Thank you Shout Out LA for interviewing me! I am honored to be included in your series.
Meet Lisa Niver | Journalist and TV Host
September 13, 2021
We had the good fortune of connecting with Lisa Niver and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Lisa, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
Thomas Edison said: “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time.”
I have learned that I need to keep taking small steps towards my goals. I have had to change my path literally and figuratively many times. I used to feel like my train was derailed and jumping off the track when things did not work out—when I left one grad school program for another, when my company went bankrupt right after 9/11, when I left my marriage, but now I realize I was just changing trains. In order to go in a direction, sometimes you have to take a bus or walk or find the next platform. When COVID started, I could no longer travel so instead of writing about travel as a travel journalist, I read books and worked on my own book. It was not what I thought I would be doing but it has turned out to be much better for me.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said:
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Every day I work on making progress towards my goals.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
For many years, I taught science at Curtis School, Brawerman Elementary School and CCUSD middle school. When I was leaving to go travel, my students were sad and wanted to keep in touch. I created a monthly newsletter to share my adventures which eventually became my We Said Go Travel website in 2010 and led to my journalism career. https://www.wesaidgotravel.com/ I also began to shoot video and one of my 5th grade students taught me to use iMovie during recess. I now have over 1.35 million views on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/WeSaidGoTravel
I have loved being able to share my travel stories on KTLA TV.
https://ktla.com/tag/lisa-niver/ and recently I was on an episode on REELZ TV channel so now I am on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12664710/
The best lesson I have learned is to use the “F” word—which of course is FLEXIBLE. Whether your plane is late, or there are no planes or plans because of a pandemic, we have to be ready for changes and to go with the flow.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my friends were visiting Los Angeles, I would take them to my favorite places: THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL for a concert and where I recently saw The Princess Bride
HIGH Rooftop at Hotel Erwin for Sunset views and drinks
Santa Monica beach for a long walk
MOLA art studio (Members Only LA—where I create my ceramics https://www.instagram.com/simplyceramics2 and you can too!)
CHA CHA CHICKEN for Caribbean food by the beach
THAI BOOM for Thai food in Culver City
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my Shoutout to Stephen Wise Temple and its incredible clergy. When I was traveling full time in Asia, I missed being able to participate in the Jewish community that I grew up in and it was part of my reason to return to Los Angeles. During COVID, our services were all on Facebook Live, Zoom or YouTube. I really appreciate all of their efforts to hold the spiritual space in a new way online. I am grateful to the entire team.
CONNECT WITH LISA:
Website: https://lisaniver.com/one-page/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisaniver
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaellenniver/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisaniver
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.niver/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/WeSaidGoTravel
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/wesaidgotravel/_saved/
We Said Go Travel Website: https://www.wesaidgotravel.com/category/we-said/