Buckle up and let’s get real. We’re gonna burn some bridges today.
The world is full of people who are willing to share with you the recipe for success. It’s all over social media and can even be coming from your family and friends.
Though they may mean well and generally will have your best interest by heart, the advice they give you may have come from knowledge acquired since childhood which for them have become a fact.
Here are some QUOTES that can be misleading and why.
If you are easily offendible? Do take this with a grain of salt. There are no universal truths and everything is questionable. The meaning and application of these changes is based on varied situations.
You shouldn’t just be yourself but YOU should always strive to be the BEST possible version of yourself. You need to be aware of what makes you, YOU. Just saying be yourself assumes that one is enough just as one is and the world should not only accept your current state but reward you for it. Once you found who you really are and who you want to be? BE THAT.If hardwork is the only gauge for success then the world will be run by hardworking manual laborers. Hardwork is important but it ain’t enough in order to be successful. You need other factors, a competetive advantage so to speak. You have to continue learning, acquire new skills and become adaptable to change.
It is no secret that the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for our industry, and as a result, we have had to innovate and adapt faster than ever before.
The last quarter of 2019 has been very promising with our increased occupancy rate and steady stream guest returns. We were planning for 2021 and aiming for at least 20% more of performance rating from the year that was but instead our last staff meeting was focused on announcing temporary closure and distribution for financial assistance to all our employees.
COMPLIANCE
I still remember the look of anxiety flushed all over everyone’s face that particular day on March 17, 2020 at Wings Hall. We shut down the business and advised all our employees to stay home once Baguio was placed on lockdown. It was an automatic decision to comply right away because, for everyone’s safety, we knew that that was the best thing to do.
One year to through the pandemic, we have learned innumerable life lessons as an individual and here sharing wha I personally learned as a hotelier:
LESSONS LEARNED:
1. COMMUNICATION matters
Whether you manage a 100-room accommodation establishment to a 10-room lodging house, the art of communicating within your organization and beyond is one and the same. How do we touch based with our manpower at no extra cost? a. A company e-mail address were assigned to each staff via g-mail. (Making one is FREE) b. Everyone was informed and encouraged to check INBOXES every so often for announcements and reminders. c. Advantages of E-MAIL over MOBILE NUMBER c.1 E-mails have a delivery status report. This assures you that your message was sent and received by your intended recipient. c.2 The search function is efficient in keeping track of communication per subject matter. c.3 The common excuses like, “I’m lowbatt”; “I have no load” ; “No signal” became obsolete and access too free WI-FI is now more accessible in most public areas like malls and restaurants.
Communicating to guests via e-mail or other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for hotel updates like announcement of operation hours, standard health protocols implemented by the establishment and local guidelines for travelers and diners were given more emphasis than simply creating promotional posts.
2. BEST practices enhanced
The hospitality industry has always taken safety, cleanliness and sanitation seriously. It has been the cornerstone of many of our past training programs at ThePodiumBH, but we took it a step further. We needed a way to effectively communicate with our housekeeping staff, address all areas in both the front and back of the house, and discuss proper cleaning and sanitizing. Hence, we created: a. A dedicated CHAT GROUP to report and monitor housekeeping maintenance issues like a lavatory leak, stained tiles, broken chair etc…This eradicates old-age manual reporting, filling-out of report forms and delayed action response. b. A housekeeping Room Attendant (RA) Card to make our service more personal to our guests. It also serves to monitor our RA’s performance and guest room cleanliness at all times.
3. Explore LOCAL
With boarders closed and lockdowns come and go, our primary market shifted from tourists to locals. We’ve crafted staycation packages to entice the local to book a room and celebrate their special moments with us like birthdays, anniversaries and others. We made HOTEL LIVING affordable, fun and an experience one will look forward to.
4. Support LOCAL
Never have I envisioned the power of supporting local businesses in this time of crisis more so for being supported by one. You’ll see business owners promoting each other goods and services by hosting events or simply posting on social media and leaving a good review. Such gestures may seem little but it definitely means a lot.
Market Encounter
5. Tighten your belt but NEVER COMPROMISE quality
Our expenditure is something that we can control, so when a business starts losing revenues, cost cutting automatically follows. Marketing and Promos become secondary to none in the hotel industry for no matter how low your rates are if there are no tourists and people are scared to book, then what would you expect.
ACTION PLAN: How did we cost cut without compromising qulaity? a. A mutual agreement on reduced working days and working hours between the management and staff were put into place. b. Full compliance with the STANDARD SAFETY HEALTH PROTOCOL mandated by the Local Government Unit (LGU) and the Department of Tourism. This ensures both the employees and guests of a safe work place and a safe establishment accommodation.
6. COMPASSION is the key
Reaching out to your staff, guests and the community in this time of pandemic means more than anything else in any given situation. A simple act of kindness like providing a safe working environment with safety gears in place is one to keep your loyal employees committed to their jobs.
The installation of reminders and provision of the minimum standard health protocol mandated by the city, DOT and IATF is one indication that you care for your guest’s well-being.
Most importantly, we cannot undermine the risk our front liners are facing every single day.
As we continue to battle this invisible enemy, the list of learnings will go on and on and on. Our prayers and commitment to ensure a balance between safety and the economy will never falter. #wehealasone
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) launched Monday a commemorative P5,000 banknote and medal in honor of the 500th anniversary of Lapu-Lapu’s victory in the Battle of Mactan.
FRONT
BACK
Although legal tender, the P5,000 banknote is not for circulation and will only be available for purchase by the public.
The BSP will issue a separate advisory on March 2021 for the guidelines on the purchase of the commemorative banknote.
How many times have you promised yourself to do better for the coming year? How many resolutions have you made left written on the books and not put into action?
It’s been 3 years now since I stopped making my New Years resolution. Why? I find it pointless and irrelevant. Waking at the break of dawn with coffee to boot; writing a long list of what must and what I need done for the new year with a new planner only to look back to in the months passed with little or none accomplished at all.
As humans, we have an innate aspiration to do better in all aspects of life. We dream, we hope. As my father used to say, “There is no harm in dreaming because dreaming free”, a belief we all hold on to and probably one of the reasons why we have resolutions to begin with.
It must be age or rather maturity that made me realize the importance of living in the moment. Live each day as if it were your last. So what do I do? While others meditate and enroll themselves in a meditation program like the “Holosync”, a program that uses a combination of different brain wave patterns which brings you to a state of deep relaxation producing beneficial changes in your mental and emotional stress, I document my personal experiences as it unfolds every single day. Not necessarily on social media (definitely NOT), but wi th pen on paper. A diary, a journal or a log book. Call it whatever you want but keeping a journal helped me maintain a mindful self-realization that has kept my inner space clear and lucid these past years.
DIARY vs. JOURNAL vs. LOG BOOK
Let’s first look into the definition of the three words to understand them better.
DIARY:
1. a record of events, transactions, or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals; a daily record of personal activities, reflections, or feelings.
JOURNAL:
Merriam Webster defines journaling two ways:
1. A daily newspaper —usually used in titles like “The Wall Street Journal”; A periodical dealing especially with matters of current interest like an academic journal often used in titles like “The Journal of the American Medical Association”
2. A record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private use : a DIARY; A record of current transactions especially, a book of original entry in double-entry bookkeeping; An account of day-to-day events like a record of transactions kept by a deliberative or legislative body.
LOGBOOK:
Austin Kleon in his book, “Steal Like an Artist” describes logbook as NOT necessarily a diary or a journal. It is just a little book in which you list the things you do every day. What project you worked on, where you went to lunch, what movie you saw. It’s much easier than keeping a detailed diary. It is about writing small details, because in doing so, these small details will help you remember the BIG details.
I hope I have not confused you more by giving the definitions. But clearly, all three are tools to record your personal experiences, with journal being more versatile in terms of usage and scope of coverage. So if you asked me, I use the three interchangeably given that they all serve my purpose, a tool to keep me on track on how important it is to live in the moment.
Everyday is a new day. We don’t need to wait for the coming weeks, months or years to make our lives worth living for. Most of us experience a chatter in our minds. We have countless thoughts about the future, the past, or judgements about what is and what has been which seem to flow through our minds as if in a never ending stream. The continuous chatter in our mind obviously distracts us for what is more important, to address what is going on in the present moment than dwell in the past and be anxious of the future.
Let’s welcome each day like a new beginning and start experiencing life directly as it is and not just in thoughts.
To all my column readers, here’s wishing you a “Happy New Day!”
Baguio is a popular nest for romantic wedding destinations. Alongside our picturesque views, cool weather and warm hospitality, it is with no doubt that wedding suppliers play a significant role in making one union truly memorable. But like most industries, wedding events have been greatly affected by the pandemic. Wedding cancellations or postponement instead of new bookings have become the new norm. But like any industry, the only way to go and survive is to rise above challenges and be on track.
Is Baguio ready to say I do then? The Baguio League of Classified Wedding Enthusiasts, a newly organized wedding suppliers’ organization have nothing but a resounding YES for an answer and they had this affirmed with a grand launching at the Cameron Forbes Grand Ballroom, Baguio Country Club on October 18, 2020.
I am fortunate to have witnessed this red carpet event online showcasing the best of Baguio’s wedding creatives and artists from the emcees, musicians, creative stylists, hair and make-up artists, florists, couturier, photographers and videographers, cake, catering, mobile bar and souvenir providers, lights and sounds and wedding coordinators with their models, products and creations. It is a privilege to meet and hear the men and women behind Baguio’s awesome wedding events with each sector represented sharing messages of hope, optimism and resilience.
The turnout of event was indeed overwhelming with a showcase of great powerhouse of legendary talents and up and becoming new artists in the wedding event industry. To put together one big event as this entails dedication, unity and unwavering support from the different sectors and Olec Josephus, one of Baguio’s reputable and esteemed make-up artist, couturier and freelance photographer says it best when he said, “It takes a hundred of brilliant idea and brilliant minds to come up with something that will make an impact” … and truth be told that this launching impacted the whole industry and will continue to do so with the airing of, “Wedding Talks: The Intimate Encounters”, a series of video projects presenting a workshop of selected Baguio event talents with a weekly livestream talk show that commenced on October 18, 2020.
The objective of the organization is to upgrade and highly professionalized the industry members and to give an array of quality options to soon-to-weds and party celebrators.
The organizers would like to thank The Baguio Country Club for the event venue, Engr. Alec Mapalo, head executive Baguio Tourism Council for welcoming the organization to be part of the tourism industry and Ms. Roxie Baeyens, Miss earth Philippines 2020; Ms. Ingrid Payaket, Baguio’s nightingale and supermodel Leanna Canlas for gracing the event and Ms. Jamie Santos of Viva La Events as co-producer together with all the participants and sponsors who made this event possible. #fileunderevents
While most of us are cuddled in the comfort of our beds asleep, or engrossed in a new Netflix release at 1:00 AM, somewhere in the city, a vivo (or nose flute) player accompanied by drum beats and ukulele is playing lively melodies for a dance tutorial streamed live via Zoom all the way from France and the US. That’s how life was for Baguio’s Pride and Baguio girl, Karen Navarrete Anton almost every day for the past six months as she trains with coaches abroad in preparation for her All Dance International- WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS competition, the biggest dance organization worldwide, with presence in 5 continents and more than 100 countries. She was invited to represent the country in Italy supposedly held last April of this year.
Despite the change of platform from a LIVE global stage to a LIVE online show, Karen, without hesitation, signed up for the ETHNIC DANCE category where she needed to perform any traditional dance representing a cultural group. To best represent the culture she chose (i.e. Tahitian and Polynesian), she took online dance training classes from the Tahitian Dance Greats and world champions, an opportunity she was fortunate enough to have been given since most if not all dance studios are close for training during the pandemic. The same reason why she ended up being the Philippine’s lone representative for the online LIVE competition as all the other Filipino dancers were not able to train and prepare anymore.
Many times, revelation doesn’t come until one moves and presses forward. It was sheer determination and the weight of the flag she carries on her shoulder plus a beautiful city she represents that drove her to go ahead with the competition despite a knee and hip injury she had early on in the training. She was never complacent knowing that she will be competing against other professional dancers who will represent different nations. So, everything from the costume, choice music, and level of beauty and the level of difficulty in the dance were carefully and meticulously executed.
The entire competition was held between September 24 to 29, 2020 with hundreds of participants from 50 nations. Following Miami time at 6:00 AM, Karen together with her son, champion race car driver Iñigo Anton, had to put together all her creativity and technical know-how to make sure everything is perfect and flawless as it eventually turned out to be wowing all the judges and garnering an impressive score of 94.1% and a well-deserved top spot in her category.
A dancer since 8 years old and a teacher or coach for 25 years now, Karen’s passion for dancing is undeniably admirable. Her excellence unselfishly shared to her students through the years from the very first day she taught at Phases Learning Center with 60 ballet students and 3 Polynesian students to the award-winning dance group, Metamorphosis she formed.
Talk about a complete package, and I see no less than a beautiful persona encapsulated in one Karen Navarrete Anton. A true beauty inside and out who has accomplished so much for herself in all aspects of life, Karen’s unrelenting generosity to give back to her family and to the community whom she considers her greatest strength and pool of support, never falters. Free lessons from her genius is brewing and is something we all should look forward to, but for now, she finds her role as a homeschool teacher, her family’s personal cafeteria lady, cleaning lady and everything else that comes with being a full-fledged housewife fulfilling.#fileunderinspiringstory
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, business owners are challenged in areas where they have not yet tested their leadership muscles. We are living through a global health crisis with no modern-day precedent but history dictates that any crisis can be resolved.
Remember the famous line of U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural address in the midst of the great depression: “ The only thing we have to fear is … fear itself.” He followed that by pointing to the nation’s strengths in meeting the crisis: “This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.”
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shows the Philippines booked a record unemployment rate of 17.7 percent in April as at least 7.3 million Filipinos had no jobs aggravated by the longest and strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in the world. Thousands of businesses have shut down and more are planning to regardless of business size and resources. But for some, life must go on, we have to look beyond the crisis.
This explains why some businesses opt to reopen despite the risks. It is as daunting as opening a new venture or even worse mainly because of the uncertainties that lie ahead. One particularly troubling aspect of this pandemic is the open-endedness of it.
How are local businesses coping up?
Majority of business owners who were courageous enough to re-open and test their business transformation plans focused on 3 key elements: Their EMPLOYEES,OPERATIONS and CUSTOMERS.
For “can’t close” retailers like grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, school and office supply shops and other essential supplies establishments, their main focus is the safety of their employees. Given the virulence of Covid-19 and the difficulties of maintaining and enforcing safety precautions, especially in retail stores with anxious shoppers, reducing the risk to zero is impossible. That said, retail establishments are clear in communicating their standards for sanitizing stores; implement social distancing; make handwashing and wearing of personal protection gears, including a surveillance to identify potential illness in employees mandatory. Businesses also opt for the reduction of employee work hours, work from home setting and skeletal work force to avoid overcrowding. Hōka Brew Restaurant offered a partnership program in May primarily to its employees who were displaced during the lockdown to earn commissions from home by simply directing customers for delivery sales to the establishment.
Hotels and restaurants have transformed their set-up with protective barriers and strategically located signs to keep their guests and customers well-informed. Their employees are well equipped with the proper ways to handle guests and to efficiently Implement the new normal protocol for accommodation establishments mandated by the Local Government Unit (LGU) and the Department of Tourism (DOT). Contactless menus are now being used to reduce the risk of contamination and online health declaration forms via a QR code are being used to facilitate faster and efficient gathering of information for contact tracing if need be.
Northern Luzon Market Associates (NLMAC), an accredited food distributor / wholesaler have set up their online store within one month after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The company used to be a B2B (Business to Business) platform, but after the lockdown, they have included B2C (Business to Consumers) services to serve the end consumers directly by using Facebook Business and Shopify as their engine tool.
Despite more leniency in opening up business doors to the public once again, it still proves to be difficult to achieve the same level of profitability to sustain normal business operations and graciously support their loyal employees.
What entrepreneurs need now are imagination and innovation more than ever. The capacity to create, evolve, and exploit mental models of things or situations that don’t yet exist – is the crucial factor in seizing and creating new opportunities, and finding new paths to growth because there will always be room for that. #fileunderbuhayentrepreneur
I was introduced to distant learning back in 2014 when I had to pull out my Junior high daughter in an international school. I remember attending an orientation on how distant learning works with other parents who plan on working abroad. As a working mom, I was not drawn to the idea simply because I felt that the responsibility of teaching your child “hands on” is too much of a load to handle, until COVID-19 happened.
Suddenly, parents are tasked to teach their kids how to solve equations, choreograph a dance, do experiments and read literatures long forgotten just to keep up with their children’s school requirements. On the other hand, teachers are challenged to lecture online with appealing and visually stimulating materials for their students. Admit it or not, the last quarter of SY 2019-2020 is an unprecedented ordeal we all are fortunate to have survived.
As of this writing, there is NO cure for the virus. Potential vaccines are still being tested and the Philippines have yet to flatten the curve. That being said, majority of private schools transitioned to online distance learning, at least for the first quarter. Hybrid or blended learning, which is a mixture of online and face-to-face learning, will likely be imposed IF the situation permits.
As this is a good move and an ideal option to safeguard our children from Covid-19, numerous concerns have been raised by parents and caregivers. A recent study conducted in the US recently by McAfee with 1,000 parents as respondents yielded the following results. Whether they have kindergarteners or high school seniors, parents are sharing many of the same pains. Across the board, they are:
Keeping their children focused on schoolwork (instead of other online activities).
Establishing a daily routine.
Balancing household responsibilities and teaching.
Establishing a wake-up and bedtime schedule
Balancing working from home and teaching.
Ianne Go, a jeweler from Metro Manila finds the absence of social interaction as one disadvantage of online distant learning. Juvy Ong, a former teacher herself attest that it is harder to teach your own kids. In fact, complaints of headaches, eye problems and stress started to surface with children spending long hours on their computers and smart phones.
But let’s face it, learning must continue and parents, teachers and students must work hand in hand as a TEAM. The teacher will still teach but parents must assist teachers in delivering their material and students must learn to adapt to this new educational format.
As majority of schools without classrooms are opening in the coming weeks, all parties, i.e. the Department of Education, the school, teachers, students and parents are gearing up to make this school year work.
Baguio Achievers Academy for instance has tied up with Phoenix Publication to provide their students an individual portal where they (including their parents) can access their lessons, worksheets and other school activities via online while teachers are busy preparing for their lecture materials like interesting and interactive video outputs and power point presentations to not bore their students.
The Department of Education on its end has strengthened the capacity of its online learning platform, the “DepEd Commons”. It is an online educational platform created by the department for public and private school teachers and learners which supports distance learning, and was being developed even before the pandemic hit the country. In cooperation with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), https://commons.deped.gov.ph/ can be accessed free of data charges by all mobile subscribers of Globe, TM, Smart, Sun and TNT except links on the DepEd Commons page that require you to access the internet outside the Common Domain, is beyond this coverage and may incur standard data charges.
Most parents I’ve come across with are left with no choice but to adapt to this new learning set-up and it is not easy. YES, online distance learning:
Will cost more than the usual:
Provision of a conducive learning spot at home.
Subscribing to a faster and efficient internet connectivity.
The need to buy or upgrade devices.
Will be time consuming:
Keeping your child on track with school work requires close supervision.
Will be tiring:
Provision of a more structured study routine. Helping out with home works and other assigned tasks.
BUT at the end of the day, we are bound to rediscover that the time spent at home with online distant learning is a time spent with what truly matters most, our FAMILY. #fileunderfamilymatters
“All we need to do is to survive 2020!” A plea, a prayer and a mantra I so often hear now a days. The world is suffering and so are we. Tragic deaths, global pandemic, political unrest and most recently, a massive explosion in Beirut. The chain of unfortunate events has truly been devastating. Not a single soul is spared directly or indirectly from the pain and anxiety piling up in monumental layers.
I tried to avoid overthinking but our current circumstance makes me wonder what would happen if food becomes scarce and the only way to survive is to grow your own food. How will you cope? … Plant.
Growing their gardens at the comfort of their homes, sports enthusiast, Carlo Gonzalez and entrepreneur, Richard Ulat found their way to “Hydroponics”. It is a form of gardening that uses no soil, but instead grows plants in a solution of nutrients. No wonder many plant lovers are giving hydroponics a try. It allows you to grow plenty of plants in a small area. Carlo has both an indoor set-up with grow lights to help the plants thrive and like Richard, an outdoor garden too.
While both were drawn to the system and its immeasurable benefits of bringing in fresh produce from their backyard, or rooftop as in Carlos’ case straight to their dining table. Their interests were carved in two different ways.
Richard wanted to be productive during the lockdown. To say that his project is “katas ng COVID-19” is undeniably true. It’s not hard for anyone who’s moderately handy to build his own hydroponics system. Richard used PVC pipes readily available at local hardwares ( at least when shops opened once ECQ restrictions were lifted ) and the seeds sourced out from the Department of Agriculture. The agency, through the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), distributed assorted vegetable seeds, among them eggplant, tomato, and onions, and planting materials to some interested households.
Carlo on the other hand, found his interest in soilless agriculture way back in 2019 after reading about hydroponics. From a small project and his first produce of lettuce, basil and “pechay”, his interest evolved into a passion, determined to help and assist hydroponic starters with his know-how and supply materials.
The liberty of time during the ECQ had social entrepreneur, Maricar Docyogen worked on a patch of land in their property. A hobby she got into after working on PPE distribution during the height of the pandemic. Maricar’s interest in urban gardening was driven by the desire to continue her father’s legacy, by cultivating mulberries from cuttings from an adult mulberry tree her dad planted back in the 80’s now reaching about a hundred cuttings ready for distribution to her family and friends who has a space to plant a mulberry tree.
Unlike Carlo and Richard, her challenge was to find a good garden soil to start with her project. Fortunately, her good friend, businesswoman, Ellen Lao came through.
Beyond propagating vegetables like tomatoes, beans, strawberries and squash, Maricar ventured in to bartering herbs in exchange for paints to be used by our local artists. The kind gesture was made to help a local greenhouse disposed of their produce since shipping them to their Manila clients was impossible due to the lockdown. Today, with her husband’s help, she has built a simple greenhouse in her home she now calls her “happy space”. #fileunderbuhayentrepreneur
Those interested in availing the free vegetable seeds and planting materials may reach the DA-BPI through these contact numbers: (02) 8525-7313 or 8524-0837 or through email: bpi.crpsd.planning@gmail.com
FileUnder 