Dion Dawson

When you hear food system, how many parts do you think of?

Well, I think the first thing is, you know, I'm a comms guy, you know what I mean?

And so none of my communication is by accident.

When thinking about that game board, first and foremost, I made the decision early on to do all of this out in the open.

You know what I mean?

I don't have to code switch.

I don't have to tailor everything

All of my messaging to that specific audience, because, number one, I want to build trust.

That's with anyone that interacts not only with me, but with my organization, with our model, with our impact, with our community, with the job creation, everything.

I don't want this to be something where.

Someone who's in my community on the south side of Chicago has one understanding of who I am.

And someone with a billion dollars have a different understanding.

And so I think first and foremost, what I decided to do was I decided to focus on how I showed up on that game board.

Because a lot of times we don't take power and control in how we show up.

What role can we play independent of all of the bureaucracy?

And how can we show up even when things are pretty heated and we don't agree?

And I think that, you know, for me, what I try to boil it down to is.

Our core product and program has to be so great.

It has to add so much value that it cannot be dismissed.

It has to be viewed as an option.