Snapshot is a glimpse of the creative and entrepreneurial minds that are making headways in their chosen fields.
Nicole Effendy is no stranger to sweeping, sudden changes in her journey as a veteran in the creative sphere. The uncertainty of today’s whirlwind media landscape is rattling, but Nicole embraces the idea of a fresh start, seeing each unexpected challenge as a stepping stone to her next big stride into unfamiliar waters - this time as a co-founder, alongside her sister Rachel Effendy, in her business creative consultancy Strawberry Wasabi.
Nicole reminisces about the big career twists and industry jumps she’s made over the years, first as a fashion blogger, to working in entertainment, and now exploring the realm of web3. She shares the benefits of trusting the process, the importance of collaboration and vulnerability in overcoming challenges, and how she hopes to leverage her experiences to pay it forward and spotlight other local talent in Asia.
What have you been up to lately?
Setting up Strawberry Wasabi, for sure. It's been interesting to define my skill sets in a direct business offering instead of from a personnel perspective. That has required a bit of a switch. Also packaging me and my sister as a team. It changes the way we approach different clients.
More importantly, it's expanded the kind of clients we can work on. So it's been mostly an interesting journey, that’s lasted around four months, where we've been building the foundations of, “What is Strawberry Wasabi, and why should we exist when a thousand other consultancies or creative agencies exist out there?”
How did you get to where you are now?
This sounds so cliche, but it's a lot of trusting the process. I went to college for computer science. At the time, going to engineering school felt like such a waste of my energy when I could have spent it on owning my craft, but looking back, it taught me a certain way of problem solving in a creative scenario that I don't think I would have gotten if I purely went on the creative route. It was a lot of trial and error.
I will also attribute how I got here to many different people taking a chance on me, which I think, at the time, we did not necessarily deserve. When I was 20, we landed our first four-page spread in W Magazine. We were part of a CoverGirl campaign shoot for Cosmo. These were opportunities given to us by people who saw our work and believed in taking a chance. And so I actually take a lot of that now and pay it forward, now that I'm in Asia.
I feel like it's my duty, if I'm able, to spotlight undiscovered talent in Asia, or talent who are trying to make it. Especially with my background at the time, being at more global companies like Netflix and Prime Video. I felt like it was my job to make sure I could find ways for these local artists to grow as well.
When did you feel like you got your “big break” in doing what you love?
My sister and I ran a fashion blog; we were influencers back in 2010. Everyone was doing OOTDs, but we shot conceptualised editorials. Our first big break was when we did our very first editorial. It was two girls, one tripod, 10 different outfits, at Prospect Park, and a tent. It looked super shady. It was kind of rainy, it was cold, but we had a concept, we had a vision, and we had been working with a bunch of different PR houses and designers at the time. We saw a few pieces that we felt like would come together as a singular story.
It was an editorial of 12 images, and it caught a lot of traction and steam on Tumblr, where we blogged. I’d say that was our first big break, because after that, we started getting more requests to do conceptualised editorials for brands. It led to a collaboration with Lord & Taylor, which also led to our W Magazine spread; it led to our Cosmo work.
What was the mindset that helped you get to where you are now?
“It doesn't make sense now, but it will later,” is how my sister and I have functioned. You can think about it as having faith. We went down a lot of different paths that looked like it would have been a waste of time. Me doing computer science in college made zero sense with the career I've built, but then lo and behold, 10 years later, I'm now in crypto.
One thing that I love with the mindset we've had is to just believe in the chaos. It's helped us get really comfortable with chaotic situations, which I think in the creative field, happens all the time between different creative visions and different huge personalities coming together. Then there's the logistics, and of course budgets, and et cetera. It gets chaotic very quickly. My sister and I will thrive in that environment. That's how we've survived so far.
In other words, just go with the crazy. It'll be fine.
What’s a big bet you made that paid off?
Working with unknown talents. It didn't feel like such a big risk at the time to me. At my first entertainment marketing gig, there was already a process that was like, when we’re going to shoot key art or we're going to cut a trailer, we're gonna work with the top-notch trailer house in Hollywood. We're gonna fly in a photographer from Hollywood, even if the show wasn't set in the US. And the cast were all in Asia. I moved back to Asia because I wanted to work with local talents. And I got a lot of questions in the beginning. People were asking me, why would I work with this photographer, or why would I work with this agency who's never had any experience making key art.
I feel that it’s paid off because now five years later, the skillset has spread. I’d like to think that I was in some small way a part of pushing local talent regionally, to be able to take on the work, because it's not that we don't have the talent, it's that we haven't been exposed to the process.
What’s the most difficult part of your creative journey?
Admitting you're wrong sometimes. As a creative, ego is always at play. This is why I find myself so lucky to work with my sister because I can never really truly be offended. We're so close, and at the end of the day, she's family. I don't have to second guess when she's critiquing my work and vice versa.
I’d like to think I've grown over the years and I'm able to discern when I feel strongly about something because objectively I think it's not right, or it can be done better, or when it's just my ego being really loud. I'm sure any creative out there can relate. Sometimes you want to tell your ego, “Just shut up.” Keeping it in check is very helpful. I've learned to decide if this is the hill I wanna die on. And I can just move on. You won't die.
What’s one piece of advice you’re glad you didn’t listen to?
One opinion that I didn't listen to is that as a woman in the workplace, you have to be this super strong, tough character to advance. I have learned, at least in my own journey, that there's a difference between being tough and being firm. Sometimes being kind does have its own strength, and is actually way more effective.
Now I think I tend to conduct myself in a way that honours who I am naturally as a woman, versus trying to be the 21st century gal who's got her shit together and is like, “girl boss.” Sometimes I don't want to girl boss, and that's okay. Being firm is more important in terms of your approach, and having confidence in your opinions and your thoughts, but not necessarily having to come off as tough or super macho, to keep up with the men in the space. ‘Cause then I'm not making a change. As Michael Jackson said, start with the man in the mirror.
What’s a common misconception about what you do? How does it impact your work, or your approach to it?
People think there’s a success formula to marketing that you can just copy and paste, that there's this secret combination of data and knowledge that will help you get a surefire win campaign every single time. Because I approach it from a more creative perspective, I think great marketing comes from putting the right people together in a room. It's very much like how a great restaurant doesn't rely on just a great head chef. You need to have a good sous chef, your trusted line cooks, people who prep. All these need to work together in a magical synergy.
Sometimes people put too much emphasis on the directors of the project, when every single person counts in a creative environment. All you need is one naysayer or one person with negative energy and that spreads in a second. It really impacts the work that goes out. So for me, I always try to - and I'm sure there must be times I slip up - as much as possible, lead from the back. I know I'm very loud, but I also try to make sure that I'm taking on tasks in the back so any work on a campaign doesn't get drowned out.
I also put a lot into finding the right crew to come together for a campaign, from the post-production team, to the creative agency, to the talent that's on it. I’m very picky. If I did a marketing shoot for a title that's launching, I’d want to know everyone working on it, down to the very last gaffer. It's important to me because I also want every single person on the crew to feel like they understand the larger context of what they're working towards. That, I think, at least for me, affects the quality of the final work.
What’s one thing that you wish creatives did more of?
Share. I feel that the creatives I've met in my career only share because we've already become friends. I think there's a lot more quicker growing and learning when there's a lot more sharing. Not just, “how did we do this,” but also the vulnerabilities. When creatives get together, we like to focus on the positives. It's always, “this was a tough journey, but then we made it.” Sometimes we make a wrong creative bet, and it comes out off. I wish there was more of a safe space for creators to share that.
Sometimes I think being a creative can be a pretty lonely journey. Between your ego and, ironically, your super low self-esteem, you start second-guessing your own work. I think having some sort of pact for creatives, that once you meet, you have this unspoken rule of sharing, I think it would really change the industry.
And one thing that you wish creatives did less of?
I do feel like there’s a strong tendency to say, “oh, we have the answers for everything.” For example, if you share a creative work that's not done, you feel like you need to arm yourself with a bunch of possible questions they're going to ask you, and also have the solution. There’s more strength in numbers in that process if more of us are like, “I don't know yet, because I'm not God, but I will eventually figure it out. I just don't know yet.” If we take on that habit a bit more, maybe we could all collectively also create a healthier creative critique environment, where it doesn’t need to be bulletproof the moment you share it. But I understand that's like an ideal scenario.
Fun fact, my sister and I have a Telegram chat group, just the two of us, and it's called Menty B, like mental breakdown. It's where we just share our insecurities about our creative work, where it's like, “We think this sucks! Do you think this sucks?” I'd be like, “Yeah, it kinda sucks, but it's not as bad as you think.” That's how I survive, because I have such a safe space with my sister. I feel lucky that I have her and we can both have a mental spiral, then be okay with it. More people need that Menty B space.
What’s next for you?
Sleeping. Sleeping; winning the lottery; retiring in New Zealand would be ideal.
For the first time in my life, I don't know what's next. I'm kind of going whereever it’s taking me. One thing is clear. My sister and I want to continue building Strawberry Wasabi and work together. But even if you ask me what it looks like in six months, honestly, I don't know.
I'm quite enjoying living in the present. I think that has allowed me to be more receptive to more opportunities. I'm sure you’ve heard how some people do a “yes summer”. We're not doing that, but it's at least keeping us open to more yeses, versus closing doors that are not necessarily cutting us off at the knees if we had already said no early on.
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This interview has been condensed and edited for length.