Senior Messaging and Communications Specialist

The simplest way to describe my role is a phrase my mentor and Chief Brand Officer, Janis Jarosz, often uses: I am the "voice of the company." I've worked for Christian Brothers Automotive for the past seven years. We are a national aftermarket automotive repair and maintenance franchise with more than 335 locations throughout 31 states. I do all of the writing for the brand, balancing both internal communications and external copywriting. 

My day-to-day can vary, but some of my key contributions include overseeing our PR firm; writing for, designing and maintaining our company intranet; strategizing, writing, copyediting, and distributing all internal communications including emails, texts, slack (instant messaging) announcements, weekly newsletters, and mailed collateral; leading quarterly all-company Town Halls alongside executive leadership; brainstorming and writing all of our national Facebook and Instagram content; supporting our print and digital Franchise Development efforts; writing all national brand and campaign copy in accordance to the brand guidelines that I wrote and helped create, including radio and TV ads, on-hold messaging, digital and print material, and more; putting together a 40-page annual impact report that tells the stories of how CBA locations across the country come alongside the CBA Foundation to give back locally, nationally and internationally with their time, talent and treasure; creating all copy for custom ad requests submitted to our marketing team by our Franchisees; and meeting monthly with all departments to plot future communications so the 'faucet of information' out to the brand flows evenly and in a way that is manageable, easily digestible and able to be implemented if needed.  

Beyond my tasks, I can boil my role into what I think is the most important part of my job: No matter what I'm working on, it is my job to communicate across all of our departments, intake each one's individual goals, determine how each of those goals ladder up to the overall goals of the company, and then disseminate each of those priorities in a way that makes most sense to each of our stakeholder groups: our team at our corporate Support Center, our Franchise Owners and Operators, and our Frontline Team Members.

Writing is all I do every single day, and I couldn't be more grateful. It can be anxiety-inducing not to go to graduate school and hope your degree is even somewhat relevant to the work you do. I count myself fortunate that I can draw a straight line from what I learned in my time at Grand Valley to the work I do every day. Plus, it is far easier to be fulfilled at work when you're doing something that makes you feel like your most confident self. 

Because I do both internal and external messaging, I get to enjoy a balance between more professional, technical based writing and the more emotion-driven, creative copywriting. Additionally, while we have an amazing team of designers at CBA, I also get to do a little bit of design work for our company intranet and weekly newsletters, which helps me retain those skills and helps break up all the written communications.

I struggled landing a job in the field in Michigan right after graduation, as many of the roles I was looking at required more relevant experience than I had. After trying for six months, I packed all of my belongings into a tiny U-Haul trailer and moved myself 1,200 miles southwest to Houston, Texas. 

I got a job right away working at a bridal boutique as a sales consultant (something I had done throughout college). However, I knew that more sales experience alone wasn't going to help me land the larger role in writing that I desperately wanted, so I approached my bosses about starting Instagram and Pinterest accounts for the boutique. I figured this would be a small way I could add some writing-based experience to my resume. 

After growing tired of bridal gowns, I was fortunate to land a job at You Squared Media, a Houston-based advertising agency. While agency work can be grueling – I had 16 full-service clients at one point – I could not be more thankful for the sheer amount of experience it gave me in such a short time. I handled PR, website management and copywriting, print and digital writing, design work, monthly digital reporting, email marketing, campaign strategy and more across several industries including home services, restaurants, medical, realty, automotive, and more. I credit You Squared Media for taking a chance on a young writer with little work experience. Beyond my years at Grand Valley, it is what prepared me exceptionally well for my current role. 

Getting at job at Christian Brothers was something I can only describe as kismet. I wasn't looking actively to leave the agency, but I got an Indeed.com ad via email, and the company description caught my eye. My grandfather was a founding member of the United Autoworkers Union at General Motors, and all the men in my life growing up were big car guys. Cars have surrounded me my entire life. Additionally, CBA does a lot of charitable giving, which is something I've always been passionate about. When the job ad came across my email, not only did the role seem perfect for me, but so did the idea of doing everything I was already doing but for only one client instead of more than a dozen. 

I interviewed with the team and was hired on as a copywriter in 2019 – the first one they ever had. That meant I truly got to carve out my own role, responsibilities and impact. A few months later, when the internal communications specialist moved to Pittsburgh, leadership was impressed with what I was doing externally and asked me to take over the other side of my role as well. Since then, I've been promoted to Senior.

So many parts of the writing program had a major impact on me as a professional. Something I understand better now that I've been out in the real world for ten years is that a standalone writing program is both exceptionally rare and exceptionally valuable. The variety of required coursework has had such a positive impact on me professionally, and I can't think of a single course that I don't use in my regular work. Whether it's technical writing, multimodal creation, document design, or magazine writing, I use pieces from each of these courses every single day.

Additionally, all of my professors had their own diverse perspectives to offer, and I feel like I was able to learn a lot from the talents of my fellow classmates. There's a famous quote that says something to the effect of, "I am the amalgamation of every person I've ever met." Because of the quality of my peers and professors at Grand Valley, I entered the professional world both a better person and a better writer. 

Lastly, being submitted for and winning a national AWP Intro Award for poetry is an experience that continues to bolster my confidence, particularly in my creative pursuits. I am in progress on a book, and whenever I feel like nobody wants to read what I have to say, I remember that somewhere out there, strangers believe in me and my work. The plaque is displayed in my home office as a regular reminder and inspiration in the times that writer's block gets the best of me.

One thing I've learned is that career success is about far more than the skills you have on paper. Your soft skills are just as important, if not more so than what you have listed on your resume. If you're pursuing a career in communications, know that part of this role is selling yourself and your competence, beyond just the words you write on paper. Your confidence, how you carry yourself, your body language, your warmth and tone of voice, your initiative, your responsiveness and social awareness – all of those things can and will get you further than just being a good writer. 

It's also important to remember, especially if you're a woman, and most especially if you're a woman in a male-dominated field like me, that if you are given a seat at the table, it is because you belong there. You can have ideas, but nobody can do anything with those ideas if you don't speak up.