Lauren Roxborough, Leading Y7 Studio's Marketing & Online Division

March 1st, 2021

Lauren Roxborough is the Chief Marketing Officer at Y7 Studio, a sweat dripping, beat bumping, candlelit yoga experience. Always having a penchant for Marketing, Lauren started her career as a Marketing Coordinator at sbe, a lifestyle hospitality company, and was instrumental in growing the company from the ground up. She joined Y7 Studio as their VP of Marketing and helped organized their marketing structure to scale and support more studio growth. As Chief Marketing Officer now, she’s launching and growing Y7 Online, their on-demand and streaming platform.

In this feature, Lauren shares her key learnings from her first role, helpful skills that helped her later in her career, why she joined Y7, and her day-to-day as Chief Marketing Officer. Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.

Early Career

You graduated from University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, and your first job post-grad was as a Marketing Coordinator at sbe, a lifestyle hospitality company. Why did you choose to pursue a career in Marketing?

Truthfully, I barely knew what a career in marketing entailed when I chose my major. What I did know is that I was brand-obsessed in the way the brand and consumer experience came together and wanted to explore it further. When I was younger I always admired (and critiqued) ads / commercials and I even used to make my friends play the “slogan game,” where you said a slogan and they had to guess what brand it came from. Safe to say, this typically ended with me conceding to play Nintendo instead.

I feel fortunate to have honed in on an authentic interest early on, and pursue it in my education. At USC, I learned from brilliant marketing minds and immediately knew I wanted a career doing this in some way.

You started your career at sbe when they only had one hotel and were about to open the SLS South Beach. What was your experience joining a company at an early stage and helping it grow from the bottom up?

Starting out my career at an early-stage company was the best learning experience I could’ve hoped for. There was such a sense of pride and satisfaction in launching that SLS because I could directly see the impact of my work in the final product and guest experience. I was also able to explore all areas within marketing – learning what I liked and just as importantly, what I didn’t like – and work closely with finance/revenue, operations, field teams. It gave me a well-rounded understanding of how all functions of a business operate together and the importance for marketers to work cross-functionally. That experience is one that set me up for success later in knowing how to organize teams and marketing strategies towards a common goal.

You rose the ranks at sbe quickly - from Marketing Coordinator to Manager, then Senior Director in a few years. What’s your advice for women looking to rise up within a company?

Find champions and find your edge.

(1) Finding champions within your company is the single most important thing you can do. This is a step beyond mentorship – seek guidance/support from someone who is a decision maker in the company, is in meetings you’re not in, will speak up for you, and will help you find successes within the company.

I will always credit one of my first bosses at sbe. Not only did she actively mentor me in my professional and personal growth, she championed for me amongst a very male-dominated environment, making sure my name was considered for more responsibilities, projects and eventually promotions.

(2) We all now have the same information at our fingertips - it’s those that are the most resourceful and can activate their own value in using it, that can do the most with it. Find what your edge is to stand out from the rest.

At sbe I made myself invaluable early on by simply helping with as many projects as possible, most of which were definitely outside my job scope. When I was a Marketing Manager, our CFO at the time needed help with a large, complicated project and I volunteered to take it on. I had zero experience in financial modeling but learned the basics to get this done successfully and figured the rest out along the way. Throughout the project I ended up working closely with our executive team, which ultimately accelerated opportunities for promotion. I had found my edge and was able to show what value I could bring to the company outside of my current role.

What key learnings did you take from your time at sbe? And what skills did you gain that helped you later in your career?

My biggest learning was in understanding the power of a team. You are better when surrounded with people who inspire and challenge you, and with those that you can trust. I always consider the way people trusted me early in my career when working with my team now. In building a strong team, invest in your talent – in hiring, in training and in your relationships with each other.

The biggest skill I learned was how to access your resilience. During my time at sbe, we went from 1 hotel to 22 hotels and 135 properties overall in the portfolio. Throughout such fast-paced growth, we had to stay agile in our marketing efforts, pivot quickly, and overcome several challenges. Nothing has better prepared me for working in a pandemic era now and strengthening our marketing resilience.

Y7 Studio

You joined Y7 a few years ago as VP of Marketing. What made you decide to leave sbe and what would your recommendation be for individuals considering leaving their role / company?

One of the last initiatives I worked on at sbe was closing a major hotel acquisition. I had accomplished so many milestones during my time there and knew that this was the peak of all those really proud moments. While there were times I had considered leaving the company earlier, I always saw more opportunities for growth and new challenges, and went for them. Right after the acquisition was done, I was feeling burnt out and actually went to a Y7 class seeking some mental clarity. As I was walking out of the studio, I received an email from a friend about a Y7 marketing position! It was all very serendipitous and I couldn’t have been happier in making the transition to Y7.

For me, the timing was aligned in terms of what I wanted next in my career, and I found another company that inspired me with new opportunities to grow and make an impact. When looking for the any role, take your time in finding a company where you believe in its mission, where you’re inspired by the leadership and their vision, and where you can learn and grow within the team.

You’re currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Y7. What exactly does your role entail and what is your day-to-day like?

No day is the same, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Since I started at Y7, we scaled from 5 to 15 studios nationwide. There was no marketing before I came on, so a lot of my role is focused on organizing our marketing structure to scale and support more studio growth – this involves anything from our team org and business objectives to implementing and running new systems and marketing programs to brand and creative direction.

On a day-to-day level, our team’s efforts shift based on the focus of the business. When we’re in opening mode, this involves creating and executing our opening marketing plans, leading our opening Critical Path with other departments, forming strategic partnerships, and managing our agencies to focus on growth and performance.

Now we’ve pivoted our business entirely to digital during the pandemic, where everyone on the team has also transitioned in their roles to focus on digital. My days now include working with my incredible team to launch and grow Y7 Online, our on-demand and streaming platform. This includes product development, video production, content strategy and overall working to continually improve the at-home experience for our community.

What about the future of Y7 and fitness are you most excited about?

The rise of digital has completely reshaped how people are approaching their physical and mental wellness in a really exciting way. We now have more information to be educated on our health, we have better tech to measure/monitor/track, and we have more on-demand resources and solutions for fitness, therapy, etc. to find what works best for your holistic wellbeing.

The transition to digital has democratized the sector in a lot of ways, reducing barriers that existed before around the cost to access fitness classes, physical access to locations, and the intimidation factor of trying out new ways to practice self-care.

I’m really excited at the trend in this direction and for Y7 to be a part of this – we are now able to reach far more people than we ever could have within the walls of the studio. Though we can’t wait to re-open our studios soon, the pandemic forced us to create a digital product so you can access the Y7 experience anywhere.

Advice

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?

There is a constant pressure as women to be perfect, and I felt this just as much in my early career. You’ve probably heard this stat cited by Sheryl Sandberg that men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of them.

I wish I knew that I didn’t have to be perfect, and to recognize what immense value I brought to any company before I had a career’s worth of experience on my resume.

What advice do you have for young women in their early career who are looking to build careers in Marketing?

You can be a seasoned marketer with a perfectly planned marketing strategy and campaign, but the most impactful marketing initiatives are those that tap into timely moments in culture with ways that resonate with your audience. Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s relevant, know your audience (duh), keep it authentic, question everything and don’t just go with the norm.

Who is one woman you aspire to be like?

RBG, always!