November 21, 2023, 12:00 p.m. EDT
Nyla Wissa has been making an impact through storytelling since her Emerson days. As one of the founding members of Flawless Brown, Nyla created a space where marginalized stories could be shared, and has continued to do that work at major companies like Buzzfeed, Shondaland, and most recently as a Brand Manager at Nike. She gives Hunter all the details about the origin of her business “Juice Bitch”, and how she leads a fulfilling life. Recorded on September 13, 2023.
Transcript: Season 7, Episode 5
Nyla Wissa
Speaker 1:
What does it mean to make it big? Well, it depends on who you ask, and we did. Welcome to Making It Big In 30 Minutes, a podcast for by and about the Emerson community. You're about to meet an Emersonian who's making it, making a living, making a difference, and sometimes making it up as they go. As far as we're concerned, if you're making something, you've made it big time. We know you'll enjoy hearing our host, Hunter Reis from the class of 2017, and all of our guests share how Emerson shaped their lives and careers after graduation. So let's get into it.
Hunter Reis:
Nyla Wissa is all about changing the narrative. While at Emerson, she started Flawless Brown, a first of its kind club and art collective for women and non-binary students of color. She noticed Emerson lacked a space for these voices, so she created one. After graduating in 2015 with a degree in theater education, Nyla got a job at BuzzFeed where she told stories surrounding social and racial justice. Now, Nyla shapes the narrative for Nike. Here's Nyla Wissa in making it as a brand narrative manager. Hey. Hi, Nyla. Thanks for joining me today.
Nyla Wissa:
Hi.
Hunter Reis:
I'm excited for this call. I'm not sure if you remember, but you were two years above me in Emerson, so I vaguely remember you. We didn't have any of the same classes, but we definitely ran into each other from here and there.
Nyla Wissa:
Absolutely.
Hunter Reis:
So how have things been going? I want to hear about what you're doing now. Is there a way that you can kind of describe what you do in a quick sentence or two?
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah, life has been good. Currently, I'm working at Nike as a brand narrative manager. What I tell people when they're like, "Oh, what does that mean?" is that I really am just essentially a storyteller for the campaigns that Nike launches, whether they go on social media or they're in commercials for the athletes, the influencers, and the organizations that we partner with. So I hope that makes sense whenever I say it. To me it does because I do it, but yeah.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, definitely. It sounds like you have your hands in a bunch of different buckets from social media and producing videos and stuff. Is there a story that you've told in particular that you're really proud of?
Nyla Wissa:
You know I think while working at BuzzFeed, we did a lot of work around social and racial justice. It was during the time of kind of when the Black Lives Matter movement was very prominent in terms of media wise and really erupted, and so internally it was definitely hard to get on BuzzFeed's platform and take a stand on where we were at, but it felt also really good to work with other just Black producers and create work that really felt impactful and that really mattered to all of us, and to speak about something that's always just been very prevalent in our lives, but to speak about it and to let people know that they just weren't alone and feeling like the isolation, feeling the hurtness, feeling the pain of it all, but then to also provide some sort of content that brought Black joy and that brought Black resilience and to also state, yes, there is a lot of trauma within the Black community, but there is also a lot of beauty in it and a lot of joy in it as well. So yeah, there are a couple of projects that I'm very proud of.
Hunter Reis:
That's great. It sounds like they all have that common thread of wanting to make a difference and wanting to have an actual impact in society, so that's wonderful.
Nyla Wissa:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Hunter Reis:
Did you find that while you were working at BuzzFeed, a lot of media outlets were publishing just bad coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement? Did you have a difficult time balancing the good news with the bad news while you were at BuzzFeed?
Nyla Wissa:
Yes. Yes. Period. I also think that a lot of media coverage didn't, they weren't sensitive to the fact that replaying Black people dying at the hands of police brutality, Black people dying at the hands of white supremacy is actually just traumatic. Period. And so to replay it constantly and then to live where you walk through life as a Black person, you have to constantly think about that trauma. You have to constantly think about what if it is me? I think bringing joy in time of pain, but also just bringing joy in general is really imperative, I think.
Yeah, I mean, I could write a dissertation about what the media did and what they did wrong. And I think just the way that they shaped the people who were dying. I think when you think about Trayvon Martin and the pictures that they used. Trayvon Martin was a Black boy who was loved by his family. I didn't know him personally, but I know that he was loved by his family, and so the pictures that they used of him just fed into these stereotypes about Black people that I just do not agree with or align with. And so that was also another reason why me and a lot of other producers at BuzzFeed at the time felt it was really important to take a stand and say something to change the narrative, really.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, that was definitely a good step and important work that you were doing. I feel like BuzzFeed's coverage, especially around that time, maybe like 2017, 2018 ish, it was really changing and kind of turning into this new video first landscape. So just being able to make those steps on your own, that's a great accomplishment.
Nyla Wissa:
And it's also very vulnerable and honest too, to ask a bunch of Black people to put themselves out there to share their experiences and not come from a place of being performative about it, but coming from a place of authenticity about it and just being real and raw about it.
Hunter Reis:
Especially at BuzzFeed where the demographic of the employees there tend to be kind of white.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah. I mean, media in general, it just is white.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Yeah.
Hunter Reis:
So let's go back a few years actually. I remember you were a large part of EBONI during our time at Emerson. Can you talk about what you did there and how it made an impact on you?
Nyla Wissa:
So I was a part of EBONI. I think I was a much larger part of Flawless, and that was more of my commitment, for sure. EBONI, I think definitely catapulted and inspired me to create a space for Black and brown women that just felt safe for us. I know when I was at Emerson, it was really tough. I was a theater major. If we're being transparent, let's be real. Ain't nothing changed about me. At the time, Emerson, I felt like there was no equal opportunity for women of color in the theater space. And I came to Emerson with this idea of like, "Oh, I'm going to be on EmStage and I'm going to be in these roles and I'm going to be doing..." Really romanticized this idea. And I went to an arts high school. I'm from Boston. I was in all these plays in high school, so I was like, "This is literally what it's going to be when I get to college." And it just was not that.
I also think coming from Boston, I'm from Dorchester Fields Corner, raised there since I was like five, six, going to high school and living in the world of Boston, I wasn't introduced to the idea of race and being the only Black girl in all of my classes until I went to Emerson. And so going to a PWI and then being in a space where I wasn't receiving opportunities, EBONI definitely was that safe space for me where it was a reflection of my world or the world that I had known. And so it's imperative when you are in a space when you are marginalized or when you are one out of God knows how many, to have those safe spaces, to be able to go and just shake off your shoulders, to be able to have people who come from the same background as you, or not even the same background as you, but to be able to relate to.
And so EBONI, like I said, EBONI definitely inspired me to start Flawless Brown because we weren't receiving the same opportunities as other people in the theater department at the time. Yeah, I think it was definitely a balance. At EBONI, I was definitely more of an attendee and a supportive person. I was also a freshman, sophomore in college, and so I didn't have the knowledge that I have now that I had back. You know what I mean?
Hunter Reis:
What would you go back and tell yourself then that you know now then?
Nyla Wissa:
Oh, I mean, immediately, off top. I'm like, "Girl, leave that boy alone." Educationally, truthfully, I would just tell myself to just be more open to opportunities. Emerson was actually my last choice, not because it was Emerson, but because it was in Boston. I was very clear that I did not want to go to school in Boston. Being raised there, I wanted to go out of state. I wanted to have that independence, and the cards just kind of fell where they did, and Emerson was where I needed to be. And so looking back now, I definitely made the right choice by going, but I think had I known back then, I probably would've been just be open to the possibilities that Emerson has to offer and just also be excited because college is fun and you're going to have a great time regardless, so.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah. I mean, you started your own club and comedy show. It sounds like you were pretty open to some possibilities, for sure. Not a lot of people can say that.
Nyla Wissa:
Exactly.
Hunter Reis:
Do you have any great memories from Flawless Brown that really stood with you?
Nyla Wissa:
The first one that comes to mind is our first show that we had. I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted people to feel. And I remember we wrote monologues and we were doing these short little improv scripts. There were girls who weren't even in the theater department, and I had a homegirl who was a part of it who did journalism, and she was just like, "I'm just down because I like to write and I also want to just meet other Black women." And we were like, we weren't off book. We had these scripts. We were in the cultural center. We were in that small room. I had done all the marketing for it. I had a homeboy at the time who created the imagery for the flyer. I posted them around Emerson.
And all this was coming out of pocket. I don't even know how I was swinging it. I was broke, but we made it happen, and it was our first show. The Cultural Center at the time, if it's still there, great, if it's not, for whoever's listening. At the time, the Cultural Center when I was there was tiny. It maybe housed, I want to say maybe 40 people, and that's pushing it. We were packed. It was like a packed house and it felt like just one big giant conversation. It didn't feel like we're putting on a performance and you have to stay quiet and listen to us. It just felt very fluid and organic and people participated.
And it was really monumental to see something that I had in my head come to life. The following semester or year, the number of Flawless people that were members doubled and just, we really turned nothing into something, essentially. Practicing in the hallways after we got out of classes and trying to find studio space and just the struggle of it all, but the beauty in the struggle and just finding the sisterhood within that and just being able to be like... Can we cuss on here?
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, yeah. Go for it.
Nyla Wissa:
Okay. Being like, this shit is hard. This is tough. The struggle is real. The hustle is real, but we have each other, and that's all that matters, is definitely something that I hold a lot of joy in and very close to my heart still.
Hunter Reis:
It seems like, yeah. Finding a community in Emerson was sort of the takeaway that you have. Do you still keep in touch with people from that you graduated with?
Nyla Wissa:
I sure do. Yeah. I have like, I mean, homegirls that were in my class that I studied at. I went to Amsterdam. I did the Castle program, so I have homegirls from there, some of the Flawless girls. I'm planning on going back to Boston next month and hit up the Flawless girls who are there now, and I'm like, "Hey, I'm coming. Would love to meet you all." I have no idea who they are. I have no idea. They're all new and young and bringing fresh ideas and helping it continue to evolve, but I'm still very much like, "I just want to meet you all. That's really it."
Hunter Reis:
That's incredible. I didn't know that it was still around all this years later. That's amazing.
Nyla Wissa:
It's grown, Hunter. It has grown. It started off as a little baby theater troupe, and now they have a comedy. They have a comedy section, they have a writing section, they have a radio show. They're doing it. They're doing the damn thing.
Hunter Reis:
Wow. I wonder, you should try to go to a show if you're in town next month, if they're having one, that would be awesome.
Nyla Wissa:
Be in the back, just crying. Just move.
Hunter Reis:
Do you go home often? Do you go to Boston often?
Nyla Wissa:
I do. It's interesting because a lot of my... All the people that I know at Emerson have graduated, and they either live out here in LA or they live elsewhere, and then a lot of my childhood friends, they no longer live in Boston too. A lot of people have moved, but I still go back. My dad actually moved to LA too. I'm super close with my dad. So he lives in LA now too.
Hunter Reis:
Nice.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah, so he's like 15 minutes away from me. So I go home not as often as I want to, but given the circumstances, that's the reason why, but anytime I'm like, "Oh, I'm homesick. I'm going to go back." I will go.
Hunter Reis:
When you go to Boston, what do you do?
Nyla Wissa:
Oh, outside of eat all the things in the world, spend time with my family. I see my grandparents. One of my favorite things to do probably is to take a walk through the Boston Common during the fall when the leaves are changing, you get that fresh, crisp air. I go to a lot of my favorite little bars and lounges. I love Caribbean music. I really do. I think it was a huge part of my upbringing being in Boston, and so. They have it out here in LA a little bit, but it's not the same. So I will definitely go home and shake some ass. I go back to my high school a lot too and see my old teachers. A lot of my teachers are still there, visit them. So yeah, it really depends.
Hunter Reis:
It's the Portuguese community for me that they don't have out here, that they have back home.
Nyla Wissa:
Right. It's like Brazilian, Portuguese. I'm like, every time I explain to somebody that I'm from Boston, I'm like, "You don't understand that you can get any kind of food on one block." Copier.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah. You had received the Spirit of Emerson Award. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Nyla Wissa:
It was kind of a complete shock, I feel like. It was the same week that I graduated, and so it was also the same week that I also won the President's Citation, which I didn't know. I think the thing that I love most about Emerson is that when I started Flawless, I started Flawless with the intention to call Emerson out really, and I was very intentional and very vocal about that, and I didn't sugarcoat it. And I think, I don't know if other colleges and institutions would be as open to the criticism as much as Emerson was.
And I think that to give me a Spirit of Emerson Award for starting an organization because Emerson lacked equity and representation and inclusion was, I think it was very, I can't figure out the word, but it definitely meant a lot to me, and I think it was very nice to feel supported in that sense. And I think it's a huge part of allyship to be able to say, "Oh, you're calling me out on something, but you're not wrong for it." You know what I mean? And also to recognize that at the end of the day, Flawless Brown is a labor of love. It's also very much invisible labor to be a student and to do the job that Emerson should have been doing that I was paying for. You know what I'm saying? And so I think when I got the award, I was shocked, to be quite honest. I was like, I feel like they're ready for me to go.
Hunter Reis:
Those could be true.
Nyla Wissa:
Right. Exactly. Exactly. So I got the award. It was an honor. I was incredibly moved and very honored to receive it. And then I think receiving the President's Citation was even more of an honor to have. Emerson really is a great, it is a great college. It is at the end of the day. I don't think I would've been able to study abroad. I wouldn't have been able to go to LA for a semester, and I definitely wouldn't have been able to start Flawless Brown anywhere else. Or I would have. I just wouldn't have received probably the support that I got that Emerson gave me. So yeah, I think, I hope that answers the question.
Hunter Reis:
It does. That's a great story. I did not know any of that, and it's amazing. I remember my time at Emerson, we overlapped a little bit. It was kind of riddled with a lot of Title IX complaints and them not doing anything, and sort of just like this racial inequality. It was very apparent that there were far more white students in every single one of our classes, the journalism department especially. But it's nice to hear that they were taking steps back then because it seems like every so often you get those alumni emails that say, "This is what we're doing. We're adding this curriculum or adding this." So it's nice to hear that back then they were actually rewarding you for doing that.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah, it was a shock, for sure. I was like, "Oh, me, okay, I'll take it. I'll take it."
Hunter Reis:
And you said you did both the Castle and the LA program, huh? Not a lot of people able to do that.
Nyla Wissa:
Listen, I told you I didn't want to go to school in Boston, so anytime I had the opportunity to get out, I was out.
Hunter Reis:
It's so fair.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah. I also did 88.9 too. I did WERS at the time. I don't even know if The Secret Spot is still on, but I did The Secret Spot.
Hunter Reis:
What is The Secret Spot? I've never heard that.
Nyla Wissa:
It was their R&B segment. So I was at WERS from, I want to say it was from 8:00 to 12:00, and just playing good R&B, old school jams, and then I would get on air and have my soul street voice. Like, "You're listening to 88.9 WERS." And then like, "This is Nyla, hosting The Secret Spot." I was like, it was a crazy, crazy time. I had my hands in way too many things. It was fun though. It was definitely a good time, so. But yeah.
Hunter Reis:
It seems like, I mean, even today you have your hands in a lot of things. You do a lot for Nike, and you also have your own juice business, right? Juice Bitch.
Nyla Wissa:
Juice Bitch. Yes, I do. I think it was during the pandemic when I had a lot of time on my hands and I started just, I was like, "I'm just going to get a juicer and start juicing." I'm like, "Why not?" A few years, not a few years ago, it's been a while, actually. I want to say it's been like five years, maybe six years, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome. It's a hormonal disorder that it messes with your fertility. It causes irregular periods. It can cause weight gain, it can cause the longer term problems and issues, it can cause ovarian cancer. The list goes on. Normally what doctors do is they put women on birth control who have it. So I was on birth control for a while, but was like, "You know what? No. I actually want to take a holistic approach. I want to see what happens when I take a holistic approach."
Doctors laughed at me and thought I was crazy. I was like, "Whatever." I'm just going to do it. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work, and I figure out a different alternative. And so I have been on this health journey, this very big health kick. Throughout that time, recognizing how the lack of accessibility for healthcare and for education that a lot of just communities don't have, specifically Black and brown communities. Using my platform, at the time I was working at BuzzFeed when I was diagnosed, we did a video about me getting diagnosed, me going off birth control, and then what happens when I start eating a lot more fruits and veggies, I cut out alcohol, I do walks and low intensity runs, and maybe yoga every now and then.
What ended up happening was at the time when I wasn't on birth control, I wasn't getting my cycle, and then when I got off birth control and I started changing my just regular life habits, I started getting my cycle regularly. So pretty much, it was very much like an F you to all the doctors who said that I was crazy. With that, though, it's consistent. You have to be consistent with it. And so COVID hit, our world's turned upside down, life changed, and so I was like, "I'm just going to buy a juicer because I feel like that would be fun." So I started juicing and my skin started to clear up. I had a lot more energy. My digestion was just digesting. Everything was working for me. And then the world slowly started to open back up. And so I started to go to different grocery stores in LA and just look at their price points for different juices. Ridiculous, too expensive. I'm not even going to call the grocery stores out, but they're too expensive.
Hunter Reis:
All of them?
Nyla Wissa:
All of them. Every single last one is way too expensive, overly priced, craziness. And so I was like, "This is crazy." And they're also in neighborhoods that aren't accessible to people who live in South LA. You think about people who live in Compton, who live in Watts, who live in Inglewood, who live in all these places. They can't get to West Hollywood or they can, but it's a troop. So trooping it to West Hollywood for a thing of juice that costs 15 to 20 bucks is crazy. YAS is not cheap you all. So I was like, "What happens if I start a juice business?" The name came from my dad. Transparently one of my favorite words is bitch. Bitch is just such a universal word. He was like, "What if you just call it Juice Bitch?" Someone is like, "Oh, where are you going?" I'm going to Juice Bitch." Or, "I'm going to Juice Bitch. What? What are you talking about?" And so it just kind of clicked. So yes, that is the story.
Hunter Reis:
Amazing. He should deserve some residuals for that name.
Nyla Wissa:
I agree. I agree. When the business starts to pick up again. I hope he never hears this because he's going to take it and run with it and never let go.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah. We can cut it. No, that's amazing. You do this all in your own home? You're making these juices.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah.
Hunter Reis:
Wow. Wow. That's incredible.
Nyla Wissa:
But yeah, it's happening. It's a thing. We did a popup in November at Black on the Block. It was very well received. We do deliveries. People can come pick it up if they want to. We use glass bottles for recycling purposes. And so if people come back with the bottles that they use, they get a discount. And then we also are, I'm currently working on an ebook, so people can try and do their own recipes at home just to make it a little bit more accessible for them, but it's really just a labor of love and just making sure that everyone has access to health and wellness, and it's not just only serving one community.
Hunter Reis:
Delicious, sustainable, and healthy. You really can't go wrong.
Nyla Wissa:
Exactly. Exactly.
Hunter Reis:
So you've worked at BuzzFeed, you've worked at Nike, you've also worked at LinkedIn, right? Can you tell me about your experience going from one to another and your path from BuzzFeed to now Nike?
Nyla Wissa:
I started off at BuzzFeed as a video curation fellow, and what that means pretty much is essentially turning the videos that we were producing or viral videos into BuzzFeed articles, being a narrator essentially. Started off there. Then eventually got hired full-time. And turned that into a social media strategist. At the time, my manager was like, she told me, she was like, "I feel like you have a really good pulse, a great pulse on just social media." And I had no idea what that meant. I was like, "I mean, I don't, but sure."
Hunter Reis:
It meant you were young.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah. Okay. At the time, we had our development partners, so we had The Truck Guys. We had Worth It. We had LadyLike. Quinta was working there at the time, so she was like, "Can you do social media? Can you manage these social media accounts?" Specifically, at the time, it was really for LadyLike, and then BuzzFeed Unsolved grew, Worth It grew, and so I started to manage those accounts as well. And for LadyLike, I was like, "Yeah, sure. I don't really know what you all are looking for, but I'll try it." And so she was like, "No, they just want to create content, like memes and stuff." And I was like, "Okay." Still didn't really know what that meant. Mind you, I have a theater education background, so here we are.
So I just started pulling screenshots of the girls when they were in videos. They would make really animated faces, and so I would start pulling screenshots from them and then put these crazy quotes about things that just were happening in my life and turn them into memes. And they started to do really well, surprisingly. That kind of just blew up, and then I started to learn a lot more about analytics and the insights and what does well, what doesn't do well, and really became instrumental in managing pretty much all the accounts for the development partners at BuzzFeed. Then I got approached by Shondaland and Shonda Rhimes. Shonda at the time was looking for a social media manager.
Hunter Reis:
Wow.
Nyla Wissa:
And so I was like, "That is an easy decision."
Hunter Reis:
Yeah. When you say you were approached, how did that work?
Nyla Wissa:
When I came to LA for Emerson, I was looking for an internship, and so I was like, "Oh, maybe if I just look up Shondaland on LinkedIn, I'll find someone who works there."
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, reasonable.
Nyla Wissa:
Well, yeah, whatever. Just try it. The worst thing I can do is try and it just doesn't work. Okay, great. Ended up finding someone, reached out to her and was like, "Hi, whatever. I'm a intern. I need to find an internship, blah, blah." I didn't say it like that, but in short. At the time, they didn't have internships for people, but she was like, "Send me your resume. And let's just keep in touch, and then when you graduate, let me know." I did. It was maybe a year and a half that passed by, and then she ended up just circling the block.
Hunter Reis:
Wow.
Nyla Wissa:
And was like, "Hey, Nyla, we have this really great opportunity. Shonda's looking for someone to run her social media. Your background kind of matches. We'd love to meet with you." And so I met with her for my first interview, told her what I did at BuzzFeed. She was like, "Okay. Well, I guess the second step is for you to meet with Shonda." "Shonda, who?"
Hunter Reis:
That's step two?
Nyla Wissa:
I'm like, "Really? Okay, cool." Yeah. My second interview was with Shonda. I went into her office and I'm not going to lie. I'm very real. I've always been a very transparent person, so I walked in and I was like, "I'm not going to sit here and act like I'm not a fan of yours, so let me have this moment really quickly, and then we can get into the nitty gritty professionalism of it all." Then I ended up getting the job, so from there I did her social media and that kind of, it evolved into running, so she has an editorial department as well for shondaland.com, so I started to run their social media.
I also started to somewhat produce videos for the website because they were trying to get into the video world, and so started producing videos for them, started writing articles for them as well. I want to say I was there for four years. And I mean, it was great. Why would you want to leave. The pandemic hit. Transparently, I fell in love. At the time, my boyfriend was living in Oakland. I was in LA, and so I was going between LA and Oakland because I was working from home. Fell in love with Oakland. Was like, "I want to move." I don't know what got into me, Hunter. I really don't. Maybe it was love. Maybe it was just realizing that the only person who had autonomy and agency over my decisions was me, and being like, the world is just kind of at a standstill, and so why not?
I was like, "I actually also really want to get into tech too." Tech is not diverse at all. Shonda was making waves and strides when it came to diversity and inclusion along with a bunch of other people in Hollywood, and so I was like, "What if I could be the Shonda of tech?" Not exactly, but that was kind of the thought process, just in terms of changing the narrative, creating equal opportunity within tech. I applied to LinkedIn. I got the position. First it was more so like recruitment marketing. So we would do events specifically to hire Black and brown women, LGBTQ+ people, so on and so forth, and it was very focused on the marketing and the strategy of that and making sure that I was promoting in, et cetera, et cetera.
And then that slowly transformed into working closely with LinkedIn's ERGs and making sure that we were highlighting the people who already worked at LinkedIn and sharing their stories on LinkedIn's platform, specifically for Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month. We did stuff for National Disability Employment Awareness Month. So yeah.
Hunter Reis:
You really went through every step of the process, just like I asked. I appreciate that.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah. Of course.
Hunter Reis:
It sounds really cool that you get to work with a lot of just very different people in very different fields. Shonda obviously is queen of the TV world, and I'm sure you work with these incredible athletes at Nike and just cool tech people at LinkedIn, I guess. Is there something in your life now that's even better than you would've imagined while you were in college?
Nyla Wissa:
It sounds so cliche. I'm such a cancer. I really am. I love all the emotions. Probably my family. I love my partner. I love my boyfriend to death. I love our dog. I love the simple things. I think in college, the reality is heartbreak is real when you're young and sometimes you don't see the end of it, but there is an end. Looking back, it's so funny. I was just having a conversation with my homegirl about this yesterday. Looking back on it now, my family brings me so much joy and I just adore them so much, and I'm crazy about them. It's also just nice having that support system and then being 15 minutes away from my dad and my homegirls, whether they're near or far, and our group chats and just the support and the love as an adult is just so instrumental in my life and brings me the utmost happiness and joy, so. Yeah.
Hunter Reis:
That's such a good answer. Kind of from a Taurus perspective, the stability of it all. I totally relate. It took me to COVID really to kind of feel that way too, because I feel like before that, I was a production assistant and I would spend 10, 11 hours a day in the office, and I didn't really have that familiar community in my house. I moved in with my boyfriend at the time in August of 2019, and then the pandemic hit eight, nine months later, and we were really forced to become a family really quickly, and we got another dog together, and now we have two, and we moved to a little bigger house in the outskirts of downtown so that way we can have space for the dogs, and it was just a real restructuring of my priorities and finding peace and finding happiness in something other than work and something other than success.
Nyla Wissa:
The balance is so real and you have to find it. Before COVID, I was not in a relationship. I did not have a dog. I lived alone. I was like, "Girl, you in these streets." In a good old time. But the reality is it also sometimes got lonely coming home and just being like, "Well, just pop a glass of wine and watch a TV show." So yes to all of that. Finding structure, finding balance, and just finding love, whether that's with yourself, whether that's with somebody else, whether that's with your friends, whether that's with your family. Yes, to all of it.
Hunter Reis:
That kind of bleeds into this last question, but what is your definition of success and how will you know when you find it?
Nyla Wissa:
Ooh. I mean, I'm going to keep it real. Success is when you can pay your bills and live the life you deserve, but I also think success is when you find true happiness in what you do. Waking up and feeling inspired and feeling like, "Okay, I love what I do. I'm happy with what I do. I feel secure in with what I do and with who I am." I also think, though, the reality is, is there are times where you're just not going to feel it, and I think a huge part of success is not pushing yourself to do it. If you don't feel it, you don't feel it, and that's fine. You're valid in how you feel. The success is feeling that feeling, but not getting stuck in it. Yeah, success looks like many things. It looks like happiness. It looks like security. It also looks like being transparent and real with yourself, and always validating yourself no matter what season of life you're in.
Hunter Reis:
And knowing that success comes and goes in all three of these categories, it ebbs and flows.
Nyla Wissa:
Amen. Hello. Talk about it.
Hunter Reis:
It's been a theme that I've been trying to bring up this podcast throughout because sometimes you feel like you're on top of the world, and then a year later it can be like, "Oh, well, this is really not the place what I want to be." And I think it's important for people to keep that in mind.
Nyla Wissa:
Yeah, I was, for sure, at my lowest when I think I definitely hit a wall when I was doing social media. I hated it. I hated it. I was like, "I don't want to do this anymore." I have no desire, none. I would delete all the social media accounts that I'm managing plus my own if it were up to me. It was really hard. It was hard to get up and go to work. It was hard to be in meetings and participate. It was hard to do all of it.
And it also, it just was a shock to my confidence. I was like, "Girl, this ain't it, and you are not it right now." But it's all temporary. It really is. This too shall pass. There's a light at every end of the tunnel, and you're just also reminding myself that I'm not the only one that's going through it. You know what I mean? It's very important to me. I don't like the whole like, "Well, someone has it worse than you." I just feel like that's so invalidating. I'm like, "Okay, and I still feel these feelings. Let me soak." Giving yourself a hug is always, always nice.
Hunter Reis:
Well, thank you again for joining us today, Nyla. This has been such a good conversation.
Nyla Wissa:
Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:
Making It Big In 30 Minutes is brought to you by the Office of Alumni Engagement and was created in partnership with Alum Terri Trespicio. Our executive producer is Rebecca Glucklich and Lilly Meehan-Egan from the class of 2023 is our producer and editor. Additional editing and mixing was done by current graduate student, Trinity Hodges. Stay connected with the alumni community by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and joining the Emerson Alumni Group on LinkedIn. You can also find upcoming events, benefits and more by visiting emerson.edu/alumni.
