Aiman Azlan's Blog

I am a professional public speaker. A motivator. That is my full time job. Since 2011, I spoke in hundreds of events and with thousands of people. I love what I do and I am good at what I do. But one thing about my job that is still bothering me after all these years. There aren't that many women motivators out there. Often times when I am on stage with other speakers, or when I am in the audience listening to a speech, I can bet good money that the speakers would be men. I am not against men speaking, but I would love to see a balance in the conversation that we are having. As a man, I will try my best to be as balanced as I can when I'm speaking. But, as a man, I can't escape my male biases and my male life experiences. That limits my ability to understand certain thing about human beings, because human beings aren't all men. When I interact with women in my field, I get realizations of the other side of the coin and my mind opens up by perceptions that I can...

The process of getting a job involves a degree, a resume, an interview, and an employer. Many of us think that is the only path to get a job, and thus feel stuck and frustrated when that one path fails them time and time again. Perhaps, it is impossible for you to get a job. Nobody wants to hire you. That line of thinking causes so much misery in so many talented young people. I am here to tell you that you are beating yourself up for no good reason, because that path you tried is not the only path that is available. So, that's it? That's the only conclusion? Because nobody wants to hire you, so it is impossible for you to get a job? Did you ever consider the possibility that you can get a job without anyone hiring you? Here's one way to know. Ask yourself this question: Is it true that the only way to get a job is through the process of obtaining a degree, a resume, an interview, and an employer? To answer that question, you just need to open your mind and look a...

Confidence is very important for youth. They should be confident; in who they are, in how they think and feel, and in what they do. I’m not saying if you are confident, you can do anything. You can’t, because you’re human. What I am saying is that with confidence, you are comfortable being human. You accept your humanity; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Not only that, confidence pushes you beyond your comfort zones to make the best out of your strengths and improve your weaknesses. You will still have issues and problems. But confidence helps you deal with them like a champion. Everyone has a champion inside. But a champion needs to be trained.

When we stand close to a big painting, we can only focus on a small part of it. Every single person we see is a big painting and our encounter with each one of them is like us standing close to the painting. We only see a part of the person, not the whole. To draw any conclusion about the painting from the small part we see would be an unjust view of the whole picture. But so many of us are ready to make that jump without taking into consideration the possibility that there may be more than meets our eyes. All we need to do is take a step back, and see the bigger picture.

Last week, Google invited me and 23 other influencers from South East Asia for a Google Cook Off competition in Singapore. We had to solve problems using Google apps such as Google Lens and Google Assistant. Oh, and we had to cook. When I received the invitation, I felt honoured. It didn't take long for me to accept the invitation. I didn't know who else were invited, save for a few names I got for my own team. So, the full reveal was only at Google HQ in Singapore. It wasn't long before I realized that I was the only Muslim in the gathering. From the very first day that they invited everyone for a Friday night drinking session until the cook off event where I had to ask for the halal option (only to see that I was the only one with a different dish than everyone else). Understandably, it was quite an interesting experience being the only representative of your faith. The temptation to blend in was definitely there. So, I had to force myself to be more conscious of...

9 May 2018 is voting day for Malaysia's 14th General Election (#GE14). My wife and I have been talking about how we would vote. Since this is our first time voting, we want to make sure that we kick start with the proper mindset. As such, I have compiled a few tips for myself. I am sharing them here today, hopefully you can benefit from them too. Tip #1: Don't Follow Your Parents Right off the bat, it is understandable that we would have the tendency to follow our parents' footsteps when it comes to putting the X on the ballot. After all, many of us are raised with the bias of being negative to one party and being positive to another party. This is not to say that we should blame our parents. This is completely normal. We all have our own biases and it is quite impossible to be completely free of them. We are not robots. We are human beings after all. But, the best thing that we can do to make sure that our biases don't affect us that much, especially in ...

I’ve been on Youtube for 7 years now, since 2011. In those years, I have gone from making videos in my bedroom to making videos in [awkward face]. But the difference between then and now is that I can do this for a living. The videos I made have traveled further than I have; France, Belgium, Venezuela, Egypt, and other places. In those 7 years, I have met a lot of people and people have questions. One of the common questions is, “How do I become a Youtuber like you?” In short, I got asked this question a lot to a point where I decided, “Why don’t I just teach this thing?” In essence, vlogging is simply recording, editing, and uploading. That’s it. So I want to focus on those 3 things with this workshop, because a lot of times people might be overwhelmed with choices (Which camera is the best? Which editing software is the most suitable?) and people might feel insecure with the uncertainty (What will people think of me). I want to make things easy for you and just focus on 3...

If you are here to register for the workshop, please click on the poster. But if you want to read a story first, please keep on reading... It's been 7 years since I uploaded my first vlog on Youtube from my 1-bedroom apartment, and that vlog was the first domino piece that led to this moment right now. It is not farfetched for me to say that I owe my whole career to that first vlog. From that first vlog, a kind soul decided to invite me to his university to give a talk and after that, more invitations poured in. From there, I was recognized by a publishing company as a potential writer and they agreed I published my first book. From there, someone thought I should be on TV and I did appear a few times. On and on the story goes, but it all started from that first vlog. Over the past 7 years of vlogging, people often ask me this one question: "How to be a Youtube vlogger?" The answer is simple: Just record, edit and upload a vlog on Youtube. Done! However,...

I was with the Form 2 students at MRSM Serting, Negeri Sembilan speaking about how to be confident in English. During the break, one student approached me to ask me how to change accent. I asked, “Why?” He simply answered, “My friends make fun of my accent. I sound Chinese when I speak English.” I said, “What’s wrong with that?” He said, “It’s not normal.” Poor kid. His English is perfectly fine. In fact, I believe he is on the right track. If he continues to practice and practice, he might be super fluent. But being teased by his friends caused his journey to stall. I can sense that one of the factors why his friends tease his accent and why he thinks it's not normal is because of how we view English in the first place. We have a skewed idea of what "normal English" means. Normal English means American or British English. That is simply not true. American or British English could be considered as the standard because without a standard, things could g...

General Election 14 (GE14) will be my first time voting. During the last GE, I was already eligible. But I was in Canada and a bit clueless about long distance voting process (my bad). So I ended up livestreaming with friends instead to keep in touch with our people back home. We were just observers. This time, not anymore. If you are old enough to vote, then you should care. If you say “I don’t do politics”, then ask yourself if you have complained about the government or about the opposition. If you have, then you are already “doing politics” my friend. Who to vote? Well, that is your choice. I shouldn’t dictate what you choose. What I can advice you is this: Don’t follow your parents. Don’t follow your neighbours. Don’t follow your friends. You are an independent citizen. You should make a choice of your own. We talk a lot about critical thinking in our classes. Now, it’s time to put it in good use. Understandably, you can’t escape your emotions and biases. But you...

I have been vlogging since 2011, starting from zero. I used whatever I had at the time. I had a flimsy plastic tripod, a mirror, and a laptop. The camera, the most important equipment in vlogging, was borrowed from a friend. My editing software was free; I used Windows Movie Maker. I didn't start to buy anything new to use for vlogging until I was about a few videos in. It was only when I had the money and the momentum that I invested more into this hobby of mine, a hobby that soon turned into a career. Understandably, a lot of people who have the desire to share their thoughts and ideas through the medium of vlogging are overwhelmed by the abundance of choice they have today. DSLR cameras have become so cheap and easily available. Laptops have advanced so much in the past 10 years. If you Google "video editing softwares", you will be bombarded by different varieties of softwares from free to paid ones. Being overwhelmed, that desire might dwindle down and you e...

We all have shared something that we found out to be false, right? Ideally, we should all be wise enough to check before we share. We should stop saying "sharing is caring" and start a new tagline "checking is sharing". That is good principle to hold on to, especially given the nature of the internet. The internet is public and things can go viral without prior planning. Perhaps you have experienced a situation where your social media post went viral (in your own relative definition of what viral is) without you expecting it. If what went viral is beneficial and factual, then that's okay. But what if it's not? Deleting it would be a good thing to do. But the internet is forever. Meaning, if you uploaded it, then it's probably will stay there forever even after deletion. So be very careful with what you post or share online. I just want to start this post with that advice, for myself and for anyone who is using the internet - especially social...

My heart goes to the family who lost a child due to bullying, in whatever form it may take. Especially in this day and age, it often times manifests in the form of cyber bullying. The internet is powerful, for both good and evil. It depends on the one who is using it. Use it to spread positivity, then you are making the world a better place. Use it for other than that reason, then you are scratching the societal wound that needs healing. Because of its power, the people who use the internet have an enormous responsibility on their shoulders. Evidently, nowadays those people are almost everybody. Even the ones too young to go on the internet, has the internet in their pockets. Responsible children will hopefully be mindful of hurting others online, or offline. But how? Isolation is not the solution. Simply saying, "You can't have it!" may work if your child is a toddler. But starting from a certain age, their creativity will almost always be ahead of yours, es...

I love chicken. When my mum cooks chicken, I would have this tendency to take as many as I can for myself. My mum would stop me and say, “Ingat orang kat lain jugak.” “Remember others too.” Part of the khalifah mindset is to consider the people after you and how your actions today can affect them. We shouldn’t consume and consume, thinking that the earth owes us something. Be like a traveler and take only what you need. Leave the rest to those who will come after you. We are not owners. We are borrowers, and we are all borrowing the same earth. Nothing is truly ours. Even our body is not ours. It is borrowed and will be returned back to where it came from.

Mesej utama: Jangan fikir masalah anak-anak muda adalah masalah generasi ini sahaja; lumrah pemuda sama sepanjang zaman, hanya ujian sahaja yang berbeza. Pemberontakan, walaupun konotasinya negatif, tidak kesemuanya salah kerana ada ketika pemuda memberontak untuk menentang perkara yang salah.  Isunya bukan pemberontakan, tetapi cara pemberontakan yang tidak hikmah.  Semangat pemuda perlu dipandu, bukan dipadam. Pemuda perlukan bantuan mereka yang lebih tua untuk memandu semangat memberontak ke arah yang produktif. Pemuda perlu lebih mesra dan bergaul dengan mereka yang lebih tua. Mereka yang lebih tua juga perlu lebih mesra dan bergaul dengan mereka yang lebih tua. Ini hubungan dua hala, tidak patut dituju kepada satu pihak sahaja.

I’m really passionate about becoming a motivational speaker, but what I’m usually afraid of is that people misunderstanding the message that I’m trying to convey. Can you explain more on how to overcome this? I think all public speakers have that fear, whether they are beginners or pros. Personally, I think it is a good fear to have because it keeps you careful. But, when it’s not in check, this fear can be paralizing and it can stop you from doing the things that you want to do. So I think as with any fear, the first thing to do is to face it. 1. Embrace the risk. Accept the fact that there will always be a possibility that people misunderstand you. Don’t delude yourself by thinking that you will make it perfect every time. That’s not going to happen. You’re a human being and your audience are human beings, and there’s no human relationship where there is no misunderstanding occurring at some point in that relationship. Of course, the more you practice, gain feedback, an...

Let's have a honest conversation about our human condition. We all have issues, but some have them more severely than others. It's like physical illness. We all have the normal fever sometimes. But there are others who are battling worse illnesses like diabetes, stroke, and cancer. Nobody would dare to tell a cancer patient to just "shake it off" or "you're being silly" or "your Iman isn't strong enough." Mental health issues are real and they can be pervasive. The people who have these issues need the encouragement to enable them to reach out and seek the help they need. My dream is to live in a world where people with mental health issues can walk into a counselor's office or a psychiatrist's office knowing that he or she will be helped and supported - not condemned and judged. Let's educate ourselves and others about mental health and where you can get professional help. Don't worry. Seeking help doesn'...

Wow. Look at that title, what a way to start a blog post. Let me try to reduce the size of the flame here. I’m not saying that they don’t remember your wedding like it doesn't exist. I’m just saying that they don’t remember your wedding the way that you thought they would remember it. You can ask them and find out: Do they remember what you wore that day? Do they remember the food you served? Do they remember the color theme you chose? Do they remember the decorations you set up? Do they remember the name of your partner? <--- my favourite :p Or, try this: Have your photo album be ready a few weeks after the wedding, sit down with your family, and flip through the pages. See how much they actually remember. Even the actual bride and groom don't remember some of the things that were in their own wedding (speaking from experience here). People who have other better things to do don't tend to remember specific physical details, the kind of details that w...

Some say, Islamic financing is more expensive than conventional loan. So they made a choice based on what is cheap, convenient, and easy. But is that true? Is Islamic financing more expensive than conventional loan? If enough people say it’s true, then it must be true. Right? Nope! That’s not how truth works. To know if something is true or not, you have to investigate it. So let’s investigate the question: is Islamic financing more expensive than conventional loan? The answer to the question lies in the very basic of Islamic financing and conventional loan - how they make money. Let’s start with conventional loan. How Conventional Loan Makes Money Conceptually, conventional loan is pretty straightforward: you ask the bank for money, the bank gives you money, and you pay the bank back with interest. Through interest, the bank makes money. How much interest do you have to pay? This is where things get interesting (pun intended). The interest rate is not fixed, beca...

My PBAKL 2017 book haul My name is Aiman Azlan. I am a motivational speaker, a Youtuber, a social media influencer, and an author. I wrote and published 3 books to date: Hidup Penuh Erti (2014), The Other Side of the Coin (2014), and Bercinta Selepas Nikah (2015). Having said that, can I be honest about something? I don’t like reading. There, I said it. It might be a bit weird for an author to not like reading, given that he writes books hoping that other people will read them. But if you look at it differently, it is not weird at all because you don’t need to like reading to become an author. In fact, you don’t need to like reading to read. Reading, at the core of it, has nothing to do with liking it or not. Why? Because in principle, reading is not a hobby. Reading is a need. To put it simply, I think of reading the same way how I think of exercising. It doesn’t matter if you like exercising or not. The fact is, you need to exercise regardless. Otherwise, your physical...