Building a business changes more than your work, it changes how you handle clients, how you set boundaries and who you spend time with.

In this special episode with Rasheed, host of the Entrepreneurs Stories podcast, we talk openly about the less visible side of entrepreneurship.

Here's what we cover:

• Why building in public feels vulnerable at first
• The challenge of setting boundaries with demanding clients
• People, teams, delegation and the difficulty of letting go
• How entrepreneurship changes your friendships, priorities and support system
• Why energy matters so much

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to Asian Business Owners

(00:37) The Fear of Building in Public

(02:18) Entrepreneurship Never Stops

(05:20) How Carmen Started Her Marketing Agency

(06:48) Client Boundaries Reality

(07:39) Cross Platform Marketing Agency

(08:45) Small Clients Ask More

(12:54) Rasheed's Multiple Businesses

(14:09) People and Team Energy

(16:32) Delegation and Trust

(18:04) Hands Off vs Micromanage

(21:35) Reframing Client Conflict

(24:18) Setting Client Boundaries

(26:03) Friendships and Entrepreneurship

(30:05) Changing Priorities and Drinking

(31:08) Support Systems and Spouses

(32:51) Entrepreneurs See Each Other

(34:38) Closing of Part 1

👉 To find out more:

Listen to Entrepreneur Stories podcast

Check out Rasheed on LinkedIn

To follow my journey:

💬 abo.pod

📲 Find me on LinkedIn

🎧 Subscribe to Asian Business Owners wherever you listen to it!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I thought some things would get easier with time but they didn’t so I just learned to live with them.

This is Part 2 of this personal solo episode of Asian Business Owners. I continue sharing what I still find difficult as a founder, what the reality behind running a business is.

If you haven't listened to Part 1, where I talk about unstable income, ups and downs and mental load, go have a listen before tuning to Part 2.

In this second part, I talk about:

• The challenge of managing time
• The weight of responsibility that comes with entrepreneurship
• The expectations we carry as founders

These are things we don’t talk about enough but that most founders experience.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to Asian Business Owners

(00:45) More Aspects of Entrepreneurship I Struggle With

(01:19) Time Management

(02:37) How to Deal With Priorities And Energy

(04:49) Carrying The Weight On Your Shoulders

(06:18) A Vision Without Guarantees

(08:01) Support the Podcast

(08:52) Outro

Follow the journey:

💬 abo.pod

📲 Find me on LinkedIn

🎧 Subscribe to Asian Business Owners wherever you listen to it!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When things feel off, most founders try to reset by doing more: more goals, higher objectives, more expectations, which goes with more pressure.

That’s the mistake.

In this Quick Wins episode, I talk about a different way to reset, to actually create clarity and sustainability.

You’ll hear:

• Why you should stopping adding more
• How to redefine success
• Why motivation isn’t the problem

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to A.B.O. Quick Wins

(00:13) Do you reset by addiing new goals?

(00:27) #1 Remove before you add

(00:48) #2 What does success mean to you?

(01:15) #3 This is what to reset instead of blaming motivation

(01:46) Conclusion

Follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram for more tips and behind-the-scenes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I thought some things would get easier with time but hey didn’t. So I just learned to live with them.

In this solo episode of Asian Business Owners, I share, very honestly, what I still find difficult as a founder. Just the reality behind running a business.

In this first part, I talk about:

• Unstable income and what money really represents
• The constant ups and downs
• Why doubt never fully goes away
• The mental load that never switches off

These are things we don’t talk about enough but that most founders experience.

Keep an eye out, part 2 is coming next week!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to Asian Business Owners

(00:37) What Aspects of Entrepreneurship Do You Struggle With?

(01:24) Unstable Income

(03:33) Never Ending Ups and Downs

(05:10) Doubt and Big Questions

(08:24) Constant Mental Load

(10:56) Wrap Up, Don't Miss Part Two

Follow the journey:

💬 abo.pod

📲 Find me on LinkedIn

🎧 Subscribe to Asian Business Owners wherever you listen to it!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You post consistently, people follow you, like your content but... they never become clients.

Do you know why?

In this Quick Wins episode, I break down why your audience isn’t converting and what to change to turn attention into actual business.

What you'll learn:

• Why most followers don’t understand what you offer
• How to communicate your offer clearly without feeling repetitive
• How to create urgency with the right offers

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to A.B.O. Quick Wins

(00:13) Your follows don't buy anything from you?

(00:23) #1 Stop assuming this

(00:55) #2 Decision-making content

(01:34) #3 Human interactions

(02:05) Conclusion

Follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram for more tips and behind-the-scenes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Data is supposed to help founders make better decisions. But how much of it is actually reliable?

And what happens when the data looks solid but the assumptions behind it aren’t?

In this episode of Asian Business Owners, I sit down with Tamir Abdel-Wahab, co-founder of Preferences AI, to talk about how founders can use data more critically, what most companies still get wrong about market research and why AI and Web3 may change the way businesses understand customers.

We talk about:

• Why many companies still make decisions based more on instinct than real data
• How bias, incentives and blind spots affect market research
• Why traditional market research is dead
• How AI tools can help founders understand customers faster
• What Web3 really means beyond the buzzwords and why it overpromised
• The keys for founders to think more clearly about data, ownership and decision-making

✅ Get your free day pass at Garage Society!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to Asian Business Owners

(00:54) Behind-the-scenes: Family Legacy and Values

(02:49) Behind-the-scenes: When to Have Kids As a Founder

(04:00) Behind-the-scenes: Always On Founder Mindset

(05:01) Meet Tamir and Preferences AI

(07:19) Data Bias and Confirmation

(10:59) Market Research Is Dead

(12:33) Digital Twins and Simulations

(15:31) Memory Layers Explained

(19:28) Philosophy of Prediction

(24:25) Trust and Data Quality

(26:21) Web3 for Verifiable Responses

(27:15) Enriching User Data

(28:11) Training the Digital Twin

(29:06) Tamir's Story: From Finance to Web3

(33:08) Web3 Explained Simply

(35:37) Web3 Hype vs Reality

(40:09) Data Ownership Incentives

(41:03) Next Two Years in AI

(42:53) Autonomous Agents and Safety

(45:30) Choosing Trusted Tools

(47:16) Founder Lessons From Tamir

(50:49) Outro

✅ Get your free day pass at Garage Society!

👉 To find out more:

Tamir on LinkedIn

Preferences AI website

Preferences AI on LinkedIn

To follow my journey:

💬 abo.pod

📲 Find me on LinkedIn

🎧 Subscribe to Asian Business Owners wherever you listen to it!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Micro communities, AI-generated content, interactive emails… new marketing trends appear all the time.

They look exciting, promise growth and they often make you wonder if you’re missing something.

But not every trend deserves your time.

In this A.B.O. Quick Wins episode, I share three simple questions founders can use to decide whether a marketing trend is actually worth exploring.

I talk about:

• Your audience’s attention matters more than the trend itself
• How trends should amplify your strengths, not create new ones
• Testing small to evaluate new marketing ideas

Marketing trends can be useful but only if they align with your audience, your strengths and your capacity to execute consistently.

Timestamps:

(00:13) Which trends should you follow?

(00:31) Where is your audience's attention?

(01:02) Does a trend match your strength?

(01:34) Can you test it small before scaling?

(01:58) Conclusion

Follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram for more tips and behind-the-scenes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a founder, you’re constantly faced with opportunities, requests, collaborations and ideas.

Some look exciting, some feel urgent, some sound too good to say no to.

But one of the most important skills in entrepreneurship is learning when saying no is actually the healthiest decision for your business.

In this episode of Asian Business Owners, I share five situations where I’ve learned that saying no protects your time, energy and long-term focus as a founder.

I talk about:

• When someone else’s urgency becomes your emergency
• Projects that look interesting but come with messy context
• Opportunities that start with too many unknowns
• Hidden free work
• Saying yes when you’re already overloaded

Your business doesn’t only grow through the things you say yes to, it also grows through the opportunities you decide not to take on.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to Asian Business Owners

(00:38) Why Saying No Matters

(01:37) Urgency Is Not Yours

(03:23) Heavy Project Context

(04:54) Too Many Unknowns

(06:33) Hidden Free Work

(08:00) Overloaded Schedule Trap

(09:29) Final Takeaways

Follow the journey:

💬 abo.pod

📲 Find me on LinkedIn

🎧 Subscribe to Asian Business Owners wherever you listen to it!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you have a client who pays relatively little but takes up a lot of your time?

Constant emails.

Extra requests.

More reassurance than expected.

If this sounds familiar, the issue usually isn’t the client, it’s the boundaries that were never clearly set.

In this Quick Wins episode, I share 3 practical ways founders can build healthier client relationships while protecting their time and focus.

We talk about:

• Defining scope clearly at the start of a project
• Why over-delivering creates new expectations instead of gratitude
• Turning boundaries into systems instead of awkward conversations

Setting boundaries isn’t about pushing clients away.

Timestamps:

(00:13) Do You Have Very Demanding Clients Who Pay Little?

(00:43) Define the Scope Super Clearly

(01:26) Stop Over-Delivering

(02:16) Turn Boundaries Into Systems

(02:45) Don't Be Afraid to Set Boundaries

Follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram for more tips and behind-the-scenes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’re a people pleaser, being a founder can become even more exhausting.

Saying yes too fast, replying instantly, overdelivering more than expected, explaining and justifying every decision.

In this episode of Asian Business Owners, I share five boundaries I had to learn as a people-pleasing founder to protect my time, regain clarity and grow a more sustainable business.

These shifts didn’t happen overnight, they took years of noticing patterns and learning to respond differently.

What I talk about:

• why replying instantly can create unnecessary pressure
• taking time before committing to requests
• clarifying expectations instead of overdelivering
• why you don’t need to overexplain your decisions
• deciding in advance who gets access to your time

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to Asian Business Owners

(00:31) Are you a people pleaser?

(00:45) What being a people pleasing founder costs

(01:36) Tip 1 Pause replies

(03:15) Tip 2 Delay commitments

(04:15) Tip 3 Clarify expectations

(05:20) Tip 4 Stop overexplaining

(06:42) Tip 5 Protect access

(07:50) Wrap up

(08:35) Outro

Follow the journey:

💬 abo.pod

📲 Find me on LinkedIn

🎧 Subscribe to Asian Business Owners wherever you listen to it!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.