Asia Johnson

I attribute my success to authenticity, grit, and the guidance of mentors who challenge me to grow rather than simply tell me what I want to hear. My career journey has evolved from journalism into corporate communications and marketing, with experience spanning staffing, recruiting, and insurance. I've leveraged transferable skills from journalism, including storytelling, deadline management, and content creation, to navigate multiple industries. My ability to adapt and apply these skills has been key to my professional growth. Earning a master's degree in strategic communications further strengthened my expertise. I now work at Big Thought, a nonprofit organization, where I'm expanding my skills by integrating AI tools into my writing process. I find inspiration in working under a woman CEO who is also a woman of color, an experience that deeply resonates with my own identity and journey.

The best career advice I received came during my time in staffing and recruiting, when a mentor emphasized that while technical skills are important, being service-oriented and approachable is key to fostering collaboration. She told me, 'You're great at the skills, like the writing and the messaging and the skills side, but what I want to see more from you is the approachability. Being approachable, the customer service side of things.' I was more introverted before, and this advice helped me understand that it's not always about the day-to-day tasks, assignments, and goals. It's about dealing with people. I truly believe growing into approachability leadership and picking up that skill has really helped me network better, mentor others, and make people more comfortable with me. I've also learned to be more proactive about it, not waiting for someone to approach me first, but really taking that time to establish relationships and connections.

First thing that comes to my mind is breathe, because there's a lot of daily deadlines to meet. I know working in news, it wasn't just any deadline, it had to be done in a 4-hour window. My advice is to ask for help and try to find a mentor early. I've been on both sides where someone has approached me to support me, but I've also gone to someone later in my career and asked her to be my mentor. Find somebody that you trust, whether it's at work, in your community, or in your family, somebody that may have done something similar. Find a mentor, find somebody to establish a genuine, transparent relationship with. When you go through mentorship, you should also be comfortable receiving feedback, whether that's something to improve on or if you're doing really well at something. I think mentors that are really good don't just tell you what you want to hear. When you get into your industry and you see that gap between what you learned in college and what you're doing, it's going to be pivotal for you to try to find somebody that you can lean on and that can be your champion or cheerleader as well.

I recognize that funding remains one of the biggest challenges in the nonprofit sector. Even though we're a larger organization with revenue around $8 million, people sometimes think, 'Oh, well, Big Thought is good, they have enough money, they have the support that they need.' But whether you're large or small, you still want that support and still want to share the mission. Last year when we did our Giving Day, we had less donations but more organic donors. We found out that because we're a larger organization, some people may be inclined to support more smaller organizations. What we're trying to do with this 40th anniversary is say, 'Hey, this is what we've been doing for 40 years, here's where we're going, we still need support.' We're conveying that message in a way where we're not just asking for your money, but we're really trying to keep those connections alive and do more events honoring and recognizing our volunteers. We have a mixer coming up in May to honor our volunteers, honor our donors, and our board members. We're trying to establish new relationships and maintain the ones that we have as well. Effectively connecting with donors and clearly communicating the organization's mission to donors, volunteers, and board members is essential.

I would say transparency is really important to me. Working in communications, I'm having to create the messaging around a lot of communications, so I'm on that side of hearing transparent conversations, whether they're good news or not. Even in my personal life, I'm transparent with my family, they're pretty transparent with me, and I have friends that are the same way. I'm really big on transparency, and we're gonna have to have tough conversations at some point to navigate and problem solve on something. Authenticity is also a big one for me. I would say balance is important too. Sometimes for me, I've been super serious, head down at work, and we all have to get our jobs done, but I think just incorporating fun moments or sharing light-hearted content with my team, or doing a team-building exercise, or having fun outside of work is important. Work-life autonomy matters to me as well. And then empowerment is another value of mine. I'm empowered to not just come to work, but to really resonate with the mission and really get involved in the community. I'm at an event almost every week now, getting out there in the community, putting myself out there even as an introverted person, talking to donors or volunteers, sharing our mission and my story. The work is youth-centered, so I'm really having to keep youth in mind, and I hadn't had to do that before. Being able to impact the next generation is really meaningful to me.