The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business with Laura Rice
Laura Rice, Chief Marketing Officer of Celebree School, shows what EQ in marketing leadership looks like in practice: treating everybody as a customer, pausing before reacting, and building emotional intelligence into competencies, onboarding, and franchise support. Her people-first approach shows how empathy and results grow together.
EQ in marketing leadership starts with a simple idea: everybody is your customer. In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we welcome Laura Rice, Chief Marketing Officer of Celebree School, a preschool brand founded in 1994 that began franchising in 2019 and had just opened its 34th franchise school when we recorded.
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski
🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa
In this episode we explore:
• Why people want to be understood, not just managed
• How Stoic philosophy and emotional intelligence work together
• Treating parents, franchisees, and teammates as customers
• Building EQ into competencies, onboarding, and monthly workshops
• Keeping a local feel while a franchise brand grows
• The role love plays in a people-first culture
Laura started her career when marketing was about results, performance, and efficiency, and feelings were something to move past. After delivering results in a role where she was not seen, she decided to lead the way she would want to be led. Two years of practicing Stoic philosophy deepened that: the goal is mastering emotion, not suppressing it, with a pause before reacting.
At Celebree, the brand voice is rooted in trust, warmth, and empathy, and the promise to grow people big and small covers teachers, employees, and children alike. Laura’s in-office team is encouraged to walk over and talk rather than send an email, and ideas count for more than titles.
EQ is built into the system too. Every role is rated against competencies, onboarding covers mission, vision, and values rather than tasks alone, and monthly workshops on self-regulation and conflict resolution are open to everyone, franchisees included. Prospective franchisees also sit a competency interview during the sales journey.
For franchisees, Laura’s team pairs national campaigns with a yearly calendar of grassroots ideas and high-touch support, then shares the best local ideas across the whole system.
Seeing every audience as a customer whose feelings matter is the heart of the empathetic marketing Zero Company brings to its clients’ customer journeys.
Key Takeaways
• (5:02) On the leadership lesson from not being seen: “people don’t just want to be managed or micromanaged, but they want to be understood.”
• (8:04) On who counts as a customer: “It’s really about how the customer feels, like from coming from a customer point of view, and everybody is your customer.”
• (13:10) On what changes when you manage people: “You’ve got to be able to prioritize that because that is your priority, is the person walking in your door that needs your help.”
• (14:46) On onboarding with values: “We don’t just train on tasks, we orient ourselves with the values, the mission, vision, values of the company.”
• (22:56) On why new franchise owners need marketing: “So if you build it, they won’t come, because they don’t know you’re there.”
• (35:33) On feelings and calm on a marketing team: “I want people on this team to just remember that it’s okay to have feelings.”
FAQ
What does EQ in marketing leadership look like?
For Laura Rice, CMO of Celebree School, it means treating everybody as a customer, from parents and franchisees to a struggling teammate, and asking how you would feel in their place before deciding what to do.
How can a franchise brand build emotional intelligence into its systems?
Laura Rice describes rating every role against competencies, onboarding people on mission, vision, and values, holding a competency interview with prospective franchisees, and running monthly emotional intelligence workshops that franchisees can attend.
How does Stoic philosophy help leaders?
Laura Rice says Stoicism is about mastering emotion rather than suppressing it: pausing before you react and focusing on what is in your control instead of how other people respond.
When people feel understood, they bring their best ideas to the table. Learn more about Laura Rice and Celebree School at franchise.celebree.com, or connect with Laura on LinkedIn. See her guest profile, watch the video, read the companion post When EQ Outpaces Strategy in Marketing Leadership, or explore more Featured Guest Series conversations.
Chief Marketing Officer of Celebree School
Laura Rice joined Celebree in June 2021 and has served as the Chief Marketing Officer since March 2022. She oversees the marketing strategy and execution across all affiliated brands under Huffman Family Brands. In her role, Laura’s focus is driving awareness of the Celebree franchise opportunity in target markets, leading initiatives to grow the franchise network, and ensuring consistent brand development and visibility across the entire portfolio.
With more than 28 years of experience as a marketing professional, Laura brings a diverse background spanning equipment and real estate auctions, consumer products, Department of Defense contracts, and a decade in online K-12 and higher education. She is highly skilled at transforming complex ideas into actionable strategies, building integrated marketing plans, and executing campaigns that drive measurable results for both B2C and B2B audiences.
Laura is passionate about creating seamless customer journeys, aligning marketing and sales teams, and leading with an entrepreneurial mindset. She continuously refines processes to improve efficiency, ensure alignment, and enhance the experience for prospective and current franchisees.
Outside of work, Laura is a proud mom to her daughter, who attends both Caliday and Celebree. She loves coaching her in sports, cruising in her Jeep, and spending time with her beloved Basset/Beagle mix, Bernie.
