We were lucky to catch up with Joyce Yoo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Joyce, thank you so much for making time for us today. We can’t wait to dive into your story and the lessons you’ve learned along the way, but maybe we can start with something foundational to your success. How have you gone about developing your ability to communicate effectively?
I was raised in America by Korean immigrant parents, so I was always moving between languages and cultures. My family also moved around quite a bit, so I had to adapt to the subcultures of the West Coast, East Coast and Midwest. Those experiences gave me exposure to the different ways people communicate and relate to one another, and gave me practice adjusting my communication to meet people where they are.
I’m also a constant beginner and learner – I love trying new things and exploring new interests. That keeps me close to “beginner’s mind” and knowing how to explain things in an accessible way to the uninitiated, knowing where more context is needed or where a breakdown in understanding might happen.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I create content about jigsaw puzzles for my own social media handles and on a freelance basis for puzzle companies. I fell into it unintentionally when I started posting enthusiastically about my love of puzzles to connect with other puzzlers. Doing a puzzle is one of the rare times when my normally hectic and anxious mind gets calm and focused. It’s like meditation while taking in beautiful art piece by piece, and the community is one of the most kind and generous I’ve ever encountered. My handle on Instagram and TikTok is @joyce.puzzles.
I also co-created Puzzworthy, a shop for clothing, home goods, accessories and gifts for puzzle lovers. The shop can be found at puzzworthy.etsy.com.
Aside from puzzles, I do voice over, acting, writing and other creative projects. I’ve starred in and produced several independent films over the course of 15+ years. My documentary film El Cap Wedding, about my own wedding that took place on a ledge on El Capitan in Yosemite, is now streaming free on YouTube.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Listening: I believe that the key driver in what I do is truly listening to others, being observant, and absorbing what’s going on. The empathy you build through that helps you connect with and resonate with others in the art, products and messages you put out. Active listening is so important for acting and improv and generally building trust with others so they want to hear what you have to say.
2. Attention to detail: Paying attention to the small things and executing on details shows a level of dedication that is noticed by others. Those details are what give your work greater impact even if people aren’t necessarily aware of why something worked or was as impactful as it was.
3. Curiosity: By following my curiosity, I’ve fallen into some surprising and unexpected projects that have turned out to be so exciting and fulfilling. A 10-year plan approach doesn’t work for everyone; certainly not for me. You also have to be willing to tinker, experiment, question things, troubleshoot, problem solve and explore. That is a necessary part of the often messy process and in my experience, the surprises that emerge from that often become my favorite aspects.
All of these things require some slowing down, being quiet, wandering (aimlessly, even), and patience. Carve out times when you’re not actively working on something or taking in stimulus from screens.
And embrace imperfection. As a recovering perfectionist, one of the biggest game changers for me has been letting go of that perfectionism. It didn’t happen overnight; it’s something I consciously and stubbornly worked at and continue to work at. Something I’ve done is lean into imperfection on purpose. So, instead of setting a goal of writing 1 good page, my goal is to write 1 crappy page. Because writing 1 good page feels daunting to the point of making me frozen. But write 1 crappy page? I can do that. Or I’ll leave in typos I spot or even add some on purpose to get comfortable with imperfection.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron was tremendously impactful in my journey as a creative. Although I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be an actor, that dream got dimmed and crushed constantly as I grew up. I was never encouraged by my family or community to pursue it and was in fact often discouraged. I never saw people who looked like me in roles other than offensive stereotypes. I was heavily scrutinized and penalized when I wasn’t perfect, as the daughter of a pastor.
So I had a constant harsh critic in my head that kept me immobilized and afraid to try anything. But you need to be able to be vulnerable, to try things, to be imperfect, in order to be creative. I didn’t even believe I was a creative person before I worked through The Artist’s Way in my 30’s. I thought the best I could do was to support creatives, maybe on the business side of entertainment. But now, I consider creativity to be central to who I am.
The Artist’s Way includes a lot of practical tools and exercises such as “morning pages” (a form of stream of consciousness journaling) and writing affirmations to directly counter negative self-talk.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.joyceyoo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyce.puzzles/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/cyMJ2dvdauo?si=faBwOHQYR-4u_KMS
- Other: http://puzzworthy.etsy.com/
Image Credits
Jeff Auricchio, Panda Cali Kim, Joyce Yoo
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
