She’s Bold, Brilliant, and Black: Meet Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell
What experiences in your life have helped you to become the bold woman you are today?
Growing up, I had very strong female role models beginning with my mother. I watched her juggle her career as a registered nurse, serving on various committees at church, leading organizations and community nonprofits, including my Girl Scout troop, raising my sister and I to be strong and resilient women, all while being loving and nurturing to us, our friends, and her parents as they got older.
Looking back, I understand that it took a level of courage fortified by faith to do all of these things with a smile on her face that matched the joy in her heart. There had to have been times of anxiety and fear, but she never let us see it. I just saw her take these big bold steps to start her business with two small children. I saw her take these big bold steps to work on her masters degree after we graduated from high school. I watched her take these big bold steps relocating to Atlanta once we were officially “out of the house“. I watched her take big bold steps establishing new friendships. I watched her take big bold steps being the grandparents she wanted for us, but that her parents were not able to be because of their declining health.
These experiences shaped the way that I see the world, the way I run my businesses, and the way that I engage with others. I treat everyone initially as if they are a friend. It is only after they have shown me that I must keep them at my arms length that I do what they have shown me is the way they want to be treated. But I still love them and respect them because I believe that every person came into this world a loving human being and that it was circumstances that pulled them outside of alignment with the Spirit in a way that resulted in them showing up as hard and cruel. I choose not to be hard and cruel, instead I respond in love - in business and in my personal life - and that is a bold step.
To love in your business requires a certain level of vulnerability. That is why I surround myself with very strong people, competent, capable knowledgeable and wise whose opinions I trust and value. So if I have a blind spot on an issue or in regards to a person, my team can bring it to me for further consideration.
Who were your role models growing up and how did they influence your path?
It looks like I jumped the gun a bit on this question! But my role models were my mother and her mother (my grandmother). They taught me how to love and to serve people, to build relationships and networks, to forgive and let things go once I have expressed myself.
They taught me to show up the best way I could in each area I could. To always sharpen my mind and to learn new things to stay flexible and teachable. I now add to remain coachable as well.
My mom and grandma were both organization women, in the church, the community and the schools their children attended. And even after their children were grown, both my mother and grandmother remained close to the school community. It is this loyalty and connection that has been one of my defining attributes in my businesses’ success. My clients become my friends. And friends refer you to their friends and their business partners because they know that you take care of them like family.
Although my grandmother did not have a business, she taught my mother these key skills for her businesses, and then my mother instilled them into me as I have gone my way. And of course I model the same attributes to my daughter.
As a Black woman, have you faced any unique challenges that have impacted your journey? How have you navigated moments of adversity?
It is interesting, although we all were raised by different parents, we were raised in the same community so many of our struggles are similar, differing only by a person’s name or a location. One of the things that I have struggled with, as do many of our sisters, is self prioritization. Because although I learned to take care of other people, it was not until I got older that I learned how to take care of me.
Always putting everything and everybody ahead of me almost took me out, jeopardizing my health in the form of stage 4 endometriosis. That resulted in a string of brutal surgeries and a lot of heartbreak. It has taken me several years to get back on my feet. However, each time I got knocked down I did got stronger as I got back up. And I never felt alone or that God had forsaken me, rather that I misunderstood the instructions for a joyful life. The Word does not tell us to ignore our selves or our health. It says to put God first. Not to put our organizations first or our businesses first or even our family first. Our Creator first. And when we do that, there is a level of care that we exemplify over our mental well-being, our spiritual relationship, our emotional wellness, and our physical health as well. We know we have to continue to care for this body, our vessel, and our relationship with God for us to be an effective business leader, a nurturing parent, a loving spouse, and an excellent community member. But these things come when we put ourselves first, which is a message that we are not usually taught, it must learn through life experience.
How do you want your life and work to impact your community and the world?
It is my sincere desire that my work inspires a revolution in mindset shift from putting everyone else first to putting self first. I want to “flip the table over in the temple” so that people know that unless or until they are the strongest pillar, that a strong wind will blow them over if they do not take care of themselves first. I want women and girls around the world to understand that they were born amazing - period. There is nothing that they need to do or to say, no connection that they must have, any business they must build, a certain balance in their bank account, or ZIP Code they must live in to be great. The moment God breathed breath in their lungs they were born amazing!
That is the whole point of my work. That there is no working your way into heaven because you were born there. It is the return of the natural state of love that will put you in supreme divine residence with the will of God. When you are taking care of yourself, there is no higher desire than to live in a way that is consistent with love. And that requires community, discipline, and discipleship.
What advice would you give to other Black women about owning their brilliance in spaces that attempt to dim their light?
You could not dim your light, even if you took a baseball bat to your bulb! And your efforts to dim your natural light make you appear disingenuous and inauthentic because everyone sees how great you are. Your attempts to cover up how smart you are, how well you connect with people, how big your heart is as it overflows with love only makes it appear that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of your natural skills, gifts, and talents. Such is an insult to the intelligence of each person in the room.
Stop it! Embrace who you are! Live loud and bold! Your brilliance is your bread and butter! This is the baseline for your business. This is the foundation of your family and your loving relationships! Go forth and lead from the light.
How can our readers connect with you?
www.LynitaMitchellBlackwell.com
Facebook.com/LynitaMitchellBlackwell
Instagram.com/LynitaMitchellBlackwellEsq
https://www.youtube.com/c/LynitaMitchellBlackwelllmb
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