Jasmine Yook on seeking opportunities, embracing failure, and making marketing more inclusive.
Jasmine’s Beginning…
Jasmine’s family moved from Korea to Northern New Jersey when she was seven years old. Growing up in a vibrant Korean community, she learned to balance her Korean heritage with her American upbringing. In school, Jasmine pursued a wide range of interests, including serving as student body president, Editor in Chief of the art magazine, Sports Editor for the high school paper, and a member of the varsity cheerleading team. She attended NYU to study Media, Culture and Communications, and continues to remain involved as the Chair of NYU’s Media, Culture, and Communication Alumni Council. Since graduation in 2014, Jasmine has built her career in marketing.
Embracing failure
Jasmine is often driven by being told she can’t do something. In college, with few women pursuing stem courses despite the tech industry boom, Jasmine took the initiative to expand her skill set beyond communications. Although she ended up failing the course, she did not let it discourage her. Instead, she embraced the experience as an opportunity to learn something new and determine her true interests. Although she discovered that computer science was not her strength, she gained valuable coding knowledge that helped her secure her internship, which led to her first marketing job at AOL.
“It feels like such a big burden because it's your life and you're living it. So you're like, oh, my God. I can't fail at this because it will have all these effects. But for me, I've always put myself in situations where I want to try something new. And I quickly realize that I like it or I don't. And so, in college, that was really what I focused on. I don't even know how I had the foresight or even the courage to think, I'm gonna try this and if it doesn't work out, that's okay. I think giving yourself Grace is actually the hardest thing I think anyone can do.”
As high schoolers, it can feel like there is no space to fail because the ramifications (ie. college admissions) feel so high. Learning that in life failure can actually be an opportunity for self discovery in order to find one’s purpose is an inspiring mentality shift.
Jasmine shared that when she looks back, the advice she would give to her younger self is that you don’t have to have everything figured out right away and having the most experiences in life is what is going to lead you to have a fulfilling life. She also emphasized celebrating the small wins, and that looking back now, she realizes how much she has accomplished, but while in the midst of it it just felt like checking off one box after another.
Finding your ‘why’ — Why Marketing?
Though Jasmine didn’t always know she would be working in marketing, what she did know was that she wanted to do work that made a greater impact outside of her immediate circle.
Jasmine shared “I think that has always been a part of my personality and DNA. I always like to push the envelope and try to figure out how I can change the status quo.” As a marketer, Jasmine brings inclusivity to the forefront wherever she goes. Whether it be gender, ethnicity, race, or ability, Jasmine prioritizes inclusivity as she works on campaigns and projects. As part of her work as a marketer at Nike, Jasmine spent time meeting different people to really get to know the consumer and their lifestyles. She noticed that most people did not look like models, in fact, most were what the industry called ‘plus’. She also realized that many of the women who were moving culture at the time happened to be plus body and did not fit into the ideal that brands were marketing for. Jasmine shared that “at Nike, they had a mantra internally that ‘everyone who has a body is an athlete’ and yet not all bodies were being represented.” While working for Nike, Jasmine helped craft and execute the brand’s first body-inclusive campaign called BRAHAUS. “It just seems so silly because now it’s so prevalent and totally normal to see plus bodies.” People were really excited about this new representation and relatability.
In 2020, when the pandemic forced all companies to shift their strategy to thrive digitally, Jasmine worked as a marketer at Victoria’s Secret. Beyond the pandemic’s push towards digital, this was a period of controversy for the brand. Jasmine shared that “Covid actually accelerated the brand to try something new, because what they had been doing was no longer feasible. During the pandemic, we made it super raw (which Victoria's Secret is usually known for ultrasexy black and white voluptuous photography) and we took it down to a low-fi level. Then we had these models, who had been put on their pedestal as untouchable female figures, be real and talk about their mental health and what they were doing. And it really struck a chord with our consumers because they had clearly been yearning for it.”
Continuing to explore…
Just recently, Jasmine pivoted from 10+ years of marketing in the tech and fashion industry to take the role as the first marketer at an ed tech startup called Curious Cardinals. Despite having only worked in the fashion industry and for big corporations, she still embraces a fearlessness to never stop exploring new things.
“Everyone wants to feel passionate about something when they wake up in the morning and I feel like that's the ultimate marketing task and challenge: “how do you sell passion?” And how do you reinvigorate the disenfranchised. I think the US and the world needs a little bit more of that right now, we're at a deficit, and so that's really what motivated me to move over. I'm really excited about the challenge.”
I learned a lot from Jasmine, but I’ll summarize the three key ways she most impacted my thinking:
1. Try as many new things as you can to not only find what you like, but also what you don’t like.
a. Jasmine motivated me to keep pursuing opportunities and fully capitalize on them. The outcome, whether good or bad, can lead to discovering new preferences and allow you to learn something new. I was really inspired by the breadth of Jasmine's work—she has done so many different meaningful and cool things. I feel that so often, fear holds us back, but Jasmine's story proves that seizing opportunities and just ‘going for it’ can lead to amazing outcomes.
2. You can do good anywhere!
a. Jasmine taught me that you can be a proponent for DEI and female empowerment in any field. Inclusivity is really a part of every industry and you can combine what is important to you with your passions.
3. Despite how scary it can be, change can be really good.
a. The pandemic required a whole new approach to running businesses. The pandemic pushed Victoria’s Secret, for example, to shift their strategy in an entirely new direction. While they couldn’t have anticipated such a positive response initially, it turned out to be very well received. I think in 2023, most of us want marketing and social media to be more reflective of real life, real people, and authentic experiences.
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