Hi, Nice to meet you. (Clap)
Um, I'm Chang Suk-jong, and making a fashion magazine, CRACKER your wardrobe at a small company called, NM Media
Actually, when I got a contact from the TEDxDaejeon,
I thought what can I tell people here,
the topic is 'overcome your limit',
but I'm too young and what limit did I overcome at all.
I also worried much about if my story could be sympathized by the audiences, too.
But I decided to be braver because I wanted to tell you
very honest story as a young people.
I want to tell you some episodes which happened
while I've been running a company and publishing magazine.
I want you to a little relax seeing these funny pictures before I start my story.
I will tell you how your office could be changed
if you overcome your limit since it's the topic today. (Laugh)
Well, these are the pictures of the early time of the magazine CRACKER,
this is the redevelopment area in Wang-Sip-li.
My office was here actually. It was a 300,000 won montly rent flat without any key money.
And this picture is us having a little get-together. (Laugh)
Yes, because it was underground and would be all smoky if we barbecue there, we got a blackboard and put it on the floor,
and me looking at people pathetically...
It seems a little pathetic, but we had a fun time like this.
And this is our designer fallen asleep during the dead-line working.
There is the 'Back' paper we are using during the photo shoot on the desk.
But she's using it to heat herself with the light (laugh)
and it'll make her a little warmer (Laugh) This rather sounds a bit sad,
and this is me. (Laugh)
The designer's sleeping on the desk, so i'm sleeping in the sleeping bag.
And this is the second heater, but it was too cold I almost got frostbite.
We just picked theese on the street. We were very poor.
This is the old office. This heater is the most important heater.
And this is high-performance heater only for women, the elderly and the infirm.
This is the arrangement board every magazine company has, and it should be made of acrylic.
But we substituted it with cork, again because we were poor.
So the old office was a little pathetic like this.
Now our office is..Yes. (Oh!) (Clap)
Of course the office isn't this clean now. This picture was taken right after we moved in.
This is 700,000 won montly-rent flat with the key money of 10,000,000won (laugh). Yes, I'm working at this office right now.
What I'm going to talk about today is mainly about two things.
First one is about the process making a magazine,
and the another one is about me.
Well, actually, I wanted to major in fashion since I was in highschool.
My older sister bought magazines every month, and I dreamt of going to fashion major at university.
I studied hard and went to Hanyang University.
After I went to university, I lost interest in study.
So I worked with anything only if it's about fashion.
So I worked at a PR company, fashion PR company, I also made costumes for plays
and I ran an internet shopping mall then went bankrupt. (Laugh) So, I've been through many things.
Because I was working in the fashion industry, I took many pieces of advice from magazines.
So I guess it was 2007, while I was doing my military service,
I was reading a japanese magazine and thought, why we don't have such a magazine here in Korea.
Something that can cover from teenagers to 20's and also writes about clothes easily.
So I thought, "what's so special about making a magazine?"
and wrote a list of magazines I wanted to make.
I went to one of my friends majoring in Business management,
and said, "Hey, do you want to make a magazine? It's going to be a THING."
I didn't say it like this, awkwardly. I bought him pizza and told him about it.
And my friend was an easy taget and he said, "Yes, sure, Let's do it."
That's how I started to make a magazine.
We were making a magazine so there were 4 of us.
A writer, a photographer, a sales person,
and a designer.
So this 4 of us gathere at the 300,000 won office I showed you before, and talked.
But there was no professional, so we had no idea what to do first.
Actually it's not important to have a professional,
but it was important because there was no one to lead us.
And that was quite a problem.
So we organized the process as simple as possible.
We decided to make a magazine and this is the latest issue.
Let's plan, the first step.
It's about deciding what contents will be in the magazine.
What's the topic of the month, who will be on the magazine, decide design concept, and
now we got the plan, so it's time to write and take photos.
It was me and the photographer's works.
Let's edit.
This is the designer's work,
and we got the writing and photos, so it's just putting them on the book.
And now, let's publish.
This is getting advertisement, publish books,
and distribute.
We made magazine considering these 4 steps.
But the problem was,
that none of us ever got any kinds of professional education and didn't know anything.
So we didn't know 'how' to.
We took pictures somehow, editted it somehow,
and this is the first issue we made like that.
It's really embarrassing to look at it now,
it's out of the essence of magazine,
there are several advertisement from internet shopping malls,
and..the phonographs are fallen apart..
Now I evaluate this, and it's almost like a waste of paper.
I'm that much embarrassed.
After we published this issue, all of us were in shock.
Now we spent all the 3 million won we had, (Laugh)
we're broke, and how are we going to publish the 2nd issue?
If the 2nd issue is like this disaster, we, then, really are going out of business.
So, we faced difficulties right after we started. And we gathered and started to criticize.
What's going on with us, the answer was quite simple.
It was because we didn't study.
So I'm the editor, without any kinds of knowledge about editing.
The sales in-charge didn't even have a business plan.
The photographer also didn't have the basic knowledge about photography at all.
So it was for sure that we publihsed that pathetic magazine.
And that's how I started to study.
I bought books about basics of editing,
the sales in-charge also bought books about marketing and studied,
same to the photographer.
Like that, we've been publishing the 2nd, 3rd and 34th issue of now, and it has been 3 years so far.
We got better a little by little.
Since we got better, reactions from the audiences were getting better, and the advertisers welcomed us, too.
I put much emphasis on studying to the new employers, too.
Magazines made by people stuck, couldn't help but fall behind.
We have to 1 step forward, hence the advertisers and readers would follow.
The study doesn't have to be related with the company, the magazine, only it helps
the individual, we support them.
So we have a rather unique motto of our company,
"Study constantly."
Even if you entered a company, it doesn't mean you're not a student any more.
I think businessman is also another student.
We overcame our limits by studying constantly.
The second thing I want to share with you is, 'Promote myself.'
What does represent a magazine?
It could many things such as the title, who's in the magazine,
or who's on the cover. But the what represents a magazine is the editor.
As you all know, there's Anna Wintour of the Vogue U.S.A.,
Jefferson Hack of the Dazed and Confuse, Lee Choong-geol of the GQ Korea.
What about me the editor of the CRACKER? I'm 26 year old this year.
I'm too young to be an editor, and usually at other magazines,
people around my age would be an assistant or the junior reporter.
Because of my young age, CRACKER was ignored many times.
A magazine made by young with no experience,
and because of that, people were very cold to us.
I overcame this limit thru the Self-PR.
I'll always go aggressive,
saying, "Hi, I'm Chang Seok-jong making a fashion magazine, CRACKER."
And now I'll show you several pictures I let myself be known.
This was choosen out of 5000 shoots, (laugh)
I remember shooting photos for 6 hours that day, and it was for the magazine, LACOSTE of its early times.
I just don't know what to say, this one, also.
"Lacoste is an espresso double shot", I don't even know why I said this. (Laugh)
This photo shoot was for the brand Liful, and I was a model for the brand.
They offered me 100,000 won and I did it for money (Laugh).
Well, it's a lot of air-brush, and this is the latest one.
I'm wearing a wind-breaker made by Kolon, and me and Lee Seung-gi are the main models, like this (laugh)
Haha, yes, this is the latest one and it was by Arena with the topic, layering.
So I did layering A LOT.
This is the book made me famous these days.
It's "880,000 won-generation, self-rehabilitation the young",
and this is me. (laugh)
So I did everything aggressively only to make myself known.
I'm a little shy.
I think the most important thing when you're promoting yourself is to be looked like a professional.
If you don't look like a professional, even if you do the self-PR it could be bad,
or cause bad result easily.
So I want the CRACKER to be known as, "made by Chang Suk-jong" rather than,
"Chang Suk-jong, majking the CRACKER".
A magazine is evaluated by who make it,
so I want to grow myself and this CRACKER together.
"Don't be scared of promoting yourself", this is the second thing I want to say.
Actually, I haven't felt 'limit' yet.
So I don't know how to overcome those.
I made this PowerPoint file to give you some fun stories,
but I haven't thought about limits.
Because I don't think the work I've been doing for 3 years is a limit,
but just a little complicated step, or a fun play which happens whey you're having a little hard time.
I have never thought of it as a limit.
An answer you get after a long hard-thinking might be great,
but getting relaxed and thinking about yourself without losing the fun part,
could be a good way to overcome your limit, I suppose. Thank you.
(Clap)