Here,

there are ordinary yet extraordinary people creating ‘valuable work’ in their own places.

If we follow their routines and choices,

perhaps subtle inspiration will seep into our daily lives?

Someone's ‘valuable day’ begins now.

Making valuable work even more valuable!

Starting the meetup podcast

[In belief that a brand is ultimately about people – Meeting with Mr. Han-Gyun Kim]

A belief that a good brand is ultimately created by good people.

And proving that belief themselves,

there is a founder who has made brands from beauty to wellness as a life's philosophy.

Valuing the customer experience above all else,

and using even the failures of colleagues as nourishment for growth,

LinkO operates a brand that designs a balanced healthy life,

introducing the brand founder and wellness practitioner, Mr. Han-Gyun Kim.

Q.

Hello, Mr. Han-Gyun. Please introduce yourself briefly.

A.

Yes, I am Han-Gyun Kim, a founder living in Jeju Island operating a wellness brand called LinkO. Before this, I operated various beauty brands like Papa Recipe and Bicus Lab.

Nice to meet you.

Q.

After founding a beauty brand, you are now running the new LinkO wellness brand.

Could you talk about the reasons and your experiences of failure and success and how they relate to LinkO?

A.

Yes, as you mentioned, I was in the beauty industry and ended up delving into this wellness category.

The biggest criterion for our company's decision-making is

" putting on good things,

eating good things,

and resting well," and we have been accomplishing these step by step.

So, starting with applying good things first,

and lastly, wanting to offer a good kind of rest, we created the brand LinkO.

Read backwards, it means a cottage.

At an altitude of 350 meters in Hallasan's dense forest, there’s a private cottage where you can distance yourself from electronics and receive meals that offer natural foods hard to find in everyday life, showing what true rest could be.

So it’s a space where I can do yoga and meditation, read, and build communities with people pursuing these same things.

Q.

It seems like a wonderful and pioneering space.

The interesting point for me was

Mr. Han-Gyun working hard at LinkO, chopping wood, researching, and making breakfast, looking so happy.

People say Mr. Han-Gyun has it all, but the elements of happiness seem simple.

A.

Actually, I’m not happy chopping wood in the mountains but

I feel happiness in being given this work.

Chopping wood in front of me may seem like a small task,

but I think of it as an opportunity to do my best in that work.

When I was 20, working part-time at a cosmetics store, I often heard people say, "You look really happy."

I was happy not because it was the job I wanted to do,

but because I felt happiness in doing my given role to the best of my ability.

Q.

It changes my perspective thinking you can work with such a mindset.

So, I wonder if this mindset is innate or if it's also due to effort.

A.

I think effort is more significant.

If there’s a big decision I’ve made in adulthood, it’s independence.

After deciding to live my life independently, doing everything I wanted here in Jeju, I made a lot of efforts.

The first thing I did was focus a lot on exercise.

The biggest thing I could change wasn’t the environment; it was myself.

So I intensely focused on changing myself, and since then, many things have started to change.

I was subconsciously moving towards saying this.

There was a goal that I would become a good person first and let only good people surround me.

So I worked hard to become a decent person myself and always put my best into the tasks at hand through effort.

Q.

Throughout the conversation, Mr. Han-Gyun’s sincerity and the power to translate that sincerity into ‘action’ was felt.

Ultimately, that power seems to start from the desire to change oneself

and results from endless effort to make oneself a decent person.

Through this conversation today, I want to believe in the power of ‘just trying it out.’

To become a good person and to work with good people,

like Mr. Han-Gyun, I will try my best today.

Thank you sincerely for being with us, and we’ll conclude this episode.