Emily Kaye Newton

I think a lot of it is just my core drive and resilience. Ever since I was a kid, one of my biggest dreams was to be in New York City, in a corner office, you know, my own company. So, I think it's little Emily that really has been pushing me forward and continues to motivate me, is just remembering the dreams and aspirations that I had back then, and really keeping that as empowering for me moving forward.

I think the best career advice that I've received probably is just to fake it till you make it. That was really in regard to confidence, especially with imposter syndrome - it can hit everyone, but especially myself. Sometimes I'm working with these really smart, technological, savvy executives, and I can feel like, what do I know? What's my place here? But my manager really helped ingrain in me that they don't know if you are confident or not. They don't know if you're sure of yourself or not, so if you show up with the most confidence that you possibly can muster, then boom, like, you'll be seen as the most confident person in the room. So, that advice has really stuck with me and is something that I try and employ in other people as well.

I would say be courageous. I think we're often told that we need to be really polite and be not too loud and almost save space for the men, so to speak. But who's then saving space for us? So, I think my big advice to women, especially entering a field like public relations, is don't be afraid to take up space.

I do think that with the advent of AI, it can bring a lot of positives, but it can bring a lot of challenges. The big thing is just people not knowing how to use it, and just education around that. I think that we're also seeing it play in newsrooms, for example. We've had some work even get rejected because a newsroom will use a tool that says this content is AI-generated, when we know it's not, when we know that we've drafted it. So, I think kind of aligning with clients and stakeholders and journalists and in our own agency as there's these more emerging technologies and tools that are really changing every facet of our daily life, I think, is a huge challenge, but also a huge opportunity.

I think definitely trust. I think you can't do anything without mutual trust, and I think hand-in-hand with that is respect, as well. We're all here, whether it's at work or just going about our daily lives for the same reason, and that's just to make it to the next day, and to keep afloat in this crazy world and crazy economy. So, I think really just being able to trust and rely on people and also just respect one another are really important to me.