We were lucky to catch up with Andrea Vargas Moreno recently and have shared our conversation below.
Andrea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
Back in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic my friend, and now business partner, and I decided to start our own company. This was a huge risk at the time due to how devastating the virus was, and it ultimately shut down the world. There were a lot of changes in my life throughout the pandemic that helped shape this decision.In 2019, My father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma for the second time. When the pandemic started, he had just come off one of the harshest treatments. The Stem Cell transplant treatment required him to be quarantined for two months in the Bone Marrow transplant unit at the UNC-Chapel Hill Hospital. After completing his treatment, my father had to undergo quarantine once again at home for over six months. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to stay with him throughout his treatment. I was involved in every aspect of his care, from changing his catheter dressings to ensuring that he received the best possible treatment to aid his recovery. I was determined to help him survive and was willing to do whatever it took to support him as his caregiver.
While we were slowly trying to get back to normalcy, Covid-19 hit us with a bang. This terrified us. My dad’s immune system was not strong enough to beat a common cold, much less Covid-19. My mom and I were taking all necessary precautions to keep my dad safe, including using gloves, and masks, showering before coming into the house, and cleaning the groceries and bags as they came in. As the lockdown order came into effect, we started working from home and it was a huge relief for us. At the time, I had the type of job that could be done from home successfully. So, I had hoped that after 3 months of working from home, turning in things early, and feeling super productive, I would be allowed to continue to work from home a bit longer since I was my father’s caregiver. I was wrong.
My employer asked us to go back to the office after 3 months with the promise of following safety protocols which were never kept. Experiencing how little care and concern they had for what was happening with the pandemic, I voiced my concerns to management. I was not only dismissed in a way that made me well aware of their lack of concern for the safety and well-being of their employees or their families but I was also forced into a 2-week vacation that ultimately led to the decision to leave my job. My employment in an uncaring environment was not worth the risk of losing my family. Management was aware of my father’s condition and they challenged my concerns by stating that if they allowed me to work from home longer, they would have to extend that to other individuals in the company as well. Management went as far as explicitly stating “We’re all going to die eventually.” During my forced two-week vacation, I was contacted on how to do my job. By this point, I already knew I wasn’t going back.
People think that the risk I took at the time was quitting my job after seeing how high-risk individuals were being treated, and the apparent lack of concern for human life. No, the risk came with what I did after. Instead of rushing to apply for another company and struggling to find a job that would allow me to work from home until my dad got better, I started my own company. Regardless of how risky it was to start a company in the middle of a pandemic, we jumped at the opportunity. I am now blessed to say that if allowed to go back in time to choose again, I would happily make the same decision.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Andrea Vargas Moreno was born in Cali, Colombia, and moved to the United States when she was 10. She’s a North Carolina-based Creative Director, Producer, Designer, and Marketing Specialist with a Fashion Marketing and Management background. In July 2020, she became the Co-CEO and Founder of the brand management and media company SutchiLee Productions, LLC, representing “A New Standard of Excellence” while offering services in Digital & Print Media, Film, & Entertainment.
In addition to SutchiLee Productions, Andrea runs a K-pop lifestyle brand, “#AllAboutThatKpopLife” with PreShus Lee. Her experience in different fields has strengthened her creativity and ability to develop innovative ideas to lead and enable projects to succeed.
As I journey throughout my creative career and life, in general, I could list a host of challenges; from my family narrowly escaping Cali, to seek asylum in the US, to facing deportation, to my dad being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and becoming his caretaker, to being taunted by racists in my communities, to having my mom’s identity stolen causing me to be unable to move to LA… I could write 2000 words about each of those experiences alone. I’m not a stranger to challenges but I’ve learned to take them in stride. My faith in God has played a big part in my creative journey, and I have learned to trust in the process and appreciate the simplicity of my creative vision. As I always say, “deje que se le resbale” (Let it slide off), there is no need to dwell on the bad things…
I’ve noticed that my benchmarks for success may look a little different from some of my colleagues in the industry. Success for me looks like stability and providing resources and opportunities for others. Success for me looks like creating a positive work environment for my business partners and employees where they can explore their creative endeavors. Success for me looks like tearing down walls and barriers and creating steps for others to reach their highest potential. Success for me looks like leading with my heart and choosing compassion and empathy over judgment.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
The next time I saw PreShus was also by chance. I was super nervous. I had finally mastered the courage to go to a K-pop night at a local club. We saw each other, interacted, and finally exchanged numbers. The next thing I knew, I received a text from her asking to grab a bite to eat and that she had something to share with me if interested. I was excited, to say the least.
We talked for hours about our backgrounds, favorite K-pop groups, when we started to like K-pop, and our previous meetings and I saw that this could be the start of a great friendship. At that meeting, PreShus shared a story she had been writing and mentioned wanting me to be a part of the project. As she told me the story, my mind was going wild with images and ideas and playing everything in my head as if I were watching it. I saw the immense potential this story had. I sat there, listened, imagined, and wondered how great it would be to work on this story together. Nevertheless, that was the start of our great friendship.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Since I can remember, I have always been a very creative person. Some of my earliest memories growing up are of me dancing with family, creating my runway shows with my friends, and always carrying a camcorder around to capture moments. Throughout my life, whether it’s been dance, fashion, film, painting, or construction, I find joy in simply creating.
Filmmaking is an eclectic medium that allows me to explore my creativity on many levels. Outside of picking up the camera and setting up a beautiful shot; I also have the opportunity to physically construct a set from the ground up, design the wardrobe, play with makeup, and choreograph movements.
Film lets me dive into so many of my skills and talents, and as I became more immersed in different ways to explore my creativity, I realized that I was a perfectionist. Trying to complete a project, whether I was making a dress, designing a graphic, or painting, I was never satisfied with the result and found flaws that weren’t there. I struggled on my own with perfectionism, and when PreShus and I started our production company, it became more apparent to me that I needed to work on myself so that it wouldn’t affect our business.
I worked hard with myself so that it wouldn’t affect our deadlines with clients. Seeing how much our clients loved our work kept my motivation to push through and not let my perfectionism get in the way. I won’t say that it’s something that is completely gone and that I’m not a perfectionist anymore. I learned to work with myself so that my perfectionism would help me rather than hold me back. I had to unlearn bad habits of redoing or deleting designs I wasn’t happy with. I learned to look at my creations with a different eye and not be so hard on myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: sutchileeproductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sutchil
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/andreavargasmoreno
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@AllAboutThatKpopLife
Image Credits
File: Andrea Sutchilee Productions 1.2024-0014 Photography by: Charles Ruffin