Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Pham. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi David, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
To be honest, I was a shy, nerdy Asian kid with low self esteem. I grew up in Germany as the son of two Vietnamese migrants, so naturally I was an outsider. I didn’t feel like I actually belonged to the German culture although I had the German passport. There was a lot of racism growing up. I remember one time we had to hold a presentation in front of the entire class and I was so nervous, my hands were shaking and my voice cracked several times. That was so embarrassing that I desperately wanted to change. I wanted to become good at public speaking and build my confidence. I realized that being insecure sucks. Going to school with a feeling of anxiety and fear sucked. I wanted people to respect me.
That’s when my self-help journey began. I began to read self-help books, go to the gym and watch YouTube videos to learn new skills like public speaking. I constantly tried to challenge myself outside of my comfort zone. What is your comfort zone? If you are struggling to find out what your comfort zone is, I highly recommend you to do this exercise:
You draw a circle and in the circle you write down all the things you currently have or are currently good at. Outside the circle you write down all the things you want in your life. This circle represents your circle of comfort. Everything you are currently seeking is outside of your circle, out of your comfort zone. This visual exercise helped me to visualize what I have to improve. A word I wrote down outside of my circle of comfort was “confidence” for instance. Confidence comes from competence. And your self esteem is based on your confidence, the worth that you give yourself highly depends on your accomplishments in life in my opinion.
If you have a positive, confident picture of yourself in your own mind you won’t struggle with self esteem. So to increase my confidence in other areas such as public speaking I worked on my mindset and my social skills. I knew I had to prove to myself that I am capable of doing that. So what I did is I actually went out to malls and just cold approached a bunch of strangers. Every single weekend I would go to malls and talk to strangers. And in the beginning it took me up to an hour to build up the courage to finally speak to someone, because all these excuses popped up in my mind. But after approaching the first person I realized people are actually nicer than you think. Most people are willing to help you or have a conversation with you. It might be a bit awkward but you won’t die. You start to realize that you can handle it. Step by step. Conversation after conversation. Eventually I increased the difficulty, I participated in public speaking competitions and after winning some of those I had living proof that I improved my confidence from the shy nerdy Asian kid that messed up his presentation in Highschool.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My dream was always to gain financial freedom and to retire my hard working family.
But I felt lost and didn’t know how I should accomplish that. So after High-School I started to study law because to me lawyers represented everything I was looking for: confidence, impact on your clients and money (and honestly because I watched the Netflix series “Suits”).
I took this as an experiment because I was just 18 when entering law school and wanted to see if I actually liked this profession. Law school in Germany takes 7 years at least!
But it turned out I was pretty good at law and received in total 4 different scholarships so far.
2 years into law school I participated in an exchange study program in South Korea for one year and by coincidence met some content creators who introduced me to the world of Social Media.
And because in law school I had no creative outlet I started to create videos about my life in Korea.
Also these Influencers seemed to earn as much money as I would make as a lawyer without having to go through law school for 7 years, which was absolutely insane to me!
After returning to Germany I started to dive deep into content creation while being a full time law student. My goal was to finish law school but to build a profitable side business with Social Media.
Within 4 months I managed to gain 24.000 followers on Instagram, 13.100 followed on TikTok and within 2 months grew my YouTube channel to 10.500 subscribers while passing my law exams with good grades!
I am currently working with famous brands and started to build a free course/community that can teach people the things I learned on my own journey. You can check out my community on Skool by searching for the PHAM. It is totally for free and we have weekly coaching calls to discuss how you can build your own personal brand!
So if everything goes according to plan I will be a fully certified lawyer in 3 years and reached at least 100.000 followers across all platforms to promote my community based business.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Growth Mindset
I think the most important thing that differentiates winners from losers is mindset. And yes it sounds very cheesy, because this term “mindset” has been overused by productivity gurus.
However, it all starts with our own mindset. Every action that we take starts with our mindset. There are 2 types of mindset: Fixed mindset and growth mindset. If you have a fixed mindset, you believe that you can’t improve, it’s the world’s fault that you don’t succeed.
If you have a growth mindset you think that it is in your control to change, to improve and to take action.
And if you are struggling with your mindset, read books like “Think and grow rich”.
2. Establish systems
Another key factor is establishing systems. This is something I learned from the book “Atomic Habits”. Winners and losers have the same goals. We all want to be rich, successful and happy. But it is the systems that differentiate winners and losers. Losers don’t have a system, therefore rely solely on their willpower. And willpower is limited. Once the tank is empty you will not take action and start procrastinating.
Winners don’t rely solely on their willpower. They know that it is not reliable. Instead we establish systems that keep us accountable. For instance you could find a gym buddy to work out, it makes going to the gym way easier as you are more likely to show up.
3. Network
Over the years I received many unique opportunities through mentors or friends in my personal network. Your net worth equals your network. The more people you know the more likely you will get “lucky”. People say you can’t influence your luck. I beg to differ. You can. By increasing the chances of lucky coincidences happening.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents came to Germany at age 18, they didn’t speak a word of German to build up a new life far from home.
They didn’t have Google translator or the resources we have nowadays.
It still surprises me how they managed to raise 3 kids so well although at some point they were having 2-3 jobs to cover the bills. They even had to support their family back in Vietnam.
I remember that although we couldn’t really afford it, my parents were always trying their best to give us a childhood like the other German kids, including short vacations or signing us up to the local sports clubs. My mom knew that by doing that we would have a chance to integrate better and also get out of our comfort zones.
Looking back their hard work and dedication definitely influenced me a lot. It is the reason why I have such a strong fire inside of me to succeed and not worry about money anymore. Remember this interview, one day you will hear from me again 🙂
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david_phamdp?igsh=MWR0eG44N2x4b2V3Zw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@david_phamdp?si=tKDqxVrJBRjWiWIW
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
