We were lucky to catch up with Euge Leung recently and have shared our conversation below.
Euge, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
When I first introduced Puglie in 2014 and witnessed the overwhelming love this little pug received, I couldn’t help but kick myself in not creating him earlier. I could’ve avoided all those frustrating art blocks, started the growth of my business earlier, and established Puglie sooner! Ugh!
As I grew with Puglie, I gradually realized that we started our journey at precisely the right time. The art blocks, the odd graphic design jobs, and my previous full time employment provided experiences in my character development. They gave me gratitude for the joy I have in my art, appreciation for full accountability in my decisions, recognizing how to be a better leader, and actual technical skills that I could take in to my own operations. As much as success requires perseverance and hard work, a significant factor is also being at the right place and right time. For all the achievements I’ve gotten to celebrate, I have to give credit to just plain luck. Perhaps if I started my career sooner or later, I might’ve missed those times and places that brought me to where I am now. With this in mind, I’m certain that I started Puglie at the perfect time for me.
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 background and context?
My name’s Euge Leung, I’m a first generation Chinese Canadian from Hong Kong, a member of the LGBTQA+ as a transman, and sadly, I’ve never owned a pug in my life so I ended up creating my own to fill that void in my heart.
I attended university to study animation, and a lot of people assume that because I studied that, it was a natural progression into what I do now. Contrary to that belief, it was in fact my resentment for the university experience and the realization that animating wasn’t my true passion that propelled me to where I am today.
The moment I received my bachelor’s degree, I focused myself into illustration and graphic design – watching YouTube tutorials, reading artists’ blogs, buying art books for reference, and learning from friends that were kind enough to teach me. I mulled over how I could combine my love for illustration and graphic design, and soon realized that my enjoyment of designer toys, and character-based brands, like those of Sanrio and San-X, was that perfect marriage. Finally, I had a direction for my art!
The wheels of my business started rolling very slowly back in 2014, when my two best friends and I exhibited at our first convention – three artists sharing a single 6′ table. We made our art into stickers, posters, and buttons, and it was the first time we experienced making money off of our work! It was a hobby at first for all of us as we were still trying to find full time employment, but it’s those beginning conventions that gave me the most pivotal start to my career.
Since growing in the convention scene, Puglie is offered as stickers, accessories such as keychains and pins, apparel, drinkware, and collectibles such as plushies and vinyl toys. I look forward to expanding his merchandise line in the future, experimenting with different types and categories, and enjoying the process of creating him in different mediums!
Puglie is there for everyone, especially pug lovers, who need a little extra silly spark of joy in their day. It doesn’t have to make sense (I mean you’re literally looking at a pug dressed as a sushi) but so long as that absurdity and knowledge that Puglie’s doing his best existing (aren’t we all) gives you a smile, that’s all he aims to do.
The element that sets Puglie apart from others isn’t merely the fact that he’s a pug, but it’s also the intertwining of my story and motivations which dictate how I present Puglie. As a first generation Asian-Canadian transman, I’ve had my fair share of cultural shifts, struggles, and journeys to understanding who I am. I occasionally share deeper insights and mindful stories that show where the inspiration for a Puglie came from via my blogs or social media. In turn, I also encourage others to practice that mindfulness and gratitude for where they are in their journey.
It all seems a little much for a cartoon pug, I will admit. By and large most people simply appreciate Puglie for him being the best boy he can be, and having a good laugh here and there. For those who care to read a little more, they’ll get to know me, my story, and my goal of spreading a little more joy in the world with Puglie!
With all that said, my proudest moments are providing people happiness and respite in the toughest of times.
When I’m told that someone has a Puglie print on their work desk that they look at to give them a smile and a boost to get through a hard day, my heart swells. When I’m told that Puglie is helping someone in their mourning of their pet, I recognize what an honour that is. When someone thanks me for creating Puglie because he helps them through a tough time, I connect with them. And when a cat person says they’re only into cats, but they have a place in their heart for Puglie, well that’s just special!
Puglie helped me get through one of the toughest times in my life – a severe art block that evolved into a debilitating depression. A time when I had to keep telling myself to take everyday one day at a time. I don’t expect him to solve anyone else’s problems, nor change the course of anyone’s life in any substantial way, but if I can provide that little joy and support for others as Puglie did for me, then I’m grateful. I hope you’ll join along on the journey we’ll have together with Puglie!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn using spite and resentment as a driving force for my motivation.
I think if you ask any art university graduate, most of them will have some dissatisfaction with their experience, and a few would’ve regretted paying to go in the first place. I was very much in the latter. My expectations for higher education not only fell short, but the foundational knowledge and skills were barely taught. Whenever I expressed dissatisfaction, some peers chided me for being foolish to expect university to provide practical skills, emphasizing instead that it’s more for networking.
I resented the university for my time wasted, and the peers who made me feel as if I wasn’t capable of learning on my own all because I anticipated higher education to provide education. I have to give credit to these negative emotions – anger, resentment, and spite – because they energized me in growing my skills in illustration and graphic design through self-discipline.
As I got to meet more small business artists, I got to relate with them on this common thread – anger, resentment, and spite. Whether it was lost time from education, mistreatment in their employment, or disparaging comments from people close to them, we were all fired up to shine brighter than those who burned us.
When the world slowed down due to the pandemic, I found time to work on my mental health, reflect on my journey, and heal myself from a delayed burn out. I practiced mindfulness and gratitude, especially during a time when my business was experiencing the largest upsets it’s ever gone through, and I came out feeling better than I’ve ever been emotionally and mentally. When the world started up again, I reconnected with some friends, and one in particular was still driven by lingering spite from six years ago. I listened to familiar stories, saw the unhealthy negativity they used for motivation, and their business was still going, but there weren’t any concrete goals for growth. From the outside in, I saw how my mindset had transformed.
Spite and resentment are a great propellers. They’ll ignite and push us further forward in the beginning of our journey, and we rationalize that it’s human to feel these emotions, so at least we can use it for productivity. But if we continue to rely on past spite as the fuel to propel us into the future, we trap ourselves in an unhealthy past, stagnating our potential. Instead, we need positive, self-directed goals – goals that don’t need validation from anyone – to look forward to. We switch gears, and rather than being pushed by the past, we are pulled by the future.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Way before I began my career, I stumbled upon this TED Talk by Derek Sivers called “Keep your goals to yourself” – https://youtu.be/NHopJHSlVo4 – and it’s a staple I carry till this day! I never mention my immediate goals to anyone unless I’m already fulfilling them because I want to have actually earned any praise I get. I use this idea to keep myself accountable, to humble me to not celebrate prematurely, and to be okay if my goals don’t come to fruition despite my best efforts.
For business related books, I read “The $100 Startup” by Chris Guillebeau, and “The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster” by Darren Hardy. “The $100 Startup” gave me a lot of affirmation that I was on the right track by the time I read it, and gave me business canvas model-like prompts to finesse my business goals, along with insights in to how small businesses can evolve in so many ways.
“The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster” was a great book when I was ready to read it. I had to put it down the first time because I recognized how the advice was higher level than I was ready for, and I wanted to take in the advice through my own experience first. Once I felt like I got there in my career, it was another book that gave me confirmation I was on the right track, and also prepared me for the next steps in my business. One of the most influential lessons I learned from was the idea that I was supposed to be the dumbest person on my team. Not literally! But it was a lesson in trusting your team, and that the people you hired for the job should be be the best ones for the job – certainly better than you! If that isn’t the case, then you should reassess – is the problem you being too micromanaging, is more training needed, or is the employee wrong for the position?
And a book that helped me in my personal growth recently that translates to leadership I want to practice is “Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success” by Gary Vaynerchuk. After working on my mental health to become a more mindful, grateful person, this book gave me insight in to understanding how to navigate my emotional skills to be the best leader I can be, not only for my team and my business, but also for myself. One of the most powerful lessons I took away from this book was an explanation on what optimism is. I always considered myself an optimistic person – looking at the brighter side, hoping for the better, and assuring myself and others that things will work out. I didn’t realize how much this mindset relied on the universe to just be cool. For Gary Vaynerchuk, he sees himself as an optimist too, but for him, an optimist isn’t someone that just blindly believes that everything will magically work out. Instead, it’s a belief in oneself that despite whatever happens, you will be strong enough to overcome it. I’ve since adopted Gary’s definition, and it has empowered me to grow in strength and determination.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pugliepug.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pugliepug/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/pugliepug
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/pugliepug
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/pugliepug
Image Credits
Product photos are by https://www.instagram.com/curoie/ Photo of me with a mask on behind my convention table is by https://www.instagram.com/nick.smith_photography/