With a twinkle in her wide eyes, Shiela Viesca shares, “Coincidentally, our love story also revolves around real estate!” She’s talking of course about her relationship with John Riad, HousingInteractive’s fearless leader.
“I was renting out my unit, and some strange-sounding guy called to say there was an inquiry,” she grins. (John, in case you didn’t know, is Egyptian by blood — but he grew up in Denmark. Thanks to decades spent in Manila, he also speaks a smattering of Tagalog. When you first meet him you might indeed find that he sounds “strange” — to use Shiela’s words!) “He was going to send his broker to look at the unit.” But John came himself. “This guy got out of the cab umbrella first. He was nice and not bad looking!”
Then Shiela laughs: “I thought by going out with him he was going to refrain from getting his commission but he still got it!”
John Riad moves real estate in the country through HousingInteractive. Shiela is the heart behind it all.
The owner of Talk Shop tells us about how confidence and communication skills improvement help the real estate industry.
How long have you been here for?
I’ve been here since birth! I took a teaching course in Canada for two years, but I came back. There’s more opportunity to make a difference (here in Manila), as I train Filipinos how to be more competitive.
I came back for the Philippines, for the Filipinos. I came back to teach them…when they choose to do something, excel at it.
Tell me about Talk Shop.
This is a training center for executives — but they usually send their team members of family members. We specialize in personal effectiveness.
Under leadership, we teach inter- and intra-personal effectiveness, agility training, and ethics in the 21st century context.
Under communication, we teach public speaking, writing, handling crucial conversations, and frontline competencies.
Under personality, we teach personal graces (such as dining etiquette), image enhancement, protocol training, diplomacy, and values formation.
Our biggest clientele is international organizations, United Nations agencies, and government agencies. We’re the only civil service accredited training firm that’s internationally affiliated and ISO certified. I also design language programs and curricula for the Department of Education.
I began Talk Shop as part of my Masters’ diploma at the Asian Institute of Management…it’s going on its 20th year now.
How’d you come up with the idea of Talk Shop?
I got into it because of suitors with bad grammar! (Then she laughs long and hard — out of fondness, perhaps? Or nostalgia?)
Anyway, there’s a captive paying market. Eventually I came to the conclusion that grammar is not the be-all end-all. You can have impeccable grammar and still be unable to communicate.
You could say we’ve evolved over the past 2 decades.
What’s your connection with Real Estate?
I handle a lot of Real Estate professionals. We train them in public speaking, crucial conversations, salesmanship, and handling people. We motivate them to perform even better; Real Estate is very competitive. You need to articulate in order to get noticed by the right clients. You might know everything about Real Estate law, the property, and trends, but you won’t get noticed unless you can build relationships and communicate. Other (brokers) have the sensibility however aren’t able to project competency because of their inability to express themselves. They get outperformed by more talkative enrollees. They lose their confidence…so we bring them through mindfulness exercises to regain their self esteem. We help them communicate better. We also have a psychiatrist on board for extreme cases.
How has Real Estate changed over the past 20 years?
Before, I’d train the sales people. New arrivals in the company. Now it’s the company owners and the managers who are enrolling. It’s become that competitive. You can’t expect the company to flourish just empowering the employees. The heads have to have these skills as well.
I also see a lot of enrollees who are discouraged…down on their luck. They went abroad to pursue a living and ended up coming back to the Philippines. We have to hold them by the hand to bring them from point A to point B (in the training modules). Real Estate is tough.
As for the market…in Rockwell at least the price per square meter has ballooned unreasonably since 2001! We need to have controls somehow on how the units are being sold to foreign entities. Companies like the Ayalas are putting – I think it’s a cap – on how many units are sold to foreign companies. That’s the right step. We’re more expensive than the best parts in Europe! We’re just as expensive as Copenhagen! You keep purchasing in the hope that your money won’t sleep. But it’s so competitive, there’s lots of people renting out their units (and not making their ROI).
I’ll stop buying for now. I’m pursuing investment opportunities in other avenues.
So your impact is on the people of Real Estate.
It’s a pleasure to teach my students to aim higher and give their best. To have the confidence and the discipline to evaluate if something’s right for you. Real Estate is very competitive now. It’s getting more competitive as the market gets more expensive.
Nevertheless, I’ve always believed in the capacity of Filipinos not just to adapt and adjust but to stretch further. My passion is to empower fellow Filipino to find their voice, carve their niche, usual stuff. But now, it’s making them confident enough to know they matter.
For more information on Talk Shop, email Shiela at shiela@talkshop.ph
Or catch Talk Shop TV on Facebook and YouTube.
