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Hopefully I will add more items and a store soon when I decide what to sell. My dream is just sell my expertise and experience, digital downloads, maybe events or workshops, and license content. Or if someone wants to pay me to attend conferences or review spas, then that would be good too.

May 1, 2024

Welcome to AAPI Heritage Month!

Today's a special day because it's the start of a month-long celebration of AAPI contributions that often go unnoticed. I have to say that representation in media has come a long way and I'm truly thankful for that.

Here are some helpful resources to learn and enjoy about the vast variety of AAPI heritage. (And yes, it is very vast, even though American culture has often called anything Asian "Chinese.")

Professional organizations: 😀

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) - This is a great organization for Asian Americans in the entertainment industry. They offer script competitions, panel discussions, and other special events throughout the year.

AAJA - (Asian American Journalists Association) - A friend to marketers and business owners who need to get the word out about themselves or their businesses. Always good to network with this group because they're the ones writing the stories and articles. It's generally for other journalists to network, but some of the events are open to all.

History: ⭐

American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (documentary film) - It tells the story of Civil Rights activist Grace Lee Boggs. I remember seeing this and thinking how marvelous.

Hazel Ying Lee (Chinese American pilot/ Women's Airforce Service Pilots)

Margaret Gee (Chinese American pilot/ Women's Airforce Service Pilots)

Food/ Snacks: 🥟

H Mart (multiple locations) - This is the giant Asian grocery store chain in America. So many snacks and not enough time. I can't read anything, but I always happily look at the giant photos on packages. Thankfully they have English on a lot of the labels now.

Hana Japanese Market (DC) - Small store with lots of great snacks, groceries, and trinkets. If you're from NYC, I guess it would be comparable to a bodega.

Vanessa's Dumpling House (NYC Chinatown location) - Every time when I'm in NYC, I always try to get some dumplings and a pancake crepe from here. Talk about budget friendly too! Don't dawdle because space is limited and there are more hungry people coming in behind you!

Dumpling Inn - Shanghai Saloon (San Diego, CA) - It used to just be a small hole in the wall restaurant, then they expanded into a bigger space to include the saloon with a full bar. These are some of the best dumplings.

Pine & Crane (Los Angeles, CA) - Modern Taiwanese food. My favorite is the vegan maopo tofu. (Not vegan, but used to be vegetarian for many years.) I used to go to the Silverlake location all the time, which was quite the trek from where I lived on the Westside but well worth it.

Koreatown (Los Angeles, CA) - Pretty authentic restaurants, bars, and drink places. It's better to go to with Korean people who know the language to get the best access to places and know what to order for you. My friends once took me to some restaurant where all I could do is just look at photos and wonder what the dishes were. They ordered me some kimchi omelette thing and it was pretty good.

Check out Chef David Chang's visit to Koreatown (aka K-town):

Cafe Dulce (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA) - Good stop for a sandwich, drink, or a pastry. My favorites are the caprese baguette sandwich and the roti bread.

Films/ TV: 📺

All the Fast & the Furious movies. Who knew Han was still alive?!

Always Be My Maybe - Ali Wong wrote a movie and cast Keanu as her boyfriend. Also with Randall Park.

K-Town - The Korean American YouTube series produced by Tyrese. Many have described it as a Korean American Real World (except they don't live together). Watch them as they wreak havoc in K-Town LA. You'll learn a lot about Korean culture, language, and K-town hot spots. Actually I would probably describe it as more of a Korean American The Hills/ Laguna Beach.

All the John Wick movies.

Nikita TV series (CW) - The government trained Nikita as an assassin. She got out and started her own rogue crew to fight against Division (the secret government agency).

May 3, 2024

Foray into Travel Writing

As any writer knows, sometimes you end up writing for different types of industries. At one point in time, I used to dabble in travel writing. I guess my first introduction to it was through a college internship I did with the travel writer Hal Gieseking. I remember him being a kindly, older man with white hair who explained that he needed someone to help him research bed and breakfast inns in the Southeast. It would essentially become a spreadsheet from which he could compile the contact information and visit each one for review. That information ended up becoming the published book The Unofficial Guide to Bed and Breakfasts in the Southeast.

I once picked up a copy in a bookstore and remember seeing my name listed in the Acknowledgements section. My first time having my name published in a real book!

Since then, I have dabbled in travel blogging and content creation.

Photo credit: Me (Melissa Chiou), Hermosa Beach, CA

Here's an article I wrote for We Said Go Travel about my cross-country journey across the U.S. with my dad (now passed away) and how much it meant to have that time together. That was when working in TV production in LA used to be my ultimate dream (until it became a nightmare, but that's another story).

If you want info on things to do while visiting LA, check out my Hipster's Guide to LA. I have often thought about how cool would it be if it got turned into a fictional film starring Aubrey Plaza. One can only dream!

May 6, 2024

Getting out of your own bubble

Photo by Braedon McLeod on Unsplash

Do you hang out with people who are exactly like you? That's good sometimes, but after a while it tends to inhibit new ideas or ways of doing things. I liken this to companies with siloed departments. With no exchange of information, these departments keep doing the same thing day in and day out, until one day they wake up and find out that the product or service they've been producing is irrelevant in the marketplace. That would be the worst case scenario.

Here are some strategies that I've found helpful to get out of the sameness bubble:

- Learn or read about something that's usually not in your wheelhouse.

- - Google Trends - great for finding out what the rest of the world is reading, watching, or searching for
  - Read magazines or media focused on other demographics or industries. I somehow managed to snag multiple subscriptions to different magazines and now I read magazines for different niches of people that are not necessarily for my demographic. (Yes, I read Essence and GQ, thank you very much.)
  - Sign up for industry newsletters that may or may not be related to your work. Most recently I signed up for Locksmith Ledger, a newsletter for locksmiths. Granted, this is also an interest of mine because I have taken workshops on lock picking and locksmithing.
  - Take advantage of any cross-training that your company offers. I used to love this at my old corporate job. You get to make new friends, learn new things, and people generally like to talk about themselves. It also makes it easier for cross-collaboration when working on projects together if you speak each other's language.
  - Talk to people from different industries and backgrounds. Variety is the spice of life. Why not add some sprinkles to your vanilla ice cream?

May 13, 2024

Thinking Different for Business Owners: Mixing the Old & the New

Photo by Eileen Pan on Unsplash

I see it all the time -- people hopelessly stuck in the past without the ability to figure out how to pivot or change with modern times. You see this a lot in legacy companies where leadership and management get in the groove and get comfortable in doing the same thing. Before you know it, your company is irrelevant and the world has moved on to something else.

In today's economy, businesses rarely survive on offering one thing anymore. It used to be that you did one thing and that was enough. For example, Adobe used to only focus on design. But then it bought ContentCal and they got into the business of social media scheduling as well.

Also it used to be restaurants only had to do one thing -- provide good food to keep customers coming back. Now they have to offer IG walls, events, merch, and classes.

Photo by Kelsey Chance on Unsplash

For those businesses that get it, they're able to weather any kind of catastrophe because they have multiple streams of income.

Where I see the opportunities now are in hardware stores and Blockbuster/ record shops. After Covid, people are longing to connect with others.

Formula:

Legacy companies + events that satisfy a human need (see Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs) + a sprinkle of nostalgia + technology = attracting customers into your brick and mortar stores to spend money

For example:

Home Depot would be a great candidate for in-person dating events, maker happy hours, or homebuilder workshops. Same for Ace Hardware.

Blockbuster would make the coolest backdrop for a '90s nostalgia meet cute dating mixers as well complete with full-size movie cutouts, Polaroid photo booth, and special throwback guests.

Extra credit: Garden supply store + typewriter poet happy hour to give you a custom poem.

What's clear that it's no longer good enough to just stay the same, especially with the increased competition from online shopping.

Photo by Freddy Castro on Unsplash

Questions to ask yourselves:

How can we make this experience memorable?
What innate need does this satisfy for our customers? (i.e. sense of belonging, self-actualization, etc.)
How do we integrate new and old technologies into something new that attracts both regular and new customers?
How do we insulate ourselves (build a diverse foundation of services and products) in case one sector goes down due to an unexpected event?
What new skills do we need to add to the team to be competitive?

Fun links:

The last Blockbuster store

Amoeba Music

Online Typewriter

May 16, 2024

Tech: Built on a House of Cards

The last few weeks I’ve found myself more disgruntled by social media platforms. It’s insidious how algorithms are taking over our social media feeds where we can’t even see the posts from the accounts we follow. It’s truly a case of tech companies being self-serving to horde all the web traffic by optimizing the amount of time you spend on their platforms. I resent it. I resent it all.

When one company does it, then they all do it.

This is not a case of companies serving customers, but themselves.

We see this even more from the news story yesterday of Google now planning to integrate their Gemini AI feature into Google search, which has publishers up in arms about traffic being taken away from them. As if the death of newspapers from digital wasn’t enough. Tech wants to take their digital livelihoods away too.

It’s obvious that publishers need to take action instead of sitting back and being a victim. Diversify those revenues so you don’t depend solely on traffic for ad dollars. Tech does not care about you and the sooner you realize that, grab the opportunity to think different, and say no we’re not bowing down to you.

May 22, 2024

Vacation Feels: It’s Almost Summer!

Photo: Me in some faraway time

Who else is ready for summer? I’m just thankful the mosquitos aren’t in full force yet and the humidity isn’t so bad yet.

Last week I attended the Podcast Creator Summit in D.C. and got some insight into what people are listening to and how to optimize podcasts in general. It was pretty cool because I’m generally not in that arena since I’m from the TV/video world.

Patrick B. Cherry, the rep from Apple Podcasts, had a good workshop on new platform updates and tips on how to optimize your content. Some takeaways: auto-transcription, auto-translate transcription, social media graphics tools to create and optimize your marketing graphics, and a pitch option where you can pitch their team to get featured.

👀
Overview of Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasters.apple.com/

Apple Podcasts Social Media Assets tool: https://tools.applemediaservices.com/apple-podcasts-promote

P.S. If you want a show to binge over the weekend, the new season of Max’s Hacks is back! Jean Smart has been so amazing on this show. Such a great actor. Also great on 24.

May 23, 2024

Remote Work: Wide Open Spaces

The best part of working remotely is definitely the flexibility and variety. Since I left corporate, I have worked for different clients spanning different industries. The one thing you will find out about me is that I love learning and am always curious about new things. I find it extremely boring doing the same thing every day and being completely happy. The most soul-sucking part of the corporate world is the waste, especially if there's nothing to do and you still have to sit in the office for 8 hours a day.

Maybe that's why I found myself looking at relocation programs again today. Getting paid to move somewhere new would be nice. The best one I found so far was a program for West Virginia, which coincidentally is where I was born. I have no memory of it, except for scant photos of me as a baby, and stories from my extended family about visiting.

I have to admit the outdoor recreation vouchers sounded great. I always wanted to go ziplining and I always loved a good ropes course in school. But then I dug deeper and I got brought down to Earth about what's it's really like and how maybe it's not really helping the community at all.

(Not West VA): Photo by Ty Downs on Unsplash

Oh well, off again to search for something else.

A helpful recommendation for today about understanding the economy:

The New Economy of Jobs by Enrico Moretti

May 29, 2024

AI and Pickleball

Another day, another story about a tech company employing AI to drive traffic away from publishers. Google and Meta are now both in the game to summarize your news for you using their AI services. I don't know about you, but I like having the autonomy to search multiple sources for information because they all tend to be skewed. At what point do we push back on tech and take back our autonomy to critically think for ourselves?

On another note, I read a fascinating article about the downfall of the Santa Monica 3rd St. Promenade and how rising rents have pretty much increased vacancy. As a former Santa Monica resident, I know this area well. I remember how it used to be packed of tourists every summer weekend and how I would avoid it on weekends because of it. Back then, it was already mostly dominated by corporate chains.

What's interesting to note is that as traditional businesses in that area have faltered, the bright spot has been a place called Pickle Pop, a place that provides pickleball court play. It just goes to show that experience-type of places are still in big demand. From their website, it appears the location also fills in the gap of being a "third place" that isn't home or work.

On the East Coast, we've been seeing more indoor pickleball places open here as well in the DMV area (shorthand for D.C., MD, and VA). I've been to one so far in D.C. and thought it was pretty fun (though they really needed some AC). And just recently another new pickleball place called The Pickleball Club of Tysons opened in Tysons Corner, VA, a wealthy suburb of D.C.

It's clear people are crazy for pickleball for sure.

It got me thinking how businesses could capitalize on this. Imagine branded pickleballs you could give out at trade shows or industry events. Branded pickleball bags to carry racquets. Branded headbands? Or even hosting a pickleball night to get your brand or company in front of new customers.

May 31, 2024

Combining the Old & the New

As you have gathered by now, I love combining the old and the new into something greater than the sum of its parts. I find it unfortunate when younger people or young companies dismiss anything legacy as useless when there's usually some gems and value. It's more about integration.

This is a problem that many companies struggle with as they try to keep up with staying competitive in today's economy. Technology keeps changing so quickly and audiences are fickle with an explosion of choices and demands on their time. I know when my department at my corporate job was closing down, it was only me left and I had to constantly troubleshoot technical issues in the video editing bay and server rooms with the tech department.

The problem became how do we maintain workflow efficiency between legacy and new equipment. This proved increasingly difficult as the engineer who either created or maintained one piece of legacy equipment was no longer available. It became a mystery to remaining staff and all we could do is hope for the best.

In an ideal world, you would still retain the old knowledge in order to work in tandem with the new.

This idea of combining old and new technology got me thinking of opportunities in different spaces. For instance, I think pinball repair could combine with a remote repair SAAS service. From what I have gathered so far, the repair business for pinballs still seems very mechanical. Owners learn to repair themselves with their own tools or call a repair person.

I only talk about pinball repair because I'm a pinball player and have been wanting to do more pinball repair, but there seems to be a lack of training for the younger generation. Of course too, I don't look like your average pinball repair person, but you would be wrong to assume anything about me because I'm not a walking stereotype created through mainstream media.

(Just like a client on a TV shoot assumed I was the make-up person when I was really the teleprompter operator. Thank you, I do love make-up, but no, the 50+ lbs of equipment I had with me did not contain that.)

Old things that I love:

Musée Mécanique in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf - antique pinball machines
The Safecrackers TV show - Locksmith and his buddy open antique safes. One of my favorites is when they opened an old underground bunker.

New things that I love:

Techcrunch - tech news
Gather - virtual meetings & events with a retro '80s game look

Bonus:

New John Wick pinball machine. Was excited to try it, but it was kind of a let down. ✏️

Check it out here:

June 12, 2024

Fear of Rejection and Doing It Anyway

Who else has talked themselves out of doing something and then has stayed stuck? I think it's a common struggle.

There's a guy who experimented with Rejection Therapy to get over the fear of rejection by doing things every day that might get him rejected. The goal was to get so used to it to remove the power it had over him. I found this profoundly fascinating because I think a lot of people struggle with perfectionism and the fear of failure.

Fear is a constant, especially if you're pitching new ideas.

In my own life, I always have pitches for article ideas, TV shows, and marketing concepts swirling around in my mind and on scraps of paper. Pitch it and do it anyway. That is the affirmation that I have to remind myself every day.

I struggle with this given how I grew up conditioned that my opinions don't matter, I need to shut up, and know my place. I've seen what happens when you go against that and you defy people's perceptions of you. It makes them uncomfortable and resentful. This is why media stereotyping is so harmful because it affects how everyday people interact and view each other.

Anyway, this week I'm working on compiling info and notes for TV show ideas. Finally signed up for IMDB Pro to get access to showrunner and agency contacts. I never knew it had so much information!

I worked in TV production for a long time and have my own IMDb page (that I guess the company created for me), but mostly on the technical side and not as a producer. Being on the other side is a different story.

The industry is a strange thing as I've watched colleagues go on and do other things. You never know how things will turn out. A lot of it is connections and likeability.

July 16, 2024

Sadness and Books. Books and Sadness.

Hope everyone is having a nice summer. Seems like everyone is on vacation right now. Whenever I finally manage to brave the blistering heat outside to go to a co-working space, there is no one there. I may as well have stayed at home or gone to a coffee shop.

The last few weeks have been sad as my mother finally passed away from a long illness. Both of my parents are now gone.

In the meantime, I've been catching up on some books and newsletters I've been meaning to read.

Recommendations:

Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech & Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State by Byron Tau - It was truly shocking how much data tech companies collect about you, package it up, and sell it.
Kyle Secor, Substack newsletter about his time on Homicide: Life on the Street. Go back to the '90s and hear what it was like on the set of this NBC show. This was one of my favorite shows as a kid. Great writing, acting, and character development.

Will get around to reading:

Burn Book by Kara Swisher
In the Shadows: True Stories of High-Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad by Mickey Bergman - I found out about this book after attending an event at The Stimson Center in D.C.

Check out the recorded replay with him here:

Antique Locks and Keys: Their History, Uses and Mechanisms by Ulf Weissenberger - I'm obsessed with antique locks, keys, and safes. I've been dreaming up a pinball machine safe because how cool would that be?

Aug 2, 2024

YouTube as a Small Business Advocate

It's Friday! What better way to celebrate by watching a funny YouTube video. I hope you enjoy this one I found from SE Lock & Key, a small locksmith shop based out of Jackson, Mississippi. It's owned and operated by long-time married couple Jason and Kim. As an avid locksmithing student, I found them while searching for antique locks.

We've seen the effects of technology and online shopping on traditional brick and mortar stores by driving many out of business, so I think it's a fascinating case study of a legacy store using technology to its advantage. YouTube has allowed them to extend beyond their local community to reach a larger online audience through tutorials and daily life content.

What would be most interesting to me is if YouTube had a curated virtual shopping plaza with multiple YouTube channels featuring brick and mortar small businesses. I've seen this type of thing done with MetaMarket's virtual farmers' market. Basically it had an old '80s game interface and you would visit each virtual store on the board, then you had the option to virtually talk to the shop owner through video chat and buy directly from the shop online.

Finally another exciting thing I found out about is the ideniKey app.

Created by CLK Supplies, a brick and mortar locksmith parts supplier based out of Idaho, it allows locksmiths to take a photo of a key, immediately find the blank key for it, then buy it online through CLK. (Blank keys are what locksmiths use when customers request key duplication or copies.) What a great way to save time for locksmiths, build brand awareness for the supplier, and increase supplier revenue.

August 9, 2024

Teleprompter Guide for Public Speakers

Happy Friday, everyone! I just started cleaning out my cloud storage and came upon this old blog post that I wrote (and I don't think I posted). For anyone who doesn't know me, I used to be a teleprompter operator for a teleprompting company based out of DC between 2003-2006. The company would send me out on jobs to set up and operate teleprompters for broadcast, corporate, and live events.

I completely forgot I wrote this guide to teleprompters. Granted, the technology has changed somewhat but the basics are the same.

Here is the blog post:

TELEPROMPTER GUIDE FOR PUBLIC SPEAKERS

If you’re a public speaker, then you will most likely use a teleprompter at some point. These are useful pieces of equipment that help you deliver a flawless speech without having to memorize large amounts of information. They’re commonly used by politicians, executives, and presenters from projects ranging from corporate videos to live events.

Types of Teleprompters

These may vary according to the type of video shoot or event.

There are 3 basic set-ups.

These include:

Free-standing
On-camera
Live Event/ Presidential

Free-standing is common if it’s a video shoot without a lot of camera movement needed from the camera operator. The teleprompter is placed directly in front of the camera lens on a freestanding tripod. These are generally for talking head interviews that are primarily static.

On-camera is a little more involved and includes the physical attachment of the teleprompter monitor to the camera via the camera plate. This gives the camera operator optimal movement to pan, tilt, or walk around with more freedom. This is most useful if it’s a field shoot and the crew may need to change locations quickly or the video requires many camera moves.

Live Event/ Presidential includes two different set-ups that are for live events. The style is largely dependent on the needs of the client – if they’ll be at a podium primarily standing still or if they need the freedom to move around the stage unencumbered.

For the live event that has one static speaker standing in one place, sometimes the presidential set-up is enough. This consists of two clear glass panels that are placed on either side of the podium at the speaker’s eye level. These panels are held up by stands that have hidden video monitors on the floor that feeds the script onto the glass panels. This is the set-up mostly used by the President for press conferences or speeches.

For a live event that needs options for both static and moving public speakers, you will often see a presidential set-up by the podium and also jumbo floor monitors set up near the stage on either side or jumbo monitors at the back of the room. This is the most versatile set-up, as it provides more options for speakers. Conferences and award shows use this the most.

Helpful Tips

What’s useful to know is that the teleprompter operator will always follow your speaking speed. If you talk faster, the script will move faster on-screen. If you talk slower, the script will slow down.

The operator also has the capability to make edits on the fly (please refrain from rewriting the whole speech that day), change font colors, and increase and decrease font size depending on a speaker’s eyesight or preferences.

Please be aware that the larger you make the font, then the less text you will be able to read and the harder it will be for the operator to follow you.

For professional journalists or presenters who have many years of experience reading teleprompters, they often read their scripts closer to the top of the teleprompter screen so that they’re able to see what’s coming up next. This is often to prepare themselves time to give the proper inflection or emotion on certain words.

Novice speakers tend to read a little further down from the top of the screen and speak slower.

Just know that the more you practice, then the more natural it becomes.

Conclusion

Hopefully with this knowledge, you will feel more prepared for whatever teleprompter set-up you encounter in your next project. They work very much the same, though the mechanics may be slightly different.

Because at the end of the day, the ultimate goal is for you to share your information in the best way possible.

Aug 26, 2024

Monday Motivation: 5 Resources for Business Owners

#1: Clubhouse app - Mindset and Support

Remember during Covid when we didn't have anything to do, except be on Clubhouse? Well, it's still a useful tool even if it's not as popular as it once was. The mindset and entrepreneur rooms are still good for inspiration, listening to entrepreneur stories, and finding support. The best part is that it's global, so it helps expand your network outside of your local community.

2: Eventbrite - Building Community

Easily create an event to build brand awareness, whether virtual or in-person. Remember to include relevant keywords in your description to be easily found.

3: Slack/ Discord/ Reddit groups - Building Community

These are a little less formal that typical social media. Connect with niche audiences directly.

4: Substack/ newsletters - Building Community

Create content that resonates with your target audience. Attract not chase. With this option, you open up the possibilities of partnerships, selling ad space to sponsors, and selling your services/ products directly to an engaged audience.

5. 7 Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra - Mindset

Small book, big impact. Great for daily reminders to help you along your journey.

Oct 1, 2024

New Month, VP Debate Day

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

Happy October! I couldn't even believe it when I looked at my calendar. September just blew by, didn't it?

I worked on a digital campaign project for most of September, so it's nice to have a break in the meantime.

Hope everyone is registered to vote. I know I'll be tuning into the VP debate tonight that will most likely be entertaining even if it's not that informative. Or maybe it will be both. I will have my bingo card ready at the viewing party.

Things that have me excited this week:

John Wick will return to theaters this November for its 10th anniversary. 🐶
Homicide: Life on Repeat podcast - re-live all your memories of the NBC show with two of its stars Reed Diamond and Kyle Secor 💻
SE Lock & Key weekly Saturday livestream - because where else can you go hang out virtually in a locksmith shop? 🔑
News that you can finally renew your passport online! Maybe I can finally leave the country again. My passport expired during Covid and I just gave up trying to renew it. ✈️
New pinball place opened up closer to me and it has one of my favorites - Medieval Madness. The Pinball Map app is great for tracking the location of all favorite machines near you. 📱

October 8, 2024

Asian American Representation in Hollywood

Watching the new Ali Wong: Single Lady Netflix special today got me thinking about how far Hollywood has come in Asian American representation. It's something I know too well, as someone who worked in the industry (albeit in production behind the scenes) in LA.

When I was there between 2006-2016, it was still very much Asians relegated to side roles or stereotypes. Eventually it would change with the popularity of YouTube and digital platforms where Asian Americans could create and distribute their own content without gatekeepers. I remember going to an event at YouTube Space LA and hearing about a popular YouTuber named Ryan Higa. I was also enthralled by the K-town series on YouTube at the time. It was a novelty to have Asian Americans as main characters, never mind an all Asian American cast.

It's interesting how the changes in how audiences consume media (online streaming) has forced Hollywood's hand in acknowledging that demand had shifted from network and linear channels to digital and on-demand home viewing.

Since I've left LA, I'm glad that the representation has gotten better. It makes me happy for future generations. I remember taking improv and sketch comedy classes at night while I worked my day job with a nascent dream of being a TV writer. To me it just seemed like an exercise in futility. I also hated long production hours and the superficiality of the business.

It's definitely a long game needing lots of patience if you go the traditional route, though social media has allowed people to cut down the time and path to success.

Here are some helpful organizations leading the change:

CAPE - Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment

AAJA - Asian American Journalists Association

Gold House - Community of Asian American leaders in entertainment

M88 - Talent Management/ Representation

Kollaboration - Supporting and showcasing Asian American entertainers

October 22, 2024

Events, Third Spaces, and Opportunities

Photo by Vladislav Klapin on Unsplash

Post-Covid four years later, there's never been a greater need for events and third spaces (communal places outside home and work). Fortunately, companies are filling the void by hosting events, trade shows, and virtual events to build communities around their products and services.

Last week Adobe Max 2024 kicked off with lots of panels and events in-person in Miami, Florida and virtually online. Fortunately many of the sessions are still available for free on-demand here. From what I've seen, Adobe has gone all in on integrating AI into many of their applications. What I found most thrilling was the generative extend feature in Premiere Pro (beta), which was pretty cool for extending clips when you need to fill more time.

This huge event has allowed Adobe to get massive PR and marketing reach, while helping creatives network and showcase their work.

Another event that I attended last week was the Cvent Tour stop in-person in Washington, D.C. I have to say that I was impressed from start to finish because the tour functioned as a real-life demo of their products and services from registration, check-in, during the event, and post-event. I found the whole workflow very well-organized to optimize efficiency and attendee networking. I especially liked the app that both functioned as a lead generator for Cvent itself as well as an attendee networking list.

An interesting discovery I learned was their integration with AI in terms of sourcing event venues. It seemed very efficient, though I had questions about which venues were included in the database, if those businesses pay to be in the directory, and the impact to smaller venues that are not included. Incidentally, I ended up meeting a woman at the event who works for an organization that provides event space to nonprofits for free.

Overall, I think events (in-person or virtual) continue to be a great way for companies to connect with their customers, source new ones, and create a community around a common interest.

I think eventually I will go back to offering office hours myself. Most recently, I've been experimenting with building out a virtual office in Gather. I've customized it with a Halloween theme so far, but I haven't gotten it quite the way I like it yet.

So, we shall see...

October 23, 2024

AI Bots: Always On and Listening

I wasn't planning to write about AI bots today until I finally cracked into the Esquire magazine I had sitting on my desk. (I get a lot of random magazines sent to me for free.) Lo, and behold a whole article about men and their AI girlfriends. I remember watching the movie Her and thinking that was weird. I think they need more help than an AI bot, maybe a therapist, journal therapy, and a well-rounded life with friends and an IRL significant other.

The article interviewed one guy who said he revealed some secret to his AI girlfriend, which got me thinking about data privacy. Because what he's actually doing is revealing his secret to a tech company and who knows where that data will end up.

Oct 28, 2024

🎃Happy Halloween Week

Hope everyone is getting their fill of spooky, scary, and candy. This holiday is kind of weird this year with some people celebrating really early or late because it's in the middle of the week.

I haven't decided if I will dress up this year. However, I have lots of candy to give away (couldn't resist that buy 1 get 1 free deal at the store) and maybe I will break out my tarot cards to give out some readings.

Happenings around D.C. last week:

DC Startup & Tech Week - I only managed to go to the Expo where startups and companies showcased their products and services. I got in just before they closed, so I didn't have too much time to really look at everything. I talked to a few people, then stopped by this one booth that didn't have anyone there except some graphic photos of a dead person's knee and how they used it to graft it to someone else's knee. It was appalling and grotesque and of course I was intrigued. Apparently they use AI to match donor and patient knees.

What's on my radar:

Cats with Jobs on X and Reddit is the greatest thing ever. I never knew they had so many professions. It makes me laugh every day.
The Locksmith (2023) movie starring Ryan Phillipe. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 32%, yeah I would say it was bad. The main marquee names (Phillipe, Kate Bosworth, Ving Rhames) were ok, but the villains were terrible. I really only watched it because I've been studying locksmithing and was curious about how they would portray it.
VP Kamala Harris' speech at the Ellipse in D.C. on Tues, 10/29. Definitely will be a photo opp for the campaign to get those huge rally photos to prove once and for all who had the biggest rally.

Nov 4, 2024

⏱Election Week: Hallelujah, It's Almost Over

Get those votes in, people! Two more days and then we won't have to see any more political ads, then it will be back to that guy apologizing for interrupting us but can he talk about Jesus for a second.

Make sure to save your sticker to get some Election Day deals. Nothing like rewarding yourself for completing your civic duty.

Nov. 6, 2024

Adobe: New Project Violet Video Editing App

Photo by Bruce Mars on Unsplash

If you want something new to try for video editing on the go, check out Adobe's newest offering called Project Violet. It's currently available to the public for iOS in the Apple Store here.

I saw the demo earlier this week from the Adobe team and it seemed pretty simple to use.

I finally tried it myself this afternoon and have to say that it's as simple as you can get, but still get versatile functionality. If you're familiar with Adobe Rush, then I would say it's pretty similar.

For music, you can log into your Adobe Creative Cloud account and it will display Adobe Stock royalty-free music or it can pull from any Apple Music you have purchased.

There are also a variety of preset looks you can apply to your video.

Tried it? Let me know what you think!

Nov. 13, 2024

Veterans' Day Week

Hope everyone had a nice Veterans' Day this past Monday.

Here is a YouTube replay of The Hill's Veteran Voices event that they hosted today in D.C.

It's great to see the bipartisan mission of congress members actively working to understand and support veterans as much as they can. The main issues they mentioned included the difficulty of transitioning between military and civilian life as well as losing the camaraderie of their fellow service members. I can attest that civilian life is very different, especially in the U.S. where it's mainly every person for themselves dealing with oftentimes trivial "first world problems."

Nov. 14, 2024

Throwback Thursday: 5 Ways to Connect with Brands for Influencer Deals

Enjoy this throwback article I wrote on Medium. 👇

5 Ways to Connect with Brands for Influencer Deals

Have you always wondered how influencers get brand deals?

As someone with experience as both a creator and marketer, I’m in the unique position to understand the goals of each and how to optimize this relationship.

The creator space continues to grow as people discover the freedom of remote work and the ability to create new streams of income in an unstable economic climate. The competition for eyeballs is fierce as social media companies, such as Meta and Clubhouse, throw money at creators in an effort to stem the wave of TikTok.

Here are the best ways to get found as a creator and/or influencer:

1. Get listed in an influencer directory

Marketers don’t have a lot of time. They are overwhelmed with the sheer volume of trying to shift through so much content. We need data, especially to justify the marketing budget. Make it easy for them to find you.

I usually start my search here as a baseline to see what’s out there. The good thing is we see metrics, such as number of followers and engagement rates.

Once I start my search here, then I will look at who those influencers follow as well. That brings me to the next point.

2. Be active in the influencer community

Often times I will find an influencer in a niche and I will look at who else that person is following to find similar influencers. I will then add them to my list of potentials, especially if they’re not listed in a directory. Even though there may not be any data analytics, I always keep them in mind for the future.

I also recommend participating in in-person or virtual events if possible. DC Bloggers does a good job of this.

3. Optimize your bio

This means including a clear understanding of what you do, links to your other profiles, location, and your email address. Location is especially important for brands looking to expand into a certain area where they need to get more app downloads, visibility, or customers.

4. Be on multiple platforms

This just means increasing the likelihood that someone will find you. Because of the proliferation of social platforms, marketers may use all of them but favor certain ones more than others. It doesn’t mean you need to post on all of them all of the time. I would say have a main one that you’re particularly strong in and a couple back-up ones.

From what I’ve seen, most influencers excel at one platform more than others. This is important because brands usually are looking specifically for creators who specialize in certain platforms. The last two influencer marketing campaigns I worked on wanted TikTokers and YouTubers.

5. Participate in hashtag communities

This is helpful to get recurring visibility. People like familiarity and if they keep seeing the same users, they have a sense of comfort and are more likely to keep you top of mind.

It also helps marketers with organic search in case you’re not in a directory.

So those are my tips. And of course the given is to produce good content that optimizes the algorithm for your strongest platform.

Good luck!

Nov. 21, 2024

Innovating in Silence: Why the Best Ideas Are Often Hidden

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I learned from a very young age that my opinion or input was never wanted. This was in stark contrast to earlier when I used to be a very outgoing, fearless child unafraid to talk to random strangers. It got so bad in kindergarten that I would always get a mark for "needs improvement" on my report card for talking too much.

As the years went by, I learned to fall in line, be quiet, and do as I was told. Even when I gave my opinion, there would be someone quick to shut me down. No one cared to hear me speak, so I stopped talking. Now people just think I'm reserved or at worst lacking in charisma (as I woefully learned when an interviewer mistakenly sent me their AI transcribed notes of our call). Can you say AI fail?

It's a fallacy that the most competent people are the loudest or the most talkative. It's a theme that Adam Grant explores in Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Great Things. What I found most interesting is the unique way he described changing the typical brainstorming meeting. Instead of people sitting around a table and presenting their ideas, he recommends getting everyone involved by letting them write their ideas on paper and submitting them anonymously. This helps in removing the meeting hog(s) from commandeering the entire meeting and the fear from others of speaking up in a group.

It's a wonder that more leaders don't integrate this system more. We would be able to solve problems more creatively, anticipate issues, and perhaps cut off problems before they even start.

What I’m digging this week:

Clements Lock & Security: Locksmith shop for all your lock and key needs during the day, bar at night. Love the creative solution of opening up another avenue for revenue while also providing a third space for the community and attracting new customers.

The Veterans Project Benefit Auction: Now closed, but you can still donate to a great cause. Their mission is to provide screenwriting training and networking opportunities for military veterans.

The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum: Located just outside LA, this museum unfortunately just closed last month after experiencing financial difficulties post-Covid and from the death of its main benefactor. I hope they are able to find new funding because it really is a remarkable museum with beautiful and historic cars. The best part was being able to ride in one of the cars on Sundays. I’ll never forget the Sunday that I got to ride in an early 1900s model. How cool is that?

Bonus:

😎If you’re ever in the LA area, I would recommend the The International Printing Museum. It has a wealth of history with numerous, historic printing presses on display.

🌴For more LA travel tips, check out my guide Hipster’s Guide to LA over on Amazon.

Nov. 25, 2024

What I Learned About Sales from Working in a Doctor's Office

In 2006, I had recently moved to LA to embark on my new life. At that point, I had already already worked five years in TV production in DC on major broadcast shows. I ended up taking a job at a reality TV production company working nights in their post production department. During the day, I worked another part-time job at a doctor's office doing simple filing work.

I met with the staff and interviewed with the doctor who was amiable enough. He recognized that I was probably overqualified for the job, but hired me anyway.

I marveled at their messy manual filing system as they still hadn't transitioned to a digital system yet. The main staff person I worked with the most naturally assumed I was still in college because it was par for the course that I tended to look at least five years younger than my real age.

I wasn't there long, but from my short time there I was always well-fed with free lunches that just miraculously appeared every day. I would later learn that this was a common thing for pharma reps to buy lunch for the entire staff, while presenting their newest products to the doctor on his lunch break.

Looking back, I thought how convenient. You solve the problem of hungry office staff while also using the doctor's probably only free time to do your sales pitch. People have to eat, right? Bingo.

Lessons Learned:

Solve a daily need problem for your customer
Influence the people around your main sales decision maker
Create a personal, inviting experience for your customer
Build in a routine that allows convenience for everyone
Build in-person relationships

Dec. 20. 2024

Creative Marketing & Holiday Gift Guide (Online & Washington, DC)

Happy December! Hope everyone is having a nice holiday season.

Here is a round-up of things I've gathered recently.

Lo-fi sensory marketing - Check out this scratch and sniff magazine ad from McCormick, the spice company. Perfect for the holidays and a great way for readers to experience the brand firsthand. I like how they also incorporated the QR code. Perfect combo of lo-fi and tech marketing in one.

Some cool gift ideas for last minute shoppers.

Vacation - Feel like you're back in the '80s drinking pina coladas on the beach with these sunscreen products with throwback graphics and packaging. If you join their online community at the bottom of the page here, you can even create your own business card as an honorary employee. I take my job as Director of Snow Cone Relations very seriously.

18.21 Man Made - Male grooming products never looked this good. Check out their body washes creatively packaged in whiskey bottles or their beard/ tattoo oils in mini oil cans. Now they just need to do a photo shoot at the garage-themed bar The Garage on Motor in Culver City, CA. I found this can at my local Ulta store.

Genuine Fred - Quirky gifts that surprise and delight. I have one of their heart key rings that I bought at Urban Dwell in Adams Morgan (see below if you're in DC).

Seltzer Goods - Quirky gifts from tote bags, 7-year pens, and housewares. I'm a big fan of the 7-yr pens with my favorite being the palm tree one. They usually include some freebies with purchase too.

Local picks in the Washington, DC Metro area:

Urban Dwell in Adams Morgan DC - Lots of creative cute gifts from journals, stickers, pens, books, and other housewares. They also sell Genuine Fred and Selzer Good products.
Penny Post in Old Town Alexandria, VA - Find all your stationery needs here. They also have workshops and events.
Femme Fatale DC in Cleveland Park DC - Shop from lots of independent vendors. Don't forget to leave a guest message on their typewriter in the back!
Downtown DC Holiday Market on F Street - Grab some warm snacks and peruse the vendors in this festive market. I'm sad that Coastal Hobo, the Turkish towel place isn't there this year, but they still have the chocolate place Chocoidea that sells chocolate in the shapes of hardware tools and other household objects. Nothing like digging into a chocolate horseshoe. Yum.
Creative Collective pop-up store in Tysons Center Mall - Wide selection of vendors. Find everything from stationery, jewelry, and even ski gear. I got these cool notebooks from Laughing Elephant and a cell-phone stick-on case from Studio Oh!.

Happy holidays!