EPISODE 17: BECOME AN INFLUENCER WITH JANE KO

Sep 24

Jane Ko is the blogger behind A Taste of Koko, Austin's top food and travel blog featuring the hottest restaurants and weekend getaways since 2010.

A Taste of Koko has been voted best local Austin blogger by the Austin Chronicle in 2018 and 2019 and has been featured in O Magazine, InStyle Magazine, OWN TV Network, and The New York Times.

Koko's Guide To Austin is a pocket-sized guidebook featuring 300+ local restaurants and businesses in Austin.

Koko raised $15,000 during the lockdown in April 2020 in Austin by providing 4,000 meals for the service industry and then raised $150,000 during the Austin winter storm providing 30,000 meals to hospitals, EMS, warming centers, and more while supporting 50+ restaurants in Austin.

You can follow her on Instagram or order her book.

Takeaways

Advertising & marketing for IKEA, Target, NYTimes

Angel Investing & co-founding the Haus Restaurant Group — and the restaurant with her name on it
Learn about how most people think she comes from a wealthy family, but actually, her working-class family emigrated from Taiwan when she was three years old
Way you carry yourself
A Taste of Koko
How she dealt with the traditional Asian worries her parents had of how she’s not getting any younger, wasn’t allowed to have friends/sleepovers/have a boyfriend, and how she needs someone to take care of her
Her thoughts on dating
How Asian parents are “Supportive in the most unsupportive way”
“Asian mothers are highly manipulative in the most caring way”
Her advice on doing the thing that scares you, trying to learn everything you can, and not telling your parents until after the fact
What she would say about how to achieve your dreams
Why there was a disconnect from fellow Asian friends & whether she experienced racism in Austin, Texas