Parklife: Deanna Jones Now

Deanna is from North Carolina and likes to vacation on the Outer Banks. She didn't feel connected with herself growing up. There’s a picture of Deanna with a name tag that says David on the cover of her Company's bulletin. It was taken after being 20 years into her career and after she had just transitioned to a woman. It's a reminder that mistakes happen in the business world, but it shouldn't deter anyone from bringing their total selves to work. 

It had been a long road to becoming Deanna. Along the way, there were bright spots that led her to consider starting her own Company, Deanna Jones Now! 

In coming out as transgender or for anyone going through any transition such as a cancer diagnosis, there are ways the path could become smoother, with the right resources in place at the right time.

What were the hardest parts of your journey?

When I transitioned and lost everything, the only thing I could keep was my job. I also lost my family. I lost a lot of friends. It's still North Carolina, even though there were little pockets of liberalism. But it was like setting a bomb off. Having so much wrapped up in gender is painful when your gender identity is different from what others subscribe to. This pain runs as far back as when David was 6 years old.

Describe how transitioning changed your life?

While I was telling my personal story which was very intimate about what had happened, people seemed to be wrapped up in whatever was going on in my story. 

And I had so many people come up to me and say, "Wow! That really meant a lot to me. And I had never really thought about it in that way."

There are so many myths and misconceptions out there about the transgender community; that’s being put out by a select group of people who are seeking to take away our rights. I looked at the North Carolina bill that's been vetoed by the governor, and there are enough votes to override it. And as I look at the bill, it's just filled with falsehoods. 

But some of the questions people kept asking were, "What if I have a transgender employee in my organization? They just came out to me, or they just told me that they'd always been feeling this way. What do I do now?" 

So, I answered that question: what I thought they should do? And of course, it wasn't anything like, demand this, and explain that. Or if you've met one transgender person, you've just met them all. 

We're all on our separate journeys. And I felt this person had never really even thought about that. That maybe they were looping us in as people who try to get surgeries, or, we're drag queens; they mix us (up) a lot of times with all of that.  And so I sat and I talked, and there was a line of people behind me. 

And Kate, the president of Harmony, LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, said, "Deanna, I really think you could have a business here." 

I’ve always loved public speaking. I've been a member of Toastmasters for seven or eight years. And speaking has just completely freed me up. I never fear getting scared or nervous to get up in front and talk to people. Because I feel like I'm an advocate. 

So that was the start of Deanna Jones now. It came about when I decided to transition and had to create an email. And a friend said, "How about Deanna Jones now?" It's also how I came up with my business focus for other companies. And I realized that there are a lot of companies out there that talk about this. But I distinguish myself by always mixing in personal stories.

Being your authentic self

For 20 years, I went around handing folks a card that said David on it. That wasn't me.  And then I got them to think about this. In my talks, I said, “What if you wake up tomorrow? And instead of being Bob, you were Cheryl, but you were trying to tell everybody you were Bob?” 

“No, you’re Bob, because that was your gender assigned at birth.” And I thought the exercise was just so fascinating for them. So, I try to instruct businesses on ways not only to teach how to work with people who are transgender or transitioning, but about the LGBTQ+ community at large, that's in their organizations. 

And I always stress the importance of the cohort, Gen Z right now. There are 20% of them that identify as LGBTQ+, not just as allies. But what are you going to do when these people start really coming in and applying for jobs at your Company? Are you going to say, "Well, I want to let 20% of them go?" No. And then if you add in the allies who want to work at a diverse company, will you have those diverse policies in place? 

So, I’ll provide a presentation on why this is so important. And It's important for so many other reasons. Companies need to make sure that their employees feel comfortable at work to be who they are. 

And I'll go back to my situation at Cisco. I worked there for 18 years before I transitioned, and I was like the guy from Office Space. You remember how he will take a nap around two o'clock on screen? That was me. I was so checked out. I didn't feel connected to people, I never volunteered for anything. 

Well, once I transitioned, everything changed; I became this employee who raised their hand, wanted to be a part of things, and wanted to go out and try for management  positions. I’m worth much more to Cisco now than in my previous iteration, where I had to try to be someone else. 

Describe what you hope is the impact of your work.

I thought about Gen Z. And I know that that cohort in seven years is going to be the biggest cohort.

I can hope, first of all, Gen Z will be out there, not only getting jobs but making sure they vote. And, my hope is that coming out as trans or transitioning, or starting the process, would be just as smooth as any other thing that's out there. 

Right now, we have tried and tested methods for coming out as lesbian or gay or other types, but we don't have those same types of resources. I would like to see companies that are not scared to show up for this issue, not scared to be there for their employees. 

And, in turn, that would make companies more profitable because in the end, it's been proven that companies that have better diversity, equity, and inclusion policies do better, profit-wise, and especially the top ones, then do those who don't have policies. 

Because anytime you're cutting yourself off from a segment of the population, you're losing resources. So, what I see for a better future is that we all are able to tell our stories; I think everyone has a story. 

I'm not limiting this to the LGBTQ+ community; I think that different races have stories to tell, and I think that's how we begin to understand each other through the stories. We’re so closed off to so many people's other experiences. But my hope is that we start a conversation.