IMPACT 0341: BUILDING A POSITIVE COMMUNITY AS A PSYCHIATRIC NURSE AND PODCASTER

During the day, Rayson Choo, 32, works as a psychiatric nurse who tirelessly helps individuals struggling with mental health issues. By night, he is known as The Celebrity Whisperer as he interviews celebrity entrepreneurs and speakers on his podcast called The Raygacy Show.

After years of struggle, Rayson focused on the positives and hopes to aspire and inspire people before his time is up. He is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives by teaching them how to fulfil their purpose. His vision is to inspire millions of people around the world as well as to create more impact, legacy and joy.

I have been working with the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for the past seven years. On the other hand, I’ve been doing my podcast called The Raygacy Show for about five years now.

At The Raygacy Show, we interview celebrity entrepreneurs and speakers to pick their brains, sharing the way they think and some of their “secrets” that have gotten them to where they are today!

I became a psychiatric nurse mainly because of my mother. She suffered from a mental illness called schizophrenia before I was born. I wanted to get closer to her and understand her even though she’s no longer living with me as my parents divorced when I was seven years old.

I started my podcast called The Raygacy Show because of my love for entrepreneurship. Here’s a back story about it. In 2014, I was fired from my job. At the same time, I also broke up with my then-girlfriend. During that tough time, I chanced upon Joel Brown’s podcast called Addicted 2 Success. This inspired me to have my own interview series, which I started in 2017 via Facebook Live.

I realised that many people were misusing Facebook Live by recording negative events like fights or road accidents, so I decided I wanted to add some positivity to the entrepreneurship community as it is widely known that 70 per cent of small businesses and start-ups will fail by the end of the decade.

One of the challenges I have faced so far in my medical profession is having to handle demanding and unreasonable patients as well as family members. I overcome this through active listening and building therapeutic relationships with my patients.

Besides that, I also empathise with the outside factors that are upsetting the patient or family member and don’t take it personally when they are complaining or being negative.

I live by the belief that if we all knew how much we’ve missed out on by being uneducated and disconnected, we’d be working a lot harder towards our goals. The person you will be in a year from now is based on the content you study, who you are mentored by, and the people you surround yourself with today. As said by the great Jim Rohn: “Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.”

Therefore, I implore you to start learning from the people that you’ve always looked up to. Be it by watching their YouTube channel, reading their books, listening to their audiobooks or podcasts, interviewing them in your podcast or even hiring them as your coach. I believe you have to start now! Your 2030 self will thank you for that.

I hope to build my own legacy by having my own coaching and training business. I’ll continuously work on my craft and side hustles so that I can add value to the entrepreneurs’ community.

I also hope to be able to interview more celebrity entrepreneurs such as Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, Peter Lim and many more inspiring figures in the future. I want to bring more positivity to the people around me during this period of time.

Another thing that I want to see in the future is the reduction of stigma on people suffering from mental illness. I hope that the government and other organisations will create joint initiatives that can educate the public on mental illness and how they can help them.

This article was published on Feb 9, 2022