They say it's a legend. Just a story we tell to scare children. But I'm here to tell you, not to believe a word of it. You would do well to beware the Yule Cat, no matter what they say. My cousins and I grew up in the Icelandic countryside and spent most of our lives within a stone's throw of our birthplace. For two years in December, my saintly grandmother would welcome us into her home so my parents could go Christmas shopping or have some time to themselves. She invited all my cousins as well, a brood of eight when we were all assembled. And many nights after granddad had made excuses for going off to the pub, grandma would gather us around the fire and tell us stories. Stories about fairies, Queen Mob and her ilk, and of the elves and darker things that had once been a part of this landscape. She told us stories of Icelandic heroes and filled our dreams with monsters that begged to be slain as we took on our favorite champions roles. But especially around the Christmas season, her favorite story was of the Yule Cat.  He punishes the lazy and rewards those who work hard and do their work year round. If you neglect your duties, the Yule Cat will find your children. Never doubt. His favorite meal is children without new clothes and winter, their parents having spent their summers at leisure, thankless children he hates as well, those who scorn their parents work in favor of frivolous things. So be thankful, my children, that your parents work hard to keep such dark things away. Most of the stories about the Yule Cat involved naughty children who went into the woods at night, spoiled children whose parents found that the Yule Cat had dragged them out through their window and gobbled them up, and good children who went rushing home on Christmas Eve to get their clothing gifts before the Yule Cat could get them. My little brother, Sven, always held a deep fear of the Yule Cat, but I can honestly never remember a time when I was afraid of it. It always seemed goofy to me, and in my head, I just imagined a cat with giant legs that looked like big noodles. Its body was way high in the air and its legs just wiggled around beneath it. I had drawn a picture of it for my grandmother once, and she had only smiled and ruffled my hair. Let us hope that if the Yule Cat finds you, he is as silly as you think he is. I had smiled about the idea of meeting the Yule Cat then, thinking of all the monsters and beasts my cousins and I had slain in our dreams. I am not smiling as I write this. I came to live with my grandparents when I was 15.  They said they died instantly, but all I knew was that Sven and I were suddenly without parents. There was never any question where we would go, of course. My grandmother opened her home to us without a second thought. I lived with grandpa three years in his grave. She said it would be nice to have some company. I lived with her until I was 23, attending university and getting my degree so I could begin a career in architecture and then taking up residence in my parents' old house so I could maintain the family homestead. The house was on my grandparents' land, so it wasn't as though we had never been back. Sven didn't like to go back to our old home claiming there were too many memories there and my grandmother sheltered him quite a bit. When I moved back, I invited him to come live with me, but he declined. He was 17 and showed none of my drive. I was worried that if he stayed, my grandmother would coddle him forever, but that was his decision. I decorated my old home like it was my first Christmas. The lights and decorations still in the crawl space as they had always been and my house had shown out against the darkness like a beacon. My tree stood in full view of the window and I had bought presents for everyone. I had spent much of my life without much money and now that I had a lucrative job, I decided to take advantage of the holiday season and spoil my relatives a bit. I was sitting snug by the fire, a cup of spiced hot chocolate in my hand and a slight buzz when my phone rang. My grandma's smiling picture showed from the home screen and I picked it up as I tried to compose my voice.  My granddad had been pickled more than sober during his life, but I was still at an age where I was self-conscious about her seeing me like that. I answered the phone and she immediately started in without greeting. You have not come by to get your yule clothes. You will need to come back now. I wasn't used to my grandmother being so forceful. She was usually very mild, but she seemed upset about this to an irrational level. Tomorrow was Christmas Day when all of my cousins and their families gathered for presents and grandma's usual Christmas feast. What grandma was referring to was her tradition of giving us clothes to keep the yule cat away. This was my first Christmas away from home. I usually got them from grandma when I woke up on the 23rd, but I guess I had missed it since I had moved out. Oh, that's okay, Gran. I'll just give them tomorrow. I'll be there with the others and you can just give them to me. No. You must come get them now. And hurry. I need you here before the sun goes down or the yule cat will get you. I rolled my eyes. Gran, I think the yule cat will understand if I don't want to go out in the snow to get clothes. Can't I just come by tomorrow? Her voice went from a severe matriarch to a pleading older woman in the blink of an eye. Please, it's your first time away from home and I want you to be safe. I can leave them on the porch if you don't have time to come in. But please come and get them, please. She sounded so scared that I couldn't disagree. I told her I would get dressed and drive over before sunset and she sighed in relief and thanked me. I dressed warmly in my snow pants and a heavy coat. My muffler and gloves came on next along with a pair of snow boots and a flashlight just in case. All of this went on over whatever I was already wearing, jeans and a t-shirt and thick socks, and stepped out into the ankle deep snow. I put a hand on my own jeep and decided against it. My head was a little sloshy and I knew it would only take a few minutes with the heat blasting before I'd be asleep and sliding on the icy road. Instead, I decided to walk. My grandmother's house was only about two miles from mine and the bracing cold would sober me up a little. I set off towards the woods that separated her house from mine. Every time I walk those familiar trails, I always feel like I should be scattering breadcrumbs behind me. My grandmother's house lies sheltered in the woods and they always feel so dense and foreboding whenever I have to walk through them. The snow when the cold made them quiet, the birds having left and many of the animals asleep for the winter, but the tracks told me that there were, indeed, things out here. My legs started to get tired almost at once. If you've never had to slog through deep snow, then I can tell you that it isn't much fun. The sun was going down and I began to regret not taking the truck. I could hear the snow making the trees crack and sag and now and again, there was a scurry of movement as some small creatures. Other than the occasional noise, it was as though I had the forest to myself and my loud footsteps made me feel like the last person on earth. When I heard the snow crunch nearby, I swung to see what was there. The sound had startled me. My own feet were the only thing making much noise out there, but I found nothing that could have made the noise. By the sound of the crunch, I would have thought it was a reindeer or maybe a clumsy squirrel who'd fallen from a tree. In the dim light, I couldn't even see if there were prints and I started slogging a little faster, worried it might be a wolf or something. The crunching came again, but I shrugged it off as my mind playing tricks. When it crunched again, closer this time, I started moving even faster. Going too fast would be a great way to break an ankle or fall and impale myself on a tree limb, but the crunching and lack of a source was starting to freak me out. The snowing sky was already overcast and the sun was setting behind them. The thought of being out here after dark made my skin crawl and the thought of getting lost in a stretch of woods that would become nearly unnavigable once the sun went down made me quicken my pace again. My footsteps were loud, cutting through the silence like a foghorn, but somehow I could still hear the steps behind me as I nearly jogged through the ankle deep snow. What I had thought might be a reindeer or a wolf now sounded like something much larger. It was very rare, but polar bears sometimes got stuck on ice floes and found their way here. I'd seen something about it online, I thought, and I could see a big hungry polar bear lapping along behind me as it prepared to make a quick meal out of me. I didn't dare look back as I heard the crunch come down not eight feet behind me. It hit the ground hard enough to dislodge snow from the trees and I started looking at it as best I could.  Iceland didn't have a lot of large predators, none that came this close to settled areas and my mind began to travel back to a time when I was young and sitting warm around my grandmother's fire. My cousins and I had always loved the stories of trolls and elves, great heroes who slew the former and were aided by the latter, and we always took up sticks when we played and pretended to swing mighty swords at the knees of ugly, hulking trolls. The idea of being devoured by a large and slavering troll, my mind showing me the one from Harry Potter seemed less fun now that I was being chased by one in a fairytale forest. I glanced behind me in a blind panic, not wanting to see, but wanting to know nonetheless, and felt my boot sink into a hole. I went down, face first in the snow and nearly head first into a tree and rolled over to face whatever was now surely going to get me. My ancestors had been the men who settled this land, men who rode onto these shores in boats with axes entamed this wilderness, and I would be damned if I would die with my head in the snow like a blubbering baby. What I saw looming over me was no troll. What I saw looming over me was much worse. When I had drawn him, I'd made his legs long and wavy like noodles.  He'd been given the Cheshire Cat's grin and a pair of pointy ears that made him look a little like Batman. He'd looked friendly, goofy, something a child couldn't possibly be afraid of. The yule cat, for that, was the only thing it could be, was none of these things. His coat was black as twice-baked charcoal, and his bones and muscles seemed to shift beneath it like there might be something living just under its skin. Its legs were long and powerful, like a panther or a jaguar, and its paws left tracks as big as hubcaps with claws like stilettos. His mouth was filled with two big teeth, and the tip seemed to poke at its lips painfully as its slather ran pink.  Its eyes, though, were the worst. Its yellow eyes blazed like torches, their centers crackling red, and when it loosed a long, loud yowl, I felt my snow pants turn warm.  Its yowl had loose some snow from the tree over my head, and when it fell, it coated the yule cat's face in a cold blanket of surprise. I rolled away, and when I did, the beast lunged at me and ran smack into the tree I had nearly fallen into. It yowled again, angrily, and its claws sounded as if they were shredding the tree to pieces. I couldn't tell if they did or didn't. I was running through the snow like a reindeer, turning it up as my fear gave me a new purpose. I could see the smoke from Grandma's chimney, but I knew I had to be another quarter mile from the house. The shadows were gathering, and I knew that I was dead as soon as this thing got its bearings. When it came after me, I realized it had been playing with me before. Its crunching steps sounded dinosauric, and it cleared the distance between us easily. It swiped at me as I ran, and the claws slid easily through my thick jacket. My back suddenly felt cold as the goose down spilled out of it, and I began to realize I was running on borrowed time. I had to find some way to lose it. I had to find some way to use its size against it.  That's when I realized where I was. When we were children, there was a tall tree that we used as a landmark. We called it the Himmel Tree, the Sky Tree, because it always seemed like it soared up into the clouds. My older cousins and I had hiked to the tree once, nearly a quarter mile into the woods, and found that the tree lived up to its name. It was massive, 60 feet of wood like iron, and beneath it was a series of roots that looked like a cage. The soil had pulled away from them, and as kids, we would crawl beneath the tree and camp in relative comfort. The spot was large for children, but would be snug for me. I was hoping that it would be too snug for this hellcat as well. I booked it, running flat out as the tree soured up to greet me. I jumped over a sprawl of fallen trees, something I remembered from childhood, and prayed that maybe the cat wouldn't be so lucky. When I heard him hiss and stumble a moment later, I knew that luck was with me. I didn't look to see how badly he had spilled. I fell on my belly and prayed I had the angle right as I slid between the roots of the huge tree. I thumped my shoulder, the tough roots hurting as I hit them, but I made it mostly under as the cat scrambled after me. I winced as his claws caught my leg, ripping through snow pants and jeans to sink its meat. But I shook him off before he could pull me out, and I was soon snug beneath the woody canopy of the huge old tree. The underside was just as I remembered it. It was damp from snow run, but the frozen snow had mostly covered it. So I was left in a crystalline world domed by white. The cat screamed in agony, shooting a paw between the roots and searching for me in frustration. I huddled against the side of the tree, not wanting to be found by those furtive claws, and stayed as still and quiet as I could. The scrambling went on for what seemed like hours until finally the cat removed its sooty paw, and I heard it crunching off into the forest. I stayed still, fearing some trick, but it went right on moving until its heavy footsteps were only slight crunches in the distance.  I would freeze to death out here if I stayed too long, but I was afraid that the yule cat might double back and wait for me to leave. I shivered for as long as I could, feeling the temperature drop as the sun crept closer to down, and finally I decided I'd rather be eaten than freeze to death. I crawled out, and when I wasn't immediately set upon, I started stumbling towards my grandmother's house. She was waiting in the doorway for me, a mug of spice cider in her hand, and a concerned grimace for my many injuries. He found you out there, didn't he? It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyway. I've been sitting by the fire and letting her feed me and nurse me for the last few hours. She bandaged my leg and took my shredded clothes away. She set a plate of food in front of me, and when I finished the spice cider, she brought me tea and told me to rest. Before she went back to her room to sleep, she dropped a package in my lap. It was a new sheepskin coat, lovely to see and soft to touch. I couldn't imagine what it had cost her, though I knew what it had almost cost me. He won't bother you now, she said, and made her way to bed as I sat convulsing by the fire. So, heed your elders when they tell you the old stories. I was lucky, but you can't always count on luck. The yule cat still lurks in the hills and woods, searching for those he deems ungrateful and underdressed. Don't take the clothes you get for Christmas so lightly because they could save your life if you find yourself in the sights of the yule cat.


Welcome to The Journey. Today we're going to talk about how to generate returning sales on your e-commerce store. I quite like seeing a rush of new customers headed to your business ready to spend money placing orders on your website but without a strategy in place for these fresh faces. Up to 50% of those new customers will never return to your business. So considering that it costs five to seven times more to acquire a new customer at your business versus retaining an existing one, some quick math, one-time customers are not very lucrative no matter how much you value their business. So you should be asking yourself, Emma, how do I retain those first-time customers that are browsing through my product page? You're in the right spot. We're going to go through customer loyalty tips to make sure that you keep them coming back. And don't get us wrong, providing quality service and products that they can't live without is important too. But one sure way to delight customers is to offer perks for buying from you and not your competitors. And I think one of the first ways you can do that is by embracing open and authentic communication. I mean, I can't think of a single time where I wish I was less informed about a service or product I paid for. So good or bad consumers don't know what's up. So keep the lines of communication open. This is also great in your personal life and respond promptly. Now, if that means hiring a virtual assistant to answer the phone, consider it. You can also use your unique voice to provide a window into how your business is operating. And if possible, create a separate page in your website dedicated to your processes alone. And make that page and your contact information front and center on your homepage to really enable quick and easy lines of communication. Link this page in all of your communications. And last year, encourage your customers feedback so that you know what you can do to be there for them. Implement processes to cater to their needs as they evolve. And look, let's be honest, you won't always know the answers. But my advice, admit that. And then you can direct customers to credible sources for all unanswered questions. And I think this is a beautiful segue into customer service. Provide great, you know, not great stellar customer service. Customer service is a total deal maker, no matter what's going on in the world. And think about it. Since you can't actually reach out and touch your customers right now, you'll need to be creative during this time. So knowing your market as you do, anticipate any issues that might arise because of the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in. Be proactive and provide customer solutions to respond to these pressure points. Also incorporate contactless delivery or switching to virtual sessions. I know I love the virtual sessions now because I talk to anyone in the world and it's kind of nice. But these are just two examples of creative adaptation. Also consider using personalized emails or phone calls to show your appreciation. I mean, I would love that. And maybe even ask, hey, how can I improve next time? With every order include a little freebie. I mean, please give me all the freebies. My email is no.  It's not just a faceless company. You're there running it. But if you have a supply chain or staffing problems, be transparent. Let your customers know that there might be a delay before they have to ask or learn that there's an issue. If you're proactive with that approach versus them having to spend time out of the day just to find that out, it goes a long way in your customer's eyes. And remember, the smallest gesture can make a world of difference when customers are feeling vulnerable. I'd also encourage you guys to offer loyalty and rewards programs. I know it's one thing I love about having my Nespresso machine, the perks that I get with being a member. You get some free, free pods with each order and some free shipping. It keeps me coming back. So customer loyalty programs are successful because they do exactly what they need to be doing right now. They're strengthening the bond between your business and your customer. And you'd be surprised, loyalty programs are surprisingly easy to set up either through through-party apps or with WordPress and commerce extensions that really handle all those details for you. But you can offer perks and rewards based on products purchased or amount spent. And if the reward is out of stock, you can manually reward points or for discounts that could be applied for future purchases. But if you want us to make a video dedicated on how to create one for your business, drop us a comment below. Also create engaging keyword here, engaging social media campaigns. Social media, after all, is perhaps the best way to highlight your efforts and then interact with your customer base. It allows that two-way street and you can share user-generated content, your customers, rep in your products. You can also respond to comments to really build rapport so you can help to build an engaged following. So here are a couple of different best practices when it comes to social. The first one, I think this is most challenging to all of us, is just to be consistent. Posting on the same day and times reassures your customers that you are available and really when to expect your updates. And with this, I try to go back to the times before Netflix or Hulu when we waited until Thursday night at 8 p.m. for our favorite show. We knew what to expect every week at Thursday at 8 p.m. You can start to create that consistency with your brand and your followers of, I'm gonna post Monday at 3 p.m. It's gonna be my Inspiration Monday post. And on Thursday, it's gonna be an educational piece. It's gonna really solve their problems. And the more consistent you are, your followers start to know when you're showing up and actively start to seek out your content. I love that, Naly, when you talk about TV shows in certain times. Reminds me of that while you're younger than me.  Also, be sure to launch innovative social media campaigns for the purpose of keeping your customers engaged. I know one example is to schedule AMAs. Ask me anything. Those are so fun. I love when I see those pop up. And this is where you dedicate a little block of time, maybe just 30 minutes, maybe an hour, so then customers can submit their latest questions and then, of course, get your responses in real time. And last year, you can also create a special group on your Facebook page where customers can either share their experiences or challenges and support each other through community. And if you can, listen in and respond when appropriate. The goal is to start or deepen a sense of community among your clients, customers, and leads via social media. Also offer coupons and discounts. I know that's a great way to get my business. I recently purchased some sunglasses because I live in San Diego, so you just wear sunglasses every single day. Sorry for anyone who doesn't have as nice as weather, but it was a 10% off first time customers. You just had to give your email address. And so yeah, saved a little money on those sunnies, but coupons or discounts, they're just a good way to get people to try your service or purchase your products. And again, but again, rather, your goal is to keep those customers coming back. So beyond the impeccable customer service that you are delivering, and of course the quality of the items that you offer, give customers a financial incentive to continue using your services or continue coming back to buy sunglasses through you. Yeah. And you can do this by offering frequent or regularly occurring coupon codes and really help those who are safer savvy due to the current uncertainty. You can also create discounts on package deals of products and services that you know your customers will likely buy together and probably need multiple of. But lastly here, you can also offer payment plans to stretch out customer purchases, kind of like a layaway. And honestly, the best thing you can do is be available and be present with your customers. What you definitely want to be wary of is over automating things because if you do that for every step of the marketing funnel, it's going to take away from that human to human connection, which your customers value so much, it's going to help you to build those long term relationships and boost customer loyalty. So all you really have to do is remain focused to the human beings that are on the other side of that transaction. So that's a wrap. You just learned how to generate returning sales on e-commerce store. Be sure to like this video and comment below. While you're there, subscribe to this channel and ring that bell so you get these episodes first. This is The Journey. See you in the next video.


That's what's up! Woo! Yo! I feel alive! It's a rainy day outside, but you know what's great for rainy days is Audible. They are giving away a 30-day free trial membership to everybody right now if you go to audible.com slash Fungbrows or text Fungbrows to 500-500 right now. You know they got a huge variety of audio programs and audio books that you can listen to right away, right off your phone and your computer. More on that later, but right now enjoy this video about Pike Place Market because I catch a fish. Yo! What's going on everybody? Andrew from the Fungbrows here. I am in downtown Seattle right now in front of the very, very iconic Pike Place Market. Now, I grew up in the area and I've been here a few times, but to be honest I don't know much about it. So today I'm here with a group of foodies, yappies, and a professional tour guide and we're about to find out what really Pike Place is. Let's go meet the crew. Hi, my name is Nelson Yong. I'm a class A yappie according to Andrew. I'm originally from LA and now I live in Seattle and I'm rough in the town. Hey, I'm Tiffany aka Feeder on Instagram. I'm born and raised in Seattle so shout out to all my local foodies. Hi, I'm Sonia from Seattle Bites. I'm originally from New York, but now I'm rough in the northwest. 2017 Zagat Award winner so you know my food game is strong. Alright everybody, that's the crew for today. We're about to hit up seven of the most iconic spots around Pike Place and we're meeting our tour guide Justin at spot number one. Are you guys ready? Let's go. We got to take a picture of the most Instagramable spot in all of Seattle, which is the gum wall right here. This is our tour guide Justin for the day. What's happening, everybody? So what's the first spot? First place we're going to go is called Daily Dozen Donut Company started in 1990 by two sisters, Stu and Barb, who had a dream, build a business selling many donuts, but they had some help. The Donut Robot Mark II, they banked 30 DPM, that's 30 donuts per minute. I got the donuts here about most poor overall on a food tour. No leftovers, alright. The food tour, not a food diet, alright. I love it. Get in there. Cinnamon and sugar, powdered donut from Daily Dozen Donut Company, dig in, yo. It's awesome. It's so light and fluffy and then because it's warm you can't get any better than this. It's warm and fresh and coated in sugar and cinnamon, it's perfect. The ultimate mini donut. It's not too large where you're feeling guilty, but it's delicious. Let's keep it moving. I'm sure that Justin has the pink umbrella so we never lose it. Did you know that the term Greek is not regulated by the FDA or any governing body in North America, that matter? Well, you should call anything Greek. Essentially, yeah. To make authentic real Greek yogurt, to get that rich, creamy, thick texture from large companies are good to show. We're adding cornstarch, we're adding thickeners, we're adding things that are not part of the traditional yogurt making process. Right? So that's why we're blessed here in Pike Place, Mark. We have Eleanor's real Greek yogurt, family owned and operated. They started right here in Pike Place and they take low margins just so they can show us a real Greek yogurt, oh wow. This one here is called the Marion Berry. The other one's passion for real Greek yogurt.  It's like such a hands down Seattle favorite. Wow. Is that like cheesecake without the guilt? Exactly. That's exactly what I think. I want to eat this with that donut just now. Oh, that's a good call. It's just a former fat guy thought right there. Absolutely.  Seattle is a diverse place. We've been coming here from all over the country, all over the world since 1851. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we lost two-thirds of our Japanese-American farmers. That's a huge loss. This mural is reflective of that. By Aki Sagabe, it depicts the life and life of Japanese-American farmers. After Japanese internment, none of those original Japanese-American farmers ever returned back to Pike Place. Imagine building generations of wealth and losing that, right? That's a tough loss. And so we want to remember that history. Especially for the Asian community, like I think it's important to know that they actually helped build a lot of this city as well.  Pike Place Chowder is an over-seven-time award-winning new-ing clam chowder. They've won many awards, including awards in the East Coast. That is really good chowder. Ain't that good? Yeah. They get fresh seafood from the fishmongers for their daily market specials. Best chowder in Seattle. This is the seafood best. So this is another award-winner here. It's pretty much the whole ocean. You got shrimp. You got lobster. You got crab. You can chase the seafood. And it's not too creamy. Would this make it on your gram? Of course. I only post the good food. And I've definitely posted food from here multiple times. We're about to go to Chucker Cherries for some chocolate-covered cherries. So we're a family-owned cherry company out of eastern Washington. We work with local farmers in the area to get all these cherries off the trees. And from there, we dry them up with hot air only and then cover them in different blends of gourmet chocolate. The bean cherry. It's a little more tangy than sweet. Shout to Microsoft. Easily the most popular non-cherry item that we have. It's so good. You can taste the coffee flavor. That's really good. This is like candy. We're number two producers of sweet cherries. Turkey has number one, I believe. But cherries are such part of Northwest. So whenever cherry season hits here, it's always huge. It turns out big crowds. The next stop we're going to is Beecher's Handmade Cheese. All right. Now we are outside of Beecher's Handmade Cheese where they make cheese fresh and daily. And you can actually watch them through this window right here. It is a mixture between gruyere and cheddar cultures. We're going to start with those cheese curds. It's like free cheese. Oh. It's kind of like eating in a racer. Way tastier. Yeah. It kind of like crumbles in your mouth. It almost has a rubbery taste at first. But then it breaks down really fast. You age this 15 to 18 months and then you get the flagship cherries. So this is on a honey oat cracker. So good. This is like one of my most favorite cheeses to get in Seattle. I never really had these many thoughts about cheese, but now that I'm eating it, the texture changes and therefore the taste changes. What's your favorite type of cheese? Nacho cheese. Nacho cheese. We're going to have that now. A whole. This is our mac and cheese. That's right. So it's world famous. It got famous here locally in Seattle. Martha Stewart. She found about this mac and cheese and she gave the owner a call. I said, Kurt, come on my TV show, make a famous mac and cheese. He ends up going on the show, but he doesn't make this version. He makes a different version. They don't know the wiser. Wow. He flips it on her. Bait and switch. Now I taste that pepper. I taste the smokiness. That's definitely different than your regular mac and cheese. It's like cheddar based or American cheese based. Nah. So we're walking through the market. I see a bunch of tulips. Growing up, a very Northwest experience is going with my dad and the family up to the tulip festival. And there's tons and tons of tulips there.  My dad, he loves like yards and flowers, but we went to the tulip festival a lot. This is how Northwest I am. All right. Now we are outside of Poroski, Poroski, having one of the longest lines in all of Pike Place. And a lot of people are familiar with Porogies and Poroskies. What is the difference between those two? The difference between a Poroski though, it's baked. Oh, man. I could see eating just one of these and being good like for lunch. That's really hearty, man. Cinnamon, cardamom. Kind of a braid, if you will. Kind of twisted there. That's a really good cinnamon twist. So we had a lot of good food on this food crawl so far. But Seattle is very much known for its seafood. And every time someone visits Seattle, I always tell them, we got really good, affordable seafood up here. So one of the most iconic parts of Pike Place Market is fish throwing, especially salmon. And so I think today we might get to see a little bit of the fish mongers in action. The story is the owner was getting a bag of clams for someone. And he was just like, hey, just toss it over the couch. So the toss wasn't like super dramatic. It wasn't really a long toss. But really that's where it all started. So literally for convenience reasons, you got to throw the fish because it's faster. Exactly. You ready to do the doodle? Can I catch? I'm trying to catch some fish, man. It's dying. I think we got to hit up a seafood restaurant next, man. Where are we going? We're going to go over to Edda's Seafood Restaurant. What do we got here? So this is a Dungeonous Crab King. Woo! Right here from Edda's. That's Tom Douglas going. Tom is like a three-time James Beard World Wish Up, Iron Chef Champion. He's kind of like... Iron Chef of America. Iron Chef of America. Which is not bad. He's probably the most celebrated chef in Seattle. Wow. Okay. So I got a high expectation for these crab cakes. Cheers, man. You can see all the crab meat. There's no filler. It's so good. That's not really a crab patty. I feel like it's literally like a crab ball. It's just being held together by the crust. And there's really nothing else. Look at all those shredded crab right there. The stringy... Right now, when you pull a crab out, it kind of shreds. So the crab cakes were actually the last thing that we're having on this tour. But how are we finishing them off, Justin? These are a John Boy Florida Soul Sea Salt Caramel. The sea salt definitely balances it out, so it's not overly sweet.  I really like the texture, too. It's not too chewy and it's not hard. At Oriental Mark Grocery Kitchenette, they do Filipino-style plate lunches. The Apostle family has been running it for three generations. Auntie Lai is the main cook here. She's here every day. She don't take a day off. Kanji is one of my favorite foods, man. It's good comfort food. You ever make it with a thousand-year-old egg in here? No, because it's a Chinese version. If you want that, you have to bring your own egg. I'll walk it over from Chinatown. No fancy. This is just good food. Nowadays, you're starting to see farmers markets in New York, L.A. Different neighborhoods all around the country. But their model is this place, because we are the longest consecutive-run farmers market in this great nation. That pretty much wraps up our Pike Place food tour. It was super informative. Thank you, Justin, man. Any time. Shout out to Saver Seattle if you guys are looking for some tours. Come join me sometime. Yeah, thank you guys for joining us. Thank you. All these local foodies and yappies here. What was your major takeaway? You know, you haven't been to Pike Place, but I feel like we experienced it on a different level. One thing that I would say is a great takeaway is the fact that Pike Place Market isn't just for tourists. It's one of the few tourist attractions that locals actually frequent on the weekends. Favorite thing that we ate today? Yeah. It's probably going to be between the Baroshki or probably Elinos Greek yogurt. Elinos and Chowder. All right. Definitely the doughnut from Daily Dozen and the clam chowder were delicious. I know it's cliche to say this, but you've got to come to Pike Place. It is a place that is unique. And yes, this farmers market is pushing the standard of farmers markets around the United States and North America. So that's really cool to know. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for watching that video about Pike Place Market. I hope you guys learned something. It was really fun to shoot. And shout out to our sponsor, Audible. Check out audible.com slash Phone Gross or text Phone Gross to 500-500 to start your free trial right now. Super easy. I am actually listening to Damon John Rise and Grind. So he's from Shark Tank and he also started the clothing line Fubu from back in the day. So it's super relevant to what we do. It's about persistence and entrepreneurship and it's just really inspirational right now. The link is down below. And to be honest, even if you don't want to listen to an entire book, they actually have book summaries and they have a bunch of other original content too. It's been helpful to me already. So definitely check it out. And until next time, I'm out. Peace. I'm really glad that it stopped raining. It was perfect for this video. And thank you so much for watching. Shout out to Justin. Shout out to Nelson. Shout out to Sonya and Tiffany. Check out all their links down below. Follow them. They are local Seattle foodies. Definitely if you guys are trying to get in the scene, check them out. And until next time everybody, we out. Peace.


Okay, I think we can start. Good morning everybody and thank you for joining us at this panel discussion on the future of jobs in ASEAN My name is Warren Fernandez, and I'm the editor of in chief of the Straits Times And which is the main English language newspaper and media organization in Singapore We've been hearing over the last day or two about the fourth industrial revolution it's been a constant team and This is the process of unrelenting and sweeping changes that's rolling out across all our countries all our industries and Just to bring that point home. I was reflecting on on this on my way here from Singapore I think like many of you My flight and my hotel accommodation was booked online and paid for by digital banking My ride from home to the airport was booked on an app Fortunately, the driver was still a human But I don't think that would be the case for very much longer given all the trials they're doing in Singapore and automotive vehicles When I boarded the plane usually these days and especially if I'm flying on my favorite airline Singapore Airlines an attendant brings me a copy of a newspaper and I guess to humor me they bring me my own newspaper and they give me reading material and they serve me my favorite wine or champagne and I once was puzzled by this and I asked how how do you know what my preferences are? And the young lady says to me. Oh, sir. It's machine learning And the computer system that they have is capturing data about your preferences And it brings up this data before you even board the plane And the airline is using data to improve its service Yesterday I met a gentleman who was telling me about how machine learning is improving so much That there are now devices which can do Live translations even as you speak to a high level of accuracy So we could have a conversation like this and it would be translated into Vietnamese or Chinese or Japanese high level of accuracy The implications for translators also a bit troubling in the process So I think the fourth industrial revolution that we've been talking about opens up many many opportunities for all of us But it's also giving rise to a lot of angst and anxieties in all our societies and we're seeing that Play out in the populist pressures that are Emerging in in many countries and I think those anxieties and those That the angst over it can be summed up in just one word Jobs and that's what we're here to discuss today and some of the issues I think we'd like to get into just to frame the discussion is Will we still have jobs? Will there be enough jobs to go around and what are these jobs of tomorrow? What are the skills that we will need to do those jobs? Will the idea of a job and work change? And how do we ensure our young and by that I mean both our young boys and girls Will be prepared for these jobs of the future And how do we reskill the not so young? Whether it's through apprenticeships and lifelong learning I think that's something we want to get into in the discussion And which companies and which countries are ahead of the curve in this and and doing things to help prepare people for the jobs that are coming Maybe we can hear a bit from the deputy prime minister about what Vietnam is doing And what can we learn from those more progressive countries? Let me just start with a few key points from the wef's own studies about jobs 65 percent of the children entering primary school today Will end up doing a job that does not even exist today By 2020 more than a third of the core skills that you need to perform the jobs Will not be skills we consider even crucial today And the most recent survey by the wef which was just released on tuesday Interestingly showed a high level of optimism amongst the young Majorities of the people surveyed across the region felt that the new technologies would bring more jobs and higher incomes And interestingly the vietnamese were one of the most Optimistic about the future The least optimistic were unfortunately my own compatriots in singapore And well to discuss all of these issues we have a very distinguished and diverse panel Let me just introduce them very briefly We're honored to have the deputy prime minister of vietnam mr. Vu Duc Dam Next to him Ms. Vivian Lau who is president of ja Asia pacific a non-profit group based in hong kong that prepares young people for employment and entrepreneurship And vivian has just told me that ja is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. So congratulations Mr. Ian Lee a compatriot from singapore Who is Asia pacific regional head for the a deco group a talent and recruitment search company Ideal person to tell us about the jobs of the future uh francesca chair Entrepreneur ceo and co-founder of go get and I was hearing yesterday on a different panel You were at about the workplace of the future So i'd be interested to hear that perspective later on and then last but not least mr Howling sue who is assistant administrator and director of the regional bureau for asia and the pacific of the un dp But let me get the ball rolling by Posing a few questions to the dpm. You know given the optimism in your country about the future and jobs and technology Maybe you can tell us a bit about the perspective from the point of view of the vietnamese government How do you see the challenges and the opportunities about the jobs that are coming And what do you think the government can do and what is the government of vietnam doing in on that front? Well once more I have to say welcome to vietnam. Thank you. And um, I will talk in vietnam Sure with us assistant from the interpreter. Okay in hoping that in near future. We don't need no more human Well, good morning, everyone We'll ask our dear moderator state According to his study the vietnamese in general especially the youth in vietnam Very much optimistic About the opportunities and prospects of the ir 4.0. Of course, we're aware of the challenges But from policy makers perspective We're not only optimistic But indeed We need to think more about challenges The reasons are first We've been talking extensively About new jobs Brought about by ir 4.0 and many of them will be replaced especially the jobs That are very popular in vietnam like in textile and footwear construction works Or in electronics assembling factories Or secretaries jobs often Employed by women We are having challenges on how to Retrain them To give them new skills Or move them to other professions According to other countries, but in vietnam 38 percent are still in the agricultural sector So We do not only have challenge to Move people from one sector to other sector but We also have to move people from the agricultural sector to the services and manufacturing sector So I think first For those who are still in the agricultural sector Or those in services and manufacturing they need to learn new skills To adapt to new jobs And to be able to create their own jobs their own employment for instance 38 of the farmers What they should do They should Apply the new skills and also new technologies So that they can sell their goods and services to people in other countries and around the world And second we have been talking About the new challenges in employment and opportunities We need to promote lifelong learning especially for the elderly And those who are not very young, but when we talk about lifelong learning And the people who are no longer young, but often we think about people from 30 and above But we do not often think About the elderly Those who are 60s and above We have been thinking less of them. So I think these IR needs to bring challenges Bring about opportunities to all equal opportunities to all. So we need to help the elderly 60s and above To adapt to this IR And for the young people In Vietnam we have been taking actions To reform our education although our students are praised around the world For the excellence, but I think From the very early age We need to educate them about the challenges that they need to expect And we need to help them to think out of the box To have critical thinking and out of the box thinking And for the past many years It has been it has been a tradition of Vietnam to educate the students to be obedient So I think we need to reform The education in Vietnam especially for the mindset of the young students To help them to think out of the box and today we have the IT technologies To help them access to education Online without the need of teachers So in Vietnam we have put in place plans to create Database of knowledge so that people even the elderly They can have access to those knowledge through online Technologies to be able to adapt to the new changes. Thank you Very interesting that you want your people to be less obedient But I what I took away from that is that the education has to happen at different points of the spectrum So from a very young age, I mean Vietnam is blessed with a useful population, which is a big asset But you need also to train them at that young age but re-skill them over the years as they as they grow older Are there programs in Vietnam for re-skilling and re-education? And does the government have these infrastructure programs to help people along at different points of their career? Well, we have lots of plans and projects Projects that has to do with reforming the curriculum From the secondary to vocational training We're trying to match our curriculum to the level of other ASEAN countries and the world And I think we need to work closely in order to promote the mutual recognition of qualifications Sharing a teaching materials So that we can maximize our strength, but because of the Uniqueness characteristics of the Vietnamese education system So from next year we're launching new textbooks for students From the first From the primary classes To increase the proportion of stamps courses While encouraging them to respect the tradition To encourage them to question the teachers And for the elderly We're trying to develop an ecosystem A Vietnamese knowledge, which is more digital We will try to compile knowledge from Vietnam and around the world Compile them into questions and answers, which are simple Easily accessible accessible and understandable by People from all age groups and will encourage the young startups To make use of that database To come up with to developed hundreds of smart apps So those young startups may develop their own careers And their apps might be useful to many for instance Apps, especially in language training have been developed For the tourists so that An elderly when he has a smartphone and we he or she travel overseas then he may Use that apps to travel overseas as tourists to ask simple questions And so we're having a project to expand the coverage broadband and smartphone usage Today about 57 percent of our population are using smartphones and we're trying to increase this number And after a few years and then we'll try to achieve a level Where the level of Smartphone or digital literacy of people will increase Maybe Ian I could bring you in at this point because you run a regional business looking at talent And could you give us a sense of how this plays out across the region? There are differences of course from country to country. What are the opportunities and the challenges with trigger arts to jobs? Um, I think the the the problem or the issues that we talk about in terms of lifelong learning is Is is fairly consistent across across the region. I think we need to break this thing up into a few angles From the very very basics. I think um, you know, I think one thing that is consistent Is is that changes are inevitable inevitable in the futures. So, you know, it's it's actually very difficult Even for for us to predict What types of jobs are in existence 10 years from now And what types of jobs are not going to be in existence 10 years from now 10 years from now before think about this 10 years before I do not think we we heard of a job called cyber security Analysts. Okay. It's it's probably one of the hottest job at this point of time in the world But um, you know, I think There are a couple of angles I would basically put into this one I think the the the parents needs to prepare Their kids as they're growing up in terms of the changes. So, you know, uh, I think parents today Probably cannot be thinking from what they how they grew up the standpoint in terms of educating their kids So it has to be an open-minded society just now Vice-premier talk about stem education. That's very important. But uh, you know, I think the hottest types of people that overall people are looking at people with With stem or it skills But also soft skills. Yeah, so, you know, it's it's just not Machines, you know, we are not going to train machines Then I think, you know, if you look across the whole region You know, there are very different states of of of populations. I would say demographics. Vietnam is very young Japan can be very old, you know, the it's more maturing populations, so, you know, I think over the time Of a person career or lifespan There's probably, you know, one fact is that you're not going to start as accountant and finish as accountant 30 years from now Accounting job might be replaced. Right. So, you know, I think this whole lifelong learning How to rescale people at different stage of their life. It's actually becoming very very important I think new skills. I mean, my newspaper recently ran a story about the number of people signing up to learn to drive Just going down And people were thinking that going forward. This may not be a skill I need and if you think back to say Early 19th century 20th century Probably a young person growing up would want to learn to ride a horse But nobody these days really Signs up to learn to ride a horse just as driving will no longer be necessary when you have autonomous vehicles So that change in the kinds of skills that would be valued and rewarded I think it's something we need to think about. In fact, there was a study done by the world bank Looked at the kinds of skills people needed and you've touched on it digital literacy human skills education reform and lifelong learning And Vivian, I think you've been working in this area for some time, you know, trying to train and prepare our young people Maybe you could tell us a little bit about the kind of preparation they most need Thanks for that. I think to start with I think what the Our minister here said and Ian said are really music to our ears But I want to go back to the core of the fourth industrial revolution At the end of the day every revolution is supposed to bring about better life for all our citizens around the world and I believe at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution is the human revolution And at the heart of the human revolution is the education revolution that we've all been talking about And I I want to talk about some specific examples building on what we've heard earlier So there is a concern about whether our young people will be prepared for the future Yes, of course, because there is no one that has complete mastery Or complete monopoly of the kind of skills and knowledge that we will Need in the future why because nobody can predict the future But there is no silver bullet either So what will be the ways that we can actually co-create the journey with our youth or co-evolution with our youth So in terms of specific examples of how the work that we do We bring young people together To actually address some of the elderly issues that you've talked about because you know By the way, we all are going to live till 120 years old. We know that okay So if we are talking about elderly at the age of 60, that is far too young to be called an elderly So education is really taking on many segments and education can no longer be transactional And can no longer be functional as what Ian said So education has got to be a lot more broad-based and has got to be more fluid So how do we actually bring about different generations? We are working with young people to actually engage our not so young But still very strong right not so young on getting them to be digitally engaged Because one of the biggest challenges for elderly is the digital disengagement And therefore leading to them not having the The competency and also the confidence in life But I think coming back as well is in terms of the role that civil society can play I think civil society and for those who are in this room There is a big role for us to play here Because governments don't have complete knowledge of the skills that will be required Nor do businesses have the complete knowledge of the skills that will be required There will be a need for if you like a neutral third party to try to bring about as much transparency as possible Of the skills that are required and also there's a role for civil society to think about how to bridge the gap How do we take education truly as a lifelong journey? And if I may submit to businesses organization in this room So yesterday I was in another panel about breaking various women on entrepreneurship, right? If we really want to prepare everybody for the future of jobs Apart from maternity leave apart from paternity leave can organizations consider Giving educational leave to your people at different stages of their career So they kick responsibility for themselves to make sure that they are you know, retrain so that they learn Unlearn and relearn for the future So consider giving your employees educational leave and for all of us that are involved in the education space Consider bringing the companies closer to the classroom So that together businesses and educators can co-create the future and co-evolve together Because at the end of the day fourth industrial revolution is human revolution and education evolution So education revolution and evolution, I mean It seems to me the core skill there is that ability to keep learning the learning to learn and That that resilience to be able to sort of shift and adapt as you go along Is that something you're seeing a demand for from people across the board young old not so not so old I definitely I think we need to think about Nobody has a crystal ball, but we need to think about where does AI and robot leave and where do humans start Right, that is a good way to think about you know preparing our youth or preparing ourselves because we're all going to leave 220 years old. We're going to have a few careers changes in our lives But at the same time, I think apart from having that critical thinking Creativity and you know complex problem solving I think there has to be a lot of humility in all of us There needs to be a lot of humbleness in all of us and as the world moves faster I think we need to think about Leaving slower So there is a There is a really oxymoronic kind of you know relationship that we need to strike As the world moves faster, we also need to think about how to move slower So that everybody can really be moving forward in harmony and with compassion You continue to remain human and enjoy a human existence Yes, but Francesca, I'm interested to hear your your thoughts because you were on a separate panel yesterday on workplace 4.0 and you made an interesting remark about how Young people don't see going to work from nine to five as the way of working in the future And it might be working from five to six and that flexibility in the whole idea of what a job is We could tell us a bit about that So a little bit of background on what I do I connect businesses to part-timers in our platform and these part-timers can do jobs for one hour for five hours Monday only or the whole week. So it's really a lot about flexibility And the aspect I really wanted to kind of just point out is actually not just youth It's actually what I believe is the future of work. It is not just going to be for the 20 or 30 year olds We have 60 year olds coming into our training centers getting educated and being involved in the career of Doing flexible work. And I think this is one aspect I wanted to also address in terms of how we upskilling Or including people who are older as you were mentioning Um They don't feel engaged but by doing jobs or by Adopting technology like go get they're able to firstly just educate themselves digitally start using a smartphone The retirees that walk in sometimes they come in without a smartphone And then they first get it by doing our technology And that's just the first step you need to do before we can upskill them So I'm talking about even the first step of digital literacy and even Valuing the undervalued today or not included today before we can just even upskill and leapfrog So what I mean by that is even the people who are not involved in the workforce today Because they don't graduate from degrees, but they're fully capable Individuals that should be able to work So with go get they actually are able to start getting flexible job get included and then that's the first step So I believe that a lot of this is also Yes, great to also upskill the today's people who have work and to move them up the value chain But also how do we include those that are not included first? That's really important for the first step so that we can also move them up But it's a huge mindset change, right? I mean Vivian has told us we're all going to live to 120 right and over the cause of that 120 plus years We have to keep changing and adapting The young people that you engage or the not so young people that you engage find that Exciting prospect. Do they have that mental resilience and human adaptability to change? I'd love to share a little bit also what The platform does to address this and to build this kind of mentality and behavior So one of the things that we do is we essentially connect on a task basis and on a job basis Or a very micro job. That's not it's not a nine or five job. It's not a monthly job It's actually for a one-hour job And each job then can be tagged with skills if you think about it So if I know that you're doing a firing job I know that if you're good at it and you're rated well five star to five I can tag you in my system as someone that's pretty good with human interactions People skills customer service and then this can then start providing better data Not only to the individual so he starts getting badges about oh, I'm really good at customer service Maybe I'll keep doing more jobs alongside But also for the larger data collection that we do we can even provide it to educators to say wow So these are the type of jobs that people are demanding These are a type of performance that the society in this nation is delivering We need to upskill these areas in terms of skills and we can actually provide that So that's something that is really important in my opinion for how we can build that mentality of let's keep learning Let's keep getting more skill skill tags skill badges on go get so that we can actually move up and and get more Opportunities through that. So that's something that we do through the technology and I believe a lot of other companies can start doing because of that Would you like to jump in Howley at this point on educational reform and the structures to make it happen? Yeah, thank you. It's a very interesting discussion. I think uh I fully agree with the dpm and and the panelists on the critical importance of Education revolution, you can say right and starting from primary schools, you know that you create critical thinking Let me maybe just mention our only example when we talk about future of jobs right The undp is the un's largest development organization that was created 50 plus years ago Is the channel of resources to developing countries? Then we had a lot to do with the singapore's development strategy, you know, okay, thank you as much as with uh, vnms, you know, we were involved 40 years ago with vnm, you know Worked against on development policies and so forth So back then we were a donor, you know, we had we channeled a lot of resources of donors to developing countries So we had a lot of jobs. We're not joining the un uh 25 years ago, you know I still am 25 years. I can't believe it, right? It's okay. You're going to live to 120 so, uh I was told that you know our job is to work ourselves out of a job But we wanted to help developing countries to develop and then there would be no need for an agency like us Of course, we don't want to work ourselves out of a job. We need a job, right? So so what we do is that we just have to change with the times Adapt ourselves Who uh, the changing world So this future of jobs again is the same that you have to look at where the growth will come from What are the future demands they invest in these areas? That is the logic we work with a lot of governments on Planning on growth strategies I think this is the way for job creation. You have to invest period Okay, right education is just one area. It is critical And in our again in my organization, for example, we are not totally not a donor, right? We are trying to add value By providing services to our governments that they need in In terms of innovation ideas connecting ideas to resources that we don't have So in my own area Asia Pacific, we had 4,500 people We've now cut 1,000 of them over the last five years. But not only did we You know do that we We changed the skill mix of people So I guess for the future of jobs, you know, uh, we Our framework is to look at the sustainable development goals The 2030 development is a framework of reference Because if you look at this, you know, uh, you have so many new areas that are needed If you look at the environment protection, you have renewable energy, for example, right? If you look at urbanization issues, you have so many Smart city applications that can create Now the millions of jobs, you know across the board, right? And if you really look at, uh, You know, uh, the plastics, which is a big issue that we're talking about in this session, right? You have again, you know, a whole class of industry on recycling and so forth, right? So I guess the idea here is that, uh, We needed to not only look at education, certainly, you know, life-long learning And the entrepreneurial skills, you know, that, you know, uh, that will Allow people to get jobs not just a traditional life-long, you know, employment, right?  We need to talk a few jobs For Asian countries, middle-income countries on average We invest 0.5 percent of the GDP in IND And Japan invests about 3 percent China increased from 1.4 percent five years ago to now more than 2 percent So that's why you see that We increasingly see that academic institutions are able to turn innovation New discoveries into marketable products and creating thousands and tens of thousands of jobs So I think when we look at the self-employment small and medium enterprises as a critical part of future jobs self-employment And so forth So we need to really look at the investment in future growth areas That is country by country based on your comparative advantage and so forth So when you say country by country, I mean and Creating that platform for people to create jobs I mean yesterday I heard Aung San Suu Kyi talking about a home country in Myanmar and How they were trying to sort of leapfrog and get into the fourth industrial revolution You know when they've been behind in that sense and the kind of training that they needed was more skill space and vocational and apprenticeships Do you see that as a big area for for? Yeah, and you know, Myanmar, okay has 5 percent of business that is five years and old A less five years and less, okay with Vietnam. I understand there's 40 percent of them That means There's a lot of dynamics in Vietnam compared to Myanmar, okay, right? So you see the distance right between the kind of skills, you know And also entrepreneurship skills, you know that are not there in Myanmar Okay in order to catch up in this with this revolution so to speak And Malaysia has offered a very good example because Malaysia has I think really designed high education, you know strategy That is talking about so-called two I Who are too you too? I you know a two-year university and the two-year industrial apprenticeship, okay And they also have a CEO faculty, you know in their you know the new the strategy That provides that invites the industrial leaders, you know to you know, provide education to their students so in a way Really that's country by country Malaysia is the highest less is the most developed, you know developing countries in Asia Pacific highest income And the human development level So but I think every country has opportunity There's a the The potential is significant essentially, right? So we just need to focus on the right strategy to invest I think that's an important point that it does vary country to country and we need to get that that degree of nuance to the discussion because If we don't the the future of jobs and the future of work could give rise to even more massive Inequalities across countries and I think the survey findings that came out which showed the Singaporeans being the most pessimistic was not surprising to me because it's a very high cost country That would be an aerial for automation and you can see why people would worry about it But at a different end of the spectrum we hear the need to catch up with not just the third But let alone the fourth so the variations in country to country I think very important point But I did want to come back to a point that the deputy prime minister made earlier about Empowering people to create their own jobs and you touched on this as well the investments from governments in the infrastructure Getting the the barriers to entry for entrepreneurship to be low and at lower cost so that people can Experiment and try it is something you're working on in Vietnam to get It easy for people to start companies and become like francesca and set up go-getters Yes, of course I don't love the key culture Even Without IR410 economies like vietnam are compelled to reform its business climate so that businesses domestic or foreign businesses when they come here So that they can thrive So in recent years vietnam has been making much efforts to improve its business climate And how to empower people to create their own jobs and to have A certain level of flexibility Like the other speakers say it well, vietnam needs to take even greater efforts vietnam, mien mar and in asia And Cambodia are behind Countries like Singapore So we need to do two things at once So when we want to empower people to create their own jobs apart from creating a legal framework conducive to startups and entrepreneurship There are two important things that we need to do First Is education It's not about moral stamps lessons in class Like Lee said, but there are many other jobs That needs to take care of human and human emotions And in the education revolution apart from stamps and techniques We need to educate people To love other people because in many Other jobs in the future you need to take care of your customers Emotions or satisfaction And second in vietnam There's something different vietnam in vietnam people has often has two jobs Even government officials They have their own part-time jobs Or people in the private sector, they also have two jobs. So vietnam the vietnamese workers Even amid the asian financial crisis in 1997 They still stood resilient because they had two they had used to have two jobs at once So before it used to be a part-time job that add to their income But those part-time job now it's not only at additional auxiliary, but we need to develop these second job to target Jobs that cater to human Emotions so we are now having like 12,000 centers for community-based training centers And we also have several organizations social organizations Collaborating with the the ministries line ministries So that through these 12,000 community-based training centers People we can equip people with knowledge with the knowledge about the market so that They can create their own jobs I would like to talk beyond vietnam Jia talk about a flexible part-time job I'll Lee talk about Tracting talents Well Jobs now can be performed online If you don't have good policies, they can sit in vietnam and they can work for companies in Japan in the united states for instance And today I speak in vietnamese with assistance from our interpreters, but with speech recognition Technologies in the near future The barrier language barriers will be removed abolished So the movement of labor within a zion and also the global movement of labor We need to take into account the advances in technology Because today the language barrier is no longer a problem And people can sit in one place to work for Do the jobs in different other places The audience into the discussion are there questions or comments people would like to make and get involved in the discussion as well Just raise your hand and we'll try and get a mic to you Yes, please gentlemen over there Or just we can hear you Okay I just want to stand about the the challenges between like government retirement ages You know, I'm based in Bangkok government Is 60 we're in the uk when I left it was 65 and it's gone up to 67 so how do people manage where Some people want to retire I want to have the flexibility to retire because they've had enough working Then there's some that would like to continue working because they want to continue to support their family How do governments and business That sort of challenges on one hand retirement ages 60 65 and people want to retire But on other ages people want to work and don't want to be Forced to retire. Thank you Maybe Maybe not directly to this question, but I think it's a very relevant issue That is a question of social security and social safety net essentially There's a movement now among young people Called the five, you know Financially independent and retire early So, uh, yeah, so essentially it's about, you know, having enough savings to maintain a lifestyle, right that that you think is comfortable That's what it is But not everybody can do that, right when we talk about entrepreneurship, most people cannot be entrepreneurs. That's that's the reality So why the government, you know, is doing everything, you know The government should do right to encourage entrepreneurship providing a Enabling environment We needed to look at all kinds of jobs in the future still, right And the one of the issue here is the social safety net So that people, you know, uh can deal with shocks So we needed to do also everything possible to build a resilience In the system and among people to deal with that They are traditional social protection schemes transfers, right Needs-based transfer. Now there are discussions about universal income That have been experimented in some countries, right? Now estimates show that it can cost anywhere between five percent and upwards of GDP if you want to provide the system, right? And you also have a different kinds of contributory or non-contributory pension fund schemes and so forth, right? So again, this is another very big set of policy issues. There's no single, you know, uh answer, right? And we needed to again look at the mix of all these, you know, possibilities And if I could jump in on the role of then what startups or new waves of employment should play for that It's also similarly we need to be able to provide that stability even though it's flexible jobs So one of the pains that technically part-timers and especially the gig economy jobs today is that they don't have All people perceive that there's no stability and also they cannot contribute to the savings fund personally The retirement savings fund and so then they can't even do things such as getting their own home loan or mortgages Um, and that's something that also even the new type of work really needs to figure out and make sure that they can also And we can also provide that so in malaysia we work And we're not the only ones grab has done it too But we're talking to epf to ensure that also part-timers are going to be able to choose to contribute For their own cells to ensure that they're safe for the future And that's why we're really not only talking about I guess employer and employee now It's really employee creating that account for themselves I think that's so important for the future to address things like being able to work Until however old you would like to work and to be able to then achieve Whatever you would like to or spend on what you would like to win your 80, right? And that's really important I'd like to also speak from a corporate standpoint I think as from corporation standpoint, I think the choice is actually getting less and less to actually Get somebody that is productive But already past there, you know, what you call the retirement age to tell them to leave Okay, you know, let's say in Japan. Okay in Japan, you know, there is a big gap in terms of Of of of different skill sets of people Okay, and if the retirement age is fixed and then they have to leave, you know Then there's going to be even a bigger gaps in terms of Of of of skills, you know and and workers So I think from a corporation standpoint that retirement age, you know age is probably going to be just A point of time that you basically gets Gets your pension or something like that But you can still have a choice to continue to work either on a full-time basis or on a part-time basis I think that that's that's You know, we see so much of a talent the shortage talent talent mismatch and you know You want to encourage the people that has the experience to continue to to to work continue to contribute But we are even willing to spend Effort in terms of retraining them reskilling them, you know to to to make that that That life span longer I mean in Singapore they've launched a program called skills future Where every citizen is given a certain amount of money To invest in yourself to train and learn new skills And I was discussing this with the education minister and he's quite broad-minded about it. He says yes, you should be learning practical skills But he's also open to you learning to do Chinese brush painting or or whatever you want Partly to send a signal that it's all about you Taking the effort to learn and improve yourself and continue to that to do that throughout your life Which is I think something we're going to have to do as we live to 120 But let me go to yes Is actually on the point about 120 years old So if we are all going to live to 120 years old 60 is the new meat life Okay, so so Every one of us is really underage in this room So and I think the thing is also about the slash economy, right? So that you could have the flexibility To be engaged in different career options at different points in life and it can be intergenerational So what I would submit to for all of us to think about is productivity until the age that we are 120 But at the same time is a really fast and slow game that we need to be engaged with so that As the economy moves faster Individuals citizens within the economy have the option of going fast or slow And engage intergenerational workforce through that Is there another question from the floor lady, please can we get a mic to this lady? Coming on to you Thank you Morning everyone and thank you for the very interesting discussion I've got several inputs coming in and for miss lau you've mentioned earlier that We have to make businesses closer to the classroom or I would say vc versa bring classroom closer to the industry But in a country like the Philippines We we have so much population millions of them and our students We have this what we call Work immersion program, but the industry can absorb so much So meaning that more people or more students have less chances of getting into the industry to get on the job training That's one. So what policy recommendations or what program recommendations? Can you give to a country like the Philippines with a huge number of population? secondly, the deputy minister was mentioning about Human emotions taking good care of our customers emotions, but In our it bpm industry or business process outsourcing we are Faced with our workers being bashed and slashed by customers online So it takes a lot also of emotions to absorb. So It's also has something to do about health and safety also of our Workers, thank you. Would you like to address the question bringing classrooms closer to the workplace? Thanks for that and I think is more than just the Philippines, right? You know, we have many countries in asian that actually has a very high youth population Waiting to be very productive in the new economy and and yeah We won't be able to immerse You know students into the workplace if we think about with our traditional blinkers, right? But if we are able to take off those blinkers and think about really reaching many of them number one through technology Through technology as the amplifier so that, you know, the workplace can be much closer to their future workforce And engage them in a very immersive sort of co-development because the future belongs to us But it also belongs to our young people. So bring them in early and it's actually to the benefit of the corporates If they are able to bring in the young people early so that they can co-design products They can co-design services in the future. So that is the that is the first point. I would say, you know Make use of technology at the same time really involve industry early And we have many classic examples that a lot of companies they are rushing into schools They are rushing into schools because they cannot wait to really absorb the creative creativity from our young people So that they can co-create the future co-create products and services But at the same time, I think we are here sitting, you know at the brim of the fourth industrial revolution Bring in technology use technology as the amplifier so that we will be able to get to them and they can come to us Anybody else like to jump? Yeah, I would also like to share when how Malaysia government has tried to address this So specifically in we talk about Digital marketing coding as skills that really needed to kind of be Kind of groomed for this for this industrial revolution And so what magic and what other agencies have done is they've actually fostered a lot of these what I would say Stopgap solutions for education that's clearly not yet caught up because no one's teaching how to code or no one's teaching How to be a digital marketer in university But what they did is they fostered and allowed them to have a have the academy in their space Give them incentives to start this up and to and to share even our cto Was from one of the programs from there. So you can see how so maybe they're the the population is not There's a lot of population. They're ready They're they're they're wanting to be involved and to to lead and also create jobs To be to be part of this revolution part of the government role is to identify what are the What are the specific? I guess careers or job responsibilities that we need to foster for that And then figure out how we can also just create incentives for the stopgap solutions for the private sector to come and fill it But at least provide the space for them. And so these academies now literally churn out really fast engineers that's converted to be a cto an old Traditional marketer to be a digital marketer To quickly move in and they do it in six months and nine months and they start just learning on the job after that and running Platforms like ours or contributing to other digital marketing agencies, which is really great initiative that I think Malaysia has done So co-creation and collaboration Ian, please. I think I think there's two things over here You know, I think if you look at ASEAN our education system Basically for tertiary education is basically geared towards preparing for employment But think about this if there is really uncertainty about employment Is our educational system right or should we be be moving towards more like the You know the apprentice You look at what happened to switzerland, you know the apprentice program you know and all those things where it is basically a Combination of some some some fundamental skills but more geared towards the practical knowledge and all those things and this Probably cannot be just You know one or two schools that is doing that probably has to be sort of like a pen, you know pen countries or pen region types of of program that Make people suitable for jobs And I think the other thing is that the you know, there are actually a lot of private institution that is preparing For changes for people like coding schools, you know, that is actually getting very popular in the u.s You're talking about people changing careers. I there are lawyers that basically, you know get into coding Okay, because you know during 2008 2009 the crisis You know a lot of jobs are just not in existence already So, you know, I think the the the government needs to promote that but also, you know, the private sectors also needs to promote that right So that flexibility of mine to go into areas which are completely new to you I mean in in in my newsroom, for example, we're doing exactly the same We're we're transforming the newsroom from print to multimedia. Right and honestly We can't really tell where the technology is going And if if I said I knew where the media would be in 10 years, I'd be lying and any media leader would be lying But I think what we can do is equip our our staff with that nimbleness of mine So they can adapt as the technologies come to them I think that's as much as we can do looking into the future Now we're running out of time and I'm I'm on a very tight swiss clock So I'm going to ask the panel to to leave us with a parting thought and just to focus the disc that that parting thought I'd like you to say to think about that survey that was done by the WEF and The optimism from the young people about the future of technology and how it's going to mean more jobs and higher salaries Just tell us. Do you share that optimism on a scale of 1 to 100? Where are you and why? I'll start with Howly That's a tough question. That's not what I planned for my concluding sentence But uh, I guess, you know, uh, I I think young people have enormous, you know energy and ability to adapt So I think on the scale 1 to 100. I would probably say Over 19. Great. Let's see, right I'm extremely optimistic. So I would I would even go beyond I genuinely believe 120. Yes 120 I genuinely believe that the future is going to be bright It it of course when we go through change everyone will have concern on what we are the keyword in this conference was worrying about what The impact would mean and no one likes change But if you also do look at the data historically, we've always actually improved humankind in every revolution And it is the matter of how do we make sure we do navigate the pros and cons correctly, especially in each nation as well Or in each industry But I see it every day and I see it In the jobs that get created through the technology platforms. I see it in the upskilling of people in these coded academies And there is no doubt that even also with data now, we're going to be able to inform education faster Which will then make education also more lean Which ultimately was that underlying factor that you're saying will will be a longer term solution for these For these for this problem. So I'm very optimistic Yeah, you know, I'm actually very optimistic and I really would like to be 30 years old younger No, but but truly why why I felt why I feel felt optimistic is because when I look forward there's just So much of changes Although you can say changes. There's uncertainty in changes, but also changes represent opportunities Okay, and this types of opportunities was never in existence 30 years ago And you know, I think the information age the information I would say revolution has brought everything very close to us So I am actually very optimistic. We've got a 90. We've got 120 You're at I'm at probably about 90 to 100. Wow. Okay This is going to be shocking I am known to be dangerously optimistic and I'm known to be dangerously positive because when we look into the eyes of our youth We see future and how can we not be positive? And when we look when we talk about youth Many of us in this room are youth as well Because we are all going to live to 120 years old. We believe you Right So so what I believe is the fact that we have such an opportunity of in our hands In the history making in the civilization of human history That we will create a generation that will be so much better for our next generation Not only because there is technology not only because there is AI not only because all this, you know Enabling technology because at the end of it, there is a return to humanity It's the return to humanity that we believe that we are all going to use what we have to create a better world Not just for ourselves for generations to come. I'm 300 percent Deputy prime minister since we're in your lovely country, you have the last word. Hi I'm I'm optimistic Like your people But as vice prime minister Vietnam, I have to add one things Being optimistic, but don't forget to manage or to think and to manage the challenges And to learn from the other country Particularly in the region where Singapore we have Malaysia you are in the living group Thank you, so they can I just I'm sorry to take the last word away from the dpm I think I just want to strengthen what he said, you know There are a lot of vulnerable groups of people who will need a lot of help So the women the first station is a walking pool in a lot of places. They're working hard and so forth And the day will always have these challenges. We will always have the challenges So again come back to the sustainability weapon that goes we really need to think about what we can do together in partnerships So could to leave no one behind I think the challenges that's a good point I think a lot of reason for optimism But also some sense of reality that we do have challenges and if we don't work at those challenges that we don't maximize the opportunity So I think that's a good point to end our discussion. Please join me in thanking the panelists for a very engaging session