Full Transcript:
David: Hello and welcome. David here from Affordable Staff. We also have-
Gib: And this is Gibran Bornales.
David: Yes.
Gib: You can call me Gib.
David: Call you Gib? Okay, fantastic. Gib or Gib?
Gib: Gib.
David: Is this like that whole “gif” and “gif,” is it?
Gib: Yeah.
David: Yeah. Anyway. So Gib is visiting us from our office in the Philippines and you’ve been here with us now for one week?
Gib: Yeah, one week.
David: Yeah, one week. And you had an interesting flight, didn’t you on the way over?
Gib: Yeah, a lot of turbulence from Manila to Brisbane.
David: Yes, and I know the first thing that you asked to do when you got picked up was to go have a shower.
Gib: Yeah.
David: Yeah, you must have sweated?
Gib: Yeah.
David: You must have been sweating quite a bit. Would you say it’s been one of the most challenging trips you’ve had?
Gib: Well, not really. I had worse before.
David: Really?
Gib: Yeah, previous to this.
David: When was that?
Gib: That was in a boat.
David: Okay. And you’ve worked over in Dubai before, haven’t you?
Gib: Yes, I have.
David: How was it flying over there?
Gib: It was a fun experience. It’s different culture and different environment but I’ve learned so much in that experience.
David: So, you’ve been with us for how long now?
Gib: I’ve been with Affordable Staff for two years now.
David: Two years. And what type of type did you start working with?
Gib: I started with a Property Management agency based in Sydney.
David: Based in Sydney. What sort of things were you doing for them?
Gib: On a daily basis, I do arrears. I process lease renewals, vacate notices, rent increases. I also do invoices.
David: Okay. How long ago did you transition to becoming a–you started off a subject matter expert and now you’re also going through team leader training, aren’t you?
Gib: Yeah, that’s right.
David: When was that. that you moved?
Gib: This year, just this year.
David: Yeah okay. So probably one of the things with Gib now, and one of the reasons we moved you over, is because you have so much industry experience doing you know, a variety of different tasks.
Gib: That’s right.
David: So you came over and arrived here a week ago. What have you been doing while you’re here?
Gib: I’ve been doing conferences, meeting different clients. I’ve also done the field work. Because what we do back in the Philippines is we do all these back-end behind-the-scenes tasks and now that I’m here, I get to see what the property managers are doing in the field.
It gives me the whole picture of why I do what I do in the Philippines and why I process these documents and these invoices and arrears.
A good friend, a property manager here, showed me everything that she does from entry inspection and home opens. So it gives me meaning.
David: Has it been a valuable trip for you?
Gib: Very valuable.
David: And how do you think, when you’re going forward now, training others and acting as a team leader, how do you think it’s going to impact what you’re doing?
Gib: It’s easy now to teach because again, I get to experience it. I saw it firsthand and I can explain the story behind why they need to do this, needs to do that, because I’ve seen it.
David: You’re also working with clients, a couple of clients, helping them to create processes while you’re here, weren’t you?
Gib: That’s right, yeah.
David: How’d that go?
Gib: It feels good that I can share what I’ve learned about the tools because we are more exposed with the tools and systems in the Philippines. And I get to share that and I also get to learn from what they do here.
David: How did you find the clients, working with them?
Gib: They were very nice.
David: You’re just saying that, aren’t you? (laughs)
Gib: No, I was not expecting that they would do a mile for me.
David: They’re so welcoming?
Gib: Yeah.
David: And I guess you’re an authority in what you do so if anything, they’re going to be listening to what your advice is as well. Was that a bit of a surprise as well?
Gib: Yeah, it’s a bit of a surprise because they know what they do in property management. I’m just on the other side of the world doing behind-
David: Behind-the-scenes stuff. What would you say would be the key differences between the Philippines and Australia now that you’ve been here?
Gib: The system and the structure, and the whole business of property management.
David: Yes, cause it’s very different.
Gib: Yeah, it’s not used in the Philippines. I get to understand why there are property management agencies. Because people here just rent, in the Philippines it’s not like that.
David: How is it in the Philippines?
Gib: Filipinos want to own their property as much as possible.
David: So you’d still have that here as well, except, I guess let’s say it’s an industry that’s come out of demand of people who want to rent. If you want to rent in the Philippines, what do you do?
Gib: You just talk to the landlord directly and just negotiate.
David: How do you find out about a property if there’s one available?
Gib: Online, maybe or friends.
David: And where would you go online?
Gib: Facebook.
David: Facebook. Okay, so we’ve got like realestate.com.au, and so many other tools that are available. InspectRealEstate where you can use for properties as well.
Okay, fantastic. So what would you like to achieve out of your next week before you go back home?
Gib: So I will have more trainings with some tools. I’ll be exposed to different environment, offices, so I get to see different angles. How they do what they do, their ways. So, I think my goal is to learn all these things and have the eyes here and share that in the Philippines with my team members.
David: Do you want to come back?
Gib: Sure!
David: (laughs) “If you’re paying, David.” Okay well fantastic. It’s been really good having you here. We’ve gone and taken Gib out and to experience a couple of things here.
Everyone for some unknown reason, like we spoke before, wants to give you steak.
Gib: Yeah.
David: You like your steak well done, you know that now. Not medium rare or rare. But it’s fantastic to have you visiting here, and thank you to everybody for watching this video. I thought it would just be interesting to have a conversation. I mean, we’re all the same, we’re all achieving the same result and trying to get the same result for our clients, too. So it’s fantastic.
Thank you very much, Gib.
Gib: Thank you, David.
David: Okay, and we’ll talk again soon. Okay bye.
Gib: Bye.
