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Excerpt
Who is Anthony Pangilinan?
Anthony is a child of God. He is the father of five beautiful children and the husband of Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan.
He is a business consultant who loves to see people transform through training, coaching, and/or counseling.
He finds joy in seeing people grow from where they are now to where their potential can bring them.
Were you ever employed before doing all of these trainings/coaching/change management?
At a very young age, Anthony stopped going to school because he was elected as the international president of a youth organization called AIESEC (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales).
Being elected meant he had to take up his position in Belgium.
That meant he was already receiving a salary then.
This led to him going on leave from his studies for two years. Anthony was never afraid of what might happen to him or his studies. He even had thoughts of not coming back. The organization offered him great opportunities if he was to stay, but Anthony felt called to finish his degree.
It was a very humbling experience. From becoming the president of an international youth organization, to going back in the classroom, raising his hand to answer the professor’s questions.
He finished Architecture; and although he doesn’t practice it now, he still uses the fundamentals of what he learned today.
Instead of building structures, he decided on building up people.
One of the most valuable lessons that Anthony picked up from Architecture is that life needs the combination of the left and right brain. He emphasizes the importance of knowing structure and design when it comes to life.
How did all of your prior experiences lead you to what you’re doing now?
At one conference that Anthony attended, his team was assigned to work on a new vision statement for their organization.
They recrafted the vision into: “The peace and the fulfillment of humankind’s potential.”
That had to be passed by their congress and be accepted by the whole organization, which eventually did.
The vision statement stayed with Anthony. From then on, he wanted to see the fulfillment of every person, institution, and society.
He thought afterwards that the best and most logical way to do that is to become a consultant.
What is your average work day like?
Anthony’s day starts with the Word.
He has two devotions, Streams in the Desert and Utmost for His Highest.
He also reads a chapter from the Old Testament and the New Testament.
For him, renewing the mind and filling yourself up with wisdom is essential.
As a consultant—a person that deals with the field of training and motivation— he should always be filled with insight.
However, there are days when he shows up empty, days without any wisdom to share.
Before, Anthony thought that inspiration came from within, and that inspiration would be enough.
But people don’t just survive by inspiration. Anthony says that humans also need impartation. There are things that you can only get from an external source.
For example, since Anthony is a created thing; he needs impartation from his Creator, which is God. When he is imparted to, he’ll feel like he has an aura.
His morning routine takes around 30 minutes to an hour. He is very consistent. Even his wife knows that he needs to talk to God before he talks to her.
But that’s just around five times a week.
After the morning routine, he gets ready for work—which he does either in the office, or at home.
Anthony does a lot of thinking and reflecting. He also tries to redesign some of his courses from time to time.
For the most part, however, you’ll find Anthony in meetings with his clients, or in a venue conducting a program.
His team is composed of a dozen people. He also has numerous partners that come in from time to time to provide him with what he needs.
Anthony lives by a concept he picked up from Jim Collins. When it comes to getting things done, you should first ask WHO, then WHAT.
By doing so, he saw himself evolve in many ways.
In the early years of his life, it was always what first, and then who.
He wakes up in the morning, looks at his planner, and then checks his to-do list. Now that you know that, you’ll then look for people that might be able to help you with that.
Now that Anthony has things that he needs taken care of, he would first look for experts in that field. These experts will be the ones who will help him out.
That’s because it’s the WHO that will tell him WHAT he has to do.
It’s more efficient, and it opens him up to community integration and faster progression.
How do you try to make the business bigger when you’re required to be there on stage or in the office training people?
He uses the same concept. First he asks who, and then he asks how.
He can’t scale everything up on his own. With his efforts, the business might grow a bit, but nothing too great will happen.
Anthony says if he’s working with the right kind of people, they’ll scale the business up for him. They’ll give back without him asking for it.
They will come back and seek collaborations, partnerships and joint-projects.
For the last two years, Anthony’s biggest projects were all in cooperation with the people that he trained—many of which were initiated by them.
When you train the right people, they will make sure that you will grow through collaborations.
Anthony also writes books and courses that will benefit the community so that he’ll have a passive source of income.
These serve as a means to promote his social media handles and that helps out a lot.
What, in your recollection, was the toughest event that has happened through your years of training and coaching others?
One of the toughest events that Anthony has experienced was when he imparted something of great value to someone who didn’t use it right.
There was one that even used that knowledge against him.
It was like giving someone a gun only for them to use it against you.
In these cases, Anthony doesn’t have to respond in the same way, because that’s what leaders do.
Even when people treat you poorly, you should never make them experience the same thing.
Strive to be an example and show them the right way. You will be the person that chooses to be on the higher ground.
Did you optimize how you picked the people that you mentor?
When Anthony experienced that, all he focused on was to learn from it.
He has always been careful in choosing the people that he mentors because he wants to make sure that he entrusts his knowledge to the right people.
He knows that trouble will come, and the best thing for you to do is to learn from it. Let it transform you.
See criticism as a gift and keep in mind these two quotes:
“Criticism won’t hurt you unless it should”; and
“No one throws stones at a fruitless tree.”
As Anthony said, when someone is criticizing your efforts, that just means you’ve already created something—that you have made and impact.
How many years have you done coaching and/or training?
Anthony has been doing this since he was 14 years old. That was the time that he entered the student council at his high school, De La Salle Greenhills.
It has been a full 40 years since he started and he is showing no signs of slowing down.
Other people discover their love for public speaking in their later years. What advice can you give them?
Anthony said it would be best if you worked on their delivery.
People at that point in their lives will have a lot of content to share.
Even their worst experiences can become educational content for most people when they share how they learned from it.
People have a lot of things that they can share. They just have to put the pieces together.
When it comes to content, Jayson Lo has an interesting process. In a recent interview, he mentioned that he highlights phrases in the books that he reads. He then asks someone to encode these phrases.
For Anthony, however, it’s not just about what people write. It’s about what people experience.
He further explained that if Jayson highlights what he reads, then he highlights what he experiences.
Anthony finds content in life.
He shares that he sometimes finds content when he sees his daughter engage in sports. When she does something or says something inspiring, he can use that as content.
He does this because all of his stories can be used as content. A person’s everyday experiences are content.
To find content you should become an observer of life. For Anthony, even simply recalling an experience he had with his daughter can turn into amazing content for him to share.
Aside from being a counselor, you are also a businessman. What would be your advice to the people who want to start their own business?
Anthony states that training is only a tool. It is not an end.
The end goal is to increase productivity, to increase ROI, or to change lives.
Some people think that training is the end-all be-all. they think that if they get the best kind of training or the best trainer, they would be able to sell themselves.
However, that’s not exactly the case. You should connect it to the purpose of your business or organization.
His advice to budding business owners is to know every aspect of your business.
When Anthony trains people, he brings them to client meetings. He lets them see how he negotiates. He reviews the training budget and takes a look at different materials with them.
They also involve the rest of the team. Keep in mind that even though it’s the speaker that’s on stage, there’s a whole team behind it.
Some trainers quit immediately because they think that it’s too complicated. But they also don’t end up fine in the industry because they don’t have the business sense.
When Anthony has an apprentice, he makes them experience all aspects of the business.
He makes them do their own presentation, no matter how bad it looks. His apprentice should at least know how to erase a slide and insert a photo.
Unfortunately, a lot of young and old trainers think that they can delegate everything.
In Anthony’s opinion, it’s better if they handle what they can on their own.
No. it’s better if you handle what you can on your own.
Know the details. When people understand the details, they’ll be respected by their teammates and the other people that they work with.
If they don’t, people will find it hard to relate with them, thus, they’ll find it harder to lead.
How do companies attribute that the training program had a positive effect?
This is the importance of needs assessment. There should be an evaluation tool that was agreed upon. This tool should coincide with your supposed understanding of the business. Make sure that the training program is attuned to the needs of the organization.
Where can you find Anthony Pangilinan?
You can find Anthony in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
fb: @anthonypangilinan
twitter: @apangilinan
Instagram: @anthonypangilinan