Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sujin Kim. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sujin, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
From my dad, hands down.
When I was only a year old, we came to the US with barely any money, no knowledge of the English language, and no family or friends. He worked his ass off to support us, learned English from scratch, and raised a wild little girl that always got in trouble at school.
He’s had a lot of hardships but always powered through it, stayed strong and positive (even when his company went under and we had to sell our things and move), and has always been present in my life. He’d even saved up money to pay for my college tuition so he could make sure that I wouldn’t have to deal with college debt the rest of my adult life.
He is truly where I get my scrappiness from. I’ve had to pick myself up from a lot of hard falls and know that I’ll always make it through, based on the example that he’s set.
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 was lucky to have a father who wanted me to pursue my dreams, rather than the most lucrative career path. With Asian parents (especially of an only child), this is typically unheard of. I grew up wanting to be a psychologist but also was obsessed with fashion, both at a very young age.
We didn’t know it while I was growing up, but I had ADHD which made school a bit difficult for me. I was really interested in and passionate about psychology but my dad would remind me that I was also really passionate with fashion. My response always was, “but I’m not that creative, my taste is too boring and classic.” And he’d respond with, “you know ‘classic’ isn’t an easy thing to do well and you do it well.”
So at 26 when I decided to leave my hometown of LA to move to NY to pursue a fashion career, my dad (though he wasn’t thrilled that his only daughter was leaving cross-country) was fully supportive. I started from scratch — no friends/family, no money, no experience in fashion whatsoever — and eventually built a 10-year career as a luxury fashion buyer for companies such as Barneys New York and Net-A-Porter.
In 2015, at the age of 34, I got laid off and had to take on a personal styling job to make ends meet while I found another buying job. I always gave style advice to my friends but never thought it could be a career choice because I wasn’t really the “glamorous type” nor the type of person who wanted to work in “high-profile” environments. But during this period I discovered that there were so many real people that simply needed guidance from someone they trusted and I unexpectedly became one of the top stylists in the company. I initially thought that I wouldn’t do as well as the other stylists because my approach wasn’t to make $$, but rather to really help people by getting to know them (going back to my initial goal to become a psychologist). In the end I ended up marrying my two passions, fashion and psychology — something I never knew would be possible!
Having started later than everyone else in my career, age has always been something I thought I had to work against. I was starting my styling career at 35 when all these other stylists were in their 20s. But what I later come to realize was that the life and (fashion) career experience actually was a great advantage. I eventually got another job in buying but I continued to style on the side.
Then 2020 happened. I got laid off again. I had been pretty unhappy as a buyer and decided that this was it — I was going to go all in on my styling business. It was scary, it was hard…but so worth it. Since then, I’ve never looked back.
Now the parallel story that leads to my content creator path…I was always obsessed with my camera and pictures. As a child, I always had a camera. I’d make my mom take baskets of rolls of film to develop (usually of nothing and everything) and was so excited to go through them every time. In high school, I was the annoying one that insisted on taking candid photos of my friends because I love capturing moments…this extended into my 20s and 30s (and now 40s), during the pre iphone era. My friends wondered why I never pursued a career in photography and my response was always that it was too expensive and that it was just something that I loved to do.
So at 40, I decided to turn my hobby into a career and become a content creator. I felt more compelled to do it in my 40s because I felt that there wasn’t enough representation for people my age, especially as a single woman. My solo travels didn’t start until my 40s as well and I wanted to show people that it’s never too late to start something new and do things on your own.
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?
Not being afraid to take risks. Being vulnerable and open.
Tuning out the judgment that you think people are putting on you.
Know that no matter what happens, you will be ok and you will make it through, Even if the initial outcome isn’t what you’d planned, you will still grow and learn. Remember that it is always better to have tried then to always wonder what could;ve been.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
Definitely the impostor syndrome. Most of us have it to some degree and we almost think that it’s normal and/or healthy.
Starting my own business was when I realized how much of a problem it was. That was the first step — identifying that. It took me a year of real work on myself to at least get to the point where I could tell myself that all that judgment was coming from me and not others. That I was my own biggest hurdle.
This past year when I started to get into content creation was when I had to do the MOST work with my impostor syndrome. But with the support of my closest and most trusted friends and the continuous reminder to myself not to get in my own way, I’m in the best place with myself than I’ve ever been.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stylebysujin.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewanderingkorean/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-kuUHrObCJp8FivAAZCRjw
Image Credits
Heather Rosario
