Meet Karla Lopez

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

Hi Karla, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

This is a question I ask myself quite frequently and I don’t think that I fully know what that quite is yet but I have a feeling I am working on finding my purpose currently.

The reason I say I don’t quite know what my purpose is currently is for a few reasons. I come from immigrant parents who came here to find better opportunities and a better future for themselves and their family. I grew up thinking I would have to work many different jobs and move around because this was all I knew growing up. College was not at the top of my list of priorities as a kid even though I had dreamed of becoming a doctor (that dream was shot down when I was around 10 years old by a family friend).

When I turned 18 and had graduated high school I knew that I wanted to stray away from working a typical 9 – 5 job. Seeing how tired my parent would come home from work. I didn’t want that for my self, so I decided that I wanted to find my purpose and start a business where I could work for myself and set my own schedule. I didn’t know what kind of business I wanted to start I just knew I wanted to start a business. Little did I know that this would be quite difficult as an introverted person. I noticed that I was not like everyone else who could just start a conversation with anyone or make friends as easily or even simply ask someone for help. Moving around did not help with that either. Being an introvert made it very difficult to find my purpose because I didn’t feel like I could do a lot for myself and I felt like giving up.

I started working different jobs to find something that I was truly passionate about, (Retirement home, retail, and even fast food) I even tried starting a YouTube channel to try and step out of my comfort zone (that didn’t last more than a couple of months). At around 19 I didn’t have a life plan and kept getting questioned by my mom on what I wanted to do with my life and if I planned on going to college/university. To please my mom I looked into some schools just to see what options were available and hoping that I found something that would interest me or motivate me to go back to school. I found a little university dedicated to veterinary technology and I just said out loud to myself “Well whats the worst that can happen” I scheduled a tour and the next thing I knew I was going to Broadview University to get my associate’s degree in applied science. I enjoyed the program, working with animals, and learning all about animal medicine from exotic animals to large animals to dogs and cats. I learned many new skills. I started working in the Veterinary field at the end of 2019. I thought this I did it this is my purpose this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I got to work in the medical field even if I was not a doctor like i wanted to be as a kid. I loved it.

After working in Vet Med for about 4 almost 5 years and going through the ever-changing veterinary medicine, the emotional, physical, and mentally draining job and constantly coming home in pain, covered in bruises and scratches. I decided that I wanted something for myself that was not all the things vet med is as well as give my body and mental health a break.

While on a trip to Las Vegas with my little sister for a Twice concert (K-Pop girl group) we took a trip to the K-Pop store there and I watched all of these people found joy in walking around this K-Pop store and thought we don’t have this in Utah and how many people need to travel out of state just to find a store like this? On the drive home, I had an aha moment where I thought to myself “This is my purpose this is the business I have wanted to start ever since I turned 18”. I then brought up the idea to my sister as a joke to see how she would react and it kind of stayed that way for about 1 month.

So long story short my purpose was to bring joy and something to the Utah K-Pop community that we did not have here. I am still currently working my vet med job full time and running my brick-and-mortar store that has only been open for 2 months at the same time. It has not been easy and many people did not understand what I was trying to do but I am very lucky to have the support of my family, coworkers, and my staff. They all keep me going and show me that this is all worth the hard work.

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?

K-Pop Hive is about bringing merchandise such as albums, lightsticks, photocards, and many more items to the K-Pop community as well as bringing the community of K-Pop stans together in one place where they can all relate to something they all have in common without any judgment.

With music stores not being popular or really common anymore because everything is digital, I find it special that I can bring something back that is kind of nostalgic for past generations even though it is focused on Korean music. It reminds me of when older generations talk about going to a music store to find a CD or a Vinyl from one of their favorite artists or bands.
K-pop always has groups that are releasing new music and albums whether it is a solo artist or a group there is always something new for everyone to enjoy.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three things I would say that were impactful in my journey were that I had to step out of my comfort zone, fortunately in the veterinary clinic where I work, I was given the opportunity to take on a leadership role which really helped me learn to communicate better in a professional manner, administrative roles, and time management. I was also able to get some insight on how to conduct an interview, and what qualities to look for in an employee to help set up a safe and comfortable environment for my staff where they can feel like they could express themselves.

Some advice I would give someone early in their journey would be to surround themselves with positivity, people who will uplift them, and people who will support their vision. I would also say take that risk no matter how scary it seems.
Also, research, research, research jumping into something blindly can be very stressful and it can make it seem impossible to achieve your goal.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

I would say that the people who have helped me overcome challenges, build skills develop qualities, and knowledge would be my family for pushing me to go through with the idea of starting this business and being super supportive and showing me what needs to be part of a business as my parents have a business of their own and for always going along with my ideas no matter how crazy they are. They also helped me see that if you dream hard enough dreams can become reality.
I would also say my manager Hannah from the veterinary clinic where I currently work has pushed me to try things that I didn’t think I was capable of. She also saw potential in me when I didn’t and believed in me to take on a leadership role (something I didn’t think could ever do). She has helped me be more confident and speak up when I come up with any idea because you never know what can happen. When she found out about me starting a business she was very willing to show me and answer any questions that I had when it came to administration and the back end of runing a business.

Most importantly I think they were all so helpful and supportive because who knows if I would even have a small business without their support and positivity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kpophive.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kpophive_ut/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557532327968

Image Credits

Personal picture was taken by my sister Veranea Lopez
First two pictures of the store were taken by me
Product pictures were taken for business instagram
Last picture with 2 people was taken by Hiromi Beckstrom

None of these pictures were taken by professionals so I wasn’t sure if you still wanted to know who took the pictures.