Her Story
About Mary
I'm an area leader for 7-Eleven franchise, which most people would recognize as a district manager role. What I do is partner with franchisees to help them be profitable while protecting the brand at the same time. We work together on brand standards and opportunities. I came to convenience after being recruited by 7-Eleven, which was a completely new genre for me since I had spent over 23 years in the restaurant world at that point. I was a general manager, then a district manager, and eventually became a district training manager overseeing 32 restaurants. I also taught pre-K for 13 years, which was another experience of its own. I'm very happy that I decided to go into convenience because I actually love what I do. Being able to help people grow and develop and watch them achieve the American dream is so rewarding for both them and me. I've helped franchisees grow their business portfolios - I have one that when I first got them over two and a half years ago, they were at one store and really trying to make a decision whether they were going to keep the one store or not, and now we are up to store number three. Just being able to help people see their potential and really show them and help them understand the whys behind what they're doing has been great for me. I wish I'd started in convenience earlier because this is wonderful work. My background has always been in training and developing people, and I went through extensive training when I became an area leader, which really helped me bring what I have to the table and merge my restaurant experience with my current role.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mary
01What do you attribute your success to?
First off, nothing is possible without God, so that is my number one. With all things, everything is possible with God. All my success in everything I've ever been through is because of God being by my side and leading me and guiding me through my path. I've also had some amazing leaders throughout my career from the beginning. They definitely coached and developed me and saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself at a very early age. And then my family - family is everything to me. They have supported me throughout my entire journey. My philosophy is love God, love people, and make a difference.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever got was seek to understand. What that means is never go into a situation with just your thoughts on your brain - seek to understand what's going on. Ask leading questions before just making an assumption on something. I do that in my everyday life. I don't just go into a store guns blazing. I seek to understand the situation. Maybe that franchisee just worked 16 hours in a row. You could easily go in there with your blinders on and pick apart everything that's wrong, but is that really going to get you the results that you want? It's best if you seek to understand what's going on, and then build a plan around that. I'm a big planner, so I always say this: if you don't have a plan, then you plan to fail. One of the things I tell my franchisees is, if we stay ready, we don't have to get ready. So it's always about building a culture of staying ready at all times, and that's in all aspects of business.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The best advice I could give somebody would be to love people and make a difference. People make the world go round. Your people are who get it done for you, and so if you could just grab hold to your people and lead them and guide them in the right direction, they will get the rest done for you. It's all about people.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In convenience, the biggest opportunity is understanding what your customers want and need, and being able to provide that for them. If you are unclear of your demographic, then it's going to be very different - it's going to be a little harder for you to really be able to put the products that your customers want and need inside of your stores. When you do some research and you understand a demographic, and not just a demographic, but who's actually walking into your building, and have those wants and needs that the customers want when they want it, that's where you're going to reap the biggest benefit. Getting the franchisees to see that and understand the whys behind it and controlling their inventory using retailer initiatives and bringing in some of those items that maybe they wouldn't have ordinarily brought in, but just because they realized that the demographic called for it. For instance, a lot of my stores didn't realize that they were a heavy-hitter Spanish market, so we were able to bring in some Spanish vendors and cater to that, and see some sales increase from that. Just really digging into the demographics and traffic really helped a lot, and getting my franchisees to see the benefits behind that - not just having the same old, same old private brand of 7-Eleven, but also having a little something different for the customer, basically catering to the needs of their community.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My philosophy is love God, love people, and make a difference. Everything is possible with God - all my success in everything I've ever been through is because of God being by my side and leading me and guiding me through my path. Family is everything to me. They have supported me throughout my entire journey. In my work, it's all about people - people make the world go round. Your people are who get it done for you. Community engagement is also very important to me, which is why I've worked with organizations like Angel Rings abuse and neglect shelter and partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank to help feed families in need.
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