other natural disasters. If her history doesn’t humble you as much as it does me, she is also a member of VAI/HAI and serves on the board and committee, respectively, of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). OK, here’s our Southern soul-food main course…
Family and ‘Flying’
Johnson was born and raised in Cumming, Georgia, as the oldest of three children. Family is core to her calling and life. She and her two brothers had the advantage of parents who were not only devoted to them but also devoted to each other. “My dad was very entrepreneurial and a natural-born leader, but my mom liked her safety and security as a state public health employee. Yet, she was very supportive of my dad’s efforts; I remember her helping Dad into his coat and patting him on the back, saying, ‘Go get ‘em, honey.’” Grandparents — and even great-grandparents — lived nearby. Her grandfather, director of Georgia Power’s regional office, exposed Johnson to the power-line industry in her childhood.
Upon graduating from college, Johnson delayed the start of her career by traveling alone in Europe with only her cocker spaniel as a companion. “That’s when I learned to fly, not in a helicopter sense, but to take risks, be adventurous, and not be fearful. I don’t know if I would be doing what I do today if
I had not done that as a young woman. It helped me grow a lot.”
Principled Principal
Johnson never wanted to be a business executive despite her father being a businessman and her grandfather being a respected manager. She took what she thought would be a smoother path and began her career teaching in a Georgia public school classroom. It was a little too calm. “I learned about myself that I needed to get out of that classroom’s four walls and break up the routine of having every day be the same like (the movie) Groundhog Day.” So, the restless teacher went into school administration and quickly became an up-and-comer as the youngest school administrator in the state.
Things were going great…until Johnson questioned the Peach State’s religion.
More specifically, she complained to a reporter that the board of education allocated no money for math books at her school, but fully funded new football uniforms elsewhere. “I got called to the superintendent’s office at 28 years old and was told I needed to learn to play the game. I asked, ‘What game?’ She replied, ‘The political game.’ I listened politely and went home without saying a word. I decided that night, I wouldn’t spend my career playing education politics.” The young assistant principal resigned the next day, not knowing what she would do next.
You Never Know
With no income, Johnson lived off her savings (“I was always good about saving money”) until she landed a sales job at
Southern Company in 2004. She says, “Looking back, that early sales experience prepared me to cofound DaVinciSKY by helping me to understand how I can fit our services into a utility company’s budget.” It also taught her another lesson she still shares with her employees: You never know who you’re meeting with knows. Here’s her instructive story:
“My very first in-person sales meeting was with a small business prospect. It was a small account, but I treated her like a multi- million-dollar client and taught her how to save money on her natural-gas costs. She went home to her husband and showed him the savings I’d mapped out for her. He was the director of operations for Home Depot. Her husband called me the next day — my second day on the job — and gave me business from every Home Depot in Georgia and opened the door nationally.”
rotorpro.com
13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82
