Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Toni Junious-Quick, MSA. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Toni, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I believe my resiliency comes from all my life experiences thus far. The “Good”, The “Bad”, and The “Everything” in between.
Once I finally had that “AHA!” moment that life will always be filled with good, bad, etc. I was able to begin to embrace the adversities as they came, celebrate the good times when they came, and also enjoy every moment in between them.
Learning from those adverse moments in my life, and deciding to continue to move forward and not wallow in them, is what still builds my resiliency to this day.
I also believe my resiliency comes from being born as African American in America. Our culture knows resiliency well, because we have ingrained in us the resiliency `of our Ancestors. Who against all the odds stacked against them persevered to accomplish many great things, and still continues to do so ’til this day.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m Toni-Junious-Quick, MSA, and I grew up in the low income Ward (Ward 8) in SE Washington, DC. I was raised by a single Mom who was at one point married to my younger brother’s father, but he became addicted to drugs when they were flooded into communities like mine in the 80’s & 90’s, and began ravaging our communities. My mother (THANK FATHER GOD ABOVE!) did not try or begin using drugs or fall victim to that terrible addiction. After awhile my mother decided to divorce my stepfather, and raised me and my brother own her own, which of course was extremely hard. While growing up in these types of environments it can be very hard to try to imagine, reach for or even aspire accomplishing any type of future success, but does indeed also builds resiliency.
On October 31, 1994 (Halloween) when I was 16 years old I was caught up in a drive by shooting in my neighborhood. The bullet went through my right arm, traveling through my lungs (which caused them to collapse), and then stopping short of hitting my spinal cord. The bullet is still in my back, as the doctor explained to my mother it would be too risky of a procedure to try to remove it during surgery, so it now rest about an inch or two from my spinal cord, This event of course was devastating and extremely stressful on my mother, and family, so before I was discharged from the hospital to go home my mother moved us. The discharging doctor told my mother as doctors “We aren’t suppose to say “Blessed” to any patients or their families, but “Lucky” because of religious and respect reasons. He then said to her but she is “Blessed” first all to still be alive, and even more so not to be paralyzed, and being discharged in a wheelchair.
I then added to the strains of our already stressful life by becoming pregnant at 18, and having my daughter when I turned 19.
Now I’m on a mission to begin my journey of being a “Serial Entrepreneur”, and accomplishing all the things I had to put on the back burner until now!
I’m currently focused professionally on building my enterprise “ToneTaneMent Productions LLC”, which is a Multi-Media Content Production (Film, TV, Music & More/Talent Management/Product & Fashion enterprise.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the most impactful qualities, skills, and/or areas on my journey thus far is, my continued resiliency not to give up, the business accelerators I had the opportunity to be apart of, and the network I’ve been able to grow through these accelerators and more.
My advice for folks who are early in their own journeys is “Don’t Go It Alone!”
What I mean by that is. Don’t try to do everything by yourself. Ask and seek help. It’s out there. You don’t want to drain yourself completed out before you even get off the ground towards reaching your dreams, goals and aspirations. Trust me I tried!
They’re so many resources and individuals out their that sincerely want to help grow you in whatever areas you’re currently in on your professional and personal life journeys as well .
“Don’t Go It Alone!”
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
While pursing the Goodwill one Saturday afternoon I came across the book “The UPSIDE of ADVERSITY” by Os Hillman. Not knowing what it was about, (but the title peaked my interest), because “How could it be an UPSIDE to Adversity?”
Once I had read this book cover-to-cover, I realized adversities builds resilience as well
Some, impactful nuggets of wisdom that really inspired me from this book are: God is with you always through the “Good”, “Bad”, and “In between”. There will always be test throughout your life, but how you choose to handle them is totally up to you. Change your mindset, change your life!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ppmodelsdd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PPModelsDD/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinette-toni-junious-quick-msa-03023a9b/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PPModelsDD
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwpji-7VU9symOh3hFm8qFA
Image Credits
Toni Junious-Quick, Mikeria “Mick” Flack
