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Her Secret
to Success: Never Pigeon-Hole Yourself
A single mom. An award winning feature writer. An actress in "Night Man," a
Hollywood feature movie filmed in Iowa in 1997. Designer of the monument outside
of the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake commemorating the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie
Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper). And, now, the public relations
manager for Smithway Motor Xpress, Fort Dodge. Those are just of the few stops
experienced by Leslie Drollinger, Fort Dodge, who
at 47 in one of the few women who have made a place for themselves in the male-dominated
world of trucking.
In her position with Smithway, Drollinger handles all media promotional materials
including print, radio and television. She brings a combined 20 years experience
as a writer, photographer and graphic artist to her job. "It's quite a variety of duties," Drollinger said. "My
job allows me to utilize all my skills. It' never boring. On any given day,
I can be found drawing an illustration or creating a graphic layout for a printed
piece, writing a story for a national magazine, making a presentation to the
board of directors, organizing a press conference, or up on a scissor lift in
the parking lot taking pictures of trucks."
Working in the trucking industry has offered few hurdles for her. She said the
employees and management at Smithway have made her transition to public relations
and that industry easy. Drollinger came to Smithway following stints as the
editor/publisher of Fort Dodge Today magazine, a regional 40-page glossy, four-color
magazine; an editor with the local newspaper; an artist with another Fort Dodge
publishing company; and as a free-lance artist for Meredith Publishing, Better
Homes and Gardens division.
"My philosophy is simple - work hard, stay focused, keep
an open mind and never pigeon-hole yourself. Just
learn as much as you can in whatever job you have. Never turn down an opportunity
to broaden your educational horizons. Always look at challenging problems as
opportunities to enhance your skills. This outlook has served me well. I've
become more versatile than I'd ever imagined possible."
Drollinger, who has also taught public relations at Iowa Central Community College,
Fort Dodge, said her advice to students is "don't obsess about what you want
to do for the rest of your life." "I tell students to
figure out what they'd like to do for now and then dive in," Drollinger
said. "If you later discover you don't like what you're
doing - change! Don't let fear hold you back. Change is generally a good thing.
Expect stumbling along the way, and don't forget to nurture your relationships
with friends and family. In the scheme of life, they are what matters most." In fact, Drollinger marks her family as her greatest accomplishment. She said
that her two children, Matt Stiles, 21, a junior at Iowa State University, Ames,
and Jenny Stiles, 18, a freshman at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls,
are her greatest inspiration. As a single mom, Drollinger notes that the greatest
stress factor for her is time. "There just never seems
to be enough time in a day," Drollinger said. "But,
that's just the way it is for a working mom - the stress of constant deadlines
both at work and at home. But, it becomes a part of your life."
The secret to effective communication, Drollinger said, is being versatile,
being spontaneous (and enjoying it), and thriving on deadlines. "My
days never follow a set structure," she said. "It
also helps if you love people and you love to learn new things - that is the
lay of the land." To perform her job without outside consultants, she
said she has taught herself to master technology and to put it to work for her.
She uses QuarkExpress and Photoshop programs on a Power Macintosh computer,
with scanner and printer set-up. For photography, she uses a variety of cameras
from the old manual type to digital. She does all of her writing on the computer. "I have come full-circle," Drollinger said. "When
I was entering the full-time work force 15 years ago, my graphic arts degree
from the University of Iowa was obsolete - computer technology wasn't part of
the college programs of the '70s. When computer technology entered the work
arena, I viewed this as a new challenge and opportunity."
For the future, Drollinger said she plans to keep on learning new things and
meeting new challenges. "Next year, with both children
off at college, I might even have time to write that children's book I've had
swimming around in my head all these years."