Carl Ocab – Technology and the Fast-Changing World

Hi and welcome to another episode of the Outsource Accelerator podcast.  This is episode number 135. My name is Derek Gallimore of Outsource Accelerator.  We are joined again today by Carl Ocab of Carl Ocab Web Design services. Carl was a and still is an internet prodigy he started blogging when he was 13 and caught not only the Philippines but the attention of the world headlines for that so you know a super interesting journey.  Today we look a little bit broader and talk about the I suppose education and potential of the new kind of economies and how that can affect people in the Philippines but also international trade you know the full impact of how this whole world is changing through the internet and technology and online earnings so if you want to know any more about Carl and want any of the show notes then go to outsourceaccelerator.com/135. Enjoy.

Derek: Hi and welcome back everybody today I am joined again by Carl Ocab.  Hi, Carl.

Carl: Hi, Derek.

Derek: Carl is a child prodigy of the blogger world.  He started blogging when he was 13 which is a long long time ago and technology world. I’ll get that back story from him but today I just really want to sort of tap in to his insight into the future of agencies online agencies Philippines outsourcing and kind of SEO and tech from.  Thanks so much for joining us Carl if you don’t mind just give us a quick instruction of how you came to be here.

Carl: Sure it stated 10, 11 years ago when I was 13 years old and basically I started through blogging about the online game when we were playing back then and after college after graduation using my expertise with WordPress with software works as team, I started my own agency and right now we are creating websites for our partners, our web design internet marketing agency partners in the states.

Derek: So you kind of started this nearly like 10 11 12 years ago but you continued started at 13 you continued to graduate from College which is obviously very good strategy and advice you build this kind of 3 years ago and you cater mainly to the US which I found really interesting can you comment I suppose on you started early you started young.  How would you suggest that you got all of your knowledge was it from the Philippines was it from the schooling or did you find that actually everything is online and you know from a kind of the world?

Carl: Well back then you know internet marketing wasn’t something that you can get formal education so most of the stuff that I learned about programming designing WordPress there are definitely all from the internet and you know if you have passion most of the stuff that’s on the internet you can use that and you know can learn from that to build a business like what I did.

Derek: And what is the key do you think and is it a awareness because I’m massive proponent of the Philippines and the potential of the Philippines and yet there’s still obviously many millions of people here which are sort of towards the property line and I see this as a huge opportunity for people to earn good income and income that can support their families and provinces but obviously there is an education piece but do you see those barriers you know people can now self-educated but more they can learn the ropes through practice do you see they’re being more of an opportunity generally?

Carl: Well you know poverty I think shouldn’t be a problem when starting something online because actually in the Philippines I think the Philippines is one of the top countries that using facebook because almost everyone here has got data so that the connection and the technology is not the problem, the problem I think is the mindset because in my opinion most of the Filipinos they raise not to start a business, they’re raised to be employees you know the regular rat race get the education your average college you know just work so I guess the mindset is still the problem with the Filipinos that’s why not a lot of Filipinos are in the internet marketing industry yet but I think eventually it’ll catch up especially because a lot of movers are here in the Philippines and they’re influencing Filipinos.

Derek: And you got most of your practical education from forums and things like that and you mentioned also that your younger brother who is a  8-9 years younger also got a very real education on youtube and you know is earning good money from that do you see that the new being the new way like people just getting involved people you know kind of joining forums people like using books to educate themselves is that how thing you gonna pan out or do you see value in the traditional educational degrees and things like that?

Carl: I definitely still see value and traditional education but I think it lacks something because what pushed me to do what I’m doing right now and what pushed my brother to create his own channel and make money through youtube is the financial advice from our dad. Our dad finished and MDA so he is you know well aware of financial gurus like Robert Kiosaki and you know the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book is one of the first books that he wanted me to read and because of that I learned that you wouldn’t get rich just by working for someone, you have to to let your money work for you get you start business you delegate and you grow so I think that’s even though the standard education right now is still important I think it’s lacking financial education that everyone will be using in the future I mean you know some subjects like say calculus or filipino something some of those subjects we won’t be able to use that until we die but financial illiteracy is something that everyone would use after they graduate and they’re not teaching it in schools that’s why even though you know there’s this valedictorian there’s a you know someone on the honor.  All they got good grades you know unfortunately some of them they’re not financially free because I think the reason why is because the schools don’t teach you know financial stuff and technics some how to manage your finances.

Derek: Yeah it’s you know and you say it’s like it’s becoming more relevant there’s where sort of teaching possibly the wrong things there’s a lot of things that aren’t necessary as you say that relevant to creating a successful life however that you know having sort of financial sensibility but then is very important but then also the essence of learning how to learn and you know i think that’s an incredibly powerful tools isn’t it being to seek out the resources you need and also follow your passions which obviously you seem to have been encourage to do as a child and I think that maybe that’s potentially lacking but such a big opportunity isn’t people are just sort of shown the way.

Carl: Oh yeah and I think there are lot of sites for it now that’s promoting that there’s Udemy where you can watch training videos for programming or whatever.  There’s masterclass.com, there’s I think anyway…

Derek: Yeah, there’s a huge amount of popping up.

Carl: But they can also find it for free but you know those services make it easy for just a couple of bucks so that everything is you know step by step and organized for them.

Derek: You’re a part of the outsourcing world whether you necessarily kind of brand yourself as that or not do you see it and I’m a massive supporter and proponent of the outsourcing sector produces over 10% to the Philippines GDP employs a lot of well educated white collared people do you see this is as continually expanding where do you see the direction of kind of Philippine outsourcing in the future?

Carl: Yeah definitely because the good thing here in the Philippines is not only are filipinos, hard workers but most of the Filipinos can speak english very well so you know i think that’s the edge that the Philippines have compared that’s the edge that the Philippines has compared to other countries because the local Filipino accent is that hard compared to other countries so we can easily communicate and that’s the reason why you know a lot of call centers are here in the Philippines we can easily communicate to other countries so definitely outsourcing will be growing near and not just you know through call centers but also on development on programming because you know there are a lot of good programmers here in the Philippines that’s comparable to programmers on other countries I mean the I love you virus was by a Filipino, it went to millions of computers.

Derek: So i also think that you know like hardcore coding is maybe not you know certainly hasn’t paid out yet to be specialty but I think Filipinos really have a very close affinity for more the design aspect the kind of creativity so they kind of new line new UI/UX like all these things it’s so important to be and also the kind of graphics and design

Carl:  Well you know actually I see a hardcore coders they’re usually hired in the states of other countries so instead of you know local companies getting them they just go to other countries because the pay much higher than here.

Derek:  So you do see a lot like they develop and then they kind of get out of the country?

Carl: I had a couple of programmers do that.

Derek: Do they feel that there’s better opportunity to go overseas still because I still imagine that that they could do that remotely they could earn almost a western salary but they’re on wouldn’t a very cheap environment?

Carl:  Well yeah they can definitely do that I mean that would be the best scenario but like Filipinos they want to work so instead of you know being a freelancer or working home based they want to you know just work for someone so that they would feel stable but you know it’s actually sometimes it’s the other way around you can be more stable if you work for yourself

Derek: And it’s like the kind of economies getting more and more a lot better isn’t it in terms of kind of contract relationship with businesses.  So Carl Ocab the web design agency we spoke a lot about the future where do you see that of all been where do you see that going both I suppose in terms of your aspirations for growth but also in response to the evolution of the market and what people need and want where do you see it going?

Carl: Well of course it’s already happened the first thing where the Web design development it’s going mobile first but I think a SEO would go mobile first as well so that’s the side where you know we’re concentrating on but aside from that we’re also concentrating on voice as SEO because there’s a lot of hands free devices right now I mean I have here Alexa from Amazon and I can ask her or it whatever information I need then I can also do that on my Phone through siri but they all you know just look for results on the internet so I think aside from mobile first as SEO mobile first design we should also concentrate on hands free devices like those assistants as they call it.

Derek: Because that wraps up into there’s a push I mean this is a bit of a rabbit hole but there’s a push for more video content as suppose to whatever written content there’s big kind of podcast movement Youtube facebook live but then as you say there’s also kind of voice commands and these Alexa and respondents and that are you seeing that there is a big shift and i imagine google as maybe you trying really hard to keep up with all this sort of they can span all of the videos all of the podcast but also they make it kind of sco ready for voice commands does it all link in to each other and then just briefly how do you manage that how do you make voice sco compliant stuff?

Carl: Well for example if you ask the google assistant or the amazon assistant they still base their answers on search results or if they cannot give you the answer directly they send it to your device and still give you search results so it’s still a SEO of course but right thing for the google assistance because there’s a certain they are looking for a certain keywords for example you want to ask when did John Lennon die so you have to write that content in a way that the google assistant or whatever assistant is looking for so instead of a you know going around it and saying a lot of things about John Lennon you have to be directly on your answer John Lennon died on so when the assistant looks for that they’d see that keyword and that sentence construction they’d use yours and eventually, of course, they could also send your website to the phone so that the user can view it.

Derek: And I suppose that plays into the kind of google snit bits that little of those where is  top of the page you have the almost the summary of the article so that Google can incorporate that to the snit bits.

Carl: Actually because of that I noticed a slight decrease in a click-through rate in the search results because when someone is looking for something they don’t have to click the length they get the answer right away

Derek: Interesting thank you so much and I’ve certainly picked your brain in terms of a future of SEO but if anyone wants to get in touch with you, Carl how can they do that?

Carl: They can just simply go to google and search my name Carl Ocab or they can visit my website www.CarlOcab.com.

Derek: Thank you so much for joining us

That was Carl Ocab i hope you enjoyed that of course from his web design agency called Carl Ocab if you want to get in touch with him or know any more about this episode then go to our show notes which is at outsourceaccelerator.com/135 and of course as always if you want to email us if you want to ask us anything then just drop us an email to ask@outsourceaccelerator. Enjoy.