We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Johnny a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nicole, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
In the past few months, there have been quite a few no’s sent my way. It was like I knocked on all these doors and none of them opened. In those moments, with all of the doors staying shut there was a choice: let the no’s weigh on you or re-assess the strategy and continue trying. I took these no’s and remembered the teachings of my Navajo culture: Táá hó’ájit’éégóó – meaning that it’s up to you to decide on what to do. I decided that I would continue trying because every no brings me closer to a yes.
If readers wondered about the phrase of “Táá hó’ájit’éégóó” and where it comes from, it’s Navajo (and my fellow Navajo readers, you already knew). I am Navajo and grew up on the Navajo Nation. I grew up understanding the importance of kinship, and community and engulfed in language and culture. Yet, for myself, it’s not only being inspired by my ancestors, who endured the Navajo Long Walk but also drawing from the teachings of my culture.
When I think of the phrase and the teaching behind it, I remember that without the resilience of my ancestors to speak our language, teach and continue our lifeways, this phrase would not be here today. I remember the stories shared by our elders that say when those who survived the Navajo Long Walk and the four years in captivity saw one of our sacred mountains, songs of joy and gratitude were sung. It takes immense resilience to continue the lifeways despite enduring this type of trauma. So you could say that resilience from an Indigenous perspective lives in us because of our ancestors. They showed us to never give up on our languages, cultures, and traditions despite the very intentional erasure of our existence in this country.
But resilience is not only found in culture and ancestors, I’d like to think that it’s this thread of our humanity that once ignited, does not diminish. Rather, when we’re faced with the decision of what to do next, with resilience we find the courage to keep moving forward.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Currently, Nicole is a team member at Raven Indigenous Capital Partners. One of the first Indigenous-owned and led venture capital firms that provides culturally appropriate equity and equity-like capital to innovative, scalable Indigenous/Native American-owned businesses that generate measurable benefit streams for Indigenous Peoples. We’re currently working on deploying capital in both the US and Canada and actively working on supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs.
Nicole is also part of a handful of non-profits that center on uplifting Indigenous women, one of the non-profits is the Changing Woman Initiative which works to empower diverse Indigenous communities to protect cultural birth resiliency and the fundamental Indigenous human right to reproductive health, dignity, and justice.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Some of the most valuable advice shared with me has always been to stay curious about the world around you. How often do you wonder how something was made, or why a certain process is in place? In asking these straightforward questions, you might be able to find a unique answer or come up with something on your own. Coupled with that, is leaning in on what drives your passion. I find that without passion, what are we doing with ourselves and the life we have? Now, if you can pair the passion with a skillset and a career, it’ll always be exciting. It might take a minute or two to couple all of this together or find your passion, but when you do, you’ll realize it when you notice the small things. You’ll notice it when you look forward to the day ahead and wonder what new thing you’ll be intrigued about. Finally, I’d say don’t be afraid of failure. I’ve learned over the years that failure is often the most wise teacher we can learn from. Yes, winning is great, but does that teach you anything? But failure, yes, that will teach you about yourself first and then how to try again, but this time from experience.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
In building and being part of the Indigenous capital ecosystem that contributes to economic development for Tribes, it’s always welcome to stand together and build alongside each other. There are so many different types of capital and providers of capital that support Indigenous entrepreneurs and Tribes that we should be able to lean on one another because we all want Tribal communities to succeed, so let’s do this together. To those looking in and curious about learning and eventually supporting this ecosystem, send over an email to us at Raven, and let’s chat! And of course, to Tribes, Indigenous entrepreneurs, and community members interested in learning more about venture capital, impact investing, and what it looks like, take a look at the Raven website and also send over an email and we can connect!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ravencapitalpartners.ca
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-johnny-mba-42a1b5b7/
Image Credits
Photos by Matt Foster Studios
