Enriching a Journey: How MCW Global Advanced John’s Leadership Skills

John Cornwill, MCW Global Young Leaders Fellowship Program mentee from the Philippines, who founded Cornwill Media, a social media marketing agency, speaks about how his involvement with MCW Global enhanced his skills and added value to his journey as a passionate young activist.

He is positively changing the community and leaving his mark, and throughout this piece, we will see how and why he is doing this, as well as have a picture of MCW Global’s unique role in his journey.

John believes his experience with MCW Global helped him greatly in developing his soft skills as a leader, coupled with other positive traits, which we will together elaborate on below.

John is a youth activist already championing his country’s financial education at the grassroots level by spreading awareness and providing economic opportunities. When we combine this with the support he is receiving from MCW Global, then we witness how beautiful stories are built.

Let’s start on the right foot by elaborating more on how MCW Global in truth plays a huge role in this young man’s success.

MCW Global: An Added Value to his Purpose and Meaning

While discussing together various aspects and supporters of his journey, his pathway would never be as valuable as it is, we agreed, if it was not for the contribution of MCW Global.

On this note, he believes that his experience with the Young Leaders Fellowship helped him significantly in developing soft skills as a leader.

“The program enhanced a very important character of an entrepreneur: empathy — that enabled me to deeply understand the root causes of the problems first before coming up with solutions and a workable business idea,” he adds.

Acknowledging that MCW Global supports its alumni in different ways, John shares his say on what was the most beneficial experience with MCW Global in enhancing his skills in youth leadership.

“When I got into the Young Leaders Fellowship Program, I brought with me a project idea on a multi-sectoral approach to promoting financial literacy to rural communities. My journey in making the vision plan for this project, which by the way is still in the works, enabled me to understand community issues more.”

He recalls that even before his acceptance into the program; the community needs assessment, which was an application requirement, provided him with the tools he needed to engage himself in community development.

“They [MCW Global] amplified this more through the intensive online sessions with my fellow mentees and my mentor,” he further explains.

The Why of John’s Work: The Purpose and Meaning of his Activism

Sometimes what moves people the most is not what they do; it is why they do it.

While each of us would agree on the importance of his initiative, John takes it a step further and reveals why he does this and what’s the inspiration behind the curtains.

“I do this because I want to break the status quo, especially in my community. I grew up thinking that my capabilities as a young person will only be maximized when I graduate college, which by the way is not totally free in the Philippines. I want to break this idea.”

“I want to inspire and educate young people to build their own fortune even if they are still students, so they can find their passion and help their own families,” he says.

While further added that he shares opportunities and teaches youth skills that will enable them [the youth] to become “young entrepreneurs.”

“Currently, I do this through content creation on TikTok, where I have already built a community of student-freelancers.”

Through exposure to entrepreneurship, the youth can help build a better future for themselves, and the others; he strongly believes.

Although he grew up in a poor family, this did not stop him from believing that he could help his family financially, even before finishing college. This belief materialized when John earned a place as a personal tutor for kids.

“I grabbed it immediately, continued it until college, and was astonished by the fact that I can finance my daily expenses without asking my parents.”

On a sad note, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and face-to-face classes were not allowed.

Here, John did what every young leader does when faced with hardships; he saw an opportunity.

“I saw videos about income opportunities for students. I immediately clicked it and my excitement went through the roof when I heard about ‘online freelancing’ because I immediately thought about my current technical skills like graphic designing and video editing which I could enhance through many exposures in different youth organizations.”

When he was working with his first US-based client as a virtual assistant, they assigned him to do tasks, including social media ads.

“That was when I realized all my creative skills can be applied if I niche down to managing Facebook (now Meta) ads for businesses. After six months, I could onboard 10+ clients, and that is when I realized I needed to form a team to continue delivering excellent service, hence, Cornwill Media was founded.”

Fast forward one year, this team could scale small businesses to 6-figures in at least three months of running cost-efficient, creative ads.

This included Bakas Apparel, a social enterprise he co-founded that helps young people express what they feel through minimalist shirts. In this way, they can cope with mental health challenges and advocate to break the stigma.

“We do this by allocating 20% of our profits to our mental health programs like a community support group with mental health professionals, sponsored consultations and therapies, and public discussions and online events about mental health issues”, he concludes, while leaving us with the good taste of how MCW Global, once more, is there to lend a helping hand for young promising people.

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Missed our previous piece? No worries, we have you covered. HERE’s the incredible story of Shrouk Gamal and her connection with MCW Global.