Ongoing education, learning and professional development are important for career growth in any field – especially in integrated communications where trends, tools and strategies change on a near-daily basis.  

Keeping up and continuing to grow requires several of Franco’s core values. Forward Motion drives us to reach a goal or vision, and Persistence helps us overcome the obstacles along the way. But it all starts with Opportunity. 

When anyone asks me why I love my work at Franco, just behind the team that I work with every day, are the opportunities that I’ve had in my 12 years here. 

I like to think about opportunity (in the professional sense) in three different ways. 

 
Opportunity
 
 

Opportunity to Grow 

Throughout my career, I have learned some of the most valuable lessons outside of my comfort zone. Most significantly, in the past year, I had the opportunity to participate in the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Leadership Detroit program as part of its 44th Class. Carrying that forward, I also joined Franco CEO Tina Kozak and President & COO Tina Sullivan for the 2024 Mackinac Policy Conference (more on that here).  

There’s a sense of imposter syndrome that comes with this – should I really be in this group of established and proven community and business leaders? Do I have the networking chops to get everything I can from these experiences? I went in with a mix of excitement and anxiety, but left with a profound sense of accomplishment, a new set of leadership skills and most importantly, new friends and connections I hope will continue long past our recent LD graduation. 

You never know until you do it. You never do it without the opportunity. 

Opportunity to Lead 

The opportunity to lead accounts and teams has been so valuable to my own professional growth. I have had the privilege of working with talented leaders who have given me the opportunity to lead my own teams. I started at Franco without leadership or management experience but having a seat at the table for client meetings, internal strategy sessions and networking events gave me the perspective and education I needed to lead a team of my own.  

Guided by these examples of strong leadership, I now try to carry on that tradition in the teams that I lead myself. I see leading by example, providing opportunities for team members to learn and grow and involving each member of client teams in strategic discussions as core to the Franco experience and vital to professional development – at any point in your career.  

Opportunity to Innovate 

Lastly, the opportunity to think outside the box and change the way we work is important in any role. “We’ve always done it this way” should not be a mandate to continue, but an opportunity to explore new ideas, especially in the constantly changing world of integrated communications.  

When Rachel Piligian had the idea of starting up the frankly… podcast, it was a completely new concept. We weren’t audio engineers. We didn’t have the equipment. But there was an opportunity in our region to differentiate Franco and share important conversations about communications, leadership and key events in Detroit. Tina Kozak and Tina Sullivan saw the value in this, I had the opportunity to join in as a co-host and two years later we recently hit our 50th episode.  

The opportunity for me and Rachel to start frankly… and to continue interviewing guests over the years has helped us learn new skills, meet amazing people in our community and introduce a new channel for Franco to lead the integrated communications conversation.  

I see this type of opportunity every day at Franco. Whether it’s Lexi Trimpe leading the charge into the world of AI for communicators, Ryan Solecki and Alex London exploring new paths in digital advertising or Brent Snavely exploring new events and ways to connect with journalists in a changing media environment (I could go on, but I won’t…), we are constantly exploring, learning and applying new integrated communications strategies for our clients and ourselves.   

And it all starts with the core value of Opportunity. 

Dan Horn is an Integrated Communications Director at Franco. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.