What made you want to do the work you do? Please share the full story.
Before Direction, I worked as a Mandarin linguist in the Air Force, deployed to Afghanistan, then worked as an intelligence analyst at the NSA. That job taught me to find what’s not being said and healthcare messaging needs exactly that skill.
How is AI changing your business? What changes are you making to adapt?
AI speeds up research and first drafts, but it flattens patient nuance fast. We use it early, then a person rewrites the final voice every time. Healthcare clients specifically ask us to document that human review now, more than they did two years ago.
What are the 3 things you like best about your work and why?
I like taking a scattered client brief and turning it into one clear message. I like watching better content actually move a healthcare client’s numbers, not just their rankings. And I studied fashion merchandising before any of this, so I still notice when a page looks wrong before I can explain why.
What are your greatest 3 skills and how have they helped you succeed?
Years reading intelligence reports taught me to ask the question nobody else asks first. That habit catches problems before they reach the client. I notice patterns across scattered feedback, and I can turn a strong visual idea into copy that actually converts.
Tell us about a time where you saw a surprising outcome that you did not expect.
I doubted a headline angle on a client campaign and almost pulled it before launch. It ran anyway and beat our safer pick by a wide margin. Now, I trust the data over my gut on headline testing.
What is the biggest challenge you face each day and how do you handle it?
Healthcare content has to clear legal review on top of SEO and voice, three demands pulling in different directions. I built a process that flags conflicts before a draft reaches the client.
What do you value most and why?
I value plain language over polish. A patient reading discharge instructions doesn’t need clever, they need to understand it the first time. That standard came from intelligence work too, where a misread line has real consequences.
What achievement are you the proudest of and why?
I wrote The Heart Reset about healing after divorce while running full client work and raising three kids. Most of it got written before 6am, before the day’s meetings started.
Who is your favorite motivational speaker and why?
Brené Brown. Her work on rebuilding identity after loss shaped how I wrote The Heart Reset. She says the hard thing plainly instead of dressing it up, and that’s the same standard I hold my client work to.
What advice would you give to your younger self and why?
Stop rewriting the same paragraph five times before showing anyone. Fashion school pushed rough drafts out the door fast, and I forgot that lesson for a while in marketing. I relearned it the hard way on a deadline I almost missed.
Are you willing to be a mentor? If yes, what is the best way to reach you?
Yes, especially for people moving into creative work from an unrelated field, like I did from intelligence. Message me through Direction.com or find me on LinkedIn. I check both and respond within a few days. But here is my direct email to reach me: madisonkirksey@direction.com
Just for fun, what is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Pistachio. And grateful i’m not allergic to Peanuts.