Her Story
About Danielle
I started my career in the grocery industry as an intern in communications at Topco, a cooperative owned by around 33 regional grocery retailers across the United States. I learned a lot in that internship role, and they decided to keep me on full-time. From there, I was promoted to corporate communications coordinator, and then later to my current position as corporate communications specialist, which I've held for a little under a year now. In my day-to-day work, I manage a lot of internal communications, including our intranet, where I run analytics on a quarterly basis to track usage. I also work on B2B email management to our membership and do a lot of graphic design work in Adobe Illustrator for printed pieces for upcoming conferences. One of my most notable achievements so far has been interviewing members on our board of directors and publishing a video series for our associates. It was pretty cool professionally to be able to, especially for someone so early career, sit down with CEOs and talk about their strategy. That opportunity was provided to me from a powerful woman in my company. This year, I'm also attending a conference that we're hosting ourselves for the first time officially with the team, where I'll be able to interact with our membership on a face-to-face basis.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Danielle
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say my ability to collaborate with others and understand the strengths of each individual person. I'm not always going to be the best person in the room at things, so using those around you and understanding that other people have specialties as well, you know, realizing your strengths but also using other people's strengths. And I would say just passion for what I do. I genuinely love the field of communications. I love the ability to talk to people and to hear more about their stories and understand what drives them, and how I can help them then move forward.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice that I've ever received was to never say no to a new opportunity. You never know what one particular ask, where it might lead you. So in order to give yourself the full chance to realize the breadth of your potential, you should say yes when you can.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say your genuine interest in other people and your ability to connect with people from all different walks of life is a big strength. And that will take you farther than any practical skill will.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say there is always opportunity for growth, given the current state of communications and how we have new methods of communicating messages, and they are always coming out with new technology developments.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In work, communication is obviously important, and I feel like communication is important in personal life and in work. It informs how we interact with each other. Collaboration is another key value of mine. I find it really important to work well with other people. Consistent innovation is important because there's always a better way to do things, there's always room to improve. And then, additionally, just a culture of respect. Like, I think it's very important to respect other people, you treat them how you'd like to be treated. That kind of thing.
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