Being too young, or being too old. Having an accent. Overcoming a disability. Being female or a person of color.

These so-called ‘boxes’ that we fall into shouldn’t play a role in how others see us or how we see ourselves, yet so often we find ourselves trapped by the burden of our labels.

Dionna McPhatter has a different perspective. In her opinion, standing out doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, with the right mindset, it may just be a superpower.

“Everyone has the boxes that they check, but seeing those as a superpower that can allow you to connect dots for people is how I would encourage people to see themselves,” says Dionna. “Maybe I can connect the dots between two disparate rooms and use those things that people see as a difference or a reason to classify me as a point of connection.”

Dionna is the co-founder and CEO of Nacci, a company on a mission to use data to help us all unlock more of our humanity. Over the course of her impressive career, Dionna has learned one thing for sure: that connections matter.

Sometimes what gets us in the room isn’t always what we want to get us in the room… but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing if you learn to leverage those points of connection for good.

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