more effective? It’s about enabling them to take more things off me so that I can better serve my clients. These are all the growing pains that we face within our business; in order to be able to make it even better, and more efficient, and be able to handle our next level of growth in the next couple of years.
Is there anything that scares you?
Great question. I am scared of snakes. I think if I see a snake on a plane, I’ll probably freak out. Because there’s nowhere to run.
That’s a joke. Well, on a more serious note. What will truly scare me is probably my parents not being around, or my parents’ health. I think that is my biggest fear.
So what does success look like to you?
Oh, to me it’s living life on my own terms, being able to have the time and the freedom to do what I want and to focus on my zone of genius. More importantly, I’m at a stage where I want to be able to help even more clients achieve six figures and seven figures in their own coaching business so that they too can live life on their own terms. I think that would truly be most satisfying to me. I am happier and prouder than ever of my own achievements. When I see my clients overcoming their own limitations or their own fears, it just touches me so much that I might sometimes just cry behind the scenes. And if I could do that a whole lot more, that would be a very fulfilling career.
“Failures are the stepping stones to success” is a message you shared with your followers. Please share with us your view about failure.
I failed so many times in my life. The very first time was when I was in my 20s. I was in China trying to grow my second business. At that point, I was just alone. It is a moment I remember as it was my birthday. The night before that, I was just lying on the mattress that I had bought for $50. This was in a rented apartment that I paid for $10 a night. And I was wondering to myself, why I was alone in a foreign country trying to grow this business. I was not financially well off, yet so hungry for success. I was working very hard but still with limited results. It was one of the lowest moments of my life. Today I realize that it is moments like these, that make me strong. I am always reminded that if I could get through those moments then the next moments are just other moments that I could get through as well. The worst is over. It is just how I can make use of the opportunities.
On my journey to seven figures in my coaching, I remember choking three minutes in, during my very first Facebook Live because I forgot to breathe. Then in my first three-hour workshop, I got cold feet the night before and I wanted to cancel it. I was so scared that I wouldn’t be able to present or perform at the level that I wanted to. I have also had many rejections on sales calls with potential clients. There were times when there were no sales for consecutive 10 to 15 calls. However, I always see these situations as feedback not failures. These’re moments to gather more data that is needed for improvements. If I see failure as feedback, then all the failures will be stepping stones, which means that I am just one step nearer to where I want to go; nearer to my success. So that’s my view of failures; just stepping stones to success. It also means that every single time you overcome them you get nearer to where you want to be. This means you can just put your focus on the future and not beating yourself up, which is the tendency by many, and can only lead to a spiral of negativity. It is sometimes hard to step out of it.
Failures are an opportunity for us to stop and review and ask ourselves what the lesson is. What is it teaching me? What is the thing that I can gain from this so that I can become better next time? And if we can come from that level of thinking and mindset, then there won’t be any feelings of failure. This is how we can make our journeys happier so that, every single time we’re just thinking about tweaking and refining and becoming better, rather than defining and labeling ourselves as failure. However be careful not to stop as when we do stop; we let self-doubt take over, and that’s when it becomes hard to take the next step. What is important is to reframe failure as feedback, which it is. If we look at it from that perspective.
In terms of your mission, where do we see Hui Hui in the next 5-10 years?
My next mission of course is to be able to help 300 of my clients reach that first 10k in their coaching business, and then 30 of them to reach 100k in their coaching business, and then after that three of them to be able to reach a million in their coaching business. And in the next 5 to 10 years I want to be able to bring that to 1000s so that together we can bring more good into the world. I believe that collectively, women – of course, men included – in the next 5-10 years, are going to carry a huge part in the betterment of this world. This is something that has to be spread more as a movement, because with ambitions, with the expertise and the passions we can all make a difference. And it all starts from just transforming one life at a time. I started out shy and timid, now look at me.
And hey, if I can do it, so can you.
If you were to go back in time, what key lessons would you share with your 15 year old self?
That’s a great question. I would tell my 15 year old self, just go for everything you want to know more about and whatever you feel that you’re passionate about. Just go pursue it. There’re no limits to what you can do, even at 15 years old. This is because you don’t know what all of these experiences are going to help you with going forward.
I would also like to tell her that it’s okay to be different. You don’t have to try to fit in. Just be you and just be happy. This is because life is life. There’s so much in life that we can look forward to. Most importantly, I would tell her to choose her peer group well, because who we hang out with is going to eventually determine our future. We are the average of the five people that we hang out with. So if you can hang out with all the people that we aspire to be one day, we will become like them as well. So choose your peer group very carefully; so that, every single moment will be an opportunity to learn. Be among the people that you truly admire. That would be the advice I would give my 15 year old self if I had the opportunity to meet her and I hope that this inspires every single one of you as well.
Do you have a life mantra? Please share?
Be happy without reason.
Leave a message for stellar women to help them learn to strive for excellence.
Don’t settle, we are all worthy of a spectacular life. Just go for it because it all starts with believing in ourselves and seeing that the end is worth it. We can work backward to be able to achieve the goals that we want. We all deserve the life that we love. We deserve to live a fulfilling life. We deserve to have the money that we want without worrying and without thinking about the limitations we place on ourselves or the ones that other people place on us. You can, as long as you’re clear about what you want. You just need to go for it and be hungry. Remember to be bigger than your problems.
watch the full interview below: To learn more about Hui Hui – Impact University mission, how Hui Hui came to be among the top 20 affiliates of Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi, her failures and challenges, the key lessons from the pandemic, the world she hopes to live in, what she thinks hinders women from achieving their goals and more.