FLORIDA TREND is a special organization, and many of our employees say it is their home away from home. Company culture is critically important within any corporation, no matter how large or small, and that rings very true within FLORIDA TREND. I like to say we are a small but mighty team, with incredible talent running deep within our walls, punching well beyond our weight. Good company culture breeds into great company culture. And I may be a bit biased, but FLORIDA TREND is an extraordinarily special place to work.
The tenure of our staff says a lot about the organization. When we look at the average time an employee has been with FLORIDA TREND, it nets out to almost 15 years of service. That tenure provides incredible institutional knowledge for our organization. We have employees running the full gamut of years served at FLORIDA TREND — 40, 30, 20, 10, 5 and less than one year. This mix makes for an incredibly dynamic and engaged workforce. Many of us have been there for numerous momentous moments in one another’s lives from marriages to births to graduations to the loss of loved ones. We are truly each other’s extended family.
With long-term employee tenure, we also face the challenge of saying goodbye and cheering our peers on as they move into their next stage of life — celebrating their well-deserved retirement. That special moment is happening this month with our incredible colleague Laura Armstrong.
Laura has worked at FLORIDA TREND for 34 years! Since joining the organization in 1990, she has managed most every sales territory at the magazine and currently serves as our Senior Market Director covering Central and Northeast Florida. She has built some of the most incredible business relationships that I have ever seen. The trust, respect, loyalty and admiration our business clients have for her is absolutely inspiring. Laura hasn’t just built business relationships with her clients, she has built long-running personal friendships with them. She is one of the most naturally talented sales executives that I have had the pleasure to work with. Laura’s industry knowledge runs deep, yet she is constantly learning and striving to understand more. She is organized, detailed and always has her finger on the pulse of all that is happening across the state.
More than an incredible colleague, Laura is an absolute treasure of a friend to the whole team at FLORIDA TREND. We are all better people for knowing her. As she departs from our office hallways, Laura will be missed dearly. But we celebrate her tenure and are thrilled for her and her husband Wil’s next chapter, living the good life of retirement.
— David G. Denor, Publisher ddenor@floridatrend.com