EP39 JANIS THOMAS :A Journey Through Leadership and Climbing the Career Ladder

Have you ever wondered how a leader's journey can shape the future of e-commerce and digital strategy? 
In a conversation that's as rich in wisdom as it is in inspiration, Janice takes us through the nuanced art of balancing stock management with financial predictions, emphasizing the importance of understanding your metrics. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned professional, her reflections on digital media, entertainment, and building community online are packed with strategic takeaways. So tune in to discover how Janice's career path, built on the cornerstones of luck, decision-making, and learning from the ebbs and flows of the commercial world, can empower your own professional trajectory to reach fabulous new heights.


Janis Thomas, Managing Director of Look Fabulous Forever, shares her career journey and the key moments that shaped her path. From starting in retail and learning the importance of forecasting, to transitioning from direct marketing to a broader marketing role, Janis has gained diverse experience in the entertainment, streaming, and e-commerce industries. She highlights the significance of taking risks and embracing new skills, as well as the challenges of redundancy. Janis emphasizes the importance of work-life balance and managing energy, and shares her core values of underpromising and overdelivering, as well as prioritizing personal development and soft skills. In this conversation, Janis Thomas discusses the importance of effective communication and how it is measured by impact rather than intention. She also shares insights on staying adaptive and innovative in an evolving industry, emphasizing the role of curiosity and awareness. The conversation then delves into the changing landscape of digital marketing and the challenges and opportunities it presents. Finally, Janis offers trailblazer tips for career success, highlighting the value of diverse skills and experiences, clarity in career goals, and the willingness to take non-linear paths.

Chapters

(00:00 )Introduction and Background
(01:24 )Key Moments and Decisions in Janis' Career
(05:09 )The Importance of Forecasting and Learning from Failure
(06:46 )Transitioning from Direct Marketing to a Broader Marketing Role
(09:40 )Taking Risks and Gaining New Skills at Playboy
(12:36 )Working in the TV Subscription World of Playboy
(14:30 )Building Streaming Platforms and Working in the Film Industry
(21:41 )Joining Birchbox and Achieving Growth and Profitability
(27:01 )Thriving as a Managing Director and Empowering Teams
(32:57 )Challenges Faced and Overcoming Redundancy
(37:58 )Significant Milestones and Affirmation of Impact
(40:31 )Work-Life Balance and Managing Energy
(46:23 )Core Values and Ethics
(49:41 )The Importance of Personal Development and Soft Skills
(51:23 )The Importance of Effective Communication
(52:14 )Staying Adaptive and Innovative in an Evolving Industry
(55:25 )The Changing Landscape of Digital Marketing
(58:01 )The Value of a Full Funnel Approach
(59:01 )Trailblazer Tips for Career Success

Watch on Youtube here :https://youtu.be/CsJQYrLvTjg 

Find Janis  @janisthomasmktg 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janisthomas/ 

Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
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Transcript

the Trailblazers Experience : 0:08

So welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast, sharing candid conversations with women about their amazing career journeys. My next guest is a seasoned leader. She is an expert in marketing, e-commerce and customer experience. She's grown diverse e-commerce and subscription businesses and had senior roles across e-commerce, digital media, entertainment, and is now managing director for a brilliant business called Look Fabulous Forever. Hello, janis.

Janis Thomas : 0:47

Hey Ntola.

the Trailblazers Experience : 0:48

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. I mean, I've been really trying to get you on this show because I think you're an amazing and formidable woman and sharing your story, your journey, is the whole purpose, so we can empower someone else.

Janis Thomas : 1:03

Thank you so much. I really love the podcast and you've had some amazing women on it, so I feel really privileged to be part of that group.

the Trailblazers Experience : 1:10

Thank you, do you know the power of digital, isn't it, janis? Just building that community and touching someone, whether it's yourself or somebody else, I think has been great about the journey. I feel like it's an act of service. I'm learning, but also empowering knowledge through wonderful women such as yourselves.

Janis Thomas : 1:30

Thank you.

the Trailblazers Experience : 1:32

So, janice, you've had an impressive career, but let's talk about that because it's spanned diverse industries such as Birchbox and Now Look Forever. Looking back on reflection, what are you doing? Can you share some key moments or decisions that sort of shaped your journey to becoming the e-commerce and managing director that you are right now?

Janis Thomas : 1:57

Yeah. So I think, as you said, I have had a very long and very diverse career and I think there have been a few different kind of factors that have played in. I think some of it is luck, some of it is conscious decisions and sometimes it's been a kind of positive force, as in I want to move towards X, and other times it's been the negative force I want to move away from Y. So I think, thinking about it, there are kind of three really crucial pivot points in my career where my career accelerated because of decisions I made which I think are really useful to share. The first one was real absolute luck that when I graduated from university I went to work for Dixon's Stores Group.

Janis Thomas : 2:51

So at the time Dixon's ran Dixon's Currys PC World. It was one of the biggest and most successful retailers in the UK at that time and it was an incredibly commercial environment. Every Monday we would come in at 6.30 to prep for the trading meeting, to have all of our metrics on margin and revenue and unit and you know against forecast and all of these things. So there's a real discipline around numbers and being expected to know your numbers and know how you're influencing your numbers and particularly introduced me to forecasting. That we would forecast on a company level, on a product group level, on an individual line level, because you would have to manage stock and you would have this. You know, stock turn was really important and on one hand, if you didn't buy enough stock into the business then you couldn't sell it, but if you had too much stock you then didn't have the cash to buy more stock in.

Janis Thomas : 4:05

So it was this incredible commercial environment to work in that I then took that discipline, particularly around forecasting, into the rest of my career. Because if you say right, what do I expect to happen and why and this doesn't just have to be revenue this can be how many views do you think this video will get and why do you think it? What you benchmarking against and then how did it actually perform and why did it? Why was that performance better or worse than you expected? So it's that discipline of really making you think about your assumptions and then check if they were right and you learn every time. So I think that commercial environment. I've then taken that into the rest of my career and it really accelerated everything I did after that. So that first step, which was real dumb luck was really, really crucial to everything that came after.

the Trailblazers Experience : 5:08

I feel there's a lot with perseverance. I remember my first forecasting experience and you know the naivety I think that comes with it at the beginning of your career, saying we actually have to predict what we think we're going to sell and how much we need and why don't we buy too much? What if it's not enough? What if you know it's too expensive? How do we negotiate? It was just mind boggling, I think. For me that was being plunged into the hot coals and just get on with it, but a bit of perseverance. But once you get into it you sort of understand okay, there are trends that you have to pick up on. Your best sellers are always your best sellers. You know there's sort of key principles that guide you throughout your career, but the beginning that must have been really intense for you.

Janis Thomas : 5:54

Definitely, and I think it also kind of immunizes you against failure to a certain extent, because you're never going to get any forecast 100% right and as long as you know why, you will. You, you, you, you, you.