Womyn at Lyte: AUTHENTICALLY with Wei Zhou

Q: AS A CHILD, WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WANTED TO BE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAME TO THAT DECISION?

Wei Zhou: When I was in middle school and high school, I loved math and thought I wanted to be an actuary, someone who calculates the risk and returns for insurance. At the time, I thought it was the only job you could have if you studied math, other than being a math teacher. Not true! There are many jobs and opportunities. I still enjoy risk management, and working with stats and data, but not in the insurance sense. Our work at Lyte is a good combination of the things I love; music, live entertainment, risk analysis and problem-solving.

Q: WHAT WOULD YOUR YOUNGER SELF BE MOST SURPRISED ABOUT YOUR LIFE TODAY?

Wei Zhou: She would be happy to know that I can live so authentically myself. Loving what I do, doing what I love and growing my career and life in the way that I've been able to, with the support and help from everyone around me. My younger self had a lot of trouble asking for help, and I think she would be proud to see how I’ve grown.

Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE HARDEST PART OF WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING?

Wei Zhou: Personally, I’m working to find the pure joy and magic in live events again. I came into this industry knowing almost nothing, and the more I learned, the more interesting – and intense – the work became. Right now, I’m trying to find the balance: I want to go to a live event, turn off my work brain, and just enjoy. It’s hard!

Q: WHAT LESSON TOOK YOU THE LONGEST TO UNLEARN?

Wei Zhou: This is an interesting one. I went to a predominantly white high school in Central California, where I thought my heritage and culture were not understood or accepted. Looking back, that may not have been true, but it felt so. For a long time, I used an English name instead of my birth name. It's very silly looking back, because my name is a very simple Chinese character, it’s just “Wei!” I'm really happy to live so proudly as myself and to represent, celebrate, and share my culture and language with those around me.

Q: WHAT HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED RECENTLY THAT WOULD HAVE SHOCKED YOU A YEAR AGO?

Wei Zhou: For the past year and a half I've been working on my graduate degree while working full-time at Lyte. I'm almost done with it! I took great advantage of working from home, having a more flexible work schedule, and also getting support from family and colleagues. But just starting to do it a year ago versus being almost done now … Wow, that was a lot of work, managing through the stress and complexity in scheduling, not to mention the workload. I started in Fall 2020, and now have one quarter left. It was rough, for the past two ish years not leaving my desk for 12 to 14 hours a day, or being able to truly take time off, but I was lucky to do it from the comfort of my home. 

Q: WHAT ARE YOU MORE AFRAID OF, FAILURE OR SUCCESS? 

Wei Zhou: Oh, I used to be terrified of failure and of disappointing the people that support and believe in me. Working at an innovative and fast-paced start-up, though, has transformed that way of thinking. A lot of us early Lyters talked about failing fast, making mistakes early in order to learn and move forward. I’m working to not be afraid of either failure or success, because regardless of outcome, the work should be about learning.

Q: WHAT'S THE MOST EXCITING IMPROVEMENT FOR WOMYN IN THE INDUSTRY?

Wei Zhou: What I do is at the intersection of live events, music, entertainment, and startup technology engineering. For many decades in the US, this space has been run by predominantly men. It is more and more exciting to see women in leadership positions, women building mentorship programs, and women supporting one another both in entertainment and technology. When you can see older, more experienced, more accessible leaders who look like you, then you have hope of having an impact in the industry. It’s an exciting improvement to see people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences succeed in leadership positions.

Q: WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU GIVE THIS CHAPTER IN YOUR LIFE?

Wei Zhou: Always learning. Some of the messiest eras of my life have passed and I’m in the process of forgiving myself for and learning from the things I didn’t get. Moving past this looks like investing in and building friendship and community, as well as creating a more mature relationship with my loved ones and myself. 

Q: WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT WHAT YOU DO AT LYTE?

Wei Zhou: The people – both the fans that we service and the people I get to work with every day. I’m proud of the talent and heart here at Lyte.

Womyn at Lyte featuring Wei Zhou, Head of Data at Lyte