Meet Bryan.

[00:00:00] Victor: Hi, today we're here with Bryan from Bunga Khan.

[00:00:02] Victor: He's a solar engineer.

[00:00:03] Victor: He has worked with solar firms in the U.S. for the last four years.

[00:00:07] Victor: Welcome to the show, Bryan.

[00:00:09] Bryan: Thank you for having me.

[00:00:10] Victor: Okay, so let's get started.

[00:00:12] Victor: And it's okay if everyone knows this, we actually had technical difficulties.

[00:00:15] Victor: So we're going to be just redoing some of the things that we already talked about.

[00:00:19] Victor: But can you start by just walking us through a day in the life of a solar engineer for a U.S. solar company?

[00:00:26] Bryan: Sure.

[00:00:27] Bryan: So again, it's more on the technical side for me and more on the design side.

[00:00:32] Bryan: A day-to-day basis is that I get information from customers, their daily needs or what their system needs.

[00:00:39] Bryan: So what we usually do is ask for their electric bill.

[00:00:43] Bryan: Once we have that electric bill, then I do the design itself.

[00:00:46] Bryan: Do initial design using...

[00:00:48] Bryan: open solar aurora solar and then once we have that we propose that design to the customer itself and then once the customer is happy with the design i create the system for the plan set electrical diagrams layouts attachments all of the good stuff that we need to send to the government

[00:01:05] Victor: Okay, I see.

[00:01:05] Victor: So you're using software like OpenSolar, Aurora Solar, to get the design started.

[00:01:12] Victor: And then you have to, again, guys were recording this for a second time, so I'm paraphrasing.

[00:01:16] Victor: But you have to factor in the pitch of the roof, local zoning, coding, setbacks, fire restrictions, cloud cover.

[00:01:26] Victor: Okay.

[00:01:27] Victor: Shading, yeah.

[00:01:28] Victor: Shading analysis.

[00:01:29] Victor: Oh, shading.

[00:01:29] Victor: Shading analysis.

[00:01:31] Victor: And then you factor in their current utility bill.

[00:01:34] Victor: Right.

[00:01:34] Victor: Because ultimately, customers are getting solar to save money.

[00:01:38] Bryan: Correct.

[00:01:38] Bryan: Yeah.

[00:01:38] Victor: Not to spend more money.

[00:01:40] Victor: So you have to work with the sales team to show them like a return on investment.

[00:01:45] Bryan: Right.

[00:01:45] Bryan: When are paybacks?

[00:01:47] Bryan: Okay.

[00:01:47] Bryan: Years of paybacks.

[00:01:48] Victor: What does that typically look like?

[00:01:50] Victor: Like how many years payback is it for the system?

[00:01:53] Bryan: If there's no shading at all, like a very clear roof, I would say five years.

[00:01:59] Bryan: Okay.

[00:02:01] Bryan: That's a really good time of years of payback for five years.

[00:02:05] Bryan: But if there are shading or cloudy or wrong orientation of the panels.

[00:02:12] Bryan: And again, since most of my designs are based on the U.S. and U.S. is upper part of the equator, so we need to tilt the solar panels down to south.

[00:02:22] Victor: Oh, interesting.

[00:02:23] Bryan: Right.

[00:02:23] Bryan: So we need to...

[00:02:25] Bryan: So the sun actually goes around the equator, right?

[00:02:29] Bryan: Equator line.

[00:02:30] Bryan: When we tilt the panels upwards or in the north side, there's no sun there or there's no, you know, light there.

[00:02:38] Victor: Oh, interesting.

[00:02:38] Victor: So...

[00:02:39] Victor: I'm from Canada, and in the winters, we have very short days.

[00:02:43] Victor: In the summers, we have very long days.

[00:02:45] Victor: I've actually been to very northern remote parts of Canada, and they have like 24-hour days or 24-hour nights.

[00:02:53] Victor: But you're saying that just because it's daytime, it doesn't mean you have strong direct sunlight.

[00:03:00] Bryan: Correct, yeah.

[00:03:00] Victor: What do you call that?

[00:03:01] Victor: That's like the UV index, or what do you call that?

[00:03:04] Victor: Yeah.

[00:03:05] Bryan: Let's just say... What do you mean?

[00:03:07] Victor: Like the rays or... Yeah, because you're saying that the sun is low, even if it's a sunny day, you won't get the efficiency from the photo cells, take cells, unless you point the panel...

[00:03:20] Victor: South.

[00:03:22] Victor: Yeah.

[00:03:22] Bryan: It's more on the, we have this technical term, the SRF, or like total solar roof access or something like that.

[00:03:30] Bryan: But let's just call it the luminescence.

[00:03:33] Bryan: Luminescence.

[00:03:34] Bryan: Like the, how bright the sun would be or like how efficient the sunshine is.

[00:03:40] Bryan: Something like that.

[00:03:41] Victor: Now, you will work with the sales team, which is usually like door-to-door knockers.

[00:03:45] Victor: Right.

[00:03:46] Victor: And then you work with the on-site installers.

[00:03:49] Bryan: Well, technically, based on my experience, as for the installers, they really don't talk to us.

[00:03:55] Bryan: They talk to the sales team and then the sales team gets back the information.

[00:03:59] Victor: I see.

[00:04:00] Victor: So once you deliver your technical design, which...

[00:04:05] Victor: kind of panels and the hardware that they need, you're sort of out of that process.

[00:04:10] Victor: And then now the local team, they're dealing with the delivery.

[00:04:14] Bryan: Right.

[00:04:15] Victor: Okay.

[00:04:15] Victor: You mentioned a five-year payback period, generally speaking, if it's a sunny area with good luminescence.

[00:04:22] Victor: Luminescence, yeah.

[00:04:23] Victor: How much of that is dependent on the tax breaks that these residential homeowners would have received in the last few years?

[00:04:33] Bryan: As for the tax incentive, if I remember it correctly, it's just like a 30% of the price of the whole system.

[00:04:42] Bryan: Okay.

[00:04:43] Bryan: But right now, we don't have any of that.

[00:04:45] Bryan: So most of the residential projects we have, they pay full price right now.

[00:04:51] Bryan: Okay.

[00:04:51] Victor: I see.

[00:04:51] Victor: So it really is a 30% premium.

[00:04:53] Victor: Before.

[00:04:54] Victor: So in a very simple math, then instead of five years, it will be 30% higher than that.

[00:04:59] Victor: So maybe like six and a half years.

[00:05:01] Bryan: Correct.

[00:05:02] Bryan: Yeah.

[00:05:03] Victor: Okay.

[00:05:03] Victor: And then these systems, they last that long or do they need to be replaced?

[00:05:06] Victor: Yeah.

[00:05:07] Bryan: They need to be maintained every year.

[00:05:10] Bryan: So having a clean solar panel is more efficient.

[00:05:15] Bryan: But again, a year round, there will be dust cover ups or like goo and stuff or like maybe snow.

[00:05:22] Bryan: Sometimes that needs to be cleaned up.

[00:05:25] Bryan: So we need to have like a maintenance every year just to clean out the panels to have their efficiency back.

[00:05:30] Bryan: So yeah, they last very long.

[00:05:33] Bryan: Most of the solar panels have about 10 to 20 years of warranty.

[00:05:38] Bryan: If they do break down, we just need to replace that under warranty.

[00:05:42] Bryan: Same goes with inverter and batteries, about 5 to 10 years of warranty.

[00:05:46] Bryan: So again, if ever that breaks down or has an internal or hardware problem, we just replace that.

[00:05:55] Victor: I see.

[00:05:55] Victor: So when we were recording last time, this was a question that I left off on.

[00:05:59] Victor: I want to ask you because now there's no subsidy or tax breaks.

[00:06:03] Victor: A lot of these companies, they're struggling a little bit, right?

[00:06:07] Bryan: Not necessary.

[00:06:08] Bryan: It really depends on how you market your company or like how you reach those people that really want solar, even though there's no tax credit at all.

[00:06:18] Bryan: Yeah.

[00:06:19] Bryan: I experienced the downtime because, again, a few months back, we have a lot of projects.

[00:06:27] Bryan: Customers try to still receive that tax credit.

[00:06:30] Bryan: So last 2025, sometime around September to October, a lot of people actually bought solar.

[00:06:38] Bryan: That's why...

[00:06:39] Victor: They're trying to make the cutoff for spires.

[00:06:42] Bryan: By the end of year.

[00:06:43] Bryan: So they're trying to have their system installed by the end of December.

[00:06:48] Bryan: So they still get the tax credit.

[00:06:50] Bryan: That's why it's a bit of downtrend right now.

[00:06:52] Bryan: It's because most of the people that really want solar had it installed last year.

[00:06:58] Bryan: And then the people that want solar right now, it's just the people that is still thinking about solar.

[00:07:05] Victor: I see.

[00:07:05] Bryan: So it's more of a...

[00:07:07] Bryan: you know, pullback system right now.

[00:07:09] Bryan: But a lot of people still wants to put solar on their hands because of the electricity and, you know, green energy.

[00:07:15] Victor: Yeah.

[00:07:16] Victor: It's where it's trending for sure.

[00:07:17] Victor: So I feel like you're right.

[00:07:18] Victor: It's just a little dip in the market right now.

[00:07:21] Bryan: Right.

[00:07:21] Victor: Okay.

[00:07:22] Victor: So let's talk about your kind of professional and education background a little bit.

[00:07:28] Victor: So how did you end up?

[00:07:29] Victor: You've been doing solar work for about four years in the States.

[00:07:33] Victor: How did you even end up in this field?

[00:07:35] Bryan: I'm actually a registered mechanical engineer here in the Philippines.

[00:07:38] Victor: You are a registered mechanical engineer.

[00:07:40] Bryan: Right.

[00:07:41] Bryan: So unfortunately, when I graduated, it was COVID 2020.

[00:07:47] Bryan: And I started on trying to review for the boards and all, but the boards or like the licensure...

[00:07:56] Bryan: established around 2022 and i got really bored around that time so i tried started working and i went off on a different path for example the first job actually i have is customer service i do calls and all and then after a few years of that i

[00:08:18] Bryan: try doing engineering work more on the mechanical engineering work.

[00:08:22] Bryan: But when I did that, I talked to myself that I don't think this is, this is the right job for me.

[00:08:28] Bryan: Then there's this guy or like, there's this, another engineer who's a friend of mine asked me if I want to do solar.

[00:08:36] Bryan: And it's going to be like a work from home, work from home job.

[00:08:40] Bryan: That actually takes me that the work from home job, because I really don't want to go outside back then.

[00:08:46] Bryan: When I started doing solar, I applied my engineering background to the solar itself.

[00:08:53] Bryan: So I enjoyed doing it.

[00:08:54] Bryan: So again, for the last four years, I've been doing this in the solar business as a mechanical engineer.

[00:08:59] Victor: My worst subject in school was anything to do with electricity.

[00:09:03] Victor: I just could not.

[00:09:05] Victor: I think it fell under physics and chemistry in some senses.

[00:09:09] Bryan: With electricity, yeah.

[00:09:10] Victor: I don't know what it is about my brain.

[00:09:12] Victor: I just could not understand it.

[00:09:15] Victor: So as a mechanical engineer, I'm guessing you took some courses relating to electricity.

[00:09:20] Bryan: Basic, just the basic stuff.

[00:09:22] Victor: So did you feel like you had to really upgrade your understanding?

[00:09:25] Bryan: Correct.

[00:09:26] Bryan: Just like you, actually, I really don't like electricity at all.

[00:09:29] Bryan: Way back in college.

[00:09:30] Victor: Because we can't see it.

[00:09:31] Bryan: Yeah, I really don't like it.

[00:09:33] Bryan: It gives me a hard time to learn about electricity and all, like how do you balance everything.

[00:09:39] Bryan: But yeah, I learned along the way how to, you know, to really understand the system or how to.

[00:09:47] Bryan: Sometimes when I do work, I just say, ah, so this is how it is.

[00:09:51] Bryan: So something like that.

[00:09:52] Bryan: So you learn along the way.

[00:09:54] Victor: How did you learn?

[00:09:55] Bryan: I can say that I'm dedicated about being a solar engineer.

[00:09:59] Bryan: That's why I learned part of it along the way.

[00:10:02] Victor: You mentioned that you were in customer service before.

[00:10:04] Victor: Was that for a big EPO, which for people listening stands for business process outsourcing as a call center?

[00:10:10] Victor: Was it for a call center company?

[00:10:11] Bryan: It was a call center company.

[00:10:13] Bryan: And I did that for about six months.

[00:10:17] Bryan: And this was during COVID.

[00:10:19] Victor: Okay.

[00:10:19] Victor: So was it from home?

[00:10:20] Victor: No.

[00:10:20] Bryan: It was, it was, yeah.

[00:10:21] Victor: Okay.

[00:10:22] Bryan: Just to give you a brief background, what I did back then was to do an appointment set.

[00:10:30] Victor: Oh, appointment setting, cold calling.

[00:10:32] Bryan: Not really cold calling.

[00:10:33] Bryan: It's more of just helping people to set an appointment for COVID vaccines.

[00:10:39] Victor: Okay, okay, okay.

[00:10:40] Bryan: For CVS Pharmacy, actually.

[00:10:42] Victor: Oh, in the States?

[00:10:43] Victor: In the States, yeah.

[00:10:43] Victor: Interesting.

[00:10:44] Bryan: Yeah, it's really an odd, not really an odd job, but it's a starting point for me to just work.

[00:10:52] Bryan: Because again, it was COVID.

[00:10:54] Bryan: There's no engineering work at the time.

[00:10:56] Bryan: So I just tried doing customer service.

[00:10:58] Bryan: Yeah.

[00:10:59] Victor: What was that like working during the pandemic, helping people book COVID appointments from the States?

[00:11:05] Bryan: Honestly, it was fun for me because I'm very an outgoing person and I really like to talk.

[00:11:12] Bryan: So most of the callers are elderly people.

[00:11:16] Bryan: So they talk a bunch.

[00:11:19] Bryan: They don't know how to do tech or they use tech.

[00:11:22] Bryan: So I try to help them out, set an appointment to have their COVID vaccines.

[00:11:28] Bryan: It's just really happy for me to hear them saying, thank you for sending me up.

[00:11:33] Bryan: I'll be there, something like that.

[00:11:34] Bryan: But then again, it's not every day like that.

[00:11:37] Bryan: There's still a lot of people that are irate and a lot of people trying to bring you down because you have a different accent or a different... Oh, interesting.

[00:11:46] Victor: Can you tell me about that?

[00:11:48] Victor: Are they wondering where you're from?

[00:11:50] Bryan: Sometimes, yeah.

[00:11:51] Bryan: They are.

[00:11:52] Bryan: They were saying that...

[00:11:55] Bryan: Were you based in the US?

[00:11:57] Victor: Yeah.

[00:11:57] Bryan: Or are you based in a different part of the world?

[00:12:00] Bryan: Something like that.

[00:12:01] Victor: They say they want to speak to an American.

[00:12:03] Bryan: Sometimes.

[00:12:04] Bryan: And if they say that, I usually say that I'm more than capable of helping you out.

[00:12:10] Victor: Okay.

[00:12:11] Bryan: Something like that.

[00:12:11] Victor: So you're not supposed to say where you're from either.

[00:12:15] Bryan: I can.

[00:12:15] Victor: You can.

[00:12:16] Bryan: It really depends on my end if I want to say it or not.

[00:12:20] Bryan: But I can.

[00:12:21] Bryan: Okay.

[00:12:21] Victor: You say I'm from Guacan.

[00:12:22] Bryan: I can't do that.

[00:12:23] Victor: I was like, where is that?

[00:12:24] Bryan: I just can't say, or I just can't speak any other language.

[00:12:29] Victor: But English?

[00:12:29] Bryan: Just English, yeah.

[00:12:31] Victor: What type of training, because you were there for six months, so what type of training did they offer you or was it kind of a crash course?

[00:12:36] Bryan: It was.

[00:12:37] Bryan: It was just a crash course.

[00:12:38] Bryan: It's just the one week of training.

[00:12:39] Bryan: They're just giving you spills.

[00:12:41] Bryan: As long as you are good in English, you can talk in English, that's good.

[00:12:46] Bryan: Because, again, that was COVID times, and they really need someone to help a lot of people to do appointments, settling, something like that.

[00:12:53] Bryan: So it's just really a fast pace for me back then.

[00:12:57] Victor: Okay.

[00:12:57] Victor: Now, where did you learn English?

[00:12:59] Victor: Do you speak at a home?

[00:13:01] Bryan: No, I learned it in school.

[00:13:04] Bryan: So I tried to, oh yeah, I did journalism once way back in high school.

[00:13:11] Bryan: That's why I tried speaking English as much as possible and then carried over in college.

[00:13:17] Victor: Something I hear as someone new to the country is younger people now, especially the very young kids, they're like reluctant to speak Tagalog at home and they just speak English.

[00:13:29] Victor: Is there any truth to that?

[00:13:30] Victor: Do you see that?

[00:13:31] Bryan: Yeah, I believe so.

[00:13:33] Bryan: Because most of the people here try to... How do I say this?

[00:13:40] Bryan: ...

[00:13:41] Bryan: Try to make English as a way of standard.

[00:13:45] Victor: Why is that?

[00:13:46] Bryan: Another, not really a bad thing, but a culture something here in the Philippines that when you speak English, you're above in life.

[00:13:55] Victor: So you're seen as a higher...

[00:13:58] Victor: But more well-to-do, higher socioeconomic class.

[00:14:01] Bryan: Right.

[00:14:02] Bryan: If you speak English.

[00:14:03] Bryan: Because if you speak English, you can speak to everybody.

[00:14:06] Bryan: Because, again, most of the English is the... What do you call this?

[00:14:10] Bryan: General or like a... Yeah, it's universal.

[00:14:13] Bryan: Universal language.

[00:14:15] Bryan: So when you speak English, you can talk to anybody, listen to anybody.

[00:14:20] Bryan: So maybe that's the way of living here in the Philippines.

[00:14:23] Bryan: And most of the people here is...

[00:14:26] Bryan: Especially upper middle class families, they don't really try to learn Tagalog for their kids or like teach them to speak Tagalog.

[00:14:37] Victor: So can we double click there?

[00:14:38] Victor: I just want to understand that a little bit more.

[00:14:40] Victor: So are these middle upper class families...

[00:14:44] Victor: are they middle upper class because they speak English and so they have these international jobs or they have money and wealth and somewhere else and it's more of a classist thing to not speak Tagalog because there's like some sort of shame or embarrassment.

[00:15:00] Victor: How do you make of that?

[00:15:02] Bryan: Not really an embarrassment.

[00:15:03] Bryan: It's more on...

[00:15:05] Bryan: The upbringing, just like what you've said, upper middle class is one of the richest families in the Philippines.

[00:15:14] Bryan: And again, most of the time, the upbringing is that they need to speak English, they go to good schools or English-speaking schools.

[00:15:23] Bryan: But as for families from the middle class or the lower middle class...

[00:15:29] Bryan: Most of the children or families try to help them learn English so they can, you know, they can be ready for the world.

[00:15:39] Bryan: Be ready to take on jobs that is English-based or like English, going to English-speaking countries, something like that.

[00:15:47] Victor: But they're just learning, like they're just taking courses, but it's not as naturally ingrained because maybe their classmates in that neighborhood still primarily speak Tagalog.

[00:15:57] Victor: Whereas if you are, say, in one of the really rich areas here, maybe, you know, the family spends some time in California, they have an auntie in Australia, someone in Canada, so it's more international.

[00:16:10] Victor: Is that fair to...

[00:16:11] Bryan: I can give you an example.

[00:16:12] Bryan: So I do have one of my family is actually living in Las Piñas right now.

[00:16:19] Bryan: So my cousins, my two cousins, is actually going to a high school, Catholic school that primarily speaks English.

[00:16:29] Bryan: So both of my cousins are really good in speaking English.

[00:16:34] Bryan: But then again, they speak good Tagalog too because of us.

[00:16:38] Bryan: It's because of us and because of my other family.

[00:16:40] Bryan: So again, it's more on the environment side and how the upbringing is.

[00:16:47] Bryan: It's not really about...

[00:16:49] Bryan: It depends on how...

[00:16:51] Bryan: the family wealth culture is but then again there's still this family that is trying to learn as much so we can be we can just be ready you know I interviewed a candidate before he's from Mindanao and he it's a very small family I guess there's some tragedies there but he grew up with his grandmother

[00:17:12] Victor: And his grandmother just had one rule in the house.

[00:17:16] Victor: You can't speak Tagalog or Bessayan or anything.

[00:17:20] Bryan: Right.

[00:17:21] Victor: And so I only know this because when I met him, he sounded like a Texan.

[00:17:28] Bryan: Right.

[00:17:28] Bryan: Like he was so fluent.

[00:17:30] Bryan: His English was better than mine.

[00:17:32] Victor: And the grandmother just made him watch like American TV.

[00:17:36] Victor: And I guess back then, maybe she had like DVD sets from a certain region.

[00:17:41] Victor: So he just learned, not even just English, he learned like Southern American.

[00:17:47] Victor: So I find that's very interesting.

[00:17:48] Victor: And he told me it was his grandmother's way of saying like, we got to get out of this situation.

[00:17:55] Victor: And your way is by learning language so you can get out.

[00:18:00] Victor: But that's very interesting to me because there's actually, I saw a statistic, there's only less than 2 million people here that work in the outsourcing space.

[00:18:10] Victor: So most people, like you have 130 million people in this country.

[00:18:13] Victor: Obviously, there are kids and there are elderly, but most people actually just work local jobs still for the government, for the hospital.

[00:18:21] Victor: I happen to know you have 700,000 security guards, for example.

[00:18:26] Victor: Do you feel like the outsourcing industry, call centers, BA, has any impact on people wanting to learn English or that's not really a factor?

[00:18:38] Bryan: Just to give you a story, way back in high school, that's actually one of our talks when designing what course to take on in college.

[00:18:49] Bryan: Okay.

[00:18:51] Bryan: So we were joking around saying that we want to do this, we want to do that.

[00:18:56] Bryan: And call center is actually one of the jobs that we thought about.

[00:19:02] Bryan: And it's kind of a discrimination back then that when you work on a call center or like a outsourcing company, you're not as bright, but you can speak English.

[00:19:14] Victor: Oh, I see.

[00:19:15] Victor: So like a call center job for concentrics or teleperformance or something, it was seen as like a low end.

[00:19:23] Bryan: You're right.

[00:19:23] Bryan: Because again, it's a good paying job, but most of the people discriminate because you're only seen that you can only speak English.

[00:19:33] Bryan: That's why you're hired there.

[00:19:34] Bryan: But no, I work in a call center.

[00:19:36] Bryan: I work as a CSR.

[00:19:38] Bryan: And it's really hard.

[00:19:40] Bryan: And I would say that most of the call signer people or like call signer agents is really good at their job by talking to people and, you know, providing the needs of each customer they have a call on.

[00:19:55] Bryan: So again, statistically speaking that, again, just like you mentioned, 2 million people work on the call center.

[00:20:02] Bryan: But I would say about 50% of

[00:20:06] Bryan: Roughly 50% of the people here in the Philippines can speak English and communicate in English.

[00:20:13] Victor: But not all of them has an opportunity to work on a call center or like a VA. Well, I always say like a VA seems like to me it's actually a middle class privilege because you actually, you don't have much of a middle class here, by the way, but a VA is actually middle class luxury because you need space.

[00:20:31] Victor: Yeah.

[00:20:32] Victor: to have a home office.

[00:20:33] Victor: Right.

[00:20:34] Victor: You need internet.

[00:20:35] Victor: Right.

[00:20:35] Victor: And oftentimes, like, you just need a computer.

[00:20:38] Victor: You know, I visited some schools here before and a lot of kids don't even have a computer.

[00:20:42] Victor: They rely on the computer lab at the school.

[00:20:44] Victor: Correct.

[00:20:45] Victor: And that could be inhibiting, like, you know, an entry point.

[00:20:49] Victor: So I'm curious, you're a school and so there's call centers as one of the career paths and people are kind of looking at that going, okay, you know, that's kind of just, you know, it's not kind of respected.

[00:21:01] Victor: What were some respected professions or what are respected professions here in the Philippines?

[00:21:05] Bryan: Again, we're Asians.

[00:21:07] Victor: Doctor, lawyer.

[00:21:08] Bryan: Doctor, lawyer, engineers, or anything other with licenses and all.

[00:21:15] Victor: Like certifications.

[00:21:16] Victor: Certifications, yeah.

[00:21:16] Victor: Letters.

[00:21:17] Victor: Okay.

[00:21:18] Victor: Like, how do you feel about the fact that...

[00:21:20] Victor: Like some, let's call them VAs.

[00:21:23] Victor: I personally really don't like the term VA because like you're a sole engineer.

[00:21:27] Victor: Right.

[00:21:27] Victor: You're not a VA.

[00:21:29] Victor: Correct.

[00:21:29] Victor: I actually don't know what the definition of a VA is.

[00:21:32] Victor: You know, we have salespeople.

[00:21:33] Victor: We have marketing specialists.

[00:21:35] Victor: Even within marketing, we have paid ads.

[00:21:37] Victor: We have community managers.

[00:21:39] Victor: You know, we have YouTube.

[00:21:40] Victor: We have graphic designers.

[00:21:41] Victor: We have videographers like these guys.

[00:21:43] Victor: But I've met a lot of VAs that make more money than doctors here.

[00:21:50] Bryan: Probably, yeah.

[00:21:51] Victor: You can see that, right?

[00:21:53] Victor: And they certainly make more money than teachers here.

[00:21:56] Bryan: Absolutely, yeah.

[00:21:57] Victor: Yeah, teachers.

[00:21:58] Victor: Yeah, if you're a local lawyer here, I can see them for sure doing better than that.

[00:22:03] Victor: Correct.

[00:22:04] Victor: Do you feel like that has some sort of negative impact on society?

[00:22:09] Bryan: I would say no.

[00:22:11] Bryan: There's not much of an impact because work still works.

[00:22:16] Bryan: And it really is up to you what creative path you want to go into.

[00:22:23] Bryan: If you're really passionate about teaching, then go teach.

[00:22:27] Victor: I'm just saying like, you know, I hired a teacher before here as my assistant and right out of the gate, I can pay her a lot more than her schools ever did.

[00:22:37] Victor: And she was a 10 year teacher of eight years.

[00:22:39] Victor: Right.

[00:22:40] Victor: So I guess my thought is whether you're a nurse here or you're in medical school, you could easily just stop doing that.

[00:22:50] Victor: Yeah.

[00:22:51] Victor: get yourself a MacBook or a computer and, you know, learn some relevant skill and then you can make more.

[00:22:58] Victor: But then who would want to be doctors and nurses and lawyers and teachers?

[00:23:02] Victor: Do you sense that?

[00:23:03] Bryan: Yeah.

[00:23:04] Bryan: It's more on the job security than having a large paycheck.

[00:23:10] Victor: People care about the job security and their paycheck, right?

[00:23:13] Bryan: It's more common here in the Philippines rather than taking a risk of having a bigger paycheck from another source or like being a VA and all.

[00:23:22] Bryan: Because again, being a VA is not really easy.

[00:23:25] Bryan: It's a job that...

[00:23:26] Bryan: we take care, but it's not really certain or a long period of time.

[00:23:32] Bryan: So most of the people, just like what you said, being a nerd, being a doctor, being a teacher, it's more on the job security side and being passionate about that rather than having them having a big paycheck on a month-to-month basis.

[00:23:45] Victor: That's one of the things that I had to socialize with candidates when we started this business because sometimes we will offer them, you know, it can be like three times what they made locally.

[00:23:56] Victor: But then their number one concern, to your point, is like, well, what if I get left, let go after one year?

[00:24:00] Victor: Right.

[00:24:01] Victor: And I'll say, yeah, but then you just made what you would have made in three years.

[00:24:04] Victor: So you have two more years to, you can spend six months lying down to do nothing.

[00:24:09] Victor: And then three months to look for jobs.

[00:24:12] Victor: But I understand the mindset for safety and scarcity, especially for this country.

[00:24:18] Victor: Sorry, it was a response to your point about just being able to speak English.

[00:24:21] Victor: In reality, you worked for American clients for four years now.

[00:24:25] Victor: You've dealt with American customers, but they're also just very different from Filipinos.

[00:24:29] Bryan: Very different, yeah.

[00:24:30] Victor: What are some differences you've observed?

[00:24:33] Bryan: First thing, culture.

[00:24:34] Bryan: They tend to be, honestly, very straightforward.

[00:24:38] Bryan: They know what they want.

[00:24:40] Bryan: They know what they're looking for.

[00:24:42] Bryan: If you're trying to route things around, they really don't want that.

[00:24:47] Bryan: And we Filipinos are like, here in the Philippines, we really want to have like a sweet thought, go through it.

[00:24:52] Bryan: But for American people, they just, if they want something, they got to have it.

[00:24:57] Victor: Yeah, they're very, very direct.

[00:24:59] Victor: Correct.

[00:24:59] Victor: This was my last trip here.

[00:25:01] Victor: I was at the Jollibee's, and I put in an order, and one of the items was the spaghetti.

[00:25:07] Bryan: All right.

[00:25:08] Victor: But they actually ran out of the spaghetti.

[00:25:11] Bryan: Okay.

[00:25:11] Victor: But nobody wanted to tell me that.

[00:25:14] Victor: So I just kept waiting.

[00:25:16] Victor: Okay.

[00:25:17] Victor: And nobody said anything.

[00:25:18] Victor: And every time I went up, I said, you know, where is the spaghetti?

[00:25:22] Victor: They just said, oh, just one moment, five minutes, three minutes.

[00:25:24] Victor: And turns out they had to order it from another branch.

[00:25:28] Victor: But really, in my mind is, you know, they can just tell me it's sold out.

[00:25:33] Victor: But because I guess maybe they didn't want to disappoint or maybe already paid or something like that.

[00:25:38] Victor: Yes, Americans are definitely more direct.

[00:25:40] Victor: Do you feel like now that you've worked for Americans for four years and dealt with their customers, and sometimes they can be very petty and irate, their customers.

[00:25:51] Victor: I know, you know, they're calling to complain about the smallest thing.

[00:25:53] Victor: There's not like a lot of thick skin there.

[00:25:56] Victor: Because, you know, life is pretty seamless in the States.

[00:25:58] Victor: So...

[00:25:59] Victor: The slightest discomfort, people just protest.

[00:26:04] Victor: Sorry, this is a long question, but do you feel like it's changed how you operate in the Philippines as a Filipino?

[00:26:10] Bryan: I don't believe so.

[00:26:12] Victor: So you can code switch.

[00:26:14] Bryan: For me, yes.

[00:26:15] Bryan: I can be an American designer or an American solar designer that tends to their needs.

[00:26:21] Bryan: But as for me being Bryan or Kenneth here, I'm still that kind of guy.

[00:26:27] Bryan: I don't perceive myself as being as direct because I don't want to be rude.

[00:26:33] Bryan: And again, it's one of the culture things.

[00:26:35] Bryan: And if I try to implement...

[00:26:38] Bryan: what I learn from the U.S. to my fellow Filipinos or how I speak, how I be with the people I love, that's going to be way, way different.

[00:26:48] Bryan: So for me, I don't think so.

[00:26:50] Bryan: I can switch on enough on how I talk to people or how I give my services.

[00:26:57] Victor: Well, that's really good.

[00:26:58] Victor: And I think the ability to code switch is one of those...

[00:27:01] Victor: you know, superpowers.

[00:27:02] Victor: It's why we're here.

[00:27:03] Victor: I want my family to have a different perspective.

[00:27:06] Victor: And, you know, but because you understand both sides, I think it only gives you advantages.

[00:27:11] Victor: So the last kind of questioning I have is you're currently not working right now.

[00:27:15] Victor: Correct.

[00:27:16] Victor: So you were working with one of our clients in the States and it ended.

[00:27:21] Victor: Can you just tell me about how that ended and maybe how you felt?

[00:27:24] Victor: Yeah.

[00:27:25] Bryan: Just like what I mentioned earlier, we pushed so many solars last year.

[00:27:32] Bryan: Once we have that, during our low season, which was January to March, we don't have any work.

[00:27:41] Bryan: We don't have any new projects incoming.

[00:27:43] Bryan: We don't have any initial designs or any other inquiries per solar.

[00:27:49] Bryan: We were just trying different things.

[00:27:51] Bryan: We're trying to do ads, do Google ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, all the social media.

[00:27:58] Bryan: We're trying to push everything so we can have more customers, inquiries, initial proposals, something like that.

[00:28:04] Bryan: The client that I had was really just a small business.

[00:28:09] Bryan: It's not as big as Sunrun or Helios in the States or any other solar company.

[00:28:17] Bryan: So we were kind of struggling on...

[00:28:21] Bryan: The finances are okay, but the struggling on adding more.

[00:28:26] Bryan: Because the thing that I talked to my client about was having me retained would cost him greatly.

[00:28:35] Bryan: Because, again, it's more on we need to bring more clients so I can pay you.

[00:28:41] Bryan: And I completely understand that.

[00:28:43] Bryan: The transition was going on a different direction by just using a third-party company.

[00:28:51] Bryan: to do what I do.

[00:28:53] Victor: Oh, okay.

[00:28:54] Victor: So... How did that make you feel?

[00:28:56] Bryan: It sucks.

[00:28:57] Victor: You can say whatever you want here.

[00:28:59] Bryan: It sucks, but I completely understand because I work by the hour.

[00:29:04] Victor: Yeah.

[00:29:05] Bryan: But as for the third-party company, they work by projects.

[00:29:10] Victor: I see.

[00:29:11] Bryan: So the client doesn't need to pay me by the hour or like...

[00:29:16] Victor: It was pure math calculation.

[00:29:18] Bryan: Again, more on the profitability of the company.

[00:29:22] Victor: Without saying too much about this client, definitely don't say the name, but I mean, how big was the company?

[00:29:27] Victor: Was there other staff members?

[00:29:29] Bryan: When the client hired me, we were just a two-man team.

[00:29:33] Victor: Okay.

[00:29:34] Bryan: And before that, he ran the company for about seven, eight years by himself.

[00:29:39] Bryan: Okay.

[00:29:39] Victor: So he's really like a broker.

[00:29:41] Victor: He connects, he subcontracts out the sales, the different aspects, or the internal.

[00:29:49] Bryan: He provides everything.

[00:29:50] Bryan: I mean, he has his own installers.

[00:29:53] Bryan: Well, the company itself, the designs and the sales before, he was just him.

[00:30:01] Bryan: And then he subcontracts the installation process.

[00:30:05] Victor: I see.

[00:30:06] Bryan: But for the panels or like all the equipment, he sourced that out.

[00:30:11] Victor: How long did you work with him in total then?

[00:30:14] Bryan: Two years, actually.

[00:30:15] Bryan: Two years.

[00:30:16] Victor: So after two years, he did a simple economic calculator test.

[00:30:21] Victor: And then he let you go and picked another third party to do the project.

[00:30:24] Victor: does this make you feel more like jaded about working remotely especially compared to filipino culture where it is more human here it is more empathetic is there any lingering feeling of that

[00:30:38] Bryan: Again, it doesn't feel good, but it doesn't really bring me down because I know that I do have this experience that I have that I can leverage to other companies in the U.S. that I can bring my talent into.

[00:30:56] Bryan: It's more of a setback right now, but I know that there's still a lot of opportunities there that I can have or companies that I can work into.

[00:31:07] Victor: Let me give you, like, some perspective from the business side.

[00:31:12] Victor: You know, it's just an interesting discussion.

[00:31:14] Victor: So...

[00:31:17] Victor: When we were a smaller company, we ran into this trouble as well.

[00:31:21] Victor: Like it truly can be hard to set up business in the West because of the high tax code.

[00:31:27] Victor: Well, the Americans are much better than Canada at this.

[00:31:30] Victor: It's just hard.

[00:31:31] Victor: Like everything just costs more.

[00:31:32] Victor: You have your mortgage and everything you have to pay.

[00:31:35] Victor: And so whenever we didn't need someone anymore, we will lay them off.

[00:31:39] Victor: And that's actually one of the so-called paper-listed benefits of hiring VAs.

[00:31:45] Victor: Again, I'm using that term.

[00:31:47] Victor: But what I've learned since then is if your company just has a revolving door...

[00:31:54] Victor: then you will never get past that small business stage.

[00:31:58] Victor: So I don't have the answer because you have to have money to pay for staff to be idle.

[00:32:04] Victor: By the same time, you need staff to be idle.

[00:32:06] Victor: Because for this person to hire a third-party agency to do the work...

[00:32:13] Victor: versus you who's been in the company for two years, it's not the same.

[00:32:17] Victor: He will lose a lot of intangibles through that process, a lot of nuance.

[00:32:23] Victor: And then, you know, I think there's a, I forgot which founder said this, but like you said, you had a really a bull rush run, right?

[00:32:32] Victor: Of solar applications.

[00:32:34] Victor: It's actually not your fault that it's quiet afterwards.

[00:32:37] Victor: So in the perfect world, you shouldn't be penalized for that.

[00:32:42] Victor: Do you know what I mean?

[00:32:43] Victor: Like you guys got a year's worth of sale in two months.

[00:32:45] Victor: Right, yeah.

[00:32:46] Victor: Technically, you should have your job for the whole year.

[00:32:49] Bryan: Right.

[00:32:51] Victor: But again, I don't have an answer because also in the West, it's just really brutal.

[00:32:55] Victor: It can be really brutal to start a business.

[00:32:59] Victor: And so what I say to business owners when we speak to potential clients is, where are you in your business?

[00:33:07] Victor: And where were you three years ago?

[00:33:09] Victor: Because if you're in the exact same place,

[00:33:13] Victor: Actually, I don't know if you know this, but something like 90% of small businesses fail.

[00:33:18] Victor: It's really easy to start them.

[00:33:19] Victor: It's really easy to fail them.

[00:33:21] Victor: So I don't always say this to my customers or prospects, but if they're in the same place, three years, three years, or two years, even sometimes one year, depending on the industry, the writing's kind of on the wall.

[00:33:31] Victor: that they're going to fail.

[00:33:32] Victor: It doesn't mean they shouldn't try, but do you know what I mean?

[00:33:33] Victor: Like a lot of things have to go right, but there's that saying like winning begets more winning.

[00:33:39] Victor: So if he kept you and now you guys are on a shorter timeline because, you know, the accounting is a real problem, right?

[00:33:48] Victor: Cashflow is a real problem.

[00:33:50] Victor: but if you guys innovated and worked as a team to somehow find those customers and actually working that's not easy it's a competitive space tax breaks going away yeah that's challenging but i just wanted to offer that perspective also because a lot of businesses

[00:34:05] Victor: A true test of a business is how it does during the downturn, right?

[00:34:09] Victor: So I have friends that started a very successful e-commerce company during the pandemic when everybody's on a shopping spree all the time.

[00:34:19] Victor: Okay, so you have a big business then.

[00:34:22] Victor: It doesn't mean your business is resilient.

[00:34:24] Victor: So what we try to do now is we try to work with clients that have been around for a while.

[00:34:30] Victor: By the same time, from their perspective, it's like, well, why should we work with you?

[00:34:34] Victor: Because those are the best type of clients.

[00:34:37] Victor: But I just want to offer that perspective.

[00:34:39] Victor: I'm sorry to hear what happened.

[00:34:41] Victor: But at the same time, I also don't feel sorry for you.

[00:34:44] Victor: Because it is...

[00:34:47] Victor: You learn things from this client.

[00:34:50] Victor: You made money.

[00:34:50] Victor: And I feel like you're now more prepared than ever to move on.

[00:34:56] Victor: But at the same time, I feel like it'd be great if you can find yourself or if we can help you or if anybody listening to this for Bryan, like be part of a team where you don't have to repeat.

[00:35:10] Victor: One thing I say to my team here.

[00:35:12] Victor: My team, sometimes they get higher offers from other companies.

[00:35:16] Victor: It does happen.

[00:35:18] Victor: But for them to say, take that offer, of course, maybe I should match it or something.

[00:35:22] Victor: But so many VAs in this space, they have like 10 years experience.

[00:35:27] Victor: When we look at their CV, it's just two years experience repeated five times.

[00:35:31] Bryan: Okay.

[00:35:33] Victor: You know what I mean?

[00:35:33] Victor: Yep.

[00:35:34] Victor: So your first three months is, hey, how do you do?

[00:35:37] Victor: I'm Bryan.

[00:35:37] Victor: Nice to meet you.

[00:35:38] Victor: I like this.

[00:35:38] Victor: I like this.

[00:35:39] Victor: I like this.

[00:35:40] Victor: And it's always that same thing.

[00:35:41] Victor: And it gets tiring.

[00:35:42] Victor: And I feel like anybody who work in that space, they just jump sideways a lot.

[00:35:47] Victor: Depending on the type of person, you eventually feel like maybe a lack of purpose.

[00:35:51] Victor: Right.

[00:35:51] Victor: So I do hope that you can find, you know, a solid team, whatever it is.

[00:35:56] Victor: It might be in solar, might be in anything else.

[00:35:58] Victor: You're like a very capable young man, whatever.

[00:36:01] Victor: It could be your own business.

[00:36:03] Victor: It could be your own projects because then you really feel like, hey, going to work is very easy and you have more control over your destiny.

[00:36:11] Victor: Right.

[00:36:12] Victor: What advice do you have for someone who's just, you know, maybe in your shoes or they were recently might go by a client doing virtual assistant work?

[00:36:23] Victor: What advice do you have for them?

[00:36:25] Bryan: Having this kind of opportunity is really hard.

[00:36:29] Bryan: It's not really for someone that can't really take risk.

[00:36:34] Bryan: So being let go or having, you know...

[00:36:39] Bryan: no clients at all, does it mean that it's the end of your career?

[00:36:43] Bryan: It's the start of a new one.

[00:36:45] Bryan: So it's more of a move on basis rather than...

[00:36:51] Bryan: dwelling along the path of being let go.

[00:36:54] Bryan: And again, you learn a lot of stuff from the previous client and again, leverage it to have a better offer, better job position in the next one.

[00:37:03] Bryan: So advice is be tough and just do what you do and be great with it.

[00:37:10] Victor: Great.

[00:37:11] Victor: Well, let's end it on that note.

[00:37:13] Victor: That's awesome.

[00:37:14] Victor: Thank you, Bryan, for coming on.

[00:37:15] Bryan: No worries.

[00:37:16] Bryan: Thank you so much.

[00:37:17] Bryan: Thank you.