Emily Mascher is a brand strategist, brandcenter alumni, and (most impressively) a graduate from the school of keeping-a-tiny-human-alive. After only two years in the industry, Emily faced her biggest challenge yet: maternity leave.

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Second-year strategist, Jackie Ouellette, sat down with Emily to talk about navigating life as a new strategist and a new mom, and what happens when your biggest career plot twist doesn’t come with a brief.

Right now, I work for an agency called Planet Propaganda. This was before my time, but a great example of the consulting side was with our Jersey Mike work. We had the line, “Jersey Mike is a sub above.” This is what we call a fundamental belief, where we are communicating to customers that we’re a step above in terms of excellent quality and what we deliver.

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But before “sub above” became an external reality, it was used as an internal barometer for decisions. And this was found after a ton of research, which we distilled down to one ideal, a fundamental belief, which is something we have to believe works internally first.

I was a beginner at two things at once: navigating maternity leave and motherhood, while still getting my feet wet as a strategist.
There were a lot of big life transitions in a short amount of time: graduating from Brandcenter in 2020, working my first agency job in 2021, and then having my daughter in 2023.

I felt a lot of uncertainty that comes with doing new things and trying to grow my confidence in two things at once.

From learning how to be a strategist and how to do a good job, while also learning how to be a first-time mom. This dual beginning is incredibly important to me because it taught me a lot about myself and how to adapt.

I think there are a couple of things, but mostly relinquishing control. When my daughter was born, I was very fortunate to have such a great support system, but leaning into relinquishing control and trusting that she is being well taken care of while I'm away at work was an unexpected challenge.

Also, trusting my team, following up with questions, and being supportive of different ways to solve problems. Which overall is just critical to working life after maternity leave by creating those collaborative and trusting environments with people in your life.

That’s a great question. I’ve worked at two companies since Brandcenter, and in both cases I feel immensely grateful that I’ve had a wonderful work culture, women in leadership, and surrounded by people who realize we are doing important work. Which made a big difference.

Just implementing the daily practice of unclenching and relaxing. I think there is a tendency to struggle with telling yourself to relax and then showing up and doing it again, and the day after that, and the day after that. It’s a bit of a mindset shift and daily practice that doesn’t happen overnight, but something you have to be patient with.
So, when I think of shifting out of crisis mode, I don’t think there was a day where I was finally, like, oh, it's over. I think I've just become more resilient and accustomed to this new work-life balance.

That's what wonderful about having such a great team with strong leaders. Being able to trust that they have your back and that you have theirs.

It creates a great culture and is instrumental to success.

Definitely, relinquishing control, but also surrounding myself with a community of other beginners, specifically with new moms. I didn’t realize how invaluable that was.
The ability to talk to a new mom about teething or general nervousness and know that I'm not alone.

Experiencing new things can be incredibly isolating, which is why surrounding myself with others experiencing the same rite of passage or rituals have been invaluable.

Just normalizing these feelings, giving me confidence, and bringing that stress level down.

Being yourself is the biggest tool in your toolbox for standing out.

In the age of Insincerity with AI and social media, being authentically yourself and just being human makes a world of difference. So be quirky, have niche interests, create different experiences, and most importantly, be curious. Be the person you would not only work well with but also want to get a drink with after.