Cindy McGovern (Ph.D, School of Communication, FSU), a 2026 CCI Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient, released her new book, The Permission Mission.  

The Wall Street Journal best-selling author and CEO has witnessed people limit their own potential by believing they need permission to pursue the goals and opportunities they want. With this book, she breaks that narrative and empowers people to reclaim their own voice. 

“I started seeing a pattern with these incredibly accomplished women. They were getting in their heads and talking themselves out of doing things, and I couldn’t understand why this kept happening,” said McGovern. “I started seeing that it wasn’t a confidence issue; it wasn’t a skills issue; it was a permission issue.”

McGovern first recognized this pattern within herself. After speaking with a mentor, she realized that she already had the answers to her own questions. “I had all of these backup singers and thoughts in my brain that were influencing my decisions,” said McGovern. “Part of it was recognizing that I did know what I was talking about. I did know what was best for me, and to stop trying to please everybody else and be perfect for them.” 

In her book, McGovern explores the different rules people place on themselves that can prevent them from pursuing what they want. She calls these “demographic rules,” which can be shaped by factors such as age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status.  

“I think for young people in particular, they get in a mental block once they graduate because you are equipped for a degree, then overnight you realize there is so much you still don’t know,” said McGovern. “So they create this invisible rule of ‘I can’t do this until I know more or have this amount of experience.’ Young people need to realize that they weren’t hired because they have experience; they were hired because they’re coachable.” 

A large part of McGovern’s mission is to change the way that people view sales. To her, sales is about personal empowerment and self-advocacy, themes that serve as the foundation for her book.  

“I think sales should be a class that we all take. It is always seen as a business skill, but it’s a life skill. The minute you graduate, you have to sell yourself in a job interview. It is learning to sell ourselves and ideas,” said McGovern. “A lot of times the hardest sales conversation is the one we have with ourselves, because we can talk ourselves into or out of anything.” 

Through her education at FSU and her work in academia, McGovern’s experiences have helped shape the work she does today. Her journey informed the advice she shares in The Permission Mission, drawing from her own experiences and communicating its message with purpose. 

“My education in communication was the best thing ever. It is the foundation for everything I have done because teams don’t work together without communication. Without communication, nothing gets done,” said McGovern.