Marissa Chin, Freelance Copywriter/Writer
When did your journey as a creative begin (both personally and professionally)?
My personal journey as a creative began at a very early age when I was naturally drawn to the world of fiction--yes, I was that kid that always had a book with them everywhere they went! I loved the creativity behind every book I read, from its extensive world-building to the evocative way authors would use language. In school, I joined creative writing clubs and theatre productions which really exposed me to the beauty of literature and how I could express myself in writing as well. I quickly found out I was good at it too (it's important to know your strengths!) so I chose to study English Literature in the UK and loved every minute of it.
Professionally, it was when I started at BURO, an online luxury digital content platform, to write for their lifestyle and culture sections as their editorial assistant. From there, I moved on to become a digital content producer at Cult Creative (shoutout to you guys, you're doing awesome!) for a year before I decided to take a leap to start my own online food venture that will be launching soon and pursue freelancing.
How would you describe your creative/artistic leadership?
I feel like my leadership style is definitely influenced a lot by my personality type which is INFJ. So I am both a thinker and a feeler. I rely a lot on my own intuition and gut feeling whenever I'm strategising or hashing out new content. I'm someone who likes to collect a lot of information and absorb that first before I figure out how I can express them in my own way creatively. And once I have a clear idea or approach of my own, I present it to the rest of my team.
Creativity is all about collaboration so personally, it's important for me to be able to make others feel comfortable to voice their opinions and share their ideas and more often than not, we usually arrive at an even better idea!
If there's something you noticed women creatives doing how would you advise them?
I've definitely met a few women creatives who feel like they deserve more in their workplace but don't express it, either because they're too shy or uncomfortable to speak up or they'll rather just wait for chance to come up rather than seek it.
If you're someone looking to get a raise or promotion but just don't know how to do it, the first step is to get advise from other female colleagues or creatives. Learn how they've done it and surround yourself with that empowering energy to give you that boost of confidence! You'll get tons of useful tips about what worked and what didn't. On the flip side, if you know your colleague is looking for a promotion from your boss, don't forget to speak up for her too! Women should support and empower each other.
"If you know your colleague is looking for a promotion from your boss, don't forget to speak up for her too! Women should support and empower each other. "
What is your life ethos and how does it relate to your creative journey?
Life is here for you to live it so be passionate, bold and fearless! I've been through some tough things in my life that reminded me time and time again that life is so short--so do what you love and love what you do. Rather than comparing where I am now in my personal or creative journey with others, I've accepted that everyone moves at their own pace and 'success' is not definitive to one thing or the other.
Of course, I'm still in the process of figuring myself out but I try not to give myself so much pressure. If I like something, I'll keep at it and if I don't, then I'll move on, because I truly believe there are so many great opportunities out there waiting for you to grasp them. If you want to change your career path, do it! If you want to start your own business, do your research and launch it! Living with failure is hard, but living with regret is even harder.
What was the most significant/impactful project for you thus far — why?
There are two that come to mind. The first would be working on the Cult Creative app. I joined Cult Creative just a few months after their launch on Instagram in 2019, when they were only about 3 months old! Fast forward a year later, I was helping them work on the copywriting and content for an app that was going to go LIVE in app stores! So just being part of such a big project and witnessing the growth of Cult Creative and the app from start to finish was super rewarding and something I'll never forget.
It was surreal to see my ideas and words in real life when the app launched and had actual people downloading and using it. I've never worked in app development before so it was like getting to know a whole different side of the creative tech industry and how to launch an app (spoiler alert: LOTS OF REVISIONS AND RESEARCH!). So I've definitely learned a lot throughout this entire process and couldn't be more humbled to be a part of something creatives all over Malaysia would find useful for their careers and network.
Please share with us who/what you are constantly inspired by.
I'm always in awe of how Bay Doucet creates her content whether it's for a brand or showing a trivial part of her day--she always finds a way to present it in such as aesthetically pleasing, calming and organic way.
As a writer, I am also inspired by Trina Teoh's lovely poetic writings.
For local brands, I love Motherchuckers' branding and by extension, Mandy Gioh's creative direction and Liana Azwa's graphic work for the brand!
Who is someone you would love to collaborate with and why?
As mentioned before, I love the creative geniuses behind Motherchuckers so working with Nelson and Mandy from Frenss Studio would be super cool!
I would also love to work with Jasmine Wong (@jasmineecp) because I'm super in love with her visuals and how she captures emotion, it would be awesome if I could write a script for one of her video projects.
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