Zully Avila: Marketing for Non-Profits

Zully Avila (she/her) is a corporate marketing professional for nonprofits and second-generation immigrant from Mexico. She sat down with RC Sadoff to trace her personal and professional journey to impact in the US.

Please tell us a little about your background and identity.

I’m from Los Angeles, born and raised, but I am a child of Mexican undocumented immigrants that came over to Los Angeles – met in Los Angeles, fell in love, got married, and here I am. They didn’t speak any English, so I learned English watching Three’s Company with my mom, and I did a lot of work helping my family’s business as a little girl. My experience and identity evolved from that. I didn’t realize how blessed I was growing up in Los Angeles, where there is a really diverse community with different cultures, until after I left California. I’m very diverse in my appetite for cultures, to learn about cultures, to be around different cultures and languages. That’s the norm for me and that is a huge part of my identity.

I’d like to hear more about how your identity has affected your daily life and how you adapt to culture shock.

This has affected me in the past, but not as deeply as it does in the present, and that matters because of the location that I’m in. In Los Angeles, although they were not in leadership, it was normal to see diverse students get jobs in the corporate world. Back before COVID-19, we had potlucks – it was incredible, we had Indian friends bringing Indian food, I would bring Mexican food, and it was so normal, it was just a celebration of cultures at work. I didn’t realize that once I left and moved to the East Coast that that was going to change drastically.

I always knew that my identity was important to me, but I didn’t think it was so important to how people viewed me. I didn’t realize how much it would affect my daily life. There are positives and negatives. On the positives, folks do get excited to learn about my culture, or they’re just really surprised that I speak a different language, and even more surprised that English is not my first language. Sometimes they say, “oh, but you don’t have a huge accent.” I don’t know how to respond to that. I’ve been told many things like, “oh, but you’re educated?” Yes I am. But I end up questioning my presence, questioning whether I’m worthy because of those types of responses.

“I constantly feel like I have to be perfect and prove that I deserve to be there – just all solely based on my identity! – that I deserve to be there and that I’m smart enough. It’s different by location, but it affects me daily, it affects me in my work. Some people are shocked to see me leading calls with clients when they typically only see Hispanics working in the service industry or in the back.”

I really appreciate that breakdown. Feeling “othered” can translate right into feelings like shame and guilt. How has mental health been described and supported in your experience?

My parents are from villages. They didn’t come to the US with financial stability, they came to the US to create better opportunities for themselves and – when they met and got married – provide a better future for us, my siblings and me. When you grow up in this type of environment, you’re in survival mode at all times – knowing that you have to learn English, knowing that you have to help your parents translate documents and bills, answer their phones by the age of five or six years old, because that will help them create jobs to put food on the table. You’re constantly surviving. You know that a contract will break our household by the age of 10. You know the hardships, so in a way your childhood is taken away, but you are thankful that you’re born in this country, and you’re constantly told, “you are blessed to be born in this country, and we just have to make it.”

“So as you push forward in life, you are constantly accustomed to survival mode. You have to work, always put in a ton of hours to make sure that you are valuable in a company. You’re not allowed to talk about your mental health, you’re just allowed to say everything’s great, and that you’re pushing forward, and that you’re valuable. Some of that is my own cultural trauma. My identity differs from what people are used to, so it makes them overlook the skillset and the passion that I have. That adds up over time.”

In the corporate world, it’s not well-received when you say that you’re overwhelmed or not having a really good day. That takes an opportunity away from you, maybe for a different client or service, or maybe it takes your name out of the bag to be promoted, because you can only take so much. So there are pressures in the corporate world where you just have to take it. In my 20-year career, there’s times where I wish I could have taken a step back, but I didn’t, and the culmination finally led to me saying, “I’m breaking.” I believe that it’s a combination of my personal stuff and the reception I’ve received in the corporate world, which does not always truly support their employees when they say they need additional help in mental health and face pressures of being viewed as weak.

Returning to work-life balance and finding meaning, what brought you to nonprofit work?

I live and breathe on positive impact. I think it’s because of my parents. My dad says everybody should be able to work and doesn’t completely understand mental health, but he has such a great heart that he will still give and donate to everyone. He has impact in his community by giving, and I think that’s why I live my life this way and pursued this career. I grew up as a recipient of services from the Salvation Army, but by the time I was in high school, I was already at shelters serving food, volunteering at Special Olympics, and part of service and learning clubs. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that this is the career I chose. 

As a little girl, I didn’t know that we were struggling, that’s how awesome my parents were. I didn’t know what the Salvation Army was, we would just go there to receive free goods or go to the thrift store and get secondhand clothing. Now I think about how we ate a lot of tortillas, beans, and rice – granted, it’s a Mexican staple, but it is also a very inexpensive staple. I didn’t know that my parents would talk to my school administration for discounts on tuition, trading upholstery work. I thought it was normal, I thought other students did that, but I realized that their parents were doctors and whatnot, and my parents were not. I didn’t know that all my uniforms were used, but I knew that I couldn’t outgrow them, which really sucked because I was gaining weight. We were really struggling, but we made it happen.

I’d always wanted to be in marketing, and I didn’t realize there was this very special niche of marketing until I fell into it. I’ve been working since I was 14, not only in my dad’s business, but also part-time jobs at Baskin Robbins, waterparks, you name it. When I graduated college, I joined an agency that worked with nonprofits to put on three-day breast cancer events in the UK, US, and Canada. I thought, “this is amazing – I can use my marketing skillset to help nonprofits.” Event marketing was my first exposure, and then I was living on cloud nine knowing that I was raising money for hospitals and breast cancer awareness. It was just incredible. I realized my business skillset can be used for the stuff that I am used to doing in my own time, like volunteering, but now can elevate it and use it in this manner. And it just continued to grow.

“I ended up taking the Salvation Army as my client. Imagine being a child receiving their services, being helped by them – to being an adult and helping them raise money. All so they can help the unhoused and victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, drug addiction, etc. I am so passionate about this work because I was one of those recipients, even if I didn’t know that. Who would’ve known this little girl from Los Angeles that didn’t speak English would have the opportunity to work with organizations like this.”

How do you protect yourself in such a personally and professionally demanding career?

I struggle with balance. I have high-functioning PTSD, so I end up taking on a lot and overworking myself, that is my very unhealthy way to cope. So I am doing my best to learn how to politely say no and communicate when I need to pause things, refocus, or take a day. Whether that’s received well or not determines whether I want to work for a company. I need to work at a company that not only values me for the skillset that I bring, but also values me as a person with feelings, I’m not a robot. I’ve learned that I need to communicate that better.

Intersectionality is also something I’m working on – understanding how the layers of my identity connect, empower me in some areas, and set me back in other areas. I’m empowering myself in terms of race, culture, the education I worked so hard for, and my parents’ contributions to get me there. So those are huge identity bubbles for me, but they’re not viewed the same way externally. I wish my education and culture bubbles overlapped in the corporate world. I’m not always received well. My assertiveness is miscategorized as aggressive or feisty instead of bold, or a sign of a solid leader.

“My friendliness and welcoming attitude, like with hugs, can be deemed inappropriate behavior or maybe flirtatious. But they don’t realize that my culture is always about being inviting – respect is to never turn down food or drinks at a dinner or gala, and to never leave a party early on. So my culture means the way I view things can be seen as inappropriate or “too much” just because they don’t understand that’s how my cultural bubble operates.”

Thank you for sharing that, I think it will resonate with many people experiencing culture shock. Do you have any advice for immigrant-origin youth with these same challenges?

My parents always said, “you will not be successful in this country if you don’t have an education, but you’re not everything with education.” To be a little brute with their words, they’d say “you can’t be a pig with a diploma,” meaning “however high you reach, Zully, always be humble and know where your roots are.” I’m thankful they told me this. After Pepperdine and Harvard, I thought I would be seen for my passion, my intellect, and what I have been able to do. But I still haven’t been in some circles.

My advice to youth is to dream big. You have an opportunity to change the oppressive, systematic layers that I have encountered. Seek role models that inspire you, then research them, read about them, learn about their journey, and educate yourself as much as you can. Learning their stories will help prepare you. Don’t think that these layers are gone – you will absolutely encounter these types of hurdles and roadblocks as an immigrant no matter what education level you reach. But keep going.

Don’t let yourself be defined by external folks that don’t really know how to appreciate your intricate layers – which make you magnificent – because no one can tell you who you are but yourself. They might be able to hold you back or slow you down in your career, but they will not stop you, because if they hold you back, just change a lane, move to a different place. That’s not your people. That’s not your community.