Kumusta, it's kuya Erick.

I learned to hustle young. To put myself through college, I worked odd jobs and sold whatever I could: pabango, Hansel balls, coffee jelly, and more. I knocked on doors and even tried an MLM, and at 18, mid-pandemic and with zero experience, I took my first US job to fund the rest of my degree.

School was where I first learned to fight for it. I graduated valedictorian at every level, from elementary through junior and senior high, then finished Magna Cum Laude in Financial Management at Cavite State University.

From there I just kept climbing: a promotion, my financial advisor license, and now a seat as an Executive Assistant at Athena, where I'm an Athena Scholar too. I turned down a JPMorgan Chase offer to be here. I wanted to work close to the founders and the decisions, not three layers away. The MBA is paused for now, but it's waiting for me in 2027.

Enclave is my main business now. Enclave builds the operations, marketing and AI systems that run an MSME or startup, then stays as its partner so the business lasts: the brand, the booking page, payment checks, the customer list, the books, the manuals, and the AI systems (a Virtual Team) that draft the routine work. The owner approves anything that reaches a customer.

The real goal, though, is content creation, full-time: travel and business videos that follow the climb from a graveyard-shift desk to a life on the move. An ACL injury in 2025 took me off the volleyball court, and the camera filled the gap. I still cut every vlog myself.

Honestly, I'm not most proud of any title or any one thing I've built. What I'm proudest of is the fight itself: the tenacity to keep going, and the love I have for what I do. The free resource library I built for Filipino freelancers starting from zero is part of that. I just give away what I figure out.