May 2016 - Mommy Ginger

Growing up as a kid, I learned one thing about every person that I ever had the chance of meeting — every single one has a skill or potential that may be the same or different from what I have. When we were in grade school, I went into business with my sister. We sold pastries and in that business, we defined each one’s roles. She was the one in charge of baking the products. I was in charge of marketing.

Effectively selling to people and influencing them to buy into an idea or product were talents that I had identified early on in my life. Although, when I reached my mid-twenties, I went through a period in my life where I was lost. I didn’t know what to pursue. I got to identify and see so many talents that I felt like I was all over the place. I wanted to do a lot of things. A lot of people said that I needed to focus. I felt like this was a ‘disease’ that I needed to be cured of.

I am seeing this, too, in my daughter. She is such a great kid with so many talents. I see that she loves singing and dancing. I also see that she has a sense of fashion and she has innate talent for mixing and matching outfits (and not to mention posing!).

She loves shopping!

She went straight to the rack of Great Kids!

She searched for the perfect outfit and chose this!

I was worried, because I felt that I had to make her choose and encourage her to stick to that ONE talent. It was just until recently that I realized that this was something that we didn’t have to be ashamed of. While each may be gifted with a unique skill or two, there are also those who are “different”, not because they are highly skilled in one aspect, but because they have a skill set that is unique to them, as formed through a diverse range of interests they themselves developed with constant exposure to different things, and this is something not easily copied by others—the multipotentialites.

By definition, multipotentialites are people who live a life of diverse interests or creative pursuits. Oftentimes, people who are so-called multipotentialites hold many different jobs and careers and have tried many activities throughout their lifetime starting from their adulthood, simply because these things appeal to their curiosity and they find out that they are good at these, too.

A multipotentialite could be a person who is into painting, then later on turned into a writer, and then even later, pursued another unrelated interest. Or, this person may be a musician who turned computer programmer, and then later on, pursued a different job altogether.

When we were young, we were asked by adults what we wanted to become when we grew up. We then would only say just one profession — doctor, accountant, lawyer, etc. For the rather imaginative kids, they would blurt out an engineer-doctor, or a runner-writer-chef. I noticed that oftentimes, when kids would say a bunch of stuff like these, the adults would tell them to just choose one. But, really? Why should they just choose one path? Did anyone or anything limit us to just have one passion? Just one true calling? Multipotentialites are those children and adults who have no “one true calling.” These are people who have so many passions.

Raising a Multipotentialite

The multipotentialites, nor their parents, would not be aware that they may be a multipotentialite in the early stages in their lives. If you find that your child has a strong interest in one thing, then after a few months or a year, wants to switch to another hobby (this cycle of may go on and on), chances are the child is a multipotentialite. I, am a multipotentialite, and I know a lot of friends who are, too. I think my daughter is a multi-potentialite, too!

Regardless of this title or discovery, what we, parents can do is not to overthink. Let’s just support them and expose them to as many fields of interest as possible, and give them the freedom to switch interests and explore early on in their lives. Over time, your child will be independent enough to make choices for himself/herself. If they reach a point when they, too, realize that they have so many talents, we, as parents, will be there to back them up, because now we know better.

P.S. Thanks, Great Kids for allowing us to shoot in your store! 🙂

Great Kids offers fresh, fun and pretty apparel for young girls aged 2-10 yrs old and capsule collections of Infant Girls, Mommy & Me & maternity apparel.

GreatKids is available in

Pois Belly & Kids BOUTIQUES:
– TriNoma: Ground Floor near Activity Center
– SM Megamall: Level 5 The Atrium
– Shangri-la Plaza: Level 4 Main Bldg
– Alabang Town Center: Level 2 Expansion Bldg
– SM Mall Of Asia: Ground Floor in front of Kids Universe
– SM City Cebu: Level 2, Main Mall
– SM City Iloilo: Upper Ground Floor
– SM Lanang Premier Davao: Level 2
– Ayala Center Cebu: Level 3

The SM Stores:
– BF Paranaque
– Cubao
– Cebu
– Davao
– Iloilo
– Makati
– Mall Of Asia
– Manila
– Marikina
– Megamall
– North EDSA
– Pampanga

http://www.zalora.com.ph/catalog/great-kids/

“Given both your extensive experiences, why do you want to join Ideaspace?,” Miss Diane Eustaquio, Executive Director of the Ideaspace Foundation asked Dex (our CTO), Alex (CFO), me and my husband, as we went through the first round of interviews. I’ll share with you what we answered, but let me tell you more about Ideaspace’s story and our story before we joined.

Ideaspace’s mission is to encourage, develop, and nurture innovation and entrepreneurship by delivering a multi-faceted support program for science and technology entrepreneurs in the Philippines and in the ASEAN region. Their vision is to build a new Philippine economy that is driven by technology, innovation and entrepreneurship as a path to nation-building. We also asked startups if they knew what Ideaspace was and they told us that Ideaspace is a prestigious incubation program offered by the MVP group which everyone practically wanted to get into.

As CMO of Taxumo, since we started working on the idea January of this year, my role was really more of to take care of looking for possible partnerships for our business and to look for investors. Funding was what most of the people in this industry needed, and at first, I couldn’t understand why. I was used to doing business the traditional way, where you either put in a small amount of capital and grow it little by little or you loan from the bank or from family. But seeing how fast things are in the tech industry, I know now that funding hastens the process of developing your product. So like probably 80% of the startups in this industry (I have yet to validate this figure! haha!), I did what was expected of me — I started looking for funding.

The way people look for funding in this industry is so cool. They join pitch competitions (which we did). They sign up in different platforms visited by different VCs, angels, etc. (which I also did) and they apply to incubator and accelerator programs (which, obviously, I did as well). When Ideaspace called for applications, I sent out our application. We got through the first round and we then had to submit this video for the second round.

Luckily, we were chosen to be one of the top 20 startups who advanced to the incubation program! Yehey! The incubation program is a 6 week intensive program that will really test our limits as entrepreneurs. It kicked off with a 5 day bootcamp at First Pacific Leadership Academy in Antipolo. Since I got back last Friday, my friends have been asking me if the program (so far) has been worth it. I have been ecstatically saying that “it was so worth it!”

During the 5 day bootcamp, 3 founders should attend. I was there with EJ and Lex.

The first day was about of getting to know each other (the other startup founders) and getting to know more about your self. The second day was about getting to know more about the other members in your startup. We all took a test that assessed our strengths and weaknesses and then we were given tips on how to assign roles and how to work with other members of the team based on the assessment (which was so cool!). BTW, our team won the Amazing Race challenge for that day (super fun, btw, and super tiring! haha!). We learned more about planning for our startups the LEAN way, and for the next two days, we had a customer validation challenge which taught us tools, tricks and tips on validating our ideas using the Javelin Board (which will now be a fixture on our sala walls! haha!). On the last day, Ideaspace invited key partners, investors and advisors — key people who were important in implementing our ideas. It was one of the best experiences in my life, even if EJ and I had to drive to Antipolo everyday (we had the option to stay there but we needed to get home to see our daughter every day).

Taxumo and Nanica won 2nd for the V-Challenge (validation challenge)! Woohoo!

Taxumo with the super great and inspiring Prim Paypon!

With our mentor Jojy Azurin at the Ideaspace Bootcamp 2016

Paul Pajo, Gabe Mercado and Arin were guest speakers at Ideaspace Bootcamp 2016

EJ telling the other Co-Founders about Taxumo

Last Day at the Ideaspace Bootcamp 2016

Our reply to Miss Diane was that during the few months that we have been part of the tech community in the Philippines, we have learned more about starting and maintaining a successful business. We both want to learn more and we think Ideaspace can help us learn more about putting up a tech startup specifically.

Yes, we have had experience working in corporate and that gave us the ability to come up with structured processes and streamlined strategies, but working to build a tech startup requires speed and hustling. For the last five days, it really taught us more about coming up with work fast and taught us how to hustle more! Plus, we have gained a new family! Ms. Diane, Miguel, Goldy, Brenda, Dustin, Ping, and all the other members of the Ideaspace team have really shown that now we are part of their family. It’s such a great feeling! 🙂

I’ll be writing more about my startup experience and lessons that I have learned in these coming months!

Hustling,

Mommy Ginger

I’m so happy that my baby loves going to museums. For her 3rd birthday a couple of months ago, our gift to her was a trip to the museum. She was so happy. We spent the entire afternoon inside The Mind Museum at Bonifacio Global City. We are definitely so lucky that this museum is just a few blocks away from where we live. Because of her love for museums, I actually got her a whole year pass for a discounted price of Php 2250. It’s on discount until July 2016!

I believe that people (not just kids) should give more attention to STEM (Science / Technology / Engineering / Math). I believe that the world has changed so much that all of us need to learn our origins and the basics and as well as explore and discover new things that might eventually lead to something great in the future.

This is the reason why I always encourage my daughter to not to lose that love for museums. Recently, Globe Telecom and The Mind Museum even made all of these — science, discovery, exploration, etc. more fun and more accessible by launching The Mind Museum App. It’s a mobile app which promises an enhanced experience of the museum as you explore and discover gems of information. The app is already available for download on your Android and IOS devices.

One of the things that I love about it is that it gives me bits of information which I get as notification on my phone. I just feel that I get to be a little bit smarter everyday. Plus, I get to share this bit of information with my daughter. She has been so inquisitive lately.

It also offers a guide to the exhibit inside the Mind Museum.

It also has a few questions that you can use as a point of conversation with your child. I got to think of how homeschooling parents will love these. All they need to do is use the app to look for activities and information to supplement their own curriculum. This is perfect for teachers, too!

This portion on experiments is my favorite. My daughter gets bored easily so I always need to stimulate her mind with new activities and exercises that she can do. The Mind Museum app is amazing since it already gives me ideas on what activities to do at home with my little one.

It was already amazing when Maribel Garcia, TMM Curator and Fernando Esguerra, Globe Citizenship Director mentioned the benefits of the apps during the event, but when I downloaded it and used it, I was really impressed by it. The app is not only for museum-goers but also for teachers and students especially those outside Metro Manila.

Download The Mind Museum app now and see for yourself!

When branding comes into mind, we think that the best way to start is getting the word out and we need to be vocal about it. The first thing though that you should do really is to think of your personal brand. If you don’t have any plans for this coming Saturday, I would like to invite you to join me, Marv De Leon and Mike Grogan as we answer your questions on branding.

The first session was held last week and I heard that the participants learned a lot of things. Here are the top reasons why you should not miss this workshop:

– Learn how to stand out, win more clients and become a well-respected expert in your market through Personal Branding.
– A proven, step-by-step blueprint on how to create your powerful Personal Brand.
– Highly collaborative and interactive sessions with experienced coaches.
– A real “crack your knuckles” workshop – hands-on activities and interactive learning sessions.
– Pick the brain, rub elbows and take a selfie with our experts — receive valuable tips and Q&A sessions with top influencers in the fields of freelancing and blogging.
– Get five (5) free professional, high-quality portraits that you can use for your blog and social media accounts.
– Win the “Most Promising Personal Brand of the Workshop” and get featured in the Freelance Blend Podcast, Manila Workshops, Manila Reviews, Malaya Business Insight newspaper and other media sites.
– Join our tribe — become part of a thriving exclusive Facebook group of freelancers, Freelance Blend Workshops & Events Group, where you have access to experts and peers 24/7.
– Surprise bonus from Marv at the end of the session.
– PLUS much, much more!

Here are some pictures from last Saturday’s workshop:

To sign up, you can still use this form at ManilaWorkshops.com: CLICK HERE

I had my first full page feature at the Sunday Times last Mother’s Day. Aside from that, the new community of empowered women that my friends, Martine De Luna and Frances Sales, are building (Beauty Biz Bliss) also got to be featured on the page after that. I am deeply grateful to the writers Euden Valdez and Carla Bianca Ravanes, to photographers Naz Castro and Louie Arcilla for the photos used and to my good friend Evan Tan of Freelancer.com for recommending me.

This was really something that I was thankful for and it was not because of the fame nor the bragging rights, but because it was a validation that I was doing something right — something that might be able to make this world a better place. In 2010, I felt like I needed to do something more, something else. It was probably because hitting 30 made me feel that I want to do something with my life. I looked around and I saw various kinds of people… people who would just go with the flow, people who wanted to share their skills, people who aimed for the stars, people who would just look at the stars and wonder, people who would not look at the stars at all, etc. (you get what I mean). I wanted to inspire people into action. I wanted to achieve my dreams while helping others achieve theirs.

Finally, in 2013, I did just that and went for my dreams. In my mind, I just had to go for it, and it didn’t matter anymore if I succeeded or not. All that mattered was that I felt that it was the right thing to do. For people who know me, they would agree that it was so “Ginger” to make this leap. I’m a bit impulsive when it comes to making decisions. Haha! Honestly, during that time, I just had a dream and processes in Excel sheets, Word document and in Power Point. My mindset was just meet with people, make little things happen every day and inch my way to success.

The past 3 years seemed to pass so quickly. Looking back, I got to meet a lot of brilliant, successful and inspiring people. I got to meet a lot of kind hearted, passionate and generous people. I have also met a few difficult, stubborn and selfish people. Haha! But in general, the way I view each and every encounter is how I generally view my life. I see each encounter as pages in my book of life that inspires me, makes me stronger and inspires me to “read on”.

In my encounters with these people, the thing that I have observed that has made people successful is putting actions over words. I have noticed that the people who have become successful are those who not only work toward acting on their own dreams, but those who act on helping others achieve theirs. I came across a friend who shared with me that when things go wrong for him,what he does is that he does something nice for other people and his luck turns around. I’m not sure if there is really a direct correlation, but I believe that helping others put people in a good and better mood that they become less stressed, more positive and therefore, they get the job done and become more productive.

Words don’t mean anything, really. We put so much weight on people who commit to doing something, but at the end of the day, trust is really built when when people consistently deliver on their promises. Trust is built when they consistently show that they go out of their way to make things happen, not only for themselves but also for others.

For me, successful people are those who do not only think about achieving dreams for themselves, but those who go the extra mile to help other. Successful people for me, use not only their brains, but they use their heart, too.

This year, I have honestly doubted myself, in terms of productivity. I felt and still feel like I need to simplify my life. A portion of what I do is I try to help others, even if I am not required to help. I honestly don’t know why I spend time helping others, but I just think that if I can, then why not? This article that was published just reminded me more of who I am as a person. I have achieved what I have achieved, because of who I am, because of what I believe in and because of what I decided to do.

No one can really tell you what you should do or not do. It’s your life. If you want to use both your mind and heart, then do so. People who love you will always be there to support you. I will always be here (just an email away) if you need me.

Raising Multi-Talented Kids

My Ideaspace Experience: Ideaspace Bootcamp 2016

The Mind Museum Mobile App (powered by Globe)

Knowing your Personal Brand

Actions Speak Louder than Words

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