Today we’d like to introduce you to Lydia Kim

Hi Lydia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

Looking back, I have to thank all the librarians of my youth who saw and nurtured my love of stories, put aside books for me, and made it a special endeavor to read. I believe that all those stories showed me the options of who I might be, what the possibilities were, since the options seemed otherwise limited when I was growing up. I majored in English, became an English lit teacher, taught so many students who are great writers. When I pivoted into creative strategy, storytelling remained the core of my abilities and interests. Honestly, if you can tell a good story, you can do just about anything. If you can do so verbally and in writing, even better. Now I am working towards becoming a paid writer and that is more difficult because it is closer to my personal creative hopes. It’s no longer about hitting a metric or persuading someone else but having my own creative work evaluated and that is a whole other ball of wax.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

It’s been smooth in the sense that I am able to do it! It has not been a straight line, as there have been detours and delays, though I don’t see those as obstacles. It’s more that I had to be ready before evolving into the next iteration of my storytelling self. One aspect that’s been a struggle is when elements of a workplace begin to really eat at me, the total misalignment with what I think is right, whether that is the way work is done, the kind of people who are elevated, or the way resources are used. That was a big part of why I went freelance as a strategist, so that I could choose. The hardest bit now is that working for yourself is often not legible to other people, despite the boom in freelancing, so there’s a lot of “so what exactly do you do?” type questions. People work in all kinds of ways, not always 9 to 5, eight hours in a row, at an open-plan office. I can feel this turning into a rant so I’ll stop there!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

As an English teacher who became a brand/creative strategist, I loved that I could draw on my long reading life for examples, allusions, and good old human truths to position a client in the culture, or in the sub-cultures where it had the most relevance. Now that I’m also pivoting into creative writing, I hope that all the marketing and comms experience will come in handy when it’s time to get the word out about my book. We once pitched a startup that was going to disrupt the publishing industry and I remember going off on a breathless tangent about the power of books and what it’s like to read something transformative. I felt weird afterwards because I’d been so loud. But one of the clients told me later that my genuine love of books was what sold them on the team, so it was a good lesson in letting your enthusiasm come through.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

Even if it looks like the path is haphazard, looking back, you’ll see how every step had a reason. There should be room for experiments, play, and mistakes along the way, which is easier said than done. Find your people! As a creative, your group is who will cheer you, support you, be a model for your own work, and you for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lydiaskim.com