If you love home and clothing retailer Anthropologie, you’re going to find tremendous value in this episode with Callie Canfield Worthington, their Senior Director of Brand Marketing and PR. Starting out working as many as 80 hours per week in the fashion closet at GQ Magazine, Callie hustled her way up the ladder, landing coveted marketing and PR roles at Gucci, Gap, Athleta, David’s Bridal, and BHLDN, before ultimately joining the fan favorite, Anthropologie.

Callie shares gems of wisdom throughout this episode that will inspire you if you’re an emerging leader or entrepreneur. Listen to the episode now on The Career Memos Podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Your career journey will have zigs and zags, but you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be.

Callie Canfield’s career has been an exciting whirlwind that has taken her from a Devil Wears Prada style role at GQ Magazine, to working at Gucci and eventually landing PR and marketing opportunities at Gap, Athleta, David’s Bridal, and BHLDN. While the work was amazing, fun, and thrilling, it was hard work, too. Each role built upon the previous one, teaching Callie how to have a razor sharp work ethic.

At Gap, Callie was offered a glass of champagne at the interview and quickly got swept into the warm and welcoming environment. After three years of dedicating herself to a role there in public relations, her mentor Tess offered her the chance of a lifetime – to join the team at Athleta, where Callie reached a pivotal moment in her career. 

She realized then what kind of leader she wanted to become and what type of work environment she wanted to pour her heart into. During her two-year tenure at Athleta, she marveled at seeing the brand expand from just one store into 50.

When she joined the team at BHLDN, she helped cultivate the marketing team from scratch, including the launch of their social media channels, and was quickly elevated into a more senior Marketing Director role.

Today at Anthropologie, Callie oversees public relations, social media, and brand storytelling. The role is as creative as Anthropologie is inspiring!

Saying yes to every opportunity will infinitely grow your success.

When Callie looks back on her career, the one thing that stands out to her is how often she said yes to opportunities and specifically sought out experiences she could step into without being asked.

The standout, A+ employees on Callie’s teams all had something critical in common: they proactively took initiative without being asked. 

If you’re an emerging leader like Callie once was, put yourself in the shoes of your manager. What is something you could take off their plate? How could you supply that updated social media plan for next quarter, or the pitch targets for that launch before being asked? 

Taking initiative and being proactive shows what kind of team player and employee you are. You’re adding value to the company and making your boss’s job easier. It’s one of the best ways to stand out and show up at work.

Balancing work and home life and how to handle feedback in the workplace.

As a leader at Anthropologie, the balance of home life and work life for Callie is real! Do you feel like you have a solid balance between your personal life and work?

Something I love about Callie is that she appreciates that her team members have other priorities outside of work. They may be happy employees that love what they do, but some  may have kids at home, or favorite hobbies they like to dedicate time to, whether it’s running, sewing, or reading. Maybe they have a side hustle. When she leads, she keeps the focus on that as much as possible and tries to remember the entire, whole person. 

And one final tip? Callie highlights the importance of being open to receiving feedback. This can be your secret weapon, propelling your career in ways you didn’t even realize were possible. It might be difficult to focus on the positive, especially if you’re given more direct or constructive feedback, but if you can pause, soak it in, and make change, it will make all the difference.

NOTABLE QUOTE

“Having confidence in yourself and then bestowing that confidence in your team so that they feel like they can do their best work and have opportunities to shine – that buoys the whole ship in the end.”