Jennifer K Weaver

Go for it. I kind of live by this motto of, How hard can it be? I'll do it myself. I'll get it done today. I think that anything that scares you is an opportunity for you to learn and to grow, so go for it is the best advice I think I could give to anybody. Don't limit yourself. You know, stretch. I never thought I would be able to learn artificial intelligence, or code, for that matter. And so I actually started taking some classes. I thought, well, let's see if I can do this, and do website development and design. Some of it was very, very, very difficult. But I challenged myself. I think the best advice is to go for it, and that includes if you want to change your path. You know, your career path is set by the steps that you take, and you get to determine that direction. And so I think whatever it is that your heart is in desire of, just go for it.

Don't take no for an answer. I think when I was younger, particularly, if I was told I couldn't do something, I believed it. If I was told you're not management material, or you'll never look good on camera, or you're not well-spoken enough, you're not articulate enough, you don't have the right look, I've heard all of those things, and when I was younger, I believed it. I wasn't like an Oprah Winfrey, or a Michael Jordan who, when they were told you don't have what it takes, said, oh yeah, watch me. I didn't have that attitude, and I think more women are probably more like me, that when you're told these negative words of advice, or what people think are advice, they're trying to help you, I think we have to find that confidence in our self-value enough to say I don't have to believe what I'm being told. Don't take no for an answer. Don't take the negative feedback to heart and limit yourself. Use that as those building blocks to get where you want to go. Because ultimately, now that I'm older, all of the negative voices, they're not a part of my life anymore. And the fact is, they probably weren't really a strong part of my life even back then. But giving power to them, it doesn't matter in your life a year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now. We need to silence that, and you need to listen to yourself, and tell yourself, yes. And that's great that that's what they think, but I don't need to take ownership of that. I can take ownership of what I believe I can do, and what my abilities are, and what my dream is, and go for it.

The biggest challenge that I have in the communications field is that everyone takes it for granted. A lot of the executives don't bring a communications professional in until they're giving them tasks to do. So they treat communications like an assignment desk. I need you to post this on social media. I need you to create this flyer. I need you to create this program, or a logo, or artwork. And that's extremely challenging in communications when you're looked at as basically an administrative assistant, instead of being at the table, helping the narrative, helping create the whole awareness of who are our stakeholders, how do we communicate to them, what are the risks with the way that we're communicating. How do you mitigate those risks? How do we handle a crisis? I think getting people on that executive level to not take communications for granted in that, I just need you to send an email out. There's a lot that goes into thinking about what does the audience really need. And we forget that what we do isn't just a checkbox, checklist. What we do as communication professionals matters, because we want the audiences to get the most out of what we are providing. Are we educating, enlightening, informing. And I think that challenge is getting those on that executive level to realize the importance of communications goes beyond the tasks. It's all about how does this support the mission, the vision, and the people that we serve. And there needs to be alignment and cohesion with branding to do that, and the marketing, and the narratives in your communications. And to this day, it's so taken for granted to where you've got executives that are like, well, I have AI now, I'll just have AI do it for me. Well, you're missing that human connection, because at the end of the day, humans connect to humans. You need that creativity from an individual, not an AI. That's the biggest challenge.

The value of integrity, doing everything with good intentions and with other people in mind. I think it's really always important to know that you're not an island unto yourself, and what you do, the words that you say, really have impact on other people. And sometimes you'll never know what that is. But to be mindful and aware that your words and your actions have meaning, I think is a core value that keeps me being honest with myself so that I can be honest with others, and in doing so, that forms what I believe to be integrity.