Pam: It’s great to hear your stories and how untraditional, at least in the Asian community, your pads are. The question is, who are you? Where are you from? What led you to where you are right? I’m Pam Yang, a New Yorker, born and raised. I’ve also lived in Montana and Oregon. I am an only child, single mom, mainly and both my parents came from Taiwan and they came to New York for their masters so they met here. They were split when I was young, maybe when I was three.
A lot of things led me to where I am now. My mom would say stubbornness, I would say perseverance. I have my own career coaching business, but most of mine I went full time. I’ve been doing on the side for about a couple of years. Before that, I had a fifteen-year career in brand marketing, brand strategy, mainly within sports and that was my dream. The main thing that I’ve been doing most of my life is happiness hunting and dream chasing. I was maybe around 8, 9, 10 when I was like, “I’m going to be a commissioner of the NBA. Basketball is my sport. I love basketball. That’s the league. That’s the top job. That’s what I should have.” It was simple. It’s linear.
My mom never understood where this child came from. She was like, “I don’t understand who you are and why you are the way you are.” I attribute it a lot to where I am today. I got the pressure that normally comes with a traditional Asian upbringing, but because I was an only child and because my mom was a single parent, our dynamic was one on one. We didn’t have a lot of other influences, at least within our day-to-day and she laid out this path which was good grades, Ivy League school, so on and so forth and the options are orthodontists specifically, law, medicine, otherwise and finance or accounting. She was in banking.
Because I didn’t have other distractions at home, I didn’t have siblings to play with, I saw her life clearly. I saw how late she came home. I saw how much work, how many dinners she had to do afterward. I saw how tired she was when she came back. I saw how little time we had to spend and I was like, “I don’t know what exactly you’re doing, but I know I don’t want to do what you’re doing.” It wasn’t in the finance terms it was like, “Whatever life you’ve laid out, clearly it may not be the right path.” Early on because I had that inkling, I was like, “I’m going to chase my own path.” I was able to block out a lot of things. It was painful and unsupported for a lot of it, but because from that early age, I was like, “I can maybe make my own way.” That’s been useful along the way.
I chased various jobs within sports. I’m happy with all the places I went to because I hit the dream jobs I wanted. I wasn’t afraid to quit it all and try something new, I’ve done a lot of things that people who are now my clients consider doing, which is quitting their jobs and traveling for six months or taking a big road trip or starting their own business or blowing up a relationship or a life somewhere because you’re not happy. Having done those experiments, I feel equipped and solid to do what I’m doing, which is a combination of a lot of things that I want in a career and it took me a while to figure it out. It’s been the best transition.
Kimchi: I have tried that too. Happiness hunting and dream chasing, that’s one of my goals may be in the past 30 years, I’m seeking happiness. I’m looking for happiness. It did take me 30 years to find it. I finally solved that puzzle. I thought it’s here, or maybe it could go somewhere else and I have to keep chasing it in a different direction. Thank you for sharing, Pam. Kevin, as an actor and you say you were performing or studying Broadway, and Broadway is normally singing and dancing at the same time, correct?
Kevin: Sometimes, yes. They have what we call straight plays and then musicals. Straight plays are like your regular dramas or comedies where there’s no singing or dancing, like telling the story. You have your musicals that do have singing and dancing. You have your other musicals that are like singing. I never picked up dance classes when I was a kid because I was always in school. When I was introduced to theater, I knew how to act and I knew how to sing and whenever I go to the auditions for musicals that require you to be a triple. There’s a term in musical theater called park and bark. You park and sing while everyone dances around you. If you’re not a dancer, you can’t pick up the choreography, and that’s me.
Kimchi: Maybe that’s the next skill to learn.
Kevin: I’d love to.
Kimchi: As an actor, those are the skills that will open more doors for you. You only have to look. You know how to act. Singing, we haven’t heard that from you yet so we don’t know. Dancing, you can move a little bit. That will be awesome. Thank you. Katherine, I asked you this before but what’s the difference between fashion design and costume design?
Katherine: I have a degree in both but there is a lot more creative freedom in costume design. You’re storytelling. You’re creating a character through what they wear. When it comes to fashion, it’s more of a business and how you sell yourself. You’re creating a line that a lot of people could critique on and it’s a lot more corporate, a lot more business because it’s all on you. Whereas in costume design, you’re with a group of teams. You’re dealing with actors, producers, directors and it’s a lot more fun, in my opinion. I had careers in both, I worked in both. With costumes, it’s a lot less pressure. I’ve always liked storytelling. It’s one of my favorite things and creating a character through how they’re wearing or what color it is, those are what attracted me the most with costumes.
Kimchi: That’s unique. Thank you for sharing. How do you approach the costume design? Let’s say you work in the film and they give you an outfit for a character and you have to design the costume for that individual actor only.
