Arden Cornwell Johnson has achieved success in the business world by identifying her personal strengths and aligning her professional aspirations accordingly.
It’s an evolution that began from a young age when she spent a great deal of time around her grandfather, legendary Arkansas Tech University coach and physical education faculty member Sam Hindsman.
“I learned a great deal from watching him,” said Johnson. “I learned how to face adversity and manage people. He was the ultimate competitor. Everything was about moving forward. Do not stand still regardless of what you encounter. Keep going. It wasn’t enough to just win the game. You had to move your life forward. How are you going to continue your education, support yourself and make a contribution? That’s really the key thing he left with me.”
Johnson, senior client success manager for Dun and Bradstreet, provided the spring 2025 ATU LeMoyne Smith School of Business Distinguished Lecture Series address in Doc Bryan Student Services Center Lecture Hall on Wednesday, March 12.
Johnson’s background includes financial screening, compliance and marketing in the global consumer and business data sectors, but she began her career in sales.
“I don’t think sales professionals get enough love from the business community,” said Johnson. “Most people think that it’s easy, that it’s a trick or that you’re doing something that’s too cute by half. The most important thing about being in sales is that you control your own income. You are prepared to be your own boss. You work not just for a paycheck, but for a bonus and a variable compensation plan.”
Johnson’s background also includes work as a business development account executive at Equifax and as a sales manager at DirecTV. Her previous roles at Dun and Bradstreet have included account executive for finance solutions, relationship manager and compliance and supply chain data management specialist.
She stressed to the ATU students in attendance at her lecture about the importance of learning about artificial intelligence (AI), maximizing its benefits and co-existing with it.
“The learning curve is very steep and it’s going to get steeper,” said Johnson. “AI will be part of everyone’s life forever. It is akin to Microsoft Windows and e-mail. It will have that pervasive of an impact on all of us. It’s coming to us as consumers of goods and services, information and news.
“The most important skill you can develop is the ability to communicate and build relationships with other people,” continued Johnson. “A chatbot is never going to be able to truly bond to the point that someone is going to write you a check, much less a big one. If you find yourself in a job where you are sitting behind a computer, typing away, you’re able to do that from anywhere in the world and you never interact with other people…that job can be replaced with AI. It’s your unique ability to take in multiple sources of information from multiple inputs, assimilate those and leverage those back out that differentiates you.”
Johnson emphasized to the ATU students the importance of consistency, of monitoring and regularly updating their digital presence online and of understanding themselves.
“If you hear nothing else, find what you are good at and play to your strengths,” said Johnson. “Life is not a straight upward trajectory. Life is going to happen to you. If you can muster the determination not to quit…just don’t quit…keep changing until you find where you fit with your personal brand and who you want to be. It’s not always a smooth and upwardly mobile path, but there is a path.”
Learn more about the ATU College of Business and Economic Development at www.atu.edu/business.
