Her Story
About Toni
After graduating from college with a BA in English, I started my career proofreading and editing at a catalog company. When technology started taking off, I transitioned to a startup publishing company that specialized in books on computer software, where I spent 10 years. When that company relocated to Rochester, one of the founding partners hired me for a new venture, and I stayed there for another 10 years, focusing on tech publishing throughout. What I loved most about working at startups was getting these companies from the idea stage into profitable businesses. We all worked together and made things happen - we were all visionaries with input from the get-go, and all employees helped guide the directions of companies. I did extensive editing and writing, eventually working my way up to managing teams. I wrote a blog on personnel management for Tech Republic and was honored to win ASPE Awards for Best Feature articles seven years in a row. My BA in English served me well because most companies, before AI, wanted clear communications and well-written content. It was all about learning from experience. I'm retired now, but since retiring, I've been writing humor blogs on the side and worked with at-risk children for 3 years because I wanted to do something worthwhile that wasn't for company profit.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Toni
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the inability to give up. You know, there's always times where you get knocked down and you think, well, this is it, but you let a day or two go by, and you gather your things and show up again.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
You have to blow your own horn but you have to back it up.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's different now than when I entered it, because it was a fight for everything. I would say take advantage of what other women have fought for, and make sure it continues to grow, and don't try to squelch what we've all accomplished up to this point.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, it's AI, because they're replacing a lot of writers. I don't know what's going to happen with that, but that's a challenge we're facing - that was the last thing I expected, that writing would be automated, because it takes so much heart to do that. Staying relevant and unique in that field is a challenge right now in the publishing business.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In life, kindness and empathy are most important to me. Empathy's a real important one, because I think you can understand more about life that way, if you can kind of feel what people feel without having experienced it yourself. In work, empathy as well, but I also stress meeting deadlines - if you want to get that granular about it - meeting deadlines and producing the work that you promised.
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