Who are you? This is a question we get so often in life, but at the same time it is such a broad question. You start to think “how do I define who I am?” “How do I put that into words?” Most of the time its a question you can’t even answer yourself.
One thing I've learned over the years is that I have the choice to be whoever I want to be.
I’m Monica Mercedes and this is how I define who I am.
I fell in love with law and politics at a young age. Since then, I knew I wanted to be an attorney and be involved in politics.
And then my creative comes in. I have been a self taught pianist and violinist since I was 6 years old.
I was Born in the Bronx, NY
and raised in Tampa, FL
I then moved back to NY to attend Columbia University for Political Science
After I graduated I realized that I did not just want to do politics, I wanted to flex my creative bone. After months of searching, I finally decided that I wanted to attend Full Sail University. So I packed everything in my car and moved to Orlando, FL
Although being a musician is more of a hobby, I wanted to bring together my love for music and my love for politics and law.
And I finally figured out how to do that. With a bachelor’s degree in entertainment business from Full Sail University and a JD degree from Barry University, I can combine both my passion and hobbies into one profession.
Becoming an entertainment attorney will give me the opportunity to work in the entertainment industry but still satisfy my love for law. I want to represent people in all types of entertainment such as sports, video games, music etc.
My first real job was at an Apple store. I started here as a sales specialist which means I sold their products. After a few short months, I was promoted to creative. This basically means that I taught the classes that they offer in the apple store on products like final cut, logic and iPhoto. I also helped coordinate many events at different stores around Connecticut and New York.
I currently am working with an entertainment company called la mezcla. I am on the media development team and the event planning team. My responsibilities here include social media marketing, planning different events for the company, and networking with different artists in order to get them to promote with us.
I am also a part of a radio show. Our show is a comedy and entertainment gossip show. We get booked to host many events around the US as well as advertise for many different companies.
I also have worked with a couple of artists helping them with their social media marketing.
I have done event planning in pretty much all of my work experiences. I love putting details together and seeing a final product. I also love to see people enjoy my event and know that all the work I put in is paying off.
From teaching at apple, I learned many awesome teaching skills. This helps me when I am leading a team because it helped me learn how to talk to people and how to have patience. There are so many different types of learners out there and I love having the skills to adapt to those different learning techniques.
I am also very good at video editing. I have been doing it for about 6 years now. I started editing videos for the events I worked on. I used to do 15 second promotion videos for instagram and moved into longer videos. I have worked on editing a couple of music videos for local artists as well.
From hosting events and being on a radio show I have become very comfortable with performing in from of a big crowd. This is something that used to terrify me but I have found that by putting myself in situations where I would need to do perform in front of people has made me so much more confident.
One of my favorite skills is social media marketing. Since social media is so important these days, people need to know how to put their name and content out there and thats where I come in. I love helping people be recognized and spread their message.
My ultimate goal for the future is to start my own entertainment company. I came up with this idea because I hate the concept of the starving artist. I want my company to cater to those people who want quality work but don't necessarily have the money to get it done. I want to be able to provide recording, video and coaching in the music industry first and then I want to move in to sports, movies and fashion.
With the fashion industry I want to create my own line of clothing. The line will be Knoise Knation and will be specifically catering to artists.
Accomplishing your goals is never easy. But I will never give up because its the right thing to do. We only get one life and I choose to make it memorable.