Nisha Kakadia

I started my career journey in an unexpected way. I initially went to Birmingham Southern College thinking I would go into medicine because that's what my parents did, and I started as a biology major. But I had a really great professor, Dr. Mary Harrison, who encouraged me to take a Marketing 101 class. She said she just thought I would be good at it and enjoy it, and she was right. I'm so grateful for her because I took that one course and then I pivoted completely. I changed my entire path because I loved it and I could tell I had a knack for it and a passion for it. I shifted over to business administration as my official degree and then got my MBA in management at University of Alabama in Birmingham, which has helped me a lot as I've been leading teams throughout my career. I've been in the field since 2015, and I joined SociallyIn in 2017, where I've been for 9 years now. As creative director, I lead content production across three departments: our Atlanta production studio with photographers and videographers creating social-first content for clients like Samsung, Hitachi, and Nikon; our internal production team of animators, graphic designers, and motion designers; and a creator network I started and built out with creators across the states making UGC-style content. I love that I get to work on a broad spectrum across almost every industry, B2B and B2C. One thing I really value is that we are a global agency with folks from all over the world, which brings in so many different perspectives. I've had both experiences where I worked with folks who all graduated from the nearest two universities, and now I get to work with people from all over the world. In a creative space, that gives you so much opportunity to brainstorm and think differently from each other, and I really love that aspect of my job. I also get the opportunity to travel a lot for work, going on-site to trade shows, client offices, and networking events to create content. I've done everything from filming with Hitachi executives at CES and turning around real-time edits that we posted day of, to setting a world record with Carnival Cruise Line for the largest TikTok dance at sea for their 50th anniversary. My coworker Lizzie and I hopped onto different ships, getting on and off at different destinations, creating content in real time. We got to see that content on the big screens in Times Square the following New Year's, which was incredible. Anytime I have the opportunity to travel for work, I'll take it. It can be exhausting, but it's a really great time. I'm very lucky to have a really great team with a lot of strong women and collaborative minds.