Meet Krissan Pattugalan

We were lucky to catch up with Krissan Pattugalan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Krissan, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I don’t think I’ve overcome imposter syndrome in the past tense. But, I have to actively overcome imposter syndrome everyday. And, for that I use a few methods. The first being, that I have to remember to embrace other people’s mistakes and shortcomings. Instead of despising, judging or teasing people who make mistakes, I try to see the positive things that those mistakes achieved, the doors that the mistakes have opened. This makes me more accepting of my own faults, and helps me find comfort in being the imperfect person for the job. Second, I started saying “I don’t know” much more frequently. This frees me from feeling like I have to pretend like I know all the answers, all the time. It helps me from erroneously thinking that everyone in a room, or on a project, is a pre-conceived, and un-evolving entity, that is either fully qualified or doesn’t belong. I have to trust that I’m allowed to grow into roles, and use projects as classrooms, rather than tests. Third, I constantly reflect on my previous successes and remind myself how little I knew when I started. And, how much I knew after the project finished. I have to allow myself to be embarrassed by my old work, previous mistakes and previous ignorance. And I have to do this without putting myself down. I could only do my best, with the skills and knowledge I had at the time. And now, because I allowed myself to take opportunities I was unqualified for, I know more and I survived. And, that’s how life will go on forever; Starting as a novice, leaving as an expert.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m a Filipino born, Australia raised, creative director/designer living in New York, with clients in Australia, US and Asia. I’ve had a fairly stereotypical life as a creative, in the way that I’ve had many creatively driven pursuits; From competitive dance to teaching dance, to street photography, to DJing, to drawing, to creative coding, to playing music, to owning businesses. But, untypically I only found out I was creative at 23. Before then, I was a jock and geek without a creative bone in my body, only interested in sports, athletics, coding and mathematics. That was until I enrolled in a design course at a University, and my whole life flipped upside down, during what I like to call my “creative awakening”, where athletics transformed to dance, coding turned to design, and physical training fought for time against learning art mediums. After graduating University I went to work at a film production house, then to a Newspaper company, then a design agency. When I moved to New York in 2015 for a job, I really started to hone my skills and specialize. I realized I was built for creative and art direction, rather than design. But, I couldn’t stop loving design, so I kept on doing both. All of the random activities, side quests and hobbies fed into my creative process and career. I’ve been lucky enough to find new ways to express my creativity, and to connect all of my previous experiences together. I love that I can explore, imagine, play, learn, experiment and create totally new expressions. I’m truly lucky to be allowed to utilize a multitude of mediums to express any idea I can come up with, and make a living off it. Everything from films, animations, illustrations, messaging, brands, music, to developing large marketing campaigns and in person experiences. And, I can do it mostly with my imagination, hands and laptop. Lastly, I’m blown away that I’ve created for well known brands like: Rolex, NBA Draft, Google, Rolling Stone, MGM Grand and the NY Yankees.

Aside from continuing to develop my creative skills as a contractor, my current metamorphosis is the result of my creative side desiring a more uninhibited way of expressing itself. I’ve launched a fashion company with a business partner in Australia, called Mijox. We make premium men’s underwear and accessories and are focused on sustainability and mental health. I’m learning about running the business, while designing the brand, products, packaging and advertising. Normally, during projects, I’ve had convictions of how I want my creations to materialize. But ultimately, it was always someone else’s decision, be it clients, CEOs or major stakeholders. What made it to see the light of day, and what ended up on the cutting room floor, weren’t always decisions I agreed with. But now, much like when I was a dancer, I get to express my creativity in its rawest form, only restricted by the medium and nature of “the audience”. i.e. it has to be physically and financially viable, and it should be appreciated by a large enough group of people (including myself). The creation we came up with is “Underwear you can wear on the outside”. Basically, we sell box sets of premium, sustainably sourced underwear that include matching accessories, like socks, pocket squares and ties. These are always sold together and worn together, so when people see the accessories, they basically get a sneak peek at the underwear. And, our underwear definitely wants to be shown off, just like the accessories. Our goal is to create something eye-catching, sleek and fashionable; never too safe, boring or stuffy. Like most of my creations, the idea sounds a little trivial or left-of-center on paper, but when it’s produced, it suddenly makes sense and excites people. My business partner and I launched the company this year and are enthusiastically aiming to take this company to unforeseeable heights. We want to learn and achieve things that we aren’t sure we are capable of achieving. And, it’s our plan to document the process, so our customers and supporters can come along the journey with us. Some things we’re thrilled to be working towards right now are more products launching this year, and working to show at New York Fashion Week next year. Further than that, who knows where this company will go and what it will achieve?

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The 3 most important qualities that have made massive impacts to my journey are:

Being observant. Understanding what people like and dislike on an emotional level, and learning how to alter those emotions through your work. I’ve learned to watch how people react when I show or tell them something, or when someone else does something in their presence. And, I don’t just see what their reaction is, I try to understand the reason behind their reaction, and find out what’s influencing their feelings. This has been invaluable, and shown me how to create, targeting a specific reaction. This makes things more impactful. You can do this by stopping your talking, and stopping your thinking, and just observe for a bit. Things will become very clear. Try not to project your desires onto people and test things out;

Embracing learning. Not just learning things I need to get something done, but loving the actual process of learning, in and of itself. Because, everything I learn now enlightens what I do years from now, not just the immediate task. And, learnings come from everywhere: family, bosses, colleagues, underlings. I even try to learn from people I disagree with. You can do this by having an open mind about these things. This also involves asking the right questions. And, if you don’t know what the right question is, ask ALL the questions and learn from the answers; and

Working hard and being nice to people. “Work hard and be nice to people”, was on the wall of the ad agency I worked for, in Australia. This formed the base of everything I have physically been able to achieve. Everything from learning technical skills, delivering projects on time, producing high quality work, creating better teamwork, getting promotions, changing jobs, managing teams, starting a business, and all of the momentum of my career and work is possible because of these 2 things working in harmony. You have to take things seriously, put your nose to the grindstone and sweat it out. But, you can’t take yourself so seriously that you forget you, and everyone you work with, are human. Collaboration pushes things forward, makes you look better and work less. It also allows you to work harder. My life and career was possible because I stopped what I was doing for a moment, turned away from whatever I was doing and connected with someone, human to human. Then we both got back to working our asses off.

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?

Currently, with Mijox, our biggest challenge is increasing product sales and brand exposure. We’re looking for like minded, or industry adjacent individuals to collaborate with. Anything helps at this point (big or small), from stocking our product in a store, modelling for us, collaborating on content and marketing, introducing us to people, to bouncing ideas collaborating on creative projects with us.

We really like working with people that care about mental health and sustainability, and thinking about effective ways to make things happen. People who aren’t afraid to think outside the box at times, regardless if they are creative people or not, definitely match our mentality.

If you’re interested in checking out our product, or would like to collaborate with us, please visit our website, mijox.store. Or, you can follow and share our social media accounts with friends, family and connections.

If anyone is interested in connecting with us, they can contact us by reaching out to us on facebook, instagram and tiktok (@mijox.store), or emailing me at [email protected].

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mijox.store/
• Instagram: @krissankrissan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krissan-pattugalan/
• Other: https://krissp.work/
  https://www.instagram.com/mijox.store/

  @mijox.store

  
  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559815737843

Image Credits

Krissan Pattugalan
Reuben Wu