A new age of talent management is on the rise, and Kroma Entertainment's NYMA is at its forefront.

PHOTOGRAPHY&nbsp;Patrick Diokno
STYLING&nbsp;Paolo Chua and Yanna Lopez

Short for "Now, You Must Aspire," NYMA is a talent&nbsp;management and influencer management Agency. Focused on nurturing trailblazers and content creators to break through all media spaces and diversify, NYMA breaks boundaries of what it means to work with rising&nbsp;talent in this age of entertainment and digital, not just in the Philippines but soon, in the rest of the world.
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 How NYMA came to be is as much a story of a talent agency forging its own path and nurturing the next generation of entertainment as it is of healing one&rsquo;s inner child. &ldquo;[Building NYMA] was a love letter to my 14-year-old self; it was what I needed then. I wanted that for this next generation of artists, as well those from past generations,&rdquo; general manager of NYMA, Kat Bautista tells L&rsquo;Officiel Philippines. &ldquo;And NYMA, by its name, is a mantra &mdash; a reminder to myself every day to aspire to be better for my talents, for the younger me, and for the Filipino.&rdquo;
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 &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time, it&rsquo;s a new generation [of talent management],&rdquo; Bautista chimes. &ldquo;There are a few managers there that have popped up, people who are the same age and trying to forge it out. And it&rsquo;s a different way to approach it for this generation, and I try my best to model after the greats, you know? How Korea does it, how the U.S. does it, how trailblazing Filipino agencies do it... and I think it shows in terms of the partnerships we&rsquo;ve done, being able to support Kristel Fulgar&rsquo;s expansion to Korea, and strategizing Christian Bautista&rsquo;s presence in Indonesia.&rdquo;
 On fostering partnerships with international entertainment agencies: &ldquo;Not only do we get to bring great artists to the Philippines [and vice versa] but I get to learn from incredible management and incredible individuals, as well. I like working with people who are smarter or more skilled than me, or at least have the potential to be. I always want to learn and I always want to be better &mdash; for the Filipino, for the talents, for NYMA, for myself,&rdquo; Bautista says.
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Kat Bautista</h3>

No stranger to pushing boundaries and breaking glass ceilings, Kat Bautista has always given everything she&rsquo;s got wherever she goes. Whether it was as a woman in the male-dominated space of tech, or now as she navigates her way in the realm of entertainment and talent management, Bautista is always one to work tirelessly to earn her spot and make her mark in whatever industry she has so set her heart on. And luckily, for the next generation of talent and content creators, she has her sights set on bringing incredible Filipino entertainment to the world stage.
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 Three years ago, Bautista set out to build NYMA. Building a talent management agency from the ground up is not necessarily a young girl&rsquo;s dream, Bautista admits that. However, stumbling upon this desire to find better ways of doing things in the entertainment space was something that happened so effortlessly. &ldquo;I grew up as a teen model and I was managed by different agencies. At times, I was told I was not worthy enough &mdash; I was too fat, too this, too that. I felt alone to fend for myself; and so I always wished, or wondered, if there was something better out there,&rdquo; she shares.
 &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a fan of Filipino entertainment and I saw there was this opportunity to commoditize it. I feel like Filipinos are so talented &mdash; everybody in this country can sing, dance, or act... except me,&rdquo; she laughs. &ldquo;But there is so much I want to be able to do [with Filipino talent] and to share that with the world &mdash; I want Filipino entertainment to be mainstream, to be everywhere, and be accessible.&rdquo; And so, she turned her poor experiences of being in front of the camera and being mishandled by other agencies into something good: to make a difference in the entertainment industry.
 Under Kroma Entertainment, NYMA is operated by a rather lean team of tenacious individuals driving two streams of services: talent management and influencer management. The former sees a select roster of talent exclusively represented by NYMA, ideal for tapping and collaborations published across multiple platforms, and the latter is ideal for social media influencer campaigns, done in tandem with other talent management agencies.
 &ldquo;Our talent management business, I think of it more like B2C (business to consumer) where we are so hands-on with our talents. We only have 12 talents to date and the way it works is that these talents are exclusively managed by us, with the exception of two talents from EN Management in L.A. that we exclusively represent in the Philippines, as well as Christian [Bautista] who is co-managed with Stages. We take care of everything for them&nbsp;and we really help them scale from the digital world,&rdquo; Bautista&nbsp;explains. &ldquo;Our second business is more B2B (business to business), influencer management which comes from my roots of working in corporate &mdash; and I&rsquo;m so incredibly proud of it. I saw there was an opportunity in terms of how businesses deal with influencers. Today, we have 220 talents signed with their own respective managements, and we also have deals with existing managements that automatically sign their talents with us. So when a business comes to us asking for 40 influencers, we&rsquo;re able to provide those 40 influencers not based on bias or who is signed to us, but based on analytics, the business&rsquo; KPIs, and the business&rsquo; objectives. It&rsquo;s really exciting because we always measure the business results after, as our goal is to bring the business the best results possible.&rdquo;
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 NYMA&rsquo;s contribution to the local entertainment scene is largely attributed to its varied talent management portfolio. Armed with incredible talents from a diverse spectrum of fields that cater to Filipino interests (from food, music, K-culture, home, and the like), the agency is just getting started. &ldquo;Our tagline is focused talent management, and I really wanted to ensure focus for NYMA&rsquo;s vision. When I built it out, I used my tech training and my corporate training, and I used the agile ways of working and built [NYMA] out in pods. Each pod is headed by a talent manager who specializes in the preferences and interests of the talent. When I was interviewing our managers, I was like: what do you like and what matters to you? If the manager&rsquo;s vision is not aligned with what the talent&rsquo;s vision is, you won&rsquo;t have true synergy. Gen Z could always see through inauthenticity; and authenticity has to start from the things they don&rsquo;t see, the stuff behind the scenes. [Talent managers] have to believe in it.&rdquo;
 Aside from a talent manager, each pod comes with a production manager, a video editor, and an artist for visuals. This allows for work to be done either vertically or horizontally. &ldquo;I have to credit my training from corporate, that really helped me come up with this. I am happy to use it and I love to see that this structure can be applied to entertainment. It&rsquo;s definitely on a learning curve because there are a lot of policies in place and certain things being done a certain way,&rdquo; says Bautista.
 What&rsquo;s next for NYMA? Continue to scale and to open NYMA branches all over, says its general manager. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so important to be on-ground to do business, especially when working with different cultures. My goal is to expand into different markets. We&rsquo;re working on some stuff now with two specific markets &mdash; we&rsquo;re expanding to Indonesia and the second market is still a secret for now but we have some people on the ground that we&rsquo;re working with to scale up NYMA there,&rdquo; Bautista says.
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Among its talent pool are some of the most formidable&nbsp;content creators of this day and age. First, there&rsquo;s Raco Ruiz, a multimedia creator &mdash; or &ldquo;multipurpose artist&rdquo; as he calls himself &mdash; who dabbles in content creation, visual art, photography, hosting, and video direction.&nbsp;Heavily influenced by cartoons, nature documentaries, and his own parents working in advertising, Ruiz is an absolute natural at telling stories, creating impactful skits, and engaging audiences. With so many interests, he finds it best to not blend them all together because it simply won&rsquo;t do justice to the different disciplines that he pursues. &ldquo;I really do get into a different headspace for each of my interests. I&rsquo;ve used this analogy before, but it&rsquo;s like having a car and multiple people wanting to take a drive. So they take turns driving, and the car is me,&rdquo; he chuckles.
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 On how he started in content creation, Ruiz admits he&rsquo;s kind of always had the knack for it &mdash; even in his youth. &ldquo;Even as a child, I was always a content creator but I wouldn&rsquo;t share it. I would love editing videos, making silly skits, even &mdash; but just for my own entertainment or for my friends. Inside jokes, I&rsquo;d turn into a video; and I&rsquo;d edit it on Movie Maker or even iMovie. Then came the time YouTube started becoming a thing and I would be inspired by [creators like] Smosh and Ryan Higa, and I would upload on YouTube but of course, I don&rsquo;t think it was my time yet. I was a teenager at the time and the people I would look up to had been in their mid to late twenties. I was just trying to be like them. That didn&rsquo;t really catch on, but I still did it. I think that was my training ground for TikTok,&rdquo; he reflects.
 Fast forward fifteen years: Ruiz creates the same kind of content he tried to do in his teens on YouTube, just on a different platform. &ldquo;[Actually] I&rsquo;m doing the same thing on TikTok, [which] I started doing as an outlet. I&rsquo;ve always been in the creative industry. I worked in advertising and a lot of the time, your ideas get shot. But it&rsquo;s not the client&rsquo;s fault. It&rsquo;s just that the ideas are not aligned with what they want to do. So a lot of times, the funny ideas that I would get, that wouldn&rsquo;t ever fly &mdash; I&rsquo;d turn it to a skit. Or if I get an idea and I know it would never work for a client, I&rsquo;d use it for myself.&rdquo;
 For Ruiz, the pandemic was especially instrumental in devel- oping ideas for content. &ldquo;The way I coped, I would make fun of it. I had a lot of free time and I had a lot of things that were frustrating&nbsp;me &mdash; and I would make fun of it in my Instagram Stories. And Jam [my friend] told me, this is not the place to be posting that. Post it on TikTok! And for the longest time, I was apprehensive. I was like, isn&rsquo;t that just for dancing and children? And then when I downloaded the app, I started just posting Instagram Stories and it would get some traction. But the more I used the app, the more I would &lsquo;get&rsquo; the language of the humor on the app. [The algorithm] teaches you: &ldquo;this is what people find funny here.&rsquo; And so I was like oh, these are the kinds of skits that would work on TikTok and actually so much of my TikTok content are recycled skits and ideas from my YouTube.&rdquo;
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 It&rsquo;s an approach of focused work and quite simply, having fun, that brings Ruiz so much success in what he does, whether it is in his art or through the hilarious content he creates on TikTok and Instagram. &ldquo;I never really focused on growing, I just focused on having fun and being consistent with it &mdash; and so I find a way to have fun and make content, at least twice or thrice a week. Then, naturally, an audience will follow,&rdquo; he reveals.
 While Ruiz was already gaining a lot of attention online, NYMA came in and helped him grow tenfold as a creator. He explains: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where NYMA is so helpful. They&rsquo;ll ask me, &lsquo;Raco, what do you want to do? Or this year, what products do you want to work on?&rsquo; And I just tell them what I want to work on. As a scatterbrained person, I can&rsquo;t always commit to everything. And they help me with that, they manage it. Like for example, I have this big dream to do X, so Y has to be put on hold. They help me eventually get to Y also. But of course, they can&rsquo;t help me do everything at the same time, right? And I guess, that&rsquo;s the caveat of doing a lot of different things. You can&rsquo;t do them all at the same time. I mean, you can try, but the quality would be compromised.&rdquo;
 Moreover, NYMA has helped Ruiz grow by spotting poten- tial growth areas and collaborating with other creators and brands. Aside from Bautista personally reaching out to him with pointers and advice in the agency&rsquo;s infancy, NYMA works hard to look out for his best interests. &ldquo;They make sure we collaborate with brands that are right for our branding as characters. Because, at the end of the day, if you&rsquo;re trying to build a social media presence, you&rsquo;re a character. You have to stay true to what makes you, you. That&rsquo;s why people follow you.&rdquo;
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Abi Marquez</h3>

Another remarkable talent under NYMA is Abi&nbsp;Marquez, a food content creator and TikTok Philippines&rsquo; Foodie Creator of the Year for 2023. Known as the &ldquo;Lumpia Queen&rdquo; to her 3.3M (and growing) TikTok followers, she creates viral content of short-form recipes, tutorials, and foodie hacks &mdash; with one video about a sinigang lumpia really blowing up and changing her life, to say the least.
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 Marquez didn&rsquo;t set out to be a content creator, but admits that she feels like all her life pointed toward this. &ldquo;I really love music and filmmaking, and food and cooking have always been there. [By the time I was finishing] college, I had to decide what job I would want to [get involved in]... What do I do with [all] these interests? In November 2021, I was playing around with TikTok. I covered yung mga niluluto ko sa bahay. But it was more on just really taking a video of everything and tatahiin ko sila in an edited video. I enjoyed documenting the process and watching it for myself. In January 2022, I started trying voiceovers. That was the first time that I thought of my videos as something that was going to be viewed by other people. I started my video with &lsquo;this five-ingredient dinner is going to be something you love&rsquo; or &lsquo;you need to try this.&rsquo; That marked when it became for sharing, and that very first video went viral,&rdquo; she tells us.
 The attention that the first viral video garnered surprised Marquez, who at the time of posting had 14 followers on TikTok. This told her two important things: &ldquo;Number one, people like what I did, and I could do it again. If I do this, I have a market. Number two, I&rsquo;m capable of doing [these] kinds of videos, and I really enjoy the process. It&rsquo;s fulfilling to me because others find value to it, as well.&rdquo; So, in January 2022, still a student in her last semester of college, she had an idea to propose to her college department to have her content creation serve as her practicum.
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 "In the very early moments of my content creation journey, brands started coming. I remember the first brand came in March: it was an ex-deal and they gave me products. I was so surprised that something I was doing just for fun brought something tangible in. And even though it was just gulaman products, very simple, it was still mind-blowing for me. Like, oh my god, it&rsquo;s true, this is something real: vloggers do earn!&rdquo;
 Marquez just continued to do what she was doing because of the sheer joy and satisfaction of it all. &ldquo;I really enjoy the process because I get to use all the skills and interests I have. Now, I realize, retrospectively na lang, that everything led up to this point. That&rsquo;s why I enjoy everything: because I feel super fulfilled, because it&rsquo;s using everything I have and I can offer my entirety to this video. People appreciate it and find value in it.&rdquo;
 When asked how she would describe her creative process, Marquez answers simply that it would be &lsquo;intentional.&rsquo; &ldquo;Over the years, I admit I could have invested in better equipment or I could have had my place renovated to have it be the best looking kitchen, but I&rsquo;m really intentional and I&rsquo;m really disciplined. I stick to my branding &mdash; simple, relatable, and accessible,&rdquo; she shares.
 Marquez, now almost 24, started her journey at 21 with a clear vision and dream. Initially, she struggled with having to manage all aspects of her work by herself, which diverted her attention from fully developing her content. However, her agency, NYMA, provided her with the necessary tools and guidance, enabling her to grow and expand in the food space. &ldquo;NYMA, being my management, really helped me [grow.] It&rsquo;s a team of experts in this field, with decades of experience, and just a set of really passionate individuals who really care about what I do. Because of that, I&rsquo;m here, and I have more opportunities. They take care of the business side of things, and I can really focus on the creative side,&rdquo; Marquez says.
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Kristel Fulgar</h3>

Next in NYMA's set of talents is Kristel Fulgar, an&nbsp;actress and singer with 20 years of experience. Known for her work in Goin&rsquo; Bulilit, Maria Floredeluna, Dahil Sa Pag-ibig, Got to Believe, and Bagito, Fulgar has always been comfortable in front of the&nbsp;camera. This, in part, led to her taking up vlogging and starting her YouTube channel in 2016. Today, she has millions of followers who avidly watch her content that features her everyday life, Korean culture, song covers, and just her being her most authentic, real self.
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 Content creation is something Fulgar stumbled upon, as a way of sharing her gift and herself to her fans. She tells us: &ldquo;Before kasi, I started as a supporting actor when I was 8 years old. Tapos pagkagraduate ko ng college, I was 20 years old. Yung song covers ko sa YouTube and sa Facebook, dun ako nagstart sa career ko in digital media. And after that, I explored, making other things, more on content creation. Na enjoy ko siya eventually and until now, ginagawa ko pa rin siya.&rdquo;
 In 2020, during the pandemic, Fulgar was faced with a difficult decision: content creation or acting. &ldquo;Nawala ako sa TV, kasi, I had to focus on creating content kasi that time nagpandemic. Dati pwede ko sabayan siya with acting. But sa pandemic, nauso ang lock-in taping and I couldn&rsquo;t vlog, even magedit. Kaya parang I had to choose between taping or content creating, and I chose content creation . But hindi naman na never ako babalik sa acting kasi passion ko naman siya pa rin, but sunod sunod lang din kasi ang opportunities. And ginagrab ko lang kung ano ang nandiyan and kung what is in front of me,&rdquo; she shares.
 Her vlogs are her art, and it shows how her audience responds to it. To this day, Fulgar still shoots and edits her own videos &mdash; and prefers to keep it this way because this is how she connects to her followers and what also inspires her to keep creating and keep sharing. &ldquo;Editing takes a long time talaga and di ko siya&nbsp;pwedeng ipagawa sa iba kasi super personal ang mga vlogs ko. Like, gusto ko na how I felt during the moment na shinoshoot yun, yun din ang ma-express ko sa editing ko. I cannot let someone else do it,&rdquo; she explains.
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 Fulgar reflects on how much more personal her vlogs have gotten versus before, and how she is really taking the time to introduce more of herself to her community. &ldquo;Pinapakilala ko yung family ko, pagpunta ko sa U.S., and ngayon, shineshare ko sa kanila yung journey ko. Status ng heart ko, personal talaga. Meron sa iba ng audience ko, nagsasabi sila na yung buhay ko ay para siyang K-drama. Pero hindi ko naman siya sineset up na ganon, but siguro somehow, ganun&nbsp;ang atake... nakakarelate sila sa ginagawa kong content. And siguro nasa Korea kasi most of the time, and then nakikipag-converse ako sa friends ko na Korean in Korean,&rdquo; she laughs.
 On what inspires her to keep creating and sharing her life, it really boils down to her community and fans. &ldquo;Hangga&rsquo;t nandoon sila, magv-vlog ako. Natutuwa ako kasi may mga fans ako namemeet na nagsasabi &lsquo; hey, dahil pumunta ka dito sa cafe na ito, pumunta din ako,&rsquo; she smiles. This deep connection Fulgar has fostered with her community has seen the creator receive two notable awards: Influencer of the Month at the 2023 Global Influencer Award in Seoul last December 6 and the Global Creator of the Year at the APAN Star Awards 2023, alongside influencers such as Karimova Elina, Kika Kim, Anushka Sen, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, and Cassandra Bankson.
 Fulgar has been with NYMA for almost three years now and credits this relationship to helping her be able to truly focus on creating content. &ldquo;Thankful ako sa NYMA, sobrang understanding and sobrang supportive nila sa dreams ko, sa vision ko. Lahat halos support, like sa PR. Sila yung naghahanap ng kung paano ako mapromote, sila yung gagawa ng paraan kung paano imarket yung content ko,&rdquo; Fulgar reveals.
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Buji Babiera</h3>

On the sports, mobility, and storytelling front, NYMA&nbsp;has Buji Babiera. In the short time since his debut in 2023, Babiera has quickly gained traction and growth with his signature &ldquo;Storytime&rdquo; spooky videos and has gained over 2.2 million followers&nbsp;on TikTok in less than a year. Apart from content creation, he advocates for active cycling and keeping mobile and is the founder of First Bike Ride, a community of cyclists that promotes bike riding and safe cycling.
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 A writer and producer first, Babiera has always loved to tell stories. In the pandemic, when work slowed, he found himself looking for an outlet. &ldquo;Usually, I write about travel. So in the pandemic, I was practically jobless. Then, I got into cycling. Sabi ko sa sarili ko, after this, babalik na ulit ang work. And every, like creative stuff, pag hindi mo siya pinapractice, your skill will rust. Then it occurred to me: why not create content centered around cycling? I really want to inspire more people to hop on their bikes. So I started the First Bike Ride, on Facebook and Instagram lang. I was also learning social media management at that time. Diba during the first months of the pandemic, andaming inaaral ng mga tao. So social media management ang tinetry ko, for a business sana. [But then focused all of that into the outlet of] cycling, na lang,&rdquo; he shares.
 First Bike Ride gained a following quickly . &ldquo;It gained traction. I found myself not just encouraging people to bike but seeing cycling as an advocacy. It took off talaga. Eventually, nakabuo ako ng website. I started partnering with brands, with institutions. I started with helping other people, donation drives and all. And then, nagtuloy tuloy. Then someone from ANIMA, the podcast business of Kroma, noticed that I&rsquo;ve been doing Instagram Live and invited me to do a podcast. We had this idea to dive into another concept we called Tambike Session. It&rsquo;s all about cycling, advocacy, and engaging in conversations with different people,&rdquo; Babiera smiles.
 After creating cycling content for some time, Babiera started to feel exhausted. He explains: &ldquo;I found myself doing it every single&nbsp;day, and I was really enjoying it at the time. Things were going okay. But, around that period, work started picking up again, and there wasn&rsquo;t guaranteed income from creating content for First Bike Ride. Eventually, I hit a point of burnout, and then, in 2022, I contracted COVID. During my recovery, feeling bored, I caved in and downloaded TikTok. The funny thing is, I had sworn off TikTok before, but boredom got the best of me. I spent a whole year just scrolling and consuming content. But then, I thought to myself: why not create content myself? I mean, I had grown tired of making biking content anyways, so I decided TikTok would be different: storytelling.&rdquo;
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 Initially, Babiera tried all different kinds of content on TikTok. &ldquo;Mga vlogs, mini vlogs, random POVs, short clips... but nag[take] off yung Storytime content. Well, siguro, part of me na writer. Nag[take] off siya, in a span of less than six months, I got a million followers. In a span of one year, 2 million. And yes, one year palang ako nasa TikTok,&rdquo; he grins.
 On developing content for his different platforms, Babiera credits his voracious reading. &ldquo;I like reading talaga. I read [everything] &mdash; I read news. Mahilig ako magbasa ng feature stories from international and local publications. And I like sitting down and talking to friends, or even strangers... ganun yung process ko sa TikTok. Ikwento ko lang sa mga tao. And karamihan sa stories ko ay horror stories, because that&rsquo;s what my audience enjoys,&rdquo; he remarks.
 Growing exponentially on TikTok in such a short time, Babiera credits NYMA for allowing him to grow and build his platform further. &ldquo;Nawala ang admin work from me, which was big. [NYMA] really wants us to focus on creating content &mdash; be creative and to have fun. And at the same time, they open opportunities for me. Because sa sobrang dami kong ginagawa [I still have my other jobs], yung potential for collaborating with certain institutions and brands, hindi ko siya magagawa or ang bagal ng process. NYMA has helped me so much in terms of developing my brand, my advocacy, and [leaning into] the things I like. I also like that the other talents NYMA handles are so different, and so per category, it feels like alagang alaga kami,&rdquo; he smiles.
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Frances Lim Cabatuando</h3>

Within the realm of home and lifestyle, NYMA&nbsp;takes the reins in supporting and cultivating Frances Lim Cabatuando, affectionately known as the &ldquo;Mayora of Community Building&rdquo; in the Philippines. She has built and nurtured two of&nbsp;the most engaged groups on Facebook: Home Buddies, a home enthusiasts community with 3.2 million members, and Hangout Buddies, a travel-tambay community with a fast-growing 225,000 members. She was the top graduate at the 2021 Meta Community Accelerator Program and was tapped as one of only three representatives from the Philippines in Makesense&rsquo;s fellowship program called &ldquo;The Good Chat&rdquo; which brought to the mainstream important topics of climate change and renewable energy.
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 &ldquo;They call me Mayora at Home Buddies,&rdquo; Cabatuando shares, referring to her Facebook group that boasts a staggering 3.2 million members. Describing it as a sanctuary for home enthusiasts to exchange design ideas, she emphasizes the significance of investing time, energy, and creativity into one&rsquo;s living space. &ldquo;Whether you are looking to rent, looking to buy, or already buying or have bought one, Home Buddies covers every aspect of home ownership,&rdquo; she explains. It&rsquo;s not just about serious matters, though &mdash; she excitedly mentions the platform&rsquo;s space for sharing exciting finds, affectionately referred to as &ldquo;budol finds,&rdquo; which has undoubtedly contributed to the group&rsquo;s meteoric rise in popularity.
 She shares how Home Buddies also evolved into a platform wherein people can source or purchase items for the home. &ldquo;Sometimes, you find things on Pinterest or the likes, but don&rsquo;t know where to buy it. Home Buddies is where you can likely find where to buy it. That&rsquo;s why I was super smiling when I saw one article saying that Home Buddies is the &lsquo;Filipino Pinterest,&rsquo; I loved that. One day, you realize, everything can really be fabricated because Filipinos are so creative!&rdquo;
 Cabatuando admits that she started off not being that comfortable in front of a camera, or even with the idea of being called a content creator. &ldquo;Very behind the lens ako. I worked in advertising for 9 years before I became a content creator. And I used to be a part of these shoots but I was the copywriter. I [then] became the&nbsp;Creative Director at some point, the one creating the shot list, etc. And then now, being in front of the camera, it&rsquo;s so different. But I&rsquo;m enjoying it,&rdquo; she admits.
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 As a content creator, she does create videos that she sees might be of interest to her thriving online communities. &ldquo;I usually look at the community and see what they&rsquo;re talking about and what&rsquo;s relevant or in season. But because I&rsquo;m not an expert, I just really tell people I&rsquo;m a community builder and my priority is to make sure my community is engaged. And now I&rsquo;m proud because after three years, [Home Buddies is] active pa rin.&rdquo;
 What inspires Cabatuando to keep moderating and cultivating her online communities to stay engaged and in discourse is when people message her. &ldquo;They would tell me, &lsquo;Mayora, thank you kasi this is my house now.&rsquo; And then they share before and after photos! I want that same joy and same gratitude they feel, that impact, to be shared with more people. That&rsquo;s what keeps me up at night, gets me up in the morning, and keeps me going,&rdquo; she reveals.
 Going into being a digital creator and community leader full-time saw Cabatuando being able to still use her skills and strengths from her time working in advertising &mdash; working on presentation decks, pitching, and so on. However, it was NYMA that propelled her growth exponentially and opened doors upon doors. &ldquo;When I signed with NYMA, that&rsquo;s when magic happened. Suddenly, I&rsquo;m a host! When PIE, a channel co-owned by Kroma, was introduced, I was one of the first few hosts &mdash; and the first face on the channel kasi morning show kami! I had to learn a lot, be mindful of how I looked also. But it was really fun and it made me realize na, if I could host on TV, I could host events! They also helped me do talks, property showings, or even brand launches in the home [space.]&rdquo;
 Cabatuando is a digital force to be reckoned with. But it&rsquo;s not just about numbers for her &mdash; it&rsquo;s about the stories behind them. From helping people find their dream d&eacute;cor to sparking conversations on climate change, she&rsquo;s all about making a real impact. Her communities aren&rsquo;t just spaces &mdash; they&rsquo;re homes, filled with stories waiting to be shared.
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Christian Bautista</h3>

And finally, one of NYMA's more recent signings is&nbsp;Christian Bautista &mdash; with an incredible 20 years in the show business industry as a singer, actor, host, and model. With timeless hits such as &ldquo;The Way You Look at Me,&rdquo; &ldquo;Colour Everywhere,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Hands to Heaven,&rdquo; the OPM icon has made an indelible mark on the entertainment industry not only in the Philippines but in other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.
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 Currently, Bautista is co-managed by Stages Inc. and NYMA. Stages has been instrumental in shaping Bautista&rsquo;s career from the ground up, by helping him navigate the industry and build a strong foundation. With NYMA on board, Bautista&rsquo;s excited about the opportunities in the digital space. &ldquo;I really like Kat&rsquo;s vision, especially for the digital space. As an artist and singer for 20 years na, and being used to the traditional way of promoting ourselves and our craft via radio, TV, print...everyone really has to get in the digital space . [But it&rsquo;s a lot] to know what to do exactly, what direction.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s where NYMA comes in. Streamlining Bautista&rsquo;s digital presence and taking his career to new heights. &ldquo;NYMA helps me with this and helps simplify it: what to post, when to post, what is your target market, how can you do better, along with insights,&rdquo; chimes Bautista.
 &ldquo;As a self-confessed introvert also, it&rsquo;s hard for me to bring it out but I&rsquo;m getting used to it. Some are pleasantly surprised like &lsquo;Hey you&rsquo;re posting more,&rsquo; and I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;Hey, I know right?&rsquo; Also, I&rsquo;m learning how to direct the shot in my head so I don&rsquo;t just shoot everything, which takes up so much space,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;So they&rsquo;re really guiding me in that sense. In return also, of course, as a husband, I do my best to support my wife however I can as well.&rdquo;
 Bautista admits being excited about working on becoming more present in the digital space; and enjoys that he can connect with his fans in real time. &ldquo;You post something, they can comment immediately... and you can get bashed immediately. You livestream, you instantly gratify your fans but at the same time, they can also say whatever they want. The mistakes are bigger, but also, the encouragement and the joy they get [makes it worth it.] Just the other day, I was livestreaming and a fan said, &lsquo;Thank you for livestreaming and singing this song, you&rsquo;re helping me with my mental health right now.&rsquo; So, the quickness of it, the gratification, and the encouragement...the reaction is swift and the moments are&nbsp;quick. Just the other day also, I was online because my cat came up to me and kissed me. And I went live and took that opportunity to share that moment with my fans.&rdquo;
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 Apart from connecting with fans, Bautista has found that being in the digital space has helped him find new areas of growth in his branding and platform. &ldquo;NYMA would really deep dive into insights, even gather focus group discussions for the whole company and its roster of talents. So that posts are not wasted. You can really see the growth and the intention, as well, and you can really see my social media is growing again. [And I&rsquo;m] doing my best to focus, not just on TikTok, obviously, but everywhere also.&rdquo;
 This direction into digital has helped Bautista discover new depths to his craft, and become a mentor to others who want to follow his path. &ldquo;Creating music right now, I am looking at the trends, seeing who I can work with. Hopefully, I spot a trend na bagay, also. You&rsquo;re not going to see me dance,&rdquo; he laughs. &ldquo;But if I can find a ballad out there, beautiful production, but at its core is a love song, I&rsquo;d try to find that producer or that artist if they&rsquo;re interested in working with me. And in terms of content creation, some people say nga, social media is for the young. Some kids are looking for guidance... how to do this, how to do that. I&rsquo;m also a judge for GMA&rsquo;s The Clash, [which is] coming later this year, and if you&rsquo;re a new singer who wants to know how to navigate the industry, they [want to learn from] people who have already walked that path. And so, that&rsquo;s sort of my role now. I can be a mentor, I can tell them these are the things you have to avoid, or what to try.&rdquo;
 Moreover, Bautista has also become a lot more creative and collaborative. &ldquo;Less ako nahihiya sa &lsquo;Hey, collab tayo&rsquo; because I know na it will help and that person as well if our goals are connected obviously. Some you need to pilitin pa, adjust. But you also have to find people who share your same vision,&rdquo; he remarks.
 And ultimately, at the end of the day, Bautista enjoys being able to connect with his fans deeper &mdash; thanks to being in the digital space and navigating it with NYMA. &ldquo;Just recently, I was in Indonesia with NYMA and we were able to work on collaborations there, guest on podcasts and create YouTube content, which has also helped me connect deeper with my Indonesian fans.&rdquo; With 20 years of experience in the industry, Bautista&rsquo;s joining forces with NYMA isn&rsquo;t just a new chapter, but an evolution in his career: from discovering fresh avenues for creativity and collaboration to guiding aspiring talents along their own paths.
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CREATIVE DIRECTION Joan Kong
PRODUCERS Loris Pe&ntilde;a and Knelle Rosario
MAKE-UP Don de Jesus
HAIR Bonita Tea&ntilde;o
PRODUCTION DESIGN Aren Dale Santos of Adset using Mod Event rentals
VIDEO DIRECTION Heidi Bayani
PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSISTANT Bermar Daz
VIDEO ASSISTANT Chester Ricardo
STYLING ASSISTANT Teresita Gabat

NYMA: Best in Class

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