We’re looking forward to introducing you to Alisa Johns-Wallace . Check out our conversation below.
Hi Alisa , thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
What’s most misunderstood about my business is the luxury and intentionality behind it. Custom press-ons are not a shortcut — they’re a curated, accessible form of beauty that merges convenience, artistry, and sustainability.
My clients are part of a niche community of stylish, forward-thinking individuals who understand that high-quality, reusable press-ons are an investment in themselves — whether that’s time, money, confidence, or creativity. It’s self-care made practical and beautiful.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Alisa, and I’m the artist and one-woman force behind PressdByAnnece — a luxury press-on nail brand built on creativity, convenience, and community. Every set I create is rooted in my own artistic expression and offered through curated design tiers that allow my clients — who I lovingly call my Nail Besties — to collaborate with me or give me full creative control.
I remove everything people dislike about traditional salon visits: the long hours, the waiting, the appointments, the leaving the house. Instead, my Nail Besties get salon-quality, custom-fitted, collectible, and reusable press-ons delivered to their door with just a few clicks or a DM.
What makes PressdByAnnece unique is the experience. It’s personal, intentional, and tailored. I’m here to give women across all lifestyles the freedom to have beautiful, high-quality nails without sacrificing their time, comfort, or budget. My brand represents accessible luxury — the idea that self-care should fit your life, not disrupt it — and I’m honored to offer art you can wear, reuse, and feel confident in.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who taught you the most about work?
The people who taught me the most about work are my parents. Their work ethic was — and still is — extraordinary. They balanced ambition, professionalism, and excellence while also being incredibly present, active parents to my brother and me. They managed time, goals, and family with a kind of grace that was always humble, human, grateful, and generous.
Watching them showed me that real work ethic isn’t just about grinding — it’s about character. It’s integrity, consistency, compassion, and doing things with intention. Their example shaped the foundation of how I move through the world and run my business. The only difference now is that I carry those values forward with the boundaries and self-awareness they encouraged me to grow into.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
One thing I’ve changed my mind about is what it means to ‘fail hard.’ For a long time, I thought failure meant something didn’t work out. But the more I lived, the more I realized — I didn’t fail. Not once.
I didn’t fail to believe in myself.
I didn’t fail to push a little harder.
I didn’t fail when I chose honesty, authenticity, or growth.
I didn’t even fail when I heard the engine giving out. I did everything I could to fix it — and if it still broke, that wasn’t failure. That was life redirecting me.
A lot of people fail by never trying. I tried. I tried wholeheartedly, with everything I had, even when I was the only one who could see the vision. I rode situations until the wheels fell off, and when they did, I learned how to walk again.
I took a year off from my business to find myself again after letting the wrong people into my head — personally and professionally. That wasn’t failure; that was recovery. That was me choosing myself again.
Everything I once labeled as a failure has become a lesson, a pivot point, a new chapter. I’m on my fourth life already, and I’m only 32. And every version of me has taught me how to build with more intention, more confidence, and more clarity than the last.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes — the public version of me is finally the real me. It took all of my twenties to get here. For years, I didn’t realize how exhausting and damaging it was to compartmentalize myself for different friend groups, environments, or expectations. It felt like wearing makeup as a mask — and eventually, that mask started to suffocate me.
Through therapy, I learned that I had been masking for so long that I lost sight of my own voice. The anxiety and depression that followed were overwhelming, especially for someone who has always had so much creative expression simmering under the surface but was too afraid of judgment to let it out.
Now? I show up fully as myself, every version, every layer. If my kids asked me to dress up as Barney and moonwalk down the block for Christmas, I’d do it with a smile. I released the ego that used to protect me because it no longer served me. Without it, I attract people who are just as authentic, aligned, and unfiltered as I am.
Showing up as the real me isn’t scary anymore — it’s liberating. And it’s the reason my artistry and my life feel honest for the first time.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
Yes, I could. And I have. My dad was an incredibly active, present, charismatic father — I truly have no complaints. But he passed away four years ago, and I’m 32 now. I didn’t find out how proud he was of me until his funeral. It wasn’t something he ever said out loud in our casual, joking conversations.
But even without hearing those words while he was alive, it never stopped me from giving everything my best.
It didn’t stop me from scoring in the top five on my entry exams and earning tuition-qualified acceptance into an all-girls Catholic high school.
It didn’t stop me from getting into the art program — something that, now, brings this interview full circle in ways I don’t think I could’ve processed back then.
It didn’t stop me from becoming one of the strongest ballet and modern jazz dancers in my troupe.
It didn’t stop me from working back-to-back shifts at a hospital and a 24-hour restaurant to pay my school bills.
And it definitely didn’t stop me from building a career in a trade field I chose instead of becoming the makeup artist I really dreamed of — a path that pushed me further than I could’ve imagined, especially being young and being a woman of color in corporate spaces.
I had to learn to pull validation from within instead of outsourcing it, because when the external contract expires — well, let’s just say it doesn’t leave you with much. So now, I treat everything else as background noise. I fine-tune my ear to myself and to God, and I move with intention.
People can’t always see what I see — I have astigmatism in both eyes, so half the time I can’t even see what I see — but what I know for sure is this:
If you stay solid within yourself, if you believe in yourself even when no one else understands the vision, you transcend the fickleness of the world. You stay true. You stay grounded. You stay you.
And that’s enough to keep me giving my best every time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pressdbyannece.com
- Instagram: Pressdbyannece.co
- Facebook: Pressdbyannece
- Youtube: Pressdbyannece
