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The Surprising Secrets to a Successful Career Pivot
- Emily Goldfischer
- Oct 6
- 5 min read
Charlotte St. Martin’s career has never followed a script. She started in sales, worked hard, and quickly rose to become president of the Loews Anatole Hotel, a property that was larger than life even by Texas standards. Built in 1979 on a sprawling 46-acre campus in Dallas, the Anatole opened with 900 guest rooms, a soaring atrium, and oodles of meeting space, instantly becoming one of the largest and most important convention hotels in the country. Four years later it was expanded to 1,620 rooms and hosted the 1984 Republican Convention. Charlotte put the Anatole on the map, and the opening put her on the map too, making her one of the very few women in hospitality leadership at the time. And in Texas, everything is big, but this hotel was a very big deal — it was the height of the 1980s oil boom and the peak of the TV show Dallas.
In 1990 Jonathan Tisch promoted Charlotte to executive vice president of operations and marketing for Loews Hotels, and Charlotte then commuted between New York and Dallas for almost six years as she continued to be president of the Anatole until the hotel was sold in 1995. Charlotte’s success didn’t go unnoticed as she was in the C-suite at a moment when women were almost entirely absent from executive ranks. Charlotte carved out a reputation as a brand builder and change maker who could rally people around a shared vision. It wasn’t easy. Loews was a smaller player up against giants like Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott. “We had to fight harder to be noticed,” she recalls. Her efforts helped the company punch above its weight, building a brand people recognized even without the scale of the mega-chains.
Then came the twist no one saw coming. After leaving Loews in 2006, Charlotte was tapped to lead The Broadway League. The national trade association for commercial theater, the League represents more than 700 members (producers, theater owners, and presenters) and co-presents the Tony Awards. For New York insiders, the appointment was a shock. Charlotte was a hotelier, not a theater veteran. But what she did bring was exactly what Broadway needed: decades of association leadership, deep experience uniting stakeholders with competing agendas, and a career built on proving she could succeed as an outsider.
Over the next 18 years, she guided Broadway through labor strikes, economic downturns, and a global pandemic. None of it was simple, and much of it was exhausting, but Charlotte never stopped showing up. She retired in 2024, leaving behind a stronger, more connected industry. Her pivot playbook? Lean into what you know, listen more than you speak, and never be afraid to outwork everyone else in the room.
From Hotels to Helping Headliners: Why Broadway Bet on Charlotte
“The reason I was hired wasn’t because I knew theater,” Charlotte says. “It was because of my association work. I joined my first association when I was 22, an HR association, and later got deeply involved in ASAE, MPI, PCMA, NYSAE and other associations. I chaired several of them. So while Broadway was brand-new to me, running a member-driven trade association was not.”
Being so active in associations didn’t just pad her résumé, it shaped her as a leader. Taking on volunteer board roles gave Charlotte outsized responsibilities and visibility long before she had the same titles in her day job. “When you chair an association, you’re suddenly leading people who don’t work for you,” she explains. “You have to build consensus, motivate volunteers, and make things happen without a paycheck attached. That taught me skills I used at Loews, and eventually at Broadway.”
That experience gave her the tools Broadway needed: listening to members, navigating competing interests, and turning feedback into action. “I didn’t know Broadway’s politics, but I knew how associations worked. My job was to figure out what the members wanted and how to deliver it.”
422 Meetings Later…
Charlotte’s method for mastering a brand-new industry? She met with everyone. Literally.
“I didn’t know Broadway’s history or politics, so I had to learn,” she says. “In my first year, I scheduled 422 meetings. In every one, I asked the same three questions: What do you like about the League? What don’t you like? And what would you change if you were in my shoes?”
It was exhausting… but it worked. And for Charlotte, it wasn’t new. It was association muscle memory. “In associations, you learn very quickly that listening is the job. You don’t get things done by telling people what to do, you get things done by finding out what matters to them and helping them get it,” she says.
Those 422 meetings did exactly that. “It gave me an education no manual could provide,” she says. “And it showed people I was there to listen. They knew I wasn’t coming in to tell them how to do their jobs. I was coming in to understand how I could help.”
Stop Talking, Start Listening
Ask Charlotte for her leadership secret and she doesn’t hesitate. “My strength has always been relationships. I ask questions. I try to get to know people personally. I want to understand what problems they need solved. That’s how you create trust.”
And that’s how she views networking, too. “It’s not about small talk or collecting business cards. It’s about solving problems for people. If you help them, they’ll remember you.”
The Only Woman in the Room
Charlotte was often the only woman in the room. “There were very few of us,” she recalls. “I always tried to hire women, and made a point to mentor them, and sponsor them, and I’m proud of that. Diversity in leadership builds stronger organizations. In the beginning Charlotte defended the lack of women in leadership positions at that time, but was very vocal that they were building their skills and within a period of time would be ready for the C-suite. But the truth was, not many got promoted for many years.”
She rejects the tired idea of women sabotaging each other. “The Queen Bee myth, that women don’t support each other, was only partially true in my experience. The bigger issue was the men. Too often, they thought if they had one woman at the table, they were done. That kind of tokenism doesn’t build depth, and it doesn’t build a bench.”
Charlotte’s Cheat Sheet for a Career Pivot
Charlotte’s career shows that a successful pivot isn’t about having all the answers… it’s about asking the right questions and building the right relationships. Her blueprint:
Play your strengths. “I was hired because of my association background. That carried over, even if I didn’t know theater.”
Do the work. “Four hundred twenty-two meetings taught me more than any report ever could.”
Listen first, act second. “Trust comes when people see you want to understand them.”
Stay persistent. “There’s no shortcut. You just keep showing up, working harder than everybody else.”
Her biggest reminder? “Leadership isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about listening, building relationships, and solving problems together. If you can do that, you can succeed in any industry.”