Watch this episode of #JasSuccess and be inspired by Cody's life story and goals and how he achieved them. Surely you can also say, “I can be successful no matter what.”

Carlo Denis Lardizabal, also known as Cody, is an Online Business Manager specializing in project managing social media, audience growth, and personal branding for professional coaches. Together with his awesome team, he helps the US and UK-based coaches raise brand awareness and nurture their audience through LinkedIn and Facebook Group Marketing.

Prior to working online, he has a decade of experience in the contact center industry where he assumed various leadership roles as a Team Lead, a Process Lead, and an Asst. OM for big brands such as AT&T, Microsoft, UHG, and others.

As an online business manager, he partners with coaches where he co-manages and grows FB Groups, as well as help them with personal branding and content through LinkedIn and other social media strategies.

He is also an aspiring philanthropist with an ultimate goal of building his brand as an online career coach to help abled PWDs and support various charities from his existing and planned online businesses.

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Notable Quotes:

• • It's a good thing there's a freelancing. Kaya nga diba FREE, FREElancing. Parang you get the option to do what you wanna do.

• • Eh di merong 20 hrs sa isang client, meron pang another 20 hrs sa isang client. So for the newbies hindi ito ideal scenario, please wag niyo siyang gawin or it’s up to you if you wanna take a risk to do it.

• • When you say VA, there’s this persona na employee persona ka eh, pero at the same time another persona of a VA is some sort of a business.

• • Natutunan ko ang niching na meron kang idea of client ka talaga dapat na i-select tapos from the ideal client that you have, doon ka mag-iisip ng skill set na meron ka that could also translate to your core service.

• • Meron namang threads to also promote your business. Madaming strategies pero I would say, I am not sharing this to brag. Iba kasi yung tips natin for starters, iba din yung tips natin for our co-freelancers scaling up. Obviously for starters, I would say there’s one common thing whether you’re starting your VA or online career versus scaling up. It’s best to get a mentor. I mean like I said, I’m not bragging. I’ve had three mentors, the biggest titans of our industry. And these people really helped me out a lot. Syempre, aside from getting your mentors, also make sure that you are also active on support groups.

• • It’s true eh. Tama yung sinabi sa freelance fair. We have to drop the mindset of competition.

• • That’s where collaboration comes in. May kanya-kanya tayong specialty. So it’s very important, aside from getting mentors, to communicate with others and build a strong relationship with support groups.

• • I was also able to share why and how it’s easy, hindi naman easy pero bakit within that span of more or less one to two years I was able to get a lot of clients. Kasi yung rapport, siguro nakatulong yung experience ko sa call center. It’s really good to establish rapport.

• • It’s okay to learn a lot of skill sets but It's also important to also specialize on top one or top two skill sets that you can learn. Kasi mas madali siya parang recycle recycle nalang.

• • Ang daming strategies sa totoo lang. Hindi siya ganun kadali. Pero kaya siya. Diba kung kami nga, kami ni Mommy Anna kaya namin. So kaya din ng lahat. It just takes a kindred spirit to do it.

• • When it comes to, I’m talking about getting direct clients na. So it’s very important to keep that relationship. Even yung mga humindi sa start. Kasi maybe they just said no kasi they’re not really ready yet pero it would be best to still continue building your relationship with them.

• •  So, #1 get your mentors, #2 join support groups, #3 always give back.

• • Kasi we would never know baka ngayon nag “no” sila but sooner or later mag “yes” sila. And don’t feel bad, I mean I’ve had tons of failures really. Within that span of  two months marami ding failures yung nangyari. It went as far as siguro in a monthly basis dumating sa point, 80k yung nawawala sakin. Dumating yun. Recently, nag-fail ako sa 50k per month project. My team can testify to that. Ano nalang yan, let go and let God. Ang hirap kasi kung dadamdamin mo pa. Kasi lahat talaga. Isipin natin yung failures na, very cliche yung shineshare ko pero it’s reality eh. Kasi it also happened to me eh. Although, you have tons of failure, you really have to embrace failures. It's where you could also learn, learn a lot.
  • Gusto ko yung sinabi ni Sir Alexander, “Failure is the best teacher”. Totoo yun. Without us failing, hindi tayo matututo eh.

Cody Lardizabal's Journey to Freelancing

• • He worked in different BPO companies for 10 years.

• • He became a Team Leader, Assistant Operations Manager, and Training Supervisor.

• • He wanted to do many things when he found out about freelancing.

• • He became an ESL Teacher of Chinese kids after he left the BPO.

• • He tried to apply online and was interviewed but he was not hired.

• • He felt stressed finding that being an ESL teacher is more difficult than a BPO employee.

• • He almost went back to corporate.

• • He started working as General VA to an Australian based agency in August 2016

• • He worked on different online platforms for different job positions.

• • His best friend also helped him to do simple tasks for his clients.

• • As he pursued working with multiple clients, he made a team and seek to learn from different mentors.

• • He participated in the Road to 100k Masterclass by Jason Dulay.

• • He is still discovering what expertise he will focus but right now his team is helping coaches build their brand through the facebook group.

• • He lives alone. And in his church, he is called as Mr. Public Service or Philanthropist.

• • Aside from being a business manager, having a team and do workshops, they’re also planning to look for opportunities on helping others.

• • His heart is also close to PWDs.
  • His Operations Manager was a PWD, It’s the reason why he developed leadership skills and keeps him motivated.

Q & A Highlights

Dumaan ka din sa pagiging newbie diba, meron ka na bang sinalihan na mga freelancing groups or nag on your own ka?

Nag on my own ako. As in hindi ko alam kung paano gumawa ng cover letter, send lang ako ng send. Kung baga ang style ko on how I send out cover letter kung paano din sa corporate kasi sanay na rin ako. 

Bago ka nag-start nag-struggle ka din ba?

Yep, I did. So before, this was the time between I tutored Chinese and I worked for an Australian agency. Dumating sa point na hindi ako marunong gumawa ng cover letter. Parang ang alam ko nga lang noon is puro “I”, “Ako”. Hindi ko alam yung AIDA technique noon, hindi ko alam yung  it’s all about you and it’s all about yung pain point. So I don’t know that way before. Dumating sa point like, in a day it also took me to send out 10-20 job applications, Onlinejobs included and Upwork included. Pero hindi ako sumuko at nagpatinag. And send lang ako ng send talaga ng job applications until I get a job as a  customer support ng Amazon, executive VA, project manager, operations manager, general VA, and social media manager. Pero those experiences helped me to realize kung ano yung gusto ko talaga. 

How old were you when you started freelancing?.

If I’’m 34 right now, 1984 kasi ako . So 32 or 31 ako nagstart mag-freelancing.

If when you will engage to freelancing, is it a very good practice ba na maging fulltime sa freelancing?

That’s a good question po. Ito yung tip ko for someone who is also transitioning. Personally lang to ah, I would suggest na wag kayo agad magkaroon ng job to full-time. It would be best na dahan-dahanin. I mean there’s a lot of sideline freelancing gigs out there. There’s also a lot of part-time work out there.

Ano ang mga tips mo for newbies kung paano sila mag-start?

For newbies since you have full-time work. Invest lang kayo to get you mentor and invest kayo na pumasok sa VA Bootcamp. I’m okay, I mean it’s okay to get free training but in reality free trainings are also limited. It makes a very big difference if you have your own coach, your own mentor, and you have a group of people to also look after you. To really teach you on how to go forward. Malaking malaking difference kapag may support system ka. I think that’s the right word. It’s up to you if you search on how to create a cover letter, what is online marketing, social media, and email marketing.

Kapag nag-enroll ba ako sa Bootcamp, iba pa ba ang bayad sa mentor?

Actually, kapag nag-enroll ka sa bootcamp may support at may mentoring na mangyayari basically.

Anong advice ang masasabi mo sa aming mga freelance artists?

Sir nasabi ko to sayo before, testimonials. Ang lakas ng testimonials mo Eric.

Regardless whether artist ka, regardless freelancer ka, regardless whether whatever service you offer  always get testimonials. Really very, very important. One of the things that I’ve learned from a business coach client that I have, it would not really hurt to pitch for a video testimonial, not a writing testimonial. Ang lakas ng dating. Ang idea kasi ng testimonials ay di ba word of mouth.