BROAD EXECUTIVE MBA

“I found
  my voice.”

- Chriscynethia Floyd, Class of 2011
Vice President of Publishing at US Operations at Our Daily Bread Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI

Multitalented is an understatement when talking about Chriscynethia Floyd. With over 20 years of business-to-business and business-to-consumer experience in editorial, sales, merchandising, publishing, and marketing, Floyd can do it all.
 
Floyd currently serves as the Vice President of Publishing for US Operations at Our Daily Bread Ministries, a publication that reaches millions of viewers a year in books, booklets, and online articles, where she’s responsible for its content creation.
 
“What's interesting about this new role for me is that I have spent a better part of maybe 12 to 15 years moving between Christian publishing and mainstream New York publishing,” Floyd says. “Two very different worlds.”

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To balance these two very different worlds, Floyd explains, she’s had to be extremely adaptable, hardworking, and open to learning — qualities she believes her parents instilled in her and her siblings at a young age.
 
“I have a heart for learning and a heart for always wanting to do better,” Floyd says. “My parents instilled in all of us a work ethic that I believe at times, as Floyd kids, we have even taken too far. My mother worked almost 15 years on the floor of a textile mill in North Carolina. My father worked up to 15 hours a day as a chef at various restaurants. Both my parents wanted us to find colleges and careers away from home for better opportunities.”
 
Taking to heart what her parents taught her, Floyd worked hard to seize opportunities all over the country. From Michigan to Colorado to New York, she has worked for many companies, including HarperCollins Publishing, Zondervan, and Simon and Schuster Publishing.
 
“One thing that I've learned, just through this whole process of my career, is simply that failure is an opportunity,” she says. “And I've had plenty of failures. But I’m a person of faith and failure for me is simply an opportunity to reinvent yourself. And I’ve never been afraid of that or the opportunity to learn something different.”
 
In fact, before diving into the world of publishing, Floyd was interested in doing something completely different.

“My undergrad was actually in music education with a concentration in voice,” Floyd says. “And then I moved to New York to go to theater school. I went to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, and for over 20 years, I was performing professionally. And then one day, shortly after my dad died, I wanted to take a break, since I had been on the road for so long. And I got this job at a Barnes and Noble Jr., which at the time was a freestanding children's bookstore. I still performed here and there, but my goodness it was so much fun working in literature. Within a year, I was asked to help manage the place.”  

Floyd reminisces that before Harriette, her eighth-grade chorus teacher, discovered her singing voice, her first love has always been literature.
 
“When I was a kid, I thought I was going to be a librarian,” Floyd smiles. “I had grown up around my aunt who was a librarian and who was just a wonderful storyteller and got kids excited about books. I just thought, ‘Gosh, I love books.’ Then, Harriette discovered I had this voice, and it completely sent me on another path, but a path that actually helped me with confidence. Because, you know, there's a bit of bravery that you need to have to get in front of people.”
 
This same bravery that pushed Floyd to the center stage spotlight also pushed her to pursue something more out of her education — an EMBA at Michigan State University.
 
“I had come through this publishing world because I knew books and I had a gut instinct about what could sell and how to create things,” Floyd says. “But I wanted a business foundation. I felt I had some gaps in my learning … and it wasn't about getting another job or moving up in the ranks or anything, it was truly about wanting to learn more.”
 
One of the biggest takeaways from Broad’s EMBA, Floyd says, was her gain in confidence and ability to lead.
 
“I wanted to learn more about leadership and what it meant to be a true leader,” she explains. “I knew I had the skills, because I had managed people before, but I wanted to be better. I wanted to up my game, basically. And I did. I got this great degree that allows me to have confidence in anything I set out to do. No one can tell me that I can't adapt or that I don't have the confidence. That I don't have the perseverance or that I can’t do the job. Because I have been well-equipped. And I've been well-trained through the program.”
 
Floyd now manages a team of six at Our Daily Bread Ministries, but the department itself is composed of nearly 20 people.
 
“I love leading my team,” she says. “I understand what a good leader is now and can be, because I was led by several very good leaders and mentors in the program and in my life.”
 
When asked who those leaders and mentors were, Floyd gives thanks to her brother and sister, her family, family community, and her first publishing mentor, Liz. She also speaks highly of her aunt Dorothy and elementary school school librarian, Rhonda.
 
“I grew up with a librarian who gave me books,” she recalls. “My aunt Dorothy and my school librarian, Rhonda, introduced and instilled this love of books in me. But some folks don't have this advantage because books are expensive. So, I've been very fortunate in my life where I could provide resources to my home community in North Carolina, and I have now built numerous libraries with the help of my aunt, providing the books and the resources to certain communities. I've also given back to Westchester County, New York, helping Family Center services be able to allow kids to have their first library, which is so important.”
 
Floyd even recognizes the importance of being able to access literature in her own career.  
 
“What's funny is that I work for an organization who actually gives away a lot of content,” Floyd says. “I love that the goal is to just get content into people’s hands. And that is really thrilling to me.”
 
From singer and performer to literary advocate and Vice President, Floyd has found many passions, talents, and voices throughout her life.
 
“I always say that someone discovered my singing voice when I was 14. But I felt like I discovered my leadership voice by going through the program. In many ways, the Executive MBA program at Broad gave me a voice.”