The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business with Laura Rice

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Mike Liwski** (0:16)
I noticed you were like, having started the show yet, and you're teary eyed.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:21)
No, I'm not. But Laura, I do have someone that's got you beat. She is 51 and pregnant.

**Mike Liwski** (0:29)
Wow.

**Laura Rice** (0:29)
Okay.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:30)
You have adopted, what is it, three years in your adoption journey?

**Laura Rice** (0:35)
Yes, since I met her.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:36)
You're worried about being an older parent while she's on a whole different path of-

**Laura Rice** (0:43)
It's all good, right?

**Mike Liwski** (0:44)
Yeah. It's all good.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:48)
Welcome. Welcome to the show, everyone. It's The Bliss Business Podcast where we explore empathy, connection and purpose and how they transform your business from the inside out. Stephen here joined by Mike as always.
A little data here. According to research from McKinsey, leaders who exhibit high emotional intelligence are linked to 30 percent higher employee engagement and 20 percent stronger overall performance. Yet, emotional intelligence is still often undervalued in leadership pipelines and decision-making. Well, today, we're exploring why EQ is not just a soft skill, but a strategic imperative. Mike, introduce our guest today.

**Mike Liwski** (1:28)
Stephen, I am super excited for our conversation today with our special guest because not only is she a business leader, but she's also the Chief Marketing Officer at the Celebree School. And so I want to say Laura Rice is one of the first, or maybe the first marketers on our show. So we've got-

**Stephen Sakach** (1:51)
Why do we not invite the tribe in earlier and-

**Mike Liwski** (1:53)
Yeah, exactly. But we need to have more leaders as well that are members of the same tribe and speak the same language. But to tell you a little bit more about Laura Rice. So yes, she is the CMO at Celebree School. With nearly three decades of experience in marketing, Laura's been really instrumental in driving the brand and the growth of that brand, as well as developing the franchise for Celebree School, and even the national visibility that it has.
Now, for one of the country's leading early childhood education brands. So Laura, we can't wait to hear more about your work and your approach. Welcome to our show.

**Laura Rice** (2:38)
Thank you. I'm really excited to be here today.

**Mike Liwski** (2:41)
Absolutely. We're happy to have you. So Laura, maybe just to kick things off a little bit, maybe you may want to remind our audience a little bit about Celebree, and then tell us a little bit about the work that specifically you're doing there.

**Laura Rice** (2:56)
Okay. So yeah, so Celebree is a preschool company. We've been around since 1994, and in 2019, we decided to franchise the concept. So it's been a whole new world for us. And I've been with the brand for my, Saturday will be my four-year anniversary, or a sell-aversary, as we like to call it. And it's been great to grow with the brand, because as you can imagine, a lot has happened in the last four years, with going from, you know, no franchise schools open to 33, 34, actually our 34th open yesterday in Louisville, East Louisville. So it's just a really exciting time in building this team. I'm actually over top of all of the brands. We have six or seven brands under the Huffman Family Brands that I lead the marketing for. So we're a lot of shared services here. So definitely a growing company and an exciting place to be.

**Mike Liwski** (3:44)
It is exciting and you do great work.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:47)
Yeah. Congrats on the, what did you say, number 34?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:50)
Yeah.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:52)
So, you know, I think emotional intelligence, it kind of is sometimes just a buzzword, you know, in some leadership circles. But, you know, there are ways you can apply it in tangible strategic, you know, ways. Can you take us maybe back to when EQ became kind of central to your approach and maybe, you know, how that's played out for your career?

**Laura Rice** (4:17)
Sure. Well, I'd like to start by saying I have this small little heart on my arm. So it's a reminder that I wear my heart on my sleeve. So I think, you know, I've had this for about eight years now, as the first one I ever got. And it's just a symbol of how I lead, how I, you know, I'm very empathetic, transparent. I have a deep sense of connection with people. It's not just about, you know, what they're saying. It's about what they're not saying. So, but this wasn't always a common thing. I feel like, you know, people this day and age have a really good advantage of emotional intelligence being such at the forefront, where when we started, you know, 30 years ago, or I said we, but I met myself. I wasn't trying to age you guys.