Professional Women Making Moves – Marie Antionette

Welcome to Professional Women Making Moves Blog, where we feature professional Black women from all over making moves in their personal and business world.

Tinisha Nicole Johnson is the author of the upcoming book Lessons Learned: Loving Yourself As A Black Woman. The book emphasizes ten life lessons that addresses a Black woman’s most intimate, personal, and professional life. 

Tinisha will be interviewing professional women from various backgrounds up to the release date of her book (January 2010) discussing who they are and the challenges they face, and any advice they have to offer. Learn more about this book and the author at her website: www.TinishaNicoleJohnson.com

Click here to learn more about this blog: https://blkprofessionalwomen.wordpress.com/

Today, Tinisha interviews author and publisher Marie Antionette. 

TINISHA:   Marie is a friend of mine and if you don’t know her story, then you need to know this woman’s story and check out her book based off her life, entitled A Girl Named Job. Please comment and check out her interview. Also, if you’d like to purchase her book, click on the thumbnail of her book cover at the bottom of this interview and it will take you to directly to Amazon.com to purchase your personal copy.

TINISHA:   Please introduce yourself for everyone and tell me who you most credit your success to?

MARIE:   Greetings, my name is Marie Antionette, I am the proud mother of two young men, Day’Quan Jabree age 16 and Messiah Anthony age 8. Aside from being a mother, which is my first joy, I am also an author, publisher and full time government employee for the State of New Jersey. Me and my two children reside in my home town of Trenton/Hamilton, New Jersey and I credit all of my success as a mother and a professional to my late grandmother, my Nana, Ms. Cornelia Beatrice Cook. Had it not been for the wisdom she instilled in me at an early age, I am more then certain my life would have taken a different path. An unfavorable one at that.

TINISHA:   What types of challenges do you face as a Professional Black woman?

MARIE:   The biggest and most common challenge I face as a Professional Black Woman is the unwillingness of others to accept me for who I am. Because I don’t have what others view as a “formal” education. Because I come from an environment where most end up as dead weight or statistics. And because I am articulate, assertive and knowledgeable of my history. I find that most who have to come in contact with me on a daily professional level look at me as a threat.

In this world we live in, so many are dead set on categorizing you due to race, salary or educational standards. They are willing to accept you as long as you are willing to conform to their standards. However once you demonstrate your ability to excel without their help or validation, they want to discredit you based on the reasons I’ve already stated. Little credit is given to Professional Black Women based on true life experience, trial and error, however I refuse to let their rules and regulations dictate my steps. I continue to march to the beat of my own drum and continue to research anything I am interested in, in order to further educate myself and my children. I find that proving a point, whether it’s by matching wit for wit or word for word is a form of entertainment for those who can’t excel past their own boundaries, and I refuse to lower myself just to be accepted into their small world. Because
I am in charge of my own destiny I don’t need validation from any group or group of individuals. If anything, they need me!

TINISHA:   How important is networking to you?

MARIE:   Networking is essential! Without it, where would we be. Any successful business, organization or entity has to network outside of their on circle in order to grow. Networking opens doors for you, the person pushing the product or service, as well as informs others who may have never heard of you about what you have to offer. Due to my zealousness in networking, I have advanced from simple dreams to seeing my dreams published!

Had it not been for my willingness to step out of the circle, I would still be dreaming! I’ve found the most effective way to network is a simple business card, a signature in my e-mails or spending a few hours on line posting information about my self on popular web sites. It’s work but it’s also very beneficial, so the benefits to networking depend on how effective you are at getting your message out to others.

TINISHA:   What does success mean to you?

MARIE:   In my opinion, success is the constant attempt to reach your goal. My Nana use to always tell me, nothing beats a failure but a try. Simple yet true. When one sets a goal, they should also set a reasonable time frame to obtain that goal. Each goal may require several steps and each time you complete one of those steps, you’ve indeed achieved success. Your finished product may be the ultimate goal, but what you learn and obtain in the process contributes to your success as an professional, an individual and one who creates a solid reality out of dreams…

TINISHA:  How do you balance your professional and personal life?

MARIE:   My personal life and my professional life are somewhat one in the same. Nothing and I do mean nothing comes before my job and duty as a mother. Yet, because I include my family in all that I do, I don’t really have a problem with the balance. If I take time off from writing to do something recreational with my children, mentally, I am making notes or jotting them down so I can apply them to my work as an author later on. The same applies with my day job for the State of New Jersey. I take valuable lessons learned back home to my family as encouragement or warnings because life is a job and the experiences are priceless. I take the advice of my family to heart and they know that all I do; all of my sacrifices and hard work are to build them up so that they can also be successful and productive individuals when they go out into the world, converting them from Boys to Men!

TINISHA:   What advice do you have for today’s young Black girls?

MARIE:   My advice for young Black girls today is simple. Take your time! Don’t rush! You are going to be older, longer then you are going to be younger so enjoy your youth. Enjoy your freedom to explore and make mistakes, but by all means take your time, don’t rush and love yourself! Let me say that again, LOVE YOURSELF! I don’t care what circumstances you came from. I don’t care who did you wrong, who doesn’t care for you or what. LOVE YOURSELF! At the end of the day, you are the one who has to live with you. You are the one who will have to deal with the decisions you’ve made so it will be best for you to again, TAKE YOUR TIME and make sure the decisions you are making are best for you. Don’t allow anyone to lead you down a path that has a dead end and don’t allow peer pressure to dictate your steps. When we learn to love ourselves for better or for worse, it becomes that much easier to receive the love we deserve from others, and weed out bad seeds that mean us no good.

TINISHA: What motivates you when things don’t go as planned?

MARIE:   My motivation comes from within, as well as from what I know about my past. When I look at where I am today and how far we as a people have come. I am encouraged to continued to press on. True, life’s woes do and will get to me and cause me to want to throw in the towel. But I’m no quitter, can’t stand for someone else to say I knew she couldn’t do it and when I look into the eyes of my children. Children who I know look up to me and depend on me to lead them. I quickly get over my setbacks and find a more effective way to reach my goals. At times, I even step away from my own project to just sit and listen to what the world has to say. Elders who have grey hair have a lot of wisdom to share and even the disadvantaged have much light to shed if you take the time to hear them out. I’m a driven person and my emotions and passion drives me to go on even when my tank is on e’. I have a fear that if I give up I not only let myself down, but all those who fought and sacrificed their lives just to ensure I could see this day.

MORE ABOUT MARIE:
Marie  Antionette is a native “Trentonian,” residing in her home town of Trenton, New Jersey. A former Trenton Central High Student, she is the proud  mother  of  two  young  men; Day’Quan Jabree’ and Messiah Anthony; a full-time  government  employee  for  the  Department  of  Health  & Senior Services;  an  avid  reader  and  an extremely passionate writer. Deep down inside, although  once a diamond in the rough, Marie knew she was destined to  do  more then what she saw others doing before her. Her introduction to the  literary scene was in November 2006, when she released the first print of  her  debut  work  titled  A Girl Named Job, via a subsidiary publisher.

Since then she has become a member of several literary associations and has taken  strides  to  revise  her  memoirs for a second print through Cauzing Elevation  Publishing,  LLC;  founded  and  operated by the author. Marie’s spring  release of A Girl Named Job has created quite a buzz with favorable reviews  from  respected names in the industry. Marie is a survivor who has encountered  common  and  uncommon obstacles. At the beginning of each day, Marie  looks  to  her  two  sons  for  encouragement and inspiration as she prepares  to  take on what ever life has in store for her. Marie feels that although  she  is knocking on 40’s door, she is no older then she feels and uses  her  youthful  looks  and outlook on life as a tool to connect to the youth  she  tries  so desperately to reach out to. While Marie’s story is a personal  testimony of the obstacles she’s overcome, it’s relevancy to what others  can  or  possibly  have  already  endured makes it an inspiring and uplifting read for all.

Marie  Antionette  grew up watching her mother write daily, then at the age of  sixteen inherited her grandfathers WWII journal which contained several verses of his poetry. It was then she realized that what she though she did just  for  fun  could  actually be an inherited passion. Hence, she allowed others  to  view  her  work and was encouraged to take her hobby a lot more seriously.  Marie  has  been   featured in the Cream Magazine~ Trenton, NJ; Booking  Matters  Magazine~  Atlanta,  GA,  has  been  a guest on Princeton University morning radio with host Marvin Bradshaw, and a featured guess on ASA’s  Blogtalk  Radio  “Ask the Author”. A Girl Named Job is Marie’s first release  for  2009  and she intends to put out her second title The Cook Chronicles Three Generations of Poets followed by her third title, The Struggle, in the later part of the year.

Contact info for Marie:
Official website of Marie Antionette
http://www.mzmarieantionette.com
 
Marie Antionette In Action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYZNlShmxCw
 
Marie Antionette~ MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/mzmarieantionette
 
Marie Antionette~ Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/people/Marie-Antionette/639923503
 
Cauzing Elevation Publishing, LLC
http://cauzingelevationpublishingllc.webs.com/index.htm