Navigating the Path to Success With Jv Libunao

Welcome, dear listeners to the speaking flow

podcast where we dive into the art of effective communication

to unleash your leadership voice. I have a wonderful leader

today community leaders name is Jv Libunao. I got that right.

We're Jv Libunao, Jv Libunao Now, Jv Libunao Now, he's the

founder of one vector design company. He's also a community

leader, like I mentioned, who provides amazing, wonderful

resources to the Filipino community. Primarily, he is in

the Southern California, but he's also nationwide does it

offer? Yeah, resources for the nationwide Filipino community.

He's also the President of the Chamber of Commerce, who a lot

of people don't know. It's also open not just to Filipinos, but

then to the broader community as well. Allies. So welcome, Jv

Glad you're here.

Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for the invite. Yeah,

so can you tell the audience more about what you do

and what makes you so passionate about it? Sure.

So I wear multiple hats. Why? Because one is never

enough. Like, we all want to do a lot of things, you all want to

achieve a lot of things, especially if you're a leader,

like you come up with a lot of ideas, and you just want to do

it, and it starts within you. So first of all, like what Melinda

said, I found it on record design company, which is a web

development and software integration company since 2017.

And a little background about the name, J. V stands for one

Juan vector. And then I did a little play with some words and

some good luck. So then, I came up with the Juan vector brand

and been using it even though like even back in my freelance

days, like decades ago. And yeah, and during the pandemic, I

founded another company, which liquid within the said, provides

resources to the Filipino American community, primarily in

Southern California, but available in all most parts of

the US where there's like a Filipino community or big

population of Filipinos. And it's a digital platform wherein

you could find food, products, services, events, and we also

organise our own events. It is called Adobe Stock net. So if

you're familiar with the food, Filipino adobo, derive the name

from that. So Adobe doesn't love Adobo love it. And fun fact, fun

fact, though, Adobe versus actually short for something. So

initially, it was called a double marketplace. But it was

too long. It's a mouthful to share the web address with

people and even just the brand. So since adult versus about

community members, or business owners and supporters, I took

the first four letters of Adobo and the last three letters of

the supporters, community members and business owners came

up with a dopers, God, and now it sounds like an app, and it's

gonna be an app in pretty soon we're working on that. Lastly,

cast of my contributions to the Filipino community, I was

elected to be the president of the Philippine American Chamber

of Commerce, Tri County. Now, it covers three counties. And it's,

like, like I said, we often get asked if you have to be a

Filipino to be part of it? The answer is no. We are one of the

most diverse business organisations in three counties

in my area. That's what I do.

Wow, you are wearing multiple hats, multiple

hats, and I, I like to drill down on one and it probably is

interconnected. But let's go down to the design company as a

web design company. And so you work with a lot of entrepreneurs

to design their website. And so I'm curious. Today, we want to

focus on vision. To have to be a leader, we need to we have a

vision, and create a vision and be able to execute on that

vision. And so you work with entrepreneurs on the website.

And and I'm sure that creating the vision for the website can

be daunting and challenging. So how does communication play a

factor in the website divine design process?

Yeah, communication is a very vital part of, first

of all, getting their vision and for me to be able to translate

their vision into a visual. Yeah, yeah. Because especially

before I'm able to learn what their vision is, I have to

listen and that's the very first step in testing and aiming. I

have strategies I have solutions I have my 20 year experience.

But I cannot apply any of the solutions until I hear what the

pain points are, what the challenges are, and of course,

what their goals are. And especially if it's for a

specific project, or it's for like a bigger scope. Right,

right. So, in other words, I always look at it this way, you

can expect something with a hammer when what you need is a

drill. So there's always customizations, when it comes to

even just recommending a solution.

Right? So to recommend the best solution, you

need to listen, and really understand what is the manager

or the leader, the entrepreneur doesn't know how to tell their

vision, like any recommendations to how do you help them clarify

their?

And oftentimes, this is the case, and I've dealt with

multiple clients, decision makers, executives, yeah, who

are like very opinionated, but they don't really know what they

want. And that's when they start asking questions. Right. You

know, it's a multi step, question and answer, and it

begins with what and why it goes from there depends on how the

conversation goes.

Right? Because they might think that they know, a

lot of time. Yeah, I mean, I would, I would say that

sometimes I could be like that all circus, also a decision

maker and have solution ideas. But I don't know how to get

there. But you know, I mean, we're all guilty of that

sometimes. Oh,

totally. So I'm sure that's where you help them

when you when they say no. And then you say, Well, what is the

reason for this? Why, when they're talking? Are there more

questions that you ask them to help dig deeper to make it more

clear?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, sometimes the better questions

come out out of the conversation. Right. Right.

Yeah. And I mean, even though like I have a follow, like a

list of questions that I normally ask, these ideas come

out, as we exchange ideas,

right? Do you usually get examples from other

websites? Or other? Yes,

yeah. Especially if the client is auditory. And

that's all visual. So I mean, if they're visual and needs to see

something, yeah. And I always pull up different samples, like

either from my password or other websites that exist or even a

competition.

Right. Yeah. Right. So so how do you help them if

there's different people with different visions? You mentioned

you were?

Yeah. So it's very important to figure out the need

to have in the nice to haves, right, and then we go from

there. Obviously, the need to have needs to be prioritised.

And the ones that are nice to be there could be somewhere in the

future could do a little bit of compromise. Do people? Yeah,

because at the end of the day, it is still the client?

Yeah. Do they generally agree together? Or is

there? What if they don't agree,

oftentimes, they agree on something, and that's

everyone compromises when one or one solution or one approach?

Okay, got it? Is it usually one person that makes a

decision? Or do you work with or sometimes you work with couple

decision makers?

There are times when there's like a couple of

decision makers, or even, excuse me, excuse me, an even work on

certain projects were in, like, multi level decision makers,

like, there's the project manager, just the project

director, there's the assistant of the executive, and there's

the executive. So I'll tell you one story. For one flyer design

that I did in the past, it took me 27 rounds of revisions, which

is double

believable, and it's

because yeah, because every person in the in

the in the chain, has to have a say. Yeah, it happens,

either. Did they decide in the beginning that,

hey, we're gonna have 27 people looking at this?

Well, there's only four people but 27 revisions

because 27 revisions from your business from more people,

because before the before the first level, submits this graph

to the next one. They wanted to get revised first. And that's

how it became revisions.

How are ya? So I was gonna ask that. I mean, have

you started to develop a website based on their vision? And I'm

sure this happens, it doesn't come across or it doesn't. It's

not what they

want to. Yeah,

I mean, how, what is the reason for that? You

think in the beginning, if there were there, what are the ways

that you can first minimise that chance? And then yeah, what do

you think? Are those reasons for that happening?

Yeah, oftentimes, it's because one reason could

be, there's too many people in the kitchen. There's too many

chefs in the kitchen. And more oftentimes, the more normal

reason would be the decision maker doesn't know what they

want. Yeah.

And the beginning, right, the vision in the

beginning. So how do you know when it's like, We're clear

yourself to protect yourself, right? Because, yeah, how do you

decide that for yourself?

Well, it's always starts with a lot of questions.

I mean, I always strive to meet with decision makers in person,

if not on a phone call, and I don't like send an email with a

document for them to answer, I always try to get to talk to

them, regardless of virtual or in person. And I would strive to

be there in person because I can get a sense of their energy. And

if they're answering the questions properly, I could

gauge them. The battle lines, I could gauge the body language,

if they're, if they're concrete, whether they're saying or not.

Right, yeah. So it's important for me to like, be there. I even

drove for 60 miles one way to close a contract. Wow. And it's,

I'm sharing that because I knew that there's going to be some

challenges when it comes to like, securing the final say, of

the decision maker, so I drove just to set that meeting and

close the contract. And then, yeah, two and a half years

later, we're still working together.

Yeah, I mean, it's so important. So it's good.

Kudos for you to know, like, when is it that I go dry?

Because, you know, like, the type of conversation, the type

of obstacles. Okay, so you can foresee it, this is important

for me to actually go the person. Right. Yeah. And then

that will also help you set up like when the project goes, and

there's like, going to be obstacles. At least you guys

have a connection.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And human connections still is

very important. Because, I mean, I run my business based on

relationships. Yeah, I do marketing. I provide digital

marketing services. But I still, I still get a lot of my business

through relationships.

Yeah. I mean, that's why I mean, and that goes

huge. Right? That's a what your trust that the community, the

people the relationships that you have, I think that goes so

far, when projects don't go well, when, like you said, you

run into obstacles, right? Sure. You're supporting the client,

but then the also an entrepreneur, you guys need to

have like a bond, right? And otherwise, yeah, I think it

could be like a lot of finger pointing. And,

and that's what one of the things that I tried to

avoid finger pointing. Yeah, because it just doesn't delete a

project, but it destroys the trust. Right?

So what happens? Have you had a situation? I'm

sure you don't have many, but have you had a situation where

the client was not happy at all, and say, what do you do? Well,

there are certain clients, I, I expressed that

every now and then, I mean, sometimes these ideas just don't

align together. They want something after realising that

it is what they want. unfortunate that I don't have to

deal with a lot of them. Right. But I came to a point in the

past where I had to fire the client. It's just unhealthy, not

just mentally for but also the project and budget wise, it's

unhealthy. So I had to make that difficult decision of firing the

client. Right.

It's like this misalignment. Yeah. So knowing

when to to just, yeah, call it quits. Yeah. The boat. That's

awesome. I remember when I did my website there. It was, I

mean, sometimes the the client or the person thinks that they

know and then when you go down there, the fear starts coming

up, especially for entrepreneurs. I was an early

entrepreneur. This is my first website. There's so much emotion

involved, like trying to execute what I wanted. Yeah, we got it

done. She was really good. But I think a part of what she did

really well was again, like you said, building the trust. She

was really good at seeing what almost like, you know what I

liked what I did, and, and then things that I wasn't sure about.

She guided me through it. So yeah,

this one thing that I want to share. So I hop on the

BI monthly call with a business coach. One of the things that he

always mentioned to me is I have to build a trust, especially,

especially because my service is intangible. Is that something

that people can hold on to? So in other words, the services I

provide is also a personal service they buy based on trust.

Right, right. Exactly. You and so what do you

say are the key communication factors for successful? What

would you say would be the secret ingredient for successful

project execution for website?

Um, if there's one, I would say, is to listen.

That's a very important part of it. I mean, I could come up with

you

mean, like, what does listening mean to you? Does

it mean means

discovering their pain points, the challenges and

where they want to go where you want to be? After the result of

a project?

Yeah, asking the right questions to under those

Right. Right. Yep. Yeah, I think that's hard to sometimes because

we want to say what we want to say, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And sometimes it takes another person, let's

say, in my case, it's me that host that the person is to ask

the question, and we form something together. Wow. Yeah.

And you're doing all of this. You're doing this

one vector? Company, the leader of Filipino resources? Yeah.

Yeah. What do you how do

you? Well, um, I don't do it alone. That's the

secret. That's what I would say to see here. Yeah, yeah. So fun

fact about that dopers platform. I am business partner with a

former competition. Wow. Oh, no. It's the best loyalty I've ever

experienced in my whole life. That's awesome. Yeah.

That goes to show that you walk the walk when it

comes to building relationships and people around you. Yeah. And

that's, you try. Yeah, it sounds like it. I mean, you're the

leader of these resources in these communities. That's great.

That's great. And what makes you excited about having part of

this community?

Well, what makes me excited the most is I'm able to

use the skills that I've developed throughout the two

decades of experience, and be able to bring back to the

community to it.

They're, they're taking benefit from it.

Yeah. I mean, it used to be for myself. But I

think as you mature, and as a business owner, right, you look

at others, too, and what you do, what you what's, uh, whatever.

So by services you provide becomes not just a service, but

also community service.

And what is what is the skills that you feel that

you bring that you're good at bringing forth?

I provide guidance in digital marketing, and

anything that's geek, Geek stop, like. Yeah, sometimes I even

find myself geeking out in a conversation.

But I think that's what I like about you is that

you're you're very approachable. And it sounds like you're able

to, yeah, relate these complex, geeky talk to anybody. And so

people are not, you know, intimidated by you. They get

people to talk to you, and you build trust that way. And then

you bring all the geekiness in. Yeah.

So just find myself like talking to technical stuff.

And yeah, better process like,

you can tell you, you're able to spot that where

some people will be able to spot that. So that's great. That's

great. Well, how would people get a hold of you, they need to

connect with you or want to connect to get a website or join

your communities. What's

the best? So the best way is to visit our website

one vector.net That is o n e, v e c t o r.net. And if you are a

business owner who wants to market in the Filipino

community, regardless of being Filipino or not, visit

adobe.net.

Yes, join this join the resources, get the resources

or connect with JV. I learned a lot today about how to help that

vision. Communication when it's even when it's tough, right, how

to have build that trust with people and the importance of

that and asking the right questions and listening. Yeah.

Thank you so much, JV. I really appreciate it and hope you all

enjoyed this conversation with Jv and I, we had a great time

and I look forward to seeing you the next episode and all the

links will be shared in the episode show notes until I see

you again. Take care thanks JV.

Thank you