“I don’t try to be a superhero – they only exist on TV.” So admits Margo Georgiadis, working mom and the woman responsible for the Discover Card brand. “It’s hard to do it all – you have to make choices.”

As Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Discover Financial Services, Margo has been instrumental in developing consumer-friendly products that help people save time and put more money back in their pockets. “I’m driven by the opportunity to make a difference, whether it’s creating something from scratch or improving upon something that already exists,” she says.

But despite her many responsibilities, the exec and mother of three still makes sure her family comes first. “I work incredibly hard when I’m at the office, but I’m very good about making sure I take my vacations and get home to do things with my family,” she explains. “I try to make sure that I keep those things in balance.”

Margo’s philosophy is all about knowing what matters most and making choices. “Make sure to always stick to your priorities and be satisfied when you are doing the best that you can,” she says. “There are always trade-offs… The key is to find balance among them and show your kids and husband that they are a priority, too.”

As a new mom and a consultant before her time at Discover, Margo was required to travel often as she worked her way up to becoming a partner, keeping her away from her husband and children. She soon realized that her time away was taking a toll on her family, so she made a choice and requested a “less exciting” position in the company that allowed her to be closer to home. “In the end, that decision proved to be good for me both personally and professionally,” she recalls. “It taught me that sacrifices can sometimes turn out to be opportunities, as several of these client experiences ended up reshaping my career in exciting ways I could never have imagined.”

Margo credits her parents as the reason she’s been successful in both her career and her family life. “My parents inspired me by teaching me that I could do anything I set my mind to.” Growing up on the South Shore of Chicago, Margo watched as her mom went from housewife to doctor of clinical psychology to a writer of health policy. “She was a true independent thinker that followed her dreams and blazed a lot of trails,” Margo says of her mother. “However, I always knew that she was my mom first.”

As a “not a-typical late ‘50s” wife who got married out of college, Margo’s mother, Margaret, began volunteering at a local hospital giving musical therapy to the elderly and patients with mental illnesses. Moved by her experiences with her patients and the local community, Margaret went back to school and received a PhD in clinical psychology at Northwestern University, and soon after ran a diagnostic clinic for children and young adults. This inevitably led to a vital role in writing national health policy as she became a representative for the State of Illinois to the White House Conference on Aging. “It just shows that if you follow something you believe in, you can put the pieces together,” Margo says.

Watching her mom overcome the obstacles she faced as being one of the only working mothers in her community inspired Margo to follow her own path and to be passionate about what she does. “She was paid half of what the same man would have been paid,” Margo states. “But she so cared about what she did and having an influence on these people that really needed help that she didn’t care what she got paid.”

“How do you keep things in balance? What is important to you? To my mom, it was much more important to make a difference in the community and the healthcare as a whole,” Margo says. “This intense passion for what she believed in was a true inspiration for me as a woman.”

Margo and her husband, Pete, a venture capitalist, bring their perspectives and experiences as working parents to what they teach their children. “We talk to our kids about the choices that we make,” Margo says. “For them, I hope to pass on what my parents passed to me¬–to have confidence, to look for great leaders to learn from, and to reach for their dreams, wherever they may lead.”

Just as Margo’s parents encouraged her to focus on opportunities and to make the most of any situation, one of Margo’s goals is to teach her children the importance of building relationships. “I like exposing my children to lots of different people and experiences [as a] way to stretch their thinking about different kinds of people,” Margo explains. “A lot of life is about relationships and interesting people that you meet on your journey. When you have the gift of connecting, your life will be richer and opportunities will find you faster.”

And it sounds like that’s exactly what the Georgiadis children are learning to do. Margo says that her two boys, ages 8 and 12, and daughter, age 15; all want to be involved in business. “They come from a family of entrepreneurs, so they are continuously thinking about what they could invent next,” she says. 

“[My mother’s] path to the top showed me that there are many roads to success.” As a working woman with a daughter of her own, Margo says she feels a special purpose in exposing her to opportunities in the workplace. One particular instance that stands out in Margo’s mind was at last year’s “Take Your Daughter to Work Day,” during which her daughter approached the head of the company in a meeting regarding a branding decision. “He listened and agreed with her ideas,” Margo recalls. “It was a defining moment for both of us.”

Still, the mom of three notes that along with all the advantages and opportunities that come with being a working mom, so come the disadvantages. “I think that you constantly feel that you are in balancing mode. You’re juggling a lot of balls. You constantly have to think about how to make sure that you’re focused on the most important priorities,” she explains. “Sometimes you feel like you really got it all right, and something you feel like you need to work harder to keep that balance.”

Margo says this is especially evident in the relationship with her husband. “As a couple, you have to invest a lot more time talking about how you’re going to help balance the different pieces,” she notes. “You have to work much harder to keep your relationship alive.”

So what does the couple do to maintain their relationship?  Along with a weekly “date night,” Margo says that they make a point to do something together where they can talk, just the two of them. “We take specific times during the day where we try to connect with each other, those little moments where we’re both driving to the office or coming home at night, just to check in with each other.”

For Margo and Pete, they also have a “built-in babysitting option” at least one night of the week, especially when they first started out as parents. “Even if we just went out together and went grocery shopping, we could just get out of the house, the two of us, and spend some time together,” she explains. “I think that single thing probably helped more than anything, just making sure we had a little more time for ourselves.”

She notes that picking something they both enjoy and doing that together as a couple is something they both look forward to and, ultimately, need. As music enthusiasts, they make a point to see the opera as often as they can. “We make sure that we don’t miss it – it’s scheduled in, we have the seats – and we always are so happy when we get there,” she says. “Those little things become very important in a relationship.”

When all’s said and done, for Margo, family always comes first. “When I’m with my family, I try to make it quality time and really focus on them.” Margo says she’ll sometimes leave her Blackberry and cell phone in her car until the next day so that she’s not tempted to work. “I try to make moments count.”

As for other working women who are striving to maintain that work and family balance, Margo has always kept an open-door policy and is committed to counseling other women at Discover on their own careers so that they, too, can achieve the same level of success. “The one thing most women don’t do in the workplace is ask for what they want,” she says.

The daughter of a trailblazer and a trailblazer in her own right, Margo Georgiadis has shown that asking for what you want is the best thing you can do for yourself and your family.