WHAT WORKS: Profiles from the Ladder
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At WORKS, we’re surrounded by amazing women accomplishing fantastic feats and we want to share the wealth. Advice is one thing, but it’s infinitely cooler and more meaningful when it comes straight from the mouths of the women who know WHAT WORKS. While I’m sure you’re familiar with the inspiring careers of Hillary Clinton, Meg Whitman, and Andrea Jung, there’s a new breed of woman on the ladder – YOU. We want to share and celebrate your stories.
For our first installment, regular WORKS contributor Hallie Goodman nominated her friend Lisa Lupinski. Lisa has built an exciting career, rising to her current position in public relations for Marc Jacobs fragrance. She started out in the world of beauty, but has been steadily moving toward her ultimate goal—a career in fashion. Although it may look like she’s already arrived, apparently there’s a big difference between working for a clothing line and working for a fragrance line, because fragrances are generally licensed by outside companies. Who knew??
After reading this interview I hope you’ll be inspired to take more responsibility and control in your career. Enjoy!
-Nicole
The Dream: In-House PR for a Top American Designer
Lisa loves to be out discovering new things. She’s been obsessed with fashion since she was three years old, when she would stage her own photo shoots and make her mother take pictures of her favorite shoes and clothes to send to her aunt in Texas.
Her first job in New York City was at Clinique (an Estee Lauder company), working as the vice president’s assistant. Within three and a half years she’d been promoted to manager. “It was cool to have a lot of momentum in those first few years. I got a taste for it. I thought: I expect this now—I deserve it!” says Lisa. If you are reading this and thinking, “Um that’s great and all, but my situation is different. My company never promotes anyone that quickly,” then read on. If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that these things don’t just happen. You’ve got to make them happen.
Here are 5 things that Lisa does that help set her apart from the pack. Here’s what WORKS:
She ASKS For Promotions and Raises
Most women aren’t altogether comfortable making financial demands. We’re afraid of coming across as pushy. But Lisa explained that she’s had to press her bosses for every promotion, even in the early years of her career. “Promotions aren’t just handed to you!” she explains, “I know it’s not easy, but I pushed for each one.” She also negotiated several salary adjustments—something that many of us don’t realize is an option! “People came in [to the company] from other brands with higher pay scales and I knew it. So I approached my boss. I explained that I was a top performer, so I wasn’t going to accept making ten or twelve thousand less than a peer.” Each time, Lisa’s employer agreed to adjust her salary—though she didn’t always get everything she asked for. “Eventually I’d hit a wall. Maybe I tried for ten and got five, but my feeling is, ‘Hey, that’s five more than I had!’”
She Tells People About Her End Goal
Lisa doesn’t just mention where she wants to be to her closest work friends—she makes it known to anyone who will listen. Her bosses and coworkers know that fashion is her dream. Because she’s so vocal she often snags the most fashionable duties within a job. For example, at Clinique she got to go to Paris and check out the fabrics that designers look at to plan for their following season. From that she created a trend story (a collection of fashion conscious makeup colors), which went on to become the company’s top selling trend to date! “I don’t bring it up during an interview, but once I’m in, if there’s an opening a step closer to fashion, I take the initiative. I’ll go straight to my boss the day I hear about it and ask her to consider me.”
She Leaves Jobs Even When She Has Strong Personal Relationships
“Leaving a great boss or my friends in the group is always hard! When I left Clinique, I was crying. When I left Stila, I was crying; but I couldn’t pass up the next big thing.” This is a tough one for women. How many men think twice about leaving a company for more money or a better title because of friendships? We’re guessing not many. But most women we speak to list this as a concern. “Leaving a boss I loved – a woman who supported me and treated me like a friend – was definitely the hardest career choice I’ve ever had to make,” says Lisa. Bottom line? She did it anyway, and found ways to maintain the relationships that really mattered.
She Finds a Way to Pursue Her End Goal in Her Current Job
Rather than thinking of your current job as just a place to pay your dues or as a great addition to your resume, search for tasks that will help you get closer to where you really want to be. For example:, while doing fragrance PR, Lisa tries to think strategically from a fashion perspective. “Rather than just trying to get the perfume in the press, I always tie it back to the fashion line. I tie it into every single press release I write. Because of that, I can now look back and say, ‘I’ve done these stories over 300 times now, so I can do a fashion story. I’ve gone to all the runway shows, I see how it’s done. I’ve been watching and I’ve learned a lot!’”
She Seeks Out MORE Responsibility When She Wants to Move Up
Lisa says yes and keeps saying yes when it comes to increased responsibility. At Clinique, she made a name for herself as a leader even when she was an assistant manager. She took on additional tasks—doing as much management-level work as possible. In this way, Lisa grew the job description to fit the job title she really wanted. At Stila, when she wanted to move from Marketing Manager to Director, she filled in for her boss whenever possible, and took on more and more directorial responsibilities until the title was all but a formality. Once again, the strategy paid off, and she was awarded the position and the opportunity to work closely with the CEO and founder of the company.
At Michael Kors fragrance, where she started as Director of PR, she increased her overall workload by adding Missoni fragrance to her roster—a move that brought its own fashionable perks. “I got to travel to Italy, work with Margherita Missoni and attend all the runway shows,” she remembers. She even ended up strolling down the runway herself, filling in for an absent model at the last minute at a show in Las Vegas (see photo). Again, in less than two years she’d been promoted to Executive Director of PR.
Lisa was lured to her current job at Coty largely due to the opportunity to work with the Marc Jacobs brand (Coty operates the fragrance lines of many designers, including Marc Jacobs). “It’s a brand I admire and would love to work for directly,” explains Lisa. In the short time that she’s been at Coty, Lisa’s already been assigned four more brands—which means quadruple the responsibility. She’s currently in charge of PR for Marc Jacobs, Vera Wang, Chloe, Vivienne Westwood and Jil Sander fragrances.
When we mentioned to Lisa that she seemed close to where she wanted to be, she agreed. But the next step is a difficult one. “Positions are very limited. There aren’t a lot of fashion brands in the US and I don’t want to leave the country. Besides that, I only want to work for one that I love, which narrows it even more,” she says. “Hopefully someone will see I’m ready for the next step and will take me on for fashion!”
We think that it’s only a matter of time. Curious to see where she goes from here?
We’ll update WHAT WORKS – and let you know when Lisa lands her dream job.