Walanya Vongsvirates is the corporate marketing manager for Full House Resorts, a casino and hospitality management company that operates out of five states. But when she isn’t working in her company’s corporate office, Vongsvirates, 27, is an artist and jewelry designer who runs her feel-good business, Love, Hand and Heart (lovehandandheart.com), putting her penchant for bold styles and bright, vivid colors on display.
Born in Massachusetts, Vongsvirates grew up in Las Vegas and graduated from UNR, where she majored in journalism and minored in psychology. Her background in media helps her to navigate the world of marketing and to run her own business and define her brand. The Weekly caught up with Vongsvirates to talk about her roles in both the corporate and art worlds, and how she balances the two.
How did you end up in marketing?I’ve always been a multipassionate kind of person, and going into college, I was trying to figure out a direction that combines my skills. I wanted to spread positivity and use my creative skills as much as possible but in a meaningful way, so I chose journalism. Originally, I wanted to be a news anchor, but [media] can be very heavy and negative, so I pivoted toward marketing, to use those skills in a different way.
How do you balance your full-time job with your work as an independent business owner? It’s seemingly very different, but I feel like I’m better at what I do in both areas by having those two to bounce off of. At Full House Resorts, I started as a social media manager and slowly expanded into marketing with a focus on branding. It’s a very fulfilling job, and even though I was able to do certain creative things, I started playing around with craft stitching and embroidery. One day, I was like, I really miss playing with Play-Doh. I used to do that as a kid a bunch and did ceramics when I was younger. So I was like, what’s a good adult equivalent? I discovered polymer clay and started making [earrings] for fun.
It was hands-on and therapeutic, and I started making them because they’re my favorite piece of jewelry. They’re a great conversation starter, they bring attention to a person’s face and that’s really ingrained in the brand I’ve created. It can boost your confidence and help you show up as your best and truest self. I fell in love with it. I had accumulated too many for myself and my friends didn’t want new earrings every week (laughs), so I was like, maybe I can get this going as a business.
You first sold your earrings at Fergusons Downtown. How did that come about? Fergusons had just opened, and I had gone to Market in the Alley. I always like to be involved in the communities, and I love to see the joy [my earrings] bring to people. Popping up in Market in the Alley was a fun way to connect with people and see what they’re drawn to.
You incorporate big, bright colors into your jewelry. Why is that part of Love, Hand and Heart’s signature style? I really do love color. It’s a simple way to put a smile on your face, and color and fashion is an easy way to change your mood or boost your confidence. I’m very purposeful with my color use. [If I’m speaking in public] I will specifically put on a color that makes me feel confident and happy. I think there’s psychological benefits to that, especially with the year that we’ve had. We just need to embrace all the simple pleasures, and to me, adding color is a really simple way to achieve that.
You recently hosted a digital event called Not Asian Enough, Not American Enough, which discussed the Asian American experience, including the recent increase in hate crimes. Why was it important to you to do that? For so long, these struggles have been diminished—being told, that it’s no big deal, it’s just a joke, that it doesn’t matter. … As a community, that bubble kind of burst, and all at once it seems a lot of us were having these realizations of how it’s impacted us and how much pain it’s caused us. Whether it’s physical or emotional pain, it’s real. It’s really helped me to take that and let it empower me to create conversations and make real change with that—that’s what inspired me to be vocal about those things.
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