“When I left my job as a financial planner to be an emcee, one of the seniors in the industry asked me: what kind of emcee do you want to be?
I pictured a successful event: I saw people gathered in a crowd, drinking, laughing, cheering and most importantly, smiling genuinely. I saw the participants thank me for helping them make it happen. So I told myself that THAT would be the crowd I wanted to create. However, I forgot about that until I hosted a friend’s company’s D&D later that year.
It was a tough crowd to manage and quite a rough evening. However, as the night went on, I was able to rally them into high spirits, merrymaking and having fun with each other. My worries were eased as the CEO said it was “the most energetic and enthusiastic participation” she had seen from her staff. After I closed the show, the committee members came up to me excitedly and thanked me for hosting their event.
It was then that I recalled my early aim. The feelings and emotions were exactly the ones I had imagined and I felt I had achieved a milestone in my fledgling career.
I’ve been very fortunate to have parents who do not worry about my career and leave me to build one for myself. My girlfriend has been most supportive and encouraging, even though I was making next to nothing in the early days.
Aside from the tight wallet before I had a steady stream of jobs, one of the struggles was to establish a presence in the industry. As a greenhorn, it was tough to find opportunities as I had no showreel. Most jobs came by because the first and second choices were unavailable, so they became extra valuable as I had to set a good first impression and collect footage to promote myself.
There are 2 aspects to any endeavour: skills and business. With skills, I would encourage an enthusiast to find or create a role model so they have an ideal to strive towards, instead of growing aimlessly. We must know our purpose so we can deliver excellence and more!
As for business, I tell my mentees to take any opportunity possible to make new friends and connections, even if it’s just a hi-and-bye relationship. As the cliché goes: Your network is your net worth.”
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Jackie Lin (Emcee Jacks)
Emcee/Host
“The best moments I love are the moments when I come up with a clever joke that gets my audience to burst out laughing”. Check out the rest of @emceejack ‘s story in our newest post!
