Misty Li Balances Spreadsheets and Social Media
By Kelli Luu | 29 May, 2025

She clocks in at her 9-5 and logs onto TikTok after hours. Misty Li shares how she manages spreadsheets and social success.

Transcript:

Kelli Luu (00:00)
By sharing the way she balances a nine to five with being a TikTok influencer, Misty Lee has built a loyal following and gained over a million likes across her platforms. And today she's sharing with us just how she really does it. Hi Misty.

Misty Li (00:15)
Hi Kelli, thanks for having me.

Kelli Luu (00:17)
I want to get right into your journey. So can we start off with the basics? How would you introduce yourself to somebody who has never seen your content before?

Misty Li (00:26)
Ooh, that's a good question. I'd say, I'm Misty. I just turned 30 years old. I live in New York City. I'm originally from California. And a lot of my content these days focuses on balancing my nine to five corporate job with my life in New York City with going to influencer events, et cetera. I'd say the overarching theme of my accounts or what I hope to.

be the overarching theme is just like everyday lifestyle and wellness and big sister advice, whether that be navigating career, moves to new cities, ⁓ random tidbits here and there.

Kelli Luu (01:02)
Relatable stuff, seems like. awesome. What drew you to TikTok at the very beginning?

Misty Li (01:04)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so I've been creating content unofficially pretty much since I've been on the internet. I was always the girl in my friend group who had the digital camera who was uploading the photos to Facebook after a birthday party. Exactly. Yeah.

Kelli Luu (01:19)
You were that girl. You were that friend. ⁓

Misty Li (01:24)
Yeah, I was the friend that everyone was like, where are the photos? Put them on Facebook. And then when Tumblr was a big thing in high school, I had a popular Tumblr blog in which I kind of also documented my life. And also when I was going through the college admissions process, was very transparent about that, like posting my test scores, where I was applying, et cetera. So built a small following doing that, totally just for fun.

Then in college, I had a WordPress blog just for fun, kind of documenting my life going to school in DC. And then when I studied abroad in Copenhagen, The TikTok of it all, I feel like I…

have always been creating content, but when blogging and influencing came around and people were like, oh, would you ever do that? My immediate reaction was like, no, of course not. Because I was honestly afraid of being seen trying or afraid that people were like, oh, why is she trying to do this? Afraid of being othered. And then during the pandemic, when TikTok came around,

Kelli Luu (02:05)
Mm-hmm.

Misty Li (02:24)
everyone was kind of posting or I just really enjoyed watching people's lives, like things that they were sharing, what they going their daily routines. And I had also just started a new job, just moved back to San Francisco. And I was like, I'm gonna start doing this too. And this time I am gonna take it seriously because why not?

The only reason I wouldn't be taking it seriously is because of my own self-doubt or how I'm afraid of being perceived.

Kelli Luu (02:50)
did you go to school?

Misty Li (02:51)
I went to high school in the Bay Area, then I went to Georgetown for university.

Kelli Luu (02:54)
Okay, so you were born and raised in the Bay? ⁓ wow, okay, so how did you end up in New York?

Misty Li (02:57)
Yes, I am.

I went to Georgetown in DC. I studied finance. I actually have always wanted to live in New York. I feel like it was growing up watching Friends with my dad that really made me love New York City, even though I've never been. And when I did my college tours, that was the first time I went to New York. I went to visit NYU in Columbia. And I just knew that I wanted to be there after graduation. But life had other plans because

Kelli Luu (03:02)
huh.

Okay, yeah.

Misty Li (03:26)
I ended up working at Morgan Stanley for both my sophomore and junior summer internships. And then I got the full-time offer in New York City originally, but the manager that I was going to work for got a great opportunity to move to Hong Kong and build this team in Hong Kong

Kelli Luu (03:31)
Nice.

⁓

Misty Li (03:44)
so they needed someone to join him and they wanted to hire someone junior ideally someone who was familiar with the new US office, but also someone who was bilingual I'm fluent in Mandarin

Kelli Luu (03:52)
Mm-hmm.

Misty Li (03:55)
So essentially that's how I moved to Hong Kong and then I moved after that back to San Francisco. I was in Hong Kong for three years, then San Francisco.

Kelli Luu (03:59)
my.

Wow.

Misty Li (04:04)
for two and a half, it was the pandemic in 2020 that brought me back to the Bay Area.

towards the end of my time in San Francisco, I was just like, I need to actually do New York City. I need to give this time, this city, like a real shot when I moved to New York City, I was 27. So two and a half, like three years ago.

Kelli Luu (04:20)
A shot, yeah, do it.

Misty Li (04:25)
And yeah, I think I'll stay for a while. no plans to live anywhere else.

Kelli Luu (04:28)
Okay. wow,

okay. Okay, wow. Are you Chinese? You're Chinese? Okay, cool. how is Hong Kong? what was that like? Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah.

Misty Li (04:32)
I'm Chinese, yeah.

Yeah, I loved Hong Kong. I think

I lived there at the perfect time, like in my life and also just in a time in Hong Kong's history where it was still like very like pro global firms moving people there. I'd say like I was there 2017 to 2020.

Honestly, at the time of my life, I was 22 and it was just very easy to make friends there

So it truly felt like adult study abroad. the lifestyle there, you go out a lot, you travel a lot because all these countries are like close by it is such a privilege,

So it truly was the time of my life and I think working at Morgan Stanley I just had so many more opportunities than I would have had doing that same role in the US just because it is a smaller office and being bilingual.

Kelli Luu (05:10)
That's awesome.

Yeah, for sure.

Misty Li (05:22)
now my Mandarin is not up to par as it was then because then I was speaking it like on the phone to my clients every day. I went to Beijing and Taiwan and Shanghai for work. just in terms of like my own development personally and professionally, like truly such a great experience.

Kelli Luu (05:25)
Yeah

Wow, that is so amazing. That's a great opportunity that fell into your lap almost. Okay, awesome. So what were you doing before content creation? I know you said you were blogging can you give us something on your corporate side? Were you doing anything else while you were doing that?

Misty Li (05:52)
Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, so I have been working full time now for eight years.

I was in sales and trading, so my hours were very intense. I was in the office at 6.30, I left at 6.30 and sales very like client coverage focused. So we generally had dinners and drinks and other stuff after that. that was very full-on.

Kelli Luu (05:59)
Mm-hmm.

Misty Li (06:16)
I'm from Silicon Valley. Both my parents are engineers actually. But because I didn't have an engineering background nor that I have any desire to acquire one, I just always thought the tech was off limits for me. And then when I, was trying to pivot into tech, that's when I discovered tech sales

Kelli Luu (06:25)
I see.

Misty Li (06:33)
so then I pivoted to working in FinTech. I was at Stripe for four years. ⁓ And then that's, so I started there as an SDR and then I was an account executive. And then I took a break for basically six months last year when I essentially just felt that I had been working nonstop

Kelli Luu (06:37)
Cool.

Misty Li (06:54)
That's when I wanted to give myself the creative freedom to do more content opportunities and just have the flexibility to like do some travel, to live abroad.

Kelli Luu (07:02)
yeah.

Misty Li (07:03)
I knew I wanted to go back to working full time. but I think that it was necessary to have that break

Kelli Luu (07:09)
you gave yourself that time. Yeah, okay, that's awesome. Wow, you had a little vacation. Now are you back in the office?

Misty Li (07:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so right now I'm not. We're in the office like four days a week at my new job. feel like that's been good for me to just have structure in my life. when I'm in the office, I feel like I'm very focused on doing my corporate job. if I'm in the office, might as well be productive.

in your early 20s, you're kind of going to work, obviously to work, but it's also kind of a social experience. Like you feel like it's college, Like you're just like now in this new environment and all of your coworkers are also kind of your age. I feel like now it's like, I'm here to do good work and to like be productive.

Kelli Luu (07:47)
Right.

Okay, cool. Well, that kind of leads me into the next kind of thing I want to talk about. I was going to ask you if you could tell everyone the secret to managing the pressure of a corporate job and posting content consistently, because you're pretty consistent with your content and that's hard to do with a corporate job.

Misty Li (07:57)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

you.

Well, thank you for saying that, because I feel like there's definitely like up and downs of it. So I'd say like time management, management is probably the biggest one. Like if you're gonna do both and you want to do well at both, you really need to treat the content stuff like a second job too. So it's like, I have a loose content calendar.

⁓ on my just like notes, Google Docs, I think because a lot of my life for my corporate job, that is very calendared. just have a running list of content ideas or kind of just like in any given week, what deliverables I wanna have on Instagram, on TikTok. recently I just started YouTube,

in terms of the brand deal stuff, that you need to treat like very seriously. what working in corporate has helped me do is with the brand's deal stuff, like adhere to deadlines, adhere to the feedback, what exactly the deliverables are, what you're being asked to do,

So you don't have to do all these revisions, which then takes up more time, which you then have to schedule for. I think it's just being really diligent about using your calendar also then going to the office truly has helped me manage both. I made a video about this recently about how going back to working a nine to five has unlocked more hours in my day.

Kelli Luu (09:10)
Right.

Misty Li (09:24)
because I'm in the office from 8.30 to five most days. during those hours, I'm just thinking about my job. So any content stuff, I know I have to schedule it before 8.30 generally the sun's up pretty early. So it's like, if I need to film an ad, like I can do it in the morning or I can do it after 5.00

I generally set aside like Sunday or Saturday morning to back shoot content for the week, And that is working on a weekend. However, I don't mind it because doing content truly has been a passion project my entire life. I think that's also why going to full time has been really going back to full time tech has been good for me mentally because now

this stays as a fun passion project. It doesn't become my full income. It doesn't become work that is like so stressful and that if I'm not getting the engagement, if I'm not growing at a certain pace, if I don't feel like I'm doing better, that it just weighs on my entire psyche and that can also drain the creative process. So for me, both have started to go hand in hand, the corporate job and the content creation.

Kelli Luu (10:22)
For sure.

well, I think you're doing great. I love seeing when people post such relatable content. let me ask you, since we brought up brand deals, how do you choose which ones to say yes and no to?

Misty Li (10:30)
Aw, thank you.

Mm-hmm

I did decide to sign with talent management last summer So they've been really helpful with that. now all of my brand deals, brand partnerships and communications goes through my talent agent I wanna give them a huge shout out because that's also been, yes, exactly. Because that's also been a reason that I'm able to.

Kelli Luu (10:52)
Shout out to Morgan.

Misty Li (10:57)
Like go back to working full-time and be able to do both in terms of like the ones that I choose to work with it's like one if I Have bought or used the product with my own money like that's a sure sign that this is a brand that I want to work with it's

a clothing brand that I really like, if it's like a hair product, a skincare product that is, that I've used since growing up. I haven't worked with Cetaphil or CeraVe, but I know that they do like a ton of influencer campaigns now. these are brands that everyone's parents have in their home too. it's cool to work with kind of like big household brands that you know are quality and reputable.

if it's something that I genuinely feel like I can incorporate in my routine after this video, I will use because I want to stay authentic to my audience, but also to myself. I think I'm able to be more choosy with brand deals because it's not my full source of income.

Kelli Luu (11:52)
Was there ever like a time, maybe when you were first starting off with where you just took brand deals left and right

Misty Li (11:58)
I'd say like in the beginning, I took a ton of gifting partnerships, which I do think to get started because to even have content to post and to kind of build a portfolio So I do think doing like gifted campaigns to some extent can be good. But I think in the beginning, like that is how there's also a lot of like…

Predatory campaigns per se like they're asking you for way too much and they're giving you like a $20 bottle of shampoo and then those situations I'm like your content like even if You think you don't have a following just like you doing the UGC content for them And they're probably like bearing the usage rights and all of that Because of all of that like you like that is something that the brand

Kelli Luu (12:23)
Great.

Misty Li (12:43)
the company is taking advantage of these smaller creators or these, people who are just getting started.

Kelli Luu (12:49)
content creation is not a quick thing to do. People think it's quick, but the hours of editing that goes through, thinking of your script that you're gonna say and your voiceover, all of that takes so much time. It's crazy.

Misty Li (12:52)
It is not, yeah.

Yeah, ⁓

Exactly. Exactly, yeah, it's not

easy at all. It's hard to grow. It's hard to constantly be consistent and have new things to say.

you need to pick and choose so that you don't just look like a shopping channel.

Kelli Luu (13:14)
Okay, interesting. All right, we're gonna go a little bit more into the office, do you feel like you have to hide your presence online at work ever?

Misty Li (13:22)
when I started this new job, at my previous company, because I was there for four years, everyone in the office that I was friends with followed me online and it wasn't a big deal at all. when I started this new job, I definitely wanted to be known for my good work in the office and build a reputation in the office apart from whatever online persona I have.

Kelli Luu (13:30)
Sure.

Misty Li (13:42)
So I would say in the beginning, like the first month, whenever people ask me like what I do outside of work or what my like fun fact is, I feel like I sounded really lame because I'm like, content creation obviously is a big part of my life. This is what I was doing basically full time for the past ⁓ eight months. And suddenly it's like, I don't wanna talk about that.

Kelli Luu (13:57)
Yeah.

Misty Li (13:59)
I'm now six months into this job. People naturally have, it's naturally come up. I've naturally brought it up. People have naturally like found me on their algorithm, et cetera.

So it's like definitely not a secret. I'd say in terms of my boundary with it though, like I never want that to overshadow what I'm doing in the office between the hours of 830 and five.

Kelli Luu (14:18)
Yeah.

Misty Li (14:20)
People have, like do you have questions about it? I think in 2025 though, it's like more common for people to have side hustles. Like, so people don't really care that much. I also think that anyone posting online should always operate.

Kelli Luu (14:28)
for sure. Definitely.

Misty Li (14:39)
with the like Wall Street Journal test, which is what they taught us the first day of my finance internship that anything you do online or even offline or anything that you tell one person or a group of people, you should always operate under the impression that if it comes up as the cover story on the Wall Street Journal one day, like would you be embarrassed by it? Or like maybe you'll be embarrassed, but would it be career ending?

Kelli Luu (15:03)
Mmm.

Misty Li (15:07)
I feel like anyone posting online should operate with that framework that there is a high likelihood that everyone in your life will see this piece of content.

so I think like everything I post online, I'm actually like so fine with everyone in my life seeing now that I think about it. Yeah.

Kelli Luu (15:22)
Okay, cool.

so if you had to choose between a corporate promotion or a huge brand deal with like a big company, like a huge Cetaphil campaign, which would you take and why?

Misty Li (15:35)
Yeah, that's a good question. I feel like at this stage of my life, I would probably choose the corporate promotion one, it is my primary source of income now and it is also like my full-time job, my health insurance, my like W-2 employer, all of that. So I feel like at this stage of life, because I've gone back to working full-time this year and I am, I feel like I'm really in it now, like that is my focus.

Kelli Luu (15:50)
Haha

All right, can you give us some advice for any of those people who are trying to thrive in the nine to five life right now?

Misty Li (16:07)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. if you talk to me at the end of my last job, like, I feel that I was just quite burnt out.

And I also just feel like I really needed a break. So I would say like first and foremost, if you are able to take a break, do it, like give yourself that time. I know that it is hard right now with the economy and with the job market, et cetera, but it doesn't have to be a full break. Like you could go, you could find part-time work if you have a skill that is transferable, like you can like be a consultant of some sort.

So I feel like one, if you feel like you're not thriving because you're burnt out, instead of accelerating into a new career, sometimes it's good to take a step back and recalibrate. But I'd say like once you are in the nine to five ⁓ grind, I'd say like, take your goals and make them into smaller goals. So if you have quarterly goals or if you're like a product manager looking to launch a product by the end of this year, like how…

Kelli Luu (16:49)
Yeah.

Misty Li (17:07)
granular can you make that larger goal into so that you can set weekly goals, you can set monthly goals, et cetera.

So I'd say like firstly, like breaking down bigger goals into smaller goals too. And then I'd say like time management, calendar management is like so important as you continue to grow in your career, as you just like get older and have different priorities in your life. Like I can't even imagine my coworkers that like do this job or like people who work in corporate who work.

who do content or have other side hustles. And then they have two children. I'm like, wow, like how are you scheduling all of this in? Yeah, so I would say that just getting really good at time management is key. I also have recently put this post-it on my computer that says DIRN, which stands for do it right now. Like if it's a small task, if my manager tells me to do something and I'm like, okay, cool. Instead of just adding it to a list, like add it to that list so you remember.

Kelli Luu (17:41)
crazy.

I love that.

Misty Li (18:02)
as soon as someone tells you to do something, execute on it and then you have one less thing to think about.

Kelli Luu (18:07)
I'm going to definitely take that advice for myself,

Thank you for that. So is there something that you've learned at your corporate job that you wish influencers knew?

Misty Li (18:16)
I do feel like it's important for everyone to work a corporate job at some point in their life if they are going to be self-employed in any capacity, because I do think there are, the reason why corporates are corporates is that they do have really scalable best practices and they do run really good training systems,

My work ethic, all of this is because I joined Morgan Stanley at 20 years old during the internship program and it was a really intense experience, but I also learned how to network, how to talk to basically everyone, how to write an email, just how to be professional, all of that. So I'd say in general, like my takeaways from like how working in corporate has made me better at content creation, all of that.

Kelli Luu (18:46)
Yeah.

Misty Li (18:59)
One, it's just help with my overall professionalism and not even in the way of how I interact with other people, even though that is important, but it's kind of just like how I take myself seriously. It's like content creation, if you're gonna do this, like you need to treat it as a job with goals.

But I'd say like one, just professionalism in taking yourself seriously too, is something that…

I learned from corporate. And I'd say also the negotiating, ⁓ if you're self-managed, working in corporate also just helps you know your worth.

I'd say also influencer events, working in sales and also just working in corporate has helped me at influencer events because people need to realize that influencer events, it is like a work event at the end of the day. Like it on.

they're inviting you there, it is transactional. Like they want you to promote the brand. And if you want to work with the brand in a paid capacity, then it's in your best interest to introduce yourself to the person who invited you, meet the PR team, meet the brand team meet your other coworkers in this space, and just create a relationship with the brand. I also think working in corporate makes you really good at small talk, for better or for worse,

Kelli Luu (19:50)
course yeah.

Network.

Misty Li (20:09)
I go to a ton of these things solo and my goal of anything, any event, whether it be a networking event for my job, going to a conference, going to an influencer event, it's successful if I can learn one new thing and meet one new person. if I connect with one more person on LinkedIn, one more person on Instagram ⁓ and just learn one more thing about the brand,

is what I count as a success in my end, my eyes. just realize that it is a work event. So you can leave whenever you want. Like you're not obligated to stay. if it's a dinner, yeah, sure, stay for the dinner. But you don't have to, Like if you wanna go, go. if you have other things to do, go and do those.

Kelli Luu (20:46)
Okay, Awesome. So I have one last question for you. What would you say has been your proudest moment ⁓ in either your corporate job or as a content creator?

Misty Li (20:50)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I would say my proudest moment as a content creator would be one, like getting my first large brand partnership. It was with Bumble and Bumble. I still work with them. I'm on my second year of working with them. They kind of just like reached out to me on Instagram and they're a huge haircare brand.

Kelli Luu (21:07)
Cool.

Misty Li (21:12)
At the time I was doing a lot of hair content. I think I just landed on their explore page and they just organically reached out to me. that was a contract that at the time I was unmanaged. I negotiated that myself. They're a really awesome team to work with.

now we're working together in our second year. And truly I would say like that partnership was the first moment when I was like, wow, like I could actually do this in a full-time capacity in the future should I want to like, and working with them, their marketing team, their PR team, their brand team. It also just made me have so much more appreciation for kind of just like

I really love how ⁓ consumer marketing beauty influencer, it is very female focused, which is good, females do have a lot of spending power, the end dollar. So it makes sense that on the brand teams as well, it is largely female. And that's also just been a different experience than what I traditionally worked in tech and finance.

Kelli Luu (22:06)
that's crazy. You go to work in your office and there's so many men there and then you go to these TikTok events and it's all women.

Misty Li (22:12)
Yeah, exactly.

it's like all women and it's like, I'm getting a slide deck on how to market this, to women. Yeah. That's really cool because I've never been around that in like a corporate setting before. So I would say working with Bumble and Bumble and the team and they're like really great. They're so structured. it, so that just made me really appreciate the industry and also just like having that long-term partnership.

Kelli Luu (22:19)
Yeah.

Misty Li (22:36)
I also worked with Nordstrom Beauty a couple months ago, which was huge that that team reached out to me too, because Nordstrom obviously like legacy brand.

Kelli Luu (22:45)
They do great partnerships.

Misty Li (22:45)
Yeah.

Also loved working with them and yeah, just like they're like a very cool long-term brand. then I'd say with my full-time job, I would say like my proudest moment was returning to corporate this year because I feel like I started, I like decided to take my job search seriously after Labor Day. So last September and I signed a full-time offer.

Kelli Luu (23:00)
Hahaha

Misty Li (23:13)
beginning of November. applied to a ton of jobs. I did a ton of coffee chats, informational interviews, like did a ton of like, was the same stage with a lot of companies at the same time, which was like a very intense three weeks. Like I was just constantly interviewing. And I'd say like that was my proudest moment because I think I was able to take a break and then I was able to really just focus

like achieve what I wanted was to, I set a goal of signing an offer by Thanksgiving and I was able to meet that goal. juggling both this year, I think has made me a more productive person, a better person, not because I like have two jobs or anything of that sort, but I feel like it's just like made me more disciplined in every aspect.

Kelli Luu (23:58)
Yeah.

Misty Li (23:59)
it just makes every aspect of yourself better. Like I feel that I've been able to show up for people better because I feel fulfilled in what I'm doing day to day. Yeah, so I would say those are my proudest moments.

Kelli Luu (24:05)
Mm.

that.

Awesome. Yeah, totally. that nine to five, it kind of keeps you on a schedule. it keeps you grounded almost. that's so awesome. Well, it has been so amazing talking to you, Misty. You're like total big sister vibes. I love it.

Misty Li (24:21)
Aw, thank you.

Kelli Luu (24:24)
Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with Gold Sea and thank you everyone for listening in.

Misty Li (24:28)
Thank you.