“Know what makes you great,” Marie Lee from Princess Cruises

Meet Marie Lee, CMO of Princess Cruises, where she leads all aspects of marketing to drive the business forward. Marie plays a key role across every facet of the business to strengthen brand health, generate demand, drive conversion, and enhance the guest experience. She is a dynamic leader with a proven track record in creating customer-centric strategies derived from audience insights and data-driven performance that deliver business results.

Marie met with Morgan James, Content Marketing Specialist at SiriusXM Media, to discuss the secrets behind a successful career like finding your strengths, taking charge of your career, and knowing your stuff.

Give the full interview a listen, then check out some highlights from the conversation below.

Be reliable.

Highlight: “Know what makes you great. Know in your mind, in your heart, ‘This is what I love to do, and this is what makes me great’... You want to be reliable so that no matter what, people can count on you to get things done. And when you can't get things done, you're communicating, ‘Hey, I can't get this done, here's why, and here's what I'm gonna do about it.’ Because that continues to build your trustworthiness and your reliability.” - Marie Lee

Be someone everyone likes to work with.

Highlight: “An addition to the network is also being someone that everybody says, ‘She's amazing. She's incredible to work with. No matter what she does, she does it well.’ If you have that reputation and you have the network, you can go anywhere.” - Marie Lee

Take control of your destiny. 

Highlight: “There was a big layoff at Disney in 2017… And in that moment, I started to think, ‘I want to take control of my own destiny.’ I'm not going to just seek what looks good in the next position. I really want to take my career and pull it on a trajectory towards being someone that is setting a strategy and making decisions and driving the business forward.” - Marie Lee

Give yourself grace to make changes.

Highlight: “Where do you want to be in five years from now? What's your vision for that? What's your mission for 10 years? What does your career look like? And then work your way backwards to see, ‘Well, okay, here's where I am now.’ And then give yourself the grace to make changes along the way because as a human you change and you want something different.” - Marie Lee

Take constructive feedback.

Highlight: “When someone can give you that constructive feedback, that really is what moves you forward… It's not easy to give tough feedback. If someone is actually taking the time and making the effort to give you tough feedback, they care about you, they care about your career. They want the best for you. And you have to take it in that light and really try to understand what they're saying.” - Marie Lee

Know your stuff.

Highlight: “Know your stuff inside and out. When you walk in a room, be able to answer the questions that are being asked. Anticipate what's going to be asked. And when you don't know, confidently say, ‘That's a great question. I actually don't know the answer to that question, but I'm gonna go find out, and I will come back to you.’” - Marie Lee

Identifying your strengths and the things that make you a great coworker and leader are critical for a successful career like Marie’s. For more inspiring content, check out the Pass the Mic page.

Looking for advice? Read on.