Sometimes a deferred dream can unveil new dreams and realities for our lives and careers.
Meet Lily Doxy, a Business Marketing Manager at Verizon. After graduating from Howard University, the New Jersey native decided to take a short break from her post-college law school dreams. Difficulties finding a job during the recession led to Lily taking what she thought would be a temporary position at her local Verizon store as a store greeter. To her surprise, she never left.
Now, eleven years later, Lily's day-to-day work is focused on helping small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs succeed. In 2017, she started "From the Ground Up" – a series to meet small business owners and give them a platform to share their stories.
I chatted with Lily about her ascension through various roles and ranks at Verizon and how she's been able to be a boss in and out of corporate settings. Having a strategy and understanding how to navigate what can be a competitive playing field is key. Lily shares the key things we goal-getters can do to make sure we get the shine we deserve at work.
1. Take Advantage of New Opportunities.
Though Lily originally had her heart set on law school after college, she was open to exploring new possibilities as they opened up. She remembers, "I took the opportunity [at Verizon] because I figured law school isn't going anywhere. If I wanted to go back, I could always do that."
Little did she know that her decision to temporarily work at a Verizon store would be the catalyst moment in her career. Because of her standout work ethic, a manager noticed her work and encouraged her to apply to corporate where she was eventually hired. This meant Lily now had access to perks of working at a Fortune 500 company, such as great medical benefits and tuition reimbursement (if she ever wanted to return to school).
2. Be Strategic.
Make sure you keep your connections and don't burn any bridges if you want to stay in the same company. Lily notes that many of her positions were "acting roles", where after the acting length had expired, she could be demoted or out of work. Because she was determined to deliver her best work wherever she was placed and had built a strong network of internal advocates, she was always able to secure the next position and survive company-wide reorganizations.
Using this strategy, she was able to move from position to position within Verizon. "All the jobs I got were from people who [had] known me before [and said] I know her and I'll take the risk. She might not have done this before, but I know she can do it because she's smart."
3. Build Your Transferable Skills & Make that Leap.
Sometimes the key to promotion will be making horizontal leaps. Though Lily started out in operations, she decided to apply for a marketing manager position during another one of her "in-between" periods at the company. Though she had never worked in marketing before, the hiring manager worked with her and trusted that she could get the job done.
Mastering the basic skills of any job will help as you try to make cross-company moves. "The transferrable skills I have of being organized and being able to pick up things quickly is a big asset...I've been in operations. I know how to do processes."
Take advantage of company-led training to help grow your skill repertoire. Though Lily was innately creative and had acquired a process-oriented strategic-driven mindset during her experience in operations, she hadn't mastered everything. "At Verizon, there's a lot of internal teaching and training that we have that will teach us different soft skills in marketing."
There were no excuses for why she wouldn't be able to succeed in the role when she had access to tools to help her learn. "I always have the mindset of I don't know everything and I'm going to continue to learn. If you keep your mind open, you're able to learn from other people to enhance what you can do."
Her favorite business refreshers include Instagram Explore page, Hubspot, and Google Primer.
Photo Credit: Woodline Dorcin
"I always have the mindset of I don't know everything and I'm going to continue to learn. If you keep your mind open, you're able to learn from other people to enhance what you can do."
4. Know Your Company.
"What Verizon does well is change..and adapting to what is going on now..."
Lily credits Verizon as being a great company to grow one's career. Making sure the company you're at is the right fit for your career goal and has the opportunities for you to grow is crucial. Not every company will be able to provide resources and support for your desired professional career moves. With Lily being a woman who supports change and prides herself on being abreast of what's next – there was a great employee-company personality and vision match.
5. Stop Following the Rules and Make Your Own.
When Lily first entered Marketing at Verizon, she worked in SMB (small/medium business) and was tasked with finding a new way to make SMB matter at a larger scale. However, her initial events weren't getting any traction. "We sent out a ton of invites and only six people showed up."
So, she decided to shake things up. "I stopped following the Verizon way of doing things and went rogue and did it on my own terms."
She created an event that she called "From The Ground Up" and contacted Tawanna Morris – owner of House of Chic LA to be its inaugural speaker. By way of their networks, within 72 hours, 300 people signed up to hear Tawanna share her business story. Due to the event's success, she was able to get buy-in from Verizon to continue and expand the series.
6. Treat Your Job as Your Own Business.
Having an entrepreneurial mindset on the job can help you score career wins. Lily's ability to self-motivate, and be goal-focused especially, helped her build clout and drive results for her team. "When you are in a corporate setting, you are often called to work independently. When you work independently, you want to treat your projects or job as your own business...you have to take responsibility for yourself. You have to fight for some of the stuff you want. You have to take some of the things personal – so [you] know that it's on [you]."
Because she decided to take full responsibility and treat From The Ground Up as a special project she "owned", she was committed to making it successful. "When I choose the panels or events, I have to make sure that we are picking people that will do [themselves] and me some justice... I want to make sure my brand within the company stays the same."
Your work is a reflection of you. Doing excellent work can lead to unexpected blessings.
Lily now serves on the national events team – which is a goal she didn't have when she originally joined Verizon 11 years ago. Using the knowledge learned, coupled with her professional success at Verizon, Lily recently launched The Eve Brand - a consultancy that specializes in assisting businesses learn how to secure sponsorship and funding.
If your goal is to grow within your company – you most certainly can. No matter where you're starting from, set your goals high – and your ambition higher. No one can stop a woman with drive determined to leave her mark.
To listen to Lily's full story, listen to episode 183 of Dreams In Drive below or by clicking here.
Featured image by Woodline Dorcin.
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A Goddard College graduate, who earned an MFA from Pratt Institute and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College, Mahogany offers unapologetic realness with a side of grace and empowerment. "I started touring locally. I started creating chat books so that those poems will go in the hands of the people who were sitting in the rooms," she shared.
"And then I started facilitating poetry workshops, so I used my chat books as curriculum. And that, in turn, allowed me to further invest in my art and show the community and people who were hiring me that it wasn't just a one-off, that it's not just, you know, a fly by night—that I am invested in this art as much as I am invested in your community, in your children's learning, in our growth."
Mahogany has a special way of moving audiences, and her superpower sparks shifts in perspective, post-performance introspection, and strengthening of community bonds, especially among Black women. (One can undeniably recognize her gift for arousal of the spirit and mind merely from her listening to her insights from the other side of a Google Hangout call. I can only imagine the soul-stirring, top-tier sensory encounter when watching her perform in person.)
In this chat with xoNecole, Mahogany reflects on sustaining a creative career, the aftermath of writing a banned book, and using poetry for both healing, community-building, and activism.
Anthony Artis
xoNecole: What are three key things that have laid the foundation for a sustainable creative career for you?
Mahogany L Browne: What has helped me is that I'm willing to go in being an expert at knowing poetry and knowing the way in which art can change the landscape of our lives, not just as a poet, but also as a poetry facilitator. How you move through classes, those things are mastered, right? So when I go into another space that's maybe tech-heavy, I don't mind learning and being, you know, a student of the wonder of how we can make this magic, work together.
Two, you’ve got to know how to pivot. Sometimes we say, ‘Alright, this is what my life is going to be. I'm going to be a New York Times best-selling author. I'm going to, you know, have an album that's Grammy-nominated. And then, say you get dropped from your record label. That doesn't mean you can't make an album anymore. You can also still create an album that can be submitted to the Grammys. So, what does a pivot look like as an artist who doesn't have an institution behind them? Pivot being a student of the wonder.
Relationships also really help. How do I serve the community? And in turn, that tells me how the community can show up. For me, I have long-standing ties with a community that will outlast my one life. So, what does it mean to create space where these relationships can develop, can be nurtured, can be rooted, can be cultivated? Creating space—it happens through relationships.
xoN: With today’s economic challenges, what does your current creative process look like, and what are you working on?
MB: I’m always thinking five years ahead. I just reviewed the pages for two children’s books and recently released a YA novel. I’m drafting an adult fiction manuscript now.
Anything I create is founded with the root of poetry, but it can exist in captions. It can exist in commercials. It can exist as a musical. So that's where I’m at now.
xoN: You started performing "Black Girl Magic" in 2013, had an acclaimed performance of it via PBS and the work went on to viral success shortly after. Talk more about the inspiration. And what do you think about the continued relevance more than a decade later?
MB: I wrote it as a rally cry for the mothers who had been keeping themselves truly in harm's way by, you know, being a part of the community right after the death of their child or their loved one. They are usually mothers of victims of police brutality—and just seeing how they showed up in these community spaces, they are devout to the cause but obviously still grieving.
"I wanted this poem to be just a space of reclamation, of joy and of you, of your light, of your shine, of your brilliance, in any which way in which you fashion. Every room you enter is the room you deserve to be in. What does it mean to have a poem like that that exists?"
And the first time I did the poem, the Weeping that occurred, right? It was like this blood-letting of sorts. The next time I performed it, I'm moved to tears because I'm seeing how it's affecting other women who have just been waiting to hear, ‘You belong. You deserve. You are good. We see you. Thank you, despite everything that they said to make you regret being born in this beautiful brown, dark-skinned, light-skinned, but Black body.’
Black women are the backbone—period. Point blank. And so, that that poem became a necessity, not just to the fortitude of Black women in the community, but like you know, in service of healing the Black women.
xoN: One of your books was banned at a school in Boston, and it was later reinstated due to parental and activist support. What was that experience like?
MB: Well, I think it happened because they were racist. That's it. Point blank. The reversal of it was empowering, right? I realized, oh, I thought we just had to sit here and be on a banned book list. But no, parents are actually the leaders of this charge.
So to see that, the parents said, ‘Nah, we're not gonna let you take this book out of my baby’s school just because it's a Black kid on the front saying, ‘Woke’ and they're talking about being a global citizen. They're talking about accountability. They're talking about accessibility. They're talking about allyship, and you don't want them to have compassion or empathy or have even an understanding, right? So no, we rebuke that, and we want this book here anyway.’ To see that happen in that way. I was, like, reaffirmed. Absolutely.
xoN: You recently organized the Black Girl Magic Ball at the Lincoln Center in New York. Honorees included author and entrepreneur Rachel Cargle and National Black Theater CEO Sade Lythcott. What impact did it have and what expanded legacy do you hope to leave with your creative works?
MB: I was really interested in not celebrating just the book, but celebrating the community that made the book possible. And so I gave out five awards to women doing that thing, like, what does it mean to be a Black girl in this world?
I just thought it was gonna be an amazing time. Everybody's gonna dress up—we're gonna celebrate each other. And boom, I then realized that it responded to like a gaping hole. There was a missing thing for Black girls of all walks of life, all ages, right?
"It's very intergenerational. That was intentional to come together and celebrate just being us."
You have all these instances where just being you is either the butt of a joke or it's diminished and not worthy of a specific title in these larger institutions. So what does it mean to just to be loved up on and celebrated?
It felt like a self-care project at first. You know, for the first couple of years, folks were coming and they were getting that sisterhood. They were getting that tribe work that they were missing in their everyday lives.
I love the Black Girl Magic Ball because we got us. If I go out with a bang, they'll remember that Mahogany worked her a** off to make sure all the Black girls everywhere knew that she was the light. We are the blueprint.
For more information on Mahogany L. Browne, her work, and her future projects, visit her website or follow her on IG @mobrowne.
Featured image by Anthony Artis
“I think for me, an all-American girl, for some reason, brings me back to when I was younger, and just like playing at my grandma’s house and just being outside,” Kennedy told xoNecole ahead of her attendance at the 2025 BET Awards.
“I just feel like when I was younger, you know, you don’t have as many responsibilities. There’s not as much weighing you down, and so I kind of go back to that mindset. Like, even now, being 27, I’m trying to get back to that younger girl.”
The 2025 BET Awards, hosted by Kevin Hart, took place in Los Angeles at the Peacock Theater on Monday night (June 9). The star-studded event was filled with tons of surprises, including a trip down memory lane with a 106 & Park reunion, coupled with performances by artists that dominated the top spots during the music video countdown show’s reign from 2000 to 2014.
Kennedy, who received her first nomination alongside Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, and Beyoncè in the BET Her category for “Blackbiird,” the reimagination of the original The Beatles of the same title (minus the extra i), invited xoNecole to get ready with her as she prepared for her first-ever BET Awards.
Beauty Rituals Inherited From Her Mother.
Rather than booking her makeup artist ahead of the big night, Kennedy decided to go on a budget and do the task herself, something that isn’t too out of her norm. She noted how she incorporates some of the things she witnessed her mother do while growing up in her routine.
“I remember being younger and seeing all the makeup laid out on my mom’s counter,” the “I Look Good In That Truck” singer recalled. “I don’t even think she knows this, but there were moments where I would like to go and steal her makeup. She would have Mac. I think it was some kind of foundation powder, and I would go in there and I would put it on, and I’m like I hope she doesn’t see.”
She added, “My mom is very natural with her makeup, so even though I’ve got these big lashes on, I always gravitate towards just neutral looks… I don’t do anything too fancy.”
Tiera Kennedy’s Holy Grail of Products.
Kennedy took it upon herself to take a class to ensure that she’s prepared for nights like these, where she’s the one responsible for bringing her glam look to life.
“We are independent,” she said, reminding us that she is no longer tied to a big machine when it comes to her work as an artist. “We ball on a budget. I have to do my makeup for award shows, events, all the things, and so my makeup artist that taught me how to do all of this, Hailee Clark, she put me on to Nars, the foundation. I don’t know exactly what the name of it is, but I love it.”
“I don’t know all the fancy technicals, but I know that it makes me just look kind of airbrushed, and so I love it. Then, I always use this Laura Mercier [setting] powder because I get real shiny, so I’ve gotta reapply that quite often.”
“We are independent. We ball on a budget. I have to do my makeup for award shows, events, all the things, and so my makeup artist that taught me how to do all of this, Hailee Clark, she put me on."
Her Decision To Wear Hanifa For The Big Night.
Intentionality is essential for Kennedy, which is why she jumped at the opportunity to support Black designer Anifa Mvuemba with a dress from her fashion brand, Hanifa.
“Takirra on my team helped me pick out the dress. I really like to represent in country music, and being in Nashville, I like to represent Black culture through the things that I wear, and I was excited to get to wear a Black brand to the BET Awards,” said Kennedy.
“She was telling me about this brand, Hanifa, and we were on FaceTime just scrolling through the website, and she was like this looks like you. This feels very rooted, like fits those natural tones, and so she bought the dress and was like, ‘This is what you’re wearing.’”
The look was a Raven Knit Dress in Eggplant/Dark Brown Mesh from Hanifa.
Tiera Kennedy in her younger years.
Courtesy
Kennedy also nurtured her inner child for the look, taking it back to her roots with one small detail in her hair that she had her mother carry out before she hopped on the flight to LA.
“I had this vision of wearing beads in my hair because when I was younger, my mom would always do that, and I didn’t love it, but now I’m like, it would be really beautiful to tie all of that together, and the Hanifa dress just fit perfectly.”
“Just even in the past couple of days, I’ve had to take a second, and just look back at all of the awesome things we’ve gotten to do,” said Kennedy when asked what baby Tiera is feeling in this moment.
“I had this vision of wearing beads in my hair, because when I was younger, my mom would always do that, and I didn’t love it, but now I’m like, it would be really beautiful to tie all of that together, and the Hanifa dress just fit perfectly.”
“I dreamed of having a record and having this team that was doing all of these things for me, and now, being an independent artist, and being in control of my career, I’ve gotten to build an awesome team behind me that helps me get to where I am. It’s been a lot of hard work, and I think when I was younger, I would have never imagined that I could do all of these things, and so, yeah, to be here, I don’t even think I would believe it.”
Although “Blackbiird” didn’t win in the BET Her category during Monday night’s show, Kennedy’s future is brighter than ever, which she attests to her faith playing a huge role in guiding her next steps as she continues to rise to stardom.
“Thinking about the next thing, I think that can be really daunting when you’re an independent artist. It’s like you have to be thinking of what’s coming next, to prepare for that, but I think the way that I like to walk through life in general is letting the Lord lead,” Kennedy said.
“I know that a lot of time when I have a vision of what I want things to look like in my head, He always exceed my expectations. So, I think the plan is to continue to release music, and continue to show up as my authentic self. Getting to have these moments like the BET Awards is so awesome, but also, at the same time, that’s not what I do this for. I do it for the humans that are listening to my music, that are [having] fun and healing through my music, so I hope that I can just continue to do that.”
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Feature image by Rob Latour/Shutterstock