This is our first episode for 2014 and we want to start with fireworks to drive bad luck away as we head on to the Year of the Horse. So we invited none other than Anton Diaz, founder of the #1 food and travel blog in the Philippines, ourawesomeplanet.com, which receives about 1,000,000 hits a month! (Golly gee). His advocacy is to promote the “Food and Travel Secrets in the Philippines” and was even awarded the Inspiring Young Filipino Entrepreneur Award in 2010 by Go Negosyo. Further, he is an awesome businessman, co-founding the highly popular string of weekend markets in the country, the Mercato Centrale Group.
This is Part 1 of a 2-part series and here are the Key Takeaways that you will get after listening to this episode:
- How and why he quit his high-paying job at one of the top companies in the world to become a full time blogger.
- How he discovered blogging and capitalized on it before it got big in the Philippines.
- In choosing a niche, why going small is a mistake and why bigger is better.
- Why his initial venture in e-commerce failed and what were his learnings from it.
- How he started his weekend market business with Mercato Centrale.
- How he was able to spot trends in blogging and in business.
- How he applied the skills that he learned at work to blogging and business.
Anton’s Quotable Quotes:
“It was very clear at that time that blogging will be a big hit.”
“Choose projects that are scalable. Kapag bumababa ang effort mo, dapat ang output mo lumalaki.”
“The key online is to be able to implement fast.”
On failure: “Most people will remember your successes.”
On trends: “To succeed, kailangan ma-capitalize yung trend bago siya mag-boom.”
Resources and Links Mentioned During the Show:
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please do us a favor and help us go up the ranking in iTunes by rating our show and leaving a comment.
How? Just go to the iTunes Store and search for “Freelance Blend Podcast”. Then, select the “Freelance Blend Podcast” image under Podcasts, click Ratings and Reviews and click the number of stars that you think we deserve — 5 stars will really make us smile :)! You may also click the Write a Review button and type in your comments about the show.
Lastly, please listen to the 2nd part of the interview where Anton will share more of his insights and tips.
FBP 005: How to Capitalize on the Biggest Trends in Business by Top Food and Travel Blogger – Anton Diaz (Part 2)
Thank you!
P.S. We hope you don’t mind the sounds of automobiles and motorcycles in the background while we were doing the interview. In fact, for me, it makes the interview more real and even showcases the sounds of awesome Manila, which I am sure OFWs out there miss a lot. Enjoy.
Freelance Blend Podcast: The Podcast for the Philippine Freelancer Community
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