Upon entering Way Studios’ space in Petaling Jaya, its open white walls and high ceilings presents an infinite space for creativity to flow. And indeed, the studio and the city beyond the four walls we were in that morning have been a creative playground for Sam Goh and Karyn Teck.
“Way Studios is mainly a production house, but we also do full service creative work for our clients. If they ask, we will do it; our ethos is always to provide support to people no matter who they are,” Karyn explains.
Sam continues, “We technically started towards the end of 2023, I had a previous production house before, but I left that to start on my own. It was sometime in the beginning of 2024 when Karyn came on as the CEO.”
Though it has only been officially a little over one year since they opened the doors to their studio space, Way Studios is far from a ‘new’ business for the two of them, who have a combined more than 10 years of experience in the content and production industry.
“I want to reframe the label of “new” because Way Studios is the culmination of at least 10 years in the industry of hard work, of building, of learning, and of experience. So though it’s our second year of operations, it’s been 10 years in the making.” Sam says.
For Sam, who describes himself as the COO and creative director of the company, photography is his first love and first career – a path he’s still blazing a trail on today. Karyn, on the other hand, started her career as a content writer in a media agency, with a complementary set of skills that focuses on her strength with words and people that led her to take on the role of CEO – amongst other responsibilities.
“I’m the CEO but because we are so small, I’m also really doing everything else,” Karyn explains with a laugh. “I mainly support Sam as a producer, as well as service our clients and take care of the logistics and the back end of stuff.”
Finding their Way together
Before they started working together, Sam and Karyn started their story as most couples would in the modern day – by meeting through an online dating app. “I’m a big advocate of online dating, particularly in this industry because dating within it can feel like being in a relationship with your colleague in the workplace. Online dating allows you to go outside of your normal circle of people,” Sam says.
“For me,” Karyn says, “Sam was really my first online dating experience. I was lucky in the sense that he was the first person I talked to and the only one I met up with. I’m all for online dating but I’m glad I didn’t have to navigate it for so long!”
And from that lucky (or fateful) encounter, their relationship blossomed and strengthened over the three years they’ve been dating. Then, taking the next step to working together felt like a natural too.
“It was not an ‘active’ decision to start the business, because it was just a natural progression of things for me as a girlfriend at that point of time. If he needed a sounding board or somebody to talk to, as the girlfriend I was continuing to offer that support to him,” Karyn explains about her choice to jump into Way Studios.
Sam continues, “With what I’ve experienced, it really proves what a lot of entrepreneurs say: the people [you work with] are very important. Over the years, you’re able to tell when someone is the right fit, and with Karyn it was easy to tell from the start.”
“She was about to leave her agency at that point, and because agency life is already about long workdays, the question I posed was ‘if you’re going to work 10-12 hour days, would you rather work for someone else or for yourself?’ Sam says.
With Karyn offering her unique skills in the realm of managing clients, deadlines and logistics (or “the actual things you need to make money” according to Sam) in complement to Sam’s unique eye for visual storytelling, photography, and directing, the business found its sure footing, thanks to the solid foundation they share.
“We’re lucky because we’ve had three years of working on our relationship to set that foundation, to know each other intimately the way that we do now,” Karyn shares.
And Sam agrees, saying, “I think if we started this early on in the relationship, it would not work.”
On work-life balance, or separating business and pleasure
One of the perils of working in any job or industry is finding and navigating the balance between work and life. It’s already a challenge for most of us who already have separate offices or jobs from our partners, we imagine it must be even tougher for a couple who spend both work and life together.
“At this juncture, honestly it’s very hard to answer that question considering that the business is a year old. It is hard to think about anything else, and all we can focus on is how we can make this sustainable, make it past the first three years, and the costs we must manage. For both of us right now, the business is important – not to say our relationship takes a sidetrack, but the foundation of the relationship is already there. Generally the next step for most people would be building a marriage or a house, for us we’re building this business,” Sam says.
He continues, “For me it’s easy to switch in and out, to go from talking about what we’re going to do together this weekend to then discussing the next deadline. Some people might find it an issue, but I find it quite rewarding as there’s less pressure to get things done and clock out because the work is so intertwined with our life.”
Karyn adds on, “Because we’ve had three years of being romantic partners before, we’ve also come to realise that we’re very same-hearted in the values that are important to us, the things we wanted to do, and what we want to achieve. Knowing this on the personal side strengthens the business work.”
“A friend told me that as partners in life, there’s nobody else is who more in your corner than each other, and so I’m able to tell him if I don’t like how things are happening, or if something isn’t going to work out. Because we know we are in each other’s corner, it makes the relationship smoother,” she explains.
But as with any relationship or business, it’s not always smooth sailing all the time. “I hate when others make it sound like running a business is easy. There are times when we get into arguments, and we struggle on how to communicate effectively; how can we sometimes not talk about work or money? We don’t always have these things figured out – we’re taking every day as we go,” Sam says.
“At the end of the day, it’s about knowing and remembering that you love each other and knowing when to put your relationship first during hard moments. It sounds romantic to work together but remember to lay the foundations of the ground you’re building on first,” Karyn finishes.
Find out more about Way Studios and their work here, and follow them on Instagram here.
Photography by Imran Sulaiman