Page 17 - Masala Lite Issue 157 January 2024

Tell us a little bit about the process that led to both
your brother and you leaving the family business and
starting the Turquoise Truck Creative.

I left about three or four years before my parents retired.
Honestly, textiles is a bit of a dying industry in Thailand,
mainly because China has taken over a lot of the textile
market. We had two choices: to either keep dying, and
have business slow down year after year, or to jump ship
and try do something else. We were taught to be adaptive
and to pivot when sh*t hits the fan, so that’s what I did.
My brother was also doing his own thing.

Soon, I reached a critical mass point where I couldn’t
handle the volume of my clients, as well as juggling both
the admin and the creative aspects. It started becoming
work again, and the ‘play’ aspect was leaving the window.
I started looking for people to hire, but that’s my brother’s
strong suit. So I asked him to come and join me, as he’s
able to handle all the nitty-gritty, annoying details like
invoicing, contracting; protecting me basically! He’s my
older brother, and he’s always been my mentor. But while
he was doing the admin work, I helped him hone his
photography skills, and in turn, I became his mentor in
that aspect. Now he can shoot just as well as I can!

You mentioned that there’s still a lot of room to grow.
And in the photography business, there’s so much
competition these days. How do you differentiate
yourself and ensure that your work stands out in the
market?
I don’t. I think there are a lot of great photographers out
there. I don’t try to differentiate myself; I just do what
I love, and I’m lucky that people notice what I do. And
I think that passion comes through in our photos. A lot
of people are technically better than me, but it’s not just
about technique. It’s about being able to see something
through the artist’s point of view. And it’s art, so it’s
always subjective.

The Turquoise Truck Creative offers a diverse range of
services spanning social media campaign management
and web design, videos, and more. How do you balance
and integrate these different aspects in the business?

We started with all those services off the bat. Photography
was the last thing we added. We’ve been managing maybe
200-250 restaurants in Bangkok since we started, and we
were there at the opening of a lot of these restaurants.
We still open a lot, but we’re more in the corporate
game now; for example we’re currently working with
InterContinental to open their Sukhumvit property.
We’ve siphoned down our client list to bigger clients,
which are our bread and butter.

You’ve mentioned that there’s a lot more that you’re
looking forward to. What’s your vision for the future,
personally and professionally?
We’re trying to figure out how to scale right now. I’m a
perfectionist, and we’re currently at a crossroads, figuring
out which way to go, whether to get bigger clients, or
to build our team. Hopefully it comes to me in the next
few years, but in the meantime, I’m having a lot of fun
getting there!