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Navigating the Path to Success With Jv Libunao · Speak In Flow

• 0:01
  Melinda Lee: Welcome, dear listeners to the speaking flow
• 0:03
  podcast where we dive into the art of effective communication
• 0:07
  to unleash your leadership voice. I have a wonderful leader
• 0:12
  today community leaders name is Jv Libunao. I got that right.
• 0:18
  We're Jv Libunao, Jv Libunao Now, Jv Libunao Now, he's the
• 0:25
  founder of one vector design company. He's also a community
• 0:29
  leader, like I mentioned, who provides amazing, wonderful
• 0:32
  resources to the Filipino community. Primarily, he is in
• 0:36
  the Southern California, but he's also nationwide does it
• 0:40
  offer? Yeah, resources for the nationwide Filipino community.
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  He's also the President of the Chamber of Commerce, who a lot
• 0:48
  of people don't know. It's also open not just to Filipinos, but
• 0:51
  then to the broader community as well. Allies. So welcome, Jv
• 0:56
  Glad you're here.
• 0:58
  Jv Libunao: Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for the invite. Yeah,
• 1:01
  Melinda Lee: so can you tell the audience more about what you do
• 1:04
  and what makes you so passionate about it? Sure.
• 1:07
  Jv Libunao: So I wear multiple hats. Why? Because one is never
• 1:11
  enough. Like, we all want to do a lot of things, you all want to
• 1:12
  achieve a lot of things, especially if you're a leader,
• 1:13
  like you come up with a lot of ideas, and you just want to do
• 1:22
  it, and it starts within you. So first of all, like what Melinda
• 1:26
  said, I found it on record design company, which is a web
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  development and software integration company since 2017.
• 1:34
  And a little background about the name, J. V stands for one
• 1:39
  Juan vector. And then I did a little play with some words and
• 1:45
  some good luck. So then, I came up with the Juan vector brand
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  and been using it even though like even back in my freelance
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  days, like decades ago. And yeah, and during the pandemic, I
• 1:59
  founded another company, which liquid within the said, provides
• 2:03
  resources to the Filipino American community, primarily in
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  Southern California, but available in all most parts of
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  the US where there's like a Filipino community or big
• 2:13
  population of Filipinos. And it's a digital platform wherein
• 2:18
  you could find food, products, services, events, and we also
• 2:23
  organise our own events. It is called Adobe Stock net. So if
• 2:28
  you're familiar with the food, Filipino adobo, derive the name
• 2:33
  from that. So Adobe doesn't love Adobo love it. And fun fact, fun
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  fact, though, Adobe versus actually short for something. So
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  initially, it was called a double marketplace. But it was
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  too long. It's a mouthful to share the web address with
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  people and even just the brand. So since adult versus about
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  community members, or business owners and supporters, I took
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  the first four letters of Adobo and the last three letters of
• 3:05
  the supporters, community members and business owners came
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  up with a dopers, God, and now it sounds like an app, and it's
• 3:13
  gonna be an app in pretty soon we're working on that. Lastly,
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  cast of my contributions to the Filipino community, I was
• 3:22
  elected to be the president of the Philippine American Chamber
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  of Commerce, Tri County. Now, it covers three counties. And it's,
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  like, like I said, we often get asked if you have to be a
• 3:35
  Filipino to be part of it? The answer is no. We are one of the
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  most diverse business organisations in three counties
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  in my area. That's what I do.
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  Melinda Lee: Wow, you are wearing multiple hats, multiple
• 3:51
  hats, and I, I like to drill down on one and it probably is
• 3:55
  interconnected. But let's go down to the design company as a
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  web design company. And so you work with a lot of entrepreneurs
• 4:02
  to design their website. And so I'm curious. Today, we want to
• 4:07
  focus on vision. To have to be a leader, we need to we have a
• 4:12
  vision, and create a vision and be able to execute on that
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  vision. And so you work with entrepreneurs on the website.
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  And and I'm sure that creating the vision for the website can
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  be daunting and challenging. So how does communication play a
• 4:31
  factor in the website divine design process?
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  Jv Libunao: Yeah, communication is a very vital part of, first
• 4:41
  of all, getting their vision and for me to be able to translate
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  their vision into a visual. Yeah, yeah. Because especially
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  before I'm able to learn what their vision is, I have to
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  listen and that's the very first step in testing and aiming. I
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  have strategies I have solutions I have my 20 year experience.
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  But I cannot apply any of the solutions until I hear what the
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  pain points are, what the challenges are, and of course,
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  what their goals are. And especially if it's for a
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  specific project, or it's for like a bigger scope. Right,
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  right. So, in other words, I always look at it this way, you
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  can expect something with a hammer when what you need is a
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  drill. So there's always customizations, when it comes to
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  even just recommending a solution.
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  Melinda Lee: Right? So to recommend the best solution, you
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  need to listen, and really understand what is the manager
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  or the leader, the entrepreneur doesn't know how to tell their
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  vision, like any recommendations to how do you help them clarify
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  their?
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  Jv Libunao: And oftentimes, this is the case, and I've dealt with
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  multiple clients, decision makers, executives, yeah, who
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  are like very opinionated, but they don't really know what they
• 6:02
  want. And that's when they start asking questions. Right. You
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  know, it's a multi step, question and answer, and it
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  begins with what and why it goes from there depends on how the
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  conversation goes.
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  Melinda Lee: Right? Because they might think that they know, a
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  Jv Libunao: lot of time. Yeah, I mean, I would, I would say that
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  sometimes I could be like that all circus, also a decision
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  maker and have solution ideas. But I don't know how to get
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  there. But you know, I mean, we're all guilty of that
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  sometimes. Oh,
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  Melinda Lee: totally. So I'm sure that's where you help them
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  when you when they say no. And then you say, Well, what is the
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  reason for this? Why, when they're talking? Are there more
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  questions that you ask them to help dig deeper to make it more
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  clear?
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  Jv Libunao: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, sometimes the better questions
• 7:00
  come out out of the conversation. Right. Right.
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  Yeah. And I mean, even though like I have a follow, like a
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  list of questions that I normally ask, these ideas come
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  out, as we exchange ideas,
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  Melinda Lee: right? Do you usually get examples from other
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  websites? Or other? Yes,
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  Jv Libunao: yeah. Especially if the client is auditory. And
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  that's all visual. So I mean, if they're visual and needs to see
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  something, yeah. And I always pull up different samples, like
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  either from my password or other websites that exist or even a
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  competition.
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  Melinda Lee: Right. Yeah. Right. So so how do you help them if
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  there's different people with different visions? You mentioned
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  you were?
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  Jv Libunao: Yeah. So it's very important to figure out the need
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  to have in the nice to haves, right, and then we go from
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  there. Obviously, the need to have needs to be prioritised.
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  And the ones that are nice to be there could be somewhere in the
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  future could do a little bit of compromise. Do people? Yeah,
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  because at the end of the day, it is still the client?
• 8:09
  Melinda Lee: Yeah. Do they generally agree together? Or is
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  there? What if they don't agree,
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  Jv Libunao: oftentimes, they agree on something, and that's
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  everyone compromises when one or one solution or one approach?
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  Melinda Lee: Okay, got it? Is it usually one person that makes a
• 8:25
  decision? Or do you work with or sometimes you work with couple
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  decision makers?
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  Jv Libunao: There are times when there's like a couple of
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  decision makers, or even, excuse me, excuse me, an even work on
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  certain projects were in, like, multi level decision makers,
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  like, there's the project manager, just the project
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  director, there's the assistant of the executive, and there's
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  the executive. So I'll tell you one story. For one flyer design
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  that I did in the past, it took me 27 rounds of revisions, which
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  is double
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  Melinda Lee: believable, and it's
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  Jv Libunao: because yeah, because every person in the in
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  the in the chain, has to have a say. Yeah, it happens,
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  Melinda Lee: either. Did they decide in the beginning that,
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  hey, we're gonna have 27 people looking at this?
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  Jv Libunao: Well, there's only four people but 27 revisions
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  because 27 revisions from your business from more people,
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  because before the before the first level, submits this graph
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  to the next one. They wanted to get revised first. And that's
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  how it became revisions.
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  Melinda Lee: How are ya? So I was gonna ask that. I mean, have
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  you started to develop a website based on their vision? And I'm
• 9:45
  sure this happens, it doesn't come across or it doesn't. It's
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  not what they
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  Jv Libunao: want to. Yeah,
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  Melinda Lee: I mean, how, what is the reason for that? You
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  think in the beginning, if there were there, what are the ways
• 9:55
  that you can first minimise that chance? And then yeah, what do
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  you think? Are those reasons for that happening?
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  Jv Libunao: Yeah, oftentimes, it's because one reason could
• 10:07
  be, there's too many people in the kitchen. There's too many
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  chefs in the kitchen. And more oftentimes, the more normal
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  reason would be the decision maker doesn't know what they
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  want. Yeah.
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  Melinda Lee: And the beginning, right, the vision in the
• 10:22
  beginning. So how do you know when it's like, We're clear
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  yourself to protect yourself, right? Because, yeah, how do you
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  decide that for yourself?
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  Jv Libunao: Well, it's always starts with a lot of questions.
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  I mean, I always strive to meet with decision makers in person,
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  if not on a phone call, and I don't like send an email with a
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  document for them to answer, I always try to get to talk to
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  them, regardless of virtual or in person. And I would strive to
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  be there in person because I can get a sense of their energy. And
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  if they're answering the questions properly, I could
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  gauge them. The battle lines, I could gauge the body language,
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  if they're, if they're concrete, whether they're saying or not.
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  Right, yeah. So it's important for me to like, be there. I even
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  drove for 60 miles one way to close a contract. Wow. And it's,
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  I'm sharing that because I knew that there's going to be some
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  challenges when it comes to like, securing the final say, of
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  the decision maker, so I drove just to set that meeting and
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  close the contract. And then, yeah, two and a half years
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  later, we're still working together.
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, I mean, it's so important. So it's good.
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  Kudos for you to know, like, when is it that I go dry?
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  Because, you know, like, the type of conversation, the type
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  of obstacles. Okay, so you can foresee it, this is important
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  for me to actually go the person. Right. Yeah. And then
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  that will also help you set up like when the project goes, and
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  there's like, going to be obstacles. At least you guys
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  have a connection.
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  Jv Libunao: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And human connections still is
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  very important. Because, I mean, I run my business based on
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  relationships. Yeah, I do marketing. I provide digital
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  marketing services. But I still, I still get a lot of my business
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  through relationships.
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah. I mean, that's why I mean, and that goes
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  huge. Right? That's a what your trust that the community, the
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  people the relationships that you have, I think that goes so
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  far, when projects don't go well, when, like you said, you
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  run into obstacles, right? Sure. You're supporting the client,
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  but then the also an entrepreneur, you guys need to
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  have like a bond, right? And otherwise, yeah, I think it
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  could be like a lot of finger pointing. And,
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  Jv Libunao: and that's what one of the things that I tried to
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  avoid finger pointing. Yeah, because it just doesn't delete a
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  project, but it destroys the trust. Right?
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  Melinda Lee: So what happens? Have you had a situation? I'm
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  sure you don't have many, but have you had a situation where
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  the client was not happy at all, and say, what do you do? Well,
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  Jv Libunao: there are certain clients, I, I expressed that
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  every now and then, I mean, sometimes these ideas just don't
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  align together. They want something after realising that
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  it is what they want. unfortunate that I don't have to
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  deal with a lot of them. Right. But I came to a point in the
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  past where I had to fire the client. It's just unhealthy, not
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  just mentally for but also the project and budget wise, it's
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  unhealthy. So I had to make that difficult decision of firing the
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  client. Right.
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  Melinda Lee: It's like this misalignment. Yeah. So knowing
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  when to to just, yeah, call it quits. Yeah. The boat. That's
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  awesome. I remember when I did my website there. It was, I
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  mean, sometimes the the client or the person thinks that they
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  know and then when you go down there, the fear starts coming
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  up, especially for entrepreneurs. I was an early
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  entrepreneur. This is my first website. There's so much emotion
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  involved, like trying to execute what I wanted. Yeah, we got it
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  done. She was really good. But I think a part of what she did
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  really well was again, like you said, building the trust. She
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  was really good at seeing what almost like, you know what I
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  liked what I did, and, and then things that I wasn't sure about.
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  She guided me through it. So yeah,
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  Jv Libunao: this one thing that I want to share. So I hop on the
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  BI monthly call with a business coach. One of the things that he
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  always mentioned to me is I have to build a trust, especially,
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  especially because my service is intangible. Is that something
• 15:08
  that people can hold on to? So in other words, the services I
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  provide is also a personal service they buy based on trust.
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  Melinda Lee: Right, right. Exactly. You and so what do you
• 15:21
  say are the key communication factors for successful? What
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  would you say would be the secret ingredient for successful
• 15:29
  project execution for website?
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  Jv Libunao: Um, if there's one, I would say, is to listen.
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  That's a very important part of it. I mean, I could come up with
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  you
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  Melinda Lee: mean, like, what does listening mean to you? Does
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  it mean means
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  Jv Libunao: discovering their pain points, the challenges and
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  where they want to go where you want to be? After the result of
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  a project?
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, asking the right questions to under those
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  Right. Right. Yep. Yeah, I think that's hard to sometimes because
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  we want to say what we want to say, right? Yeah.
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  Jv Libunao: Yeah. And sometimes it takes another person, let's
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  say, in my case, it's me that host that the person is to ask
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  the question, and we form something together. Wow. Yeah.
• 16:14
  Melinda Lee: And you're doing all of this. You're doing this
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  one vector? Company, the leader of Filipino resources? Yeah.
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  Yeah. What do you how do
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  Jv Libunao: you? Well, um, I don't do it alone. That's the
• 16:28
  secret. That's what I would say to see here. Yeah, yeah. So fun
• 16:34
  fact about that dopers platform. I am business partner with a
• 16:41
  former competition. Wow. Oh, no. It's the best loyalty I've ever
• 16:47
  experienced in my whole life. That's awesome. Yeah.
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  Melinda Lee: That goes to show that you walk the walk when it
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  comes to building relationships and people around you. Yeah. And
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  that's, you try. Yeah, it sounds like it. I mean, you're the
• 17:03
  leader of these resources in these communities. That's great.
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  That's great. And what makes you excited about having part of
• 17:11
  this community?
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  Jv Libunao: Well, what makes me excited the most is I'm able to
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  use the skills that I've developed throughout the two
• 17:20
  decades of experience, and be able to bring back to the
• 17:24
  community to it.
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  Melinda Lee: They're, they're taking benefit from it.
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  Jv Libunao: Yeah. I mean, it used to be for myself. But I
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  think as you mature, and as a business owner, right, you look
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  at others, too, and what you do, what you what's, uh, whatever.
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  So by services you provide becomes not just a service, but
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  also community service.
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  Melinda Lee: And what is what is the skills that you feel that
• 17:52
  you bring that you're good at bringing forth?
• 17:55
  Jv Libunao: I provide guidance in digital marketing, and
• 18:01
  anything that's geek, Geek stop, like. Yeah, sometimes I even
• 18:08
  find myself geeking out in a conversation.
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  Melinda Lee: But I think that's what I like about you is that
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  you're you're very approachable. And it sounds like you're able
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  to, yeah, relate these complex, geeky talk to anybody. And so
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  people are not, you know, intimidated by you. They get
• 18:26
  people to talk to you, and you build trust that way. And then
• 18:29
  you bring all the geekiness in. Yeah.
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  Jv Libunao: So just find myself like talking to technical stuff.
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  And yeah, better process like,
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  Melinda Lee: you can tell you, you're able to spot that where
• 18:39
  some people will be able to spot that. So that's great. That's
• 18:43
  great. Well, how would people get a hold of you, they need to
• 18:46
  connect with you or want to connect to get a website or join
• 18:49
  your communities. What's
• 18:51
  Jv Libunao: the best? So the best way is to visit our website
• 18:55
  one vector.net That is o n e, v e c t o r.net. And if you are a
• 19:02
  business owner who wants to market in the Filipino
• 19:04
  community, regardless of being Filipino or not, visit
• 19:07
  adobe.net.
• 19:10
  Melinda Lee: Yes, join this join the resources, get the resources
• 19:14
  or connect with JV. I learned a lot today about how to help that
• 19:19
  vision. Communication when it's even when it's tough, right, how
• 19:24
  to have build that trust with people and the importance of
• 19:29
  that and asking the right questions and listening. Yeah.
• 19:33
  Thank you so much, JV. I really appreciate it and hope you all
• 19:38
  enjoyed this conversation with Jv and I, we had a great time
• 19:43
  and I look forward to seeing you the next episode and all the
• 19:48
  links will be shared in the episode show notes until I see
• 19:52
  you again. Take care thanks JV.
• 19:55
  Jv Libunao: Thank you