nwasianweekly.com
Sept. 23, 2006

Where work, fun go hand in hand
Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Dinner

By Christina Twu
For the Northwest Asian Weekly

Fun and corporate culture rarely seem to intersect, but with creative geniuses like Jolene Jang, better known as Jolene the Fun Specialist, corporate life, laughter, amusement, enlightenment and downright silliness can converge seamlessly and effectively.

Jolene the Fun Specialist LLC, the one-woman show and “fun” consulting company that Jang founded in 1996, has been dually entertaining and improving work relationships for reputable clients such as the City of Seattle, Starbucks, State Farm Insurance, Expedia, Macy’s and Microsoft using balloon art, vivacious personalities and creative team-building tactics of Jang’s invention.

“There’s really a fine line between work and play for me,” says the Chinese, Swedish and Japanese American entrepreneur. “I just combine the two. … I work a lot of hours, but I can only do that because I love what I do.”

Jang estimates that every event proposal she produces for a client, which she customizes based on the general background and work atmosphere of the company, takes about 15 hours, and even then, there are no guarantees that the company will invest in her services. On average, she plans 25 to 40 conferences, sales meetings, training sessions, retreats or award ceremonies a year.

“There’s always, and always has been, a need for my services because people want their employees to communicate well with each other and stay there,” she explains.

A staunch believer in “purposeful fun,” the 32-year-old Jang has incorporated her balloon art into team-building exercises. At one corporate function, for example, she delivered invitations via balloons so the clients had to pop the balloons to get their invitations, creating a whimsical shower of balloon remnants.

One of her trademark performances is “Ms. Seattleite,” in which she sports a pioneer-period dress and hat and spouts trivia about Seattle history.

“I bring Seattle to (my clients),” she says.

Ms. Seattleite’s first engagement was at the Smith Tower’s 90th anniversary. Jang did a little research, invented a costume and personality and told her audience some little-known Pioneer Square history.

“Did you know that the term ‘skid row’ was named after Yesler Way?” she asked them.

Ms. Seattleite was an immediate hit.

“She was so well received that I continued studying and researching more Seattle history to include in my bit,” Jang says.

In the past few years, Jang has been in the national spotlight for her civic contributions. In 2000, Jang and her boyfriend were enjoying the Bite of Seattle at the Seattle Center when she caught a man filming up her skirt. The man could not be charged with anything, Jang learned, because no Washington law prohibited this kind of voyeurism. Livid, she wrote to legislators. Eventually, her work caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey, and Jang became a guest on her show in 2002. The following year, then-Gov. Gary Locke signed the anti-voyeurism bill into law.

An active member of her community, the Seattle resident has also presented programs to Distributive Education Clubs for America (DECA), the Northwest Asian Weekly’s Summer Youth Leadership Program, Junior Achievement, Students in Free Enterprise and the Small Business Association’s Women’s Network.

She is now among the nominees for 2006 Asian American Entrepreneur of the Year, an award being given by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation for the first time.

Although her niche business was difficult to market at first (Jang held a full-time job the first several years after her company’s inception), Jang believes it’s worth it.

“I get to pave the path that no one’s been down before,” she says. “I’ve been paving a path through rock walls. It’s like, ‘Crack, crack, crack. How do I get around these walls?’ I’m still chipping away, but now I’ve got some tools.”

For more information, visit www. funspecialist.com.

Christina Twu can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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