YT01 | He Bridges The Gap Between Expats And Locals In Asia

Please welcome Max Chernov, the guy who helps bridge the gap between expats and locals all across Asia with his highly popular YouTube channel. In this episode, we ask him about his experiences in Singapore and how it influenced his YouTube career.

Discussion Topics: He Bridges the Gap Between Expats and Locals in Asia

• Why Max came to Singapore
• What he was doing earlier
• How Max got started on Youtube and his tips for success
• Favourite thing about Singapore
• Why people want to come to Singapore
• Least favourite thing about Singapore
• How Max’ family views his Youtube career
• Max’ long term plans for Singapore
• The world Max wants to see for his daughter

Transcript: He Bridges the Gap Between Expats and Locals in Asia

Yana Fry: Hey Max, welcome to YanaTV Podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you here with us today.

Max Chernov: Yeah, thank you for having me.

Yana Fry: Looking good to you. I’m just wondering where you’re from

Max Chernov: that part of the world for Russia.

Yana Fry: And when did you come to Singapore?

Max Chernov: Almost five years ago.

Yana Fry: Okay. Well, I was born in St. Petersburg cred. So you have to be, you’d have to be shy with me to talk about it. So you came here five years ago? Why?

Max Chernov: We actually like we stay in Singapore for half a year in 2014. And we really liked it was my wife like a girlfriend like though she started her, MBA here in INSEAD. And we just loved the place. And then we went back to Europe, and spend some time there. But we also like we always wanted to go back. Because we are just like Singapore. And, yeah, that’s what we decided, Okay, this time we go back.

Yana Fry: And I know that the topic of our conversation today will be live talking collaterally about personal brands because this is also your background. So yes, I’m gonna go to Singapore. But tell me a bit more. Just what have you been doing cool? So before just into when it comes to building brands and amplifying them so that we understand.

Max Chernov: The like decent size business in like Social Media Marketing Agency, and like we did a lot of like, online education. Exactly about personal branding, also a bit of networking, and like how to grow our main topic was How to Grow personal brands online, like how to build this presence online, using Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms. And like, overall, like I did a lot of like speaking stuff. So overall, I think I had like, around 200,000 students, like three, three students. But before that, I actually came from the corporate world. It was a Gucci brand manager, like, one time ago, 10 years ago, okay. Yeah. So that’s, that was always like, my thing.

Yana Fry: How to exponentially grow brands. And I know for a fact, this is how we also connect to edit, even though you just could say recently came to Singapore, you started here, which is already now a very, popular YouTube channel. So tell us about your YouTube channel, and how did you start and what are you focusing on right now?

Max Chernov: Yeah, for the last, I would say, three months, we start gaining traction. Like, now I recognized on the street every day is just insane.

Yana Fry: I saw you I know you.

How did you start your youtube channel?

Max Chernov: Exactly. Yeah, that’s what people Oh, you Mike’s YouTuber. So people are really fascinated. It launched this channel, I think two years ago, but then I was direct to my main business. And then I kind of stopped making content. But then I decided, okay half a year ago in October 2022, I decided to relaunch this channel, I hired the team. So I can have a team of like five people than me. When we started our main goal was we do a lot of tests like experiments.

So we test different types of formats, different types of content, and different guests. And then I would say after four or five months of testing, we kind of found this niche of ex-pats speaking about their experience being in this country, I think that’s the gap between understanding locals and understanding foreigners, and vice versa. So sometimes, as we discussed in our interview it’s just different universes and different circles, they’re not really interact with each other. So we found this niche and it seems to work super well. And we also test the same format, and we tested it in Malaysia, and it works as well. Same kind of content.

Yana Fry: What tips can you give people who want to go in this direction so let’s say that in a YouTube channel with your messaging, making it successful, so how would you do that?

Max Chernov: Okay, the first one would be pretty obvious. I think if you’re the work, you just getting started okay? Because otherwise you kind of you people overthink it for me, I launched a successful YouTube channel in Russia mystery 100,000 subscribers. And I’ve been doing it for a while. So for me, overthinking kind of makes sense because I can like to understand the game.

But for people who’ve never done any YouTube, Tik Tok or Instagram, you just have to start doing it. The second tip would be to do it on the side. Don’t leave your job too early. And then see what works and what doesn’t work maybe you don’t like it because sometimes people like oh, it’s like all these freakin influencers they make so much money.

Yana Fry: recognized and invited everywhere right

Max Chernov: Exactly they just basically follow their food and that’s how they get famous gets like big sponsors.

Yana Fry: In reality it’s.

Max Chernov: A huge back end, I say that I have a team of like five people, and people walk by people who come, oh, we thought this only you because it’s five people working full time to produce three short like 10 minutes long, 12 minutes long videos a week. And it actually takes you a lot of like, effort and time. And the third one, go learn, how this thing works. So basically you can buy a course or like YouTube or something. And there are a lot of videos about how to be, like a successful YouTuber.

So just because, if you create a nice piece of content, and then you screw up the thumbnail, and people never click. So what’s the point of doing YouTube then? Or tick tock. So you need to understand how this works. It’s not only about all I know, my content is good. So people will watch it, no, people will not watch it because it looks like so much content out there. You compete with a lot of other creators.

Youtube is not just for teenagers and younger generation

Yana Fry: And you know, I think this is also a common misconception that, or maybe it was the truth at the beginning that YouTube is just for teenagers and younger generation and you shoot it with whatever cameras and there is not much post-production. And this but who said you should afford a conversation with a friend and it goes viral.

It’s in reality, it’s a full-time job that often best YouTubers would have scripts for the videos you prepare, you know who you’re talking to, and even if it says looks spontaneous, you actually often script what’s going to happen to the story. So if it’s a full-time job,

Max Chernov: and if you want to be consistent, if you want to make a living out of it, you need to know how to do it not like one time, but how to make it work consistently.

Yana Fry: I like it also, but you’re saying it’s important to know why would you actually even have the YouTube channel. So is this to make money with which one the conversation itself or just to drive traffic to your existing products? So what do you think is the better reason to have a YouTube channel than people would do that?

Max Chernov: Yeah, the reason I think even if you’re a creative person, and you want to just have your message, send the message out, you have to make money out of it. Otherwise, it’s really hard to, work for three years doing this, not having any money back out of it. So you need to think about it as a project is not supposed to be it does not have to be you get rich quick. That doesn’t work in most cases.

What was the most unusual interview?

Yana Fry: And as you’re saying, because it looks like your channel looks like an overnight success. Actually, it took a lot of work to get there, and with all the experience before that, you had to be to learn how to create content. So it’s a full-time job if you really want to do that. So you interviewed all these people now in Singapore because of what you were doing. And I’m just curious what was the most unusual interview.

Max Chernov: I will say that there were a few unusual stories like yours story is free to political on another entry the girl she’s was born in Singapore at 20, and her parents like sailors. And she’s been in Singapore for her whole life. And she never gets any PR or passport and she has been living here she’s spoken with like American social strata. Excellent. She was born in Singapore. So all these things are very, very unusual.

Yana Fry: What is your favorite thing about Singapore?

Max Chernov: My favorite thing about Singapore? Or I can like to talk about it’s

Yana Fry: okay, give me the top three years and there is the whole list.

Max Chernov: The top three things. First of all, I think people like honestly, like it’s a small place. It’s like it’s a big city. But it doesn’t feel as big as New York or mosque or London, because it’s no almost no traffic like I was in Singapore and others will say in the comments. Of course we have traffic like nine o’clock traffic.

But, guys if you go to a traffic jam in Jakarta or Bangkok, I mean, that’s traffic. Here’s no traffic. So basically you can get from point A to point B in 20 minutes or 25 minutes, which makes it super easy to meet people. So logistically, it makes it super easy. And Singapore just drags all the smartest people from all over the world or all the regions of all nationalities in one place.

What is your favorite part about Singapore?

Yana Fry: wonder why you have any ideas about that? What do you think? Why would that be able to replace this? Everyone seems to be wanting to come here.

Max Chernov: I think that was the initial strategy of actually liquefying you that was the strategy. So we do not have enough resources, human resources. So we need to make this place attractive for foreign investments. And with the foreign investments, the start, having people in the country as well, like Hong Kong, if you do business with China, the company can be based in Hong Kong. If you do business with all the Southeast Asian countries, it’s illogical a business in Singapore. So yeah, I will say people are number one.

Number two is everything is just super convenient and works super well. Like starting from the older government services, and finishing with like any like day to day services. You lived in Switzerland, try and focus on the text like ages to like, I don’t know, get the home broadband internet at home like to be in school in London. Yeah. So it’s like, no, it’s

Yana Fry: a great place. But in terms of logistics, very difficult.

Max Chernov: Yeah. So this one, I would say, the third one maybe I love the weather, actually.

Yana Fry: Very few people. Not we’re not born here to say this.

Max Chernov: Yeah, it’s a great hub for travel as well. If in Singapore, it’s easy for you to go to all the South Asian countries, China, India, and Australia. So more or less this, if your interest in this part of the world is one of the best places to be in this region if you want to be in this region strategically,

Yana Fry: Okay. What is your least favorite part about Singapore? Do you have anything?

Max Chernov: Actually, I get used to like some things I didn’t like in the beginning. For example, not really, I didn’t like but let’s say the service is very transactional, like in the restaurant in the cafes, where it’s right, no smile, no buy this kind of thing in many places. It’s very efficient, but it’s transactional. Compared to, I don’t know, Italy, or Spain. But after five years here, I don’t waste my time waiting for food. And that’s the main. That’s the biggest thing. I think that’s the area to grow, like, service-wise in Singapore.

Yana Fry: I heard that actually from many people. So particularly about, like friendliness, kind of disengaging with customers and kind of people skills, that kind of really no known people. So it’s not only about efficiency but also, how is your day and foreignness like that? But maybe he’s not relevant.

Max Chernov: People have the wrong idea about, Russia, the country We’re originally from. But you tell me about that. If you go to Moscow, I don’t know now, but I think it’s still there. But, I used to go to Moscow pretty often. And the service is just amazing. Like all the restaurants and cafes, it’s super friendly. When the sufficient is people smile, people try to help you.

Sometimes the Singapore, people don’t try to help you. They’re, Okay, we don’t have it on the menu. Sorry, we don’t have the polite, but they are not thinking outside of the box. In customer service. Though, the interesting thing about Singapore, if you go to any museum, government, or institution, the service is actually super nice. Sometimes this is better than commercial organization.

The need for growth in the business sector

Yana Fry: Okay, so clearly now listening to you and having this conversation, there is some growth needed in the business sector, that people just need to work on customer service actually, specifically. So I don’t know how government employees get trained. But maybe it’s a different training in terms of service. And locally clearly, in the private sector, people don’t get that. So they just come they work. But there’s no actually there’s the service culture, how to talk with customers.

Max Chernov: And I don’t say it doesn’t exist. But if you just compare discussing the poorest, like, almost perfect, and if you want to be 100% Perfect, so maybe you just fill this gap as well.

Yana Fry: Well, it’s a very small place. And as you said the visit is almost perfect. It’s already very full with people more and more in the line trying to come. So we kind of realized that if Singapore would have maybe like four seasons of weather and would be absolutely perfect, then it would be impossible to get here because everyone we wouldn’t get in Singapore. I think it’s nice to have, some elements for growth and development. So otherwise, it could be really, really crowded here.

Max Chernov: No, actually the stopping factor for Singapore is obviously the cost of living. The majority of people cannot afford to come to Singapore even It was if they have a job or business because it’s so expensive so that’s the filter. That’s why I actually like more successful career-wise or manager when people come to Singapore. That’s why it’s so business oriented.

How well do you know the Singaporeans?

Yana Fry: Okay. Have you been interacting with a lot of Singaporeans? So doing business or part of also the interview recording? How well do you know that Singaporeans who were born here?

Max Chernov: The majority of my audience on YouTube channel, it’s Singaporeans so basically, I interact with them in the comments every day.

Yana Fry: Okay, so you interact with them every day through the comment section, and I read some of those comments, people are really very engaging, and they are honest, it’s the other thing they really like they stick their mind about things.

Max Chernov: Sometimes they shouldn’t.

Yana Fry: I haven’t said that. Just reading that and interacting with them. What did you realize for yourself about people that maybe came to your mind? I’m sure we always do this one way. There are a lot of opinions out there.

Max Chernov: Okay and all the opinions are, all the pins can be expressed which is good. But then when you see this, some people do not sort it’s probably a minority of people, like haters, people start commenting and expressing their opinion, and you can be misguided, and overwhelmed with so many, extreme opinions. But in real life, they still like nice people. And it’s a little bit, it’s a bit of confusion or how you understand reality.

You don’t want to understand reality and judge the real world. Based on the comments on YouTube videos, that’s for sure. In general, what I like about sexing the Singaporean audience is people are opinionated. But people, most of the people they’re not, bullshit. They don’t do the Undo. Some people do. But the majority of people in the comments, they’re okay, I disagree. Or they can say this is bullshit because of the guy and then the explanation. So what I like about this, is the local lawyers, people, they actually based on something expressing their ideas, which is, which is really cool.

Yana Fry: How is your family with all of that? How are they dealing with this? are they liking it? So how are they reacting to everything?

Max Chernov: Okay, my six-year-old daughter knows that I’m a YouTuber. Oh, cool about it. Oh, my daddy. She knows like I am doing this thing. Yes. This funny to see that she kind of understand because she watched YouTube herself. She can understand.

Yana Fry: That is yes, my dad is a YouTuber.

Max Chernov: My wife she already gets used to it. Because I’ve been doing social media for a long time in Russian, like Instagram, YouTube. I’m trying not to be too much out there. Me personally.

Yana Fry: I know that thank you for showing up here today.

Max Chernov: No, I mean, like, like building a personal brand is super important. And I know for my business for my project is super important. So people trust me because they know what I’m for and what I’m against, my attitude about different kinds of things. So if people know me, they trust me.

And then like, it’s good for business. At the same time, I don’t want to be this kind of Instagram blogger who is always out there, and posts content, about their life, in real-time. And I have the privilege of not doing it. Because the production process of YouTube is not like that. And our format. I find interesting people. And I make interviews and that’s my main format.

Yana Fry: Are you planning on staying in Singapore?

Who would you like to become a distraction for?

Max Chernov: Yeah, Because I didn’t have many places I lived in Russia, the US, and the UK, in Ireland In Spain, Luxembourg a little bit. We’ve chosen Singapore consciously. So I just love the place. I see the big potential in this region. Yeah, I want to be here long-term.

Yana Fry: Okay, so if we’re looking at the long term, so what and who would you like to become a distraction? I’m just curious.

Max Chernov: The big idea I want to build a small media empire.

Yana Fry: Okay, big media empire. Okay.

Max Chernov: This is another thing about, the content creation market here, there is not much competition. So if you know what to do, if you know your game, it’s easier. So honestly, I want to add up other countries as well. So I want to try it in the same format for India, China, Indonesia, Philippines and then I built like my other projects like products on this audience like for this audience that I’ve been gaining through YouTube, so YouTube will be a main platform.

Yana Fry: Well, good luck with all of that I’m looking forward to hearing to see what is happening with the expansion of your platform.

Max Chernov: Here on this YouTube channel, I see that we actually closing this gap of understanding, it’s a local, some forums, I think we’re doing something good for the local community and for the audience. So people understand each other more. And another thing I really like it, and it’s also my own kind of life principle. I like when people see, broader horizons or the perspective, of how people look at things. And if you live in many countries, and you meet different people, your horizon is broad is broken up. I feel that showing different types of people, different races, different nationalities, different backgrounds. In Singapore, people have different ideas about how life can be, and how views about life can be. Yeah, that’s, I’m proud of it.

Yana Fry: I’m very proud of you for doing that. And the final question that I wanted to ask about your daughter that you have, right, so she’s six years old? What kind of world would you like her to grow up?

Max Chernov: Without worse? That would be ideal. Yeah. I would say, personally for her I’m trying to give her the best, the best start the best, the best base, let’s say she speaks Russian and English fluently. And she speaks Mandarin as well, Chinese school, and she’s going to a bilingual program. So, I think your life will be good. But the world if you’re asking about the world. Some big topics, I mean, let’s say tough questions. Let’s say the world goes to be more, or less divided, and to be people accept other people, more. Meaning is fewer wars and fewer conflicts. That would be would be perfect.

Yana Fry: Thank you so much, Max, for joining us here today. It was a wonderful, unusual in many ways conversation, and good luck with everything you’re doing in Singapore. We’re going to follow you. Yeah, it goes. Well, thank you for being here.

Max Chernov: Thank you so much. I think we forgot something. Yes, subscribe to the channel. Prestolite

Yana Fry: You see a professional. So I’m noticing Thank you.

Our Guest: Max Chernov

Max Chernov is the founder of his eponymous Youtube channel, where he interviews ex-pats, unraveling their unique stories and providing valuable insights into their lives in Singapore and other parts of Asia. He’s also a successful entrepreneur helping companies and individuals build their brands on social media.