Spinning Discs, Sealing Deals: The Andy Williams Experience S01/E08

Dive deep into the beating heart of Chiang Mai with Ash and the magnetic Andy Williams on the latest episode of CNX Podcast. Explore his exciting journey from the buzzing streets of Bangkok to the electrifying DJ scene that pulses through the city. Uncover Andy's fascinating double life as an insurance pro by day and a dynamic DJ by night, as he dishes on his recent gig in Bangkok that had the crowd in a frenzy.

Venture into the legendary Warmup club, where Andy's DJ legacy runs deep, and soak in the rich history of this iconic Chiang Mai hotspot. Through Andy's lens, experience the irresistible allure of the city and its unique language that captivates all who wander its streets.

Join Ash and Andy on an enthralling journey through the art of DJing, cultural treasures, and the hidden gems that make Chiang Mai a truly special place. 

From gripping insurance anecdotes to tales of unwavering camaraderie, this episode is a celebration of passion, friendship, and the vibrant spirit of Chiang Mai.

https://linktr.ee/cnxpodcast

Transcript

Ash: 0:00

Yo, hello and welcome. A massive welcome. It's the one and only, it's Mr. Andy Williams. Mr. Andy Williams, hello and welcome to my studio.

Andy: 0:11

Mr. Andy

Ash: 0:11

Andy, I've known you, what, a decade?

Andy: 0:14

Yeah, I would say so, round about that, yeah, at least a decade or ten years. Ten

Ash: 0:19

years as we say. One of the first people I ever met in Chiang Mai. Certainly one of, the people that I first became friends with.

Andy: 0:26

to

Ash: 0:26

You are Andy insurance salesman by day and superstar DJ by night.

Andy: 0:33

DJ, yeah, yeah. I just recently DJ'd in Bangkok actually, so.

Ash: 0:37

mate, tell me, how did that go?

Andy: 0:39

The equipment tested out all nicely, which like if you're a DJ, that's one of the most important things, you want everything to be working good. probably wasn't one of the best gigs I've ever played at, it was good enough.

Ash: 0:48

Why wasn't it one of the best?

Andy: 0:49

When you're DJing, you wanna share the music that you've got and you want people up and dancing and Yeah. And it the layout and everything of it was different to what I expected. You know, People were sort of more there they'd had big conference throughout the day and people had got filtered through to there in the evening. And then there's a big sort of Thai style, there's crazy show going on with like fireworks and stuff, and really loud banging music before I'd got on. And people were just watching the spectacle, And then so I got on after that, and yeah, I had like dancers coming on. When I got up, I just changed it, lowered the tone a bit and then worked up from there and yeah. I played for two hours and I'd say by about the last 45 minutes. You could see that we're in Bangkok, these people have flown in from all over the world, and it's just right, should we stay in this, small area here and just watch this guy finish off his set? Or, go out into Bangkok and enjoy the nightlife of Bangkok, and yeah. So the last 45 minutes are just, vroof, just emptied out.

Ash: 1:44

Oh, you emptied the dance floor.

Andy: 1:46

I'd like to think I didn't empty the dance floor. I'd like to think the temptation of Bangkok was what drew them away.

Ash: 1:52

that was for Affiliate World, right?

Andy: 1:54

Yeah, that's correct, yeah.

Ash: 1:55

pretty good gig to do.

Andy: 1:58

promoter who used to book me back in the day. I didn't realize, I thought she was just the organizing the music and the entertainment, but she was actually organizing the whole event. She told me they'd had 5, 500 people there during the day.

Ash: 2:11

Cool. Is she an event organiser for Affiliate World or is she just like working in Bangkok?

Andy: 2:17

not for Affiliate World, no, works for, I forget what the name of the company is, but quite, anyone I've mentioned it to here seems to know it. They organize a lot of big events. And yeah, she was solely in charge of organizing the Bangkok

Ash: 2:30

Yeah. Yeah. Useful

Andy: 2:31

a big thing for her.

Ash: 2:32

someone like me, who's trying to break into Bangkok conferences and events.

Andy: 2:38

Yeah, she'd be somewhere to speak to. I could set you up with a meet.

Ash: 2:40

know what I don't you? I've relaunched myself this year as a conference MC. I have declared my mission for no more boring conferences. I like to involve the audience, the participants, and link them to the speakers, make sure sponsors get their value for money, and just try and use my people skills to kind of add more value to a conference. Truthfully, it's the most purpose that I've ever had my working day. you know, I've been designing PowerPoint presentations for 25 years. If I try and do that work now, age 49, I get very tired. Four hours of that and I'm exhausted. But when I do conference MCing, I can work 10 hours straight, on very little sleep. running on fumes, really. What about you? How long's the most you've DJ'd for? What was the longest set you've played?

Andy: 3:34

or five hours, something like that, and exactly the same. And I think it's due to being passionate about it. The time just flies by. I don't even notice it. Yeah. took the two hours set That, it felt a bit longer just because wasn't exactly how I'd have liked it to have been. But if people are up and dancing and enjoying what you're doing, then I could just DJ No problem. Yeah.

Ash: 3:56

So let's pull this back to Chiang Mai. Cause you originally, I don't know if this was your original thing, but you're quite well known for DJing at warmup and warmup for people who don't know is the club in Nimminhamen. It's predominantly Thai, right? Not many international or foreign go to it. Is that right or

Andy: 4:13

Yeah, I'd say so. I would say Probably like 90 percent Thai people that are in there.

Ash: 4:18

Yeah. And why is warmup so famous? Why has it been going 25 years? What's so good about it?

Andy: 4:23

I mean, They've got a good story. They started 17 or 18 years ago. originally they opened up a small bar which was over by the river, by Riverside Restaurant. And there were like five guys who went to university together, grew up together. They were all entrepreneurial guys. They opened up this bar just for something fun to do. And they all drove Vespas, which was pretty cool at the time. A lot of people were drawn to it and and anyone who had a Vespa seemed to have quite a sort of a good looking girlfriend, so there was good looking women there. And then they just went on from that venue and, people spilled out into the streets so they had to move on to somewhere else to be bigger. That wasn't enough and then another bigger venue. I think this might be the fourth one that they're at. it's just become an institution. if you talk to someone in Bangkok, Everyone in Bangkok, if they know anything about Chiang Mai, they do know warm up. super, super successful and really nice guys as well that own it. Personal friends of mine.

Ash: 5:18

they've grown to be friends of yours or they were and that's why they hired you?

Andy: 5:21

I, they've grown to be friends of mine. I was DJing here. I wasn't really getting too much work at the time and A couple of friends here who had a DJ shop. They would get work and I was just playing at this place that was, pretty quiet on the night and while I was DJing one of the owners just come up to me afterwards and said, look, we're opening up a room called The Lounge and he just said I'd love for you to come in and be like, one of the first DJs that play in there. I think I DJed in there for something like, 12 years maybe. Yeah, so I was there for a long time.

Ash: 5:49

a long time.

Andy: 5:50

I was the resident DJ. I ended up being longest serving DJ there at one point. I played in there on the opening night. of the lounge.

Ash: 5:57

Which

Andy: 5:58

the main entrance of Warm Up, there's a separate room over on the left. It's no longer there anymore, but they'd opened that up with the idea to, play more sort of niche house music and that's what I did.

Ash: 6:09

sort niche house music and, and uh, yeah, that's what I did.

Andy: 6:15

probably haven't DJed in warm ups. eight years, something like that. It's been a, it's

Ash: 6:19

I'm like

Andy: 6:21

I've been here for 21

Ash: 6:22

a while, I've been here for 21 years. No. No, I haven't. A lot of people come here because they want clean living, or they want the family environment, or they move for schooling. what brought you in and what's kept you? What's the magic of Chiang Mai for Andy Williams?

Andy: 6:44

I first came here in 1999, just came here for a few months and traveled around a bit, the south of Bangkok and when I got to Chiang Mai, I just had this feeling, this sort of sense of normality here and, in the South at the time my, The feeling was that, as a tourist, you know, you're part of their income. that's not how I feel now, but certainly at the time I just felt a bit more relaxed in Chiang Mai. And I like landscape of it and everything. I went across to Australia for a bit from there. And then just decided after that, you know what, I think I'm going to come back to Thailand, specifically Chiang Mai. And see if I can give it a go. things have just seemed to have worked themselves out. As life does, you just meet someone and an opportunity opens. And then when that opportunity opens, something else does. And next thing I knew, I brought my turntables over here. I was DJing and

Ash: 7:25

I get what you mean about the thing that you liked more about Chiang Mai than living in somewhere like Phuket was that people here just weren't trying to take you for your money. That's not really the Chiang Mai way, is it? The locals here, they're not trying to exploit every little last bit of tourist dollar. a point, but I think the other thing really drew is, seen that they

Andy: 7:53

the other thing that really drew me in as well was that the language just sounded so fascinating. And I thought, oh, this is, I couldn't imagine trying to learn it. But I just, but I got a phrasebook and started. Learning a few words here and there and they started to stick. And then when you use them on Thai people, the reaction you got was just, huge smiles and, Oh my God, you can speak fluent Thai. And no, no, you know, I just know a couple of words and it was so encouraging compared to other countries that previously lived in, like in France, I didn't find Quite as encouraging when you speak a little bit of French, I got really into learning the language. And my family seems to be quite good with languages, so just picked it up really quickly. That the tones weren't an issue for me, and I'd say I could speak it, fluently, talk my way in and out of any situation. I

Ash: 8:36

I've seen it. And I actually say about you that you mastered the language. And you said that you have one friend in particular that you only have and always do speak Thai to. So you would have, I imagine, like a completely different relationship. And my question to you is, do you think Thai Andy has a different personality to English Andy?

Andy: 8:56

that's a great question.

Ash: 8:57

tell me the differences. Tell me why that is. Is it because you're restricted by the language? Or is it the language guides you into being a certain way? Are you much politer?

Andy: 9:06

think both. Yeah, I'm definitely more polite in Thai. Yeah, some of the language that I use. If I think, would I say that same phrase in English? There's not a chance on earth that I would say, you do get guided by the language and the culture, it's like typical here that if you just meet someone off the bat and you say, Oh, you look beautiful, straight away, whereas I might not say that in English immediately to someone. Yeah, actually, funnily enough I remember a few years ago, I was some networking event and a Thai woman there that actually I only speak t but speaks good English, but that's just the way the relationship has been. And then I turned around to someone in English And when I turned back to her, her face was in shock 'cause she said, oh my God. It's like you have two different personalities when you speak each language. So yeah, interesting that you would know that or even think that, yeah.

Ash: 9:50

interesting that you wouldn't know that or even When I saw her boyfriend and a girlfriend talking together, Thai girl with her English boyfriend, and she turned around and she said You're so much nicer when you're speaking Thai. And he was learning the language, he hadn't mastered the language at all, so for him it was because he was limited, he only really knew how to say nice things. So that's all he ended up saying.

Andy: 10:14

Perhaps more polite to each other until you get to know someone, like in Thai, for you to swear with a Thai person, have to really get to know them, it takes a little while before you start using slang and things like that, you're much more polite, whereas in English, could meet someone and get a sense for them and probably start using some blue language quite early

Ash: 10:31

and things I just want to talk to you a little bit about insurance. I'm trying to do with this podcast is introduce. rest of the community to some of the more interesting and useful and good, connected people that I know in Chiang Mai, because I've been here nine years and I'm pretty sociable and I have lots and lots of different networks. And I just thought, Oh, I'm sure I can add some value, a bit of a, like a community podcast, and just introduce people. But I always, recommend you as my insurance agent. you are just the absolute man on the ground to be able to negotiate insurance claims, policies, understand the Thai way to make things work. Could you tell me Just one or two stories or ideas about what you do for your customers.

Andy: 11:16

a good example is gonna be yourself you were away. think you were away on work and then your wife and family were here. One of your kids took a tumble and just broke a bone.

Ash: 11:26

Yeah, it was Harper, my little boy, he just, I'm not, we'll go back to the story, but he wrote me a letter recently for Father's Day and he went, Dad, thanks for teaching me for riding my bike, even though I've fallen off many times and hurt myself. So it was one of those where he fell off and landed on his face. I think he cut his chin quite deeply and needed stitches. my wife was alone. She knew we had insurance. Her first reaction for anything like that is go to the best hospital. So she took him straight to Bangkok Hospital.

Andy: 11:55

perhaps the hospital weren't 100 percent sure as to whether it would be covered because I don't think he had an overnight stay, they decided to perform some kind of surgery and uh, it was obviously well, he needed the stitches, but I think at the time it was a sizable bill and the insurance company had said the policy that you have, it has no outpatient cover, this is an outpatient procedure, we're not going to pay for it. So then you'd contacted me and said to me, look, what's going on here, my insurance hasn't paid. Kim, my wife Kim's at hospital, she's going out of her mind here. And then I got involved and then I looked at it the medical report and I'd seen part of the procedure, because he was in such pain, they'd given him anesthesia. That was the key word. As it had anesthesia, it was considered as an invasive surgical procedure. Even though he didn't need to stay in overnight, it was a surgical procedure and so it would then be qualified to for coverage. And so I passed that over to the insurer, which is ACS, a French company. And as soon as they saw that, the claim got turned around and they paid it. that situation, hadn't have got involved in that, obviously yourself not working in the industry, unlikely would have unearthed that and got that paid.

Ash: 13:03

wouldn't have got to the bottom of that for sure. Yeah, you definitely earned your premiums that year. my very basic understanding, most people will probably know this, but the difference between in and out patient coverage is if you stay overnight you are considered an inpatient. And my policy only covers inpatient,

Andy: 13:20

quite common

Ash: 13:21

treatments. Yeah, and an outpatient is you

Andy: 13:23

you get some food poisoning. might go to hospital, you're in and out with some medication, that's a clear cut outpatient procedure, and then there's absolutely no coverage for that.

Ash: 13:32

Is that true for all insurance policies or just the ones that people tend to buy here?

Andy: 13:36

You have a an invasive surgical procedure that doesn't require an overnight stay then it will be covered as

Ash: 13:42

will well. It's still going. with the uh, I, I At the

Andy: 13:47

It's still going. set it up via the Chiang Mai Expats Club. Back at the time, Nancy Lin Lee was the president of the club, who sadly passed not so long ago. But when she was the president, she was involved with this group called Lana Care Net. Which helped people that found themselves hospitalized. Perhaps they didn't have any family members and she would get involved and help them through that situation and perhaps repatriate them to the states if needed and she did an absolutely amazing job doing that and so she was, had a vested interest in getting people insurance because she could see what it was like if someone doesn't have insurance, the medical bills that you end up incurring. coincidentally at the time, I was a sponsor of the club, and I had an idea of putting together a group health insurance policy for the club. And I approached Nancy, she was 100 percent on board. The mission next was then to find an insurer to use, because the group policies only exist in the workplace. One of the insurers that I've been working with for many years, Healthcare International, I approached them, They were hungry enough for the business that they said we'll put a specialized group together for the club. If you can get 20 members with applications filled in ready to sign up. And then they would launch the group. So 20 applications ready. they flew specially over to Thailand, gave a presentation to the club. probably took me about 18 months, I think to jump through all the hoops and get everything sorted and

Ash: 15:05

all the hoos get sorted and yeah. Yeah,

Andy: 15:12

so if you join that group you get a 10 percent discount on the premium.

Ash: 15:16

10

Andy: 15:16

definitely worth doing, yeah,

Ash: 15:17

Yeah, older people or people with pre determined medical conditions, do they still struggle to get good insurance here in Thailand?

Andy: 15:27

Typically speaking, pre existing conditions insurers won't cover them. depends on the condition, So, you know, If it was something that was linked to your heart, something that was linked to cancer, or if you had diabetes, those things, they just, off the bat, insurers are just not going to cover them. you could still get insurance, but they'll just exclude those conditions and cover everything else.

Ash: 15:45

what do people do if, let's say in my seventies and I've got diabetes, just have to live an uninsured life.

Andy: 15:52

Yeah, basically, I as long as you can be strict and do it, people do what they call self insure and put X amount of money aside, if you've applied for health insurance and let's say the premium was 6, 000, you can say I'll put that 6, 000 aside, but make sure you do it because so many people I'll meet them and then they'll just say, do you know what? I'm not going to go for this insurance. I'll put the money aside. I see them next time. If you put that money aside. No, they haven't.

Ash: 16:14

No. Sure. Just final couple of questions on insurance. I'm a family of four, so there's me, my wife, two kids. what sort of money should I expect to pay for health insurance for my family? And what am I insuring against? What's the worst kind of bills that you would expect an uninsured family might face?

Andy: 16:35

on the higher end of the, God forbid, but if you know someone, a family's involved in a serious road traffic accident depending on which hospital you go to, It could run into the millions, really. Let's be absolutely honest. If you compare it to the U. S., then obviously it's, a lot more affordable medical care here than it is in the U. and particularly with a family, you're in Chiang Mai, you're probably going to choose the Chiang Mai Ram or Bangkok Hospital, which are the of, well known good service hospitals here. You want to go to those hospitals, and if you've got insurance, you're able to do that.

Ash: 17:03

and insurance, you're able to do that. I think it's just people who, know,

Andy: 17:09

all give good levels of service. as Westerners here, I think are more attracted to somewhere like Bangkok Hospital or Chiang Mai Ram. depending on your budget, I think, or if you've got insurance. A government hospital they're not gonna speak, the English is not gonna be as good there, it's not gonna be as sort of plush a hospital, if if you've had a heart attack or something like that wanna be in a nice. clean environment, with staff that speak English, that's going to help you just feel more at ease at a time of vulnerability.

Ash: 17:36

Good one. thanks.