Francis Baraan IV

Hello!

My name is Francis Baraan IV, and I am from the Phiippines. I am 39 years entrepreneur, who started out in business back in 2012 (?), and ran the family's small real estate development company with my Mom. In 2018, my brother Dr Amadeus Baraan and I co-founded Sirom Hospitality Group (SGH), the Philippine hospitality firm that built Sirom Beach House, which is located in Dasol Bay's Tambobong White Beach, and serves as the flagship, and the first, boutique hotel beachfront resort property under the Sirom brand. The construction for Sirom Cliff House, another beachfront hotel resort property, SGH's second project, which began construction last year, halted its construction due to structural integrity issues, but will soon be underway again. Sirom Sunset House, which will be the most ambitious and biggest project of SGH yet, will be the third from the third of Sirom's hotel resort portfolio. For the Sunset House, though, we will be seeking both private and institutional investors to raise the capital, unlike the first two Sirom hotels, where we used mostly owners' equity.

I am also an independent journalist, and used to actively write every Saturday for an opinion column for The Philippine Business and News, a digital news publication.

I am also a human rights and mental health advocate, a bibliophile, a Bookstagrammer, a Verified Amazon Influencer and content creator, and, back in December of 2012, I began a blog for Wordpress called thefrancisbaraanivblog.wordpress.com, a blog meant mainly for books, writing, bibliophiles, and writers.

There, I wrote the some book reviews; made a list of where to get free e-books, compared publisher deals and book prices, shared my favorite products for books and writing like apps and e-readers; and shared my writing, thought processes, obsessions, compulsions, and neuroses.

At some point, I abandoned the whole blogging scene to concentrate on L&D Homes, our real estate business. But, believe it or not, last night, actually, I revisited my old blog, and re-read all my blog posts to check out all the stupid things I used to say back then and to jog my memory. And while I was reading, it made me realize one thing: I have already been doing the whole content creation and influencer marketing game even before the term influencers was coined, and before Influencer Marketing became a formal Marketing and Sales concept.

Truth be told, I thought I was going to cringe my way through through the whole process of reading my blogs, but I actually enjoyed and loved writing and sharing all those lists of freebies and free information with everybody. And I was flabbergasted by the force of my own candor—of how decidedly indifferent I seemed, of how imperturbably unapologetic and brutally frank I was with my opinions back then. But I am not so sure if I could even publicly express half of some of my most innermost thoughts on the most polarizing political issues without being ajudged as being either this or that, when my own politics, I realize—after educating myself on all sides of a certain issue, and much careful deliberation—seems to be just a hybid between liberal and conservative and center and green. But that's neither here nor there. Let's save politics for my column or a blog post.

Anyway, did I mention that I am bipolar, too? Don't worry, I don't bite. I promise I am all good. But would I look certifiable if said that while I was reading my blog, sometimes I couldn't help but think that somehow, my blogs seemed much improved than I remember—as if someone else had been toiling away at night, secretly sprinkling "literary stardust" on every paragraph for optimal impact.

I know those were my words—I recognize my idiosyncracies and eccentricities and affectations on each sentence—each nook and cranny, every hole and crevice have that mad genius written all over them—pun intended. But I can't help shake the feeling niggling at me that something about them felt more seasoned, mature, more cohesive, more restrained, more lucid, and yet, at the same time, more deliciously unhinged.

So, if I had any help from some invisible, anonymous editors, thank you very much. If not, then, I just made myself appear like a total narcissist, so I'll just continue believing that my articles were edited by someone who seemed to have kept the articles authentic to my own voice.

Either narcissist—or deranged. Either way, I won't win. So, I hope that Wordpress Fairy Godmother—or Godfather—exists. Because if my instincts are correct again, then I am telling you:

We make a good team.

From my book reviews to my own personal anecdotes to my struggles with mental illness, I just know that someone—at the very least, perhaps, some kind of an AI—fixed a sentence or two here, a paragraph there—and THEIR impeccable eye for structure and prose saved me from some cringe-inducing mediocre attempt at being the next Hemingway or Dostoyevsky.

So, I will end my introduction about myself now before this turns into a whole TED Talk, or the Francis Baraan Podcast. Because the last thing I want is to look like the Poster Child for Manic Episodes.

OK, uhm, I'll shut it now.

Because, once again, I am proving my father right when he keeps reminding and teasing me jokingly about my proclivity to talk a mile a minute:

That there are so many thoughts I want to say all at once, but my brain—and my thumbs—just couldn't keep up.

For now, I will hit submit.
There is no time to regret.
Later, I can always just revisit.
And then, just re-read and edit.