Influential Woman · Marketing Strategy
Emily Hruby Halpern
Founder and Managing Member, id est Consulting and Board Advising
MA
Her Story
About Emily
I've been in marketing for over 20 years, since graduating from college in 2005, and I've worked across both agency and brand sides throughout my career. I never initially planned to go into marketing - I actually majored in English and Spanish at Middlebury College and hoped to go into publishing, but those jobs didn't pay well enough to cover basic rent, and I didn't want to rely on my parents for handouts, so I took a marketing job instead and never looked back. After a few years in marketing agencies, I got my MBA focused in marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 2012. My career has taken me through some incredible challenges and achievements. At Pabst Brewing Company, I built their entire innovation pipeline from scratch when they wanted to begin innovating and making new beers, creating the process, the way of working, and how to qualify new innovations from both marketing and commercial perspectives. That work earned me the 2017 Marketer of the Year Award at the company. When I joined HH Global to manage the brand new Adidas account, the footwear segment was new to me, and I had never been in an agency role at a leadership level, so suddenly I had an entire team reporting to me and a $30 million Y1 revenue goal. Then COVID hit when my husband and I had two toddlers, and 2020 became a really challenging year where I had to furlough and then lay off most of my team. But I stuck with it and turned that Adidas account around, from one that was failing and the clients hated us, into a highly successful flagship partnership. I eventually expanded my role into a global Vice President, overseeing complex global teams in a matrixed organization. Just two weeks ago, I made the big leap and resigned from my corporate role to proceed into full-time consulting. I founded Id Est Consulting, which focuses on marketing strategy, consulting, and board advising. The name comes from the Latin term 'i.e.' meaning 'in other words' - it's all about translation, especially in our world of AI and chaos and complexity. I've been an operator who has sat in the seat alongside founders and also run global teams and P&Ls, and now I'm here to help founders and fellow marketing leaders cut through the chaos and move toward action.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Emily
01What do you attribute your success to?
I have a strongly optimistic and resilient outlook despite any odds stacked against success. Throughout my life I have studied optimism, and it is highly effective as a leadership trait - and, it turns out, as a parenting trait! I also have two parents who founded and ran their own small marketing consulting firm, so I have grown up surrounded by an entrepreneurial, do-it-yourself mindset.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
In every interaction, positive or negative, find the nugget of feedback. Even from someone you don't like or whose input you don't respect, there's always something to learn.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's ok to pay your dues for awhile. Your first job will not be your last job. Then, once you've paid those dues, it's also ok to know when you've tried everything and it's time to move on. It's true in work and also in relationships!
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
AI is both a challenge and an opportunity. As an individual, it is an absolute must to keep challenging yourself to learn, read, test, and try to use the evolving tools available to you. Read everything you can about AI and keep trying the tools. They are evolving so fast that in months they will do the things you want them to. You WILL be left behind if you don't use them! Also, being a professional woman will always be tricky. It is never going to be "easy" and it's best to work on staying true to yourself, getting clear on your values and boundaries and holding them rather than moaning about the state of women in the workplace. Lift up those around you, women AND men, and that work will bear fruit for them and for you.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important values in my work and personal life center around health, family, and helping others prioritize themselves and balance that with their careers. I learned the hard way during the early COVID days that I have to put my oxygen mask on before those of others, so now I prioritize my personal health first, trying to get a workout every day and trying to get 8 hours of sleep each night (this is virtually impossible but I try every night!). My number one priority is being a present, loving parent to my kids - my husband and I are co-working spouses and we try to balance that together, with dedicated mom time from 5 to 8 p.m. every evening, followed by time for either myself or my husband in the evenings. It doesn't always work (I'd say since becoming a parent, every goal only works about 60% of the time). When my son turned seven, I asked him if I seemed different since leaving my corporate job, and he said 'yeah, you seem happier,' and that meant everything to me. I also deeply value the human piece of leadership and helping others find balance. I had an amazing experience mentoring a woman in Brazil who was struggling, and I told her 'you have to prioritize yourself. You have to actually do less. You're just doing more and more and more, and that's never going to stop.' A year later, she told me that during our time working together, she had been trying to conceive and having miscarriages, and she and her husband ended up adopting three children who are all siblings. Seeing her with her new baby in her lap on that Zoom call, both of us crying and laughing with joy, and hearing her say she couldn't have done it without my support - that's maybe my best achievement, the one that matters most.
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