Meet Denonte McKinney, Creator of Millenial Toons
Meet new Mastermind Connect member Denonte McKinney.
Among different endeavors, Denonte McKinney is an educator by day, and an entrepreneur by night. Denonte is currently a 6th grade literature teacher for Democracy Prep Public Schools, and the CEO of Millennial Toons, a charades themed party game for all generations.
Denonte has skills in social media content creation, marketing, web design, and e-commerce drop shipping.
Besides working on his passion project and educating the youth, Denonte enjoys travel time with his friends, preferring an adventure-style vacation filled with ATV riding, zip lining, and anything active.
Denonte is excited to join the progressive group of gentlemen in Mastermind Connect who believe in inspiring change within themselves and the world.
Follow him on LinkedIn and Instagram, and learn more about him from his recent new member interview below:
What are some goals you’d like to achieve in the next year?
A goal that I would like to achieve next year is the ability to truly work for myself and sustain my business. After managing an internship of 20 growing adults this summer, I realized that I enjoy being my own boss. This has been the most empowering summer of my life and I'm ready to have my own staff and maintain high expectations.
What would you say to your younger self based off what you know now?
If I could speak to my younger self I would tell him to not rush graduating on time to please my mother. I truly didn't know what I wanted to do while in college and I should have taken more classes to see what I was interested in. I did pick a major when time was running out so that I could graduate on time because I didn't want to disappoint my mother. If I could speak to my younger self I would express the value of internship and research before truly deciding what major to focus on.
What does friendship mean to you?
Friendship is just as important as family to me. I highly value the relationships that I have with my friends, especially my college crew because they are the people who watched me evolve into the man that I am today. I can count on my friends for anything and they can count on me to hold them down as well. A true friendship is able to withstand almost anything circumstance as long as communication is established. I look at my friends as my extended family and seek guidance from them if I know they can help me out.
What is something that you’re struggling with?
Something that I am struggling with is maintaining my career while working on my business after hours. This summer has been great because I was able to give my 100% focus to 'MT'; however, the teaching year begins tomorrow (8/7) and I'm back to working on a fixed schedule. This is difficult because teaching requires a lot of internal and external execution, research, and drive to do it well. Maintaining my career, business, and personal life will be my biggest challenge this year.
What childish thing do you still enjoy?
One childish thing that I still enjoy is Pokémon. I enjoy looking at nostalgic Pokémon cards from my childhood and would like to begin collecting them all by the Christmas season. A goal would be to have all 151 original cards neatly organized and hanging on my wall for display.
If you could add 4 more hours to your day, what would you do with them?
I would invest my time into truly mastering social media marketing so that I could work for myself. I would finish reading my "How To..." marketing books and implement them into my daily life. I would also use the time to master each social media platform for maximum optimization.
If you died today, what would your greatest achievement be?
I think my greatest achievement would be all the students and adults that I've personally brought value to. For my students, I hope they would say that I was a relatable reading teacher who brought life to the novels we read and discussed as a class. For my interns (Ages 16-21) I hope they would say that I brought value to them professionally by teaching them social media marketing, content creation, entrepreneurship, and the importance of building a solid culture in the work space.
What signs make you think someone will go on to be successful?
Consistency is the true sign of determining how successful a person will be. The individual must be passionate about whatever they're working on, they need to remain humble and be receptive to professional feedback, and they must tell their story along the way. People love to follow a good story and the best way to tell that story is to show consistency and resilience throughout their journey.
If time wasn’t an issue and you had forever to master a skill, what skills would you master?
I would learn to master the skill of coding. I've dabbled in it before, but I would truly love to learn how to become a professional coder. To have the ability to work for myself or be hired to build a companies online platform would give me the flexibility to conquer any job. I would create the app for 'MT' and I would create an online platform for shopping, similar to Uber, with the ability for purchased items to be delivered by patrons directly to the consumer without delays in shipping. The person delivering the item would make the profit.
What’s the best bad decision you’ve made?
Moving to New York is absolutely the best bad decision I've ever made. I was in a relationship and was given an ultimatum to either remain in Connecticut single, or move to New York to keep the relationship alive. I told my job that I was not returning before solidifying a job in the city and had a very tough summer trying to find a new one. Fortunately I was able to get one in the Bronx, but my relationship ended. Fast forward a new months I moved in with my father and his family in Brooklyn. The daily commute was terrible but I learned a valuable lesson in putting myself first. By December of that year I thought of my business, Millennial Toons, and have been focused ever since.
Watch the video below to learn more about Millenial Toons!
