Bryan Caranto is Solutions 8’s Director of Marketing & Communications. He’s soft-spoken and wildly communicative if those qualities are not too juxtaposed. He has a keen interest in learning as much as he can in this world and that’s where we’d like to start this spotlight blog! We know from experience that he is an avid fan of motivational literature and we can’t think of a better role model and teacher than our eternal student, Bryan. He is the type of person who has read some golden nuggets of wisdom and is ready to share that with everyone he encounters here at Solutions 8. It’s always given with much simplicity and humility and that’s a great way to describe him overall. He’s a keen gym goer, a skilled photographer, and a versatile musician to boot.
Solutions 8 got lucky!
How did we have the good fortune to have Bryan at Solutions 8? Well, he’d heard about the company from a friend who referred him and it was thanks to this friend that he ended up here. There was a funny
incident worth mentioning, which is while he was looking for Solutions 8, Solutions 8 was also looking for him. Julianne, Kasim’s executive assistant at the time had already sent an email for an interview and Bryan almost missed it since it landed in his spam folder! Good thing he checked it!
What he does
“I started as a content and copywriter, writing blogs, internal SOPs, emails, and the occasional ad copy. Since I was working closely with Patience (our former director) I had the opportunity to share marketing strategies that later on helped increase our brand awareness and email subscribers.”
At the beginning of the third quarter of 2022, Bryan was promoted to Director of Marketing & Communications when Patience left and the position opened up. He still writes blogs, landing pages, and email newsletters, but most of his time is spent assisting and managing the marketing team. He acts as a liaison between different departments, reviewing and approving all content across different platforms. And he is always looking for opportunities for growth. That is a valid statement both professionally and personally.
Motivation & inspiration
Having such a motivated person on hand is inspiring for all. He’s got a great go-to productivity trick that anyone can learn from. It’s simple and effective: Just start doing something!
“I have two to-do lists. One is for work, the other one is for everything else. Whenever I get stuck or paralyzed by thoughts, and I feel like I can’t get anything started, I just look at my lists and do the easiest thing or the things that take the shortest amount of time to finish. It helps me ‘warm up’ and prepares me for the bigger tasks I have for the day.”
An independent youngster
Did this common-sense approach come naturally? It sounds like Bryan had some great help from his parents. They gave him an important value that he truly appreciates today: self-reliance. His parents taught him to become independent and responsible for his own life from an early age. Whether it was doing the household chores or running errands, Bryan was fortunate enough to be given the freedom to learn from the age of eight. It helped him understand life through personal experience.
That would be an obvious precursor for his approach to his work.
“The best part of my job is that I get the opportunity to challenge myself every single day. There’s always something to do, always something to figure out, always some problem to solve—and this makes me feel grounded and alive.”
In fact, Bryan’s got some good advice for his younger self following along these same lines:
- Have courage and be vulnerable
- Take action despite the fear
- Be vulnerable enough to accept your shortcomings
- And always remain a learner
While he admits his younger self would never have listened to this advice, Bryan still has a philosophical slant which proves his kindness toward himself and others.
A wise man
“Everything that happened in the past, happened because I had different choices in life back then and in order to change it, I’d still have to go through everything I’ve been through. For example, if I told my younger self to save money, I still would have spent money. I hadn’t learned the value of money yet.”
When it comes to facing challenges, Bryan doesn’t hold back. He tried the highest zip line in Southeast Asia (Lake Sebu) but he still feels like he hasn’t entirely conquered his fear of heights. If there is a hobby that’s outside of his comfort zone, it would be either skydiving or crossing China’s glass-bottom bridge.
And when it comes to traveling, Bryan cites Wales in the UK as his favorite place to visit. The trip was a memorable one because it was the first country outside of the Philippines he had ever been to.
“I remember feeling as if I were in a dream, walking in the streets of Briton Ferry with the cold wind blowing in my face, breathing in the scent of trees, and just being in a totally different place. It’s rare for Filipinos to travel outside the Philippines so as someone who had never left my own country until I was 27, let alone go as far as the UK, that trip was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”
He found the people very welcoming and friendly and if there’s an opportunity to visit that country again, he’d gladly do it in a heartbeat.
Bryan gives us further insight into his private life. His family is a big one, six in all. He’s the oldest brother to three sisters and we can only imagine the fun he has when his youngest sister, who is twenty years younger, is commonly mistaken for his daughter! There’s a pet pooch too, called Bailey, who rounds out the family.
He cites lechon kawali as a dish any visitor should try when coming to his hometown.
“This is the only dish I’d never refuse to eat, even if I’m on a diet. Lechon kawali is a crispy, fried pork belly. Best partnered with steamed rice and lechon sauce (or Filipino pork liver sauce like Mang Tomas). Not all lechon kawali are cooked the same. The one I like is crispy on the outside but soft and juicy on the inside.”
And then there’s another tasty treat we should not miss if we have the good fortune to be there in summer: the ‘unofficial’ desert of the Philippines called halo-halo (mix-mix). It’s shaved ice with milk and a combination of different ingredients—hence its name. These various ingredients range from sweetened beans to fruits to jellies and they are sometimes topped with leche flan, purple yam jam, and ice cream.
“You literally have to mix everything together before you eat it so the sweetness is balanced out.”
One last thing
Our final question is a good one and Bryan has given a truly satisfying answer. Has a film ever changed your life? Which one and how?
“I Am” is a documentary made by Tom Shadyac, the director behind several Jim Carrey movies. After a cycling accident in 2007, Shadyac traveled the world and sought well-known spiritual and scientific leaders to find the answer to two important questions:
What’s wrong with the world?
What can we do about it?
“It helped me to understand us humans as a collective and what drives people to do the things they do on a quest to be happy, especially regarding money. It also made me question some values and principles I have, and whether I should stick with them or change [them]. I think anyone who wants to better understand how our world got to where it is now should at least give this documentary a shot.”
Bryan Caranto shows us how to remain open to learning!
Jani Kahukiwa
