From Pre-Med to Leading Fenty Beauty Marketing: Nanette Wong & the Importance of a Side Hustle

“I think when you grow up in a traditional Chinese family in the suburbs, you have a very set path in your life."

You don’t have to be Chinese to relate, that’s for damn sure. Whether it be family or societal pressure, what we are “supposed” to do can be very different from what we are passionate about. 

Our friend and marketing genius, Nanette, fell into this category only to have a quarter life crisis and decide to take a risk. 

Once a biology major at UC Berkeley on the path to become a doctor she decided to take her side hustles, love of blogging and photography to help land her an internship. It would be this internship that would give her the experience she would need to launch her marketing career. 

Nanette told us all about her quarter life crisis, struggles, and side hustles that got her to where she is now. 

WHAT LEAD TO THE QUARTER LIFE CRISIS?

I had decided that maybe being a doctor wasn't best for me, but by then, it was already time to finish out the degree. I also knew that there are so many different avenues you can take a biology degree. So I thought maybe I'll be a nurse. That's what my mom wanted me to do as a default, but I was looking into public health or private medical clinics. I ended up as an office admin for a boutique weight loss company, and then I found a job working in public health. I thought of staying in public health because it's good for the world. However, I quickly realized that in order to advance in public health, you either have to work for years or you have to get another degree. For me, I didn't want to go back to grad school if I wasn't passionate about what I was doing. It was then that I did a total 180.

THE QUARTER LIFE CRISIS.

There are some people that just want a 9-5 job to pay the bills, and save their passion for personal hobbies. Nothing wrong with that. For me, I wanted something different. I want that passion in my everyday career. To me, it's just easier to go to work every day if I really love what I'm doing. There was a point in my public health career when I realized that I wasn’t sure I could do it forever. 

I grappled with this a lot. I grew up in a relatively sheltered life in the suburbs,  so to go off the path that I had set up for myself was really daunting. But I really trusted my gut and I told myself that making this huge change was the right move. There was no better time in my life to do this. I had no kids, no mortgage, nothing holding me down. No excuses but to just do it! 

WHAT LEAD YOU TO MARKETING?

I knew I loved blogging, photography, and recipe blogging. It happened to be that one of the media sites  I followed was looking for an intern. I thought, “Maybe I could just try this and see how it goes.” Making the jump wasn’t as easy as it sounds. It took a lot of introspection and oscillating back and forth, but I finally just did it. I quit my stable job to intern at a website called Brit + Co. It was a three month internship with no clear step after. I’ll admit, I had a very steep learning curve when I started. But I was able to learn a lot, and that was the beginning of my journey into marketing. I had an interest in social marketing, and was able to find a role as a community manager at Clorox after my internship (phew!).  The rest is history! 

YOU TALK ABOUT A SIDE HUSTLE A LOT, HOW  IMPORTANT IS IT?

Even though I worked at Clorox for only one year, I would say that I actually had more years of experience. I was blogging for multiple sites in addition to my own, freelancing as a photographer, and working on my own social media accounts.  I was doing a lot of different things at once. This was imperative to my journey because I was able to try so many things. By doing so, I learned a lot about myself and different industries.  

Additionally, these side hustles gave me a lot of experience that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten. Everything I did before has helped me give a 360 picture into the world of marketing. For example,  because I worked for media sites, I understand what it’s like to run a partnership from both sides. Because I worked as an "influencer," for a while, I can empathize with influencers and their struggles, which makes it easier to work with them.  

HOW DID YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH TO GO AGAINST WHAT YOUR FAMILY WANTED?

Well, I kind of had to finesse it a little bit. (laughing) I may have said I was making more than I actually was. I didn’t give them all the juicy details. It would’ve been hard for them to understand why I was making the decisions I made, especially with all that they’ve sacrificed to make my life more comfortable than theirs was. I don't think it was until my current job where they were really like, "oh this is like legitimate."  Before they were always like, “Oh you're working in tech, are you sure you don't want to become a lawyer?”

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT JOB?

I work in marketing for Fenty Beauty. I've always been passionate about makeup, but it never occurred to me that I could have a career in it. In high school, I was always very experimental with my makeup and I was fortunate to end up working at Fenty Beauty.

WHAT KIND OF GOALS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELF IN THE FUTURE? 

It's funny because I've never had a five-year plan. I think that is very different from some people. Some people are very structured and think, "In five years I want to be a CMO, or making x amount of money, or in five years I want to be married and with two kids." But for me, my goal is to always be better than who I am at this moment in time. So, in five years I hope to have achieved more. Whether it's through my career or some other  aspect of my life, I strive for continual self-improvement.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR YOUNGER SELF?

I would've said, “Don't stress so much.” I had a lot of anxiety when I was younger because there was so much uncertainty. I almost want to say… maybe I should’ve slowed down a bit. There was a point in my life where I had taken on too much in my desire to keep learning. As a result, my work quality went down and close relationships were suffering. I remember I had to take a step back and not do so much. I wish I didn't have to let it get to that extreme, but honestly, there isn't much that I would change. I'm not someone who believes in destiny or fate, but I will say that every time I suffered a rejection in my life, I've always felt like it was right for me. Even if it felt devastating at that time.  Every severe rejection I've gotten, I look back now and think, "Wow, my life really would've been different had that worked out." 

DESCRIBE YOUR SLAY.

I think a lot of people tend to be competitive with others, but I'm the most competitive with myself. That's how I'm able to push the envelope. I said this once and my co-workers were like, "I didn't realize how hardcore you are." (laughing) It sounds intense, but I think the higher you get, the more you have to fall. I just don't want to disappoint myself with an epic fail, but I also know I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.  I just keep pushing myself to be better and “save face.” That may also be a little bit of an Asian thing, you got to always save face, you know. (laughing)