We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tionel Anderson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tionel below.
Hi Tionel, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?
Being the only one in the room that looks like me sounds like me acts like me even walks or even talks like me. It reminds me that I have something that no one else in that room has and I see that always as an advantage never as a disadvantage. It reminds me that Jess, as much as I can learn from anyone in that vicinity, they can learn a lot and then some from me. It might not be how to run a business but I can teach them a lot about many other things that I’ve learned in my life experiences growing up as a black Jamaican lesbian woman.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My brand is not fashion. It’s not make up. It’s not hair. It’s not doing nails. My brand is simply just me. My goal in life is to be an inspiration to every black girl, every black woman, every lesbian woman, every black lesbian woman and people as a whole of what compassion looks like, what self-love looks like and of what growing up and learning life looks like outside of what society’s standards are. At one point I wanted to be an influencer so bad. I wanted my life to be this luxury lifestyle, this façade. Now looking at it I genuinely just want to be myself and be able to inspire people through my actual human actions and interactions. I want to be better in life not just for myself but for those around me. I want my self confidence, love and respect that I have to rub off on the people around me or those in which I have the blessing to meet. My goal in life is just to be what I want to see in the world.
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?
Determination. Confidence. The ability to learn people. These are three qualities that I can pride myself on that I’ve built overtime. I am still building and that’s helped me to further myself in reaching my life goals. Whenever anyone asks me where do you get your confidence? Why are you so determined? The simplest answer is because it is my purpose on this earth to shed light and love in the places that does not see that light or love.
My advice to anyone wanting to move forward and propel their journey is to understand that these attributes can get you so far, but you still do have to set proper positive and genuine intentions in everything that you do in your career field or even in your life.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
A current challenge I am facing is a creators block. Like I said before I wanted to be an influencer, so the lifestyle was all I was focused on. What do I look like, my outer image. You know? What are these people seeing? Now I’m trying to focus on, how I can portray my inner being to these people? Showing who I am in a way that is unique to me, but it still allows room for people to understand my message. I decided to take a little break off of socials , and creating to just kind of reconnect with my inner self, just making sure that my message (when I do decide to get back and actually push that message out) is 100% received in the way that I needed to be.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Instagram.com/etherealtio
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@TionelLove?si=lb5I-T2jVkGfsKWS
- Other: Lemon8 https://v.lemon8-app.com/s/khsNSvspR
