The next step after success

By leaning into the zigs and zags on her path, Meco Sparks, VP of Inclusion Networks, has arrived in a place she truly belongs.

“The zig-zag path” as Meco Sparks calls it, is one she’s been following since childhood, gamely adapting to the many moves that define life as a military kid, then to three high schools, and finally to becoming a first-generation college student.

When she graduated with a degree in communications and a minor in Japanese, there wasn’t a grand plan, but there was an opportunity. Degree in hand, but sans car, computer and cash, Meco attended an orientation hosted by Lincoln Financial Group to introduce recent grads to its three-year leadership development program – all majors were accepted and, soon, so was Meco.

“I think it goes two ways,” she mused. “There’s the path where you know exactly who you are and what you want to be. ‘I want to be a lawyer, a doctor, an astronaut. I want to be the chief financial officer.’ Then there’s the other one, the zig-zag path, where there’s skill and ambition, but the end goal isn’t defined. The program crystalized that view for me, because I met leaders who’d been down one path or the other.”

It’s not knowing exactly what she wanted to be that has shaped Meco’s becoming. She’s been a student, a leadership program graduate, a teacher in Japan, a marketing professional, a director of strategy and, now, she is leading the Raymond James Inclusion Networks.

“In every role I've taken, when I look at the job description, I’m looking for the skills I do have, but also some I don’t. Obviously you need to be qualified, but there should also be opportunities to learn, to add more to your toolbox.”

“I can do hard things.”

Along every step of her journey so far, growth has been a motivating factor for Meco, and the zig-zag path has been fertile ground for it.

After her time with Lincoln, one of the bigger zags took her in an entirely new direction – professionally and geographically. Meco pursued a teaching position in Japan, where her mother is from and where she herself lived off and on for nearly a decade, including a one-year study abroad program.

After two-and-a-half years in a Tokyo classroom, she then zigged back to more familiar territory, taking a marketing role with an asset management company. There, Meco reconnected with colleagues from her program days and advanced quickly, going from marketing writer to marketing manager in short order. In one respect, however, she felt at a bit of a disadvantage.

“I was often in rooms with portfolio managers and wholesalers who were talking in-depth about finance and felt frustrated not fully understanding what everybody else seemed to grasp so easily. So, I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to get my MBA.’ Mind you, I was in my early 30s and my last math class had been sophomore year of college. It was a little terrifying, but I said, ‘I can do hard things.’”

She did. With another credential to her name, Meco was elevated into a new channel management position, where her strengths converged. Then the next zag arrived.

“I had the MBA and I’m in this new position, humming along, when one of my colleagues says, ‘Hey, there's this role in Florida at Raymond James I think you'd be interested in.’”

A Philadelphia resident and self-described “Northeast girl” with family roots in Maryland, Meco was quick to dismiss the idea of moving south.

“But I had a conversation with Renée Baker, a Black female marketing executive. At that point, maybe 13-ish years into my career, I could count on one hand how many times I'd gotten to work with a leader who had a background and experiences that looked like mine.” 

By then end of that call, her mind was made.

“What haven’t I tried yet?”

Meco was a year into her time at Carillon Tower Advisors, now Raymond James Investment Management, when Renée announced she was leaving to take over leadership of the Advisor Inclusion Networks.

Loathe as she was to lose her leader and mentor, she approached the new reality with clear eyes. Before long, she felt a familiar stirring and wondered if a change was also in order for her.

“I was considering the possibility of moving to one of the bigger business areas of Raymond James. I’ve done so many things and built the toolbox that’s gotten me here … what haven’t I tried yet?" 

After discussions with colleagues around the firm, the answer was a role with the Private Client Group Strategy and Planning team. Another answer was getting more involved in the firm’s culture, joining groups including Mosaic, where she served as co-chair of the professional development committee. In that space, she saw another opportunity to go deeper.

“I saw Pedro [Suriel, senior vice president of associate experience] speaking at an event and he said anybody could call him, so I took him up on that. I never asked him formally to be my mentor; I just kept showing up on his calendar,” Meco joked. “Because he’d spent so much of his career as a consultant, I would ask for advice and bounce ideas off him. During those conversations, we often came around to talking about the networks.”

Despite her own participation and insight from others, Meco admits to being intimidated when the chance to lead them arrived.

“My first thought was, ‘No, that’s too big.’ My second was, ‘That’s what I thought about my MBA.’” She knew the zig-zag, enriching path that had brought her this far, had also more than prepared her for the task. 

“Oh my gosh, I really love this.”  

About 90 days into her work leading the Inclusion Networks, Meco is in the thick of understanding each group and its innerworkings – “I’m starting out in the weeds to really understand the experience of leaders and members,” she said. But even in this short span, she’s come to see her new position as a culminating point in her career.

“All of the skills I’ve been piling up in my toolbox – marketing and storytelling, advertising and promoting, business strategy, identifying key stakeholders, issues, goals, metrics – I’m putting them all to use now.”

The role is also bringing her around to an idea she’s been cynical about in the past: that when you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.

“I’ll get home on a Friday after being in meetings all day long, and realize I never stopped to eat, or get a drink of water, or breathe. And it occurred to me, oh my gosh, it's because I really love this.” 

Meco has also realized what a labor of love the networks are for everyone involved. She emphasizes that these are responsibilities advisors, associates and firm leaders are taking on in addition to their day jobs, and hopes to expand the already robust support the firm provides. For advisors in particular, she envisions fostering deeper connections between members – and to the home office.

“Because associates are located in our corporate hubs, their networks have more access to resources by virtue of proximity. For advisors, it’s not only more challenging because they’re running businesses, but also because they’re at a distance. I hope to find ways to bridge that gap and make it easier for the advisor networks to access support.”

She plans to facilitate more cross-network collaboration – a move she believes will not only build stronger systems of support but also highlight the networks’ inherent intersectionality.

“So many of use belong to more than one of these demographics; you don't have to choose just one network,” she said. “Maybe you aren’t committing the same level of involvement to each, but if you’re part of a community or feel called to support it, join.”

Another key facet of the networks Meco hopes to reinforce from her new seat is that inclusion does not mean exclusion. 

“My vision is for all of us at the firm to see these networks as valuable to everyone, whatever our paths have been or will be.”

Follow along on social media with #RJBFAN.