Finding Mojo with Zana and Nico: Recent Episodes
BSA Solutions Inc.
In Finding Mojo, we will guide and inspire you to grow as an individual and find the balance to lead a meaningful and contented life. In each episode, we will share stories with key learnings that you can use as practical tools in navigating your life’s journey. We’ll touch on all aspects of life – relationships, career and finance. We hope you’ll seek to find the balance with your eyes wide open and take every challenge that life throws at you as an opportunity. This podcast is brought to you by BSA Solutions Inc. for the Millenials-on-the go in Cebu, Philippines.
In this episode, let's discover together the wonderful world of Web3 and its infinite possibilities with our guest, Raine Laluna.
From being a Damath champion and a radio talent in herelementary years, she took up industrial engineering in college - with marketing and advertising very close to her heart.
Being a freelancer paved the way for Raine to discover thepower of the Internet. Soaking up all the knowledge she got, she co-founded Web3 Cebu, paving the way for more individuals to be more savvy about cryptocurrency, NFTs, blockchains, etc.
Takeaways from this episode:
1. Never back down from a challenge. 2. Life will bring you detours every now and then.3. Turn weaknesses into strengths by working smart, not hard.
In this episode, let us introduce you to one of Cebu's hidden gems, Miss Nikki Lim!
You know that one friend who's just skilled and gifted from the get-go? She's one of them. A competitive swimmer, dancer, a volunteer member of the Coast Guard, and a budding chef (if she wanted to). Nikki's done it all, and we barely scratched the surface.
In the name of public service, she is a practicing lawyer by day and rules the city's dance floors as a club DJ by night.
Her next move? She'll never tell. One thing is certain: the world is her oyster!
Takeaways from this episode:
1. Time is your best weapon. Use it wisely.
2. Knowledge in whatever shape or form will always be power.
3. Turn your hobby or passion into another stream of income.
In this episode, get ready to read the brilliant mind of one of the country's fastest-rising rappers, Cookie$.
From his humble beginnings learning to play music in church, to quickly blossoming into a rock drummer, Job (in real life) went through a major speed bump after moving to Atlanta, thus putting a stop to his music career in the Philippines.
To his surprise, life has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. While exploring other professional pursuits, he mustered the courage to write and produce songs, this time with an entirely different genre than what he was used to. And the rest, they say, is history.
Takeaways from this episode:
- Make it a habit to learn a new skill
- Sometimes, detours are blessings. Embrace it.
- There is plenty of knowledge everywhere. Read up.
In this episode, Zana and Nico chat with Margo Frasco, a successful entrepreneur, radio host, and dance and performing arts director. Margo shares her journey of pursuing her passions across different countries and cultures. She reveals how she balances her family business with her creative endeavours, and how she overcomes challenges with gratitude and resilience.
Margo is the CEO of Titay’s Liloan Rosquillos and Delicacies, Inc., famous for its rosquillos, a ring-shaped cookie that was invented by Margo’s great-grandmother, Margarita “Titay” Frasco, in 1907. Margo leads the company with a vision of bringing happiness in one bite to customers all over the world. She is also passionate about preserving and promoting the rich heritage and culture of Liloan, Cebu, through Titay’s products.
Her burning passion for music, dance and performing arts led her to start MDF PRODUCTION, with a theatre studio in Cebu City, available for everyone – THE CORE (Calm Oneself Release Energy).
You will learn from Margo’s insights on:
- How to cultivate a grateful mindset in any situation
- How to turn failures into opportunities for growth and learning
- How to dream big and chase your goals with confidence and joy
Don’t miss this inspiring and fun conversation with Margo Frasco, the multifaceted maven who lives life to the fullest!
In this episode, Zana and Nico chat with Margo Frasco, a successful entrepreneur, radio host, and dance and performing arts director. Margo shares her journey of pursuing her passions across different countries and cultures. She reveals how she balances her family business with her creative endeavours, and how she overcomes challenges with gratitude and resilience.
Margo is the CEO of Titay’s Liloan Rosquillos and Delicacies, Inc., famous for its rosquillos, a ring-shaped cookie that was invented by Margo’s great-grandmother, Margarita “Titay” Frasco, in 1907. Margo leads the company with a vision of bringing happiness in one bite to customers all over the world. She is also passionate about preserving and promoting the rich heritage and culture of Liloan, Cebu, through Titay’s products.
Her burning passion for music, dance and performing arts led her to start MDF PRODUCTION, with a theatre studio in Cebu City, available for everyone – THE CORE (Calm Oneself Release Energy).
You will learn from Margo’s insights on:
- How to cultivate a grateful mindset in any situation
- How to turn failures into opportunities for growth and learning
- How to dream big and chase your goals with confidence and joy
Don’t miss this inspiring and fun conversation with Margo Frasco, the multifaceted maven who lives life to the fullest!
This episode features Joe Vincent Medrano, one of our modern-day road heroes.
He provides daily ease and comfort for commuters as one of our dynamic and energetic Angkas bikers - like a Grab rider but on a motorbike.
Everything started with his love for going the distance and pushing the limits of his motorcycle while travelling to different parts of Cebu. He can still experience all these while making good money to provide for his family.
A jack of all trades, Joe has dabbled in different fields of work: engineering and accounting. His exploits even landed him a job in Liberia for a year. Listen to him recall his experiences and be inspired by his "CAN-DO" attitude, determination, and ability to work smart, not hard.
Takeaways from this episode:
- Time management is key;
- Family before everything else; and
- Find time to discover your untapped potential!
In this episode, we spent an afternoon with Clyde Maratas. His passion for quality service, his sound business acumen, and his undeniable charm, has won him more clients, and dare we say a "Poster Boy" candidate for his company, IntelliCare.
Clyde pursued varied interests in his teenage years, opening up opportunities for him to discover more about himself and what his passionate about. He joined the BPO industry for two years before shifting gears into the health insurance industry, taking on the company’s sales and marketing role in the region.
Takeaways from this episode:
- Early on in life, be moldable like clay;
- Never be afraid to pivot, even when you are in a very comfortable position; and
- Create relationships and expand your network to create your own personal branding.
BSA Solutions Inc. officially turns TWO on the 3 October, reaching a full 24 months of commitment, dedication, and enduring efforts on the part of the team. In this episode, Zana took us down memory lane, how Team BSA started at the same time as COVID-19 and how they navigated through it, but with a positive impact.
Team BSA had grown from only four original members when it first began in 2020 to support 366 Associates at the end of October 2022. Whilst the majority, 60%, come in physically to work at its headquarters in Cebu, the remaining 40% fulfil their duties from other parts of the Philippines entirely in the post-COVID new way of Working-From-Home.
From the first contract entrusted by its maiden client, BSA now services 35 clients in Australia, Ireland, and the USA. The first client of BSA remains to this day, and so too is their very first Associate. This is a testament to mutually rewarding relationships beyond just transactions.
Get some insights on how you can turn your passion into a career when you have a vision.
In this episode, we spent the afternoon with Luis Quibranza, finding out how his work as an editor has helped him stay focused on his passion for pursuing his career as a musician.
Luis's love for writing, poetry and songs has led him to be a lifestyle editor. He started at SunStar as an intern and now as an editor covers a mix of subjects - lifestyle, sports and many more. You can read his restaurant reviews here: Luis FB page.
Luis is also a singer, and songwriter for Bethany, an alternative rock band formed by three brothers in 2008. They have released two albums, and there's going to be more coming. Listen to their albums Fantasy Fool and Beautiful Show (2020) on Spotify. You can watch their new cool music video Bethany - Bright (Official)
Quote from Luis: "You got to love what you do to be able to grow. If the right thing is in there, all you have to do is to nurture it. Treat every day as a learning experience. I measure myself according to my last output. The other years don't count."
Get some insights on how you can turn your passion into a career when you have a vision.
In this episode, we spent the afternoon with Luis Quibranza, finding out how his work as an editor has helped him stay focused on his passion for pursuing his career as a musician.
Luis's love for writing, poetry and songs has led him to be a lifestyle editor. He started at SunStar as an intern and now as an editor covers a mix of subjects - lifestyle, sports and many more. You can read his restaurant reviews here: Luis FB page.
Luis is also a singer, and songwriter for Bethany, an alternative rock band formed by three brothers in 2008. They have released two albums, and there's going to be more coming. Listen to their albums Fantasy Fool and Beautiful Show (2020) on Spotify. You can watch their new cool music video Bethany - Bright (Official)
Quote from Luis: "You got to love what you do to be able to grow. If the right thing is in there, all you have to do is to nurture it. Treat every day as a learning experience. I measure myself according to my last output. The other years don't count."
Meet Simon Nunez, aka King Spade, a Cebu-based musician, and an entrepreneur.
Inspired by his grandfather and father, who were also musicians in the 1990s, he spent his younger years listening to their music and taught himself how to play the guitar and read music.
He followed his passion, joining several Cebu bands as a bass player and singing at gigs around Cebu and Manila. He recorded his first Ep vinyl under a Japanese record label before covid hits in 2019.
Injecting a different vibe into the music scene in Cebu, Simon writes music and lyrics fusion of rock and reggae. In his own words, he ‘treats music like a woman’.
What started as a hobby of collecting vinyl records, he decided to open Pavement Records, selling extensive collections of vinyl records of all types and old-school favourites.
Follow King Spade on Facebook and Spotify to listen to his music.
Visit Pavement Records and try to play your old favourite from vinyl on a classic turntable.
Many young Filipinos choose to live and work abroad for a promising brighter future. Living abroad is a unique transitional experience, and it may not be for everyone. During the COVID pandemic, many decided to return and settle at home in the Philippines.
In this episode, we have Clacier Paciente sharing her migration story. In 2004, Clacier decided to move her family to Australia to seek a better lifestyle. Their first home was in Geraldton, Western Australia, a regional area with a population of 30 thousand. What a transitional shock to their chaotic life in Manila, with a population of 1.8 million. Despite living in Australia for close to 20 years, she is still a Filipino at heart. She brought up her children as Australians but with strong, family Filipino values.
Listen to her tips on what to expect and how to have a better work alignment with Australians. She is also a podcaster - Candid with Clacier, celebrating wins big and small.
A special guest in this Episode 8 is the Chief Financial Controller and Co-founder of BSA Solutions Inc, Chino Chua. Chino has achieved what many accountants can only dream of. In his studies, Chino was magna cum laude in his university and the top ten scorers in the Philippines for his CPA board exam. He started his career with SGV and continued to get the best training from international companies. In 2020, he co-founded BSA Solutions Inc., an outsourcing company in Cebu, providing jobs to over 200 millennials and growing in the Philippines.
His parents had profound effects on who he is today. Man of few words, but he speaks volume. Family always comes first; Chino shares his pragmatic approach to being financially responsible, both to oneself and the family.
If you are an accounting student, listen to the career tips on how to succeed as an accounting student and how to start your career right in the accounting field. For millennials, listen to the tips on how you can successfully manage your budget and how to start building your wealth.
There's no better time to get started on taking the first step towards self-discovery. Find your mojo and live the life you want. Sounds like a complex topic?
In this episode, we have Phil Pynor, a pastor and corporate strategist, who will unpack the process for us. Phil currently lives in Cebu City. Phil works with leaders and not-for-profit organisations in Australia, the Philippines and Cambodia. He is currently working on rebuilding the slum community after Typhoon Odette.
Phil helped us unpack the concept of self-discovery and share the first step in the process.
- Be curious to ask the hard questions. Life is about the integrity of the questions you ask yourself than the answers that you get. Ask the questions. What are your dreams, values, talents, a sense of purpose, your strengths and weaknesses?
- Be brave to be in the chaos. Self-discovery is a journey that has a start but no end. It's unstructured, chaotic and messy.
- Be selective of who you want to be with the journey. Choose a sage who is willing to walk alongside you for the long haul—a person who is not judgmental, genuine and committed to listening to what you are saying.
Be energised, inspired, and encouraged to deep dive into knowing who you are. Resilience comes from self-understanding. When you know who you are and what you want in life, you'll have the capacity to respond when life throws you a curveball.
🔊 We brought to you Dr Cecile Cabias-Jaca, an internal medicine, cardiologist. She shared her experience in treating COVID patients in four hospitals in Cebu from the start, through the troughs and peaks of the pandemic, until now. She has the actual data that proves how vaccination can save a person's life.
Dr Cecile also shared her journey in managing her stress amidst the fear and uncertainty. Listen to the secret ingredients 💥 she shared on how to be successful for the millennials.
With no end-game in sight with COVID, she reminds us not to be complacent and help the government downgrade the virus to the simple flu. Get vaccinated. Get your booster shots. Follow the safety protocols and strengthen your immune system.
We continue with Part 2 of the series with Azah Yazmin, the relationship therapist. We explore a technique focusing on creating an emotionally safe space in a conversation. In this episode, Zana and Nico imitate a couple, negotiating the demand of career and family.
When using the 'I' statement and paraphrasing, it replaces the ‘attack-defend’ style of many failed conversations and relationships with a ‘listen-accept’ conversation cycle, leading naturally to an amicable solution.
This two-part series will explore how our conversation style influences our relationships. Our guest, Azah Yazmin, a trained emotionally-focused relationship therapist, will share the ‘process’ in managing tough and deep conversations for successful relationships.
We judge from the first five minutes when we hear another person talk. The problem is communication – talking and listening, are very complex. How we speak and listen is a learned social behaviour influenced by cultural and childhood experiences that carry over into our relationship with our partner, friends, and co-workers.
Listen to the unscripted conversation of Zana and Nico, emulating a couple in a counselling session with Azah. You can hear that conversation is not as simple as saying what we mean. We can say the same thing, but the way we say it can have a different meaning. How we say what we mean and listening to what another person is saying are crucial.
Three key learnings in this episode:
- the process is as important as the content. Take turns in a conversation. Let one speak, and the other respond. Don’t talk over each other. Use paraphrasing to confirm that you understand what the other meant. Don’t get stuck in the old way you learnt from your environment;
- be curious in finding facts. Use the data and analyse the content. Listen deeply not only to the spoken words to understand the actual intention; and
- don’t get your emotion to be the motivation - defensive, critical and blame. Choose how you respond to either soothe or heal you.
Our special guest in this episode is Nicolay Enriquez, my co-host who wears many hats as a radio DJ, event host, and singer-songwriter. Nico shared his journey to becoming a radio DJ and how it opens the doors to other opportunities.
Ready to settle down at 37, he fell in love with a neighbour. Living the mantra of happy wife, happy life, Nico shares how important it is to have a collaborative relationship to get to a happy and contented relationship.
Recently, he released his single ‘Breathe’, inspiring others to keep calm when the world is in chaos.
Key learnings from Nico are:
- Be present, be where the opportunities are, have no regrets, take everything as a learning opportunity;
- Deep dive into what you are passionate about, and learn every trick from the best; and
- Slow down, be at your pace, have your own race, life is not a competition, and keep calm and breathe.
In this episode, we have Mais Semblante who found her mojo and chose Cosplay as her profession. She knew that she was different, unlike other girls since she was a kid. An introvert, she built her own world, found comfort in comic books, play-acting the characters from her comic books and pretended to have superpowers.
She started taking Cosplay seriously when she found that playing dress-up, doing what she loved as a child can help her make money. In the beginning, she invested serious time, effort and whatever little money she had crafting and sewing her own costume. She also did her own make-up. She got invited and sponsored to participate in Cosplay events as participants and judges in Cosplay competitions, as her popularity grew in the industry. Her last public appearance was in SM Seaside in Cebu City in 2019, which attracted over 20 thousand people from all over the Philippines.
As social events were banned during COVID, she started doing live streaming for gamers. Not an easy feat, she had to reinvent herself, learning new skills in streaming, building her confidence in attracting people to watch and listen to her streaming channels, in her own skin without the costume.
Without fear of being judged, she found ways to express herself through the visual art of Cosplay. She has risen up at every challenge, reinventing herself, pushing her boundary to achieve the goals and high standards she set for herself.
The key learnings from Mais are:
- Build your network of cheerleaders - a group of people around you that share your vision and drive, who will always support and motivate you;
- Pay great attention to every detail and be very meticulous in everything you do; and
- Set a high standard for yourself of what you want to achieve and be fearless to achieve that standard.
Having tried different career paths from a call centre agent to a web developer in a full-time job, made Marvin a better business owner in the health and lifestyle industry. Starting a business during the pandemic was challenging and requires Marvin to be fluid and make difficult bold decisions. Despite tough times, Marvin still finds time to give back to the community. Collaborating with Gaisano Country Mall, he is now raising funds for the Dream Big Project, building Community Library. Join the fund-raising event in virtual cycling and choose either the fun ride of 30km or elite riders of 100km and 300km. Participants can complete the ride between 23 Oct to 23 Nov.
https://www.facebook.com/marvin.conson
https://fb.watch/9bHFBrlth7/
Welcome to Finding Mojo, hosted by Zana Gawan-Taylor and Nicholay Enriquez. I am Zana, a Malaysian and currently residing in Cebu City, Philippines since 2018. I am the CEO of BSA Solutions Inc. I am passionate about developing professional talents in the Philippines and helping businesses build their dream team offshore in the Philippines. My co-host, Nicholay or Nico, wears many hats – a radio DJ at 92.3, an event host, an artist – guitarist in a band, a singer and a songwriter. He recently joined BSA as a public relations officer.
Together with our guests, we will share practical insights to help you navigate life’s challenges and inspire you to find your mojo.