“You Don’t Need Mentors—You Need Sponsors” – Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams

When did that become, like, your catalyst?

So I went away to boarding school when I was 14 years old, and I'm from Memphis, Tennessee, South Memphis. I was seeing and experiencing something that none of my friends were going to experience. I was getting so much privilege. The campus was beautiful. The food was amazing.

How do you get organizations and people to go from talking about things to actually doing the things that matter?

I'm not going to work with you if I don't believe that you are ready to do the work. And so we have to have a lot of conversations about the sacrifices it's going to make, the sacrifices you're going to have to make, the challenges you're going to confront. I so, you know, I vet my clients.

How important is mentorship to you personally, and how important should it be for leaders that are out there today?

To be honest, I've benefited more from sponsorship than I have from mentorship in my life. It's the people who have walked me up to the door, open the door, gone in on the other side of the door, said, hey, this is my girl. She's coming through. Don't mess with her when she gets over here, and then come back and walk me through the door. That's like the sponsorship space. And I feel like when you're really trying to do big, big work, you need sponsors.