Her Story
About DANYELLE
Danyelle Johnson serves as Executive Producer in television local news, a role she has held for 9 years. In this position, she oversees producers who craft newscasts, approves all scripts before they air, works closely with reporters on story research and sound bites, and coordinates with anchors and the content center to ensure accurate, compelling coverage. Her career began at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where students operated a live news station broadcasting to 80,000 households in Tallahassee, Florida, providing rigorous, real-world training in reporting, anchoring, and producing before graduation. Johnson is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She won Miss Delta Teen in 2011 and has volunteered with Girls Collide and at school career fairs, speaking to youth about journalism careers both on and off camera. She attributes her success to her family and the village that instilled in her hard work, resilience, empathy, and perseverance. Johnson values honesty, respect, responsibility, and accountability in both her professional and personal life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with DANYELLE
01What do you attribute your success to?
My family. I am a firm believer that it takes a village, and so besides or beyond my parents, I had great people to look up to. My parents instilled in me hard work, resilience, empathy, and perseverance. Even when it may have been hard in college, I always knew what the end goal was, and that was to make sure I walk out of there with a degree.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Be yourself, because everyone else is taken. And I think that'll take people really far if you have that mindset. Be yourself. Do what you want to do. Be the person you want to be, because literally, nobody on this earth is built like you.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Have these three growth and life skills: resilience, bouncing back when hard things happen. Learn all you can learn from anybody. Keep an open mind to grow smarter and better over time. And balance. That's important to make time for work, rest, health, and fun. Importantly, just never give up.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
For me personally, this is a step in management, so you're having to manage people and manage a lot of different personalities. A challenge is winning the room, because there are people that you have to manage that have more experience than you. A leader is visible. People will follow you if they see you, if they know the work you're doing.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Just honesty, respect, responsibility. Those are beliefs that guide our daily choices. It shapes our character. And it helps us live well with others, and that's at home and in the workforce. Especially workforce with a responsibility, right? We all have a job to do. You take it in stride, and you be accountable, you be honest. If you messed up, say I messed up. Apologize, and just do it again.
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