Angela Jia Kim is an up-and-coming young business women who applied her discipline and creative spirit as a concert pianist, to turn a bad experience on stage into two thriving businesses.
WIB: What is the name of your business?
Ms. Kim: I have two businesses: Om Aroma & Co., the luxury organic spa and skincare line, and Savor the Success, a boutique social network for female entrepreneurs and professionals. Om Aroma & Co. was launched in August of 2007 and Savor the Success was launched on July 29, 2008.
WIB: Tell me a little about your businesses.
Ms. Kim: Om Aroma manufactures and sells luxury organic spa and skincare products to five-star spas and resorts. We take our ultra-sensual ingredients—Caviar, Champagne, and Truffles—and fuse them with organic ingredients to create products that are deliciously sexy and naturally great for the skin.
Savor the Success helps to connect female entrepreneurs and professionals to help build dreams in a real way. There are two components to the model: a boutique online social network (think Facebook meets LinkedIn tailored to women) and in-person workshops, tele-seminars, networking events, and cocktail minglers.
WIB: What inspired you to start Om Aroma?
Ms. Kim: I was always supposed to be a concert pianist. My mom plopped me in front of the piano at the age of three, and that was it-- I never looked back. Rigorous training and strict discipline became a way of life, and although I would often fantasize about doing other things, I never thought I would ever really do it. Well, who knew that a rash right before a concert would change my life forever?
Before stepping out on stage in Chicago, I had applied a "natural" cream on my body and started to break out. The humiliating experience prompted me to go back to the hotel room and look at the list of ingredients. I was paying attention to what I was eating; shouldn't I pay attention to what I was putting on my body?
The list was filled with chemicals and preservatives, which I found extremely disconcerting. At the time, my cousin, aunt, and even a couple of friends (still in their twenties) had been diagnosed with cancer. Even though I knew that a cream was not the cause, I wanted to make a lifestyle change, and for me, it began with a new beauty regiment.
I was determined to find a luxury cream without all of the toxic chemicals. When I couldn't find it on the market, I rolled up my sleeves, went into my Manhattan kitchen, and started to experiment on my own.
My discipline as a pianist kicked in, and I became obsessed to find "perfection." I experimented 1000 times before being satisfied to give them as gifts to friends. It was an instant hit, and they began to buy the creams as gifts for their friends.
When I realized that this was becoming a business, I hired a team of holistic formulators and skincare experts to help come out with a complete line of skincare products free of parabens, formaldehyde, mineral oil, and synthetic fragrances. Just like the moment when my mom plopped me on the piano as a youngster, I haven't looked back since the day we launched.
WIB: How do you come to start Savor the Success?
Savor the Success is a natural extension of Om Aroma. I found myself alone as a female entrepreneur building my company. I had a sales team, employees, and an assistant. What was the next step? I had gotten my college degree in music, not in business! I needed to reach out to peers and respected business women who were going through the same thing to learn from them.
I wanted a network of women who were committed to building serious business, who were completely dedicated to beating the odds, and who wanted a supportive community. I also wanted a social networking website that could work just as well as Facebook and LinkedIn - a real tool for getting ahead in business.
Finally, I wanted meaningful workshops that helped make my business grow exponentially. If I was going to invest $300 in a workshop, I wanted that to be translated into many more zeros down the line.
I couldn't find such an organization, so I created it. As business woman who was building from the ground up, I needed it, and I knew that if I needed it, so did others.
WIB: Do you have any tips to share with women who want to start their own businesses?
Ms. Kim: The biggest lessons that I have learned through business, I actually learned as a concert pianist. When memorizing and perfecting thousands and thousands of notes, it's really the same concept as building a business. In music, if you don't have a strong concept of how you want it to sound - and I mean every single note - you are not going to reach your potential. In business, if you don't know exactly what your goals are - and I'm talking about exact goals - you, too, can't reach your potential.
The other thing that I have learned is that so many people leave before seeing the success. I am convinced that success is sometimes just around the corner, and yet people don't turn that corner, they turn around and walk away. As a pianist, I had developed a system of making things happen through a cycle: there's a problem, come up with imaginative solutions, act on it, and then Savor the Success. It's a cyclical ball that will become bigger and bigger as you build.
