We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Raven (Ying) Hernandez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Raven (Ying) below.
Hi Raven (Ying) , thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I had a regular job for 15 years and that is why as long as I can afford to support myself as a creative, I will! I spent years helping people build their “babies,” their companies; but there was too much creative passion inside of me not to take the plunge and go into business for myself. It was the best decision of my life and everyday I wake up grateful that all of my hard work now goes into building my own “baby.” I love the challenges, the lessons, the victories, the small milestones that show progress. The process is empowering and the knowledge that what was once an idea has sprouted to fruition is humbling and still sometimes quite unbelievable.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started my career in radio broadcasting back in high school. Amongst some of the stations I have worked for include New York City’s WQHT, Hot 97 and ABC Radio’s 95.5 WPLJ. Throughout college and afterwards, I continued working in broadcasting and content production and have created content for such publications as XXL, Global Grind and AllHipHop.com. I served as the content producer for the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival for a number of years, hosted and produced 2 web-based televisions shows and from time to time still work alongside Public Enemy’s Chuck D on his world-syndicated radio platform rapstation.com. More often these days, I lend my actual voice in doing voice-overs as a voice-actress; but everyday, my creative voice speaks loudest through my gemstone jewelry business, Ying & Kang.
Created by me and my dear friend from college, Yvette Kang, Ying & Kang is a high-end gemstone jewelry line. We create custom bracelets and necklaces, using unique gemstones sourced from all over the world. We hand-select, hand-craft and create each piece ourselves. When commissioned to make one-of-a-kind pieces, we use gemstones that speak directly to the customer it is for.
Yvette and I worked in broadcasting together in college and on several media projects together afterwards. One evening 4 years ago, as we stood on the corner of 34th street and Fashion Avenue in Manhattan, we got into a deep conversation about the state of the world, the pressures people feel, and the uncertainty and insecurity that can plague us. We thought, what can we do to remind people that they possess personal power? All of our previous collaborations were visual and for media purposes. We wanted to create something tangible, something that we could make with our hands and input our positive intentions into for people. We created Ying & Kang to empower and to assist individuals in enhancing their excellence. Due to the rarity of the gemstones that we use, their spiritual properties and meanings, our pieces are often regarded as talismans and serve purpose. Ying & Kang is intentional.
What also sets us apart from other gemstone jewelry brands, is that we are functional and fashionable; we create conceptual jewelry and we make no more than 3 pieces per design, thus making our pieces very exclusive. Our background in broadcasting was often intertwined with music, therefore we will often create special collections inspired by musicians and bands. We’ve created pieces honoring Prince, Aretha Franklin and bands like The Wu Tang Clan. We also love to travel and we create pieces in the countries we visit, inspired by the cities we are visiting. We’ve had a Paris Collection, Barcelona Collection and recently released our Thai Collection. Charity and giving back to communities is also something very important to us. Annually we will choose charities and organizations to donate proceeds to. Every February in honor of Black History month we release a collection called The Empowerment Line. The Empowerment Line includes 3 pieces that when sold, 50% of our proceeds are donated to three different Black Lives Matter organizations. One of the recent organizations we donated to was Colin Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights Foundation.” Last year when there was an increase of crime against Asian Americans in the US, we came out with a piece called “RESPECT,” which 100% of proceeds went to directly to a family that was victimized.
What makes me most proud about Ying & Kang, is the reception of our brand by people. Those who have purchased our pieces for themselves or for others, always tell us that they feel like they are part of a community. When customers who don’t know each other encounter one another, they often break into conversations about why they chose the Ying & Kang pieces they chose. We actually don’t refer to our customers as customers at all, we address them as GemStars. On our website, we even have a section dedicated to showcasing and highlighting our GemStars. We call our customers GemStars, because we believe that they are all stars in their own right and are all capable of shining bright like one. Anyone who supports us in any capacity, we refer to as Ying & Kang Fam. Creating meaningful and quality pieces for people is important to us and so is customer care and consideration. We provide repair services, so that our GemStars feel comfortable investing with us and we hand-write notes for every purchase. It is important to us that our positive intentions are clear, our passion for our work is felt and our appreciation for our supporters be prominent.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is knowing that I have the freedom to create products for my brand that derive directly from what inspires me. When I get inspired by something and I am able to translate and channel it into a physical creation, a Ying & Kang exclusive piece of jewelry, it feels like I’ve cracked a code or reached the top of a mountain. It feels like a grand accomplishment. I create each piece with care and once I complete a design for our collection, I look forward to the moment when someone selects that piece because it “spoke” to them. The notion that what inspired me, may in turn inspire someone else and that connectivity between me and my customer (GemStar) is unbelievably humbling.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
When working in broadcasting and media, no one really showed me the ropes. I cultivated my own style in hosting and producing, interviewing and presenting. Being that I didn’t have any direct guidance, I had to be very hands on. Doing everything yourself and teaching yourself how to do things, creates resilience that eventually turns into confidence. The trials and tribulations are your own to experience and improve. Although I was self-taught, I was given access to celebrities, information and resources, which was a key component to motivating me to want to do my best. I was fortunate enough to be given what I needed to do the job, it was up to me to do a good job. I did not want to waste any opportunities I was granted, so I always aimed to capture and produce the best content for my audiences.
When it came to starting our own business however, my partner and I knew that we were going to need step-by-step advice on how to create and build our company. Neither of us knew anything about running a company that sold products and we knew we needed to learn the legality of establishing ourselves and the best business practices for growth. Score.org is where we received a majority of our business advice and education. To this day we still have a mentor we work with from Score. Score is an organization of business professionals that donate their time to mentor small business owners, both starters and established. In addition to being able to receive mentoring, Score also offer seminars and workshops to aid in your entrepreneurial ambitions. The mentorships and workshops have added greatly to how I address and approach things with my business. As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you and you alone are responsible for creating revenue. If you don’t know how to bring in money for your company, then there is no company.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yingandkang.com
- Instagram: @yingandkang
Image Credits
Yvette Lee Kang!! Andrew Fennell