Reimagine: A conversation with Juleyka Lantigua-Williams, CEO and founder of Lantigua Williams & Co.

Juleyka Lantigua-Williams keeps a simple reminder posted by her desk: "Let the work speak".

In other words, find the story and let it do the talking.

With a 20+ year career spanning everything from writing at The Atlantic and producing at NPR, to volunteering with TEDx Conferences, Juleyka has made it her life’s work to seek out new voices. That’s why four years ago she founded Lantigua Williams & Co., an award-winning digital media studio on a mission to support and amplify creators from the margins.

I recently spoke with Juleyka about how she’s reimagining the future of storytelling. Below, she shares with me how her experience growing up in The Bronx after immigrating with her family to the U.S. informs her work and inspires her to bring to life stories that traditionally weren’t as visible to mainstream audiences.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: You’ve had a stunning storytelling career in almost every medium and across lots of different publications. Could you share with us how your background has shaped your approach to your work?

JULEYKA LANTIGUA-WILLIAMS: I love this question because I’ve had the chance to really think about this over the last four years about what drives me as a founder. One, I’m an immigrant. I came to the United States from the Dominican Republic when I was ten and my sister was seven. My mom married my stepdad, we got on a plane, and the world was never the same again. In terms of having a high-risk tolerance, which all entrepreneurs have to have, it doesn’t get higher than getting on a plane, crossing an ocean, saying goodbye to everything that you knew, and starting over. That’s very deep in my consciousness and in the way that I live my life.

Second, I’m the oldest of four siblings. From when I was very young, I’ve always been responsible for other people’s wellbeing, both literally – like keep your sisters and brother safe – but also in more pragmatic ways – like being a good example and the first one to do a bunch of things. That role of making sure everybody is provided for, that everybody has what they need, comes naturally to me and I really enjoy it.

I once said to someone that I really like being in charge of driving the bus, because I have to make sure the bus is clean. I have to make sure it has gas. I have to make sure I know the route. I like being the one driving because it makes me feel good that everyone gets to where we’re going, safely. And that’s really how I see my job. I joke all the time that I’m the office manager because my job is to make sure everybody has what they need to do their job. It keeps you humble when you see yourself in such stark terms.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: That’s fantastic. I mean, it’s the ultimate leadership challenge, right? You mentioned when you created this company, you centered it around a mission to elevate creators from the margins. What do you feel is most important when it comes to sharing these stories?

JULEYKA LANTIGUA-WILLIAMS: We’ve kicked it up a notch, as chef Emeril Lagasse would say. Our slogan that we adopted is, "Erasing the margins." I started out possibly accepting that there are margins, and now, I’ll erase them because I believe everyone has an amazing story to tell. As a creator, consumer, and lover of stories, part of my drive is to make sure that we don’t miss out on all of the incredible stories that are being told.

It’s not just about elevating the storyteller, but also making sure we’re existing in a plurality of realities. It’s about having to entertain the complexities of other people’s existence. And when we’re able to do that, we come closer to understanding who we are, because now, in order for me to come to an understanding of what it’s like to be you, I actually have to first figure out what it’s like to be me, because that’s the basis from which I’m making that understanding of you.

It’s the symbiotic relationship between empathy and respect, but also genuine interest in what’s going on with our fellow man and fellow woman. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I feel like I’ve just begun telling stories in a way that really utilizes all of the experiences and skills I’ve learned along the way.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: I love it. This is a craft you’ve been honing for a long time. And that brings me to my next question, which is about the mediums you use. Video is at the forefront of the way people consume today. And digital storytelling is also very different than it was when you and I started our careers. How do you think about making your content really stand out?

JULEYKA LANTIGUA-WILLIAMS: We always start in the same place, which is to center the person whose story we’re telling. The second part is to give tools to people.

For example, right now we’re editing our first-ever documentary. It’s about ultra runners, the people who run 100 miles at a time. The first time the filmmaker talked to me about this, I was completely in awe and had a million questions. And then, layer on the fact that they’re doing this by themselves, in their cities, during COVID. Talk about erasing the margins, right? Talk about centering people who are in the .0001% of the population, but whose individual experiences, I believe, are going to tell a universal story about perseverance and endurance.

We let them film themselves with their phones, so we got a really intimate experience of them getting ready, making their plans, rehearsing the routes, doing all of the things that, in a different time, they would have had an organized body to do it with. That’s the kind of storytelling that I look for.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: This is such a niche set of human beings. And yet there’s a universally appealing, compelling, inspiring human trait you’re showcasing.

JULEYKA LANTIGUA-WILLIAMS: Absolutely. We have two people who are the main subjects. One is a woman who immigrated to the U.S. from a war-torn country, and part of why she started running was because it was a way for her to exert some control and discipline over her own life. The other person is a man who suffers with high anxiety and has trouble in social situations. But when he’s running, he’s a god, right? And who hasn’t felt that level of inadequacy? Who hasn’t felt alienated? We all have. But how many of us have what it takes to get up and train for a solitary 100-mile run?

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: The topics that you tell stories around are super inspiring. The people are super inspiring. But, as CEO of your company, there has to be a certain grind you have to get through. How do you refill your tank? Do you have things outside of work that rejuvenate you?

JULEYKA LANTIGUA-WILLIAMS: Yes, one is nine and one is eleven. I have these built-in fountains of youth, called my sons, who keep me on a very tight schedule!

Admittedly, there was no balance the first two years. As every entrepreneur knows, you’re working nine days a week, forty hours a day. There was a lot of apologizing those first two years and trying to make up for it, like on Sundays when I allowed myself three or four free hours. It’s gotten better as the business and my team have grown.

And I think I’ve also gotten better at saying no, because the fear of failure isn’t sitting at the pit of my stomach. Those first two years, I believed every decision was make-or-break. And I’m sure a lot of people, when they start off, believe that. But by the time we got past that two-and-a-half-year mark, I started to ease up and say, “Look, you’ve made some good decisions. You’ve definitely made a couple of bad decisions, but the company’s in good shape.” And we’ve had incredible support from the industry, from our audiences, and from fellow creators.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: What’s going on in the industry that you think is really interesting? What are the trends that make you excited about coming to work every day?

JULEYKA LANTIGUA-WILLIAMS: All the different languages that people are now podcasting in.

In Bello Collective’s annual list of outstanding podcasts, they had a review for a Spanish language podcast in Spanish, and that just made my day. I’m also loving what places like Studio Ochenta are doing, with a series of 80 stories from around the world during the pandemic in all kinds of languages. I love the seamlessness that comes with audio, where we’re able to present our work in a multiplicity of languages. I’m very excited for that because this is how the world lives. This is how life actually happens. And the more we can reflect that, the better, because there will be less distance between the creators and our audiences.