Today we’d like to introduce you to Mercedes Johnson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I ask myself every day, “what do I want to be remembered for?” I think this is a question most people gloss over. To build a legacy of yourself you need time to do it. When I thought of Food Magnet, I was 24 and early in my career so I had some time to create mine. However, it took some searching before landing on what it should be. Unlike others who knew they were destined to be a lawyer at the age of three, I wasn’t quite sure who I wanted to be when I grew up. All I knew was that I wanted to wake up every day and be in love with who I was and what I did for a living, some people would say I was chasing a dream.
My true search began when I got to college. I joined a sorority and started going to philanthropic events, and I have to say they changed my life. We helped predominately young minority girls by sponsoring an after-school program that taught them how to embrace their inner strength. At the end of the program, the girls ran a 5K symbolic of their accomplishments, and my sisters and I would participate as their cheerleaders. I can’t think of anything that put a bigger smile on my face. I also mentored incoming college students and helped them adjust to their new college lifestyle. The adjustment from life at home to life on your own is underrated, and it can be difficult to do without help. I also worked at the university television station as a news reporter. Most of my stories were about what was going on in the community and on campus. As I took on more challenges, I started to recognize a correlation between my activities. Everything I did involved helping the people around me whether it was being someone’s cheerleader, friend, or highlighting good deeds around town. But how could I find this fulfillment out of a career? The answer was still unclear.
I stumbled upon user experience design during my undergrad and thought “this could be the job.” I get to talk with people, find out their problems and then fix them. Right up my alley! I’ve been working as a user experience designer and researcher for a few years now, but I still felt like something is missing. I find joy in doing it, but I couldn’t say I was fulfilled. I started searching again, but this time I used the skills I learned from working in UX to help me find the answer. I started going to meetups, observing other organizations, reading books, and asking people what they loved about their job. I took notes and after extensive observation and research I realized it didn’t exist… so I’ll build it.
I went back for my MBA because I figured it could help me in the corporate world, but I was particularly interested in the entrepreneurship track. I knew little about entrepreneurship at the time, so I did some research first. I couldn’t believe all of the similarities between myself and the descriptions of a successful entrepreneur and wondered why I hadn’t started sooner. I even noticed a lot of overlap from my work as a user experience designer. This was exactly what I’ve been looking for. The icing on the cake was that Dallas is top-ranked in the nation as an innovation and start-up city! This had to be a sign. I can help people right in my own backyard and the resources are abundant! I took an accelerator course my first semester of my MBA eager to get started, and I came up with my first venture idea called Food Magnet. It’s a mobile app that helps food truck owners find business! But it won’t just be any food truck app it will be a place where people come to gather to interact, find resources, and bond over something we all know and love… food. Since the accelerator I have won pitch competitions, secured non-dilutive funding, begun development, and recruited a group of pilot users who are eager to be our first adopters. We are scheduled to complete development by the end of 2022 and prepare to go to market in 2023. My goal is to be a serialpreneur building businesses all throughout Texas and Food Magnet is the first of many companies to come. I find joy in helping people and that’s what I hope to one day be my legacy. Your legacy is only as strong as the number of people you touch, so my goal as a serialpreneur is to touch one heart at a time.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The hardest part of entrepreneurship is finding the right team. Not only do you they have to have the skill set that you are looking for, but they also have to have the grit and dedication to work on a dream day in and day out without any immediate returns. I have had the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of great people while embarking on our Food Magnet journey, but I have also seen a lot of great people give up on the dream for various reasons. This means I have had to wear all the hats, marketing, sales, design, PR, finance, you name it. But I keep going and pick up the ball when it gets dropped because I know that one day it will all be worth it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Today I work as a professional User Experience designer. Many people ask what that means and when I don’t feel like explaining it, I usually end up saying something like, “I design websites and apps for companies.” Which is normally followed by, “Oh, so a graphic designer?”…. “No, but sure,” I’d respond. Really what I do on a regular basis is exactly what my title is called, I design experiences mainly through technology, but my profession does branch out into the physical world too. That falls under what we call service design.
As a user experience designer, I am responsible for becoming the subject matter expert on customers, we literally study them. We document their behaviors, likes, dislikes, lifestyles and we do this through interviews, surveys, shadowing, and many other formal techniques. After we familiarize ourself with them we then are given a set of business goals to reach and asked to create a product that customers will love and meet the goals of the business. We are responsible for crafting delightful experiences that make customers’ lives easier, brings them value, is intuitive, and fun. Meanwhile, the product has to be monetizable, scalable, technically feasible and stakeholders have to agree.
The last and final part and I’d argue the best part, is that after the puzzle has been solved, I am responsible for designing the solution pixel by pixel. As a user experience designer, we are researchers, analyzers, product specialists, influencers, and digital artists but UX Designer was shorter. Which is why I normally respond with “No, but sure” to the graphic designer statement.
So, when asked what is my specialty? I respond and say I am an expert at crafting products and services that businesses need and customers love.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I moved a lot throughout my childhood so I was always the new kid and had to constantly make new friends. My best advice to networking is just reaching out and saying hello. Ask to learn something about the other person and don’t make the first interaction about yourself. Show genuine interest in other people and they will show interest in you.
Pricing:
- Free
- $75 / month standard subscription
- $100 / month premium subscription
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.foodmagnet.app/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodmagnetapp/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk5D_asEHDsEEa4qxupb9nQ
