GoDaddy’s CMO Reveals Blueprint for Being a Leader at Work and at Home

With a successful 20-year career in marketing at major brands like Dell and Amazon, Fara Howard has learned a lot of valuable lessons from supportive mentors that have undoubtedly prepared her along the way. But she actually attributes her strong work ethic to an investment she made years ago: building a family. As the CMO of GoDaddy, a tech company focused on providing everything from domains to websites to commerce solutions to their consumers, Fara's day-to-day is no easy feat, especially after a pandemic. Her role is to support GoDaddy consumers, who happen to be small business owners fulfilling their passions, fueling local economies, and enabling positive job growth while conveying products and services to empower them. The role requires strength, efficiency, empathy, problem-solving, and endurance—all skills she picked up while raising three kids incredibly close in age. With this as her foundation, she has a lighthearted take on work stress—it's not stress, they’re “solvable challenges.” For more wisdom and valuable life lessons, read on to learn about Fara’s method of “toggling” work and home life, why she is open about long work hours with her kids especially after this past year, and the golden advice she received from a mentor that has played a role in her success today. ADWEEK: How did you get to where you are today? I intentionally pursued a marketing career because I wanted to be in a creative discipline where I could bring together customers, communication, and business. Pursuing an MBA was important to me because I lacked the business foundation due to my undergraduate focus in science. Additionally, I aspired to work in sports marketing and landed a role right out of school at Gatorade. Working there taught me the value of deeply understanding the customer and getting out in the field (literally) with them to see how they engage with your product. The customer-centricity that I learned early in my career had an indelible impact on how I solve marketing problems. How do you foster strong professional relationships as you grow in your career? Invest in the next generation of marketers. Mentor future leaders inside and outside of your organization as well as hiring burgeoning marketers early in their career. By paying your experience forward, remember that you will continue to learn and grow as a leader yourself. I’ve learned so many valuable lessons from working directly with people that have different perspectives than I do. What’s one way you’ve invested in yourself that’s had the most impact over the course of your career? What about within the past year? This may be a surprising answer, but I’d contest that the investment I’ve made in my family has had a huge impact on my career. My children are incredibly close in age and today they’re 10, 11, and 12. Building a family forced me to be even more efficient and to take things in my stride. Life can be stressful, and it certainly was when I had three kids in diapers at the same time and a demanding job. Those moments are ones I hold onto when I experience what could be misconstrued as stress. Often work stress is not stress; they are solvable challenges! Building a family forced me to be even more efficient. One way I’ve invested in myself in the last year specifically is to make time for health and wellness. It’s been incredibly hard, particularly in an ‘always available’ work-from-home environment. Shout out to Peloton for making the best physical product I’ve bought in years. Making the time to be active helps me to clear my mind and be able to tackle work with a fresh perspective. How do you view work-life integration, especially now, and what advice can you share with others who may be struggling with it? I often talk about ‘toggling’ instead of balance. There are days in which I hyper-focus on work due to the needs at hand and days in which I need to focus on family. I think what is important is giving yourself ‘permission’ to focus by being honest with yourself, your peers and teams at work, and the people in your life. I often find myself telling my children that I ‘need to focus on work right now’ and I give them the context of why when the days are long, or I seem inaccessible. And one of the silver linings of COVID is that we’ve spent more time talking about what I do at work, so they better understand. On the family front, there have been times in which my family and life demands have been significant. During those times, I was honest with work about my needs, and I was able to find the time to focus on my family as well. Toggling is always difficult but it’s easier to find the space to focus if you’re honest and build empathy with the people around you. Can you recall a situation where you've dealt with typecasting in the workplace? And what advice do you have for other women on how to overcome typecasting at work? Throughout my career, I've found great advocacy with my Human Resources teams and they're great partners to bring forth training, programs and tools to broadly minimize typecasting. I'd encourage any leader who is passionate about driving change to enlist their HR peer's support. What’s one tip you can share or something you’ve learned on how to handle salary negotiations or raises? Know your value. Be clear and concise in articulating what your skills are, the projects you have led, and why you deserve to be compensated. Numbers don’t lie; the more specific examples and concrete, positive data you can provide to prove your worth are important. And one additional tip: state your expectations and then be willing to sit quietly in the discussion to let them respond. The silence will feel awkward, but my most successful negotiations have been managed by being ready, stating the key points, and not filling the silence with more context justifying why. Who has helped you in your journey and how did they help shape your career? Early in my career, a mentor of mine taught me to always raise my hand for every opportunity, even if I didn’t yet have the experience. Putting myself into situations that are new and sometimes daunting helps me the most. I have been able to push myself, learn skills and tackle new challenges because of it. What’s the single best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Stay curious. Industries, especially marketing, are constantly evolving. To stay on pace with what’s currently relevant or trending you have to ask questions, raise your hand for all opportunities and learn from others. The more curious you are, if coupled with the drive to deliver results, the more doors will open for you. What does success mean for you? Success for me is about being able to truly be present. Earlier in my life that meant being present to learn, to experience, and to grow. Success now is about being present for others, both at work and with family and friends. Success is about being able to listen and to meet people where they are. Because when you’re truly present, magical things happen. You can hear better. You solve problems faster. You have more fun. Trust grows and your relationships become more meaningful. Carta’s Mita Mallick Is Using Her Experience of Exclusion to Drive Inclusivity