Nomad Manager

Progress Report #3 on Nomad Manager - Part 2 of 2

Finding Meaning
They say, “Love is not enough” or that “We cannot survive on love alone” (or wait, no, that was supposed to be bread, but anyway). But love can help sustain us when the future looks bleak and uncertain. Love encourages us to soldier on in the face of trials and tribulations, in the face of production mishaps, proposal rejections, underwhelming sales, and other disappointments.

Last night, I was trying to edit a Punchdrunk Panda 2011 recap video from all the videos we were able to produce last year. And looking back, it’s nice to see all of the things we were actually able to achieve. 2011 may have been our most challenging year yet, but we were rich with collaborations, as in I have never met more people because of the business before.

In 2011, we had two bigger photo shoots than we’ve ever done before, and worked with a lot of talented people like Pol Sena, Kryz Uy, Reza Aznar, Shayna Young, Little Red Moments and Legit Status. We were also finally able to produce PdP videos c/o Jopy Arnaldo of Fictionaut Productions and Patrick Vinalay of Red House Productions.

We organized our first event ever, Punchdrunk Panda’s Anteroom Sessions at Moonleaf Maginhawa, featuring musicians such as Slow Hello, Outerhope, Tarsius, Manuel Nicolas Alvero, Love in Athens and Love Never Dies.

We had the privilege of being immersed in My Masterpiece Movement culture because of our involvement with them for our Community Creativity Camp (CCC). We also got to meet other Yabang Pinoy advocates because of CCC.

We worked with new PdP artists Kneil Melicano, Ray Sunga and Steph Mangalindan, and shot artist webisodes for JP Cuison, Rob Cham and Tof Zapanta.

We had intimate blogger hangouts with David Guison, Arriane Serafico, Alexis Lim and Eileen Campos at Subspace Coffee House, and Thysz Estrada, Robbie Bautista, Ava Te and Gerd Perez at Milky & Sunny. (I’m sorry, I got too lazy to link everyone. Dami e. I’m sure you’ll find them through Google searches, or check PdP’s Facebook albums)

I also have to acknowledge those who have been part of the core PdP team, through their brief internships and their continuing involvement with PdP afterwards, Ritz Alejandro, Pat Remoquillo, Pat Manlapas, Joseph Velasquez and Jonver David. And model employee Nica Kim, of course, I couldn’t have gotten through 2011 without you. If you’re reading this, I love you guys.

It’s really overwhelming when I think about the number of people I had the blessing of working with in 2011. And I love that we’ve introduced more meaning and purpose to the brand this year by really doing more things to promote Filipino artists, not only in the field of graphic design, but also in photography, film, music, styling, make-up — and Filipino brands/companies as well.

But again, “Love is not enough”, and the passion we have at PdP can only take us so far. So I really hope we can turn things around in early 2012. We’ve got some things percolating, but it’s too early to say how things will really go for us this year. But I really hope things shape up for us. I love PdP too much to ever let it go. (Yes, parang pag-ibig lang.)

Jen

Click here if you missed Part 1.

Progress Report #3 on Nomad Manager (Part 1 of 2)

1.7.2011

Okay, here we go.

I was talking to Karlo last night and reflecting on what I’ve accomplished with PdP and my life in the past year. And while I may have taken steps forward, I’ve also taken steps back, and I feel I am almost at the same point I was last year.

Resilience Test #1: The Need To Hire
This same period last year, I felt really exhausted from the business, as a result of doing all the legwork alone + manning the PdP booth for several bazaars in November and December 2010, as briefly expounded on here. I was in desperate need of change. I felt like I had put so much of myself in the business that I hardly had time to pursue things that I wanted for myself. Travel, painting, other rackets.

This was partly solved by the move to hire an operations manager, as Nica’s presence made the work more reasonable and made me feel less alone. However, I still always felt the need to be around all the time (though I managed a couple of trips abroad during major PdP events, and the relatively more frequent attendance to painting classes) because I don’t want Nica to ever feel like I was deserting her while I went and did my own thing.

We also decided to grow the PdP team in October last year by adding a marketing officer, and a creative/art director to assist in creating PdP collateral and doing graphics for Punchdrunk Inc., PdP’s design arm (which we just started in late November/December). But I soon realized that managing extra people was a luxury we couldn’t maintain, and at the same time, less efficient than I thought it would be, because I was inexperienced in how to properly manage a team. Suffice it to say, that didn’t pan out, and our team is now composed of just myself, Nica, and a Canada-based Gail.

Resilience Test #2: The Need To Sell
I’ve already mentioned here how we were experiencing really low sales in 2011, and even into the Christmas season, sales were underwhelming, considering the 4th quarter of the year has provided us with 50% of annual revenue in previous years.

The unexpected sales performance was a major setback in our hopes for business progress and development in 2011, but at the same time, it also helped us to become even more aggressive and resourceful in our efforts to pick ourselves up from that. So I really tried to look for ways to bounce back from this, getting consultancy from a renowned business guru, and looking for more outlets to sell our stuff.

I won’t deny that 2011 sales were discouraging, and that it seriously made me think about the longevity/sustainability of the business, or if it would make an impact to anyone at all if our business folded. And well, I don’t know if I’m just drowning in delusional self-importance, but I feel it does matter if Punchdrunk Panda closes.

Continue reading Part 2.