Meet Elektra Yao

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elektra Yao a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elektra , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

My confidence and self-esteem come from years of making mistakes. By constantly pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I have failed multiple times and I am no longer afraid of mistakes. Mistakes bring me closer to my goals. Every time I have failed, i have learned something that made the subsequent try better and closer to my goal.

Each mistake and failure has in return made me more confident and not afraid to try!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am an attorney and I represent artists and creatives from all over the world. I am not specialized in any artistic discipline and I love the challenge of learning about new art forms.

My law firm focuses exclusively on the arts and I have worked very hard to develop a staff that is passionate about the arts and delivering excellent legal services to the international artistic community.

My journey toworking with artists is a long one. Prior to representing artists, I was an artist myself. I performed in musical theatre, street theatre, and experimental theatre for 10 years and then studied filmmaking in college. After college, I worked for MTV and the Style Network. I loved working behind the scenes and being on set!

I decided to pursue law to have more knowledge of the business and legal aspects of a film production. I then worked in IP in an international law firm in Madrid, Spain and moved back to NYC to pursue my legal career in a US firm. I immediately knew that I wanted to maintain the international and artist aspects of my career and this is why I decided to represent international artists.

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

There are three things that were indispensable to my journey:
1. Curiosity and a Willingness to Learn: Throughout my career, I have never said no to opportunities (paid or unpaid) that would allow me to expand my knowledge and expertise. I have also been open to collaborating and liaising with different types of professionals, because I believe that anything that enriches me as an individual, enriches me as a professional.

2. Open to Change: The legal industry is rapidly changing. There is new technology, approaches, and styles that greatly improve the client experience. Not every piece of technology will work with every firm therefore, it is important to experiment and be open to the rapid changes in the industry.

3. Being Obsessed: I am obsessed with providing our clients with the best legal experience with quick and successful results. I am constantly studying this, networking with attorneys about this, and executing my ideas with my team. My law firm is first baby and I am obsessed with my team and our clients being content and satisfied with how we work and their experience with us.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I love connecting with artists, lawyers, and anyone working in creative spaces! One of the topics that I love to discuss with like minded individuals is the business of the arts. For example how can creatives use marketing and business principles to improve certain aspects of their career such as their visibility.

For example, I have a client that I met at the very beginning of her career. I saw so much potential in her growth and I believed that by adopting certain business and marketing principles she would flourish and get more commercial work which was her objective. My client fully trusted my legal advice and implemented it. 3 years later, she has worked with major brands in national commercials and has even been on billboard in Times Square in NYC!

Artists and creatives should not underestimate the power of their legal and business teams. It is important for the artist/creative to focus on her craft and collaborate with her legal and business team to work towards her professional goals.

I would love to collaborate and flesh out these ideas with any like minded individuals.

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