We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kenny Nguyen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kenny, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
In general, I’ve always been very self-motivated. Although I certainly know when to relax, when I’m in work mode, I hate sitting around doing nothing. I have to stay occupied, and in my mind, the job is never done. That being said, I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career and do my best to learn from them. Effectiveness precedes success, and as such, I’ve learned it takes a number of factors to be truly effective.
In my line of work, trial and error is the name of the game so organization is essential. I’m constantly moving large amounts of clothes throughout the day so if I don’t stay organized, things can quickly get away from me. How you start the day sets the precedent for the course of your day. Time management has never been my strong suit so I create To-Do lists at the start of my shift to ensure that I get all my tasks done. Doing so helps me prioritize and manage my time efficiently.
Another quality I think you need to be successful is the ability to remain objective and focused. Problems can arise from any and every direction and will throw you off your game if you’re not careful. Because of my experience as a merchandiser at Zara, I learned to think quickly on my feet and adapt. When you can do that and keep your focus on the objective, you’re able to move past obstacles much more easily.
Finally, I think the most important factor is personal accountability. No job or person is perfect, and mistakes are going to be made. But how you choose to approach them has a huge effect on your success. It’s easy to get discouraged when you fail, but if you can take your failures and learn from them, you can only improve. I always try to take something from each of my jobs and apply it to my new position–a practice I think has proven quite effective in my line of work.
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 work full-time as a Visual Coordinator for a local Houston women’s department store called Tootsies. I think the most exciting part about it is its unpredictability and the creative freedom it provides. Being based in a flagship store for a smaller company, I am able to experiment and play with more visual projects, whereas a much larger corporation may be more rigid when it comes to adhering to visual standards. Not only is the store quite large, but we also hold large charity events in-store fairly regularly. It allows for more creative opportunity not only with clothing, but also interior design and decor. We’re always looking to collaborate with up and coming fashion and interior designers. As a fashion lover and aspiring designer, being able to immerse myself in it grants me the opportunity to gather inspiration for designs I may one day create myself. But until then, I’m having a great time evolving and perfecting my craft!
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?
I think the best advice I could give folks early in their journey is to try not to take the constructive criticism personally. You’re always going to encounter naysayers, but the people who are really looking in your best interest will sometimes tell you things you won’t necessarily want to hear, yet need to hear. I remember wanting to break down multiple times in my career, particularly during performance reviews, but I had to remind myself that the intended purpose of them was to, in fact, make me better.
One of the best qualities I think helped me the most is that desire to constantly improve. A lot of people like to do the bare minimum, but they eventually realize that it doesn’t get them very far. Perhaps the people who know me well would say it’s a control issue, but I believe it’s more of a desire to be a well-rounded employee that’s always driven me to excel. At any job I’ve worked, I’ve always wanted to be involved in all aspects of the business. Even as a sales associate early in my career, I enjoyed doing back-of-house tasks and learning the operational side.
Being well-rounded also involves product knowledge, and it takes good practices to be able to remember an extensive amount of it. I’ve been blessed with a better memory than most, but even so, it doesn’t mean I can remember everything. Developing methods to absorb and retain product knowledge not only helps me to merchandise the product in different ways, but it then translates to the customer and, ultimately, sells.
Finally, I think the quality that could possibly be the most essential is persistence. Stubborn by nature, I’ve always found it hard to accept “good enough.” I’m a perfectionist, but I do understand good things take time. Some people would see stubbornness as a bad thing, but the upside to it is that it could also be equated to patience. Having worked as a stylist in luxury retail, slow periods of business, particularly during the summer, can easily discourage and kill a moment of good performance, and I was no exception. As time passed, I had to keep reminding myself that the money will come so I used that slow time to come up with new ideas to help keep things fresh.
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’m always looking for opportunities to partner and collaborate, particularly when they make sense. Much like this medium, I’d like to work with individuals from different backgrounds to see how we can create something unique. My background is in merchandising, and my degree is in marketing so I believe it provides a broad range of opportunity and application. If they would like to connect with me, I’m most active on Instagram, but I can also be reached by email or text. It’s harder to call as my full-time job keeps me quite busy, and I can’t always answer.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: The_asian_gent
- Other: Email: theasiangent@gmail.com
Image Credits
Individual shots: Ahmad Sweeney of @sweenshots and @sweenshotsstudios
