Founder

Sharey Magbanua.

Founder, Surreal Media

"I started as an appointment setter. Now I build systems that make great businesses impossible to ignore. The distance between those two things is the whole story."

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Cinematic · High-res · Brand-consistent

5+
Years in the industry
3
Businesses built & operated
10+
Disciplines mastered
∞
Questions asked along the way
Where It Started

I didn't start out wanting to build a creative agency. I started as an appointment setter.

At the time, I was just trying to make life work. Appointment setting was one of the easiest opportunities I could find, so I took it. I spent my days calling leads, talking to customers, following up, and booking appointments for med spa businesses. It was a pretty straightforward job.

Except I couldn't leave it at that.

Once I understood my role, I started wondering about everything around it. What happened to the leads after I booked them? Why were some businesses converting better than others? What was happening behind the scenes? How was the business actually generating those leads in the first place?

How I Started Learning

So I started learning.

First, lead generation. I learned how to find prospects, scrape lists, organize data, build lead-gen sheets.

Then I got pulled into social media.

Then came graphic design.

Then video editing.

Then content.

Then CRM.

Then automation.

Then workflows.

Then systems.

At some point, I realized I had somehow become the person doing a little bit of almost everything.

And honestly? I loved it.

I've always had a hard time being interested in only one thing. The moment I learn how something works, I want to know what's next. I'd finish one task and find myself thinking, "Okay, but how does this part work?" I would see someone else doing something and think, "I want to learn that too."

It probably wasn't the most conventional way to build a career, but it gave me something I wouldn't have gotten by staying in one lane: I started seeing how all the pieces of a business connect.

The Pattern I Noticed

Working with different companies and different people made that even clearer. I saw businesses with great products but weak content. Businesses generating leads but losing them in the follow-up. Businesses posting constantly without really knowing whether their social presence was healthy. Businesses with good ideas but no systems to support them.

And I started noticing something else.

"The problem usually wasn't that these businesses weren't good enough. They just weren't being seen the way they deserved to be seen."

That realization changed the way I looked at everything.

I stopped thinking about individual tasks and started thinking about the bigger picture. Content wasn't just content. A social media page wasn't just a page. A lead wasn't just a name on a spreadsheet. An automation wasn't just a workflow. Everything had a purpose, and everything was connected.

Why Surreal Exists

That's what eventually led me to Surreal Media.

Surreal isn't the result of me suddenly deciding, "I'm going to start an agency." It's the result of years of being unable to stop asking questions.

I wanted to understand the whole machine. How do you get someone's attention? How do you keep it? How do you turn that attention into a relationship? How do you build the creative around the strategy? How do you build the systems behind the creative so it can actually scale?

Now I get to explore all of those questions in one place.

What I Know Now

And that's probably what building Surreal has taught me most about myself: the thing I used to think was a weakness — wanting to learn everything — might actually be one of my biggest strengths.

"I don't need to be the best person in the room at one single thing. I want to understand enough of the room to see what everyone else might be missing."

That's the mindset I bring to Surreal.

Because anyone can learn a tool. Anyone can generate a video. Anyone can post on social media.

The real work is knowing what deserves attention, why it deserves attention, and how to make people look twice.

I started by learning how to get someone's attention on a phone call.

Now I'm building a company around helping great businesses earn it on a screen.

What I Stand For

My Creative Philosophy

01

"The gap between invisible and unmissable isn't talent — it's creative firepower."

02

"Safe content gets ignored. Comfortable content gets scrolled past. The work that earns attention always makes someone a little nervous before it goes live."

03

"AI is a craft, not a shortcut. Anyone can press generate. The real skill is knowing what to make — and why it will work."

04

"Great businesses don't always get the attention they deserve. That's the problem I wake up trying to solve."

05

"I don't need to be the best at one thing. I need to understand enough of the room to see what everyone else is missing."

06

"The best content starts before the first frame. It starts with understanding — the business, the audience, the goal."

Proof of Work

What I've Built

Started from appointment setting — and systematically learned lead generation, social media, graphic design, video editing, content, CRM, automation, workflows, and systems along the way.
Has worked with med spas, fitness clinics, e-commerce brands, real estate businesses, and local businesses across the US and the Philippines.
Fluent in the full stack of modern creative and marketing tools: GHL, CapCut, Kling, Midjourney, Meta Ads, and more.
Co-founded two businesses simultaneously — Surreal Media and Sip & Sonder Café in Parañaque City, Philippines.
Specializes in what most agencies ignore: what happens after the content — the follow-up, the funnel, the system that makes it scale.
Went from learning one skill at a time to running the full creative and strategy operation at a growing AI-powered agency.
Beyond the Work

The Human Side

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Based in Parañaque City, Philippines — working with clients across the US, and genuinely loving the chaos of both.

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Also runs a café — Sip & Sonder in Parañaque City. Because apparently one business wasn't enough.

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Has the kind of brain that finishes one thing and immediately asks "okay but how does that part work?"

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Goes by Shawie to people who actually know her.

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Currently obsessed with the intersection of AI video generation and storytelling — specifically what makes content feel human even when it isn't.

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Probably has 12 browser tabs open right now. All of them relevant.

Ready to make your brand
impossible to ignore?

Book a free discovery call. We'll make something surreal for you — live, on the spot.