Christian Bautista leads the roster of talents who recently signed with NYMA (Now You Must Aspire), the tradigital talent management arm of KROMA Entertainment. The other local talents are Frances Cabatuando, Abi Marquez, Buji Babiera, Raco Ruiz, Kristel Fulgar, and foreign artists Eric Nam and Jamie Miller from EN Management.
The Asia’s Romantic Balladeer is now co-managed by NYMA and Stages. He said in a press conference that the reason he also joined NYMA is because of the “connection, the strategy, especially I need to be in this digital space.”
Christian is “excited for the future” and “proud” of the partnership.
“(I’m) so thankful for Stages for the past 20 years and all our other partners. Thank you also NYMA for having me (in) this collaboration. (It’s) so exciting for me,” he remarked.
“It’s gonna propel and prepare (me) for this new generation. This year, there has been a lot of collaborations that happened with even ABS-CBN and GMA. Everyone is working together towards a future that is full of wonderful content and to really spread Filipino culture everywhere and that’s really my aim,” he added.
Kat Ramnani Bautista, head of NYMA and wife of Christian, was asked about co-managing the career of her husband and she said, “Di ba pangarap yan ng lahat na maging boss yung asawa mo? But joking aside, we have a solution for that. It’s simple. Ipapasok ang ‘third party,’ but not the ‘third party’ in a relationship. It’s ‘third party’ in management.”
“So within NYMA, we have the amazing Karen Tumbali. Karen Tumbali heads my talent team. I look after the entire NYMA business. Karen has 20 years of talent management experience, so Karen personally oversees Christian’s career and the directions in partnership with Mr. Carlo Orosa and the rest of the Stages group,” she furthered.
On who’s the real boss in their household, The Way You Look at Me singer answered, “Madali lang yan. Si Jesus.”
Kat added, “I think that our work is separate from our home life. Our marriage is a separate thing from working together. But in our house, the true boss is our dog Zorro because our lives revolve around him.”
Moreover, Frances, Abi, Buji and Raco were happy to have partnered with NYMA and assured their viewers that they will not compromise their content even after signing up with a talent agency.
Food content creator Abi, also known as “Lumpia Kween,” admitted that she had “doubts” at first but NYMA “cleared all of that.”
“One of my doubts was baka i-push nila sa akin kung ano ba yung gusto nilang gawin because these people, they come from showbiz. The digital world is different,” she shared.
“(In) showbiz, there’s pressure that you have to look fancy or very presentable, there are specific rules. On social media, you just really have to be yourself. So yun yung kinakatakutan ko, pero na clear lahat yun ni NYMA and that’s what convinced me to sign up with them.”
That’s why she’s “grateful” to be with NYMA.
“They really take care of you and that’s what I also appreciate because kasi tutok sila. You’re not just one of the numbers. It’s not like generic treatment to everyone na ganito dapat gawin,” Abi commented.
Founder of Home Buddies, “Mayora” Frances, said that one of her “non-negotiables is I cannot not engage with my community. Every post still kind of goes through me. I have my talent team, pero gabi-gabi, pag-gising ko, Home Buddies approved post. Araw-araw ako pa rin po yung nag-a-approve.”
“So, all that’s the core of who I am as an influencer. Without my community, I am a nobody. And I like that NYMA respects that… I like that I am still able to make meet-ups with them.”
On the other hand, visual artist and content creator Raco shared that what he loves about NYMA is that “they do not micro-manage you at all with the creative aspect, they just let you do your thing. But as soon as I signed up with (them), the creative process of mine just kept getting better.”
Echoing what Abi said, Raco asserted, “(NYMA) actually protect(s) how original your content is.”
Buji, an iconic online meme who has been featured on national TV three times in his life — from the “mahilig mag-Facebook” student in 2011 to a “saksi” who witnessed a road crash, and a “cycling advocate” in 2022, was “impressed” with NYMA as well.
“Actually, they asked me that question, ‘What’s non-negotiable for you?’ And I told them, it’s ‘I don’t want to compromise my values’ and they understood that, ‘Yeah, we wanted you to remain kung ano ka, kung sino ka at ano yung mga pinapaniwalaan mo.”
“Like what I told earlier during the introduction, I’m glad that they value my advocacy, what I care (for) and that’s what’s important to me. And I’m really (looking) forward to working with NYMA because I think I’m in good hands,” Buji concluded.