What Managing a Call Center and Being a Mom Taught David's Bridal CMO About Leadership

Kelly Cook has a reputation for three things: a straight-shooting, big-hearted leadership style, a laser focus on what the customer needs, and the ability to turn around marketing departments that are ready for digital transformation.

After leadership roles at DSW, Waste Management and others she took on the CMO gig at David’s Bridal in 2019, just as the company was recovering from bankruptcy and right before the global Covid pandemic all but shut down the wedding business.

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In this podcast episode of CMO Moves, Cook pulls back the curtain to show us how David’s Bridal has masterfully weathered the pandemic and taken the opportunity to speed up its digital transformation. She takes us inside the pandemic shutdown last March when the team created a virtual styling process in 10 days. Since then, it’s rendered its most popular dresses in augmented reality so customers can view bridal wear in their bedrooms. And as stores re-open, it’s partnering with a firm to bring the AR experience into stores.

“I think the bricks-and-clicks experience is going to be one and the same. I see it evolving more,” said Cook, who also became chief IT officer in May. “We’re putting online products virtually in a store.”

Millions of dollars of virtual styling sales later, Cook reflects on how critical that solution was considering only 7% of David’s Bridal’s sales happened online before the pandemic, and entire TV shows have been based on the premise of “saying yes to the dress” while surrounded by loved ones in a bridal shop.

Cook expects the number of weddings to increase by 20%-40% this year. “It’s a very exciting time to be in the love business,” she adds. And with a mission to “own every dress in her closet,” David’s is expanding into christenings, quinceañeras, Kentucky Derby parties and girls’ night out.

How CMOs from David’s Bridal and StockX Keep Post-Pandemic Innovation Alive

Like many CMOs, Cook could write a book about the kind of leadership it took to steer an organization through the existential threat of the past year. She generously shared five of her most inspiring and practical tips for executives—you can implement one of these today.

1. Get comfortable with being unpopular. Cook had this epiphany when she went from managing zero people to hundreds at a call center. Suddenly, it wasn’t enough to do the job well herself; she had to inspire her colleagues to go above and beyond. “The first mistake I made going into that job was [thinking] if I do everything right, everyone will like me,” she said. “What I realized is leadership is not a popularity contest. It’s about changing hearts and minds to make people want to do things differently for the customer.”

2. Fall on your face. Cook celebrates the “CLM Awards”—Career Limiting Moves. When employees make a mistake, they can nominate themselves for the honor (she’s won quite a few herself). The idea? “If we’re not making mistakes, we’re not taking enough risks,” she said. “Fall on your face, not on your butt—fall forward not back.”

3. Ask your kids for a review. Seriously. A mentor once encouraged Cook, a mother of five, to ask her kids one-on-one, “What kind of leader do you think I am at work?” If you’re a parent, your kids have a fascinating view into your leadership style. “The answers I got back were so interesting and cool and thought provoking,” she said. She has an entire presentation for women leaders about lessons from home that she’s applied directly to business.

4. Understand your strengths and weaknesses. It’s not just valuable information for that classic job interview question, it’s a roadmap to your leadership style. She recommends CliftonStrengths (formerly the Gallup StrengthsFinder test). The assessment revealed her superpower to be “learning,” and she says that trait draws her to turnaround opportunities. “I love learning from people, process, data, customer feedback—if I’m not learning you might as well put me 6 feet under,” she said. “In companies that need modernization, digitization, transformation, inherent in the act of turning that around, you’re going to learn a lot.”

5. Break rules for a reason. Cook is breaking two right this very minute. She chooses not to work with an agency of record because she finds the process too slow. And she hasn’t hired a single model in six months, instead tapping employees and their friends for campaigns. The move is saving money and emphasizing the brand’s appeal to the everywoman. “Our ethos is real people, real brides, authenticity. I want people to look at our marketing and think, ‘I could totally do babes that brunch with that girl,'” she said. “If we look uppity, we’ve lost it.”

Hear more about Cook’s career journey and candid insights from the trenches of transformation on the June 28 episode of CMO Moves.