Advice from the Experts: Suzy Bills (Editor, BYU Professor, Former LDSPMA President)

By Lessa Harding

Do you remember the book Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery? One of the themes of that book (and the following books) is Anne’s search for kindred spirits. You know . . . other people who understand what you are going through and who help and love you as you go through it? Anne finds kindred spirits in girls her age, boys who tease her, resentful teachers, feisty old women, and young students who need her mentoring. She finds them in places she expects to and places she never thinks she will. In fact, at one point she says, “Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” In interviewing Suzy Bills, I found a kindred spirit.

Suzy is determined, lively, and self-motivated. She is dedicated to her students, her family, and her business. She enjoys running, dancing, and anything that takes her outside. But the thing that impresses me most about Suzy is her desire to help those around her succeed. Suzy says the only thing she loves more than owning her own editing and writing business is teaching at BYU because it is “neat to be able to help mentor those who want to edit.” She enjoys “paying it forward, seeing [students] grow, and watching them succeed.”

In addition to mentoring others, teaching classes, and running her own business, Suzy is president of LDSPMA and head of the Faculty Publishing Service at BYU. Suzy admits that juggling everything is a challenge: “[I] always feel like there is chaos in my head. . . .Trying to figure out how to take care of it all” is part of the job.

Of course, Suzy’s not the only one with diverse and demanding responsibilities. So how do we keep working toward reaching our goals despite the busyness of life? Suzy mentioned a number of ways she keeps her life moving forward, including by picking herself up after making mistakes and by reciting her mottos: “you can do hard things” and “pain is temporary—hard work brings fulfillment.” To help us do the same, Suzy shared the following advice:

• • “You have to be your biggest advocate. Things are not going to happen if you just wait around and hope that your manager will give you a promotion or sit around and hope that people will hire you. . . .You have to seek out the opportunities. When you do that, . . . you are not at the mercy of what other people offer.”

• • “You can’t be perfect. . . . Editors tend to be perfectionists, and in some ways we are expected to be perfect because we are expected to catch other people’s mistakes. . . . But we can’t be [perfect]. It is hard sometimes to get over the mistakes . . . [but] it’s okay to make [them]. Do the best you can. Acknowledge [the mistakes], and do what you can to make them right. Take responsibility, but don’t let them derail you.”

• • “The way to help people is to be encouraging and have a positive perspective.”

• • When you are trying to overcome a mistake or setback, Suzy recommends that you “look back and see what you can do to avoid it in the future. Self-reflection . . . [is key] to learning from [mistakes]. . . . We often learn more from our mistakes than from what we do right.”

• • “Have an action plan. . . . The action plan helps you move forward. Even if it doesn’t work, you can keep trying and revising the plan.”

• “Be okay with where you are right now. Just have your plan for how you are going to keep improving. . . . It’s okay [to] start where you are. Don’t let where you are right now keep you from getting to where you want to be.”

I hope this advice helps the rest of you kindred spirits out there as you work to achieve your goals! All the best!