Passion Plant Project Grows into Wellness Platform

By Kevin Pilar

Raise your hand if you’ve picked up a plant or two during the pandemic. Surely this was something that we all dabbled in after a long day in front of a computer screen.  

Maycko Macapugas, Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship Events and Community Manager, SFU Beedie Alumnus, and tropical houseplant enthusiast may have picked up a hundred or two of over these past few months. What started out as a personal mental health practice turned into a shining beacon of wellness for thousands of others nationally, and around the globe. CBC Vancouver recently covered this in a recent news story.

Typically an anxious person, the intention of creating ways to slow down and finding normalcy, resilience, and routine were always clear, but the ripple effect and impact was something no one would have quite expected. As the world went into lockdown, Maycko began documenting their plant discoveries and care tips through their Instagram account: @FoliageFilipino in May of 2020. 

Little did he know that “Filipino” in the namesake would come to mean so much more.

Curious, Maycko explored the houseplant world deeper, he began to discover pieces of his heritage with every new purchase of foliage. Sharing what he learned from his research about plants and their care, he discovered the delicate relationship between mental health, plants, and his own cultural heritage. 

Maycko recognized there is opportunity in his approach to mental health and using plant care as a vehicle for that journey. While this connection isn’t new, the nuance allowed him to carve a niche in a very saturated wellness space.  

Maycko attributes his parts of his recent successes to his education in business. He notes that  while Foliage Filipino is primarily a social platform, there are strategic opportunities for him to utilize technology and marketing foundations to deliver value to his audiences.

Now understanding his own personal agency, Maycko is now using whatever spare time he has working on transforming his online presence into a platform that can support others in their own mental health journeys while sustaining his own self-discoveries. 

As he builds this platform, he leans further into the Entrepreneurial Mindset to engage more deeply with creativity, a growth mindset, and resourcefulness to give this side hustle its best chance of success.

Here at the Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship, we support our students, faculty, alumni, and even staff within our own team as they launch their own ventures.

--

For more information about Foliage Filipino you can visit the website here, or visit the aesthetically pleasing Instagram page here. 

For questions about this article contact Kevin Pilar, scrm_changinstitute@sfu.ca

For further quotes or a direct line with Maycko, you can contact him at maycko@foliagefilipino.com