#210 Samantha Manigsaca: Hospitality, heart and humility

Hello everyone, I'm Noreen, the host of the Inspiring Woman Hostility Podcast, and today I have with me Samantha, joining me as a guest on the show. Samantha, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Noreen, for this opportunity as well. So Samantha, tell us about yourself. Of course. So hi, everyone. Hi, Noreen. I'm Samantha Manigsaka, Vice President for Hospitality of the Apple One Group. So Apple One, where as taboo Philippines-based property developer, and I am a proud second generation of the family business, and I am honored and pressured at the same time, but happy to do what I love to do here in the business. So I am currently handling the hospitality arm of the business, where in different industries including healthcare and real estate, but for me I focus in hospitality. So I am in charge of the business development up until the hotel operations. So my goal, being in this position, is to really grow the company, grow the company within the Philippines and outside the Philippines, elevate as well the landscape, the hospitality landscape of the Visayas and the Mindanao regions in the Philippines, and of course to really promote what the beauty of the Philippines is. So for me, my life revolves around three Hs. So that's one hospitality, which is the industry that I am in. It's the hospitality for me really creates memories, creating communities, allowing people to belong to a bigger group, or a family, right? So secondly, my second age is heart. For me, it takes a lot of passion to do what to love what you do, and if you really are very passionate about what you do, then it leads you to success. And lastly, humility. So despite it challenging journey, I find so much strength and resiliency when it comes to what I do, right? That's why heart and heart and humility comes together for hospitality. So that's a brief about wonderful. So three Hs. Hospitality, heart and humility, that's absolutely really three foundational pillars to have for our industry. I couldn't agree more. And yeah, I just wanted to share that how we've had also this wonderful journey of getting to know each other, right? From when you first attended my event in Bangkok, and then we were on a panel together in Hong Kong, which was completely unplanned, but I was so happy to see your name when it came up together. And as I got to know more of you, about you, I was like, wow, this is so amazing. I'd love to have Samantha on the podcast. So thank you so much for joining. And we're definitely going to dive deeper in. Philippines, I've only ever been once, so I really hope I can come back again and enjoy some more of the beauty of the Philippines, for sure. You should come to Sybu. Yes, if you do come to the Philippines. Yeah, Manila is like, I've been to Manila, and it's like every other like major city in like Southeast Asia, right? So I definitely want to explore more. Yeah, so let's start with hospitality. I know you said your second generation within your family business, but how did your journey and hospitality start? Very interesting, right? In a typical arrangement in majority of the Asian countries, or I think in any other country, right? The second generations are always requested or required event to some, right? Required to, you have to study this. You have to go to bachelor's degree or your undergrad should be this, so you can do your, you can continue the family business. But for me, it was really something that I can go way back when I was a child, right? When I was, when I was younger, my parents always loved to host people at home, and for me, it was always me, myself that was preparing, right? So this is where I saw my passion into hospitality. The portfolio that we currently have in the company, it wasn't existing way back then. So I reached my undergrad. I had the option to do business management or hospitality, and then I had a cousin before who studied hospitality in Mandela. So, and then we, we saw that this school was a very prestigious school because it was also partnered with LaRosh in Switzerland, right? Which is one of the top schools for hospitality. So I, I was sent there without any hesitation. I said, yes, this is perfect for me. Not, it wasn't like you have to tell, you have to do this and you have to do this because the family is here. It wasn't that. It was my own choice, my parents fully supported what I love to do. And yeah, so when I studied in Mandela, I had the opportunity to meet different people. So which is, which should kind of what I love to do way back when I was a child, right? So everything fell into place then internships came. And yeah, I think the rest is history. Now I'm here still doing what I love to do. And despite us in the hospitality industry going through pandemic, going through all these challenges that I phones, the earthquakes here in the Philippines, we're still here. I still like what I do. For Filipinos, hospitality is very natural, right? So I think I'm just at the perfect industry. Yeah. I agree. I think definitely I've had the privilege to work with many Filipinos over the course of my career and hospitality. Like I agree, they're the warm, the friendly is the most great colleagues to work with. So I agree, it does have this amalgamation of bringing together your culture, but then also it fits so perfectly within hospitality. And I think you're right, you're talking about the second generation. I've had many guests on this podcast as well who've had family businesses. And it's like one or two things happen. You either don't, you want to have nothing to do with it. Or you're, you're kindly invited to be a part of it. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. And it's, it's interesting to actually, like what I do is very related to also the vision and the mission of my parents as well, who want to uplift the lives of the local communities that you actually operate in. So it was very much aligned to my personal why that I want to, you know, bring out the best of the Philippines, the best of the people, because there's just so much beauty in the Philippines, right? The natural resources that are available here in the country. So everything just fell into place for me. That's really interesting. And that reminds me of something that you'd shared on the panel as well, because we were quite, I could really feel that passion, right? You know, tourism plays tourism, hospitality, travel, they play such an important role for many countries, economies. And I like how you're saying that, you know, the mission and vision of your family is like, to be able to uplift and, you know, create jobs and, you know, create these like, you know, livelihoods for local communities. And you had the same thing, like you really wanted to advance the talent of, you know, well, for our panels, obviously, the women in the Philippines, right? But that carries through, right? It really about everybody in the Philippines to be able to elevate and to be able to demonstrate the quality of the talent that you have within your country. Yeah. So majority of my leaders in my team are actually female. I'm loud and proud. All right. So coming back to you and your career. So you said you went to Manila for your education and you did some internships to tell us what happened next and the journey you're on today. So when I studied in Manila for my bachelor's degree, we were required to take internships abroad, which I took the, I took the bold step of going to Hong Kong, right? I wanted to go out of my comfort zone. So I did two of my internships in Hong Kong. I did one in the food and beverage department as a food and beverage attendant. And of course, the front office as a front office agent. So I really enjoyed starting from the ranks. So after that, I graduated and then I worked for a couple of months in Manila in one of the hotels in Manila, also in front office. So I always had my heart for operations. Then I studied a master's degree. So I studied master's degree in La Roche in Switzerland. Yeah. So the pandemic happened. Unfortunately, I was in the US during that time doing an internship in the middle of the program. Then my internship was cut on on short, right? So I was stuck in the US for eight months because Singapore from the US lockdown and my only way was Washington DC to Manila. I took Singapore, Singapore to Cebu. So I was stuck in the US. I'm lucky and blessed that I had family in the US. So I got to stay with them for the eight months. But after the eight months, I flew through Manila because there was a direct flight from New York. So I was finally back in Cebu. Now, I didn't want to prolong my master's degree because I really wanted to work already. So what I did was do an internship in our own property here in Cebu. We were in a pre-opening stage for Sheritan Cebu Maktan Resort. This was around 2021. So I continued that while because I didn't also want to put on hold my master's degree since I didn't want to prolong my studies already. So during that time, they actually didn't allow internships. But then they tried to do a program for me to be their guinea pig, right? So this program, they actually make use of already nowadays, right? So they already practiced this program. And after that, I was hired full-time, despite it being under the Apple one's portfolio, we ensure that there was no conflict of interest. So even if I was the family, I was separated from this decision-making. So all the communications I had in the property were just within me and the team in the property, not anything that I direct to the family. So I really had to separate myself, right? So after that, I found my passion in sales and marketing. And then for a short period of that was around two years almost. And for a short period of time, I moved forward into the marketing because I really wanted to get a grasp of the entire hospitality operations and the back of house, which is the sales and marketing, right? So after that, I actually moved to the family business already, which I took a hold of the hospitality arm, right? I promised myself to be back at 30 years old into the family business, but then I found myself at around 26 years old as a manager. So I rose from the ranks from then on with a couple of challenges, not a couple actually a lot, but I enjoy the challenges every single day because I feel like this is where I can grow, grow out of my comfort zone, grow out of my usual day-to-day routine, right? So the sales and marketing department I felt like was a turning point of my career because this is where I made use of what I do now. I mean, this is what the sales and marketing is very crucial to what I do now, right? This is the business development side, the key areas for development. So I feel like it's very relevant to what I do. And now that I'm in the Apple One group with the family business, I am very motivated and inspired to actually grow the portfolio of Apple One. So that's my journey and so far I'm actually enjoying it. And to be honest, in the hospitality industry, right, it takes a lot of physical, mental, emotional, you know, how do you call this? To program your mind, right? It takes physical, mental, and emotional. And I'm okay. I have such a good support system. So probably why I'm actually enjoying this one now. That's wonderful. Yeah, I think when you hit that sweet spot, right, where your values really align with your purpose and the work that you're doing, then it doesn't matter what challenge comes your way or what, you know, yeah, what is thrown at you, you can find your way through it. And as you said, I think it's so important what you said there is like, it is through the challenges that you grow. It is through the moments when you get out of your comfort zone that it's when you grow because if everything is easy or everything is always like, it works out. When are you actually going to learn, right? Isn't that phrase like you learn more from your failures and you do from your successes, right? So yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And I think no matter what you do, I mean, I've had like, I say, I always say, I have four different careers, right? I started with FNB operations and I got into revenue and data and then also I did a stint in marketing too and branding and then now is running my own business. I never really planned any of those, but at the same time, each time I was doing that, I was very motivated and driven because I really believed in the work that I was doing. So no matter what challenge came my way, I still had that drive and motivation to be successful. But even if that meant like, okay, you know, it's okay also to change your mind and say in three, four years, maybe there's something else. Another opportunity presents itself. Yeah. And that's where you're going to go. So I'll be curious to see you again in like five, six years and see where you're going to be. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like everything that happens to you, your next step, right? That's for me. Because I never expected myself to actually be here today, but then because the pandemic happened, everything else happened and this is why I'm here and I'm grateful that all these things happen because it made me who I am today and I think the experiences has really helped me a lot in terms of you know, being a colleague, being an employee, being an owner and operator as well. So that's how it has been for me. Yeah. And in terms of, you know, you made a really good point there, like none of us could have planned the pandemic. And I think for a lot of us, we all had to either pivot or change or like really ask ourselves those deep questions, what am I here for, right? So, you know, you've obviously managed to pivot and managed to find another solution. So if someone else is finding themselves in this situation, I mean, let's hope we don't have another pandemic like this, but you know, life happens. What, you know, what helped you make those decisions or what helped you like, you know, make the next move or, you know, what advice would you have for somebody else who's thinking like, okay, they're, you know, confronted with a situation that is out of their control, but you know, they still want to do something that's a value and that's going to, you know, make a contribution. Yeah. So I think I'd go back to my three agents earlier. I'd go back to humility and heart. Well, I think hospitality comes in with it, comes also with it, right? For me, in terms of heart, like, there are a lot of projections that I actually experienced during the pandemic because I continuously applied for internships then because I really wanted to pursue it, but because I always knew that this is what I wanted to do, even with the how many rejections that I had in that span of years, I still made my way through. I ensure that I improved from the rejection, right? I found, you know, I explored, I tried to identify what happened there and then I still continued until I actually got what I wanted to do and humility, right? It takes a lot of humility to be very resilient in terms of these. So same with the one that I mentioned earlier about heart, despite the rejection, I made use of that as a strength that I will keep going with what I'm doing because this is really what I wanted to do and the rejections I didn't take as degrading myself or it's the motivation for me. I actually took it as an inspiration for me that there is something else that is meant for me and I think again because of the pandemic, this is where I was really destined to be, not a 30 years old back in the Philippines, right? So I was here at the 26. So if I were to tell someone right now and I really hope that the pandemic won't happen again, it really does take a lot of heart and humility. It takes a lot of patience, but for as long as you actually know what you really want, which is what is inside your heart and the passion that you really want, no matter what's going to happen, you'll always go back to it. So it's all important to know your why also. Yeah. I would completely agree this is definitely something that's come up consistently with a lot of the interviews I've done. It's really knowing what you want and knowing yourself, knowing your values, knowing your why and making that as the anchor point for a lot of your decision making or the choices that you make for your career, for your life and to make sure that that's lining up for you. And as you said, I love how you said like you took every rejection as inspiration, right? And that's what led you to where you need to where you are today as well. Yeah. So with that in mind, if someone is looking for that inspiration, what can they, if they want to talk to you, they've listened to this podcast and they want to reach out to you, what can they reach out to you for? Oh, very interesting. For one, I believe, I really want to think on, I mean, I really want to mentor the next generation because I feel like that was what I didn't have when I joined the hospitality industry. I think there was a huge gap between the experts now to the next generation, which is my generation now. And then there's just a lot of things that are actually, I mean, there's just a lot of opportunities right now that there's that there's a gap that a lot of people couldn't see, especially for us who you know, who are still quite new to the industry. So that's one. I really want to mentor the next generation as early as now. I mean, it's not far from today that this next generation is coming in, right? The Gen Zs, you know, this generation. Also to people who want to identify where they want to be, like for me, for example, I will be honest, I think I was in the quarter life crisis stage when I actually, because I think I was at around 25 or 26, during that time. So it was a quarter-life crisis, right? For people of that age. But to me, people who want to know where they really want to be, to guide them if it's this one, if they want to go through this path or is it this path that they want, you know, people who want to know where they want to be. It's really difficult, especially you're in the quarter-life crisis stage, right? And it's not just a quarter-life at 25 or 26. You can even experience it at 14. But yeah, I feel like I'll be like, yeah, let's see if I have to six years from now in a region, if I'll still be here. But yeah, I want to help, I want to support women most, especially who want to know their why, who want to identify their why, no matter what age. Yeah. I agree. I think with the mentoring piece, I just want to pick up on that. It almost isn't like an age thing or an experience thing, right? I think, you know, what I also talk a lot about is peer-to-peer mentoring. Like, how can you create those groups or those connections where you're supporting each other, you know, even at the same level that you're at, right? Or the same experience you're at, right? I don't think it's necessarily one from the other. Or even when you talk about the typical mentoring example, there's this thing called reverse mentoring. You know, I think the mentor learns as much from the mentee as, you know, the other way around. And I agree, quarter-life, mid-life, I think whatever life it is, I think just having that self-awareness and recognizing that something's going on and to know your why. Because otherwise, I think we just kind of go through our lives like, okay, go to school, get an education, get a job, get married, have the house, have the kids raise the kids and then what you're supposed to die, right? Like, it's changing that way. It's like, we're more than that. We're more than this script. And what are we here to do? And what is that purpose? And I think you're right. I don't know how many of us actually spend the time to think about that. And there's actually nothing wrong with no matter how old you are and then you're still trying to identify. I mean, I mean, there are a lot of people who started at 40 and now very successful, right? So, for me also, on the mentoring part for the next generation, I started as a mentor to one of the people who actually inspires me in the industry now. So, I want to continue on this kind of support to both the next generation and whoever needs support along, right? Yeah. Those are wonderful. So, yeah, absolutely. Anyone listening and once is inspired by Samantha, please reach out to her. What's the best way to contact you? Would it be on LinkedIn or what's the best way to reach? LinkedIn. Yeah. LinkedIn is perfect. Okay, great. And so, onto my final question and that is who inspires you. A lot of people inspire me, but personally, it's really my family, most especially my parents, right? As I mentioned earlier, I'm a second generation. So, I have seen my parents build everything from ground up. I'm more inspired with what they do because until today, they're actually still very hands on. And they have really taught me humility ever since I was young until today. And this is where they got them, right? The different industries that we are in. So, that's the values that they actually taught me. And very interesting because both my parents, right, are in the hospital. I'm in the real estate or in the business. So, it's my mom who's actually the engineer, which is usually the father or the man who's the engineer, right? But she inspires me to be the leader that I am today. And my dad also inspires me in ways that he's very, he's well-loved by the people. And I want to replicate what he did. And, you know, how he made how he made his humble beginnings into the vision and the mission of the entire company, which is to uplift the lives and the communities that we're actually in. That's why this is what we're doing now. So, generating jobs, allowing more tourists to come to the destination. So, it's going to increase the economy, right? It's going to improve the economy as well. So, these two are my personal inspirations. But on a professional level, as I mentioned earlier, I actually have Ms. Cleofel Beesau. She's a very good woman leader that I look up to of Mega World. She was the one who mentored me and this was the time that I was still very, you know, I was still trying to identify what I wanted to do with the position that I hold now. And every time I talk to her, I find so much comfort in the industry that we are in. So, she guides me, she supports me with the things that I also do. And every time I see her, she always gives me pieces of advice, which helps me cope as well in the day-to-day pressure and the day-to-day routine that I actually have. And another person that inspires me and I look up to so much is Mariana Zabaldi Ayala from Ayala Land Hospitality. She, they're a very big gonglomerate here in the Philippines. She is also a part of the family. That's why she really inspires me because she has really proven herself the way that she is from the ground up as well. So, these two are the people who I look up to in the industry now in the hospitality industry for the professional side and my parents on the personal side. So, wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing those inspirations and thank you for inspiring us today as well. Thank you, Nareen.