Today we’d like to introduce you to Annette “Nackie” Fiso-Moli.
Hi Nackie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in San Francisco, California to Mailei and Evelyn Fiso. I am blessed to be the mother of 5 amazing human beings, and one of them made me a Nana to my Leo. I am a cancer warrior, Covid19 survivor, co-host to the Faika Broadcast and the Executive Director/Founder of PasifikaByDesign.
My parents were born and raised in American Samoan. Myself and my two brothers are first generation of our family here in the U.S. We didn’t have much growing up, I just remember my parents working all the time. My parents always stressed that when I graduated high school – college was not an option for me. I started working when I was 12 years old at a clothing store where they paid me $20.00 a week. I’m guessing labor laws were not in effect. Parents are now ministering in National City, California.
My cousin, Carl Johnson and I started PasifikaByDesign (PBD) in 2017. PBD pushes and promotes positive Pacific Islander role models and businesses. We created PBD to show kids (mainly our kids) that role models come in brown. Growing up I didn’t see people that looked like me in different professions. We are often stereotyped as athletes or actors, which is amazing, but we wanted to show our community that we’re also educators, entrepreneurs, Doctors, nurses, community leaders and so much more.
We started showing up at local PI events and go live with interviews. Carl lives in Sacramento, and I live in Fairfield, most of our events if not all the events were in the San Francisco Area. That is two hours from Carl and an hour from me – he would pick me up and we’d drive to the Bay Area. Showing the work of PI’s that don’t get highlighted for the amazing work they do in the community. For example, Pacific Islanders Together has a Free Christmas Toy Giveaway every December. Not too many people knew about it but going live and interviewing Reyna Poti-Meafua – not only does she have a 9 to 5 but she’s doing this community work that helps so many people. Phil Alapati who has a Barbershop called “Phil Good Cuts” is a Samoan Business owner. Phil also goes to community events and gives free haircuts to kids, he started a free workout that is open to the public on the weekends and also is a food critic on IG. We are showing kids that with hard work and passion it’s possible to live out your dream. It was more important for us to show the people that look like them. Representation.
Anyway, because of our long car rides, we would talk about anything and everything. That’s when we decided to start a podcast and call it Faika, a Samoan word meaning gossip or to tell stories. We were one of the first Pacific Islander podcasts in the Bay Area. The podcast was aired on FCC Free Radio and within 6 months we were rated number one. The owner, John Miller trained us on how to work the equipment and should and should not on the show. FCC Free Radio is no longer around because of the pandemic. A lot of businesses were hit hard from the pandemic and unfortunately, FCC was one of them. We started airing our podcast out of my dining room. Most of our listeners were Pacific Islanders and we decided to update PI’s on covid19 and get them accurate information from a PI Doctor. Someone who looks like them. Dr. Raynald Samoa was a regular guest during the pandemic and our show started to grow into thousands and thousands of listeners every week. Dr. Samoa and a longtime colleague of his, Dr. Nia Aitaoto came up with an idea to create a podcast geared towards getting Pacific Islanders accurate information and data about Covid19 and the vaccine. A data team went to city, county and state levels to get Pacific Islanders data disaggregated and it was showing that PI’s were the highest ethnicity to be diagnosed with covid19 and dying at an alarming rate. The show is called Koviki Talk (Covid Talk). We had Dr’s from all over the United States on, Nurses, Community Leaders, Families who had lost loved ones from Covid on to talk about their experiences. The show took off and it is now an award-winning show – California Ethnic Media Awards. Which lead me into working Nationally with a PI Community Group that works closely with Health and Human Services called NAOPO (National Association of Pasifika Organizations). “Na” means many and “Opo” means embraces – Many embraces.
In 2018, Carl and I got into a serious car accident. The lady that hit us (we found out later) was on drugs and left the scene. We were sent to the emergency room in San Francisco. The car was totaled. To backtrack, Carl was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer in 2015 and so we were very concerned with his health. I rode in the ambulance with him. When we arrived to the emergency room, we had specialists around him to check and make sure he was ok. When they asked him about the accident, he told them that I was in the car with him. I was standing there in the corner of the room. A murse (male nurse) came over and asked if I was ok and I told them I was a little sore from the seat belt. I had a red mark going across my chest and the doctor immediately got me into an ER bed. They said that I could have internal bleeding and if I went home – I could die. Well… alrighty then… in the bed I go. Every part of my body was x-rayed. My ribs were badly damaged, and I had bruises all over my body. A specialist looked at my CT scan and said that I had lymph nodes in my abdomen and needed to see my primary Dr immediately. They kind of hinted it could be cancer but couldn’t confirm. I was later diagnosed with lymphoma, blood cancer. We always talk about how things happen FOR us not TO us. The car accident happened for me to find out I had cancer and hopefully for the person who hit us to get help. Fast forward to today I am in remission and living my best life. I enjoy every minute knowing that tomorrow is not promised and as Carl would say “Wasting no minutes.”
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been easy because we were one of the first Pacific Islander media companies that promoted other PI businesses. I remember a promoter saying “Why are you doing this?” Because you need to be seen.
Being a woman is has had some bumps in the road. My partner, Carl Johnson is the Vice President of Operations and when I’m talking to people or show up to a meeting… I get the “Is Carl coming?” Uh… what the?? I’ll send emails out to people and no response and then I’ll ask Carl to get a hold of the same person or persons and they’ll respond right away. It bothered me in the beginning but I knew I was trying to grow our company. Six years later and it’s a little better. A little.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We have one of the first Pacific Islander podcasts and we push and promote PI. Showing us in a positive light – not the stereotype of that we’re just athletes and actors. Being those things is amazing – don’t get me wrong. But we’d like to show our kids that we’re more, we’re educators, doctors, business owners, community leaders and so much more.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up my parents had us at church a lot. Hanging out with the other kids in the church and causing havoc. LOL. I loved to laugh and hang out with my friends and family. I love art and music. I played the piano growing up but never really took it as far as I would have liked. Art made me drift off and had me wondering what the artists was thinking about when they painted or sculptured. I can go to an art museum and walk around for hours. I’m living my best life.
Contact Info:
- Email: nackie@pasifikabydesign.com
- Website: www.pasifikabydesign.com
- Instagram: @pasifikabydesign
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pasifikabydesign
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg-eivdPLuZMFmt8u5UzziA
Image Credits
PasifikaByDesign
