"Obviously, Love." with Ed Halla, on Language and Culture, International Entrepreneurship, Relationship, and Culture.

zhou: Okay. , Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Intersection podcast program. Uh, we are at the beginning of October. Uh, uh, I'm very thrilled to have, um, a guest here today. He's amazing. He is a serial international entrepreneur and his name is Ed Hala. And Ed and I met through a mutual friend, I think.

Uh, and um, what I impresses me, well, one of the things that you impress me at is your language skill. You speak multiple languages, if not fluent. Um, at least familiar with them. And your mother tongue is Czech, I believe, and then of course, English. And then you are also familiar. With Polish, Slovak, French, and Russian.

Um, so I'm curious, you know, well, first of all, I would love for you [00:01:00] to introduce yourself to the audience and then maybe talk a little bit about your background.

Ed: Hi, uh, thanks for having me. This is, uh, wonderful that you invite me to your podcast. Um, I am Ed Hala and I live in Portland, Oregon. am, uh, was born in Czech Czechoslovakia. Now it's Czech Republic, and I moved to US in 2001. In 2007. I started there. Company here in us, which was a offshoot of a Czech company.

My, uh, classmate from, uh, theater school that I went

zhou: Mm-hmm. Hmm.

Ed: I have a bachelor drama, dramatic Arts and Master in Economics and Finance.

zhou: Wow.

Ed: So the guy from theater school called me up 15 years after we left the school, and he says he has a small agency in Prague and he wants to expand to us, Portland, [00:02:00] Oregon because Adidas is headquarter here.

The North American headquarters of Adidas are in Portland, Oregon because of Nike headquarters.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So, uh, we got together in 2006, started a company in 2007, and together we grew it into this, uh, 14 offices, large over a thousand people, employee, uh, agency, uh, that we then successfully sold 2013. I stay on board for another five years, then I left, and then I did, uh, other projects.

I was running a tech startup and then I start CPG. That actually didn't work out because of COVID. now I have, uh, loose Leaf Tea Company, which is an offshoot of the CPG company, which was a ice tea company. And, um, uh, your question, sorry, your question was.

zhou: Your whole international [00:03:00] background. My guess is, you know, your language background has a lot to do with that, you know, with your culture, background and all the business and travel. So I'm curious about that cultural connection to your entrepreneurial spirit just in a row.

Ed: I see. So, again, not very popular, but I humble myself because I'm from Europe and in Europe you grew up and I headed it three miles to Polish border.

zhou_1_10-01-2025_100636: Yeah.

squadcaster-07hi_1_10-01-2025_100636: I learned Polish watching tv I, I live in Settes. It's the, it's the region that Hitler took over first, uh, before Second World

zhou: Mm.

Ed: which was a, you know, borderline of Czechoslovakia that had lots of German polish and everything.

So I'm in a city that, in last 300 years, was a part of maybe five in countries. And I mean, my grandma never moved, but she went from being German, Polish Czech, [00:04:00] back to German, back to Czech. but she was living in that small, know, house, uh, in a village and never moved. we all in Europe understand. A little bit of different languages. So once you know, you see your neighbors three miles down the road and they speak polish, you understand them. Same way we understand, everybody can say good morning in uh,

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: everybody can say a little bit of France. Everybody can say a little bit of Spanish. then as a child, started languages at school in the third grade, then second language in the fifth grade, and then third language in a university. So we all have three languages, so I'm not that special. And then you add to it, you know, a little bit extra which is very similar to Czech. Then all of a sudden you speak four languages and then you add another one in five. So I'm pretty average where I'm from, but, but here in US, I look like I'm a [00:05:00] brainiac.

So I love it. Yes. Let's keep that this way. I'm a, I'm a very smart and I speak five languages, but don't post this podcast in Europe because everybody is like, whatever. It's just Tuesday for us.

zhou: I mean, I honestly, I think, yes, I agree with you. I think in your role, probably because of the, the multicultural kind of nature of the continent, everyone speaks a little bit of other languages or at least can understand it. Um, but I do think, like you said, in the us, um, even though, uh, a lot of people speak Spanish, a lot of people speak Cantonese.

The majority, you know, the majority I'm air quoting of the US is like English only. And you remind

Ed: that. I like that I support that

zhou: yes.

Ed: all other languages. We should build a tower and have a one language. [00:06:00] I, I like the English and I, but I, the story of, you know, I'm fascinated by the story, how English become number one. Because I was in a fifth grade. I'm. I'm 51, so it's long time ago, but I was in fifth grade in Eastern Europe, uh, we had to learn English, uh, sorry, Russian. And then they come on the fifth grade and say, what's your second language? And then you talk to your friends. And we are all, you know, 10-year-old and the kids that, so at that time, 1985, it was unclear what's the best language to learn because German was the most spoken in Europe. Spanish was one of the most spoken in the world.

French was if you want to go to politics and diplomacy. And then there was this obscure language from UK Uh, and, uh, and, and Americans, our mortal enemies spoke that language. So I'm sitting there and I was just like, ah, I don't like the sound [00:07:00] of German. French is hard. Let me go with English. I don't know why. But then computers came in the middle of eighties all the computers from West Coast of United States and we both live

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: changed the

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: because all the, all the hippies was doing LSD in California. And now we have these microchips and computers. But at that time, I remember I select English as a obscure language that was not number one. then computers came Basic. All the program language is very in English,

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: And that, that really change, that really change how English become number one because everybody opens computer and there's a control al delete, and there is a enter and there is all these commands on that keyboard, right? Even in check keyboard, there's no like. in Czech. Maybe there is, I don't know. I've never seen it. we all learn English after 80. So I had this premonition that I should learn English, but I, [00:08:00] but at that time it was very unclear. What's number one

zhou: Hmm

Ed: It's very clear. You go to China, you go to Japan, you go to South Africa, you go to uh, Latin America,

zhou: mm

Ed: and you can make a conversation

zhou: mm

Ed: in English,

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: not in German, not in French of, you know, suddenly Spanish in South

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: but you can always make a conversation in English. So in that sense, English took over and it become this new modern world language. Remember, uh, there was a, in nineties they started with the, what was the language that combined all the languages and it was like, oh, that's the future of languages. I forgot even how it's named. Anyway, so there was lots of try.

English was very uncertain. And if it's any gonna be any useful. And you know, 40 years later, English is ruling the world,

zhou: Yeah. That's so interesting. Yeah, I didn't know about that. Uh, kind of evolvement [00:09:00] of languages over the decades. I remember. I mean, it makes sense. 'cause you mentioned 1985 and I was born three years after that. And then growing up, I think I started to learn English at the age of nine. So that's third grade.

And it was mandatory. So based,

Ed: there was nineties, now the computers are around

zhou: yeah, exactly.

Ed: that exactly? In nineties It was. So it just switched. Of the computers. I mean, we don't talk about it too much, but actually I have, again, it's my theory, it's I'm making up stuff

zhou: Please share.

Ed: don't have any data to confirm it, but I remember right, so you, I have a very good clarity about what was going on.

And all my friends went into German. They all start learning German because that was the most useful in Europe. You want to do something in the, in, in Europe, you learn German Austrian speak that. And they were on the border with us and it was like, [00:10:00] oh yeah, why would you learn English? There is, you know, you will never need it because English, uh, if there are Americans, we were like, that's our mortal enemy. And then UK is an island with few people and they, there's nothing going on there except clean. So why would you learn English

zhou: Huh.

Ed: nineties? It was very clear, because we all were put in front of these keyboards and the programming languages, they were all in English.

zhou: That's so interesting. I guess to China's credit, I think they, for they had these kind of foresight to see, you know, English was going to become. Really big and

Ed: In again, if you

zhou: yeah,

Ed: in eighties was not that great,

zhou: I didn't remember much. Okay.

Ed: but No, no, but if you see the photos of Shanghai,

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: If you see 19, 19 92, even Shanghai Bond, there's a, there's the, the peril, the one tower, and it's empty. It's just [00:11:00] fields.

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: So the same, that's why I'm saying nineties was really the boom that turned it on like big

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: and then computers turned it on big time and that collided together.

And that's why English in nineties, I would be very clear that I need to learn English. That was, that was already clear. But in the eighties it was still uncertain.

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: That's what I'm saying and it's just that it's just 10 years and in 10 years computers took over the same way as we see Apple introduced that headphones, they will translate why I, why we even need to learn that language.

Right. We will have a Apple AirPods.

zhou: That worries me a little. A friend of mine the other day, we were kind of joking about languages 'cause they were talking about how, um, how big of a thriving community is in New York, where a lot of Chinese families are there and they speak only Chinese or [00:12:00] like Cantonese, Mandarin, et cetera. And what they told me is they're going to use the new kind of Apple pod to translate.

And I was like, oh God, that just sounds, I, I don't know how I feel about that. It is

Ed: feel good. I feel good. That's a progress. If, if we can, you know, I'm sorry. My children goes to international school and they have a full immersion of

zhou: cool.

Ed: So I, I trash languages. But what I do is I truly believe that, uh, the mental exercise and the understanding of culture comes from, you know, basics like language. So I, I, I am, I think people, uh, as a, a mental exercise should learn or should understand languages. On the other hand, I don't mind if I have a phone because if I go to China and I need to, uh, order something or, you know, visit, imagine it will make travel easier for

zhou: That's true.

Ed: wrong with that, right?

zhou: That's true.

Ed: would travel, there would be less issues because you go and you see that it's the same. know, mother, father, they have their kids. They're trying

zhou: That's true.

Ed: and, and the humanity, if everything else, if it's used the right way as a technology, the humanity can, uh, benefit from it.

zhou: I appreciate that actually. Um, you talked about, you know, you mentioned humanity, which you know, is a big interest here, and you spent a lot of time in China. So perhaps share a little bit about your experience in China as a business person and as a, maybe a, a resident slash visitor and how you, um, your observation of humanity while you were there.

Maybe start with the years when you were in China.

Ed: Uh, so we opened our office in 2010

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: and I, uh, uh, left the company in [00:14:00] 2018. In the meantime, you know, we started, I learned, I remember, I, we, we hired one, one person that, uh, spoke English and, uh, he was actually ex Russians. , We hired that person over the internet in that sense, right? You hire a consultant?

Consultant. And then I landed, I had a backpack, I got out of Shanghai Airport, Ong, I was like, oh, I'll do business here. And when I was leaving, I had three offices, about a hundred employees. I had office in Shanghai, shaman and Hong Kong. Um, and, and until today I joke again, this is, you know, it's, it's a, it's a humor.

But I say I only needed three words, to do business in China. I didn't need to speak the language, but I need to say, fa

zhou: Fapiao

Ed: listen, I need to say shifu.

zhou: Sh. Yeah. Uhhuh.

Ed: And then she,

zhou: Yeah. So for our listeners, again, English only, Fapiao is receipts.

Ed: yeah, invoice.

zhou: yeah. Uh, and Shifu is like, um, like sir, or like,

Ed: It's a missed, it's a showing respect, right? So we show respect. You ask for receipt, and then you say thank you, and that three words will make your business in China go, well, I'm serious. I went there and I had, you know, beautiful business. And it was the, the, the curve, right? It went from zero to couple million dollars very quickly. Uh, I, I would say almost, uh, the fastest anywhere in the world,

zhou: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ed: But in that sense, I always had a translator. I always had a. know, not always, but you figure it out. But I was like, I need a fao, I need a fao shifu. She, she shifu, [00:16:00] uh, com combination of these three words. And I built, uh, you know, large business in China. Uh, but in China, again, you have to, uh, the, the culture shock in Asia is one of the biggest ones. I, I don't get culture shocks anymore,

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: if you, uh, for example, you know, in China, uh, you have to, the, the, the keeping your face is the most important part of the culture, right? from being, you know, that, um, and it actually is connected now when I think about it is, uh, Americans are very individualistic,

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: I am now American and I can understand it as a European, Chinese are very family

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: But part of it is also part is that in China, the keeping your face is the most important part. So you go to your, uh, factory supplier and you, you, there, you have a five days before you have to [00:17:00] fly to other continent or whatever,

zhou: Right. Mm-hmm.

Ed: And you come on Wednesday the prototype is that date ready and the factory says it's, uh, we cannot show it to you. And you're like, so it's not ready, it's late. No, it's not late, we cannot show it to you. We will show it to you on Friday. For Chinese, they will never say we are late. That means you lose your credibility and face.

Right. They'll say it's, it's tomorrow that you need to come. So, and at the beginning it was like, oh, they lying to me, sort of this, this like, you know, aggressive American approaches like this is, you are making up stuff. They're lying and then you realize they are telling you we are late. They will not use the words, we are late.

They will use the words, come on Friday

zhou: Right.

Ed: because it's ready, but we cannot show it to you. So that's one. So you have to, you have to kind of walk around that and understand it's not malicious, [00:18:00] it's the way how they communicate. Because it happens to everyone that they are late. It's, you know, it's business.

You are two days late, COVID, you are three months late or

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: But they will not admit it. And then when you realize that you don't, you don't have to be angry with them and

zhou: Right.

Ed: avoid lots of conflicts. That's one. And then second was when you, when I had a meeting, this whole company, right?

So you invite everybody. Everybody goes to Shaman and you have this big office and then you stand in front of all the employees. They all speak English, by the

zhou: Wow.

Ed: when I started. Nobody spoke English. 10 years later,

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: everyone in China spoke English because when you speak English, the job that you would get $300. Quality control manager will get a $300 if he doesn't speak English, if he gets, he speaks English, he gets the salary goes almost 10 times more.

zhou: Hmm

Ed: You can make up to 3000 a month or whatever it

zhou: mm-hmm.

Ed: it's like you learn that one piece and your profession, you have so many more [00:19:00] opportunities. So they all learn English.

zhou: Wow.

Ed: Uh, but I'm sitting there, there's 70 employees or whatever, and I make a joke and nobody

zhou: Oh no.

Ed: And I said, excuse me if I make a joke, you guys have to laugh, right? And you see your reaction. You laugh at it because it's sarcasm,

zhou: exactly.

Ed: You know what they did? They wrote it down. Laugh at Ed's jokes. And I was like, oh my goodness, I can't, you know.

So in that sense, you realize, uh, the hierarchy you, really follow Well, instructions. take not as much initiative as Americans. They're so, uh, you know, full of themselves. They will always be like, I'm the best I, I'll do whatever I

zhou: Right.

Ed: Chinese will, like, I will follow the orders, I will follow the, you know, I will not take initiative because they will expose me to lose my faith. So all these culture things you find out, and I was like, okay, how am I gonna [00:20:00] break this barrier and make them more open? Because you need, in reality, I truly believe that you need open feedback.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: any leader, it's politics or whatever, tells you that they don't or that you have a sense, they cannot receive feedback, cannot improve.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So I was like, how am I gonna find out if we're doing it right in China? Right? Why? How am I gonna find out that these factories are the right factories?

zhou: Right.

Ed: So then you create relationship with Chinese, In China, what I always did when I traveled there, I stopped by every, you know, employee in the office and I ask them about their family.

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: And once you ask them about their family, something changes, don't be, don't be lying, don't be in, be not genuine. Ingenuine, the English word? Opposite of genuine,

zhou: Uh,

Ed: you know?

zhou: disingenuous.

Ed: Yeah. Disingenuine don't be fake,

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: But show interest in their family. They take that mask of I cannot lose this face away. [00:21:00] You create bond and then they actually can talk to you about, uh, what is going on really in the company. Uh, so that's another advice, you know, go create for this in us.

It's almost, I, at some point of my career, publicly traded company leader. I can't ask people if they have a children.

zhou: Right.

Ed: Because I might be exposed to HR issues,

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So I'm, in many instances, I didn't know if my employees are married or they have children, and I let it, let it be like

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: only in us, in Czech.

I could always find out anywhere

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: in China, I was almost required for me to find out what's their situation in family I can have a professional relationship. So that's, that's what you have to keep in mind. , You know, that's the culture differences.

You go, you find out and then you have to adjust, but you cannot have this, I, I [00:22:00] didn't have that mentality of this is wrong, this is right. was like,

zhou: Right?

Ed: that's Russian, that's Czech, that's American. And everywhere I went, I had to tune into that.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: And then it make me, not make me, but it make our company successful. last point was Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year. You always promote before people go on Chinese New Year. Because in China employees go back home to their parents and aunties and

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: and uncle will ask you, how's your salary? How is your title veered? you have to report that you are, uh, growing. So we, every year in January, I flew to China before Chinese new area. I had a sit down with, you know, per performance reviews. And you make all the junior, senior, and all you, we were making up titles. It didn't matter. [00:23:00] But if you can take that title to your mom in Northern China and be like, look, I'm a senior

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: whole family is like you. Good job.

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: And we had a happy employees.

zhou: Yeah, yeah. I mean I really appreciate that, like your very personal and of course professional experience from China, in China and with Chinese people. And it's really true whether or not you have a good Chinese New Year, it really depends on what news you bring home. Are we gonna have a good new year?

You know, it's counting on the young people, oftentimes the son, I think. Um, or the nephews. So,

Ed: And then you give them reds and send them on their way.

zhou: exactly. And I, what, another thing I appreciate about this experience at is that, um, there is not right or wrong, you know, when [00:24:00] it, yes, I think it is important to acknowledge the dated customs or things that can improve at the same time as a foreigner going to another country. I feel that's, you know, that happens a lot when, uh, Americans and Chinese actually, when they visit a DAA different country is they think they know the best.

Um, which oftentimes will create issues, especially, you know, when you encounter, you know, at a restaurant, at cafe or in the street, et cetera. It's that kind of like, I'm better. But that's not true. Like as a foreigner, as a visitor, you go to someone's country, you want to learn about the culture and the custom, like you said, you find out what's going on and then you make adjustment and then everyone's happy.

Um, yeah, I.

Ed: we, we, we, we, we, you [00:25:00] know, my motivation was a success in business. It's very, you know, it's not altruistic. I didn't want to be, like, motivation was like, how can I be the most successful company in my vertical building retail stores in that region?

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: Right? So it's like, it's very pragmatic.

zhou: Yes, I agree.

Ed: Also, also, but we were first one that was actually interesting because we were the first Western agency that had a female leader. Our, uh, the position was general manager, or I forgot the director level that we called that. Uh, yeah, I think it was a, it was a regional general manager gm. I think that's the language that we use in

zhou: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Ed: Every re you know, GM in US is more factory GM in China is more office, so, big boss, they call it in China, big

zhou: Uh, mm-hmm.

Ed: female, uh, uh, Hong Kongese, uh, lady. She went from Starbucks to our agency.

zhou: wow.

Ed: if you go to any meetings, uh, we had a prototype reviews with our competitors and whatever. You can always see the British older dudes running the agencies in China. Right. They call them experts. We call them

zhou: Gosh. Yeah, I know that. Yeah, that's another thing.

Ed: we were the first agency that promoted a female leader. So you come to meeting, right? And everywhere is this like white dude from England. wrong with that.

They're wonderful. Uh, but our leader was a female. She was ex, she was excellent, she was expert. We grew, she, know, she, she, she was great. but again, I will not call it DEI, I was like, I want the best

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: for this company to

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: And I, and I was like this. And when you sit down with these candidates, the expats, [00:27:00] I was not happy with, you know, their value system or whatever they were doing while this, you know. Hong Kongese, Hong Kongese lady was just top of her game, and I was like, this one.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So in that sense, um, you know, we were, we were making waves, but we all, our interest was, was very selfish. And that makes our business successful. Uh, and, and we did. And that in that sense, we, you know, now define success, right?

But the success

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: I enjoy working with these people. I enjoy what they're doing. I'm not there to step on in them and yelling on them, you know? and uh, so that's, and then last piece that I would say about Chinese is I always was, and I tell people when you go to China, you have to realize, Chinese are one of the best businessmen I ever met, but. They're not sophisticated. [00:28:00] So you go, right, we had a rule. You cannot make bodily noises in the office.

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: We had to actually put it in our Chinese, you know, office. You cannot, 'cause they were spitting in a basket like weird, you know, weird stuff that you would not expect. So I go to factories and it's like, you know, the dude, it's, it's not that fancy. Um, it looks like you, you can easily have a feeling that you are superior, right? Because it's like, oh, look at me, I, you know, I use silverware. It's, it's not that. But same

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: And then when it's over, you realize this Chinese dude made more money on you than you made on your client, right? So it's like always knew how to make money, so I admired it for them, but I was like, watch out, because they will trick you into thinking they're just peasants.

zhou: I, that's so interesting. Um, I have met some very sophisticated Chinese people for sure in my life. I also have seen, like you said, people who are not so, and I think, my guess is. It's partially because of the uneven education system. Like in China, if you grow up in a city, you are more likely to receive some like, educate education.

But if you come from like a rural area and you move to the city and then you make your way to the top, then your childhood will be likely, you know, lacking that kind of adequate education. Um, so I think it really depends on how and where people grew up in China. And China is so huge. So I think depending on someone's background you can see kind of different levels of sophistication.

But that's such a good, um, observation.

Ed: I wanna, I wanna also say was in a, I was in bond in Shanghai on like 50 floor with Marilyn Lynch getting, uh, revolving launch, right? So in China it's always problem to get the profits out of the country because Chinese government doesn't allow

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: That that is, there is one thing that people don't realize about China how tightly the monetary policy is

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So part of it was you create structure that goes through Hong Kong.

zhou: Right.

Ed: it might be different now, uh, with Hong Kong, you know, but anyway, not talking about a mini lynch, uh, on, on bond on this, one of those towers there,

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: 110 floors. And I'm in a, in, in a meeting with Mary Lynch, Mary Merrill Lynch, bank of America.

It's Merri Lynch, whatever he owns, who owns what now? [00:31:00] And you in this, in this beautiful meeting room and the, I call them kids, but all the young men were probably Harvard educated in the suits, like top-notch, uh, bankers. Me, I was, I'm in my t-shirt, my leather jacket. I just need, I just need 150 million revolving, no, it wasn't 115 million revolving something.

Right? And like, how much do you need? We give you amazing, sophisticated everything. That's not necessarily what I'm talking about when you go to manufacturing side of

zhou: Definitely.

Ed: right? So when you go to manufacturing, you as a bester will have a bias that you think that you are, you are more sophisticated. We have to define what sophisticated

zhou: Right.

Ed: And then when it's over, you realize they trick you. They make more money on you. And they, you know, they laughing and they are

zhou: Mm.

Ed: laughing, but they, they make their money. So I was like, Chinese are very, very, uh, good businessmen.

zhou: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ed: you know, it's hard to say, but it's like, can make a stereotype, I like, you know, they're very good in business.

zhou: Hmm. Yeah, I, I don't think I've heard that, uh, kind of in detail and very personal story. At least people don't talk about that in public. So I think that's a really good kind of, um, storytelling for people to learn from. You know, like you have to, to make an analogy, if you have never been to a place, do not make assumption of that place.

Ed: Yeah.

zhou: you have to really go see for yourself. You know, I'm, I'm not making any, you know, um, kind of reflections on, uh, kind of other situations in our lives right now. But really we have to go experience the world in order to understand or have a more holistic perspective of how the world works. Um, so thank you for sharing and I really want to invite you to talk about, uh, coming to America, your podcast project, and I think it's really associated to your, uh, international kind of life experience as well.

So what inspired you to create coming to America?

Ed: Okay, so I don't want to talk about him, . He's, I, I don't wanna give him any more air. Um, he's everywhere.

zhou: Of course.

Ed: and that's what he actually thrives on, is the attention. But it was a, it was a election year he started running. He never stopped running. But, uh, you know, he obviously became the candidate. And I, and I heard, and as soon as that happened, there were immigrants coming to a, in, uh, every time. You know, sort of this type of candidate runs in us. it's based, you know, it's that fear mongering, and then you need that enemy. And there was the immigrants, they call it, uh, the caravans. The caravans are very immigrants, you know, , the, he call it invasion or something like

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: Just terrible language. and I said, well, why don't I, uh, invite, um, people to tell their immigrant stories on a podcast? So the idea, so the, the impulse was the political situation in

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Edsquadcaster-07hi_1_10-01-2025_100636: Uh, and I said, you know, I think we should tell our stories and we should tell it our

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So on my podcast, and my podcast is, uh, called Coming to America based on Eddie Murphy movie, uh, which I found hilarious.

zhou: fun,

Ed: Uh, and, and in that sense, that movie breaks the stereotypes because poor Africans are coming

zhou: right?

Ed: and taking our job. And then you have this rich king or prince coming and working in McDonald's or McDonald's, right? it's like that, that, the juxtaposition of your, uh, bias, right? And that the humor that comes visit.

So I invite people, and my, my goal is to have all the countries from the world, a hundred and ninety five, ninety eight,

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: on my podcast, and then I will shut it down. So each country wants, Uh, and ideally it will be all Portland or Oregon. So we can show, uh, how the whole world lives in one place together peacefully.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: There's no war, war, uh, war zone or whatever is going on right now Portland together, and it's very unique because anywhere you [00:36:00] go in the world, there's very little places that you move into it and you say, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm from that country. If you move to Czech Republic, you will always be Chinese in Czech

zhou: Right.

Ed: uh, if I move to China, I will always be the Lai or whatever you call

zhou: Wai

Ed: Lai.

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: Foreigner,

zhou: Uhhuh.

Ed: Uh, even if I live there

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: if I'm, you know, married and made my life there, I will still be the foreigner while in us. We'll, we come here and we all look different and somehow we agree to call ourselves Americans. And then when you go and you travel around, uh, we, nobody calls United States, United, USA,

zhou: Mm

Ed: they all call it America. It's kind of,

zhou: mm.

Ed: know, America is a continent, but we forget the Canadians and Mexicans. It's all USA,

zhou: Right.

Ed: um, so we call America and there is a same, uh. that's also to be explored later on with this [00:37:00] new administration. But it's this sense that, you know, there is a promised land, there's a country that you can go and work hard and achieve

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: And I'm in, I'm sort of intrigued by that the same way I'm intrigued by the Vesco of United States. So that's why I wanna Portland and Oregon, because I believe the West coasts are really the quintessential, American region and even in the world. So now of the things that we now using as a technology or progress, or even how we wear sweatpants from Nike and sneakers, you know, if my grandma would find out that I wear sweatpants on Saturday or on the weekends, you'd be like, this is not allowed. So all these things are changing based on, uh. You know, west coast of America, and I wanna tap into it. I want to tap into that ethos of what it means to be a, you know, shining city on a hill for the rest of the world.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: Not sure if we are doing a good job right now with that, but again, that's why I started it.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: about 25 episodes, 25

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: um, and I just want to, you know, give immigrants, uh, a little bit of, uh, space to tell their

zhou: Mm-hmm. I really, I admire that. Um, 195 countries is not a small number. And if, you know, if we are able to find one person from every country in Portland, how cool is that?

Ed: I need help if your listeners know any.

zhou: Yes. Yeah. Listeners, um, please.

Ed: Yeah, it's hard. It's hard. And actually in this situation, lots of people say no.

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: So I find them, I, you know, I talk to them about the concept and, and they, they will be willing to do it. But in this political situation, lots of people politely decline and I can't be mad at them.

zhou: Right.

Ed: So it's harder than it seems. And if anybody knows any immigrants, please send my, send them your way,

zhou: Okay.

Ed: you know, pass it on.

zhou: Yeah, yeah, we definitely, yeah. Let's, let's do a call to action. Just focus out there if you want to share your story. And I really don't want to, not really don't want to. I think it is important to acknowledge the times we're in right now. At the same time, I really do think it's a great opportunity to talk about our own humanity.

And humanity is not, you know, you go left and you stay on left, you go right, you stay on, right. It. It wings. Like, there's always this dynamic movement in history and in the development of humanity that we all change. So if you are from a different country or if you family is from a different country and you grew up here, even you [00:40:00] can provide a, a interesting and a different perspective of your America, you know, like you and your FA family come to America, and what is this American life to you?

You know, it, it doesn't have to be very charged or very controversial or even harsh. It can just be your life experience. You know? Like, yeah, I live here. I grew up here, I work here, I have a family here. I go hiking on the weekends. It's just a person's life in America,

Ed: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

zhou: so I actually really appreciate that. And, uh, we'll make sure to put out a call to action if folks are, um, interested and, um, with a little courage, um, to share their [00:41:00] stories. Um, another thing I would love for you to chat about at, uh, is your studio and your drinking your tea.

Ed: Yeah.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: Yeah. I, uh, what, what do you want to talk about?

zhou: Yeah. I mean tea. So help me understand better. Is the tea business part of your pistachio studio or they're separate?

Ed: No, so I have a, I have a T company and you can find it on, uh, ww dot obviously do love,

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: obviously love. Um, and it's, uh, so I, I studied a, I studied a iced tea company

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: and, uh, it was right before COVID and, and, uh, I was losing about dollar 20, uh, on my one can. It was a, it was a tea in a can, nitro infused teas.

zhou: okay.

Ed: And they were all, uh, I can show it to you on a video. Our viewers will, our listeners will not see it. But I used to have drinks based on time of the day, so I had 9:00

zhou: Oh, wow.

Ed: a, uh, y

zhou: Oh, cool.

Ed: from, uh, what's the Ang Province that has the Ong

zhou: Wait, hold on. I don't want you to say something wrong,

Ed: in Shaman? What's the, what's

zhou: shaman. I dunno.

Ed: Fuji. Fuji, yes. Fu yeah. Yeah. Fuji Province. Uh, so I had a Ong from Fuji for two 15. That's your afternoon, sort of when your energy goes down After lunch. I had four 20. It was American men with CBD. Then I had eight 30, which was a common milk chi with o milk. And I hired, uh, fine dining chefs and make me best flavors they can be. So it [00:43:00] was a lech, uh, tropical Ong was a, a Lech Uh, this was a, a smoke orange. And uh, and, and I started and my idea was, my inspiration was anywhere I travel during my business travels. First thing that you show up in any room, any meeting room, they offer you brewed beverage anywhere you go in the

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: I've been everywhere except, uh, Antarctica. And apparently they don't have any tea there. Uh, so you go and first thing is that they offer you warm beverage. I had another concept, morning coffee, cold brew coffee as well. So you would have coffee, air latte, uh, Ong, tea, uh, mark and mint. And then, uh. Camo mail, ros, which is South Africa, uh, chai. So I took every continent, every place I went, and I took their best beverage and I put it in a [00:44:00] can. And I said, well, this, this represents, you know, our humanity. And, uh, and, and each of the drinks are kind of tailored to the time of the day.

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: And I like the idea of it. Uh, so that business,

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: actually, because I, you know, I teach entrepreneurship and I do some courses and I obviously, you know, uh. Consider myself a business expert. One of the principles that I preach in that sense is that you have to test, prototype, evaluate, and then

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: And this startup, unfortunately, when I got to the I prototype, I had 10, uh, retail locations. And I look at the everything and I was like, okay, I need couple million dollars to make this into scale.

At that valuation, I would not own the company. I would have to raise the money

zhou: Right,

Ed: if I can raise it, that's not a guarantee. But if I raise it, I would have investors that I would have to report quarterly results. And I'm in the same spinning circle that I was before,

zhou: right.

Ed: and I said, I will shut it down.

I will not scale this, uh, iced tea company. And once I couldn't, uh, scale it or decided to shut it down, which actually was very difficult,

zhou: Hmm.

Ed: uh. I was left with lots of loose leaf tea inventory because in COVID, when you order something, the shipment doesn't come. So you reorder and then both come at the same moment,

zhou: Oh, no.

Ed: such a mess. So I have these huge piles of, you know, sealed

zhou: Yeah,

Ed: leaf tea in my storage. And then I came up with a, of all, I took a break and I was bitter about it. Uh, so I was like, I'll never touch CPG in my life, blah, blah, blah. And then I came up with a idea to start a new company called obviously Love.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: and the name comes from you travel and they offer you beverage. I obviously love that. It's just like when you, when you walk into [00:46:00] the room and somebody offers you, do you want something to drink? It's a PE offering. It's so weird and so universal. Anywhere in the world you go, not a business dinner, that relationship needs to be

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: But walk into any stranger's room, devil will a free

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: and it's some kind of bush that they throw in the water and be like, you know, beans or whatever it is, right? Call it coffee. so I was fascinated by this, uh, universality of this beverage sort of around the

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: that makes us all human and all same, uh, depends on the bush that you brew, but dude, it's, you go to Kenya and they give you milk

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: It is black tea with milk and uh, sugar. you know, you go to India, they give you chai spices, right? You go to, uh, China, dude, you know how they drink the green tea. I, in that sense, I have a theory that [00:47:00] all Chinese should have a cancer from the pollution in, you know, 10, 15 years ago. But they don't, 'cause they drink so much green tea that they flush it out.

zhou: I hope.

Ed: Uh, they flash, they flush the pencil out. Uh, so I put it in a, and, and that's another part is, you know, my, my, so I can't match. This is the 9:00 AM right? So I kind of match my teas. So this is yba mate, right? This used to be 9:00 AM So I'm selling the inventory of the loose leafy.

zhou: Hmm,

Ed: And because AI started, I as a entrepreneur, I was fascinated by it.

And I said, I will only put 5,000 US dollars into this startup. And let me see if I can start a CPG company with five

zhou: hmm.

Ed: And I did. It's not making me any rich. I actually started Amazon, which again,

zhou: Cool.

Ed: very interesting what's going on with Amazon. Uh, so now I'm pouring a little bit more into marketing

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: truly for a year I was running this business, just this $5,000 start money. it's just kind of for me to exercise. Can I use as much ai, uh, and as much of, you know, um, minimum investment to see if I can build a website, put it on Amazon, build a Shopify, then do packaging and source the packaging. I have the tea. So that's the, that's the reality. So now I have a loose leaf tea.

Go check out www dad, obviously dad love on Amazon, and buy some drinks.

zhou: I actually, I actually find that really fascinating, uh, reasons being you already have the inventory so you are not getting hit by the tariffs.

Ed: No, and actually I'm cheating on that $5,000, right? So I said I start with

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: I had the inventory, so they gave me more

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: to, uh, purchase, you [00:49:00] know, something else. Uh, but. In, again, the, the, that's, that's a part of entrepreneurship, right? It's, it's like you use resources that are

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: but in that iced tea company, I tank way too much money into it

zhou: Right.

Ed: it, and it work out, right?

So, so now I'm in a position when I'm like, can I start a small startup with very little investment? how does it look in a environment that, you know, um, commoditize all the creative ai, all the agencies? 'cause I hired agency to brand the maritime, the iced

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So I agency, I did all the branding and that all went, I was like, I'm not doing that again.

How can I start something with no money still make it, uh, you know, CPG

zhou: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I look forward to seeing, you know, how it, uh, how it goes and will, it's almost holiday season, you know, if people want something unique and special and warm and nice. Like you said, tea represents in a way I agree, like the full humanity. Everywhere you go you have some kind of tea available or offers to you.

Um, so, and you know, as we getting close to the end of our conversation, I do really want you to chat about Pistachio Studio. It looks like your consultancy and, um, I'm very touched by your studio's values. They include. Courage, conviction, curiosity, creativity. It's all the Cs. Courage, conviction, curiosity, creativity, clarity, customer and culture.

Seven values.

Ed: Yeah. Seven Cs.

zhou: yeah. Seven Cs.

Ed: That's my OCD, that's my old,[00:51:00]

zhou: Doesn't matter. I like it.

Ed: yeah.

zhou: So talk about,

Ed: No, it's, and that's part of the clarity,

zhou: yeah.

Ed: can make something more clear, it sticks better. no, pistachio studio is something that I'm just, you know, I, I did as in my portfolio and now I do a little consulting, but it's more in, uh, interestingly in, uh, sort of this non-profit, uh, charitable, work that I do

zhou: Okay. Okay.

Ed: a side. Um, and, uh, so I taught, uh, entrepreneurship course in, uh, for residents of homeless shelters, right?

zhou: Right.

Ed: in t

zhou: Yes.

Ed: um. I helped, uh, with UUGM, union Gospel Mission in Portland, has a thrift store. So I went and I, uh, and I, uh, give them couple advices on how retail should

zhou: Right.

Ed: and they had three [00:52:00] best months ever, and now they want to scale the thrift

zhou: That's cool.

Ed: So I, I, uh, and the money goes back to, uh, financing the homeless shelter.

zhou: mm-hmm.

Ed: Uh, so I do, uh, you know, so I do some things just, , giving back in that

zhou: Of course.

Ed: Uh, but it's not like, you know, I'm, yeah, I don't do it to go on podcasts and talk

zhou: Sure.

Ed: It's just something I do and, uh, and I'm enjoying it because it's, uh, you know, uh, part of who I am.

zhou: Hmm. I, I mean, I really like it. I like the way you represent your services. And also, I know, I think throughout our, our conversation, you keep saying, you know, it's self-interest, it's selfish, it's for the business. But I do think you are being modest. I think yes, as a business person, you need to prioritize productivity and profits, uh, things like all like that.

And you, you hire people, right? So you need to think about, okay, these hundreds of people's jobs and livelihood, uh, kind of depend on me. I understand the, the weight of the responsibility at the same time, you know, just again, take your entrepreneurial journey. Uh, for example, not every business person goes to another country, do business, trying to understand the local customs.

They want to do things their way. Um, so I feel having that initiative and interest in working, like actually working with people on the ground, I, I don't think that's selfish. I think that's some.

Ed: it's, uh, again, it is, it's interesting how you, how you're putting it, uh, because uh, it's just a matter of perspective in that

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: But I want to work in a place that I

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: right? So it's that in that sense, it's self, uh, self-interest. Uh, but then you put some values in it. And I was one of the values, you know, that I always was, uh, insisting on that employees or our employees always leave, believe our company as better professionals, right?

So you start with our company. You become better and better because we have training, we have processes, we

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: values and we will stress and put you in leadership roles and, you

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: and a certain moment, you know, when you, you know, stretch it, it will crack and maybe you leave or you get a better job or something

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: But, my goal was, uh, that everybody leaves as a better professional. So in that sense, you always, when I show up in China and I do business there, we deliver beautiful stores to our

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: very happy with

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: Uh. And I get paid for it. I extract the money, I extract the value, and then I have to look.

And it is like, okay, if it's that one-sided relationship, I will only attract people that want to extract

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: So then you have to think about how do I deliver value to the people so they can deliver people, uh, value to the

zhou: Definitely.

Ed: it's in that sense, it's trade.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: but I rather work in a company even the values that I get, the seven Cs, uh, I am communicating very clearly this is what you will get if your values and everybody has a set of values.

You don't have to define them by seven Cs or

zhou: Right. Right.

Ed: A's, or B, the method, whatever it is. I am trying to say that if you put your values like that, uh, as a found [00:56:00] foundational base and you put the values in your company, then salary. Ping pong table free lunch. You know, all these things are commodity and you get them everywhere

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: and I'm, and, and then you start.

So that's Commod salary is a commodity because we have to match everybody of your

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: But what will attract the real talent is the values. So if somebody is into clarity and

zhou: Mm.

Ed: and my artist sees they will attract them and says, I want to work for a company like

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: then all of a sudden the synergy of the team is so much higher that you can achieve just by, one plus one equals two.

It'll be one plus one equals

zhou: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ed: Uh, and that's what you are looking for. That's a, some, you know, that's when you look at talents, it's like I am extracting your hours you can spend with your family and everything. I'm [00:57:00] extracting value from all the workers. What am I delivering as a company to the workers?

And when you start thinking like that as a rep, rep pickle,

zhou: Reciprocate.

Ed thank you, my English,

zhou: It's great.

Ed: I know the word. I just can't

zhou: Yeah. I happens to me all the time.

Ed: uh, then you will really, uh, you know, then the value will just grow.

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed: I mean, it's not just the shareholders value quarterly reports. All of a sudden the employees when they see it and they enjoy the work.

It's

zhou: Yeah.

Ed: Agency life is

zhou: I agree.

Ed: Uh, but then once you do that, all of a sudden and you lean into their talents, all of a sudden that that is the magic sort of behind it.

zhou: Yeah, a hundred percent. Like I, I hope if you are a boss out there, listeners, please understand the importance of connection, not just top down and, you know, traditional [00:58:00] way of doing things. Um,

Ed: I, I would actually add to it, top down is not bad. you find, if you think about military, it is absolutely required. If you think about warehouse, right? Top down is required. There's no teamwork in a warehouse. You

zhou: Right.

Ed: exact packaging, put that barcode on it and ship it. There's no time for innovation or teamwork, you have to very clearly define when top down is required and mandatory, when, when collective collaboration

zhou: Mm-hmm.

Ed And there are two separate things, but, but you know, top down, nothing wrong with top

zhou: Right. But they have to work together. Like it has to be a system. It cannot just be one way or the other. It ha i, in my mind, I think it needs to be a combination of both, like building connections and then leadership, and then autonomy of course, and then delegation. I think all those, they have to work together as a system.

So a hundred percent. Um, yeah. Last but not least, as we close out, where do people find you if you are open to that or how,

Ed: should, nobody should be looking for me. Who's looking for me.

zhou: I don't know if you wanna

Ed: Uh, find me, find me on, uh, uh, on LinkedIn,

zhou: Mm.

Ed: and I am, that's, that's the best way. Right. Go on a, on LinkedIn and then we can connect there.

zhou: Okay. Great. I will share your LinkedIn to the audience and with that, thank you so much, ed. Your story is wonderful. Um, and let me stop recording here.