When Nick Guillory arrived at his hotel in downtown Columbia on March 22, the employee behind the counter did a double take and said, “Do I know you from somewhere? I swear I’ve seen you on YouTube.”

Guillory, BuzzFeed Tasty’s social media strategist and 2008 MU alumnus from, came to campus last week as the spring keynote speaker for Online News Association Mizzou. It was his first time back on campus in years.

“Even walking around here by myself was super emotional,” Guillory said. “I actually teared up.”

In his speech, which was [livestreamed](https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=ona%20mizzou&ref=eyJzaWQiOiIwLjM1MDQ1OTE2NTI2MTEyNzUiLCJxcyI6IkpUVkNKVEl5YjI1aEpUSXdiV2w2ZW05MUpUSXlKVFZFIiwiZ3YiOiJiZWUwOWY5M2ZhNzMyY2ZhNTlhMWNiNmQ5ZjQ1MGQzODkyNDI0ZTQ5IiwiZW50X2lkcyI6W10sImJzaWQiOiJkOTNkMzQ) on Facebook, he described how he moved from an unsatisfying first job after graduation to directing social media for the Tasty franchise. He also included GIFs of celebrities like Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj in his presentation.

“Can’t you tell I work at BuzzFeed?” Guillory joked with the audience after a Beyoncé GIF.

At MU, Guillory studied broadcast journalism and was an anchor, reporter and social media editor for KOMU 8 News. After graduation, he was a reporter for KSLA News 12 in Shreveport, Louisiana, but eventually found that broadcast wasn’t a good fit.

“I was not happy at that particular job; it was not what I wanted to do,” Guillory said. “At the end of the day, you gotta do what makes you happy. Every career decision I have made after that has been, ‘How am I going to be happy in this new situation?’”

Guillory quit and moved to Los Angeles. He advocates for taking risks, but only strategic ones. Starving for food and experience, Guillory wrote for a blog called L.A. Foodie.

“Don’t really [take a risk like moving to LA] unless you are rich, you have a family that can support you or you have another job lined up,” Guillory said. “Don’t do that unless you want to struggle. Or, if you are supremely unhappy, like I was.”

Later, Guillory worked as a receptionist for _Wheel of Fortune_, which was filmed on the same lot as _The Queen Latifah Show_. Guillory loved talk shows and wanted to work on one, so he followed the LinkedIn pages of the staff at _The Queen Latifah Show_. Through this, he connected with his future boss and secured a coffee meeting with her right outside the _Wheel of Fortune_ set.

“If I didn’t do that [meeting], I would not be where I am today,” Guillory said.

After the meeting, Guillory became the social media coordinator for _The Queen Latifah Show_ until its finale in early 2015. There, he fell in love with social media marketing. He created campaigns to generate buzz about the show like the #QueenSpotting campaign.

After _The Queen Latifah Show_ ended, Guillory wrote community articles for BuzzFeed to get the company’s attention. One [article](https://www.buzzfeed.com/nickguillory/this-britney-spears-impression-from-christina-agui-kb18?utm_term=.tpzzdNZwD#.qtRzvk3bM) in particular led to an interview and the job as BuzzFeed’s video curator. He wrote and starred in a few videos, but his career changed when he noticed a new trend on the internet: People on Facebook were gravitating from listicles to videos. He urged BuzzFeed to pivot with the audience.

“Everyone has to eat, like everyone has to die,” Guillory said throughout his speech. “We at BuzzFeed took notice to video really popping off. We thought we should make food videos, food hack videos.”

When Tasty was born, his boss asked him if he wanted to run it because of his background in food and lifestyle content.

Today, Tasty has 135 million followers across all of its social media platforms, Guillory said. The brand has become internationally known and has branched into cookbooks and kitchenware.

“Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Tasty,” Guillory said. Every hand went up. “Holy shit, wow. OK, damn. OK, that’s so cool.”

Guillory was able to come to MU because ONA exec member Kaleigh Feldkamp was watching one of Guillory’s BuzzFeed videos while procrastinating for finals. After reading his profile, she saw he went to MU and wanted to bring him to campus as a speaker. Last week, ONA President Abby Ivory-Ganja got to spend the day with Guillory and show him around Columbia.

“We did a photoshoot on the quad,” Ivory-Ganja said. “He’s really nice. We’re really excited because he shows you can have a personality and still have a cool job. We’re really excited for everyone to hear from him and see what he has to say. I think [having Guillory] is really awesome because he shows there is not one way to be successful.”

When Guillory studied broadcast journalism at MU a decade ago, he thought he would be a reporter. Instead, he followed his passions from one job to the next, became a food blogger and now directs social media for what he describes as the biggest food lifestyle brand in the world. He gave a mouthwatering shoutout in true BuzzFeed fashion to his family at MU: [“35 Foods That Will Make You Miss Mizzou.”](https://www.buzzfeed.com/nickguillory/35-foods-that-will-make-you-miss-mizzou-kb18?utm_term=.dn6rbOQ1P#.mlzjE5pgX).

_Edited by Alexandra Sharp | asharp@themaneater.com_