Tina Amper: Geeks on a Beach, 12M Filipino Diaspora Reverse Culture Shock & Burnout to Community Leader - E489

Tina Amper, Strategic Director of Geeks on a Beach, and Jeremy Au discussed:

1. Burnout to Community Leader: Tina shared her experience of migrating from the Philippines with an engineering degree from the University of San Carlo to California’s booming tech industry in the 1990s. She excelled in product marketing and business development roles, but ultimately burned out after years of travel and high-intensity work. By 2010, her mother's declining health prompted her take a sabbatical and return to her hometown Cebu, which was being transformed by the growing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. This proved to be fertile ground for her exploration and cultivation of a thriving local tech community.

2. Geeks on a Beach: Geeks on a Beach (GOAB) launched in 2013 and started as a casual idea between Earl Valencia, cofounder of IdeaSpace and QBO, and Paul Pajo, a Filipino tech evangelist, to create a tech conference blending work and leisure on the beach. With participants ranging from 400-500 people annually, GOAB has become a key platform for fostering collaborations between startups, investors, and business leaders. Tina emphasized the importance of support from government bodies like the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

3. 12M Filipino Diaspora Reverse Culture Shock: Tina's return to her motherland after living in the US involved overcoming reverse culture shock while also reconnecting with her roots. She shared her advice for the 12 million strong Filipino diaspora considering a return home. She discussed how she personally found her purpose by contributing to the local tech community through initiatives like TechTalks.ph.

Jeremy and Tina also explored various community archetypes of lurkers vs. champions, paid membership communities vs. casual tech meetups and financial sustainability strategies.

Join us at Geeks On A Beach from November 13-15, 2024, at JPark Island Resort in Mactan, Cebu.

This international conference brings together tech enthusiasts, investors, and entrepreneurs for three days of workshops, talks, and networking. Immerse yourself in technology, connect with leaders, and relax on the beautiful beaches of Cebu.

Register at https://geeksonbeach.com and use code "BRAVESEA" to get up to 25% discount until October 30, 2024

(01:10) Jeremy Au:

Hey Tina, really excited to have you on the show. You run this amazing community and big event called Geeks on a Beach in the Philippines, which I'm excited to be going for this year, for the second time. very much looking forward to be there. Tina, could you introduce yourself?

(01:23) Tina Amper:

Yes. Jeremy, thank you for inviting me today. My name is Tina Amper. I am the founding organizer of Geeks on a Beach. geeksonabeach. com is an international conference for those who are passionate about tech, startups, design, and making the world brighter. We are having our seventh international conference this November 13 to 15, 2024 in Cebu. Glad to be here. And you're all welcome to join Geeks on a Beach.

(01:48) Jeremy Au:

Awesome. down in the show description, we'll definitely put where they can find it and sign up for the year's event. So, Tina, could you tell me about your childhood growing up in the Philippines?

(01:56) Tina Amper:

So I was born and raised in Cebu, Philippines. Cebu is the second largest city in the Philippines. Grew up there. Went to school there. Got my engineering degree at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City. Shortly thereafter, we moved to the US and I worked in the tech industry in California for many years. I was in product marketing, business development, and later on I was a business consultant, international business development. So I traveled. Attended conferences over the world. attending conferences is a very comfortable thing for me, and that's why. I thought organizing my own conference was easy, but it really isn't.

And so, worked for many years in California, traveled. I also lived in Tokyo for a little bit for an American company. A few years ago, there were some family issues I also got burned out in my tech work and wanted to take a break. I said I wanted to take a sabbatical, but it took me a couple of years to finally do that. What finally drove me to make that decision, was that my mom was sick and we had to bring her home to the Philippines. she wanted to come back and I volunteered to take mom home. That was the hidden thing driving me to finally take my sabbatical. I loved what I was doing, but I was just So burned out doing the same thing. Tech is wonderful, but it's also a 24/7 business. So if you don't pay attention, it kind of takes over your life. So I took a break. I said I would take a sabbatical for one year in my hometown of Cebu.

(03:16) Tina Amper:

When I went to Cebu, I got my family situated, got my mom situated, I started organizing meetups because I was also organizing meetups in San Francisco where I lived. I wanted to get to know the tech community in my own city because I never really worked there.

How did I start doing that? I connected to this Filipino American association called Science and Technology Advisory Council. It's a bunch of Filipino Americans trying to support science and tech in the Philippines. I got connected to Jojo Flores and Christina Skalsky who introduced me to some companies in Manila and Cebu. when I said I wanted to meet some tech communities there, I put it on meetup.com That was the trendy thing to do. I got introduced to DEVCON, which is an association of a group of software engineers, and I invited them to my first meetup and that was the beginning.

(04:03) Jeremy Au:

Yeah, amazing. So let's kind of break that out into two chunks, right? So first of all, I know you're part of this very large community of Filipino diaspora. When you were growing up, did you say like, I want to be in America? I want to move there. How did that happen? How did the move happen?

(04:16) Tina Amper:

I never really wanted to leave my hometown. I was youngest in my family. When I was in college, I was the only one in the house. I could do whatever I wanted, but it's a whole family migration thing. Most of my family was already there. after I finished college, my mom was like,. it's time for you to come. I'm like, no, I don't want to work. I don't want to grow up, but anyway, I, I did move and it was one of the hardest things for me. I wasn't one of those people that wanted to leave my hometown. I was just comfortable where we are. We have a big family. I'm pretty okay. I was enjoying having island life, very easygoing, but I loved going to the States. It challenged me, obviously, it's a new country, a new culture. It wasn't a big culture shock because the Filipino culture is very Western-oriented, very Americanized, in fact, the curriculum that I started in college, in engineering school, was based on a US curriculum. But, you go where family is, and I learned a lot. It stretched me. It challenged me to get out of my comfort zone. I was a shy person, maybe an introvert then, not so much now, but you just develop as a person when you're challenged with something and you grow into it.

(05:18) Jeremy Au:

Yeah, so there's about 12 million Filipinos living outside of the Philippines, which is about 10% of the total population and about half of that is in the US. So it was that like a big Filipino community in the US. Were there are a lot of other Filipino Americans hanging out?

(05:31) Tina Amper:

So yes, I mean, living in California, it is, a multicultural state. It's very big. It's like a country on its own. Usually, New York or the West Coast and the East Coast is more, diverse than other parts of the country. So it wasn't like a big change because there were Filipino restaurants. You see so many Filipinos. So it wasn't a big, adjustment for me, I should say.

(05:51) Jeremy Au:

Yeah, and what's interesting is that, you did this early career and obviously you're part of the technology wave in California. But what's interesting is that, you went on to have burnout and then started exploring your hometown again, which is interesting because, there's a lot of, folks who, Philippine Americans who are obviously, well, everybody gets burned out in the technology industry. I think that's the nature of the tech industry. a lot of people feel like they should go back home to explore their hometown. So how did that combination come together?

(06:15) Tina Amper:

So I was living in Japan at that time, which is close to the Philippines. So I would visit Cebu and I'm like, I wonder what's happening here. This was maybe in 2010. I literally just Googled tech in Cebu and found out Jojo Flores, the cofounder of Plug and Play Tech Center, like VC firm is Filipino American. There was a news article about him doing a pitching competition in Cebu, my hometown, around 2010. There was no internet at the Marriott hotel when I was staying at Cebu City. So how is he doing this pitching competition? So I was like, I actually emailed him. I don't know him. And I'm like, Hey, I read your article. Did you really have a pitching competition? It's like, Oh yeah, we should talk. Come visit me in Silicon Valley. So I did visit him and that's how I got to know the community. I don't have any kids, so I'm very ambitious and also adventurous at that time.

I'm like, I need to do something else with my life. I've already done as much as I could in tech. What else could I do? With my mom going back to the Philippines, I needed to do something in the homeland. I started researching even before I moved there. Got to know some people. Essentially my thing was giving back to the community is what I was trying to do at that time. I felt like my career in the tech industry was because of so many people helping me. I needed to take a pause and give back to the community in that way.

(07:24) Jeremy Au:

What's interesting is that the way you chose to give back was by building community, right? Other people give back to community. I mean, you could give back to the community by, I don't know, like you said, taking care of your parents. That's one way to take care of your family. A' lot of folks, there's like $33 billion of remittances. You send money back home as well. Big part of diaspora, culture, but you chose to build community, which is actually an interesting approach, right? How did that come about? And I believe that was also the first time you actually did a lot of community organizing in a more structured way as well.

(07:51) Tina Amper:

Yeah. So I did not wake up one day. I said, I'm going to build a community. that wasn't what I was thinking.

(07:57) Jeremy Au:

That’s what I'm thinking. I'm like, how does it work?

(07:58) Tina Amper:

I was back in my hometown and I knew my people in engineering school and I didn't know anyone else in the tech industry in Cebu City, in my hometown, what's the tech industry like? Who are these people? I want to get to know them. And one way to do that was for me to organize events. Cause that was part of my work. It was easy for me to do. So I literally just put on meetup.com: Tech meetup. If you're working in tech, come to Bo's Coffee, a local coffee shop. I will buy you coffee. Tell me what's going on in the tech industry in Cebu Philippines. And I put it on Facebook. I asked DevCon, that organization of software engineers. They didn't know me. They're like, who is this Yahoo that's inviting us for free coffee. I invited my engineering school friends.

The first meetup, 11 people showed up and six of them were my friends from college. I held it in the Cebu IT Park, which is where all the tech, buildings are, where all the call centers are. And there was literally two software engineers standing outside the coffee shop and they heard, Oh, some lady is giving away free coffee. Let's go in. That was my thing. I told people I was born and raised here, but I worked abroad. I was a. OFW, Overseas Foreign Worker. I came back. I'm here for a sabbatical. I wanted to get to know the tech industry here. So tell me what you do. I'm just curious. I wanted to give back. Can we do trainings telling my why to people? And I got connected to this person I call the Mark Zuckerberg of Cebu. His name is Mark Buenconsejo. He is a software engineer. He had been selling software since he was in college, in computer science school. he built a software company in Cebu and he happens to be a son of a family friend. So I talked to him, he was amazing. So it's like, yeah, let's do a tech meetup because he knows a lot of the software engineers. I ended up being the organizer and he would do the subject matter training workshops. that kind of stuff.

(09:32) Jeremy Au:

Yeah, and I think what's interesting is that Cebu is actually now known as an IT, BPO, business process outsourcing hub as well. I assume it wasn't a hub when you were growing up, was it? I mean, How did it become one?

(09:44) Tina Amper:

My God, man, I was growing up, but remember, I'm 100 years old. Back in the day when I graduated from electronics engineering school, there was like 100 of us and maybe only two or three people got a job. These days, all these college graduates have so many jobs because of the call center. It is booming. The community building principle that I learned is that you think there's no one there that likes to code, that likes to attend meetings, that likes to do, that works on Python. You think there's no one there cause you don't see them. They are there. They just need to find a beacon on where to go.

And that's what our meetup became because the name was TechT alks. We literally talk about tech. That was the name of the meetup. So we picked a topic with, let's talk about Python or whatever it is. And people who like that topic would show up. We would say it's free and we serve coffee and sometimes beer. So why not join? That is the principle of community building. It's how you build a community. Just show up, tell people what you're about, your why, and they will show up.

(10:35) Jeremy Au:

And also the free coffee and a free beer helps.

(10:38) Tina Amper:

Yes, absolutely.

(10:39) Jeremy Au:

Yeah, come for the coffee, stay for the personality, right? So it's interesting because at this time, Cebu is becoming a tech hub over this timeframe. And then you come back to your hometown and didn't expect it to be a BPO hub, and there's a booming tech industry. What's interesting is that you chose to build this community and obviously there was no professional cause for community organizers. What were some mistakes you made as an early community organizer that you've learned along the way?

(11:01) Tina Amper:

Oh my gosh, the hardest thing is to make it sustainable, right? I was clear when I started it that this was my give back. I also knew that no one would give me funding, so I would have to spend my own money to do what I wanted to do. So this was a personal thing. This is what I wanted to do. So I'm like, I'm going to invest my own thing because I wanted to get to know the community. It was for my personal growth while being back in my hometown. I knew the Filipino thing, like when there's food and drinks that's free, they will show up. And that's also what I like to do, right? So that was the tenet.

That's the hallmark of the TechTalks. It was generally free and we serve food. It's also a way to facilitate the conversations because when you have a bunch of strangers coming together in one room, they normally don't talk to each other. So you have to find a way to make it productive for them. How was I supposed to know if they liked the content or the meetup, if I don't engage with them, right? And as a person, I'm not shy about talking to anybody. So it's a natural thing for me to do. In the beginning, I wasn't so worried about the sustainability of doing what I was doing cause I thought it was just for fun, but then when the government approaches, they said they wanted to partner. And some companies wanted to partner with us. I had to hire people. And then, how do I fund this thing? So that was a big challenge. And it's just like any business you go through ups and downs and I have some unrealistic expectations. I would hire the best person ever and then they would quit after a year. I'm like, but I trained you. I'm like, yeah, people move on.

(12:20) Jeremy Au:

I mean, it's not an easy job to be a community manager and organizer. First of all, obviously everybody enjoys being a part of community. I mean, they're all social animals, so, everyone can hang out but the community organizing role is very difficult everybody wants to hang out, but then the economics or sustainability of that chipping in to be community, but people volunteer for a while, but then they leave. What are the principles? Should everybody be like paid membership communities, for example? A subscription fee to be a part of a community. How do you think about that?

(12:46) Tina Amper:

Yes. I mean, all those things that you're saying is true. And I'm going to say a couple of things. You reminded me of what Khailee Ng told me from 500 Global many years ago, when we started GOAB, they were also starting to grow 500 in Southeast Asia. It's very easygoing. He's like, it is what it is, Tina. You just work with what you have. I've developed that mindset, even though sometimes you can't help but wish for something to be better and more and you're not getting it. So it's kind of frustrating, but as far as is it hard work? I think my principle is that any job, it's a matter of matching your strengths, your personalities to the type of job that you're doing. So anytime you look for a job, it's always like, is this a right match for my personality, for my strengths, for what I want to do now with my life?

The event organizing thing is kind of a match to a part of my personality that sounds like it's horrible, but it's a match for event organizing. When you're detail-oriented and controlling, in some parts of your life, you need that strength to make the event productive and high quality, right? You need to be focused on the details that you need to kind of control or pay attention to all these little details because that's what is required of an event organizer. So if you're someone that doesn't like details, being a community manager might not be good for you If you're someone who doesn't like to talk to people or don't want to be around people, being a community manager might not be a right fit for your personality at this time. So it's a matter of a fit and the timing as well.

(14:06) Jeremy Au:

What's interesting is that you've really been successful in building out, right? from those initial free coffee and eventually free beer. But now obviously, people, I remember Mohan Belani at E27 was very much like, Hey, Jeremy, you should definitely go to Geeks on a Beach. And I was like, what is Geeks on a Beach? I'm a self identified geek. So I was like, okay, I understand the target profile. I also like the beach. So I was like, I don't know, it's like tuna in a can, right? Geeks on a Beach. So at least I knew what it was, I've heard about it. So what has driven that growth from that perspective?

(14:32) Tina Amper:

So we put a lot of careful thought into Geeks on a Beach. What I'm telling you now is based on the feedback I get from people. It's hard to self evaluate when you're in there. As a reminder, we started doing this in 2013. that was 11 years ago. This November is going to be our seventh year because we took a break during the pandemic. There is a lot of learning that has happened since then. The good news is we are the same team that organized this from the beginning. The people I work with now, the organizers for Geeks on a Beach, there's four of us founders. We've been working together since, for 11 years. So we kind of know each other and we have complementary skills. We are united in our mission to give back and to help boost our industry, to help the Filipino be the best that they can be in the tech industry.nGeeks on a Beach started because, I had friends like Earl Valencia and Paul Pajo. These are geeks.

(15:19) Tina Amper:

These are investors. Earl Valencia was the cofounder of QBO and IdeaSpace venture, accelerator in Manila. we were just having lunch together and we were like, when are we going to do an event together? And, one of the person in the lunch said, let's do it in Boracay, the famous beach resort. As long as there's internet there, I will organize it. If Earl Valencia or his company sponsors it, we can make this happen. It really just started with friends wanting to get together in a bigger venue, a conference venue.

We were also global citizens, right? Although I was in Cebu and Earl was in the Philippines at that time. We have connections in the US. A lot of people want to visit us in the US. I had friends who say, Tina, I want to come visit you. I want to go scuba diving. These are folks in the tech industry. And then I said, come, I will take you scuba diving, but you need to speak at my conference first. That was a great motivation. So, that's the secret for Geeks on a Beach.

How is it different than the other conferences? It is a destination conference. We are like 400 to 500 people in a hotel ballroom, at a beach resort by the beach. So the talks, the conferences inside in an air conditioned ballroom and then networking happy hour is outside by the beach. You're there for two, three days together, breakfast, lunch, dinner. After dinner, whatever it is, the conference fee includes lunch snacks and the happy hours that are sponsored. So you're there. So you meet somebody on Wednesday, but the time Friday comes, you've already made like two business deals. The resort is big, but they can't go to another city

(16:43) Jeremy Au:

So, I think there's always that big debate, right? Which is like, you need to make communities more professional. Like one day or half the events, move in, move out, be very efficient. Have a star speaker. And then yours is almost the other way around, which is more like a destination. It is hard to travel there. It's hard to carve out a few days during the work week. So how do you think about those? Because I know you've organized both sets of events, but what do you think is the trade offs or the menu here?

(17:07) Tina Amper:

People think it's weird and unusual. I love talking to those people. I mean, there's many different events, tech startups, you have to know what your needs are. What are your challenges that you're trying to address? What you're trying to accomplish with your business and personal goals and decide which event is good for you.

Geeks on a Beach is not for everyone. We invite everyone, but it's not for everyone.

It's very difficult for young entrepreneurs that don't have a lot of experience to go to Geeks on a Beach, primarily because of the economic factor. We do have them there because the government agencies partner with us. And we need to make sure we have those early stage startups to connect with the more mature startups, because that's how the ecosystem grows and how are they going to learn, right? And so this one, again, I'm going to bring up Khailee. He was the one who told me that the first conference I had, he's like, Tina, I'm very busy, but I do want to go to Geeks on a Beach. For the next two weeks, he told me like, he called me like a month before. He says, for the next two weeks, I called all my friends, I canceled all my meetings for the next two weeks. And I told them, I'm not going to meet you in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia. If you want to meet with me, meet me at Geeks on a Beach. I will be there for two and a half days and we'll meet there. So that's what he did. He did his talk and then he hung out at the lounge and at the breakout room and then he had his meetings there. So I had a bunch of investors buy tickets like who are these people and Khailee's like, these are the people I'm going to meet with.

So you are going to do business at Geeks on a Beach. It's not all fun and games. It's very productive. I'm very practical. I want to make sure that people are not wasting time. The sponsors, the speakers, I like to talk to them beforehand. What is your goal? What are the challenges in your business? I want to make sure that GOAB is the right venue for you because if it's not the right platform for you, I don't want you to waste your time and resources to come here. So it's high quality people connection is what we're about.

(18:44) Jeremy Au:

What advice would you give, say a younger community organizer from your perspective?

(18:49) Tina Amper:

So be brave, like your podcast. Don't be afraid. I say that that's just part of my personality. Not everyone has that mindset but I'm very outcome-oriented. If my outcome is to bring these young startups and mature startups together and have them talk to investors, potential investors, potential partners, and if the way for me to do that is organize Geeks on a Beach, even though it's very difficult to make it sustainable, I'm brave enough to say yes, we'll do it because I have seen the benefits. There have been startups that were born at Geeks on a Beach. There have been startups that have been funded at Geeks on a Beach every year. Companies have attended my conference and then, lo and behold, next year they sponsor because they're like, Tina, we want to thank you. I'm like, why are you sponsoring? Well, we hired our entire IT team at your event last year. I'm like, how did that happen? Like, it's kind of good and bad for people. Companies in the Philippines will use Geeks on a Beach as their team building effort cause it is by the beach. So they will bring sometimes their entire teams there.

The good software engineers already have jobs. It's very hard to recruit them, but if you meet them in person and they like what you're doing, there is a chance that they might work with you in spite of the how much money they're being paid at the other place. So it's kind of good and bad in that way and if you're an employer who's afraid to get your employees being poached by others, don't be afraid because it's also an opportunity for you to go find other people that will help you build the next level in your business.

(20:18) Jeremy Au:

So what's interesting is that, you know, you're thinking through some of the economic dynamics of a community. It's been very hot in the past five years. I think, from the pandemic, I would say like paid membership communities, you know what I'm talking about, right? Paid courses, every creator is there. to you, you must be like, what is old is new again, right? Because you've been doing this for a long time. What are your thoughts about that? Do you think they're doing anything wrong? Because a lot of them kind of came out. A lot of them died. What do you think they're doing wrong out there?

(20:43) Tina Amper:

So I mean, you kind of have to experiment everything new is really old. Everything all this sounds new now. the strategies and how to make it sustainable have always been there. having new technology platforms will allow you to think about other ways you can make money, but you have to experiment. My mindset is, I believe in the human-centered design mindset, the user-centered design mindset. I learned that when I was building my community when I was like, what am I gonna do next? Since I was so close to my community, I would ask them, what do you think we should do? What are some of the needs that you want? Who are your speakers? What are the needs of your businesses? I want to teach my developers on how to do IUS kind of stuff. So I find a speaker. As a community builder, I've always been in touch with my community and their needs so that I can build my activities around that. That makes my job so much easier as a community builder. Fully knowing that there are 10 things I can do, my capabilities as a community builder, and then I reach out to my community to say, okay, out of these 10 things, what are the five priority things you want us to do? Then I go get funding and resources and how we can do that. So it's always been a collaboration with me. I can't do these events without the community.

(21:46) Jeremy Au:

What's interesting is that, in community there's a lot of champions, but also a lot of lurkers, right? How do you think about accommodating those personas? Are there more personas than those two? I guess those two are the ones that come to mind, but I'm just kind of curious from your perspective, how do you think about it?

(22:00) Tina Amper:

Any community will always have different personalities. And lurkers are critical to your community. Not everybody is going to speak up. Just because they don't speak up doesn't mean they don't get value from it. It doesn't mean they don't contribute to it. You only see the people that are speaking, but I know for a fact that these lurkers will go out there with their regular lives and perhaps contact the other members of your community and they do business together. You and I won't know about it till 10 years later. So last year, I found out that Ray Refundo from Qwikwire, I guess, found his business idea from Geeks on a Beach in Boracay, like 11 years ago. I had no idea where he got that startup idea from somebody he was sitting beside at Geeks on a Beach. Any community will always have these levels of lurkers, quiet ones. They have, I call them fans. And then I call them super fans. And then the advocates, there's always going to be different levels of engagement in every community. So it depends on you as a community builder. Do I want 10,000 members in my community? And am I expecting all 10,000 to be vocal? So Geeks on a Beach is not that community. So we have about 500 that show up at the event. We have 2,000 that are fans, I call them. And as long as we serve the need of the active ones, I think that makes it worthwhile.

(23:14) Jeremy Au:

That's a good point because, there's that famous article, right? It's like what a hundred true friends, a thousand true fans, that's what all it takes to kind of like support a creator or business. What do you think about it?

(23:24) Tina Amper:

Well, it evolves. It's not static. That is the nature of a human community. There's going to be waves. It's not going to be constant all the time. There's going to be ups and downs. And there's this principle in sales could always be selling. So I don't want to be always be selling at community, but you always have to remind people why you're here. And I always have to ask people, what are your needs? What activities can we build. So you have to be co-building. You have to be in dialogue with your community all the time. Not everyone's going to be active all the time. The same for me as an organizer, we stepped away during the pandemic. It's just human nature that whoever has a need this year will be the most active and next year it might be somebody else. You just factor that in your planning.

(24:06) Jeremy Au:

And when you think about going from point A to point B, what do you think is the future for Geeks on a Beach?

(24:12) Tina Amper:

It's very difficult to be sustainable because when we came back last year, DICT, the Department of Information and Communications T echnology is a government agency that has been our loyal partner from the very beginning. they made an effort last year to reach out to me to say, look, we need Geeks on a Beach back because I wasn't going to organize the event anymore. I saw the need that the tech startup community was booming. We needed this international gathering to be part of the ecosystem again, because we have the smaller events and this is one of the big events that brings the international community together.

DICT purposely said, we will support you. That was last year, this year, they still support, but not as much. So we're back to being a startup now and trying to, how we were 11, 10 years ago, make it a profitable business. I am confident that we have a lot more partners now so we can sign more long term partnerships with them. So we don't have to reach out for sponsors every year. I'm optimistic. Everyone always gives me good feedback about Geeks on a Beach. One of them said, I've always heard about Geeks and a Beach. It's an event. It's always positive when they talk about it. Nobody's ever said negative about Geeks and a Beach. That's always good. And then individual, to be concrete, last year, there was an investor that invested in four startups at Geeks and a Beach, right? It wasn't a lot, but they invested in a little bit. I mean, that's not zero, right? For those founders, that's a big deal.

(25:25) Jeremy Au:

Could you share about a time that you personally have been brave?

(25:27) Tina Amper:

When I did Geeks on a Beach. The big driver was when I knew I had to take a break to take a sabbatical. That was very hard. It took me three years to stop thinking about the golden handcuffs. You get paid. You work so hard. And I'm like, why am I working so hard? Cause I was getting sick all the time cause I was traveling so much. And I thought to myself, there are only five work days in a week. Why do I have so many shoes? Why am I working for my shoes? So I was like, what's my priority? I need to take care of my health so I can help others and enjoy my life more. And so being brave to say I finally made a decision to stop working and take a sabbatical. I took a financial hit, but I survived. It was very difficult, but I survived because to me, it was like. my life or a financial health. I'm lucky because I don't have kids and family. It's easier for me to escape.

(26:14) Tina Amper:

At some point people say should I move back to the Philippines? If that's what's driving you to make a change moving back to the Philippines is gonna be exciting, challenging. It's not going to be easy at the beginning because you're used to wherever you are. And then when you go back to the Philippines, even if you grew up there, it's a different country altogether. But I always say this, we organized our nonprofit to change the world. But in the end it changed me. So our mission, so thankful to Dave Overton, to Doris Mongaya and Mark Deutsch, my partners for the nonprofit, because we have been doing this for many years and we love what we do. It's very difficult, but it also allows us to get bigger opportunities in our individual businesses. So I think that's good.

(26:54) Jeremy Au:

When you think about that feeling of going home, but it's a different country, then the country you grew up in, what is that feeling?

(27:00) Tina Amper:

I mean, there was a lot of uncertainty, but fortunately, for me, even before I moved up permanently, I had visited once or twice a year. So I had an idea of what it was going to be like, I had this personal reason to take my mom home. It was like, I have a job to do. I'm going to take my mom home and just deal with what I have to deal with on my personal life. But don't be afraid to come home. It is a developed country now. There's a lot of things you can do there. There's so many people there. The younger generation of Filipinos, I have nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews. They're five, seven, eight years old. They speak with an American accent with all these idioms. Like, where are you getting these words? It's from YouTube. So, the culture is very Western. Your adjustment won't be as hard. You just have to make sure that you take care of yourself. If you're an American, you're used to first world conveniences. Spend the money to stay in a good place with good air conditioning and strong air conditioning in your car because it's hot and humid.

(27:52) Jeremy Au:

What's interesting, of course, is that there's a bit of reverse culture shock, right? Where you're coming back to your home culture in some ways. is there any advice for people who are thinking about going back to the Philippines? obviously there's internet and hotels now, so it makes life a lot easier. What advice would you give for them?

(28:08) Tina Amper:

So you have to go visit as much as you can so you can get a flavor of what it's like. When you visit as a tourist. It's different than when you visit and if you want to stay there. When you visit your hometown, there's gonna be an international group of people that live there. The tech community is generally very international. There's digital nomads that live in some of our bigger cities. Make sure you join those groups because they're kind of like international community that are used to first world conveniences, but have lived in the Philippines for a long time. So there's strategies that you have to be aware of and you have to be flexible because your goal there is not to have a mini America in the Philippines. I hope your goal there is to experience the Philippines the way it is. And you would have to adjust a little bit, cause it's not going to be the same as where you were. You will have the positive things in that all the food that you had growing up, seeing more family and friends than you ever saw. And the development of the city and the growth of the people there. To me, it's very heartwarming, right? Cause there's a lot of world class workers in the Philippines. So I think the people is probably going to drive you, but you have to be flexible and ready to change.

(29:19) Jeremy Au:

When you think about going from point A to point B, which is about going from America to Philippines and Philippines to America to America to the Philippines. I think what's interesting is that, some people can express pessimism, which is like, why are you going back? People leave for a reason. And I hear that in Singapore and the America corridor as well. It's like, why are you back in Singapore? America is better. So how do you think about that? Whether you call it pessimism or skepticism, how do you respond to that?

(29:46) Tina Amper:

I mean, there's some part of it that's legit and authentic and based on some reality. At the end of the day, you do whatever makes you happy. We are how many billions of people, each one of us have different dreams. If you think going back is difficult, that's your thing. For those who feel like, I should go back, well, prepare to go back. Try to visit, see if you really like it, talk to the people that have been there. My goal was different. My goal wasn't like that. My goal was I had to bring my mom home and make a life for myself while I was there. When I said I was going to do a sabbatical, I ended up forming a non profit and meeting this amazing community that I wanted to organize events with, that I wanted to help and give back. That was my ikigai, actually, when I moved to the Philippines, except for the money part, because it's a non profit. All these criticisms positive, negative, it's fair game. People can say whatever they want to say, but it depends on you, what your goals are, what you want to do, and how you can make it happen.

(30:37) Jeremy Au:

(30:37) Final Thoughts and Takeaways

(30:37) Jeremy Au: On that note, thank you so much for sharing about your experience. I'd love to summarize the three big takeaways around this conversation. First of all, thanks so much for sharing about being a teenager who didn't want to go to America, but you were following your parents to go there and how you went there, to be early career, but also went through burnout and eventually returned to the Philippines to care for your mother, and use that time to explore yourself. I thought it was a fascinating piece.

Secondly, thanks so much for sharing about Geeks on a Beach, about what you eventually built, in terms of how popular it is, about how you think about building an event where business deals get done in the Philippines for geeks at the beach, and how you think about some of the sustainability and economics of it.

And lastly, thanks so much for sharing about your experience as a Filipino diaspora, in terms of what is it like to move back to a country? What is it like to find your Ikigai? What is it like to find that balance, in terms of geography, but also, making connections and creating a home wherever you are, whether that's a community in America, a community at a beach, or whether it's giving away free coffee and beer to start your own community in your hometown. On that note, thank you so much for sharing Tina.

(31:38) Tina Amper: Thank you Jeremy for the opportunity. Shout out to my mom. She's gonna be 92 in November. See you at Geeks on a Beach!

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