Meet Nikka Gabrielle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikka Gabrielle.

Hi Nikka, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a Filipino-Chinese-American that was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. I graduated from California State University Northridge in 2016 with a Bachelors degree in Business Marketing.

Towards my junior year of college, I started to dive deeper into the world of social media from watching lifestyle vlogs on YouTube and scrolling through Instagram in between classes. I found it so interesting to see how people were able to build an online presence by sharing their everyday lives through photo and video!

In 2015, I began my creator journey by starting a YouTube channel. I started off just sharing vlogs of my adventures and travels. In the beginning, my channel was simply a creative outlet and a place for me to save my personal videos to look back on in the future.

In 2016, I uploaded my first beauty video, “My Everyday Makeup”. I was always a bit shy of my “style” of makeup and fashion as it was very simple and natural – not as extravagant as some online gurus. But I couldn’t deny the fact that I had so much fun being in front of the camera and really embracing my creativity! Since then, I have experimented with a variety of content from beauty, fashion, lifestyle, and travel. I’ve also had the honor of collaborating with brands such as American Eagle, FOX, Fresh Beauty, Nivea, Sephora, and more! My brand Nikka Gabrielle now focuses on sharing aspirational, simplistic living, and aesthetic content.

Since graduating, being a creative was always a side hustle. I still balanced it along with whatever job I was doing at the time. I’ve always dreamed of being my own boss and running my own business that gives me opportunity to control my own schedule. I knew staying at my 9-5 wouldn’t get me there. My goal is to grow my brand and business to not only financially support me, my loved ones, and my future family but to also give me the freedom of working whenever and wherever I desire!

In February 2021, I started my business Socials By Nikka where I offer Virtual Assistant and Creative Strategy services for bloggers, YouTubers, content creators, and small businesses. It’s been so rewarding to work with my clients and provide my services to help them keep organized so they can stay focused on the important parts of their business!

As of July 2021, I’ve made the jump of leaving my full-time corporate job and am now officially taking content creation and my @socialsbynikka business full-time! It’s been a crazy journey so far, but I am beyond excited to continue this new chapter of my life!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My journey has been anything but smooth, but looking back it was all in the best way possible. I mean I wouldn’t have learned anything if it was easy, right?

I would say my biggest struggle has always been building my confidence and learning to be proud of what made me, me.

Ever since I was a kid, I would constantly compare myself to others around me. From how smart my other classmates were to which of my creative friends were collaborating with my dream brands, I always felt I would never be “enough”. With this, for a few years I struggled with trying to look and act like everyone else in hopes I would get the same success. But it was so obvious that it wasn’t me. It didn’t get me any closer to my goals. If anything it held me back.

What’s helped was taking the time to be alone and experiment with activities and content that I like to do without anyone else’s opinion around me. I started to embrace my love for a more neutral aesthetic in my style and simplistic lifestyle. It came so much more natural for me! It also took a lot of inner work and healing to remind myself of how worthy I was of accomplishing all my dreams in life. It was definitely a huge mindset shift and I continuously work on this every day.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a content creator, I believe I am most known for my neutral aesthetic, simplistic lifestyle. I like to show my audience that things like putting on very natural makeup, outfit repeating and wearing the same color palette every day is not only super chic but can save you a lot of money as well! It’s not about having new things all the time, but making the most out of what you have and building your very own signature look. I’m very proud that I’ve been able to grow my online presence over the years and have the opportunity to collaborate with some of my dream brands like Sephora, Fresh Beauty, and Clinique!

I would say the accomplishment I am most proud of is building the courage to finally leave the corporate world and taking on content creation and my Virtual Assistant and Creative Strategy business, Socials by Nikka, full-time! It’s been a long time coming and so freeing to be my own boss. Every day is a bit different but I’m having so much fun learning new things and helping others!

How do you think about luck?
I believe that some people are truly very “lucky” in life. Basically that they were in the right place at the right time. Some can win the lottery. Others can go viral overnight. The rest is history.

I personally don’t think that I’ve ever had that extra “luck” to get me where I am. Instead, I believe that I am very blessed and fortunate to always have had all my basic living needs met and have really great family and friends to cheer me on during the good and support me during the rough times. My parents always pushed me to work hard for what I wanted in my life. In this sense, I always had the determination to accomplish my goals, even if there were a few detours.

For example, throughout my education there were times where I didn’t pass a class. This of course led to some halts or alterations to my future plans like changing my major or completely switching careers. In this case, I couldn’t really say I didn’t pass because I had bad luck, but maybe it just wasn’t the right situation for me. But this didn’t mean I could just stop my life and give up. My parents definitely wouldn’t have let me either. I would constantly hear their voices in the back of my head to work hard and figure things out.

Over time, I’ve learned to pause and reflect on any things that didn’t necessarily go my way. Now I know that everything happens for a reason. Just because I didn’t pass didn’t mean I was a failure. It meant that there were other talents that I needed to tap into to help me succeed. I might not have done well in understanding natural sciences at the beginning of my college career but this then led to my switch in majors to Business Marketing where I learned that learning about business strategy and social media marketing, which was so much more interesting for me! In the end, I still ended up graduating with something I enjoyed more and now have a career doing a job that I love!

So again, no luck. I wouldn’t put my faith in waiting for that lucky break to come in either. I believe it’s all about trusting in divine timing, focusing on your working toward your goals, embracing what makes you unique, and being patient throughout the journey.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.nikkagabrielle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkagabrielle/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikkagabrielle
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/nikkagabrielle_
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/nikkagabrielle/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/socialsbynikka/

Image Credits:
Photographer: Kenneth B. Wong