We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yelan Tong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yelan below.

Alright, Yelan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

My journey to craft was multi-faceted. There were 3 core components: academic, on the job learning, and an unending curiosity. Like many ad creatives, I went to an school to understand how to put together a portfolio. It included learning programs and art director basics, but then once I was on the job, that was a whole other thing. This was back in the mid 2000s and I took a job with an agency who had just lost a huge client. Huge areas of whole floors of a Madison Ave agency were empty. I felt lucky to be there and I took it upon myself to do more projects, learn from people around me, and take more on. I was hungry.

It’s hard to say what I could’ve done then to speed up my learning process very early on. I was busy learning from people around me and that experience is hard to replicate in a classroom. But one thing I wish I did earlier was take presentation classes. A few years ago, I took personalized courses from my friend Ben Levy. It was helpful to have someone arm me with tools and skills that made me a better communicator. Half my job is to properly communicate ideas to a client and have them understand it clearly. If I had this early on, could it have helped me sell through some ideas that died? It could’ve. Everyone can benefit from communicating better what they mean to say.

Beyond being able to communicate properly, I truly believe that having an unending curiosity is one of the most essential skills. It leads to going from good to great in other aspects. It leads to a proactive mindset. When you’re curious about the world, it helps you understand other people, think about ideas differently, and allows you to problem solve in unique ways.

Curiosity doesn’t mean you have it learn everything all at once. It actually can be an overwhelming feeling at times and can turn into an obstacle. For me, I try to identify one or two things to tackle at a time. By giving myself focus, it gives me small sprints of time to learn.

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?

I’m Yelan Tong, a mom, snowboarder, a home renovator, and co-chief creative officer at Fact & Fiction. It’s a boutique, independent ad agency based in KC and Boulder. For almost the last two decades, I have worked in advertising as an art director and creative director solving problems for brands and clients.

I didn’t even know this job was an option when I was growing up. It fell into to my lap back in high school. One of the requirements to graduate was to shadow a job. My friend’s family put me in contact with someone at BBDO Detroit. For one whole week I followed different people in their departments. One in particular was a purple haired woman who was an art director by day, drummer by night. It was all I needed to know that I wanted her job. In college, I worked in sales and marketing while putting together a creative portfolio, but eventually was told to go to a portfolio school – specifically for advertising creatives. At the end of it, I was placed at an ad agency and from there I worked my way up at different places.

My job in a tl;dr is to get people to give a shit about the thing you have to say. This goes for anything I work on. It could be a burger or technology. Find a way in that is compelling for people to care. I ask younger creatives if they like the ideas they present. If they don’t care, then why should I?

In my position, that care extends to a client relationship. I care about what keeps my clients up at night and understanding what they’re after. We’re all people and needing to be understood. When I know clients personally, we usually get to better and more compelling work.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are mountains of resources now that I wish I had years ago. Information is now so accessible, and now its about being disciplined to have focus and learn. Want to sharpen your design program skills? There’s online courses for that. Want to learn something completely new, you totally can from your home.

For me, it’s not about a specific resource, but I didn’t realize how important a network was to my journey. I wish I had approached more people early and actively created a mentor/mentee relationship. Most people are willing to help if you ask. Especially in my field where it’s heavily dependent on networking, surrounding myself with more people I trusted and respected could only help.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I truly believe that most people are creative beings. But when you work as a creative, you’re choosing to be vulnerable and open to being judged by your ideas – something that can be very scary. As much as I can back ideas up with data, there’s a component of intuition that can’t be overshadowed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://smallandfeisty.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yelan/
• Other: https://www.factandfiction.work/

Image Credits

Holden Kudla
Michael Turek