As part of Women in Retail Leadership Circle’s 2022 Top Women in Retail report, which features in-depth interviews with leading female execs from across the industry, we asked honorees to describe a risk they’ve taken in their career and how it paid off. Here are a few of their insightful responses.

“One of my biggest career opportunities has been taking on the global CEO role at GODIVA in December 2020. This meant moving to another country (from Turkey to the U.S.) and undertaking the transformation of one of the world’s most beloved brands, all during the peak of the pandemic. I bet on myself, and I took this chance to unlock the full potential of GODIVA, which has been pivotal in the trajectory of our brand’s story, as well as my own development as a leader. The biggest reward of taking this step has been watching the results of our collective efforts payoff and seeing GODIVA expand across new industries to delight consumers in new and unexpected ways.” — Nurtac Ziyal Afridi, Global CEO, GODIVA

“When I was a marketing executive at Revlon in New York City, I took a risk to move across the country to Los Angeles and join Mattel as vice president of marketing for Barbie. This was a highly visible, high-stakes job on an iconic brand in need of a makeover — and I was coming in with no prior experience in the toy industry. I had to quickly learn a new business while simultaneously charting the global brand on a new growth plan. This led to the creation and launch of Barbie Entertainment, which became an amazing success story and one of the proudest moments in my career.” — Jamie Cygielman, GM, American Girl, and President, AG Retail, a Division of Mattel

“Throughout my career, I’ve had great mentors that have given me advice and helped me navigate career and business decisions. One key piece of guidance I received was about advocating for myself. I’ve always been a hard worker and thought that the results of my work would be enough for career advancement. I never thought about asking for more exposure to get to that next level — it wasn’t my personality. Shortly after receiving this advice, I was able to attend a Macy’s conference where an external speaker talked about emerging trends in business and technology, and the importance of having a reverse mentor to teach leaders about unfamiliar spaces. As one of the few millennial leaders at the time in the room, and with the support of my mentor, I approached one of our senior leaders at the time (and now CEO), Jeff Gennette, and asked to be his reverse mentor. He said yes! This gave me the forum to share ideas and insights around where Macy’s could improve to be more relevant with a younger consumer. It also allowed me to build a strong relationship with leadership within our organization, and most importantly gave me the confidence to speak up and share my ideas.” — Nata Dvir, Chief Merchandising Officer, Macy’s

“Joining Ulta Beauty was a risk for me, and wow, what an amazing ride the last seven years have been! I ‘grew up’ in CPG and didn’t have any beauty or retail experience, but it was clear pretty quickly that my experience was transferable. My ability to lead and inspire teams, to develop strategy and build brands, and to create meaningful experiences — these have been key to success throughout my career and most notably at Ulta Beauty. This has been the most rewarding role of my career and I truly believe we’re changing the way the world sees, feels and experiences beauty — the risk has paid off and then some!” — Shelley Haus, Chief Marketing Officer, Ulta Beauty 

“I quit my job two weeks after President Donald Trump was elected to start Mented. It was a scary time and I wasn’t sure, at all, if I was making the right decision. But I woke up every morning determined to keep working until it stopped making sense — and it continued making sense, thankfully. And now it actually pays my bills!” — KJ Miller, CEO and Co-Founder, Mented Cosmetics

To hear more from these women leaders (as well as other honorees) on additional important topics related to both leadership and the retail industry, download the full report 2022 Top Women in Retail report here.

Want to connect with more women leading the retail industry? Become a member of Women in Retail Leadership Circle today!