Today we’d like to introduce you to Maya Venkataraman.
Maya, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Although I have been a fan of KPOP (Korean Pop) music for years, I didn’t get involved in the community till 2020, seeing as COVID-19 left me with the time and energy. As I proceeded to understand just how big and involved this community was, I realized how much time and money I had put into being part of the community. The majority of my expenses were taken up by travel costs. All these experiences I saw others doing were not accessible to me where I lived. I wanted to attend cupsleeve events, buy albums and merch, and meet new fans, but I didn’t want to have to travel to a different city or state to do it. The first ever cupsleeve event I attended was in July 2022, almost 5 years into being a KPOP fan, and it was in Houston, TX. In Houston, I was able to attend two cupsleeves in one day. Within a few hours, I had done more in Houston, than I had been able to do in the 5 years I was a KPOP fan, living in Columbus, Ohio. I already had to travel and spend so much just to see the artists I wish to see. Why did I need to wait for an opportunity to just visit a bubble tea store, get some freebies (images of artists, stickers, etc), and meet other KPOP fans? I couldn’t believe it. I knew there were KPOP fans in Ohio, I had met them. Ironically, I had met them in other states, because like me, they also had to spend time and money to travel outside of Ohio to experience KPOP.
I wanted to know how I could find something like this in Ohio, in Columbus. As I looked around, I found nothing. I saw social media accounts, and I saw people asking about interest, but other than that, I found nothing. As time moved on, I realized that maybe, just maybe, I had to do something myself. So I posted on Facebook, in a group for KPOP fans in Ohio, trying to gauge interest, trying to figure out if I was truly the only one who had cared so much about this. I spent a day driving to over 8 different bubble tea (boba tea) stores, trying out their drinks, looking at their space, and figuring out parking. I spent a week emailing and calling each store to develop a partnership. Finally, I decided that I could do it. I was going to host the first cupsleeve in Columbus, Ohio. I had the interest, I had the passion, and I had the resources that I had spent days and hours gathering. I spent hours designing cupsleeves, researching manufacturers, creating, printing, and cutting out freebies. I spent my own money to get as much as possible to offer to people who would come out to an event. I created an Instagram account, and posted daily, gathering interest in KPOP fans in Ohio. Thus was born, OhioKpopThings.
My first event, August 2022, was not dedicated to a particular group or artist. It was just a general gathering at a small bubble tea store on Bethel Road. I will forever be grateful to the store that provided me with the first space for an event, The Brewed Leaf, on Bethel Road. I didn’t have too much to offer and set up. The space was small, and I had accessories that I had either made or bought myself. Goodies bags were the things I was giving away. Each goodie bag has four mini prints, candy, and a sticker. For how much I was offering, I wasn’t expecting a huge turnout. Imagine both my and The Brewed Leaf’s surprise when we had more than 50 people show up for this. I made 80 goodie bags, expecting only about 20 people to show up. In the end, I was left with only 20 goodie bags. My first event, and it was a success. I knew I had done something people were interested in.
From here I created more interest, promoting my Instagram, planning events for specific artists, etc. By December 2022, I had planned 7 different events, and I had learned a lot. I had found myself a partner, who had helped me in planning and making freebies, and honestly, without Destiny, I would have given up a long time ago. I had people volunteer to help, and I am ever grateful. I had started developing strong partnerships with various bubble tea stores. However, I also had events that weren’t as successful. I had events that barely had 20 people attend, events where I had spent money on over 50 cupsleeves, only to have given away less than half of them. But I had learned. I had learned what worked. I had developed an Instagram that had earned over a hundred followers within days.
Now, in June of 2024, OhioKpopThings LLC is a business registered with the State of Ohio, and we have over 2.2k followers on Instagram. I have a business partner who has helped build this small one-woman show into a small woman-of-color-owned business. We do more than just host events, we sell KPOP albums and handmade merch, and we collaborate with various other small KPOP businesses in the state of Ohio. We are a well-known name in the Ohio KPOP scene. What’s more so many other people have started planning KPOP cupsleeve events. No longer do people have to wait for an opportunity to travel to another state to experience the KPOP community. Much of my own personal time, effort, and most importantly, money, went into building this company, but the joy of raising awareness about KPOP and making it more accessible to people in Ohio was worth it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the words of Caroline Channing of “2 Broke Girls” (2011-2017), ‘…nothing is ever easy-peasy.’ As a habitual people pleaser, the road to success with OhioKpopThings has been bumpy, but like every business, there have been ups and downs. Much like most businesses, it is hard to always keep your client base happy, and when your business is as small as OhioKpopThings, it is even more important. The success of OhioKpopThings depends solely on the interest of our clients, and as easy as it is to give them exactly what they want, it is also expensive, both financially and emotionally. Luckily for OhioKpopThings, it took a while, but it is happily at a point where breaking even is constant, and all the money that is put in, is earned back, ready to be put back in. It is a vicious cycle, even if it allows for personal financials to not be at risk. Not everyone is always pleased though, and as a people pleaser, I struggle not to be the first one to sacrifice financial and emotional wealth to make everyone happy. But business is business, and some clientele must be sacrificed if we cannot justify the means for the end. Making money is important, and it is money that brings the majority of the success to our business. However, it is easier said than done, and we can’t always have the exact albums people want, we can’t afford to purchase more than we can afford, and we can’t put on events all the time for everyone. We have our own lives and our responsibilities, and we have to balance it. Having the albums to sell and seeing how much money we earn back from those album sales will always be exhilarating, but we are not a big business, we aren’t even a medium business. We are two women trying to run a business while juggling life and being a people pleaser will have to take a back seat to our responsibilities. Whether that is proper business practice or not, it’s what must happen, and we do see the consequences of those decisions. We see we acknowledge, we understand that every time we do not choose people please makes a difference to our business. Yet, here we are, almost two years into our business, and we are still here. Is it thriving sky-high? No. Is it everything we wanted and more? Nope. But it is here, and it is working, and it is successful.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
In the bluntest terms, I have no clue what I want to do in my life. From customer service to office administration, residential assistant to peer editor, and social media manager to running my own small business, I have had experience in a range of fields. One thing all of these jobs have in common is people. Meeting people, learning from them, teaching them, this is what drives me. From teaching refugees Math, Science, and English, to helping my fellow students edit their papers, to receiving customer service calls from clients, I tend to find myself surrounded by people I want to help. I went to college and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Creative Writing. To be able to understand how people work, and why they do what they do, has always been an interest to me, most likely influenced by my obsession with TV crime dramas. Writing was a hobby that started when I was younger, and, till I took my first Creative Writing class in college, didn’t realize meant a lot more to me than I ever knew. College allowed me to work on developing my skills and interests in both areas. Unexpectedly, it also made me realize that I love to help people by the way of teaching. Coming out of college, and unfortunately, COVID, I found myself enrolled in a Master of Arts in Teaching program. Through this program, I learned about the struggles, issues, and disparities in classrooms. I learned that there is so much more to learning and teaching than we see. Putting together Psychology, Writing, and Teaching brought me to being a high-school English teacher. That was where I thought I could put all my skills, my aspirations, and my education together. I did…for a bit. Being in the classroom is not what it was when I was student-teaching in someone else’s classroom. I wasn’t making the difference I thought I would. I had become the exact type of teacher that I looked down upon. So, in a way, I gave up on that. Now, looking back, I’m mad at myself for giving up. There were more factors at play than just not being the teacher I wanted to be, but I’m not a quitter, and in that instance, I was. It took me almost six months after that to find another job, and when I did, it was the furthest thing from what I ever wanted to do. Working as a customer service representative allows me to help people, but not in the way I wish. I sit at a desk, I answer calls, I answer emails…and repeat. With my friends and family encouraging me to find a job with more stability, I find myself in a place that I am sure many others have too. At the age of 26, I have a job and steady income, but the expectations of people around me (not necessarily unrealistic, seeing the person I used to be) have made me realize that I don’t know who I am, or what I want to do. There are so many dreams I could achieve and be happy with. Could I open up my dream cafe? Could I write that book I have always wanted to? Could I travel around the world, teaching underprivileged youth? Can I do all of that or none? Through all of this, I’m running my own business, and that is probably the one thing that I happily put forward. I put forward that I have no clue what I am doing, what I want from life, what dream I am trying to pursue, but I am running a business that I never imagined I would. I am working on taking what started off as a hobby and making it source of income. I am doing something.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risk-takers are usually categorized as reckless or brave. I am neither of those, but I believe that I am always taking risks. What is a risk if not just a decision we have to make? Choosing to go sky jumping is a risk, but so is choosing to eat dinner out instead of cooking at home. Both decisions have consequences. I don’t believe I am a risk-taker, not consciously anyway. I like the comfort of a simple, scheduled, lifestyle. How that fits into my dream of traveling the world, I am unsure. Every time I make a decision, I truly feel like I am taking a risk, whether that decision is what I’m eating for dinner or whether to quit my job. Deciding to host that first KPOP event was a risk that luckily had more reward than consequence. However, making a business from it. That had a lot of consequences: less free time, using my own money, having to deal with various resources, and dealing with customers. These were all the consequences of a risk I took, but the reward of having my own business was worth it. I’m not a risk-taker, I never will be, but I take risks on a regular basis, and that won’t stop.
Pricing:
- KPOP Albums – Between $15 – $22
- Event Attendance – Free to $20
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ohiokpopthings.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ohiokpopthings
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084984348905
- Other: www.ohiokpopthings.myshopify.com
Image Credits
Destiny Root
