Today we’d like to introduce you to Alaa Nasser.
Alaa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As a kid, I became comfortable in escape. I would seclude myself into a corner of imagination and creativity. I often became lost in my random thoughts of wonder – thoughts beyond what was presented. I loved to observe my environment and pay close attention to why people reacted the way they did.
Luckily as I grew older, I gained friends outside of my head, learning the importance of communication past my internal chatterbox. I started to build personal relationships, while still maintaining my inner child of curiosity. All though I gained confidence in my identity at a young age, my passion was yet to be identified. I entered college as a Biochemistry major, then switched over to Supply Chain Management, making my last major change to Marketing on orientation day. I’ve managed to change my major twice, without even starting my first day of classes. Still uncertain if I made the “right” choice, I began to re-identify who I was outside of school.
I developed my passions of art and music by purchasing an acoustic guitar and a Canon camera. My confusion grew as I started to enjoy my personal hobbies more than my career. Then it dawned on me, “why not combine the two?” During my second year of college, I added a minor of Visual Arts which began the beautiful marriage of arts and business. My minor focused on photography and digital media, where I experimented with mixed media, digital manipulation of my photographs, and communication through visuals. The more I explored this area of education, the more I realized the need for structure in my art to produce more visually appealing results. The more I studied Marketing, the more I realized the need for creativity in order to produce more unique business propositions. The two studies effortlessly supported one another.
It was an exciting feeling to finally understand what I desire from my career. However, finding an occupation which filled this void has not been easy to discover. During this time period, I often sought out mentors to help guide me throughout this journey. They all highlighted the importance of taking an opportunity even if it may not be my ideal dream. I ran with this advice and took internships in banking, real estate, and tech industries. I became pleasantly surprised with my enjoyment in these fields, yet something was still not quite there.
During these occupations, I sought out other jobs in the music and art world. I landed a small internship as a music photojournalism intern where I was able to write reviews and take photographs of concerts in Dallas. Although this internship was short-lived, I was grateful to get insight on the other side of my passions. I also entered various art shows and was lucky enough to show my photographs in four different exhibits. Still, there was something missing in this area of occupation. At this point, I felt as if I was being picky in my career settlement.
As I was nearing my graduation date, I experienced the nervous kicks in my stomach as everyone told me I would. I began to question everything I studied, experienced and expected for my career. I reached out to my mentors again and expanded my network by speaking with random individuals who had careers in areas I was interested in. I had amazing conversations from people who worked in non-profit, real estate, retail, and art-related industries. These meetings helped clarify the balance I need to achieve in my life. Whether my career will entail only business or arts, I will be sure to make time for the area not included in my actual job. It became evident that I can achieve a growing satisfaction in my life by focusing my career in a business-related field, while making sure I set time aside for writing, making music, and producing art. Once I realized this, my personal hobbies expanded into experimentation with painting, making videos, poems, and shredding on an electric guitar. I made sure to create an outlet for this area in my life by establishing a website where I could display this new personal brand.
After I graduated and my internship at the time ended, I received another golden piece of advice from the CFO of the company I was working at. He advised me to take at least a month off to experience life without the pressures of obtaining a job immediately after school. He expressed how our mentality at a workplace is most important when accepting a new job, and that we shouldn’t always feel the need to rush into anything.
The expectations of success have always been an issue I battle within my head. Some days I will feel proud of the things I’ve accomplished and other days I feel as if I haven’t done enough. Reminders from my mentors have helped me see past these thoughts and realize the importance in slowing down life. Since then, I’ve taken the advice given to me and have now officially reached one month of vacation. I’ve traveled to California, spent many days in the sun, and realized there can be such a thing of “too much free time.”
Although I have now been on vacation for one month, it has certainly felt a lot longer. I’ve been building my personal brand online more and expressing myself away from occupational pressures. It’s been a freeing experience, but I’m ready to begin working again wherever my life leads me next.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s definitely been a rocky road. Remembering our self-worth during our lowest times can be easy to say but difficult to achieve. There’s been times where I’ve been 100% confident in myself as an individual, but also feel the exact opposite. There will be times where negative responses can slowly eat away at one’s confidence no matter how strong the individual is. During these times, I take myself out on dates. Yes, actual dates. I will set a dinner reservation for one, buy myself some flowers, dress in what makes me feel good, and explore the world in my own company. These dates can be extravagant, like the time I spent $50 on my own dinner, or the opposite where I’ve taken myself to Guitar Center and Barnes & Noble to play on the instruments and read on the floor. It sounds silly, but during the moments of solitude, you begin to enjoy your own company and recognize the attributes in yourself which make you unique. During these dates, I’ve found ways which I can rely on myself to build on my personal happiness rather than depending on expectations I set.
Another advice I would give is establish mentors. As you can tell from my story, I’ve mentioned mentors a few times. That is because I would be a fool to say I’ve achieved any level of success without them. Family members and friends are great sources of mentors; however, I would encourage young women to reach out to people outside of the circle they are already comfortable in. During these conversations, you will explore other opportunities you didn’t even know could be a possibility for you. No matter if the meetings go the way you expect or not, you can always learn from them. Which brings me to my next piece of advice: always be open to learning.
You can never know everything, but you could always know more. Interacting with people you normally don’t can better yourself in ways unimaginable. Never think you are the best, always work on being better. This way our expectations on ourselves are a lot more reasonable and can build out our character in more a rewarding way.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
The work I do outside of my main career is in arts. I conduct photo-shoots, dabble a little in video work, paint, write, and make songs. I’m most proud that I’ve started to publicly project myself artistically, even though I haven’t fully mastered any of these skills. It pushes me to work harder and hopefully produce a song one day, and sell some artwork.
What sets me apart is my voice within my work. My brand emphasizes on being realistic and revealing both attributes of success and failure. I make sure that I represent myself in a way which isn’t deceitful or fake. I aspire to tell stories visually, musically, or through words which relate back to my personal voice.
This is an attribute in which everyone is unique in, Everyone has their own voice, which makes art intriguing to decipher. Through this brand, I hope to remove the fear we can have when projecting ourselves honestly and openly.
Who have you been inspired by?
Bare with me as I give a bit of a cliché answer, but my mom is my main source of inspiration. Both her and my dad came to America to achieve a dream different than in Lebanon. She made a life here in Texas to give support to a growing family and produce similar dreams to her kids. She wakes up every day, ready to support my constant changes in life and to give unconditional love to all her kids. I have yet to meet anyone as selfless and pure as this woman.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alaa-portfolio.squarespace.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alaa_portfolio/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaa-nasser/
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