#29: Lachlan Ma - Tech Recruiting at TikTok, Goal-Setting, and Discovering Your Ikigai - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another fun and
exciting episode of 1000 Guruswith me, your host, jr Yonacruz.
So today's episode featuresguest Lachlan Ma.
Lachlan graduated from UCIrvine in 2020 and first started
working as a universityrecruiter at CVS Health.
Then he became a talentacquisition partner at TikTok,

(00:20):
specializing in global expansionfor engineering teams in
Australia, us and Europe.
He also builds YouTube channels, the first being a K-pop news
YouTube channel that wasmonetized and is currently
building a tech recruitingchannel giving free advice and
insights to job seekers from atech recruiter perspective.
On the side, he also danceswith Passion Project and

(00:40):
Espiritu.
So Lachlan is a fellow dancerwho also works in tech and is
big into content creation,following your passions,
developing strong mindsets, etc.
So it was no wonder why thiswas such a good conversation for
us.
We not only talked about hisbackground and everything tech
recruiting related, but also howto set up systems in place to
achieve your goals and findingyour ikigai, which is basically

(01:02):
your purpose.
Lachlan is very insightful inmany different areas, so this
was another one of thosehome-run episodes, in my opinion
, and also talking with Lachlanis just a ton of fun because of
his light-hearted personality.
So, without further ado.
Hope you enjoy this episodewith Lachlan Ma.
Alright, lachlan, welcome to theshow, thank you.

(01:22):
Thank you To the audience.
Let them clap it out, all right, lachlan?
Well, thank you for being onthe show.
I really appreciate it.
I'm glad that we were able toschedule something.
So let me just go into how Iknow you.
So we know each other throughIrmo, which is a dance team at
UCI.
It's a collegiate like moderndance team exhibition.
We've never danced togetherbefore, but I was on like the

(01:43):
alumni council while you were onthe team, like ninth and 10th
gen, right.

Lachlan (01:46):
We kind of talked about this beforehand.

J.R. (01:53):
So I followed your career.
You've been like a recruiter, atalent acquisition person for a
while now, like you.
You're currently with TikTokand you still dance a lot, it
seems, and you are you mentionedin the form that you are also
building different YouTubechannels.

Lachlan (02:10):
K-pop related and tech recruiting related.
Is that all correct?
Any clarifications?
Yes, I try to dance as much asI can.
Yeah, but of course, like withall the work at tiktok and
building the youtube channels, Idefinitely don't have as much
time as I want to have with itbut that's kind of just
something I'm figuring out rightnow yeah, it's all good.

J.R. (02:21):
Yeah, you're, seems like you're a busy guy, very
ambitious, definitely, uh.
So I have a warm-up questionbefore we get into first topic.
So you're into k-pop?

Lachlan (02:29):
oh yeah, favorite groups, favorite groups well,
definitely what got me intok-pop more recently was
blackpink during covid.
I used to be into xo way backthen, but I'm a go-to guy.
So blackpink, new jeans andtwice like just the kind of.
I'm kind of like the big, thebig, the big, yeah, the big ones

(02:51):
the most like well-known onesor an.

J.R. (02:53):
I've, oh, I've, yeah, good choices, yeah do you have a alt
like a bias Jenny fromblackpink.
Ah, good call, good call mine'srosé.

Lachlan (03:01):
So we're right there.
Yeah, the Aussie girl.
Yeah, are you going to?

J.R. (03:04):
yeah, exactly.
Are you going to their concert,coming up or tour?

Lachlan (03:07):
I am.
My friends actually texted methe other day and they said, hey
, we bought you a ticket, you'regonna go.
And I was like, okay, sweet, Ithink I can go.
And they're like, but we're innew york so you have to like new
york.

J.R. (03:19):
And I was like, oh, this is the catch you have to come to
new york yeah, and they're likeyeah, just let us know.

Lachlan (03:24):
And so I just bought a plane ticket to New York, so
I'll be flying to New York towatch them.
But I watched them like theprevious years at like the
Coachella performance.
They're on corporate.
I watched them four times inthe last tour.
Yeah, so can't ever get enoughof them nice.

J.R. (03:41):
When is the new york show?

Lachlan (03:42):
july 27th.
It's gonna be pretty hot, buthopefully they bring the same
energy that they have in la, sowe'll see yeah, it's funny a few
months ago, uh, we watched myfriends and I watched jenny at
jimmy ellen.
Wait, jimmy family, jimmykimball, jimmy kimball one of
the days I think it's one in LA,but uh, we went and it was

(04:06):
great.

J.R. (04:06):
She was really good live.
I've saw them in concert, likebefore COVID too.
Yeah, they're really great.
So my friends keep asking, like, are you going to the tour?
And I'm like I'm gonna behonest with you, blackpink is
great, but I'm actually a Roséfan yeah, so.
I'm kind of waiting for thatsolo tour, yeah, and because I
want my money to go like 100%,not just like all right, it's
25% well spent.

Lachlan (04:26):
But you know Blackpink's cool.
Well, jennie and Lisa areplaying at Coachella this year.
Oh yeah, that's right, I'llwatch them, but I'm sure, like
with how good Rose went with hersongs, she's going to want to
go next year.
That's what I'm hoping.

J.R. (04:36):
Next year?
Well, okay, coachella, sure,but I'm some sort of solo tour,
so more bang for my buck, but wewill see.
Okay, you know k-pop, okay,yeah, that's just our warm-up.
Okay, um, cool, cool, but allright.
So let's go into first topic,which is usually for my guests
origin story, kind of like whereyou grew up and what were the
main influences, that kind ofconnect the dot to where you are

(04:58):
today yeah, so, as you can seefrom my name, I was born in or
maybe don't see my name, but Iwas born in sy.

Lachlan (05:03):
Or maybe don't see my name, but I was born in Sydney,
australia.
Lachlan's a very Australianname.
My dad is from Hong Kong and hemoved to Australia when he was
seven by boat.
He was like literally a fob I'mescaping the communists from
China so he's like pretty muchfull Australian.
And then my mom is from thePhilippines and moved there when

(05:24):
she was younger, so that'swhere they had me, my three
other siblings, when we moved toAmerica in 2004,.
When I was seven, we moved to atown called Acadia, so Los
Angeles, so that's more so whereI grew up, at least for the
most of my conscious formativeyears.
And then how I landed, or kindof to bridge where I am now.

(05:45):
I went to UC Irvine or Itransferred to UC Irvine.
I went to community college fortwo years, transferred to UC
Irvine that's where I met youand on Irmo and throughout that
time at UC Irvine or just incollege, I feel like I didn't do
the best I could academicallyin high school.
I did a lot of leadership inhigh school.
I did a lot of leadership.

(06:05):
In high school I was likesenior class president in ASB.
I was speech and debate captain.
I also participated in drumline and marching band.
So I was very active in like myextracurriculars.
So I think that I grew upintroverted but through that
exposure, through all thoseactivities, it made me very
extroverted.
So, going into college andwanting to really pave the way

(06:26):
for my career, I did threeinternships.
My first year internship wasactually in the Philippines at
Jollibee oh that's cool.
Yeah, I was a finance internand basically I was stressed out
because all my friends, theylike went to UCLA and then also
UT Austin and they were gettinginvestment making internships
and they're like, lachlan,what's your internship?
And I'm like guys, I don't know.

(06:46):
I was gonna tell my mom becausemy mom has a connection to the
head of HR for Jalby.
She's like my son needs aninternship and she was like,
okay, if we could put him in afinance internship.
So flew to the Philippines formy freshman year summer, lived
in Manila and while I loved thecompany and the people, the job
was just very not human-like,just you know, very staring at a

(07:08):
computer all day, but then justnot to go too much into it.
But I did a lot internship mynext year because I figured with
my speech and debate experienceI could really excel in that.
But again, it was somethingthat I found would be able to
make me a lot of money.
But I wasn't interested in thework that they were doing.
And someone who was around ourage that was younger, told me

(07:31):
when one of the courts they'relike, don't do it.

J.R. (07:33):
And I was like okay, I won't, that's already my sign.

Lachlan (07:37):
So my last year internship the final time to
really, I guess, pave my pathinto a full-time career was in
tax accounting.
My mom was just saying you know, become an accountant.
She went to University of thePhilippines in accounting.
So she said it's the moststable way to, I guess, make a
paycheck and just it's a verystable way of living.

(07:58):
But I did not like theinternship at all.
I actually would just go,they'd feed us a lot and I would
go into the kind of wellnessroom or like the mother's all.
I actually would just go,they'd feed us a lot and I would
go into the kind of wellnessroom or like the mother's room
and just sleep.
Because it just was not.
It was not for me.
And then when I graduated I wasin a crisis because I didn't
like any of the internships Idid.
My parents were drilling me onyou just need to pick something

(08:20):
and do something.
And then I figured, well, Ididn't like these internships
but I was always really excitedfor them.
So why don't I actually becomea recruiter?
Because I loved interviewingand I love talking to recruiters
.
So when my dad heard about thishe was like, no, you're not
doing that.
But I actually applied to aprogram where a Robin Hood

(08:42):
recruiter, a recruiter fromRobin Hood, the stock trading
app, was taking applications tomentor five students who had no
recruiting experience to getinto recruiting.
Luckily I got in.
He mentored me, started myfirst job as a university
recruiter at CVS Healthrecruiting pharmacists.
Again, I know it's a trend butI didn't like it at all either.
It wasn't the job that I didn'tlike, it was the company culture

(09:03):
at that point.
It was very low diversity and Iwas always kind of spoken over.
So I actually quit that.
It was a contract role.
I quit before the contractended.
I had to start my ownrecruiting business.
But in the meantime TikTok wasabout to surpass the ban from
Trump and they needed to startgetting recruiters to hire more

(09:24):
people because the company wasgrowing really was growing
rapidly.
So I was reached out to by arecruiter from tiktok.
They saw my experience at cbshealth.
They were saying, hey, like weare growing our recruiting team,
let's hop on a call.
So that's what got me intotiktok, of course, did
interviews and now fast forward,four years later I hire for

(09:46):
Sydney, australia, sydney, sanJose, seattle, and also did some
hiring like for London andDublin as well.
So, yeah, that's what broughtme to here now.

J.R. (09:57):
Yeah, well, that's a I love that story and maybe people
can take away what they wantfrom that.
But I guess my question for you, as a sit-in for people who
might be at that stage you wereat, or even before then, what
were kind of the I guess,mindsets or ideas that helped to
get you to where you are?

(10:17):
In the sense of it seems likeyou're trying to figure out what
you wanted to do.
You've tried these differentinternships and pivots and all
this other stuff.
But I guess do you have anythoughts or advice on someone
who might be going through asimilar, not career crisis, but
you know what I mean Like theearly stage, like you're still
in college or maybe you'releaving high school and you're
not really sure what you want todo, kind of like yourself.

Lachlan (10:37):
Yeah.

J.R. (10:38):
What kind of advice or thoughts would you give to that?

Lachlan (10:40):
person?
No, definitely, I think.
When you step into college andwhen you start speaking to like
your parents, friends or likeadults, they're always going to
ask you so what are you going todo when you graduate?
And it is a career crisisbecause a lot of times most
college students don't have itall figured out.
But from what I did and when atthe time I didn't, I wasn't

(11:01):
planning on it, but it all justworked out.
Luckily, I had thoseinternships that I did and I
really did just throw myselfinto things that I didn't know
if I was going to be interestedin it but I wanted to get
something out of it and that isis this a possible career path
for myself?
So I think, for all thosestudents out there, or even if

(11:22):
you're not in college and you'restill figuring things out, just
do something and really analyzewhat you like about what you're
doing and what you don't likeabout your doing, and narrow
into what you do like and seewhat kind of path that creates
for you.
Because, as you saw from mypath, I had no recruiting
experience at all.

(11:42):
It was everything butrecruiting.
But what I figured out, or whatI realized, is that I liked
that specific recruitingexperience for each of the
internships, which is why, okay,I'll become a recruiter,
because I think if I want tolive both a happy life,
something that I'm passionateabout and I'm able to get paid
for the whole concept of likeikigai, which then it's to

(12:06):
really do well for me in thelong run, because I don't want
to trap myself in a career whereyou know you don't want to
track yourself in a career whereyou will regret like, oh, maybe
I shouldn't have just jumpedinto something so quickly for
the sake of it.
Yeah, I like that.

J.R. (12:19):
Okay, we'll put it in an ikigai yes.
But before that so it seemslike correct me if I'm wrong you
pinpointed a part in yourexperience that you enjoyed,
which was that kind ofrecruiting process, and that's
what kind of lit the light bulbof oh, maybe I should try this
out.
And it was really just that'show you fell into it, like it
was no one saying you should gointo recruiting because you seem

(12:40):
like a really good person.

Lachlan (12:50):
Like that, exactly.
Okay, before he guy.
What do you think were yourcharacteristics and maybe you
already explained this that ledyou to being good at what you do
and or enjoying what you do?
Yeah, so the?

J.R. (12:54):
first one.
What led me to be okay like?
What characteristics do youthink lent you to being?
Good at what you do now oh yeah.

Lachlan (12:59):
So I would consider myself an extroverted person.
So I do like to talk to a lot ofpeople and actually growing up
I was very introverted.
I was very shy, usually, like alot of parents of of my
classmates would always be likeoh yeah, like lachlan's really
shy whenever I'd go over to somesomeone's house.
But when I got into speech anddebate during high, that's what

(13:24):
really broke me out of my shell,because I used to do something
called humorous interpretation.
Basically, you just get like amovie script or something and
you just make it really funnyand you act like you just act
really stupid in front of thewhole audience.
So that's what broke me out ofmy shell.
And because I gained theconfidence to act that certain
way in front of a group ofpeople, that's how I started to

(13:47):
become more extroverted.
And now during work as arecruiter, you need to be
comfortable speaking to alldifferent types of people and
kind of not worry about howyou're perceived by them.
But at the same time, becauseit is recruiting, you are the
face of the company you work for, so you still need to present
yourself in a good way.
But that's what helped build onmy confidence okay.

J.R. (14:06):
So do you think so?
Are you an extrovert now, oryou introverted and you develop
those skills to be extroverted,or at least more people skills?

Lachlan (14:16):
yeah, I think growing up I was introverted.

J.R. (14:19):
Now I'm more extroverted, leaning, but I was the middle,
but maybe leaning towardsextroversion.
Yeah, so I would say in themiddle, but maybe leaning
towards extroversion yeah.

Lachlan (14:26):
So I would say like for the most part I'm ambiverted,
okay, mostly extroverted, but Ireally do enjoy my alone time
and just peace at home.
And there are times where youknow, if my friends text me like
, hey, let's do this, let's dothis, um, I used to say yes
every time, but now I justprefer to stay home, work on my

(14:47):
projects or spend time with mydog.
I see For the most partextroverted, but I also have my
introverted moments.

J.R. (14:55):
Okay, so maybe you jump back and forth, depending on the
context.

Lachlan (14:57):
Yeah, exactly that makes sense I think I'm the same
way too.

J.R. (15:00):
I understand now that I'm probably naturally introverted,
but I can do well in extrovertedspaces if I.
My perspective is that it's adeveloped skill, set people
skills and learning how to getenergy from those spaces.
But I do know that I do getdrained at a certain point if
it's too many unfamiliar people.

Lachlan (15:16):
Exactly.

J.R. (15:16):
Whereas if it's like a bunch of people who are my close
friends, I have energy all day,so I like that.
Going back to humorousinterpretation.
Interpretation that sounds likea lot of fun, but do you have
an example of what that would belike?
If you do have any?

Lachlan (15:27):
yeah.
So basically I did.
Okay.
I'll give you some background.
I did two speech and debate fortwo years and for humorous
interpretation I had a scriptcalled walkie.
Talkie bob is about anintroverted boy who didn't know
how to speak to girls andeverything just went wrong for

(15:49):
him.
So basically you start off witha character.
It's like a monologue butthere's multiple characters.
So I start.
I would start off and say hi myname's josh and I'm not very
good at talking, talking togirls, especially girls and I
switch into a girl and be likewhat?
And then like oh sorry, but youknow, like that's that type.
So it's like a, it's like a oneperson play.

(16:10):
Yeah, playing multiple people.

J.R. (16:12):
Yeah, like multiple personalities that sounds like
so much fun yeah, it's reallyfun.
Okay, man, I gotta look intothis more yeah, okay, cool,
going back to ikigai, ikigai now.
So what is ikigai and youexplain, like their thoughts on
how that's relevant?

Lachlan (16:26):
Yes.
So Ikigai is a Japanese conceptwhere you tie in I think it's
three or four things, but I knowthe three things for sure.
You tie in three things and ifyou think of a Venn diagram,
what's in the middle of tyingthose three things is what leads
you to living quote unquote ahappy, purposeful life.

(16:46):
So Ikigai is the concept oftying in number one, what is
your passion, number two, whatthe world needs, and number
three, what you can be paid for.
So when you tie all thesethings together, that is your
Ikigai.
Ikigai.

(17:07):
And the reason why I mentionedthat before especially is
because when I first started atthe job I work at right now, I
was probably the happiest I'veever been because I was
achieving that Fast forward tonow it's a little bit different,
just because of the culture ofthings have changed, but that's
essentially what Ikigai is.

J.R. (17:19):
I love it and so there's a book on that and there's
articles and stuff like that.
I'll link to it, because I dida book summary on Ihi Gai or one
of them.
I think the book is hit or miss, but the concept is great.
Have you read that book?

Lachlan (17:30):
I did, I did.

J.R. (17:31):
I forgot the author.
Who is that?
Hector Garcia.

Lachlan (17:34):
Yeah, Hector Garcia, no no.

J.R. (17:36):
So I think the concept is amazing and I think the fourth
one is like what you are good at, so it's what you enjoy, what
you're good at, what the marketwill pay you for and what the
world needs.

Lachlan (17:46):
Yes, they're for them.

J.R. (17:47):
Exactly, and so I like that concept.
But what I was kind ofdisappointed about the book was
like it kept talking about likeblue zones and like not really
Ikigai related stuff.
So I guess my own critique is Ikind of went off the topic of
what I thought it was going totalk about but it's still a
solid book.
Recommend it.
Go check it out.
Okay cool.
So I think that's it.
We can move on to now techrecruiting.

(18:08):
I guess it's a good segue.
Yeah, so, I guess, yeah.
So, as a tech recruiter, thismight be interesting to other
people who don't know how thefield works or how the job works
out, and put it into day-to-dayI, you know, am the face of the

(18:30):
company when it terms.

Lachlan (18:31):
When it comes to me reaching out to a candidate,
specifically, I hire softwareengineers.
So I'll reach out to softwareengineers from other big tech
companies, say hey, you know,I'm from tiktok.
Wait, did I mention I'm fromTikTok?

J.R. (18:43):
Yeah, they'll have known by now.

Lachlan (18:45):
Oh, okay, okay, hey.

J.R. (18:48):
Your bio, plus also, the clickbait title of this will
probably say TikTok, okay.
Okay, I wasn't sure if I shouldmention it yet.

Lachlan (18:54):
Okay but basically I reach out to software engineers
from other tech companies andsay, hey, I'm from TikTok, send
them a link to messages and saywe're growing fast, we have over
1.6 billion global active users.
Come join us.
So I'll have a group ofcandidates coming in every day.
I do phone calls with them andthen I'll pitch each one to the
hiring manager based on what therole requires.

(19:15):
It also requires, of course, alot of meetings with my
stakeholders or clients, and myclients are the engineering
managers of the company.
So I have to work with each ofthem to understand what they're
doing, what their hiring needsare and, of course, how I can
fulfill those hiring needs.
So it's a lot of meetings withhiring managers, candidate calls
, a lot of messaging orconsulting with cross-functional

(19:38):
partners, so like even legalimmigration, and I also have
another kind of group of peoplein my recruiting team, like
recruiting coordinators andsourcers, who help me out as
well.
So it is a lot of actuallymessaging within the company and
externally as well.
It's very internal and external.

J.R. (19:56):
So it's like the nexus of a lot of different points
Exactly exactly what do youthink are some good
characteristics for a goodrecruiter?

Lachlan (20:05):
Yes, I think definitely the number one characteristic
actually is someone who iswilling to face rejection.
So as recruiters, especially inthis market, rejection is a big
part of your job, becauseyou'll reach out to candidates
and they'll all react indifferent ways.
I've had candidates of course,for the most part they are

(20:28):
excited and they are respectful,but I've had candidates who are
like yeah, I don't want to workfor your company, like a lot of
political stuff.
I love political stuff, butalso sometimes people are just
really mean and I'm just likeI'm trying to give you an
opportunity.

J.R. (20:41):
This is my job.

Lachlan (20:43):
But I one time had a guy come in who said, yeah, I'm
not willing to move to yourcompany unless you give me at
least a million dollars in totalcompensation.
Just like coming in, like that.
It's like how do you thinkyou're going to get a job like
that?
So it's just number one thingis, of course, willing to face
rejection and face thesescenarios.
Number two I think it is again,as I said, like people skills

(21:06):
and being able to be ageneralist and flow with
different situations, becauseyou will be talking to different
people that have different workstyles and because TikTok is a
very global company, you willcollaborate with different
countries that have differentwork cultures as well.
So it's really interestingbecause we have our own work
culture in America, but the wayyou know someone else might

(21:29):
communicate with you online isgoing to be completely different
.
It may seem mean, but it'sactually their culture, you know
, so kind of just being able towork with people globally and
adjust to that.
Number three is just timemanagement organization, because
it is such large scalerecruiting and for a company
that's building something greatat a global level.

(21:50):
As I said, we have over 1.6billion global active users, so
you can imagine the amount ofenergy and effort that goes into
building the teams that build.
That it's just, yeah, you needto have time management
organization.
So, and on top of that, it'sjust also the entrepreneurial
mindset, yeah.
So those are the three things.

J.R. (22:09):
Yeah, I think it's crazy because it seems like it's the
point where you have to have the, like you said, generalist of
the technical knowledge, butalso the people skills, the
organizational knowledge, butalso the people skills, the
organizational skills, and thendealing cross-culturally on such
a global platform andcommunicating with different
people, so I think that'sdefinitely a tough job, but I
can see why it can be so activeand busy.

(22:30):
Like you said, your day-to-dayis not the same.
Yeah exactly, aside from whatyou've already mentioned, what
are some of the biggestchallenges I guess you face, or
maybe a tech recruiter faces ingeneral, aside from, like, the
rejection and obviously allthose complications?

Lachlan (22:42):
yeah, so, regardless of whether it's at TikTok or other
big companies, your employerbranding is something that's
very important for a candidateor someone to consider you.
It's just like when you areconsidering pairs of shoes.
Let's say, two pairs of shoesare in front of you and they're
the exact same, but you put andyou ask someone to pick one shoe

(23:06):
to wear.
But they're the exact same,except one of them has a nike
logo on it.
People, because nike, unlessthey have something bad but, for
the most part, I think theyhave good branding.
People are going to gravitatetowards nike, the picking, the
nike shoe.
So in the same way, it's like acompany when it comes to tiktok
, the branding is everything,and there it's not just tiktok.

(23:27):
All companies, you knowsomewhat, go through times of
good branding and bad branding.
What, depending on what themedia reports of the company.
So it's those market shiftsthat do make it challenging for
recruiters, when it is in thatlow period, to be able to
convince a candidate to join thecompany, when they're literally

(23:47):
searching up the company andall that comes up in the news is
like this is what the workculture is like, or these are
things that just happened, thatyou know a lot of people are
against that.

J.R. (23:57):
The company just did you know, so it's those market
shifts are very challenging forrecruiters right, yeah and I
imagine like the larger yourcompany is, the more, I guess,
the more scale that is, but themore likely that there will be
something that someone will hearabout.
You can't?

Lachlan (24:15):
it's not like you can control a one point something
billion active members platformand be like, okay, this is our
cohesive brand or everyone is onpoint, whereas there can be
something here there that's likewell exactly like all that you
think about, if you also relateit to like celebrities, like
people do bad things and let'ssay, let's bring the example

(24:36):
like hypothetical like someonecheats on their partner, and
it's just like someone thatdoesn't have a large following,
but when a celebrity cheats ontheir partner, it's all over the
news, you know.
So, in the same way, like whenbigger companies do something,
it's blown up at a larger scaleand reported, reported wide.

(24:57):
Yeah, yeah, makes sense quickreported white.

J.R. (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Quick tangent.
Do you speak any otherlanguages?

Lachlan (25:02):
I well.
I speak English, of course,really In case you guys didn't
know, he's just a translatorthis whole time, but I
understand Tagalog and I speakvery elementary proficiency
Mandarin.

J.R. (25:20):
Okay, okay, yeah.

Lachlan (25:21):
Because my mom's Filipino and speaks to me like I
speak very elementaryproficiency Mandarin.
Okay, okay, yeah, because mymom's Filipino and speaks to me
like Tagalog phrases that I'llknow, but my dad made me learn
Mandarin when starting middleschool but I didn't have too
much exposure to it, gotcha.

J.R. (25:35):
I was just curious if that plays a part in what you do,
since you're very global in whatyou do.

Lachlan (25:40):
I was just wondering if , oh, oh, it actually does,
because at tiktok it's owned bythe parent company by dance that
comes from china and while Idon't do business in chinese
like a lot of our companycommunications and our messages
our meetings are in chinese, butfor our internally developed
communication suite, they have alive translation.

(26:03):
So even if you go in a meetingthat's completely in Chinese or
another language, there'll besubtitles on the bottom and it
will translate into English inreal time.
So that's how Technology, man.
Yeah, exactly right, butsometimes the translations are
off.
So I'll be in meetings, andit's a really important meeting,
and they're telling mesomething and I'm trying to read
the subtitles and I'm like wait.
Can you say that again, butdifferently?

J.R. (26:25):
One more time, please.
One more time, please, yeah.

Lachlan (26:28):
I don't think my coworker understood it correctly
.
I understood it, but it's forthem.

J.R. (26:32):
It's for them.
I'm sure everyone's on the samepage I'm just looking into.
You mentioned some of theachievements that you have were
building TikTok shop team andthen also Australia's first
engineering team.
Yes, I guess either what wasthat like and or do you have any
stories about that process?

(26:52):
That might be interesting ofdoing those things.

Lachlan (26:57):
Yeah, it was amazing, amazing again.
That's why I mentioned kind ofearlier you have to be
entrepreneurial for this role,especially coming into tiktok,
because it's all about building,as opposed to just maintaining
or filling in backfill positionsfor people that leave.
We're like really just buildingnew teams and building
something greater.
So, going to that firstexperience with tiktok shop, at

(27:17):
the time I was what's called atechnical I was still recruiter,
but called a technical sourcer.
So they're really the salespeople of recruiting, where
they're in charge only ofreaching out to candidates that
are qualified for the role,bringing them in and then
throwing them into the interviewprocess.
So that's how we come, that'show we build and keep a

(27:38):
consistent pipeline ofcandidates.
So back in 2021, when I wasdoing sourcing, tiktok Shop at
the time was a confidentialproject called Project Magellan
and I don't know why it wascalled that, but the company was
like, hey, we're going to haveyou work on Project Magellan,
it's our e-commerce project.
And I was like, okay, cool, andwe basically or I basically got

(27:59):
.
And I was like, okay, cool, andwe basically or I basically got
reached out to candidates fromAmazon, ebay, etsy, like Lyft
and Uber as well, so things thathave e-commerce or payments or
some sort of product to aconsumer.

J.R. (28:11):
Is this kind of like a cold reaching out sort of thing?

Lachlan (28:13):
Yeah, Okay, it's all cold reach outs, but for the
most part, the talent pool waslike untouched by all of our
recruiters.
Compared to now, I feel likewe've reached out to everyone.
So it was really nice to see alot of other candidates from
like google and facebook bepassionate and be excited to
join us.
So that's yeah, just builds outthe e-commerce teams for that.

(28:36):
And now it's tiktok shop andyou guys haven't used it.
It's, it's really, it'sactually pretty good.
Now a lot of businesses andsmall businesses promote their
products and sell on tiktok shop, so it's created a lot of
opportunity and even revenue forthe us.
And fast forward into last year, as I mentioned, I was born in

(28:56):
sydney, austral, so I still holdmy past, my Aussie passport,
and the company had some of theteammates working on Australia
and they were doing like latenight meetings because they had
to adjust for the time zone.
And then I was having lunchwith my boss one time and she
was out.
She was asking me how I was andI was like, yeah, it's all
right.
You know it's getting reallybusy, but I'm hanging in there.

J.R. (29:21):
She's like you should see the Australia team because
they're staying up late.

Lachlan (29:23):
And I was like, oh, that's funny, I'm literally from
Australia.
And she's like, oh, you haveyour passport still.
And I'm like yeah, why wouldn'tI?
She's like, oh cool.
And then the next week HRreached out to me.
And they're basically like, canyou move to Australia for a year
or two?
And I actually, because I havea dog, I also own two properties
here that I take care of, sojust a lot of my assets and just

(29:45):
my personal life is here inSoCal.
But we reached a deal whereevery three months I can come
back for a month, so that helpedout.
So last year 2024, went toSydney, australia.
They didn't have anyengineering teams.
All the office was filled withlike more global business
solutions marketing folks.
It was a business office butbecause ideally you want to

(30:06):
house all the data in the regionthat the users are in for the
sake of, like, user datasecurity, I always built out the
site reliability engineeringteam, so they were building out
the data centers, the local datacenters, and maintaining that.
I hired over 30 engineers thereand it was really nice because
I was able to connect back towhere I was born and where I'm

(30:28):
from and actually all myfamily's there.
But at the same time, like it'sa full circle because I don't
really go back and I go back nowand I'm like a full adult and
I'm working.
I brought my mom over for amonth.
Luckily, tiktok put me in aluxury apartment that was called
the Opera Residences.
It's the residences of theSydney Opera House.

J.R. (30:49):
Wow, it was really nice.

Lachlan (30:55):
So my mom, it was just really nice because my mom was
just in awe and she was so proudof me and she actually always
like, for when she was intheines and she moved to
australia and saw that apartment, she always wanted to live in
that apartment, so it was reallyfull circle more for her as
well.
But basically, sorry, going backto tiktok, it was.
It was nice because, again likeI I mentioned for tiktok shop
and back in 2021, the talentpool was untouched and we didn't

(31:17):
reach out to all the candidatesthe previous year, so we still
had a lot of fresh talent poolto reach out to.
Just to give you some contextabout how difficult it was to
hire there, though, we typicallyhire from other tech companies
and in America, you know,there's a big tech presence.
However, to give you acomparison, australia as a

(31:38):
country is or their populationis smaller than California as a
state, so when you think aboutAustralia's tech population,
it's like even smaller.
So within a week or two, like I, actually reached out to all of
the engineers from techcompanies and there wasn't that
much responses.
I don't think we actually hiredreally any or, if any, like

(32:02):
that many from other techcompanies.
So I was able to use that datato convince the hiring manager
to start considering people fromnon-tech companies.
That's how I was able to reachmy goal, and then we also hired
from India as well.
So yeah and fast forward to now.
I'm now recruiting in the US.
I potentially have anotherchance to hire again for

(32:25):
australia and europe, but rightnow, like a lot of my clients
and stakeholders, are in china,sydney, in the us and the east
coast, so again, still veryglobal yeah, dang, oh, that must
have been like a really crazyexperience, and it seems like a
lot of hard work goes into thatas well yeah, definitely nice.

J.R. (32:45):
It's funny because it's yeah, we reached out to all the
people there.
So who did you react?
Who did you reach out to andyou're like yes yes, yes, all of
this, yes, everyone.
Next question that's crazy yeah,dang, that's cool man.
The last thing on this topic Iwanted to ask is I guess this is
maybe on both sides, but do youhave any advice or lessons
learned as a tech recruiter ifsomeone wants to go into the

(33:09):
role that you do and or someoneon the other side who is being
hired or wants to get hired?
Do you have any tips on thatboth ends?

Lachlan (33:16):
yes, so if someone wants to go into recruiting
right now, I would recommendcaveat right now, right now I
would recommend them not toright now and that's purely
because of how the market is,especially in tech.
It's very volatile.
Lots of layoffs and hiringfreezes, and usually when there

(33:38):
are hiring freezes especiallyback in 2021 or 2022, when
robinhood had their firstlayoffs and hiring freezes and
that kind of kick-started themass wave of that the recruiters
were always the first to go,because if there's no, if
there's a hiring freeze andthere's no need to hire, then
there's no need for recruiters.
So that's just something tounderstand and it's gotten
better now.
But at the same time, it iswith the race for ai, with a lot

(34:00):
of tech companies.
Companies are cutting out their, I guess, least non-revenue
generating businesses ororganizations.
Luckily, of course, recruitersare still needed for any new
teams or any backfill that'screated from people maybe
leaving due to performance, butit is.

(34:22):
I have spoke to a lot of myrecruiter colleagues and kind of
, at this point we're trying tojust hold on to our jobs and we
don't know when we'll receive amessage.
Uh, you know it'll be a lastday.
So if anyone is trying to getinto tech recruiting now,
definitely know that it is goingto be hard.
It's still possible, of course,but it is something that if you

(34:42):
want stability.
It might not be the best optionfor you right now, but maybe it
will change in the futurebecause, again, it is very
market dependent and for someonewho is a candidate, you know,
trying to get hired, regardlessof whether it's recruiting,
engineering, marketing advicethat I have for them is,
honestly, at this point in time,it is the age of tech and

(35:08):
online presence, online branding, is very important.
I'll be honest, as a recruiter,when I do see my candidates,
everyone's linking theirLinkedIns.
Nowadays it's a very normalpractice and I will actually
actually go on their LinkedIn,see how they present themselves
on LinkedIn, of course, asidefrom their actual experience and
see what they're even postinglike what type of language do

(35:30):
they have, what discussions andinsights do they bring.
So, if you are a candidate,just make sure that your online
presence and your branding isalso just very well established,
because gone are the days wherewe are actually showing up in
person to interview and makingthat impression solely there,
like you can Google name onlinenow and see so many links of

(35:55):
where their presence is at.
So just really make sure youhave a strong online presence
and brand.

J.R. (35:59):
Yeah, All right, thanks for that.
Let's pivot.
There's so much in this nexttopic.
It's very chunky, but it isbalancing work and play, being
obsessed with building gratitude, losing and gaining passions
and healthy habits.
I don't know if we'll touch allof that stuff.
Okay, do you have any thoughtson how one can best achieve this
whole balance with work andplay?
Any examples?

Lachlan (36:20):
Yeah, one can best achieve this whole balance with
work and play.
Any examples?
Yeah, so balancing work andplay is all dependent on your
habits and how you approach yourlife and what you prioritize.
So for me I was able to.
It's been a challenge for mebecause back then, when I had
more work-life balance, I wasable to clock off at five and do

(36:45):
whatever I need to do that day,whether it's my passions of
bouldering, dancing, taking mydog to the park, hanging out
with friends or my family.
But of course, now that thingshave changed and it seems like
everything is so fast anddemanding things have changed
and it seems like everything isso fast and demanding.
I have less work-life balance.
So I've been able to reallykind of zero in on improving

(37:09):
balancing work and play.
Realistically, I don't have thatmuch time in the day anymore to
play, it's just more work.
But because I do have, like, mythings that are non-negotiables
, like my like working out,spending time with my friends
just to keep me sane, like itall comes to prioritization, and
prioritization also then comes,as I said, with your habits and

(37:30):
kind of breaking it down intoeach micro step and then kind of
organizing it so I have aprofessional mental health coach
that helps keep me accountablewith.
That, like the three thingsI've been needing more of is
like sleep and as well as I'mbuilding like a YouTube channel.
So with my current heavycorporate life workload and also
building something on the side,like I don't have much

(37:53):
flexibility to, you know, besocializing with my friends or
pursuing a lot of my passions,but if I do still want to throw
that in, that means like heavyprioritization, skills and goal
setting.
So right now, with my coach,like I set a goal, sleep before
12 three times a week and thenon those days I sleep before 12,
wake up by 8 am, start my firstday working on my youtube

(38:16):
channel and then by 9, 30 or 10am I'm working for a corporate
job, which is TikTok.
But in terms of balancing, it'sall just about analyzing the
current system that you have inorder to work towards the goals
that you want to achieve,because I actually listened to
this podcast called the mindsetmentor and you can set all the

(38:38):
goals you want.
It is a good direction to go to, but what's the most important
part is the systems that youimplement to work towards that
and so going back into balancingwork and play, it's just making
sure you have a system thatcontributes towards achieving
those goals.
And one more thing I want to goover in this subject is his

(39:00):
name's rob I forgot his lastname from the mindset mentor,
the.
With the law of attraction, I Ifeel like I have a lot of goals
and I try to attract it and Ivisualize it, but visualizing it
is just not enough because inthe word attraction is the word
action.
So it's all just about makingsure, again, with the systems
that you implement, that youtake action on those and to be

(39:23):
able to, you know, balance yourwork and then have downtime to
play, whether that's exercisingtalking to friends, whatever you
enjoy, okay rob dial nice,that's his name, exactly nice.

J.R. (39:37):
We'll link that in the show notes.
Yeah, yeah, that was great.
So now on this, on your youtubechannel or channels so you
mentioned before you're buildingthis k-pop news channel and now
you're doing this sort of techrecruiting channel or you're
building it out.
Could you walk us through?
There's so many ways you can gowith this and we're not, we're
kind of short on time, but yeahhow, what is that process like,
or what is so?

(39:58):
What is the process of buildingout a youtube channel?

Lachlan (39:59):
I guess we can start with that yeah, I actually got a
coach for it, oh cool yeah sowhen I was in australia I was
like deep into the computer atwork and I was like I need
something more creative becauseI'm at TikTok yeah, I see
creators come into office butI'm gonna ask why, but you see,
you felt like you needed tocreate something yes, I feel
like I need to create somethingand I just felt inspired by

(40:20):
seeing all these creators andthe content they create.
But, of course, at TikTok, I'mthe one that's behind the desk.
So I got a coach.
It was for, like a facelessYouTube channel program how to
create a YouTube channel withoutactually showing your face.
It involves, of course, hiringfreelancers from like the
Philippines, indonesia, brazil.
So that's how I started offbeing able to balance working at

(40:44):
TikTok and also building aYouTube channel on K-pop.
It was K-pop.
The K-pop YouTube channel wasalways my training wheels
channel, because it does have alarge audience, so there's more
potential for larger viewershipand then comments, and that's my
feedback.
I mean, I was able to monetizethat in a month and a half,
which was faster than I expected, but it didn't.
The entertainment niche onyoutube didn't make me as much

(41:06):
money as I was putting into it,but my ultimate goal was to
educate people who are findingjobs on how to find jobs, given
my insight as a tech recruiter.
So that's why I'm now buildingmy tech recruiting channel that
sets release at the end of themonth.
You know, just kind of thosevideos about integrating modern

(41:27):
day hiring practices.
10 things recruiters won't tellyou about the recruiting
process or how to write a resumewith ChatGPT in eight seconds.
So those types of videos, butthe process of building is just
also.
I don't think I could do it allby myself.
It really takes a team to do it, but it's luckily.
With the skills I learned fromTikTok and entrepreneurship,
that's how I was able tonavigate it.

J.R. (41:47):
Nice, I like it.
Maybe for part two, if it's inthe cards, we can talk about
that, because I'm so curiousabout like building channels and
whatnot.

Lachlan (41:54):
Yeah, yeah.

J.R. (41:55):
All right.
So, moving on from that, youmentioned gaining passions and
losing passions, and then thelast thing is healthy habits.
Which one do you want to touchon?

Lachlan (42:03):
Probably gaining and losing passions, since we're on
that wave right now.

J.R. (42:07):
And then healthy habits we're on that wave right now and
then yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what are your thoughts ongaining and losing passions?
I get the idea of, okay, I'mgoing through life, trying new
things, I found a passion ofmine, but I guess the flip side
of that.
What do you mean by losingpassions?
Yeah, how does that apply tothe?

Lachlan (42:21):
audience.
So it's more so not losingpassions by choice, but losing
it because of the circumstancesthat you're in.
Again, like my work is verydemanding now and I've promoted
twice, but without yourpromotion.
Like I have to promote ordevote more time to my role.
So in a sense, I am verypassionate about bouldering,

(42:43):
about dancing, about hanging outwith my friends, but because of
now, the time constraints Ihave, I've had to sacrifice a
lot of the time to thesepassions.
So it is that's what I defineas my midlife crisis, because,
like I still, at heart, am, Iwant to pursue what I feel just

(43:08):
makes me happy but.
But with the system of workingin a corporate job, you know
trying to climb the ladder ornot even trying to, but like
doing it for the sake of stayingin the company or making a
paycheck, and you know payingall the bills Like it's, it
comes with the sacrifice ofhaving to lose that passion

(43:28):
Again, not by choice but byforce.
So that's just something that'skind of sad.

J.R. (43:32):
Yeah, I feel it.
So it's just something thatit's been on your mind.
It's as I, as you prioritizeand have have to carve out more
time for these things.
These things just fall off justby circumstance.

Lachlan (43:41):
Exactly, and I don't know if you watched Vibe, but
the there was a set by GRV andthey literally just did.
Did they place?

J.R. (43:49):
they got first.

Lachlan (43:49):
Okay, gotcha yeah they did a set on.
Basically the premise was therewas a worker and he was like
forcing his corporate job ofcourse not, it wasn't his
passion, very evidently and theywere like kind of dancing
through the whole journey.
So they used props, like, andit was really cool, but
basically at the end he puts inhis two week notice notice.

(44:12):
The set's called two-weeknotice and then they like just
do a dance break.
At the end everyone's like,yeah, and then.
So what's really cool aboutthat?
What I heard from my friend isthat the person who was the main
character actually put in histwo-week notice and is now
pursuing, like dance full-timeoh so it's really cool how that
tied into like real life.
but after watching that set itdid make me realize like really

(44:36):
reflect on like my job and likekind of the sacrifices I had to
make on that for my passions,not only just in like dance, but
like bouldering and kind of mymindset with how I view things
now.
So I think I don't want tosuccumb to that mindset of kind
of what the system perpetuateson us and that's why I do want

(44:58):
to keep building things likeYouTube channel.
I invest in real estate to beable to buy me that freedom of
time in the future to then getback to those passions.
So it is like kind of that thingright now of things are going
to get worse before they getbetter I'll link to that video
as well.

J.R. (45:17):
I have not watched it, but I've heard good things and
people are posting stories, soI'll check that out, re-watching
it every day, yeah nice yeah Iwas like I thought you were
gonna say yeah, he put in histwo-week notice on stage.
Yeah, he sent the email.

Lachlan (45:29):
Sent the email, yeah, first place and he's like oh
sorry you guys didn't play, soI'm like uh-huh.
He's like wait, I take thatback.
I take that back, Guys, yeah, Ididn't.

J.R. (45:38):
Yeah, we didn't get first.
Can I have my job back?
Yeah, that's crazy.
Yeah, for sure, for sure, nice,okay, this is the fun part.
Billboard question.
So if you could put up a signfor millions of people to see,
what would it say?

Lachlan (45:53):
If I could put up a sign for millions of people to
see, it would say it'd probablysay next exit four and then
insert something like reallyrandom and funny.
I feel like it just needs somelighthearted comedy in the world
now In a girl voice.

J.R. (46:11):
what do you mean?
But I want to be like.

Lachlan (46:12):
I want to be like yeah, exactly, I want it to be like
something that's like actuallylike not existing, but it's like
exit here for, and theneveryone's exiting, but like
it's not I like it.

J.R. (46:22):
Yeah, self-inflicted wound , so, oh sorry.
Hardest challenges what is oneof the hardest challenges you
faced in your life and what didyou learn from it?
Yes, the hardest challenge.

Lachlan (46:31):
I faced TLDR During my sophomore year of high school.
My dad was flying back andforth between America and Hong
Kong.
He's also like a globalbusinessman, and he gave me and
my family the opportunity tomove to Hong Kong, and our life
would like really exponentiallyincrease there, like things
would just work out really well.

(46:51):
I was going to move to HongKong and our life would like
really exponentially increasethere.
Like it was, things would bewould just work out really well.
I was going to go tointernational school, um, so me
and my mom said yes, and all mysiblings are going to college at
the time, so it didn't reallyaffect them.
Me my mom said yes, and theneventually, like he accepted
that job offer in Hong Kong, andthen me mom like kind of turned
back and said, never mind, um,and it just affected a lot of

(47:14):
things in our family, becausenow he's like in Hong Kong, my
family's here in the US, and Ithink what that taught me,
though, is to really makedecisions rationally based, or
rather than making emotionalbased decisions, because at the
time, I I went to hong kong onceand I had the time of my life

(47:35):
on vacation, and that's why, atthe first I was really willing
to just move there, but then Ididn't realize, of course, like
what I'd be sacrificing here andthe opportunities I'd be
sacrificing here.
I'm really thankful for my dadand I think I've landed in a
very good place by staying here,but when it comes to making big
decisions or any decision, likejust approaching it rationally

(47:57):
rather than emotionally, yeah,so this self-inflicted wound?

J.R. (48:01):
do you have a story about something that's gone wrong in
your life?
That was your fault and youcan't blame anyone because you
did it to yourself?

Lachlan (48:07):
I'm not gonna lie, I can't think of anything right
now, I think for the most part.
I don't know if it's my mindset, but things do tend to go my
way, not all.
I love that for you yeah, I ofcourse maybe in growing up in
school I always got sent to theprincipal's office or sent to
other teachers classroomsbecause I couldn't sit still,

(48:28):
but then later on in life, gotdiagnosed with adhd you're like
well, I don't know, why do youguys treat me like that?
yeah, but for the most partbecause I guess I can't.

J.R. (48:37):
Yeah, no, it's all good, yeah, no.
I think part of that is likemindset, right, yeah, yeah.
So the next ones, next two,might be hard for you, then what
is?
The first one is if you couldredo one thing, what would you
do differently?
And then the second one is ifyou could give your younger self
advice, what would it be?

Lachlan (48:50):
now, those are kind of different, you know, but okay if
I could redo one thing, itwould be to, um, wear my
retainers after I got my bracesoff.
I know that's completely likerandom and off like our tent or
subjects that we've been talkingabout, but basically, after I
got my braces off, I was wearingmy retainers for a while.
I went to vacation in thephilippines and then, I think,

(49:13):
like one of the helpers took itand I just didn't, I was like oh
, whatever, yeah, my teeth arestraight anyways, but now, like
my teeth have misaligned andlike I just felt I have to get
braces again.
So that's one thing I wouldlike okay, that was the one.

J.R. (49:28):
That was the one.
And if I were to redo something, younger self advice.
So if you give your youngerself advice, any age, any time
period, what would that advicebe?

Lachlan (49:36):
oh, to my younger self.
I was a really picky eater whenI was younger and there was
points where if I was reallyhungry and I didn't like what
was in front of me, I would justchoose to not eat.
But I was like, yeah, maybe formy development that wasn't the
best.
So I would just tell my youngerself, like yo like just eat it

(49:57):
or learn to eat it.
Yeah, I guess the whole.
But if you relate that to kindof like life lessons, it's like
sometimes there areopportunities that present
itself that may not be in yourbest interest but you have to do
it for the sake of a long-termoutcome.
I like that.

J.R. (50:11):
Yeah, I guess it's hard interest, but you have to do it
for the sake of a long-termoutcome.
I like that.
Yeah, I guess it's hard,because how do you convince a
little kid to think long-term?

Lachlan (50:16):
Exactly I feel it.

J.R. (50:18):
What new belief, behavior or habit has improved your life
in the last few years?

Lachlan (50:23):
New belief, behavior or habit.
Okay, one behavior and mindsetthat has been carrying me and,
honestly, was probably what waslike the turning point that made
me go up in life is the mindsetof you might as well do it.

(50:43):
And that means like when you'rejust doing everyday life and you
have a list of things thatstack up, oftentimes a lot of
people will say, oh, your mind'son that and you're just like
I'm just gonna do that later,but now you have to actually
take that mental energy to goback and think about that and
think about exactly what youhave to do, when in that moment
you're already thinking aboutwhat to do and how to do it.

(51:06):
So it doesn't have tonecessarily be a big thing, but,
for example, like sometimesI'll have like clothes on the
floor that I'm like, okay, Iwant to throw in my basket, but
I'm like, okay, it's kind of farfrom me, but so maybe I'll just
do it later.
But like with that might aswell Okay, it's right there, I'm
thinking about it Might as welljust get that over with.
So with that kind of behaviorand mindset, I've been able to

(51:34):
just get a lot of things doneand in the long run, I'm able to
achieve a lot of my goals thatway.
It doesn't necessarily have tobe like physically doing
something every day in life, buteven at work, like if I have
something that I know won't takemuch mental energy and I could
just do that right now and I'mthinking about it, I might as
well just do it, and so it'sthat might as well do it.
Mindset.

J.R. (51:52):
I love that it reminds me of this book, the Five Second
Rule by Mel Robbins.
If it takes five seconds, justdo it Just do it yeah.
Right or count to five.
Just do it, because sometimesthe overthinking just is not
worth it Exactly exactly.
All right.
Next question who would I callsuccessful and how would I
define success?

Lachlan (52:17):
Okay, I have two answers for this.
Actually, I have two friends.
One of them is named KennethEspiritu.
They're actually both dancers.
Well, both of my examples aregoing to be dancers.
Kenneth Espiritu he's one of myclose friends.
He has a dance team called theSpirit 2.
And, like last year they wereon America's Got Talent he has

(52:38):
his own TikTok and then he postslike the team's dance videos
and like it reaches millions ofviews and he also does his own
concept videos.
And my other friend, mark MarkTolan he we're actually kind of
of in a similar place in lifebut he does it even greater.
He's an engineer at Amazon buthe also runs his own dance team

(53:00):
and he's on GRV.
Both of them are on GRV.
Actually I'm a little GRVfanboy over here, but Mark also
is very passionate about dance,seeks opportunities for himself
and his own dance team does alot of backup dancing as well.
And the reason why I thinkthey're one of the most

(53:20):
successful people in my life andwhat I define as success is
because they have an idea ofwhat their passions are and they
really just go for it.
Because, instead of listeningto kind of what people expect

(53:41):
out of them, like growing up.
They really just honed in onwhat they're good at, what they
enjoy and, honestly, what theworld does need again that whole
concept of Ikigai and, honestly, what the world does need again
that whole concept of ikigai.
So I think success, to put itin a broader scope, is defined
as being able to know what youwant to do and, if you're

(54:03):
passionate, know what you'repassionate about and being able
to achieve that.
So it doesn't have to be like,oh yeah, this guy made the most
money in the world.
We often hear, like the wholeexample, that like just because
you're rich doesn't mean you'rethe happiest and of course like
it's always vice versa.
But, yeah, that they're kind oflike the two most successful
people that I view right now andI want to be like them nice, I

(54:25):
like it.

J.R. (54:26):
Yeah.
Next, one's kind of like atwo-sided thing as well.
If you knew you couldn't fail,what would you be trying?
And the opposite side of that,if you knew you would fail, what
would you do anyway, if I knewI couldn't fail, what would I be
trying?

Lachlan (54:38):
and if I knew I could fail, what would I?

J.R. (54:40):
if you knew you would for sure fail, what would you do
anyway?

Lachlan (54:42):
okay, yeah, if I knew I couldn't fail, sorry, if I knew
I couldn't fail, what would Itry?
If I knew I couldn't fail, whatwould I try?
I'd want to fly up to space,and that's because that's like
something that's so literallyout of this world.
Yeah, there's like a spacemission that's going to be done
by, I think, blue Origin, likeAmazon space sector and Katy
Perry's going on that.

(55:02):
But there's been like a lot ofspace incidents in the past,
yeah, and I'm like, oh god,that's so risky.
But also, if that works out,like that's so cool so it's like
high risk, high reward, rightso I'd want to go to space?
yeah, um, and if I knew I wouldfail, but I'd want to do it
anyways is, oh, that's such ahard question this is a new one,

(55:23):
because it's like what?
Why would you want to do?
Why do you want to do somethingwhen it sets you up for, or you
know you're gonna fail?
Do you have an example?

J.R. (55:32):
oh, when it's such a two up for or you know you're going
to fail, do you have?

Lachlan (55:35):
an example.
Oh well, I know.

J.R. (55:35):
I would be doing this podcast.
Oh, because I think the way Iinterpret this question is like
what do you just love doing,that you don't care?
About the result.

Lachlan (55:42):
Okay, do it anyways yes .

J.R. (55:43):
People Cause.
The opposite is, people arescared of you know you would
just do regardless.

Lachlan (55:57):
Oh okay, I guess, honestly, it is what I'm doing
right now as well, like I'mcreating that youtube channel to
for tech recruiting, to givethose opportunities to people
that don't have access tomentorship or never heard of any
really good quality careeradvice.
So, regardless of whether Imake it big in that youtube
channel or whether I monetize ornot, I just don't want to do
that anyways, and yeah, I likeit all.

(56:18):
Right, we're gonna rush throughthese last few ones but do you
have a favorite hot take orsomething you feel like most
people won't agree with, I'lltake I think now nowadays like,
of course I want to treadlightly on this, but with my
generation, I think it's goodthat we are very outspoken and

(56:38):
we are very passionate aboutmaking changes in the world and
creating those disruptions.
But there is that extreme whereI think there's sometimes where
you have to take a step back andjust approaching this
differently, and it's notnecessarily what you say, but
how you deliver it.
And if you had to take a stepback and just approaching this
differently, and it's notnecessarily what you say but how
you deliver it, and if you wantto make change in this world,
sometimes it is or most of thetime it is going to be about how

(57:01):
you send that message asopposed to what the message is,
because you can have a goodmessage, but if you're going to
deliver it in a poor way, thenit's not going to be received
well by other people and peoplewon't act on what you're trying
to tell them.
That's good advice.

J.R. (57:18):
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments
you've ever made in either time,money, energy, etc.

Lachlan (57:23):
Worthwhile investments I made.
It's a literal investment, butbuying properties.
I was fortunate enough duringCOVID, like when I started
working, I lived with my parents, so I'm very privileged in that
sense to be able to save moneywhich put me in a position to
put a down payment on a condo.
I lived in that condo by myselffor a few years and the value

(57:47):
of that has grown.
So when I do sell it, I will beable to pocket that money and
then invest in other stuff.
And then I now co-invested inthe property I live in now with
my parents and I have someroommates in there.
I manage that property as welland the equity has gone up a lot
.
So real estate's a really goodinvestment early on, especially

(58:09):
because sometimes, like I I'llbe honest like I am very cash
poor, like in that sense, I amstill living paycheck to
paycheck.
But when it comes to like myportfolio and knowing how much I
have in my yeah, my portfolio,um, it's still growing.

J.R. (58:26):
Yeah, nice, I like that and respect I think that's where
I want to get to too is likeproperties and stuff like that.

Lachlan (58:30):
And you're thinking term, obviously.
So I yeah, I think that's agood takeaway well my mom's real
estate agent.

J.R. (58:35):
So I'll help you, I'll set you up nice yeah, cool, all
right, let's wrap it up so now.
Yeah, there's a last fewquestions, but it's okay, they
don't need to hear that okay,yeah, but uh yeah thank you.
Thank you for being here.
We'll do any questions, sogratitude shout out to my mom's,
where I learned it from.
So, lachlan, what are yougrateful for?

Lachlan (58:51):
yes, shout out to all my family my mom, my dad, my
siblings just rooting for methroughout life.
I'm a funny story I'm actuallythe only non-doctor out of my
siblings oh, probably the onlyone that's not a doctor.

J.R. (59:04):
Wow, what a disappointment .
What a disappointment.

Lachlan (59:07):
But they still are very proud and happy.
Me despite what other peoplewould think and my dog I know
she won't understand her here,but she's been through my side
for the past 11 years and, eventhough she doesn't say anything
like english wise, yeah, likeshe's helped me become who I am

(59:27):
and I just love her so much.

J.R. (59:28):
I love it Any final ask from the audience or any final
takeaways you'd like them tohave from this conversation.

Lachlan (59:34):
Yes, takeaways, mindset's, everything.
Whether or not you have a lotof things or you don't have a
lot in your life, justacknowledge what you do have and
be appreciative for it.
I think that mindset's going tocarry you to just be happy,
because happiness, depending onhow you define it, is always

(59:58):
just going to be depending onwhat your mindset is.
And keep an eye out for myyoutube channel that's going to
be released at the end of themonth.
It's called I haven't actuallytold anyone the name yet, but
not that I'm like a celebrity oranything but it's called Level
Up with Lachlan.
I'm going to be giving reallyinsight on getting a job as a
recruiter, also giving more tipson how to find success in your

(01:00:21):
life, whether it's throughhealthy habits, being productive
, and just share my life storywith you guys.

J.R. (01:00:27):
So yeah, nice like it Is, share my life story with you
guys.
So yeah, Nice Like it is likethe channel up up, it's just not
posted or what is that I canlink to it and everything it's
going to be posted by March 30.

Lachlan (01:00:36):
How many months is how many days in this month?
March 31st.
It's going to be posted by theend of this month.
I have all the videos, but Ihaven't actually I haven't even
made the channel yet so I stillneed to, but all the videos are
cool made.

J.R. (01:00:49):
Yeah, yeah, cool, cool, cool, yeah.

Lachlan (01:00:50):
This episode will probably up on the 14th of april
oh, yours, yours will be liveby before this episode, so I'll
link to it cool.

J.R. (01:00:57):
Well, on that note, where can we find you?
If people want to check outwhat you're up to or reach out
or anything like that?

Lachlan (01:01:01):
where can they find you .
Yes, if you want to find me oninstagram, my instagram username
is lachlanma.
That's kind of just like mylifestyle updates all there.
If you want to connect with meon linkedin, I actually have.
My name is lachlan cameron.
That's my middle cameron's mymiddle name and I live in north
county.
So if you ever just want toconnect, get to know each other,

(01:01:23):
I'm always open to new friendsand learning about new
experiences, so just hit me upon one of those two platforms if
you want to meet up, nice dopecool Lachlan.

J.R. (01:01:32):
Thank you so much for everything.
This was a great conversationyeah.

Lachlan (01:01:35):
I learned a lot and hopefully you had fun of course,
yeah, yeah, I learned a lotthrough doing this as well too,
so, yes, great.

J.R. (01:01:41):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to your channel and everything,
so we'll stay tuned for thatsweet thank you all right.
So my final sign off.
Thank you guys for being here.
I would really appreciate it.
A friendly reminder to alwaysbe kind to others, especially
yourself.
And also, you can learnsomething from someone if you
just take the time to listen.
Thanks for being here, thankyou.

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#29: Lachlan Ma - Tech Recruiting at TikTok, Goal-Setting, and Discovering Your Ikigai

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#29: Lachlan Ma - Tech Recruiting at TikTok, Goal-Setting, and Discovering Your Ikigai