Meet Monica Johnson of MARJ Consulting in South Metro Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Johnson.

Monica, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
A little over two years ago, I started my consulting business. I had two main goals I wanted to achieve. First, I wanted to empower women to be dynamic leaders, personally and professionally. I’ve had many years of experience as a woman in a variety of leadership roles. I had to find my way to where I am today, as there was no 101 guide for women that I felt I could connect with available for me. I stumbled my way through being a leader. Now, I feel like I know some fundamentals that experience taught me that are useful for ANY woman wanting to emerge as a leader. I want to share that information with anyone who is willing to listen and is serious about growing as a professional woman. As you can see, I am a little biased about wanting women to thrive. I believe women are the future! I also experienced gaps in terms of finding dynamic, relatable women leaders that looked like me. Sure, there are plenty of leaders out there, but I wanted someone that I could connect with, felt had relatable experiences like me. We often see success when the ultimate goal has been achieved, I feel like I am still achieving and in the middle of my story. I don’t have to be at the end to give back and bring other women leaders forward to be successful.

Second, I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and I am passionate about promoting mental health wellness. I think more people of color should be out in the forefront talking about mental health wellness and debunking the stigma that is associated with it along the way. Any time I am afforded an opportunity to educate, inform, and talk about mental health in a way that connects with others, I am fulfilling my purpose.

While it may not be obvious, these two subject matters connect. I bring my collective background in being a leader and expert in mental health, combine them to help people grow professionally and personally. You can not be a dynamic leader with poor mental health. They intersect in many ways, and I fully embrace both of these critical topics. These two main goals propelled me to start my consulting firm MARJ Consulting. At the time, I thought I’d focus on developing curriculums that I would use for seminars, trainings, retreats, etc. I now know that I was not dreaming big enough.

Fast forward to last year. I was super frustrated about the state of affairs in the country and world. Our country felt more and more divided. Tribes are being formed, and we were losing the ability to talk to each other, vs. at each other. This phenomenon was not unique to our country but of course, I was feeling it more because it is in our face soo much. We aren’t listening to each other for understanding another person’s perspective instead, we are arguing with strangers online. There is dysfunction everywhere! I felt like we as a community/country were experiencing a significant leadership gap and quite frankly, it was impacting my own mental health wellness. I used to be angry about this and refuse to watch political shows or stay away from social media when certain topics were taking over the news cycle. So instead of continuing to feel helpless, I decided I could make a difference from where I was. If I felt there was a leadership gap, then I should be the change I wanted and expected to see. My way of doing this was to write my current independently published book, “Fab 30: Critical Leadership Lessons for Women”. Writing this book would help emerging, future or existing women leaders evolve and start to fill everyday leadership gaps. If we can’t look in the normal places we may have before for examples of leadership, then why not create a blueprint? I never had that blueprint, so I thought I could be impactful by sharing my own lessons. At the same time, doing something that felt meaningful (writing the book and seeing it through to publication), I would also help my own mental health wellness!! Win- Win! Seriously, there is mental health and self -care must do’s in the book. Remember, these important topics intersect.

So I went from curriculums and speaking engagements to writing and publishing a book. That was never a part of the plan. I went with it and although there were many trials and a huge life crisis taking place (my dad was diagnosed with blood cancer), I persevered. I wanted to quit many days, but I didn’t, I pushed through to the end and published the book. I am in month two of the book being LIVE and it is actually selling! I thought along with myself, there would be about five other people to read it. Not the case! Without any marketing plan in place, it has organically sold a little over 200 copies within seven weeks. The feedback has been overwhelming. What makes me happy is that I saw this through despite the odds and the number one thing people tell me is that it has helped them – A LOT. Mission accomplished.

Has it been a smooth road?
Nope, not at all! When I set out to write the book, I thought initially it would be a piece of cake. I had already developed the curriculum for a workshop with the same name, “Fab 30:Critical Leadership Lessons for Women”. The book already seemed to have an outline ready-made to translate into a book. I also had some experience with writing before if winning a writing contest in 7th-grade counts! I had other works of fiction that I had done but never shared publicly. Non-fiction is something entirely different. It was also challenging taking the curriculum that I had used to facilitate live seminars with. You would lose the audience interaction, which is very rich and powerful. What started out as a simple task became complicated quickly. I needed to be able to convey the information in a way that was easy but enjoyable…laced with good nuggets of information. Somehow I found the ability to do this. As soon as I started to feel like I had found my stride and was rolling through the manuscript, my dad who was recently diagnosed with an incurable illness, Amyloidosis, a rare blood cancer, became sicker. It is important to know that I am a “daddy’s girl” and I am his number one fan and I am positive the same is true in the reverse. He is my entire world. He is actually a writer with published works and encouraged me to write this book. In the beginning, he was able to read a chapter after I would finish writing and give me feedback. It was therapeutic for both of us because it gave us something to focus on instead of devastating cancer. During the middle of the book, he was able to move forward with a stem cell transplant of his bone marrow, This procedure had been scheduled earlier, but canceled because the doctor did not believe he would make it through the procedure alive. That moment was rough and a time that I stopped writing for weeks. Eventually, he was rescheduled and the transplant moved forward. He lives in Atlanta, is a veteran and receives his care from the VA Hospital. For this procedure, he would have to go to the VA in Nashville and relocate his life there for about three months. I took one month off from everything…in order to travel back and forth during this stretch of time. I stopped writing. I was no longer inspired, was in constant fear about my dad not surviving the transplant process, and could not focus on anything else. One day in Nashville, he asked me how was my book coming. I told him it wasn’t; he insisted I get back to it. I did. I never stopped writing again after that. P.S. he survived the transplant and is still fighting the good fight.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Generally speaking, my business focuses on speaking engagements, trainings, workshops, etc. related to leadership and mental health.

Right now, I am most proud of the book. For the reasons stated previously, pushing through to getting the book written, self-published (It’s available on Amazon) and having people contacting me individually to tell me it is helping them, is incredible. This is by far the biggest project I have ever taken on and I am proud. However, in addition to writing this book, I am a speaker and I have had the opportunity to speak on various platforms about either this book or a topic related to mental health wellness. Most recently, I was a panelist speaker at the BET HER presents the Black Women’s Expo and discussed Self Care for Women. That was a pretty phenomenal opportunity and proud moment. I also get called upon for a variety of mental health expert speaking opportunities. What makes me unique is that I am knowledgeable, relatable, and sorta funny 🙂 .

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
My work can be done anywhere, but because I am in a large metro area like Atlanta, the demand for my services is high.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.monicasjohnson.com
• Phone: 770-731-8287
• Email: monicajohnson0318@outlook.com
• Twitter: @mojohnsonspeaks
• Other: MARJ Consulting

Image Credit:
Trey Langston

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