Meet Carolyn Kamii

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carolyn Kamii. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Carolyn, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

From my family. My great grandparents came to this country to pursue a better life, but they had to overcome tremendous odds (language, prejudice, not having means) to do this and work very hard to succeed in establishing their new life. It wasn’t easy to be an Asian immigrant in Los Angeles in the early 20th century. There was tremendous prejudice against Japanese Americans that got so much worse during World War II, leading to their incarceration. Some of my family members escaped incarceration by enlisting in the U.S. military and their linguistic knowledge of Japanese helped America win the war. My father, who immigrated to California from Japan after the war ended, was handicapped and also had to overcome significant obstacles, such as the lack of wheelchair access at the time, in order to pursue higher education and full time work. He, too, faced racial discrimination during his lifetime. I feel that my family has shown me how to be resilient in the face of challenges.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I have been working as a publicist for over two decades and have had the pleasure and honor of representing very well known and exciting clients across a broad range of industries. Always enthusiastic towards learning new things, I serve a wide range of businesses and services that include art, design, culture, health, and wellness, to finance, technology and children’s education. I prefer not to be pigeonholed into one area and have succeeded in growing my business over time because I’m always open to embracing new things. Also, public relations is a craft that’s sharpened and developed over time, so publicists can always improve their skills as time goes on and overcome various learning curves so they can be successful in new areas. In fact, I’ve led the most successful PR campagins when I have entered an industry previously unknown to me.

For example, I started in the beauty, health and wellness industries, learning from health and wellness professionals for over 2 decades. One of my early clients was a small female-owned beauty brand and, over the course of 12 years, it turned into a global natural and organic skincare brand sold in four continents, and their products are used in hundreds of hotel and destination spas.

But when I launched Carolyn Kamii Public Relations, I decided to diversify my client roster, so I added clients in the luxury home and design arena, which I love. I launched a high end Italian kitchen and bath brand, taking them from being a complete unknown to becoming the hottest design showroom in Los Angeles. My work success led to referrals to other luxury design clients which helped my business grow. They all did extremely well!

Then, about a decade ago, I was asked to launch a mobile app for massage services, which meant promoting how an app can deliver spa services that were traditionally offered in brick and mortar locations. This took me out of my comfort zone, given I was only working with brick and mortar spas. But I rose to the challenge and got this app a lot of national press, leading to over 55 launches in various cities across the U.S., Canada and globally. Eventually I launched several more mobile apps which delivered services on demand.

A tech PR agency then asked me to join their team in promoting a children’s ed-tech brand focused on STEAM learning — something I knew nothing about. This brand had won Time Magazine’s Best Invention award and became a sought after product by teachers and families. Fast forward, I spent the next six years promoting them and their products became super popular during the pandemic since they helped kids learn skills like reading, writing and math, while at home. And, when people were left without gyms during Covid, I was able to help promote online yoga classes during that time.

More recently, I transitioned into the financial industry to represent a precious metals company, promoting physical gold as a long term investment. The company has been receiving national and global attention on a weekly basis! This all happened because I became interested in finance during the Great Financial Crisis when a lot of my personal investments lost value. This unfortunate event started a journey towards educating myself about various financial products in order to improve my investing, which has been extremely valuable. Now, I’d like to help companies who are aiding individuals with financial education and investing.

My broad interests have also helped me grow personally and spiritually. I studied the history of garden design in college and have been designing my own garden over the years. I’ve traveled signifcantly around the world to see different gardens (ancient, historical, modern, contemporary) in Eastern and Western culture. It’s been very rewarding to work on my own garden and transform my visions into reality as an amateur garden designer. Luckily, my work was published and twice awarded national honors. In the future, I hope to do more garden design and work with a client who wants to create a dramatic modern garden that requires minimal water use but offers serenity, peace and tranquility to the users.

On a spiritual level, I have been pursuing a path of mindfulness and have been practicing yoga for almost two decades. Last year, I decided to pursue my 200-hour yoga teacher training and became a certified yoga teacher. It was very fulfilling to do this training and learn in great detail the reasons why we study and practice yoga, which goes beyond physical fulfillment, but helps us become more enlightened spiritually.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

There were several pivotal events in my life which contribute to my outlook on life and strong work ethic.

First, the development of discipline from an early age. I started studying violin at age 6. The teachers as well as lessons involved constant and rigorous practice, sometimes up to 2 hours after school. As a young musician, I performed in recitals as well as public concerts, which helped me develop confidence in appearing in public, although it was sometimes terrifying to be on stage alone when doing a solo.

I also started to learn foreign languages very early. In elementary school, parents sent me to Japanese school on Saturdays, which introduced me to a different culture and way of thinking. They also tried to introduce us to our cultural heritage by taking us to Japan to meet our relatives. I studied French in junior high and Italian in college, and won an award for studying Italian. This led me to go to Italy for graduate school and work there afterwards. I made lots of new friends and gained new perspectives on life by doing this.

Last, attending U.C. Berkeley for undergraduate studies challenged my values and perceptions. I grew up in a suburban location, and being exposed to people who come from different countries, backgrounds and experiences helped to open my mind and challenge perceptions of the world. It was great to broaden my perspective of the world at college.

Because of these events, I can understand and work with many different types of people who are in the business world who are building businesses that embrace a range of values and ideas.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’d like to expand my public relations business in various areas. I always love working with creative individuals. They don’t have to be creative in visual arts or writing, but creative in their thinking. Another area is finance. I am always looking to connect with professionals who work in this area. I receive a lot of inquiries for financial advice and would love to represent a financial advisor or wealth management professional in the future.

On a personal level, I’d like to expand my garden design and create a dramatic modern garden that embodies serenity for a Los Angeles-based client.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Photography by Carolyn Kamii (www.carolynkamii.com)

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