Linda Spradley Dunn
Odyssey Media
Englewood, NJ USA
"It’s important when you’re young to determine, is this an obstacle or is this a teachable moment?"
Career Roadmap
Linda's work combines: Entrepreneurship, Business, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Life & Career Milestones
I've taken a lot of twists and turns
1.
I grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida.
2.
As the oldest of over 50 grandchildren in my large family, I adopted leadership and organizational skills very quickly.
3.
Business and entrepreneurship were always in my spirit growing up—I always wanted to sell the most cookies as a Girl Scout and earn the top prize for selling candy in high school.
4.
I spent 14 years working my way up the ranks at IBM and gaining a lot of experience establishing rapport with clients.
5.
I left IBM to start my own business—I established one of the first healthcare call centers.
6.
After a couple of years, I realized that my passion did not really lie in the call center, so I started looking for other things to do.
7.
I launched several other businesses and products, including a conference in Palm Desert, California, to bring multicultural women together—it grew drastically and I realized that was my passion.
8.
Now, I lead a media, marketing, and communications company focused on connecting and empowering multicultural women around the world!
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Peers:
You don't belong here.
How I responded:
I was at a business conference in my professional attire (suit and heels) but was mistaken—along with a few other Black women—as a waitress. It just goes to show you the kind of discouragement minority women face in the business world. I used that encounter as motivation to start my own conference to encourage and support minority women who want to become entrepreneurs.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I've experienced a lot of racism throughout my journey. For example, I was mistaken as a waitress at a conference because I'm Black but I was dressed like the other attendees. You have to acknowledge and face it but don't let it take up space in you.
It's much harder for women of color to get through the system and gain capital when starting a business. My company almost went under in the 2008 recession and I ended up asking 100 women for personal loans because I couldn't get through the system.