Mercedes Joyner

I attribute my success to my dad, because he really put a lot into me and sacrificed so much. When I was young, I was diagnosed early with hypothyroidism, but before it was diagnosed, I was misdiagnosed for ADHD and had an IEP. I was actually put in special education classes. Then I moved with my dad when my mom had gotten lupus, and I had my thyroid removed. I had a thyroid that was the size of a goiter, like a baseball in my throat, and it had been removed at Children's Hospital in Chicago. That really changed the trajectory of my life from being in a situation where I wasn't seen and pretty much could have died because the goiter was suffocating my airway, to having that removed and then being taken out of special education classes. I was one of the first students in the Rockford School District in District 205 to be taken out of special education classes and having an IEP removed. My dad really had someone who fought for me, and spoke up for me, and advocated for me when I couldn't do it for myself. That was one of my lessons in learning how to speak up, not just for myself, but for others, the importance of having advocacy, but the importance of your voice, and even the importance of telling your story. No one would have thought that having my own marketing company and having a bachelor's and a master's degree and all the experience that I have, that I was once in special education classes, and I had a goiter in my throat that almost took my life. It's so important to share that, because people need to understand that no matter where you are, you can make it happen for yourself. My dad would work 12 hours, he would go to school, he had a family, he had 3 other children, there were 4 of us. He raised me, my sister, my stepsister, and my cousin, and then he also put his wife through nursing school, and put all of us through school, through college. He saw the potential before anybody else did. He saw the possibilities, and he really helped me stay on track to who I could become, and who I was destined to be, not who I was at the moment. I wouldn't be the person that I am without going through that. That really helped shape my foundation. That's the pushing factor of me working with the people that I'm able to work with, because a lot of times my clients don't see what I see in them. But that's a good thing, because that's where I come in to help them see that, and to see value in themselves and their stories. But I wouldn't be able to do that if my dad wouldn't have saw value and purpose in me.

I would say, with anything that you do, do no harm to yourself or others, and that you wake up as another opportunity to make it happen. Oftentimes, we're so hard on ourselves, and we feel like we may not be doing enough, or it's not coming quick enough, or is my work paying off? Not even realizing that our everyday life is someone's dream. And honestly, as long as you have the gift of being woken up every day and being alive, and you know, I always say being above the ground and not buried in it, not below it, that is truly another opportunity to try again, to make it happen, to fine-tune, to be better, to grow. Sometimes we think that our bad days are our worst days, and our bad days oftentimes are other people's dream days.

I'm never too young to start. Ask the question, make the mistake, do your research. The very person that you think that you shouldn't talk to is the person you need to talk to. You know, oftentimes when we're entering companies, we think that I can't talk to the CEO, I can't talk to the boss. Yes, you can. In fact, because you're younger, that's even more reason why you can. No one is going to tell a young person not to talk to them, or not share their story, or give them advice, because then you look like a complete jerk, and no one wants to be a jerk. I always tell some of my mentees, that you are young. Take advantage of that. There isn't a single person who's going to tell you not to ask them about their life, or not to give you advice, or not to tell you how they did something. The cool thing about older people is they love to share their advice. They love to share their story. That's a great opportunity for you to take the meat and throw away the bones. Take what you need and learn from other people's experiences. So I just would encourage younger people to talk to people, you know, listen to older people. Listen to anyone who will tell you their story. People always talk about what you can learn from someone. You can learn a lot from someone, and you can also learn what not to do. So, you can learn from anyone.

Being younger has been a huge challenge, especially in the political world and in the community. As a young Black woman, oftentimes people either think that because of how I carry myself, that I am not approachable, and I'm not nice. And then they find out that I have this bubbly personality. Being younger, because sometimes people underestimate you, and in a lot of people's eyes, they thought they saw that I had the education, but didn't realize that I had the experience. My experience had been questioned a lot, because it was like, you're so young, how do you have 15 years of experience? There's no way that you have this much experience and the education. Those are some of the things that I've had to overcome, and just really getting past being underestimated by teachers, being expected to be a statistic, people questioning what you know, how you say it, and then sometimes having to be the only one to speak up. That can be a hard position, to not agree, or to really lean in on my integrity and not go along with things just because everybody else is. Different obstacles from age to race to experience to just being questioned overall, being in a male-dominated industry as far as the political world, sometimes that can get a little sticky, being a younger Black woman. There's a lot of judgment, there's a lot of stereotypes expected, there's a lot of questioning of information and knowledge and degrees. As far as opportunities, the great thing is I've learned to ask. I've learned to ask for the opportunity. And a lot of times when I ask for the opportunity, because I'm younger and because I started so young, and just the way that I carry myself, people are more than willing to give me the opportunity. And if they can't give me the opportunity, they'll introduce me to someone that can. So just having the willingness, having the audacity has been huge, just ask. I am very big on asking. I've had internship opportunities. My first adult job was with our senator, simply because one of my dad's friends knew that I was interested in politics. A lot of my opportunities have just come from asking and from my relationships, whether it's internships, whether it's jobs, whether it's being able to be a part of campaigns, events. There have been so many opportunities just for growth programs.

I would say integrity, honesty, transparency, but also vulnerability. Oftentimes, people think that everything has to be perfect in the workplace, and it's like, no, everyone's learning, and you have to be honest about that. You have to communicate. I'm very big on communication. I'm very big on honesty, transparency, vulnerability as a leader. You can only be the best leader, in my mind, if you create another leader. And oftentimes, people are so apprehensive to do that because they don't want to, everyone wants to feel like they're the smartest person in the room. I do not want to be the smartest person in the room. I would, in fact, enjoy not being the smartest person in the room, because you learn so much from other people. And once you become the smartest person in the room, you then need to change rooms, because you're not growing. How you communicate with people changes their life, and that can be the difference between someone taking their life and someone deciding to stay another day. I've had an experience with that with a friend, and it really showed me the value of communication and just treating people like people.