Brooke Johnsen

Being persistent has been really helpful for me, and then adhering to my values. One thing that I've learned is that not everyone's going to notice if there's a typo, or if the grammar is used incorrectly, or the mechanics. But the people who do know will notice. Over the years, there have been people who have said, "Oh, it's not that big of a deal; it's okay if this goes out; it's okay if this happens or that happens." But for me, really adhering to quality and wanting things to be correct every time, being consistent—I think that's been important for me to hold onto and has allowed me to be successful over the years.

I had a manager who led me in a way that made me want to be better. He was never unkind, he was never critical. He really took the time to teach me so that I could understand what he was asking of me, what he was asking me to do. I think of him often in all of my different positions in management. That's the thing that I have come back to time and time again: being the type of leader who I would want to follow.

The first thing I would say is to be curious. I think that knowing how to ask questions. I've worked in so many different fields, yet I didn't know taxes, I didn't know the aerospace industry, I didn't know scientific measurement. But knowing how to ask questions and knowing how to interview people has been really, really useful for me. So be curious; have a desire to learn how things work, how things operate. Another piece of advice I would give is: speak up, because what you have to say is important, and your voice matters.

One thing that has been impacting me is AI. There's a lot of concern with what that could look like and trying to make sure that we still keep that human touch and we don't completely rely on AI. I could tell when the shift was, for when content writers started using AI, because of the patterns that I could see. Trying to then take that and still maintain our company voice, our brand voice, without the content writers needing to do anything, that's one aspect I think could be challenging, depending on how companies decide to employ AI. As I'm editing different content for folks, sometimes they don't understand why I've changed one thing or another, so being able to explain why I'm making that change, whether it's an actual grammar adjustment or if it's a brand voice thing—which AI can't necessarily do—helping them to understand that and then applying that knowledge going forward is, I think, really important.

I like structure and consistency. I'm a rule follower, so it make sense that I would have an aptitude for editing—there are rules that can be applied. I have a strong sense of integrity and not sacrificing my values in the face of opposition. I also feel strongly about inclusion and holding space for all voices. If what we write can exclude, what's the point? There's no value in that.