She’s a Boss: Marissa Clark

This post is part of the series ‘She’s a boss!’ where I introduce you to badass ladies with hustle, drive, success and female friendships that you don’t want to mess with.

She’s not a GirlBoss. She’s a Boss!

Before the days of podcasts and Spotify playlists, people would tune in to their local radio morning show on their way to work looking for the show’s hosts camaraderie and banter to start their day off. Before the meme’s that podcast hosts are our new friends, local radio DJs around the country were talking us through our days. For those who live in Central Florida, Marissa Clark’s voice was one of those morning show hosts that made you feel like you had a best friend on the other side of the radio.

After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Communications and a Masters in Corporate Communications she set out to be an intern at the most popular morning show in town, Johnny’s House on XL106.7.

While radio may not have been her original goal, during college Marissa found an internship with the local news that caused her to rethink her next steps.

“I was doing my internships and realized the news was really depressing. I would leave work drained of energy,” she said. Knowing that one of her favorite morning shows had interns each semester she reached out to one of the co-hosts on the show, Rae, to apply. “I was always a fan of Johnny’s House,” she said of the show that got her through her middle school years. “As soon as I started I knew this is what I wanted to do.”

Even though her internship was winding down and coming to a close, Marissa had no plans of leaving. “I wouldn’t leave. I was like ‘I’m not leaving until I have a job.’ I knew once my foot was out of the door, out of sight out of mind and I came in for about a month and a half [unpaid] before finally, they were like fine, we’ll give you a job.’

Despite the fact that there were no openings at XL106.7 at the time, Marissa stuck to her guns and let them know she wasn’t going anywhere. And so the fifth official member of Johnny’s House was born.

If you want to know anything about Marissa, it is this..when she is passionate about something she will not stop until she achieves it. The start of her career on the radio was just the beginning.

With a mic in front of her at almost any hour of the day, Marissa worked the morning show but also hosted overnights, weekend afternoons and more. Through it all, there was never a time she didn’t share her life with listeners.

“I found that people connect to you a lot more when you’re vulnerable and it’s something that I eventually caught on to.” While she received the occasional ‘Hey were you talking about me?’ text from friends and family, she knew that she needed to connect with the listeners; they would appreciate hearing stories like their own on the radio.

The one thing that Marissa never shied away from sharing with her listeners and readers of her blog, Pretty Boss, was mental health. “Part of the reasons that I left radio was my mental health,” Marissa signed off of Johnny’s House in October of 2018, “Sometimes I would [blog] to be selfish. I would open up about things because I wanted to get it off my chest. And if that helped someone else, great, but there was a lot of times it helped me when people reached out and said they went through the same thing, too.”

Marissa’s honesty with her followers has even cultivated internet friendships with those who have shared their journey through depression, anxiety and more. While Marissa was making sure she was staying honest with those around her she found a community of like-minded people who were happy to have her.

“There are times when you’re going through things and you want to find a balance where you help other people and help yourself.” Recently, Marissa brought her follower in on a huge aspect of her life, not just to share her story but to hopefully, help others.

“The latest thing I want to be open about is being on Accutane. I had really bad skin issues and ended up taking Accutane and it came close to ruining my life,” she said. While the medicine is known to have some pretty intense side effects of dry skin, itching, rashes and more, for Marissa it put her to a deep depression.

While writing a blog post one night she realized she was going through something bigger than herself.

“I realized that I’m in the middle of this [depression] right now and I don’t know when I’m going to come through the other side,” she said. While reading a metaphor about what it is like to experience depression she realized her blog post was a way to tell others about what she was going through. “It is like shoveling snow. I can’t shovel the snow by myself, my driveway is covered in snow, I’m drowning and it’s still snowing! If you know me, grab a shovel and help me. That blog post was my way of telling people that I’m not ok, and knowing that it’s ok to not be ok was a big thing for me.”

With the support of her friends and family, Marissa found out yet again that her vulnerability made others, strangers, even reach out to express that they were going through the same thing and that it felt good to not be alone.

Since opening up about her mental health journey, she is excited to share that she is feeling better again. After taking time to focus on herself, mentally and physically, she is ready to get back into the workforce. She recently went to see Michelle Obama speak and felt empowered by her tackling the question we ask children all of the time “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For Marissa it was an awakening moment, it’s as important to be concerned with the kind of person you’ll be when you grow up rather than your profession. What you do can change in the blink of an eye, but who you are will be with you forever.

“We often tie our career to our self worth,” she said. “It’s tough because people identify themselves with their career, particularly in the media and it was so cool to say ‘I’m on the radio’ and so when you’re not, you have to remember your worth is not tied to your career.”

While she is ready to get back to work and knows the path she wants to take, she is just as focused as staying true to who she wants to be not what she wants to be. For her, that means staying dedicated to being a good friend, daughter, sister while staying empathetic and charitable. From any viewpoint, it’s easy to see that nothing will stop Marissa from achieving her goals.

Meeting Marissa was as fun as I thought it would be! I’m so thankful to meet such amazing women who are as real in life as they are on ‘the gram’ and I know no matter what happens we’ve made a connection that will last a lifetime! Leave me a comment below and tell me what you think about being vulnerable on the internet and who you’d like to see me spotlight next!