CNX Podcast
The Chiang Mai Community Podcast, where businesses, brands and interesting people get heard. Hosted by Ash Pemberton.
CNX Podcast
Banking on Change: Lone Anderson's Journey S01/E15
She shares her journey from fintech innovation to founding CMBC, highlighting the power of community and mentorship.
Tune in for insights on consultancy, resilience, and making a meaningful impact in underprivileged communities.
Don't miss out on Lone's practical wisdom and engaging storytelling!
https://linktr.ee/cnxpodcast
Oh, here we go. and gentlemen, I have a very special guest today. It's Lonna Anderson. Hi
Lone:Hi everyone, pleased to be here
Ash:Thank you so much for coming in. I've got so many things that I want to talk to yyou about. I Know that you're a partner in StepForward, which is a UK bbased treasury and capital markets company. treasury capital markets, these aren't things we hear a lot here in Chiang Mai.
Lone:No, that's very true. And often when I talk about it people have no idea what it is.
Ash:I know that you want to put Chiang Mai on the business map and that you founded CMBC, which is Chiang Mai Business Community. And you do lots of hangouts and lunches. I've been to a couple of them.
Lone:where we met before your trip to San Diego.
Ash:Oh, brilliant memory. Thank you. You are also the founder of LAN Consulting.
Lone:LAN, I short for Lorna
Ash:I know it is. That's good. And I think you help small businesses and startups become grownups.
Lone:Love that. That is really true.
Ash:Just help them along the way. Give them guidance, give them business advice, give them consultancy. Using the terms like consultancy is very broad and a lot of people in Chiang Mai probably is just What exactly does that mean? What it is that you do for your clients and what you can do for people here I know that you're on a mission to help educate and share your knowledge and support underprivileged people.
Lone:Yes, very much
Ash:and you've got like this vast business consultancy experience and prior to coming to Chiang Mai, you have like over a decade's worth of experience in corporate banking, treasury capital markets. It seemed apparent that you specialized in rolling out fintech, it's just like financial technology products. And it seemed like your role was really ensuring customer success. For whoever you work for everyone that you work for, and I think that's the common theme,
Lone:business development which means that you have to deliver success.
Ash:Yeah. You are the real deal. And I've summarized that as quickly as I can. But let's kick off by saying, please, describe yourself to me in just three words.
Lone:I love people.
Ash:Oh, there we go. Beautiful. That's an unusual response, but let's dive straight into that. You are a people person, you are a community builder, and you're very business focused. What is it that fascinates you about people, and in particular what fascinates you about entrepreneurs?
Lone:particular, what you about entrepreneurs? were usually there and drinking a beer. So I got to know every single one of them. There were only 13, I knew every one of them by name. They knew me. And their stories were fascinating. Where they came from and why they were doing what they were doing. So, I would find clothes for them and leave a bag for them at the bus stop on my way home. Invited them for a lunch once a year, so we'd find a little restaurant that would take. A bunch of smelly
Ash:how people
Lone:and so they were just fascinating and they were the lost people that's where it all comes from. I grew up in Africa and here in Asia on United Nations projects and for the foreign office where my father worked. And so I saw how people who have little yearn for more. And then, living in a city like Luxembourg, which is a super rich city, only a few hundred thousand people in the country and everybody's got money compared to anywhere else. And still having homeless people who had decided to opt out through circumstances or through actual choice. So I found that really moving the fact that, they'd even talked to me. Here I came in my fur coat and, we had some fantastic conversations and I remember one memorable day. The foreign minister of Luxembourg parked her car next to mine in car park in the city. And we would walk to work and chat sometimes. And as we're walking down the streets, these gentlemen would go, Hi Lone, how are you today? And she would simply say, Where do you know these people from? I simply said, I sit at the bus stop with them. that sort of fueled my future in terms of looking at people who need help. I'm privileged. I've always been privileged. And it's not just money, but it's education, it's travel it's the people I've met. I've met presidents and prime ministers and royal people all over the world, right? And I have as a child hung on a, gate in the bush in Africa with village children. And actually, that gate was more interesting than all of the presidents. Because this was real. This was people.
Ash:That definitely comes across. with you. I can tell that you're worldly wise and that you're vastly experienced but you do have this other dimension you genuinely care about people and you take an interest in them that's wonderful. you mentioned that when you were growing up in luxembourg, how old were you then?
Lone:already grown up and working. in banking. I was a trader.
Ash:what 20s
Lone:mid twenties.
Ash:So prior to that, your father was in the UN and worked for?
Lone:the UN, the Foreign Office, the World Bank, UNESCO and so on. He ran a literacy program in Iran before the Shah left.
Ash:So did you always travel with him?
Lone:Always traveled as a family, yes.
Ash:How many in your family?
Lone:There's myself, my parents and my sister.
Ash:And how did that impact you? having all that exposure to so many different People and different countries.
Lone:several ways, right? Just one of them is think I'm supremely confident, I can bullshit myself out of any situation, and have.
Ash:talk
Lone:But I can also talk myself out real, tangible things, right? It's given me appreciation travel and cultures, I can go and sit anywhere. in any group of people and adapt myself to the culture and how they're doing it. One memorable evening was in Taipei. we were looking to sell some financial software. And there was a bank and all of the gentlemen came. And we had to have dinner after we'd signed the contracts. And myself and my colleague, It was Ramadan and he was Muslim, so he wasn't drinking. And then the gentleman said you're going to have to drink. I have Viking genes, so I can drink. I don't choose to drink a lot. But that evening I drank ten gentlemen under the table. And they were impressed, right? A terrible thing to impress anybody with, but that was the culture and what they
Ash:impressed.
Lone:But the problem is trying to get me drunk. It means that all of them are so drunk, they can't remember that I wasn't.
Ash:Very good. I like that. You also mentioned to me that you've only got a few countries left to visit now that to me just sounds unimaginable Yeah, sure. I can imagine you've been around the world, but are you serious? You've only got a few left to
Lone:Yes, I've visited 180 countries, of which there are quite a few who don't exist anymore.
Ash:Amazing
Lone:Yeah, and there's always new ones coming up. There's always something to do. But yeah, I haven't been to North Korea. I'm not planning on going. And there's some Pacific islands that I haven't been to. I might go there.
Ash:why? Like back to? Let's put it this way. My two favourite
Lone:My two favorite countries. Afghanistan and Mongolia. For the countryside, for the vista, and for the people themselves, the real people of those countries. I spent some time in Afghanistan. This was just before Russia invaded. A completely different life in those days. And traveled around the country a lot. It was beautiful, absolutely stunningly beautiful. And for any Brits around here, carry on up the Khyber. Not far from the truth in a lot of senses, right? And then Mongolia. I went to Mongolia some years ago because I have friends who live there. we went up into the national park and lived in New York where I was on a bed and it was up against the side of the tent. And then I got thrown outta bed by a yak ox that came to scratch himself on the side of the tent. So fantastic. But sitting there in this vastness. Of the mountainside the evening and just looking at the stars. Absolutely wonderful.
Ash:What's Afghanistan like? Why does that become top of your list?
Lone:Tolkien and his imagined worlds. Actually, I read The Lord of the Rings for the first time in Kabul. On Chicken Street in a restaurant that had a few rooms and I was renting a room from them. At that stage I was a tourist and I got the deli belly, so I needed to stay close to my room. But I was sitting outside in the garden and a long, a young gentleman who had polio and was in braces and was traveling around and visiting the world out there, he came over to me and he says, I hear you are sick, and I said, yeah I'll be okay. I really do have a stomach that's lined with concrete, but sometimes, a new germ will get you. so he gave me a book. It was this big, thick book. Looks like a bible, right? I opened it up and it was the Lord of the Rings. Never heard of it before. I read it through. Three days. All gone. I've been a fan ever since, of course. that to me is Afghanistan. Some of the trips that they took.
Ash:wonderful. what then brought you to Chiang Mai and what keeps you here?
Lone:I was living in Thailand. I've been here for nine years. And, we were living down in Phuket. Then COVID hit. At that stage, I decided that I was going to take a break from the big corporate world. And wonder, would I go back or would I do something completely different? six months break became somewhat longer. My son is married to a lovely Thai lady. she has a car rental company. There was no car rentals in Phuket at that stage. So she says, why don't we go to Chiang Mai? So we up sticks, all of us. My son, his wife, and their daughter. So the four of us came up here, and I just loved it. I'm never leaving. Really? No, I'm not leaving. No. The feeling of putting on a favorite pair of slippers. That's what Chiang Mai is, You come here, you're welcome, the people are wonderful. Okay, we have some grumpy old farts who keyboard warriors on Facebook and things like that, but it's their problem, not mine, right? And I love that view Thai Buddhist perspective, right? The person who's going off on a tangent and a rant. It's their problem, mine. Chiang Mai itself is full of entrepreneurs. And so many opportunities up here. a lot of people start a business here with no experience in terms of running a business and managing a business and understanding the financial ramifications of the different decisions that they make within the business. And in order to have a sustainable long term business, you need to understand all of that, right? I have that knowledge. From all of my years of working, of building companies, of running consultancy, Advising governments. So I've sat on a board advising the Singapore government on sustainable energy. The same in Rwanda and a few other places. I worked with government in the Maldives on sustainable projects and things like that. So I've got a lot of experience. And I've, decided I'm not going to go back to the corporate world. I'm going to give back.
Ash:so well with the theme of this podcast, I want this to be Chiang Mai community based. I want to connect people because I know so many interesting people. And I just think, ah, rather than me having to constantly tell my friends, my network, all about people. Now I can say just listen to their podcast and you can find out everything about them. that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to get you in, because you are on a mission to help businesses and people in Chiang Mai. Maybe we could just dive into a little bit about that. So obviously we have CMBC.
Lone:Yes.
Ash:What is it that you do? Who do you help? What is the purpose of CMBC?
Lone:it was a networking for entrepreneurs, startups foreigners and locals alike in Chiang Mai with some events. For me, it was dipping my toe into the local environment and seeing what was here and who the people were and what they do. I found that there are so many more people here than you see on the surface. a huge amount of them to keep a low profile or their business direction is more outside of Thailand direction is more outside of Thailand but we all need Chiang Mai because this is where we've all chosen to live, this is where we do business, we're hiring local people. the one thing all of these businesses don't have is a voice And I want CMBC now to become the voice of business in Chiang Mai. And we're going to launch it as a company. Within the next couple of months and I want to sell some shares in the company because I want people to be members, and then I want to be able to go to the government and say, We have 2, 000 customers in this group. We bring XYZ of money into the local community. We need this. Somebody has to advocate on behalf of them, Something mundane, a sidewalk, so you can have passing trade, There are so many different things that are needed. better support from the government side to local businesses. Nobody's promoting Chiang Mai at this point in time, but I want CMBC to do that. I want the group as well to offer marketing services. But It's about Chiang Mai as a whole. And then having members, and we market this abroad. As well as locally, right? So in Singapore, in Los Angeles in London, wherever it is, right? You want to come to Chiang Mai to do business, you need to talk to us. Everybody's a member here. And I want to create a certificate of authenticity made in Chiang Mai. And anybody who has a company can put it on their website if they're members. of Chiang Mai business community, And that community is a lobby for all of us. Because alone you can't move anything.
Ash:That's interesting. Is this something that you've seen in place in other cities?
Lone:what happens, usually uh, is your Chamber of Commerce is what it is, is who does this, right? So if you're Dutch and you're in Bangkok, you're a member of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, and they will help promote you at home, abroad, and so on. But there's nobody for Chiang Mai. We've got a local Chamber of Commerce that's focused on locally. But what about the rest of them? So I want to be a type of Chamber of Commerce for all nationalities. Because everybody needs support, right?
Ash:What type of businesses will this support?
Lone:Any business that's properly registered.
Ash:any Thai registered company.
Lone:Yeah.
Ash:What is the benefit to them joining a chamber of commerce or to a business community like that?
Lone:Several things. One of them is a community, which means that they can within the group find the people that they need to help them do things. I was talking to somebody this morning and explaining what it is that we're doing. they said to me, they simply said, Oh my gosh, can you get Kawasaki on board? I really need to talk to somebody in Kawasaki can make a decision, because I can't get anywhere. And that's where we're going to help, If you're a member here, and you're a member there, two members can talk to each other. Make sure that it's the right people who are involved.
Ash:it's starting to come together now. If I was a member of CMBC, and I was a small business owner, I could come to you with a problem that's very specific to me. Yes. and receive individual, custom help for what it is that I'm trying to
Lone:absolutely. that and don't forget I also run a commercial consultancy business, right? I can help as well in terms of connections and so on. But CMBC is to promote businesses that are registered and manufacturing and doing business here in, the city and put them on the map, I want to introduce overseas investors. Thank you. Who come with money and they want to invest it in, Thailand. I'm working with somebody at the moment who is looking to invest in a big business here. So we're buying a premises for them. they're gonna, we're gonna put up a company for them and so on. And they need to be members of CMBC. So that their voice is heard, right?
Ash:Excellent. I'm piecing it together. I'm thinking about myself and my business. community and all the other businesses here. You've also mentioned business development. I imagine this is like one of the top things that people would come to you for. Is that true?
Lone:Mostly people come to me when they've got problems. Business development. I think that's overseas companies who want to do a feasibility study. So I do a lot of feasibility studies of either purchasing a company here or setting up in terms of, is it a viable business? And the first question I always ask is who's your customer. And then we talk from there on how to get there.
Ash:there's a big crossover there between LAN, consulting and CMBC. Essentially they're both you at this moment in time. So what you'd be doing is giving your experience and giving your connections and your services from LAN but Chiang Mai community.
Lone:then, land perspective, I'm interested in overseas customers who want to come and settle here. Because that's more lucrative for me from a company perspective and earnings. actually, I've just signed a deal with a large fintech company in Switzerland who want to open up their business in Southeast Asia. So I've been hired in to help them develop the business here.
Ash:That makes sense to me as well. So I see both sides of that now. What are the main reasons that an, overseas company would want to come to Chiang Mai?
Lone:springs to mind is lifestyle. life balance is nearly a bad word, right? the thing is, people work 80 hours a week, they don't earn a lot, right? So come here, work 40 hours a week, earn enough to pay for your staff and yourself, and have a great lifestyle, great network. That's why CMBC is happening.
Ash:I don't think I'd be able to do this if I didn't live in Chiang Mai. I have a, small agency. I employ 10 staff. Even when we're not that busy from month to month, because of the lower cost of my staff costs and my low rental costs, and just generally the very, very reasonable cost of living in Chiang Mai, it just takes the pressure off. So when you said, ah, lifestyle that's one reason that kind of stops me ever leaving.
Lone:you want to go and live in Sydney, New York, London? why would you want to go and live there when you can live in Chiang Mai? you can get everything here, right? the few things I can't get mostly things to eat. Like lemon curd? I can't buy it in any shop here, so I either have to make it myself or buy it when I'm traveling, right?
Ash:That sounds like one for the Chiang Mai forum. It's I can't find lemon curd anywhere and I bet you'd find someone that could make good lemon curd. yeah, I've got one bit that I just had to quiz you on. you are also an author.
Lone:Unpublished. I'm working on a couple of
Ash:You've, that's how I read it. You've been writing a couple of books, and one of them, and again we touched on treasury and capital markets, and the fact that I've been exposed to that in my time in London, and that I just didn't think it really exists here, or there isn't much exposure to it here in Chiang Mai. But I wrote that you've written on the topic of mastering the RFP process utilized by banks. Is that
Lone:Yes.
Ash:This to me jumps out because you wouldn't believe the number of RFPs that I've had to typeset and design up.
Lone:Oh, fantastic. Oh, we must have a chat about
Ash:Throughout my life, I'm talking hundreds. my design agency has contracted to a large management consultancy and we're forever doing pitches and proposals. Just for people listening at home, RFP stands for
Lone:My God, I can't even say it. A request for a proposal. And an RFI is an request for information. What it is a list of functionality that a company needs when buying something and whether this is a caterpillar or it's a hotel supply chain or it's software for a bank. So they have a huge amount of requirements that needs to help them further their business, right? And so they fill this thing out and then they want a proposal back based upon software house saying, Yes, I can do this. Yes, I can do that. I can do multi currency accounts. The whole thing is a complete scam because By the time an RFP has been issued, the main supplier has already been identified. And all of the questions are geared towards them answering yes. And everybody else going, oh, we can't do that, we'd have to develop it. It's as simple as that. An RFP is used to rubber stamp a process where if you are a public bank and you want to buy a piece of software, you can't just go and buy it. Because there's a new budget. You can contract a service, but you can't buy a piece of software without going through an RFP process. And they never embark on that without actually having an idea of what they actually want to buy. So everybody else is column fodder, as it's well known in the industry, I actually had a conversation about that the other day with the Swiss company. and I said to them, I said, look, RFPs, right? If we haven't been involved in writing the RFP, we're not going to win it. It's one out of ten chance that you might win get completely shortlisted. I said on the other hand, you need to look at it as a promotional thing. Because often big companies, they have consultancies working with people who are buying. And so you get to know them and you're helpful and nothing's too long, nothing's too short. You have to think about how you're utilizing the process.
Ash:To have someone that knows that process inside out, I think is incredibly useful. for me to just know that you do that.
Lone:I exist.
Ash:And that you have that background and that wealth of knowledge. So let me take that a step further. Does that mean that you could do rather than just being RFPs for banking, do you write business proposals
Lone:we go. This
Ash:Here we go. This is what I was hoping. Does that mean that you write business
Lone:Yes. Strategies. Oh,
Ash:oh, this is what I need. So I'm a creative, I'm also the CEO, I always need help with proposals and with writing really good business plans. I think a lot of people have business ideas, but they struggle to actually document it in a way that it's going to be appealing to customers or investors.
Lone:or investors. They say, oh, we want to do this and we want to find some investors. And I sent them a list of things that they need to prepare before they even start talking to the investors because these are the first things they're going to ask for, right? Plan of action, business plan hiring plan, policies. How are you going to do all of this, right? Who's going to be in charge of what? It's a lot of stuff, a lot of moving parts.
Ash:Does that also mean that you're good with numbers too?
Lone:Yes, I think I'm quite good with numbers.
Ash:Yeah. So you're the absolute all rounder. Now, the reason why I'm getting really specific here is because I want it to be something that people that are listening to this can actually understand. So let me take a step back and say, I have a business idea. I don't have any funding. But I think I know how to start my business. I need a business plan and I'm looking for a mentor. Can I just come to CMBC?
Lone:Yes, you can.
Ash:So I can just turn up and just receive guidance, advice? Do I have to pay for that?
Lone:It depends on the way it's all set up, you're not gonna get end to end free, so for example, CMBC is going to open a city office at Alt Ping River.
Ash:I saw it advertised on Facebook.
Lone:Yes. and I thought to kick off I'm going to be there the whole day. And then anybody who has a business idea, like you just talked about, can come in and talk to me for 45 minutes. Give me 500 baht, which is going to go to pay for some schooling for some kids. and I can tell them it's a good idea. You need to go and work on this. You need to go and work on that. I want within CMBC to do a lot of startup support groups. Not just me, but other people who can help get people really involved and understanding what it is to set up a business. And out of that, maybe some business comes to land business consulting, right? Who knows?
Ash:Sure you've always said that you're here to give back and what you've done is you're going to put yourself into the co working space Alt Ping River, you're going to be there the whole day and people can come up and just get like a small bite sized chunk of advice and consultancy basically for free you're charging 500 baht and you're actually donating that money. To kids in need.
Lone:I support an orphanage in Doisaket. They have 50 kids there from baby to 26 or 27 years old. Going through university and school and so on. So I'm setting up an endowment. For their universities. So I want CMBC to give back.
Ash:Brilliant. So the actual day is almost like just an extension of what you're doing in CMBC, but it's just like formalizing it for the whole day. And you're opening yourself up for what, like six to eight different slots, let's say, and people need to prebook this.
Lone:Hopefully pre book. I've already got a couple of bookings and I think some people will just drop in to say hello, which is good, right?
Ash:for sure. because that will have happened by the time this comes out. Is this something you're going to do regularly with that format, or is it just a one off special?
Lone:This is a first try see how that's going to work if it does then I'll do it at least once a month
Ash:Brilliant. I'm hoping that you're going to have some people like me who are listening to this and thinking, Oh, I'd quite like to get involved with this. And I don't just mean I would like to receive help with business plans and proposals and finance, because I know that I would love to have a local business mentor that could help me with that. But equally, I'd like to get more involved with this because I think I can mentor people. I think I can contribute to the growth of businesses. So whether or not that would be, fairly small investment into new business startups. But what I think I'd be better at offering is my consultancies, Digital marketing. we're very good at branding. We're very good at presentations. We can produce all kinds of graphics for screen, for web, for print. Is that the type of thing that you would want people to come and say, look, I can help?
Lone:Absolutely, because its got to be a community project It can't just be me. CMBC is going to be incorporated as a local Thai company. And I want people to buy shares in the company. So you actually get a stake in the company and how it's run. And what we do because I can't run the company on a day to day basis. I want to set the vision, the direction and I want to help Create new businesses within CMBC that can benefit the rest of the community. But I need people who are going to be heavily involved in all of the different aspects of business. need accountants. people who operational efficiency. So a good friend of mine, B, she has a PhD in operational efficiency a very Germanic outlook at it. But we could do with a little bit of that here, right? Not to the extent that she does it for huge pharmaceutical companies, right? actually, how can you streamline your process in your business? So I need people of all kinds. One of the things that I haven't talked about that I really want to do, in this country, we have Tens if not hundreds of thousands of retired people who all have fascinating backgrounds. From rocket scientists to CFOs and their knowledge is disappearing. Their minds are atrophying because they're not being used unless they're actively engaged in something. And I want to Take CMBC as a large group and then go to BOI or immigration and simply say, I need dispensation to bring in some of these retired specialists to come and help other businesses. To teach at universities, at schools, to take on small business as a mentor and work with them.
Ash:them. I that would definitely appeal to some of the Chiang Mai retired community that I know here already. the retirees and the residents involved. This is the big thing that feels a bit sleepy to me in Chiang Mai. And I think this is what you're trying to kickstart. It would be connecting those people who genuinely want to do the mentorship and probably aren't going to ask for much in return.
Lone:Absolutely. Correct.
Ash:With who? Does it have to be young?
Lone:It could be any, could be somebody who's just starting out. It could be somebody who has a business and had a business here for 20 years and it's not moving anywhere, They need to change things up and they need a different perspective. That's what a
Ash:what our mentor does. Now we're talking. I think opens it up to a whole bigger market. Because there must be so many existing businesses that are just, have reached like their plateau. And some of the owners just don't know where to turn, or maybe fallen out of love of their business a little bit. And it's time to breathe some new growth, some new energy, some new ideas, help them maybe modernize their technology, their systems. Is it that type of
Lone:also just thinking about finding new markets, got, rethinking. So, So I of the things, one customers says to a lot of people who come here and start up companies. They've worked maybe in an industry for many years and got lots of experience but they've never owned a company. they know how to do that little piece of business. And let's say it's a widget that gets designed. And to design it, to manufacture. The person knows all about that, but what about the rest of it? Which comes back to the other book I'm writing, which is about the skills that entrepreneurs need in order to be successful.
Ash:Ah, okay. So what's the top skills?
Lone:ability to listen, ability to pivot. Recognize your own skills and hire people with what's missing in your arsenal.
Ash:very true. I like that
Lone:case a point for yourself, right? Where you say that you need somebody who is good at writing business proposals, and all that kind of stuff. So that's what the skill that you need to recognize where you're challenged
Ash:Let's just take a minute to talk about the value of having a mentor because. when I graduated from university, I spent three years at university and then I did one year out in industry. during that one year I was mentored and I felt that I'd grown, I'd learned and developed all of the skills that I needed to run my own business from that one year. And actually three years at university wasn't a patch on what I'd got from actually being mentored. Here we are about 20 years on from there. I also paid to have my first business coach. it was an uncomfortable amount of money. But the return that I got on that, and that's what I hear from a lot of business coaches, it's like, if we don't return 10x what you're investing, then we're not doing our job properly. So I think it's quite a brave move for someone to put their hand up and say, I want a business coach, I want to be mentored, I want to improve. And I just wonder if we could just take a couple of minutes now just to try and encourage people to do that, what will they get from having a mentor?
Lone:They're going to get an unbiased view of what they're doing. Everyone else around you has a vested interest in an outcome. The mentor's outcome is your success. And the mentor is going to be honest with you. They're going to simply say, you're on a hiding to nowhere on this one here. Let's re look your customer segment. Let's re look the value of your product. Let's pivot things a little bit, right? And a mentor will question what you're doing. Being questioned is super uncomfortable. But it actually makes you sit back and think, Oh, I hadn't thought about it like that. So I was talking to two people who were looking to do some business together. And we were chatting about what they were looking at. And I simply said, yes, but you're not going to get a lot of customers like this. I laid out why they wouldn't be getting customers. And I said, and if you want to look at earning money, You need to pivot and you need to focus on this segment of business. And then you can make another money. if you still want to do the other stuff, you've got funding that comes in to fund what you wanted to do. Some businesses are never going to make money. But they're still fun to do. They still bring value to customers and so on. But they're never going to be a great earner. So you have to decide, do I have enough money already coming in to pay for this? Or do I need to find something else to do that can then fund this? the majority of people who people go to, they have no more experience than you do. So you need to talk to somebody who's walked the walk and talked the And really understand it because it's that different perspective. And sometimes the other perspective just reinforces what it was you wanted to do. not like throwing everything out with the bathwater.
Ash:Sure, good to get validation.
Lone:And sometimes the validation then comes with, Oh, but then we could expand here and then we could do this, right?
Ash:Just to conclude mentorship talk. It's something that I feel quite passionate about. my experience is that it's been really hard to find a mentor. And I've also heard stories of really ambitious young entrepreneurs that have just absolutely cold emailed or cold called their dream mentor With just an attractive proposition and being able to get some time. It's please, can you spare me one hour? And they've appealed to like the softer side of that particular business leader's heart. And they've got some time and they've got some guidance. But what I think we're trying to say is we're making it quite easy for people to find a mentor. You're actually going to be connecting people with their future mentors. And equally, I've heard. Some of the retired community here in Chiang Mai saying, I'd love to do stuff, but I don't know how to find the right person.
Lone:So that's a really good question, right? Because that's a little bit of matchmaking, But it also means that a mentor needs to know. How to be a mentor, Because you can go and talk to somebody who vast knowledge and a lot of skills, But they can't communicate. focus on their own inner feelings as opposed to looking with a an open eye on what it is that you're doing, right? Being a mentor, can go out and cold call male people and you you get a bit of wisdom. But is it right for you? Not always. And what that mentor then says to you, you're trying to strive. this guy could be a billionaire and, you looks at the world in a completely different way. And you have no way translating your business into the billionaire's world. Schoberg. It's an unhappy marriage in terms of a mentorship. I'd like to be the bridge between that. I can't mentor everybody, right? But I can find mentors. I can talk to mentors and simply say, Look, you need to do this, you need to look at this. Let's do a bit of a workshop with other people who want to do mentoring. And let's talk about what works and what doesn't work.
Ash:just going to conclude that with a bit of a call out. let's do it from both sides. if you're retired here in Chiang Mai and you feel that you've got a whole wealth of experience and wisdom, then you're the type of people we're looking for. if that person is listening now, what should they do? How do they get in touch with You
Lone:They send me an email. is cbc@cmbbusinesscommunity.com. Find the website, find the Facebook group, my consultancy company and just reach out. easy to get a hold of
Ash:yeah, if you're listening to this, first of all, if you were to just Google Chiang Mai and then put CMBC, you're going to get a whole load of links come up most probably the Facebook link, which is a really good place to start. So that you can check out what's going on. if you are retiree or a mentor or just a potential person that wants to help. And feels that you have value to add to the business community here. So now let's flip it to the other side, what type of businesses do you want reaching out to you? What do they actually do? I'm trying to describe it so that people go, yes, that's me. This is actually for me.
Lone:Any type of business at any stage Where the owner is struggling to make new sales, to acquire new customers to find talent and keep them. To people who are starting out and need to figure out how do I put this together? How do I manage this? Where do I go for help? How do I figure out how my company should look? lots of people have experience in this and would need a mentor to help them take through the process of this thinking and doing that. It doesn't matter whether you're opening up a nail spa, a mechanics office, An AI tech place, a restaurant, a hotel, health center. It doesn't matter what it is, right? might want to the latest in rocket propulsion. That's not a problem. The business is not the problem. It's all the things around it that you need help with.
Ash:That's brilliant. That's made it you've expressed that to be way more inclusive like you, want people at any stage, at any size. So if I was a 16 year old and I've got absolutely no business experience, but I've got an idea. I could still come and receive some free guidance and some free support and extend my
Lone:come and see me at ALT on my pitch days.
Ash:Thank you. Let's just talk now about you because I think I understand what you're doing for other people, but who is your dream client? Who would you like to connect with and work with next?
Lone:Middle East who want to invest in startups and tech in businesses in Thailand.
Ash:Why would they want to do that?
Lone:There are several reasons for that. Number one, there's a cost of actually having businesses here that can support businesses back home because the of operating, as yourself said, a huge thing. Asia is where the world is going. No matter What anybody in the Western world thinks Asia is where the majority of people live, the majority of business is done. And you need to be here. If you're European or American or Australian company, you need to be up here. So I have opened companies in 120 countries around the world. With the companies I've worked for, we've opened offices, we've created companies that are subsidiaries or rep offices and so on. Thailand is one of the easiest places to open an office. If you know how to do it, Problem is, nobody knows how to do it. So they go to their friend's wife's accountant sister, open up pay 20, 000 baht and nothing works. It's not addressed at what they really need. Nobody's looking at it. So what I do, I work with companies who, want to settle here, who want to open up a business or buy a business here. work with them on what exactly is it that they're going to do. And then we set up a company structure for them. I don't open the company myself physically. I have people who do that, right? I outsource some of it. Our accountant does some of the work.
Ash:one other thing that I'd love to talk to you about is like my dream and I express it through the form of a TV show, because I think it helps people really understand, and that TV show is my favorite TV show, it's called Dragon's Den.
Lone:Oh yes, wonderful fun.
Ash:It's amazing. I've watched absolutely everyone. I've since moved on to Shark Tank. I've watched all of theirs too. Like I'm fully addicted to that show. And the reason why I like it is because number one is business. It's about making money. It's about growth. It's about opening new markets and being a successful entrepreneur. But the thing that I love about it is the support that these entrepreneurs would receive. So business owners, they give away a big proportion of their company because it's the classic where they say 50 percent of something huge is a lot better than 100 percent of something small and it's about all the support and the network and the expertise that you can get and that's what I would like to do as I get older. I'd love to be able to do that and it fits in with everything that we've talked about with CMBC and with mentoring and so on. But that's like the vision that I have. Is there room for that in Chiang Mai? And how do you see you fitting in with that? And is this something that we could do together?
Lone:I think it's a brilliant idea. And if we open it up to Thailand as a whole, I think we could get some seriously interesting people come up and pitch for us. Obviously, it's not something we could do 17 of them in a row or something like that. We'd have to reduce them to a couple a year. then bring people in and maybe help people to put the pitches together to make sure that there's some support for them. But I know enough people, and I'm sure you do as well, who would bring a bit of money. And I think CMBC could put some money into it as well to help fund some of these companies, right? The thing that, the one thing, I love those shows, right? The one thing that gets me is The lack of understanding on the entrepreneur's view, simply saying I want a hundred thousand for five percent of my company. So now you've just valued your company at what? Two million? And it's never going to be worth two million, right? So you need to think about how much you're giving off, right? sharks all want 50 percent, right? Now clearly here in Thailand we have. We have some challenges on the 51 49%, but they're not insurmountable. However, if we have Thai companies who are funding the money for this, then all foreigners could use tank like investment for their company. think we would get lots of really interesting people come and pitch to us. I actually attended. A similar thing Yunus, Muhammad Yunus? The micro finance bank. And the UNDP, they held an event here in Chiang Mai. And about 20 social entrepreneurs came to pitch their business ideas and they were given grants of up to about 4, 000 euros for their businesses. The ones who won. And I was on a panel with that. very Loads of people who would like to have some investment. when you get an investor from a Shark Tank thing, also get a mentor. somebody who's actually got financial vested interest in what you're doing. That's hard to manage. So one of the things that I keep on talking to people who come to me, who are looking for, investors. I simply say, you have to remember, you are letting go of your company. Even if you own 70 percent of it, these people can exit anytime they want because that's the way the contract is signed. So you need to be comfortable with having people asking you the uncomfortable questions. But if you can live with that and work with it, you're going to come out 10 times better and faster than if you did it all on your own.
Ash:on your own. true. Let's, Let's just jump the specifics of owning percentages of other people's companies. Okay. on you said you would offer shares in CMBC.
Lone:Yes.
Ash:Just explain that to me, would I be investing in CMBC to invest in other companies?
Lone:In Thailand, foreigners can only own 49 percent of the shares in a company. Shares in a company doesn't actually mean you control the company, right? You own shares and then there's a management level who manages all of the work that goes on and brings in and as a shareholder you get paid dividend. Though I don't think anybody in Thailand has actually really seen any real dividend on any of the companies that they are shareholders in, unless they're active members of the management and ownership of the company. Now, if you bought a couple of shares in CMBC, there would be a shareholders circle. Where we decide the direction of CMBC. I wouldn't suggest that you buy shares in order to get investment. That's not the way to get it right. So people who want to help other businesses can come on board. Help fund the CMBC. I'll try and be as a shareholder as I can because I want to ensure that the direction is clear and goes forward. But long term, I want it to be a shareholding company where everybody has a say in it. But I need to establish it first before we get there. some of that shareholding money absolutely will go towards different programs, setting them up and raising funds. have a coffee scheduled with wonderful gentleman from the Rotary Club. He manages their fundraising, I'm going to go and pick his brain on fundraising. What you do, how you do it.
Ash:Investing in other companies because you said I would like to attract foreign investment into companies here in Chiang Mai. So if I was a Chiang Mai company, and like I said, I'd reached a kind of level where I needed some support and needed some help to grow. And I seeked outside investment into my company, and I gave away a percentage of that company. Just talk me through how that feels for the owner, and what are some of the watchouts, and what sort of protection, what sort of people would you be attracting to invest in their company?
Lone:Okay. So in terms of having other people have a say in my business I agree. Sell 25 percent of the shares. Now I have a shareholder who has an opinion. the way I set up the contract, or the way that the investor insists that it gets set up, will dictate how much investment they have in it. I have a customer who has some money and is investing some of their money. And a company in South Thailand was looking for an investment. She's retained me to help her monitor this. And the guy is feeling little pinched. Though, I'm always friendly. you take somebody else's money, you have an obligation to deliver on that. Your business can tank. That's the nature of the game, right? But when you're working with the business, need to ensure that your investor is on board. So this becomes a really important person to you. You don't need to take their advice on absolutely everything. But you need to keep them informed of what you're doing and how you're doing it. And on growth. how you are getting more money in and so on. The other thing, of course, is your investor. You need to leverage their connections. think about it this way. If you got me as an investor in your company, All of my connections come with me. So it's super important that you find a good investor who can do that for you.
Ash:And again, just going back to the Dragon's Den model, that's what a lot of people actually want, it's oh, you can open doors, you can make this happen much quicker, you've done it before for other people, you've already trod down the route, so I know that you're going to be able to take me to where you're promising you're going to take me. So I guess that's big attractive proposition from trying to find outside investor
Lone:See, the thing is, if your investor pays you 20, 000 to invest in your company and gets 20 percent of the company You get free advice. Instead of paying 7, 000 an hour to to tell you what to do, right? Here's somebody who actually has money this person is going to give it to you for free. You just set up calls with them, ask them about things and ask them to connect you with somebody. All free. Apart from your 20%, long term, that's a good investment for you.
Ash:Yeah, Lone, earlier on you told me that you'd visited almost every country in the world. And I quizzed you on that, and it seems that you really have. You've visited a phenomenal amount. How many?
Lone:180
Ash:and you said and there's not many more to explore But where is left for you to explore? where would you like to go next?
Lone:after having visited all of these countries and traveled through them I started off my personal private travel when I was 17 and I drove from Scandinavia all the way to Kathmandu in a car with two friends and visited many places on the way
Ash:Did that car make it?
Lone:Oh, absolutely and I went back home. I didn't go all the way back home. I got off in Tehran and stayed there for a while So you get to a stage where you're finding things to go and look at, right? So I've got a couple of really good friends in Singapore. We travel the world and go to super wonderful restaurants and so on. But actually the thing that has captured my imagination is to go to the source of all rivers in the world. the start of the Ganges, the Yangtze the Donau, The Rhine, the Amazon, everywhere. I'm not a spring chicken anymore, but I can get to quite a lot of them. So this is real fun, right? like a bucket list, right? And the list is all these rivers.
Ash:you tend to find at the source of a river, then?
Lone:Absolutely nothing. It's a trickle, and then it just grows, right? So Donau Eschingen, which is in Germany, and which eventually becomes the Donau, and it goes out into the Black Sea, this enormous delta. water well in a castle in a town called Donau Eschingen. And you can just go there and throw a coin down and wish on something. And the water that you see makes its way all the way out into the Black Sea.
Ash:I wonder if this is like a metaphor for what you do in life, which is you like to see the star and like the small trickle and then know
Lone:The spark of an idea.
Ash:There we go. So expect to see you at the source of some major rivers coming up in the next couple of years.
Lone:I've got to do the Thai ones. I haven't done those yet, so I must do if there are any. I need to go and check.
Ash:I've got one more little
Lone:Okay.
Ash:Can you explain this quote to me, please? I think I get it, but I'd just love to hear it in your words. Don't be the ball in a pinball machine. Be the machine.
Lone:Oh, absolutely. So I'm a control freak. might not think so looking at me and chatting to me, but I really am. I want to be in control of a process. And if you're a ball in a pinball machine, you are just being thrown all over the place. You are trying to open up a company without help and mentorship. You are that ball in the machine. What you need to be is the machine driving the ball ahead.
Ash:I get it. I knew I would. Miss Lorna Anderson, thank you so much for coming in. Thank you for explaining what it is that you do and offering yourself out. it's an amazing offer to people listening to this. If you are a business owner or you want to be a business owner, There must be so many things that are daunting, that are like, unachievable, that actually hold you back from doing what it is that you want to fulfill. And your offer is very simple. It's come to me, tell me your problem, tell me your business conundrum, tell me what it is that you need. And if I can't fix it myself, I'll try and find someone that can and connect you to a wealth of support. that's such a wonderful offer. So thank you very much for presenting that to the people of Chiang Mai and I very much hope that we can do more together
Lone:look forward to that. for having me on your show. I've been listening to it and I've loved it.
Ash:Thank you, it's been a pleasure to chat to you.
