By Marianne Radley, Smoothie King

I t’s always been my intention to help revolutionize marketing. Having spent more than 25 years working in global marketing, advertising and product innovation with iconic brands such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, YUM! Brands, Monster Energy Beverage Company and now Smoothie King, I’ve learned what it takes to separate from the competition and truly break the mold.

At each stop in my career, I’ve gained knowledge that has helped shape me as a female marketing leader. While each professional journey is unique, I do believe there’s certain traits that are consistent across female leaders that have set the standard in franchising. Leaders must be empathetic, embrace the challenge and stay true to themselves. Accomplish these three important items and you can build a successful career.

1. Adopting an Empathetic Leadership Style

I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside some incredible people — many of whom have become my lifelong mentors. Exuding empathy was a trait they all shared and that helped me gain real value from our interactions. Empathetic leaders produce the best teams and work because they take the time to care for the people around them. In learning your team’s genuine interests, roadblocks, strengths and overall point of view, a leader will create trust. When there is a mutual feeling of trust, relationships thrive, and chemistry is created. Celebrating another person’s successes and helping them bounce back from failure is the ultimate motivator, and the best team is often made up of individuals who feel seen and heard. Show empathy and care for your team and they will respond with quality work that drives the business forward.

Leaders must be empathetic, embrace the challenge and stay true to themselves.

2. Embrace the Challenge

Marketing presents many challenges — especially marketing for a franchisor, considering the model and your responsibility to your franchisees. However, the biggest challenge I’ve faced is that a lot of people want to be a marketer — even without a marketing background.

Marketing is subjective, which means everyone has an opinion. Many voices are contributing to how a brand should be messaged, what products should be launched and when, what media platforms we should show up on and where dollars should be spent. People are very passionate about marketing and will often make a lot of noise when it comes to how they feel about a brand’s promotional tactics or campaigns. To be successful, you must embrace the challenges presented and navigate them efficiently.

Identifying the right challenges for your brand will get you started. This allows you to remain focused on building a brand strategy, as well as breakthrough marketing campaigns that will drive sales and profitability for your franchisees and company. Most recently, we put this into action with the launch of our Smoothie Bowls. We knew the challenge of entering a category that some of our competitors are already in, but embraced it, listened to a variety of contributors and launched. We’re excited to continue innovating our menu to meet consumer preferences and now hold the title of largest smoothie bowl destination in the country.

Show empathy and care for your team and they will respond with quality work that drives the business forward.

Being challenged is one of the best parts of the job. It may create frustrations, but overcoming those frustrations will build you into a better leader and business professional.

It can be extremely rewarding to take on something big and turn it into a success, which is why I always embrace adversity that may arise throughout the journey. Each ‘ugh’ moment grants us the chance to improve our strategies, forward-thinking and response mechanisms. Your success is defined by how you react in difficult situations, so choose your behavior wisely.

Being challenged is one of the best parts of the job. It may create frustrations, but overcoming those frustrations will build you into a better leader and business professional.

 Stay True to Yourself Throughout Your Professional Journey

Throughout your professional career, you’ll be presented with many opportunities. As these opportunities come your way, it’s important to be unapologetically yourself. Not in an antagonistic way, but rather finding the boldness within you and asserting it into everything you do.

As the first female to be named Budweiser Brand Manager in the company’s history, I felt a huge responsibility. Not just to lead a $112 billion company through new product innovation, marketing and sales, but to make the women of the workforce proud and to help give them a voice. I believe that my 15-year-tenure with Anheuser-Busch InBev was successful because I adapted the knowledge and skills gained in other roles and molded them to fit my vision and work ethic. That’s translated well to my work with Smoothie King. Staying true to myself, quieting my inner critic and trusting my gut has allowed me to come farther than I could have ever imagined.

The franchise marketing landscape is ever-changing, but with these three elements in mind, female leaders can guide themselves and their teams to success. Be empathetic, embrace challenges and stay true to yourself. This will set you on a path to a successful franchise marketing career.

Marianne Radley is the chief marketing officer for Smoothie King Inc., leading all brand marketing, advertising, sales and product innovation. She has received many marketing and product innovation accolades, including Forbes Magazine’s Top 100 Women in Brand Innovation, Adweek’s Top Women to Watch awards and the Cannes Lion Award for Marketing Effectiveness. For more information about IFA franchisor member Smoothie King, please visit franchise.org/franchise-opportunities/smoothie-king.

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