Jennifer Broberg

I think something that I've really learned over time, and it really was underscored when I met the tremendous women that I did with Women in Government Relations, is that understanding how, even if we come from different backgrounds, different religions, different political affiliations, different geographic regions, we have a lot more in common as women than anybody leads us to believe. When I was young, I struggled a lot, and I was left to, even as a teenager, figure out some pretty heavy issues myself. And I learned from that, that I don't think women should have to struggle on their own. Because I realized the older that I got, and the more that I talked to other women who also were accomplished and successful, that I was like, hold on a minute, why aren't we all helping each other? Why are we so siloed? I've found the older that I've gotten that I've been very strategic in the people in organizations and places that I've worked, because I only am interested in people who, one, want to truly collaborate, and two, don't lead with their egos. I think it's a good filter for me with the person is if you talk to them, and they consistently fail to be grateful about things that they've accomplished, or other people around them, 100% of the time is a person that I do not want in my life, because it says so much about the way that they operate and treat other people.

One of the reasons that I was very interested in going into communication consulting, especially now, is as I have watched over the years, the different ways that people have been kind of consuming information, I realized that these podcasts that people are doing have been far more impactful in a lot of ways than the legacy media that we see day-to-day on TV. Watching the evolution of those things over time, I understand and totally trust the millennials and the Gen Z kids when they say, hey, you know what, this isn't working, this actually works for our generation, and I think that that has been a huge gap, honestly, in the way that people have been kind of thinking about all of this. If you listen to political strategists, it's like, they're always wringing their hands about what do we do about the boomers and appealing to them, and how do we appeal to the millennials and Gen Z at the same time? And it's like, well, first of all, you gotta listen to literally all of them. You also have to understand the different ways that they consume information. Boomers are going to trust the more legacy media or even legacy social media apps, so I think Facebook is big with the boomers, but that's not gonna be the case with the Millennials and Gen Z. And had I not learned that kind of things and trusted the younger generation to literally teach me about it, I wouldn't have been as effective either.

I've been very good at being respectful of the ways that the different generations kind of think about culture and society and politics, and helping bring some understanding amongst those generations, so we're not caught in this constant loop of conflict, but it's more based in understanding and respect. And also, you know, believing that everybody should be able to be who they are, as long as they're not harmful to other people. To me, it's about what can we do to amplify the leadership of women in the tech field, and not only do I want the credibility to be able to do that, but to me, it's more about what can we do to support one another to make sure that any woman who is a pioneer, or a leader or an intellectual expert in the field of technology gets her credit. I'm not someone who doesn't appreciate men. I've worked with a lot of really unbelievable men throughout my entire career who have been so respectful and so empowering of me. And one of the things that has been driving me crazy over the past few years is that there are certain women that act as if we don't need men at all, and it's like, no, for so many reasons, no. To me, it's about making those connections, and I think that that helps kind of close the gap on some of the conflicts that we've seen trending on social media. I think it's about amplifying women in the tech field, but then also amplifying the collaboration that occurs on teams and between men and women.